teaching english poetry through modality -...

Chih-chiao Joseph Yang Teaching English Poetry through Modality ◆　159　◆

Teaching English Poetry through Modality

Chih-chiao Joseph YangDepartment of English

National Dong Hwa University Assistant Professor

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how a teacher can guide students to explore English modals to

accentuate their interpretation of English poetry. Taiwanese students generally consider English

poetry to be complex; however, the difficulty can be lessened, or even eliminated, if a poem is

approached using accessible methods. Learning English has become characteristic of the zeitgeist

of contemporary Taiwan, and it is imperative for students to cultivate an advanced proficiency

in the language. Traditional training in the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing,

is insufficient to improve language skills; a fifth skill, thinking, must be incorporated into the

curriculum. The teaching of English poetry can fulfill this purpose, enabling students to learn the

workings of the language and explore the meanings of the text. In other words, teaching English

poetry can lead students to think and provide students with improved access to poetic texts. Because

English modals have no counterparts in Chinese, using them as an apparatus for interpreting English

poetry can enhance the language awareness of students and elevate this to a textual awareness. This

approach should encourage students to determine how English modals can create diverse meanings

in a poetic text and to use modals in their use of English. Thus, integrating the analysis of English

modals into the interpreting English poetry highlights the creative and enjoyable aspects of the lingua

franca of our times.

Keywords: creativity, language awareness, modality, poetry, text awareness

Corresponding author: Chih-chiao Joseph Yang, E-mail: [email protected] received: May 2, 2013; Revised: Jul. 15, 2013; Accepted: Sep. 10, 2013doi: 10.6210/JNTNULL.2014.59(1).07

◆　160　◆ Teaching English Poetry through Modality Chih-chiao Joseph Yang

1. Introduction

Portia: Then must the Jew be merciful.

Shylock: On what compulsion must I? Tell me that. (4.1.182-83)1

In the court scene of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Portia, disguised as a

“young doctor of Rome” (4.1.155), asks the accuser, Shylock the Jew, to be merciful. She supposes

that Shylock should have the capacity for mercy in the matter of Antonio, the defendant. Shylock

intentionally interprets the modal verb “must” in the sense of compulsion, and questions the necessity

of his obligation. Shylock’s manipulation of the modal verb is subtle and may be difficult for the

audience to detect. Although Portia, as the judge, tries to assert her authority over Shylock, Shylock

extends Portia’s jurisdiction to a general imperative, and denies the request. While the “must” used

by Portia shows her suggestion or invitation, Shylock twists its meaning and intends to accuse Portia

of forcing him to be merciful and making her proposal obligatory and necessary for him. Because of

the distinct employment of the same modal “must,” Shylock has successfully created a distance from

the judge who represents Christian values opposed to his Jewish beliefs. The Chinese translation

of these two lines cannot fully reveal the difference between Portia’s use and Shylock’s use of the

auxiliary word “must.”2 From this example, we can see that the meanings of single modal verbs

create the subtleties in communication and set different tones for the speech. Given that there is no

counterpart in Chinese for English modals and their function,3 understanding them can be especially

1 William Shakespeare. The Merchant of Venice, in The RSC Shakespeare Complete Works, ed. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 2007), 457.

2 William Shakespeare. The Merchant of Venice, trans. Ping Fang［方平］(Taipei, Taiwan: Ecus Publishing House, 2001), 127; William Shakespeare. The Merchant of Venice, trans. Shenghao Zhu［朱生豪］(Taipei, Taiwan: World Book Co. 1996), 135; William Shakespeare. The Merchant of Venice, trans. Shih-Chin Liang［梁實秋］(Taipei, Taiwan: Far East Book Company, 1999), 151; William Shakespeare. The Merchant of Venice, trans. Ching-Hsi Perng［彭鏡禧］(Taipei, Taiwan: Linking Publising, 2006), 116.

3 Although there are “auxiliary verbs” in Chinese, the definition of them is different from that of English. As stated by Charles N. Li and Sandra A. Thompson, “a set of forms in a language constitutes a grammatical category if it can be shown that those forms share a set of distributional properties not possessed by any other set of forms.” See Charles N. Li and Sandra A. Thompson. Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1981), 172. Li and Thompson distinguish the “distributional properties” of Chinese auxiliary verbs from Chinese verbs (Ibid., 172-181) and from Chinese adverbs (Ibid., 181-182); however, English modals do not share all the properties of Chinese auxiliary verbs, nor do English modals possess all the contrasts with other parts of speech, as Chinese auxiliary verbs do. Even though Li and Thompson provide approximate translations of Chinese auxiliary verbs into English (Ibid., 182-183), the understanding of either of the two sets of


difficult for Taiwanese students. However, it is easy for English learners to spot these auxiliary verbs

in a text; hence, students may be guided to highlight these words and discuss their function in the

text. Then, when a quick marking and close examination of the modal in The Merchant of Venice

resolves the difficulty, students will learn how to analyze the two characters in the scene and employ

the word “must” in other situations.

