stylistic analysis of ''The Broken wings'' by Khalil GIBRAN

1. STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF “THE
BROKEN WINGS” BY
KHALILGIBRAN and
William Blake’s “The
Tyger”

2. Table of contents:
Abstract
Introduction
Literature review
Data analyze
Conclusion
References

3. STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF “THE
BROKEN WINGS” BY KHALILGIBRAN

4. Abstract
THIS PAPER IS PROTRACTED TO FIND OUT THE AESTHETIC CHOICE OF KHALIL GIBRAN IN “THE
BROKEN WINGS” BY ANALYSING THE STYLE OF TEXT IN FIRST TWO CHAPTERS OF THE BOOK.
THE FOCUS OF THE RESEARCH TRICKLES DOWN, FIRSTLY, ON THE EXPLOITATION OF
DIFFERENT LITERARY DEVICES, THOSE COMING UNDER THE CATEGORY OF “TRANSFERENCE OF
MEANING”, AND SECONDLY ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL.
THE BROKEN WINGS IS STORY, WRITTEN IN FIRST PERSON, BY KHALIL GIBRAN, OF COURSE A
NARRATION OF HIS OWN FIRST LOVE AFFAIR. IN THIS PAPER, IT IS SHOWN THAT FROM A WIDE
SPECTRUM OF TOOLS OF TRANSFERENCE OF MEANING WHAT LITERARY DEVICES ARE
EXPLOITED THE MOST AND ON THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL WHAT STRATEGIES ARE DEVISED
THAT TURNS HIS BOOK INTO AN EXAMPLE OF PEOTIC PROSE.
Key Words: Style, Literary devices, Phonological level, Transference of meaning.

5. Introduction
The scope of stylistics is all about the quest of looking into the texts- an analysis carried
out, and revealing all the linguistic information on various levels- that is phonological,
graphological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic level- that shows the
patterns made by the choice of the writer on various levels.
In this paper we would go through the style of Khalil Gibran: by looking at the
usage of different kind of literary devices, and phonological trickery done to give the
text an enchanting power capture reader’s mind and make the effects of texts long-
lasting.
In this analysis, first two chapters of the book, that makes ten pages, are
stylistically analyzed. The analysis is given below.

6. NAME
Khalil Gibran
OCCUPATION
Author, Journalist, poet
BIRTH DATE
January 6, 1883
DEATH DATE
April 10, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH
Bsharri, Lebanon
PLACE OF DEATH
New York, New York
Kahlil Gibran
ORIGINALLY
Jubran Khalil Jubran
About the Author

7. Stylistic Analysis:
1. SEMANTIC LEVEL
(a) Similes
Among the wide range of literary devices there are very few that are very much preferred by Khalil Gibran
and simile is one of them. Simile is a literary device that is used for overt comparison with the help of
some formal indicators such as “like”,” as….as”, “as” .

8. 1. Empty like that of Adam’s Paradise.
2. The flowers you lay on Selma’s tomb are like falling drops of dew.
3. …era of silent sorrow which dropped as a seed into my heart.
4. Youth as a golden era.
5. All those beauties which I spoke of now and which I long to see, as a child longs
for his mother’s breast.
6. …my spirit imprisoned in the darkness of youth, as a falcon suffers in its cage.
7. …who exist like frozen corpses.
8. The boy’s soul undergoing the buffeting of sorrow is like a white lily just
unfolding.
9. …made me like a pond of water.
10. That year is like a mountain peak.

9. (a) Metaphors
The usage of metaphor is quite frequent in the narration of Gibran. To make a meaning more
real and concrete, he is resorted freely to metaphors. Metaphor is a literary device that is
used for covert comparison.
1. Love opened my eyes:
2. With its magic rays: .
3. Fiery finger:
4. Garden of high affection:
5. Spring of life:
6. Life was a coma;
7. The fiery sword that chased Adam out of Paradise:
8. Painful memories:
9. The silence that guards the tomb:
10. Here all the hopes of Gibran were buried:

10. 11. Prisoner of love:
12. ….grows Gibran’s sorrow together with Cypress trees:
13. His spirit flickers:
14. Selma….who was a beautiful tune:
15. Falling drops of dews from the eyes of dawn:
16. The dawn of youth:
17. Open the heart’s doors:
18. Love provided me with tongue and tears:
19. Gardens and orchards and street corners that witnessed your games and heard your
innocent whispers:
20. Valleys full of magic and dignity:
21. Mountains covered with glory and greatness:
22. Wounded my spirit:
23. Bitter thoughts:
24. A net of hopelessness:
25. Cloud of dreams:
26. Solitude has soft and silky hands:
17.….but with strong fingers it grasps the heart:
28..Solitude is the alley of sorrow:
29. It killed in me the inclination for games:
30. Wings of youth: Animistic Metaphor.
31. …remain in the book of existence:

11. Hyperbole
Hyperbole is an exaggerated form of something that is used not with the intention for deception rather
for stress and emphasis. The writer uses them time and again in order of mark a deep impression on
reader’s mind.
1.tramping of your feet will not disturb the slumber of the dead.
2. Drained his tears.
3. Forgot his smile.
4. …try to reach the sky.
5. I hear the murmur of the rivulets and the rustling of the branches.
6. Every time I looked at the grey sky my heart contract.
7. …because he is torn by two forces.
…hears nothing but the crawling of insects.

