An analysis of Metaphor on Mark O'connor's Poems

ABSTRACT

Poetry is certain work of the poet. It has some components which are interdependent including figurative language. Figurative language usually used by the author to beautify his or her work,. Therefore to study of certain work of poetry the reader should also include the understanding of figurative language. There some kinds of figurative language in the poetry. One of them is metaphor.

Metaphor is not merely a deviance as many scholars think it is. Metaphor which exists in poetry, called poetic metaphor, certain imaginative concept behind it characteristic as deviance. Metaphor also has close relationship with the message contained in literary work. The imaginative aspect of poetic metaphor and its message demands a special analysis which makes it possible for the imagination to be captured fully.

Based on these phenomena this study is conducted to answer two kind of the problem by studying 6 poems of Mark O’Connors nameley: (1) What kinds of metaphor are found in poems of Mark O’Connor ? and (2) What are the messages in the poems of Mark O’Connor ?. This study is aimed to to find out kinds of metaphor in the poems of Mark O’Connor and to analyze the message of Mark O’Connor’s 6 poems.

In describing the kinds of metaphor, this study uses the theory of metaphor based on the semantic domain introduced by Haley. It also uses descriptive qualitative design and the key instrumen is the observer her self. To get the valid data the researcher used triangulation of data reseources by seeking informans who are expert on the field being studied.

The object of this study is metaphors which are contained in the poems selected from a poem collection “Poetry of the Mountain”, by Mark O’Connor. There are 6 poems, among 37 poems, which become the objects of this study. The selection of poems is done purposively based on the amount and the poetic degree of metaphors in each poem. All the metaphors are recorded carefully to be analyzed one by one.

After analyzing the data the researcher found that the 6 poems of Mark O’Connors contains metaphor which tell about human, living entity, animate, terresterial, object, and cosmos. Meanwhile the message of these 6 poem is mainly to recommend human not to destroy the environment, to beautify it. The message also recommend human being not to give up to the challenge that usually come to them. This study is actually not the final work, therefore many other researcher is hoped to conduct deeper investigation on Mark O’Connors poem mainly the six poems studied here. Also for the teacher to introduce textual analysis in the poem to their student.