As learning English has become a growing trend in Taiwan, people from different backgrounds

have become eager to be fluent. The traditional teaching of English focuses on listening, speaking,

reading, and writing abilities; however, these four language skills are not the entire learning process.

English learners, especially those acquiring it as a second language, should be motivated to master

the fifth skill “thinking.”4 As John McRae points out, teachers of second language learners should

look for the use of “ideational or representational materials” instead of “referential language” in

order to inspire the learners’ self-awareness and make them think.5 In the traditional curriculum in

Taiwan, the relevant study of this fifth skill, or even the mention of it, is lacking. In order to make

future curricula comprehensive, prudence dictates exploration, study, and supplementation of the

present teaching methodology. An integration of linguistics with literature can help students connect

with the text and then go beyond the text. As Christopher J. Brumfit writes, “[a] true literature

syllabus will not be simply the use of literary texts for advanced language purposes, but an attempt to

develop or extend literary competence.”6 As literature “is not a language variety,” but “literary text

is almost the only ‘context’ where different varieties of language can be mixed and still admitted,”7

using literary texts in teaching language is both effective and efficient. This pedagogy is therefore

a “language-based and process-oriented” approach;8 namely, the teaching methodology should be

either teaching literature through language or teaching language through literature. In addition,

Henry G. Widdowson argues that “literature as a subject has as its principal aim the development

of the capacity for individual response to language use.”9 Therefore, “language use” and literary

modal auxiliaries does not help to interpret the other. In other words, as the functions and meanings of auxiliary verbs in these two languages are distinct from each other, it is difficult to understand English modals by analyzing Chinese auxiliary verbs.

4 John McRae. Literature with a Small “l” (London, UK: Macmillan, 1991), 5.5 Ibid., 5-7.6 Christopher J. Brumfit. Language and Literature Teaching: From Practice to Principle (Oxford, UK:

Pergamon, 1985), 106.7 Christopher J. Brumfit and Ronald A. Carter, eds. Literature and Language Teaching (Oxford, UK: Oxford

University Press, 1986), 8.8 Ronald Carter and John McRae, eds. Language, Literature and the Learner: Creative Classroom Practice

(London, UK: Longman, 1996), xx-xxv.9 Henry G. Widdowson. Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature (Harlow, UK: Longman, 1975), 76.


analysis must be integrated.

In this article, several English poems are used as examples to demonstrate how a teacher

can draw students’ attention to English modals, and hence, motivate them to explore the uses of

the modals before registering their interpretations. The choice of English poems is by virtue of

two reasons. First, English poetry appears to be the most difficult genre for Taiwanese students.

If a teacher can successfully remove students’ anxiety toward reading poetry, students can gain

confidence and read on. Emboldened and rewarded by gradual triumphs, students may then be

urged to use what they have learned in their general reading and interpretation of English. Second,

language in poetry is very often more condensed than in other genres; as Terry Eagleton states: “Poetry

is a kind of phenomenology of language—one in which the relation between word and meaning (or

signifier and signified) is tighter than it is in everyday speech. ... The meaning of its words is closely

bound up with the experience of them.”10 Although meaning of poetic language can be flexible and

ambiguous, it demands the reader to read between the lines and within the context. Poetry, in other

words, requires the reader to engage in the interpretation of its meanings. While poetry opens various

interpretations, the “relation between word and meaning” is more closely intertwined than that in

daily language. Through the continuous practice of reading and applying language skills to their

interpretations, students can both learn and enjoy the English language. On the other hand, modality,

by definition, is “the most obviously ‘attitudinal’ dimensions of the verb,”11 and modals are “used

by the speaker in order to express ... his opinion or attitude towards the proposition that the sentence

expresses or the situation that the proposition describes.”12 Although various elements of poetry

help readers toward better interpretation, modals shape the manner in which a poem is to be read.

