Analyzing the Emotional Purpose and Linguistic Characteristics of Modern Pastoral Poetry the Twentieth Century - Taking Frost and Heaney as an Example

Abstract

Pastoral poetry, since its inception, has shown a distinct creative characteristic that sets it apart from other forms of poetry, uniquely merging the natural landscape with the poet’s emotions through unpolished language and philosophical mood. The poets’ observations of the various dimensions and depths of pastoral themes construct an imaginative depiction of the individual, the village, and even society. In the twentieth century, modern pastoral poetry’s emotional purpose and linguistic features have presented new characteristics. Frost and Heaney stand as the representative poets of this era. By examining their specific poems, the analysis focuses on the expression of emotion and linguistic style to identify the similarities and differences in the creative content and methods of the two poets. The comparative analysis reveals that the main emotional object of their works is the distinction between the individual and the hometown, which also shapes the poets’ different attitudes on similar objects, while in the two poems, they seem to be in the same pursuit of ‘the pursuit of the village’ and ‘the pursuit of the society’. In their shared quest for the ‘sound of meaning,’ Heaney absorbed and innovated upon Frost’s concept of creative language, leading to the emergence of a new linguistic identity for Northern Ireland’s pastoral poetry.