PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT ...

METAPHOR AND IMAGE BUILDING IN EMILYDICKINSON’S “I LIKE TO SEE IT LAP THE MILES” TO

EXPRESS A PRIVATE EXPERIENCE : A COGNITIVE STUDY

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

CISILIA PENI TRIINDRIASTUTI.

Student Number: 034214113

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMMEDEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERSSANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

2011

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJIPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

i


EXPRESS A PRIVATE EXPERIENCE : A COGNITIVE STUDY

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

CISILIA PENI TRIINDRIASTUTI.

Student Number: 034214113

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMMEDEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERSSANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

2011


ii

A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis


EXPRESS A PRIVATE EXPERIENCE: A COGNITIVE STUDY

A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis


iii


EXPRESS A PRIVATE EXPERIENCE: A COGNITIVE STUDY


iv

Courage is not the absence of fear, but more to the judgementthat somethingelse is more important than fear

(Pierre Dulaine – Take the Lead)


v

Dedicated to

My beloved parents


vi

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the works

or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the

references, as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, August 30, 2011

(Cisilia Peni Triindriastuti)


vii

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUANPUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Sanata Dharma :

Nama : Cisilia Peni TriindriastutiNomor Mahasiswa : 034214113

Dengan ini saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharmakarya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :

Metaphor and Image Building in Emily Dickinson’s “I Like to See It Lap theMiles” as Tool to Express a Private Experience: A Cognitive Study

Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada).Dengan demikian saya memberikankepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma Hak untuk menyimpan,mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya di internet atau media lainuntuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupunmemberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagaipenulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal : 30 Agustus 2011

Yang menyatakan

(Cisilia Peni Triindriastuti)


viii

ACKNOWLEGMENTS

First of all, I would like to thank Jesus: “Thank you.. for being my Lord”.

To my beloved parents, I would like to give my deepest gratitude to them for their

support in everything: for their prayers, for their unexhausted encouragement and

so much compassion.

I would like to thank my advisor, Bu Luluk, for her encouragement,

suggestion, evaluation and critics during the process of this thesis. I would also

like to thank Bu Tata, who gives me her insight and correction.

For all my friends ’03, thanks for the moment we have shared and the

friendship we have. And for all my friends who are still struggling: “Keep

fighting, guys! I will be waiting to hear good news from you”. For Wahmuji,

thanks for sharing a great website for many great books I hardly could find before

and for his willingness to spent his time to read and give suggestion, especially at

the beginning of the process. Thanks Mei Ratri, with her way, for pushing me to

finish my study.

I would like also to thank Margaret H. Freeman who is generously posting

and making free many of great works on dealing with cognitive study and Emily

Dickinson. A lot of inside I was desperately looking for I could finally find and

learn in her works.

Finally, I would like to thank my Marietta Sinaga and Duma Simbolon for

the motivation and precious friendship. Hopefully, this thesis will be useful.


ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE …………………………………………………… i

APPROVAL PAGE …………………………………………………… ii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE …………………………………………… iii

MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………… iv

DEDICATION PAGE .............................................................................. v

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ...................................... vi

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA

ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS ................................ vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT …………………………………………… viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………… ix

ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………… xi

ABSTRAK …………………………………………………………… xii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION …………………………………… 1

A. Background of the Study …………………………………… 1

B. Problem Formulation …………………………………… 7

C. Objectives of the Study …………………………………… 8

D. Definition of Terms …………………………………… 8

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW…………………………… 10

A. Review of Related Studies…………………………………… 10

B. Review of Related Theories………………………………….. 12

1. Theories on Cognitive ........................…………………. 12

2. Theories on Metaphor ......….……………...................... 13

3. Theories on Image Schema ...................................…….. 15

4. Theories on Poetic Iconicity ...............................………. 18

C. Biographical Background ............................................................19

D. Theoretical Framework ………………………………………. 21

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY…………………………………… 23

A. Object of the Study………………………………………….. 23

B. Approaches of the Study ………………………………… 24

B.1. Cognitive Approach……………………………….. 24

B.2. Biographical Approach ……………………………. 27

C. Method of the Study…………………………………………. 28


x

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS…………………………………………....... 30A. Projection from the of Imagery to Metaphor, and

Its Establishment..........................................................................30B. Metaphor and Its Image Building ………………………….. 41C. Emily Dickinson and “I Like to see it lap the Miles”............... 58

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ..................................................................62

BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………….………………………………... 64


xi

ABSTRACT

CISILIA PENI TRIINDRIASTUTI. 2011. Metaphor and Image Building in

Emily Dickinson’s “I Like to see it lap the Miles” as Tool to Express A

Private Experience: A Cognitive Study. Yogyakarta: Department of English

Letters, Faculity of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.