Teachers can select various texts with different uses of modals to cultivate and develop students’

language awareness. As McRae argues:

What will always be of primary importance in the educational context is that the image

be didactically useful, that the teacher and the learner alike can derive some benefit from

working with this piece of visual “text,” that the words they are stimulated to use about the

10 Terry Eagleton. How to Read a Poem (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2007), 21.11 Rob Pope. The English Studies Book: An Introduction to Language, Literature and Culture, 2nd ed. (London,

UK: Routledge, 2002), 386. Paul Simpson devised a similar definition: “modality refers broadly to a speaker’s attitude towards, or opinion about, the truth of a proposition expressed by a sentence.” See Paul Simpson. Language, Ideology and Point of View (London, UK: Routledge, 1993), 47.

12 John Lyons. Semantics, vol. 2 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 452.


“text” be a valid contribution to their overall language-learning objectives (italics original).13

Foregrounding the use of modals in poetry is “didactically useful.” What the teacher should do

further is to categorize the poems with different modals before the class. It will be evident that in

the light of the teacher’s classification, the students will learn to recognize specific features in the

selected texts and interpret such findings.

2. Modality and the Categories of the Poems

In order to categorize the selected poems, it is necessary to set up a mechanism for the teacher

to approach the modals. My categorization of the selected poems is based on the analysis of mood

and modality made by John Lyons and Frank R. Palmer.14 Generally speaking, modality can be

divided into two major categories: epistemic and deontic.15 As defined by Lyons, “epistemic logic

deals with the logical structure of statements which assert or imply that a particular proposition, or

set of propositions, is known or believed”;16 however, epistemic modality “should apply not simply

to modal systems that basically involve the notions of possibility and necessity, but to any modal

system that indicates the degree of commitment by the speaker to what he says.”17 On the other

hand, “deontic modality is concerned with the necessity or possibility of acts performed by morally

responsible agents”;18 namely, deontic modality “is concerned with action, by others and by the

speaker himself.”19 Although there is some subtle difference between the two kinds of modality, both

kinds of modality involve the speaker’s attitude toward what he or she says or what he or she does. In

other words, while epistemic modality refers to the speaker’s modes of knowing or believing, deontic

modality is used to indicate possibility and necessity in terms of freedom to act. Nevertheless,

although these two modes of modality focus on the information and action respectively, the speaker’s

13 John McRae, Literature with a Small “l,” 30.14 In the analysis of the selected poems, I will also use the definitions of English modals and modality created

by Geoffrey N. Leech and Paul Simpson.15 These two kinds of modality can be further classified into more sub-categories. See Frank R. Palmer, Mood

and Modality (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 51-54: epistemic modality can be divided into “judgments” and “evidentials”; and Frank R. Palmer, Mood and Modality, 97: deontic modality can be “directives” or “commissives.” Simpson also writes that a deontic system is closely related to a “boulomaic system” and an epistemic system has “perception modality” as its subsystem. See Paul Simpson, Language, Ideology and Point of View, 47.

16 John Lyons, Semantics, 793.17 Frank R. Palmer, Mood and Modality, 51.18 John Lyons, Semantics, 823.19 Frank R. Palmer, Mood and Modality, 96.


attitude or opinion is revealed in both modes. In order to foreground as well the attitude of the

speaker, I choose particularly those poems which are meant to be addressed to someone, so that the

attitude of the speaker can be better detected and analyzed from the communication between the

speaker and the (implied) addressee.20

According to Palmer, “if modality is concerned with the attitudes and opinions of the speaker,

subjectivity is clearly basic.”21 In this light, the selected poems are categorized into four groups

according to the speaker’s different tones or attitudes. The first category contains poems in which

the speaker is dominant and tries to occupy the leading position. In contrast, in the second category

of poems, the speaker appears subordinate to the addressee and has submissive or conservative

attitudes. In the third category, the speaker holds a contrasting tone to what he or she says in the text.

Finally, the fourth category includes poems where the speaker assumes shifting attitudes. With this

classification, the teacher can lead the student to think about how the speaker’s attitude is expressed

through the modals.

2.1 Texts with Dominant Speakers

Speakers who try to dominate employ modals to show obligations or necessities. The speaker

in John Keats’s “If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d,”22 for instance, shows the authority

to control the text. The impersonal nature of “authority” in line 1 is refuted both by the conditional

conjunction “if” in lines 1 and 4 and by the main clause where the speaker claims his solution to the

possible problem of English sonnet (italics added):

If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d,

…

Let us find out, if we must be constrain’d,

Sandals more interwoven and complete

To fit the naked foot of Poesy;

Let us inspect the Lyre, and weigh the stress

Of every chord, and see what may be gain’d

20 While, for example, John Donne’s “Death, be not proud” (see below) has a specific addressee, Death, John Keats’s “If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d” (see below) has only the implied addressee, which can be inferred as the reader.

