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Deixis and the poetic persona

This article examines the function of deixis in a specific literary genre, the lyric poem. In the opening sections, an attempt to define deixis is made and a methodology for analysis for texts in general is proposed. Deixis is seen as a fundamental element of human discourse, and a particular discoursal site is isolated where it can be seen operating in a particular way. Theoretical considerations, such as the relation of deixis to semantics and pragmatics, and the various types of deictic meaning, are discussed, and a cline of deictic activity, a point on which any text must function, is described. A possible taxonomy of deictic elements and terms follows, which modifies and builds on previous attempts by linguists such as Levinson (1983). The relation between these elements and terms, and the lyric poem, is then discussed. The final part of the article is an analysis of two poems, Henry Vaughan's ‘The retreate’ and Wordsworth's ‘Nutting’. The deixis occurring in the poems is examined in the light of the theories previously discussed.