Plot in narrative poetry : a study of the internal structure of the plot and its development in Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott

Abstract EN

Linguistic and discourse models have concentrated on the study and analysis of prose narrative.

The present study investigates the presence of a plot schema in narrative poetry in an attempt to delineate its structure and the stages of development.

Longacre’s narrative system is applied to a narrative poetic sample, namely Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott, in order to arrive at the plot in and then spell out its internal structure represented by its major as well as minor components.

Longacre’s delineation of the plot construction and its divisions are adopted to uncover the development of the poetic plot structure.

Results crop out to affirm the applicability and validity of Longacre’s narrative system so far applied with success to prose narrative discourse.

The plot in the poem, The Lady of Shalott, is extracted ; and its development is traced and analyzed in relation to the clues and markers relevant to the plot building in narrative discourse.