21 Frank R. Palmer, Mood and Modality, 17.22 John Keats. “If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d,” in Selected Poetry, ed. Elizabeth Cook (Oxford,

UK: Oxford University Press, 1994), 170-171.


By ear industrious, and attention meet; (1-9)

…

So, if we may not let the Muse be free,

She will be bound with garlands of her own. (13-14)

The “must” in lines 1 and 4 shows the inevitability of the situation and renders it an “obligation,”

“requirement,” or “logical necessity,”23 so it represents deontic modality; however, in line 8,

the employment of “may” is an epistemic modality and reveals the speaker’s hope to exploit the

situation; it represents “factual possibility.”24 Carrying this hope to the end of the poem, the speaker

claims that because the sonnet has a fixed form, poets seem to have no choice to be “free” in their

composition. However, if poets are not allowed to write without restriction, at least they can be

flexible in applying their creativity to the constrained form, instead of mechanically filling in the

words or syllables into the sonnet form. The stronger “must” in the first quatrain has been reduced to

the weaker “may” by the time the reader reaches line 8. In line 13, while “may not” is equivalent to

“must” and is not weaker, the negative use of the modal verb is again located in a conditional clause;

consequently, in line 14, with confidence and authority, the speaker predicts what “will” happen—

another evident use of epistemic modality. The speaker, as Susan J. Wolfson states, is “coining his

own freedom with(in) this form,”25 and the use of modal verbs supports this composition.

By showing the speaker’s attitude regarding his knowledge, although both “will” and “shall”

can be classified as epistemic modality, they are different in their degrees, and “shall” can also have

a tinge of deontic modality. While the word “will” means “prediction / predictability, intention,

willingness and insistence,”26 “shall” expresses “strong volition.”27 In William Shakespeare’s “Like

as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,” the speaker displays his strong will especially at the

end of the sonnet. In the first three quatrains, the speaker admits the destructive power of time, but

in the final couplet, he contradicts his former statements by praising the immortality of his verse as a

means to preserve the addressee’s value (italics added):28

23 Geoffrey N. Leech. Meaning and the English Verb, 3rd ed. (Harlow, UK: Pearson, 2004), 78-79.24 Ibid., 82.25 Susan J. Wolfson. “Late Lyrics,” in The Cambridge Companion to Keats, ed. Susan J. Wolfson (Cambridge,

UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 105.26 Geoffrey N. Leech, Meaning and the English Verb, 85.27 Ibid., 89.28 William Shakespeare. “Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,” in The Sonnets, ed. G.

Blakemore Evans (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 62.


And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,

Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand. (13-14)

Prior to these two lines in the poem, the speaker admits that time can destroy “youth, beauty, and

truth,”29 but in the final couplet, the speaker declares that his verse “shall” defeat time and that the

worth of the addressee shall survive. The couplet, as Helen Vendler describes, is an “optimistic

reversal.”30 The confident tone of the speaker is emphatically expressed by the modal “shall” to

show the triumph of his art, and in praise of the addressee’s immortal value.

Another example of the poem with a dominant speaker can be seen in John Donne’s “Death,

be not proud.”31 In the first quatrain of this sonnet, the speaker makes a surprising, unconventional

claim that Death cannot kill him. The speaker questions Death’s capability, and then in the third

quatrain deflates Death, considering it as powerless as “poppy or charms” that “can make us sleep

as well” (11; italics added)—a weak deontic modality. In the final couplet, the speaker demonstrates

overt confidence and triumph by using a strong deontic modality (italics added):

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more, Death, thou shalt die. (13-14)

Again, the modal “shall” manifests the speaker’s shocking statement. Because the speaker has strong

faith, “Death” shall be defeated and extinguished, and hence, the speaker can become immortal. The

speaker “affirms with great bravado the ultimate defeat of death through eternal life.”32 The double

use of “shall / shalt” in the last line invests the phrasing with the force of a commandment in the

ultimate assault on death. The speaker can be proud of this.

Thus, in these three poems, the speakers employ modals to strengthen their confident tones

and establish themselves at the helm. Highlighting the use of these modals will help students grasp

the iron will behind those words. The interpretation of these poems can also be supported by such

comprehension.

29 Helen Vendler. The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 60.30 Ibid.31 John Donne. “Death, be not proud,” in Selected Poetry, ed. John Carey (Oxford, UK: Oxford University

Press, 1996), 202.32 Ramie Targoff. John Donne, Body and Soul (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 106.