“I Like to see it lap the Miles” is a poem written by Emily Dickinson. This

poem is well known as a poem about a train with strong metaphorical language. It

consists of four stanzas with each stanza employs quatrin except for the third one.

The objectives of this study are to find out how this poem is built through

its metaphor and image building (imageries and form) and what is its significance

to Emily Dickinson’s world. Those two question are proposed to consider that so

far analysis to this poem were not involving its form as the performance of its

author in building the poem.

This study is done by using library research method. Cognitive approach

and biographical are applied in this study. Cognitive approach is applied to

analyze the metaphorical and its image building, while biographical is applied to

strengthen the argument by providing evidence from the author contextual

background.

From the analysis, the writer finds that MIND IS IRON HORSE is the

main metaphoric schema which structures “I Like to see it lap the Miles” poem as

a whole, not TRAIN IS IRON HORSE which stands independently from the form

on the page. The form on the page shows the autonomy of the author to display it

whatever she thinks is right. The result from the analysis “I Like to see it lap the

Miles” is a creation of semblance of the felt experience from the interrelationship

between IRON HORSE concept and its image building which is so much

influenced by the real experience of the author in experiencing the train and

performing the respond. The appearance of the speaker maps the author’s

performance in creating its lines and structuring its comparisons (simile or

metaphor).


xii

ABSTRAK

CISILIA PENI TRIINDRIASTUTI. Metaphor and Image Building in Emily

Dickinson’s “I Like to see it lap the Miles” as Tool to Express A Private

Experience: A Cognitive Study. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas

Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

“I Like to See It Lap the” Miles merupakan sebuah puisi yang ditulis oleh

Emily Dickinson. Puisi ini sangat dikenal sebagai puisi yang menggambarkan

sebuah kereta dengan pembahasaan metafora yang kuat. Puisi ini terdiri dari

empat bait, empat baris pada tiap bait kecuali pada bait ketiga.

Tujuan yang hendak dicapai melalui studi ini adalah mengetahui

bagaimana metafora dan pembangunan puisi ini dibentuk dan juga mengetahui

apa signifikansi pembentukan tersebut terhadap dunia yang dimiliki oleh Emily

Dickinson. Kedua tujuan ini dikemukakan karena analisa terhadap puisi “I Like to

see it lap the Miles” sejauh ini tidak menyertakan bentuk puisi dan kehadiran

pembicara ke dalam analisa.

Studi ini dilaksanakan menggunakan studi kepustakaan. Pendekatan yang

diterapkan adalah pendekatan kognitif dan biografis. Pendekatan kognitif

diterapkan dalam menganalisa penggunaan bahasa metaforis dan pembentukan

gambar puisi, sedangkan pendekatan biografis diterapkan untuk menghadirkan

bukti–bukti yang diambil dari latar belakang penulis sebagai penguat analisa.

Dari analisa, penulis menemukan bahwa MIND IS IRON HORSE

merupakan skema metaforis inti pembentuk puisi “I Like to see it lap the Miles”,

bukan TRAIN IS IRON HORSE yang berdiri sendiri lepas dari bentuk puisi ini di

atas kertas. Bentuk puisi di atas kertas menunjukkan otoritas sang pengarang

untuk menyuguhkan apa yang dirasa paling tepat atau pas baginya. Hasil dari

analisa yang dilakukan adalah “I Like to see it lap the Miles” merupakan ciptaan

yang sesuai dengan pengalaman yang tepat dirasakan melalui penggabungan

antara konsep IRON HORSE dengan pembentukan gambarnya yang sangat

dipengaruhi oleh pengalaman yang dirasakan saat kereta datang dan respon

tindakannya saat itu. Kemunculan sang pembicara memetakan tindakan sang

pengarang dalam menyusun baris dan membentuk pengandaian (simile ataupun

metafora).


1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

“I can show you more than I can tell you”

The above expression was quoted from Breaking Down (2008), a novel

written by Stephanie Meyer, which reminded the writer to Emily Dickinson. It

shows that things we want to express can not always simply being told. A well

expression is not only containing information but it is also containing whole

things that the encoder wants to reveal to the decoder: idea, thought, and feeling.

