Formalist Poetics: towards a theory of a city poetic with special reference to the definition and use of the metonym

This paper is the presentation of part of the author’s Visiting Research Fellowship Research 2015/6 at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. It highlights the observation by Roman Jakobson that the metonym, with its quality of contiguity and association is under-researched in poetry and poetics (‘Two Aspects of Language’ in Language and Literature (1987) Cambridge MA, Harvard UP [1956] pp95-114). The paper refers to the definitions of metonym arising from the work of Roman Jakobson and his theory of Poetic Function. It is suggested that analysis of the poetic use of the metonym requires reference not only to the discipline of Linguistics but also to Semiotics. If there is a semiotic requirement to fully enable the metonymic content of poetry then does this require a particular use of how the metonym is defined and used? Examples of city poetry explored include work by Sarah Wardle ‘Commuter’s Pentameter’, Rosemary Tonks ‘Bedouin of the London Evening’, Tony Lopez Datashadow - one sonnet, p17, and David Jones - 2 pages of ‘Lady of the Pool’