2.2 Texts with Concessive Speakers

In contrast to speakers with a positive and affirmative tone, speakers who are submissive or

ambivalent use concessive modals. For instance, at the end of William Wordsworth’s “The world

is too much with us,” what the speaker says shows his wish that is unlikely to be fulfilled (italics

added):33

... Great God! I’d rather be

A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. (9-14)

The use of the contracted “would” in line 9 and the “might” in line 11 show the speaker’s humble,

uncertain will. “Would rather,” according to Geoffrey N. Leech, permits a “hypothetical meaning,”34

which posits, “the happening described is assumed to take place not in the real world, but in an

imaginary world.”35 “Might” is the past tense of “may,” and it represents “theoretical possibility,”

which envisions only “a theoretically conceivable happening.”36 Both modals refer to deontic

modality and indicate the low possibility of the occurrence delineated by the speaker. The speaker

can only wish to have his dream come true. “The vision,” Hugh S. Davies explains, “however

consoling, had been known for a vision even while it was at its strongest.”37 Although the speaker

states a seemingly strong preference and desire to embody his imagination and makes it seem so in

the verse, the use of the modals reveals the sense of helplessness. The teacher may ask students to

compare “I would rather be a pagan” with “I will be a pagan” and “so I might have glimpses” with

“so I may have glimpses” to interpret the speaker’s attitude. After they see the differences, they may

reach the conclusion that the speaker is conservative, though ambivalent.

33 William Wordsworth. “The world is too much with us,” in The Major Works, ed. Stephen Gill (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1984), 270.

34 Geoffrey N. Leech, Meaning and the English Verb, 121.35 Ibid., 120.36 Ibid., 82.37 Hugh S. Davies. “Involutes and the Process of Involution,” in Wordsworth and the Worth of Words, ed. John

Kerrigan and Jonathan Wordsworth (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 143.


A similar concession is expressed by the speaker in Thomas Hardy’s “The Oxen.”38 The

speaker of the poem regrets the lost faith that people firmly embraced in his childhood. Along the

modernist path of life, people have forsaken such a belief and considered it as superstition. However,

although the speaker also gives up the belief, he never ceases to regret. He would have kept the

strong faith if he could. The ambivalence is especially shown by the speaker’s use of the modals.

With the modals highlighted, students can see that the speaker’s attitude is conservative and the

speaker’s action is unlikely to be carried out (italics added):

So fair a fancy few would weave

In these years! Yet, I feel,

If someone said on Christmas Eve,

“Come; see the oxen kneel

“In the lonely barton by yonder coomb

Our childhood used to know,”

I should go with him in the gloom,

Hoping it might be so. (9-16)

The usage of “would” in line 9, “should” in line 15, and “might” in line 16 show the low probability

of witnessing the oxen kneeling on Christmas Eve. While “would” and “might” belong to epistemic

modality and “should” concerns deontic modality, all are in the past tense and in a subjunctive

mood. The speaker, by subjectively adopting these modals, expresses a sense of uncertainty and

insecurity; he cannot do anything that he would prefer to carry out and he can never see what he

would certainly prefer to occur happen. He would hope to witness the oxen kneel on Christmas Eve,

as people unswervingly believed would occur in the past, but, to his regret, neither the kneeling nor

his witnessing of it can really happen.39

A hesitant tone can also be found in Thomas S. Eliot’s “Journey of the Magi,”40 where

the speaker reveals his doubt by using two related modals. The journey described in the poem

38 Thomas Hardy. “The Oxen,” in Selected Poetry, ed. Samuel Hynes (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1994), 117.

39 Ronald Carter and Walter Nash. Seeing through Language: A Guide to Styles of English Writing (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1990), 117.

40 Thomas S. Eliot. “Journey of the Magi,” in The Complete Poems and Plays, ed. Valerie Eliot (London, UK: Faber and Faber, 1969), 103-04.


undercuts the traditional story about the three Magi. While the original story of the Magi’s journey

to Bethlehem is supposed to represent joy, in this poem, the journey is full of hardships, and the

speaker, one of the Magi, appears powerless and aloof from his anguished experience. After two

stanzas describing his experiences of the journey, the speaker who outlives his world reveals his

reserved attitude in the concluding stanza (italics added):

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again ... (32-33)

…

I should be glad of another death. (43)

Like the speaker in “The Oxen,” the speaker here uses the past tense of the two auxiliaries in deontic

modality to show the remote possibility of a repeat journey. In John Kwan-Terry’s words, “[t]he

journey to the goal of full significance is not without its attendant pains and stresses.”41 Even though

the speaker seems to have learned a great deal from the past journey and wishes to be enlightened

again, he has to admit the constraints of fortune when contemplating yet another adventure. The end

of the journey in this poem is not a celebration of the Nativity, but casts doubts or complaints about

spiritual agony and perplexity. With the use of the two modals, the undertones of pain and regret are

successfully articulated.