The above expression shows that the encoder consciously understands that if

he/she directly reacts to the decoder by telling them the information they’ve

asked, he/she will not completely reach what he/she wants. There will be

something that is still missing unless it is being showed. And by showing, the

encoder is displaying or demonstrating it and letting the decoder detects

himself/herself. The important thing from the act of showing if it is compared to

the act of telling is that the encoder wants to reach more than just giving an

information.

Expression is a personal way to respond something. It takes a fundamental

part in human’s life because it is a tool to force out emotion, ruling taste, feeling,

or thought which is somehow repressed in human’s mind, from simple thing to

complex thing. Therefore, a well expressed expression would release a man’s

feeling but expressions that are not well expressed or not expressed at all would


2

bring difficulties to the person who feels it. In general, there are two kind of

expression: verbal and non-verbal. Verbal expression can be manifested in

utterance or written form, while non-verbal expression can be manifested in facial

look or body language.

According to Joanna R. William (William, 1993: 94), in her essay

Expression and Communication as Basic Linguistic Functions, there is a

difference between verbal expression such in utterance and in written form. In an

utterance, the process of encoding of the thought is more spontaneous than in a

written form. We often hear people saying, writing down feelings would release

one’s emotion. “Writing focuses on the process of expression as the conscious

composition of a text. It confronts the individual with their own word” (1993: 94).

There is no one presence to wait their respond. The benefit of writing from

utterence lays down on the process of encoding the thought which can be more

conscious and reflective.

Emily Dickinson is one of the greatest American poets, but her popularity

arouse not in her lifetime. It was only after her death, more than seventeen

hundreds poetry and eleven hundreds letters was found, published and well

known. In her life time, she rarely met her relatives and spent most her lives in her

father’s house or even in her own room. But, eventhough she withdrew herself

from her surrounding, it doesn’t mean that she was completely disappearing. It

was seen from her continuity to send her relatives and companions a letter or

poem. A written form was chosen to communicate and express something which

somehow repressed her.


3

Emily Dickinson is well known of having a unique character, the way she

saw the world actively can hardly be argued in contrast to her reluctance to

socialize herself to the society. She placed herself between existence and non

existence. Throughout her life, the letters she had sent and poem attached to it

contributed her to maintain a connection with the outside world and impressed

them by her original style (Lied, 2008: 25). This unique character often

establishes curiosity among the readers and up till this time still creates various

inspirations for many writers to get to know about her unique world and

understand her poems better.

Poetry, conservatory, and family were the priority of Emily Dickinson’s

responsibility and life, and the biggest of all was poetry. In poetry she adored,

argued, and sought life. She dedicated herself into boundless of lexicons. As

someone who rarely met other people, and spent most of time privately in her

house, she was surprisingly able to capture the outer world extravagantly through

her works (2008: 51). Ironically her works were unnoticed by public during her

lifetime. It was because she kept large amounts of her works mostly for herself,

and decided not to publish them continually to be known by other. One of the

reasons of her rejection to publication was to protect the original elements that has

often been edited by the editor before a text will be published. Yet, she just

persisted to write, seeking life and remain her world untouchable.

On one hand it is obviously not easy for someone who has difficulty in

socializing herself with the society like Emily Dickinson to express her world in a

common way, such in utterances but on the other hand Emily Dickinson realized


4

that she needed it. How Emily conducted herself and did not sigh about her life,

her ‘weird’ behavior in others’ eyes, were just reflection and loyalty to her believe

which brought her to the stick decision to where she would live her life. Never she

would escape her believe and disobey the believe she embraced. Justina I.F Lied

(2008) interestingly called the way Dickinson conducted her life as living in the

private bubble. It allowed Dickinson to see the outside and it also allowed the

outside to see her but remained to be untouchable. This makes the writer

interested to know her poem.

Considering the fact above, it is not surprising the poems that Emily

Dickinson wrote are as unique as her character. The sacredness of all elements in

poems cannot be argued, no changes can be made without distracting its function

in the poem. Each element would become important to capture the whole meaning

of the poem. As Emily Dickinson strongly expressed her complaint when there

were some changes that the editorial made seen as followed:

Edited Original

Success is counted sweetest Success is counted sweetestBy those who ne’er succeed By those who ne’er succeedTo comprehend a nectar To comprehend a nectarRequires sorest need Requires sorest need

Not one of all the purple host Not one of all the purple HostWho took the flag to-day Who took the Flag todayCan tell the definition Can tell the definitionSo clear, of victory, So clear of Victory

As he, defeated, dying, As he defeated –dying--On whose forbidden ear On whose forbidden earThe distant strains of triumph The distant strains of triumphBreak, agonized and clear Burst agonized and clear!