12. (I) PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL
(a) Alliteration
It is the repetition of consonants at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each
other, or at short interval. It is this that gives the prose a poetic touch.
1. “fiery fingers” ( p3)
2. “ fiery sword….. which frightened…..and forced me away from….” (p4)
3. “ hearts have loved…”(p6)
4. “pleasure….its passing…..like a prisoner” (p7)
5. “confinement and cares” (p7)
6. “silent sorrow…dropped a seed” (p7)
7. “rivulets and rustling” (p8)
8. “suffers in its cage….sees a flock…spacious sky” (p8)
9. “Solitude has soft, silky hands” (p9)
10. “Solitude is the ally of sorrow…..spiritual exaltation” (p9)
11. “colors of clouds” (p10)

13. CONCLUSION
After the analysis of the two pages of the story, the style of Khalil Gibran gets quite obvious. On semantic
level, it can confidently be deduced that Gibran’s style of writing is quite figurative. It is because the meaning
he tries to propagate is working on two-level. The first guise is the literary meaning that leads the reader to
the second level of figurative language. The reason for usage of figurative language is that Gibran attempts to
solidify all the abstractions that are quite difficult to realize. This attempt of tangibility makes the abstractions
more real and impressive. The justification is done by the regular usage of hyperbole. Over all, the average
shows that the most used literary devise is metaphor, followed by simile and hyperbole.
On phonological level, he has exploited the notion of alliteration greatly. This in return has given a poetic
touch to the prose. The above mentioned examples of alliteration testify that the writer has attempted to
turn his prose into something that sounds poetic.
The collective image painted by scope of both levels, semantic and phonological, gives us a good insight into
the style of Khalil Gibran.

14. References
1. Crystal, D &Davy, Derek (1969). Investigating English
Style. Longman House, England.
2. Leech, G.(1969)A Linguistic Guide to Poetry, Longman.
3. Leech, G & Short. M (1981)Style in

15. Stylistics analysis
William Blake’s “The Tyger”
NAME
William Blake
OCCUPATION
Artist, Poet
BIRTH DATE
November 28, 1757
DEATH DATE
August 12, 1827
EDUCATION
Royal Academy of Art's Schools of Design
PLACE OF BIRTH
London, England, United Kingdom
PLACE OF DEATH
London, England, United Kingdom
About the Author

16. The Tyger (Tiger):
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

17. And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

18. Analysis:
Theme
The crumble is in the air about the creator of the tiger than it is
about the tiger itself. In brooding the despicable shrew and
formidable symmetry of the tiger, the speaker is at a loss to explain
how the same God who made the lamb could make the tiger.
Conformable to, this theme: humans are incapable of fully
understanding the mind of God and the mystery of his handiwork.

19. Symbolism:
Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them
symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense which Blake has used
in his poem “ The Tyger”. Below are the examples of the symbol/Symbolism
used;
The Tiger: Evil (or Satan)
The Lamb: Innocence (or God)
Distant Deeps: Hell
Skies: Heaven
Immortal Hand or Eye: God or Satan(Metonymy)
Wings: The power or inspiration
FIRE: Tyger’s ferocity and sublimity

20. Metaphor:
1. Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
2. Tyger Tyger, burning bright
In the metaphors above it can be seen that poet is comparing the Tiger and its eyes with
the fire something dreadful or hurtful which is not good. He has given the characteristics
of fire to tiger.
Alliteration:
Figure of emphasis that occurs through the repetition of initial consonant letters (or
sounds) in two or more different words across successive sentences, clauses, or phrases.
For example in the “The Tyger”
"burning bright" (1)
"distant deeps" (5)
"what wings" (7)
"began to beat" (11)
"dare its deadly" (16)
"he who" (20)

21. synecdoche:
Synecdoche is when a part of something is used to
refer to the whole thing.
So, the phrase "immortal hand" references the whole being or
person that the hand belongs to, while at the same time
focusing on the hands as the means of creation. The eye is
representative of the whole body and person,

22. Meter and Rhythm
The rhythm is created through short lines and rhyming couplets,
similar to "The Lamb."Repetition of "Tyger in line 1, "dare" in lines
7 & 8, "heart" in lines 10 & 11, "what" in lines12, 13, & 15, "Did he"
in lines 19-20, and several repeats in stanzas 1 & 2 establish the
poem's nursery rhyme like rhythm.