In these three poems, the use of these significant modals adeptly conveys the sense of loss and

despair. With the assistance of these modals, the voice behind each poem creates its own persona and

unique nostalgic atmosphere. While the glorious past is dead and gone, the poet can only lay down

his longing into words.

2.3 Texts with Ironies

In some poems, speakers use various modal verbs to create an ironic tone. For example, what

the speaker in Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” claims is apparently ironic (italics added):42

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

41 John Kwan-Terry. “Ash-Wednesday: A Poetry of Verification,” in The Cambridge Companion to T. S. Eliot, ed. A. David Moody (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 140.

42 Elizabeth Bishop. “One Art,” http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15212.


the art of losing’s not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster. (16-19)

The tone revealed in line 17 by “shan’t” (either in deontic or in epistemic modality) seems to express

the speaker’s strong refusal43 and implies that “to distance and control her response to this loss”

is “the newest and last.”44 The negative volition in the future sense clearly indicates and firmly

establishes the speaker’s determination. However, in line 19, the repetition of the preposition “like”

and the italicized verb “write” (in the parentheses) seem to show that the speaker is reluctant to

face the fact that while the loss of the addressee may look calamitous, it seems to be easily tamed.

The modal “may” in line 19 strengthens this reservation in the speaker’s attitude. As Thomas J.

Travisano analyzes the last four lines, the desperate “(Write it!)” (italics original) suggests that the

speaker “must force herself to use the word disaster in a personal context, even though it is hedged

by transparent disclaimers and demanded by the villanelle’s form.” (italics original)45 By using these

two modals, the speaker shows her acceptance of the losses ironically, especially the personal loss of

the addressee. The speaker, as Robert D. Parker describes, “wishes passionately, but after so many

losses she hardly expects anything will come from it.”46 The ironic tone rather shows the speaker’s

deep sorrow.

The ironic tone is shown even more explicitly in Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress,”47

where the speaker employs several modals to show the impossibility of the situation. When the poem

is divided into three sections for the speaker’s strategy of augmentation, in the first section, the use

of the subjunctive increases the unreality of the proposition (italics added):

Had we but world enough, and time,

This coyness, Lady, were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love’s day.

43 Geoffrey N. Leech, Meaning and the English Verb, 95.44 Joseph D. McClatchy. “‘One Art’: Some Notes,” in Elizabeth Bishop, ed. Harold Bloom (New York, NY:

Chelsea, 1985), 156.45 Thomas J. Travisano. Elizabeth Bishop: Her Artistic Development (Charlottesville, VA: The University Press

of Virginia, 1988), 178.46 Robert D. Parker. The Unbeliever: The Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press,

1988), 127.47 Andrew Marvell. “To His Coy Mistress,” in The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth-Century Verse, ed. Alastair

Fowler (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1991), 590-92.


Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side

Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the Flood:

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.

My vegetable love should grow

Vaster than empires, and more slow.

An hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze.

Two hundred to adore each breast;

But thirty thousand to the rest.

An age at least to every part,

And the last age should show your heart:

For, Lady, you deserve this state;

Nor would I love at lower rate. (1-20)

The unreal conditions penetrate the language in the first twenty lines. The fantasy world underlies the

speaker’s ironic tone, as Elena Semino illustrates:

The modal auxiliaries would and should are here to mark the unreal nature of the hypothesis

and its consequences. ... The length of the list and the size of the exaggerations serve to

highlight the distant and improbable nature of the world where the woman’s coyness would

be no crime. (italics original)48

The past tense of the two modal verbs strengthens the sense of the non-existence of the world the

speaker has created. Both the epistemic and the deontic modalities are lessened by the subjunctive

mood. Thus, the speaker is able to ridicule and deny the sincerity of the addressee’s “coyness.” These

modals highlight the ironic tone of the text. Subsequently, the speaker can carry on his persuasion in

the following two sections.

48 Elena Semino. Language and World Creation in Poems and Other Texts (New York, NY: Longman, 1997), 89-90.


In William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper,”49 the modals help build up the tone and achieve a

similar effect of irony. At the beginning, the speaker shows that when he became a chimneysweeper

he was so young that he “Could scarcely cry ‘’weep! ’weep! ’weep! ’weep!’” (3; italics added).

