Function of Tense in Lyric Poetry

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Anglistische Literaturwissenschaft), course: Theory and Practice of Poetry Analysis, language: English, abstract: This term paper is concerned with the topic ‘Tense in lyric Poetry’. Initially, I would like to discuss the function and the occurrence of tense in lyric poetry as well as the way the reader experiences tense in poems. Therefore, I have chosen two well-known poems by William Blake and William Wordsworth. These poems will be studied not only with regard to tense, but also with respect to the meaning. To achieve this goal, I will, first of all, give a theoretical contribution about the theme ‘Tense in lyric Poetry’ which includes small illustrations of English and German poetry. Secondly, I will discuss the theoretical statements with the help of the two poems selected.