“Contextualizing” trope and the structure of lyrical text: once again on the difference between poetry and prose

The paper shows how heuristically valuable is the distinction between those metaphors and similes that substantially amplify their target notion, and those that do not. It is shown that at least in some instances the contrast between these trope types may be projected onto the compositional structure of lyrical text. Closely inspected are two classical Russian poems, “No one will be at home” (“Nikogo ne budet v dome”) by B. Pasternak and “The Fox” (“Lisica”) by S. Esenin, whose analysis suggests that metaphors and similes failing to amplify their target notion tend to appear in the foregrounded fragments dedicated to the main character, while metaphors and similes yielding a complication effect tend to show up where no important figure is involved, i.e. in the background. This correlation is argued to be far from accidental; rather it is an instantiation of a general rule to the effect that lyrical poetry tends to recruit foregrounding strategies being the inverse of those employed by narrative prose (for instance, the foreground of lyrical discourse is often marked by a break of referential continuity, whereas it is continuity of at least most prominent referents that is typical of the foreground in narratives; a hallmark of the foreground in lyrical poem is introversial orientation of the author’s conscience, which in narrative prose is to be found mostly in background, i.e. in ratiocinations, introspection into hero’s mental life, etc., being practically excluded from the main plot line). The conclusion is made that narrative prose oriented theories of grounding, such as the transitivity theory advanced by P. Hopper and S. Thompson and similar ones fall short of providing an all-embracing account of linguistic foregrounding mechanisms, thus being in need of serious revision.