The adverb “scarcely” emphasizes the speaker’s lack of capability, and this emphasis on epistemic

modality strengthens the discrepancy between “weep” (his actual action) and “sweep” (the imposed

responsibility). In the last line, when the speaker seems innocent in claiming “So if all do their duty

they need not fear harm” (24; italics added), the use of the modal verb “need” in negative deontic

modality after the conditional clause ironically shows their real need, that is to “do their duty,”

while it is not their duty to clean the chimney. In fact, they are forced to do the job, and they fear the

reprobation of their employers all the time. Stuart Peterfreund argues that this line bears “witness to

the impact of that coercive social control on his language.”50 The language, in turn, ironically reveals

the speaker’s sympathy for the children and his protest against the venal society.

In this category, the speakers of the first two poems cannot conceal their true intentions with

their verbal ironies, while the speaker of the third poem involuntarily reveals his situation by using

dramatic irony. The use of subtle modal verbs plays a crucial role in distilling the ironies to a

palpable tang.

2.4 Texts with Speakers with Changing Attitudes

Some speakers may reform their attitudes and manipulate different modals to show shifts

in their tone. In William Blake’s “The Tiger,”51 for example, the speaker asks a nearly identical

question in the first and last stanzas, the only difference being in the modals (italics added):

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry? (1-4)

…

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

49 William Blake. “The Chimney Sweeper,” in Selected Poetry, ed. Michael Mason (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1994), 69-70.

50 Stuart Peterfreund. William Blake in a Newtonian World: Essays on Literature as Art and Science (Norman, UK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), 176.

51 William Blake. “The Tiger,” in Selected Poetry, ed. Michael Mason (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1994), 121-122.


In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? (21-24)

In line 4, the use of “could” shows the speaker’s doubt. The speaker is searching for the power that

created the tiger. However, in the last line, this doubt of possibility is replaced by a challenging

question. The speaker asks an innocent and epistemic question at the beginning, but transforms it to

a question about courage (in deontic modality) instead of knowledge. As Martin K. Nurmi analyzes,

“[t]he real climax ... which resolves everything, is the word ‘Dare’ that is substituted for ‘Could’ in

the closing return to the strophic stanza.”52 The change from “Could” (4) to “Dare” (24) shows “a

cry of wonder.”53 The transformation reveals the speaker’s admiration and even fear of the creator of

the tiger. The ending question indicates that the creator is both mysterious and awesome.

This trajectory can also be observed in George Herbert’s “Virtue.”54 In the first three stanzas,

the speaker respectively addresses “day,” “rose,” and “spring,” and claims they all “must die” (4, 8,

12). Contrarily, in the last stanza, the speaker does not use any modality; instead, he uses the simple

present tense:

Only a sweet and virtuous soul,

Like season’d timber, never gives;

But though the whole world turn to coal,

Then chiefly lives. (13-16)

Without any modals, here the speaker employs a “categorical assertion,” which is, as Paul Simpson

defines, “the basic proposition in its ‘raw’ form” and expresses “the strongest possible degree

of speaker commitment.”55 As John Lyons explains, “[s]traightforward statements of fact (i.e.,

categorical assertions) may be described as epistemically non-modal. The speaker, in uttering an

unqualified assertion, is committing himself to the truth of what he asserts.”56 Namely, “there is no

52 Martin K. Nurmi. “Blake’s Revisions of ‘The Tyger,’” in William Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience, ed. Margaret Bottrall (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1970), 209.

53 Ibid., 209.54 George Herbert. “Virtue,” in The Complete English Works, ed. Ann P. Slater (New York, NY: Everyman’s

Library, 1995), 85-86.55 Paul Simpson, Language, Ideology and Point of View, 49.56 John Lyons, Semantics, 797.


epistemically stronger statement than a categorical assertion.”57 Hence, the speaker in “Virtue” has

shown the perfect value of virtue: while other beauties cannot last long, a virtuous soul is immortal.

Another example of a change in attitude can be seen in Sir P. Sidney’s “What, have I thus

betrayed my liberty?”58 where the speaker considers the cruelty of his beloved. He tells himself (italics

added):

Virtue, awake: beauty but beauty is;

I may, I must, I can, I will, I do

Leave following that, which it is gain to miss.

Let her go. ... (9-12)

This passage shows the formation of his decision (though not final): “the escalating intensity

of the modality ... from ‘may’ to ‘must,’ ‘can,’ ‘will,’ and ‘do,’ demonstrates that the speaker’s

determination to leave is becoming increasingly stronger.”59 After telling himself not to be attracted

by his beloved’s beauty, the speaker decides to leave and forsake their relationship. He “appears to

muster some resolve and autonomy.”60 By his use of different modals, the speaker shows that his

decision was made with great hesitation and deliberation.

By the skillful manipulation of modals, a speaker can change his or her tone in a poem. Only

when the reader can carefully analyze such changes, will the interpretation of this kind of poetry be

complete and comprehensive.

3. Conclusion

This analysis of the use of modals in these poems reveals a clear connection between the

understanding of modals and the interpretation of the poems. Foregrounding the modality of a text

can create a specific analysis and lead to an interpretation of the speaker’s tone and attitude. This

activity, in turn, can guide students a way to access certain possible meanings of a poem. Therefore,

57 Ibid., 809.58 Sir P. Sidney. “What, have I thus betrayed my liberty?,” in The Major Works, ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones

(Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002), 171.59 Chih-chiao J. Yang. “‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’: Intralocution and the Teaching of

Renaissance Poetry in Taiwan” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Nottingham, 2006), 233.60 Matthew Woodcock. “Astrophil and Stella,” in Sir Philip Sidney and the Sidney Circle (Devon, UK:

Northcote, 2010), 53.


in an English grammar class, for instance, teaching modal verbs with selected texts should be

a workable method; and, on the other hand, in an English poetry class, the introduction (or re-

introduction) of English modals will help students read and interpret with greater clarity.

A teacher’s responsibility will then be text selection and text categorization. In the teaching

process, McRae points out, “[t]ext selection and level is the heart of the problem.”61 In order to

promote both language awareness and learning motivation, teachers should arrange the texts for

students to explore. As shown above, teachers can select poems that can be divided into those

categories according to the modals used in the poems. Since any poetic text has plural meanings

and multiple interpretations, the teacher’s role is to create a threshold for students to enter, and let

them explore and discover new realms. In this paper, I have shown the possible interpretation of

the attitude of the speaker through the different uses of modality in the selected poems. Based on

this interpretation, students can further look into the theme and the technique of each poem. When

integrated with linguistics, literature can be more accessible and literary texts more meaningful. In a

similar tenor, by looking through the language employed in literature, a student can learn what lies

beyond the language lessons, and to reach for the ultimate prize, putting the language into practice as

well as enjoying the literary texts.

61 John McRae. “Representational Language Learning: From Language Awareness to Text Awareness,” in Language, Literature and the Learner: Creative Classroom Practice, ed. Ronald Carter and John McRae (London, UK: Longman, 1996), 24.


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從情態教授英詩

楊植喬國立東華大學英美語文學系助理教授

摘要

本文旨在呈現如何在英詩課中以英文中的情態助動詞來引導學生詮釋文本。臺灣的學

生一般均認為英文詩是艱澀難解的，然而事實上只要透過有效的途徑，即使不能讓英詩淺顯

易懂，至少可以不再讓學生視讀詩為畏途。在臺灣，學習英文早已成了一種趨勢，可是傳統

的聽、說、讀、寫四大技巧的訓練並不足以提供學生全方位的英語學習；唯有加入第五技巧

―「想」的訓練，才能讓英文學習環境更加完備，而練習第五技巧的最佳方式則是語言與

文學的融合，尤其因英文詩歌的閱讀有其困難度，更能激發學習者藉由思考來熟悉語言的使

用。藉由開發詩歌裡的特殊語言要素，學習者可以結合文本的認知，提升語言的認知。正因

為英文的情態助動詞並無直接對應的中文，所以從這個語言要素著眼，可以引導學生掌握已

經習得的技巧，邁向其不熟悉的領域。如此一來，詩歌將不再是遙不可及的文本，學生也能

對英文更進一步運用與開發。換句話說，從情態著手，學生既可複習其文法上的知識，也能

領略語言在文本上的作用，更能產生對詩歌的詮釋。當教授詩歌與讀詩成了容易上手，可以

靈活運用，激發創意的活動，使閱讀英文詩將成為增加英文語言與文本分析能力，充分讓學

習者在思考後進而活用英文的趣味學習。

關鍵詞：創意、語言認知、情態、詩歌、文本認知

通訊作者：楊植喬，E-mail: [email protected]收稿日期：2013/05/02；修正日期：2013/07/15；接受日期：2013/09/10。doi: 10.6210/JNTNULL.2014.59(1).07

teaching english poetry through modality -...

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