5

Even “when two editor of newspapers had asked her if they could publish some of

her poem, she used the expression: they asked for my Mind” (2008: 29)

Punctuations, dashes, and capitalizations are markers of Emily

Dickinson’s poems, there are also two other elements which become the material

in building the concept of her thought into a poem, namely: metaphor and

imagery. These two elements cannot be separated from Emily Dickinson’s

poems; it gives such a vivid representation. In poetry, metaphor may perform

various functions. From the mere noting of likeness to the evocation of

associations; it may exist as a minor beauty or it may be the central concept and

controlling image of the poem (Merriam, 1995: 756). While imageries, in The

Literary Heritage, “..are used to create concrete picture of experiences so that it

can be seen, heard, tasted or felt” (Guth, 1981:721).

Metaphor lies at the heart of poetry. As unique as Emily Dickinson’s

character, metaphor is a unique language. Metaphor is a unique language not only

because it presents something as something else but also because it reflects of how

people actually conduct their life. As stated by cognitive linguists, Lakoff and

Johnson “…metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in

thought and action” ( Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 3). For example, a person who

accepts LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor would have different action and thought

from a person who accepts LIFE IS A GAMBLING GAME metaphor. And words

or images that would be presented for each single concept of metaphor would be

very different, it depends on what they decide to accept in mind.


6

There is an interesting thing about cognitive study to language, it sees

phenomenon of language that is firmly rooted from human thought. This study is

an expansion of cognitive science or the science of human mind which studies

they way information is presented and transformed in the brain. The earlier

cognitive study to language namely Cognitive Linguistics, it primarily analyzes

the conceptual and experiential basis of linguistic categories the formal structures

of language that are studied ‘.. not as if they were autonomous, but as reflections

of general conceptual organization, categorization principles, processing

mechanisms, and experiential and environmental influences.’ (Geeraerts and

Cuykens, 2007 : 3). In other words, they work from the assumption that language

reflects patterns of thought which means to study patterns of conceptualization

that we get from our understanding of our experience with the external world. The

next cognitive study to language taking a birth is Cognitive Poetics. Cognitive

Poetics is literary criticism that applies cognitive linguistics concept and insight,

in an attempt to explore more systematically their explanatory potential and

cognitive poetics in analyzing literary texts. The difference between the two is that

cognitve poetics assumes that poetic texts do not only have meaning or convey

thought, as often been concerned by cognitve linguist, but also display emotional

qualities.

In this thesis the writer chose “I Like to see it lap the Miles””, a poem

written by Emily Dickinson that has received little critical attention, perhaps

because this poem is taking for granted to be a poem about a train (iron horse)

alone. The interesting thing about this poem is that it presents such a vivid picture,


7

with mixed images pictures on it, but apparently its reference is displayed to be

“in-visible” by the speaker who only appear once in the first line and consequently

left the poem with no specific reference about the object that is mentioned. “In-

visible” here borrow from Margaret Freeman’s term for pointing the thing which

is “lying latent, hidden as another dimensionality” (Freeman 2009b: 176). This

arouses a curiosity to analyze the mixed images pictures further in its form and its

metaphorical expression, and then reflect it to Emily Dickinson’s life to generate

possibility/ies since she, as an author, is known of her well awarness about the

detail of her poem to be important.

Considering the facts above, the writer will apply cognitive approach to

unfold the poem due to its basis focuses on language as an embodied

understanding within the cognitive processes that enable the human mind to

conceptualize experience based on the interaction with our knowlegde of the

world; and its explanatory power, which according to Margaret Freeman, ‘ for

making explicit our reasoning processes and for illuminating the structure and

content of literary text’ (2000: 253). That is why it seems to be worth study as a

provocation to the study of cognitive theory to a literary text, since its newness

and insightfulness, especially in English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma

University.

B. Problem Formulation

1. How are metaphor and imagery in Emily Dickinson’s “I Like to see it

lap the Miles” built?


8

2. How can the metaphors and image building in Emily Dickinson’s “I

Like to see it lap the Miles” be seen as an expression of her private

experience?

C. Objective of the Study

The objective of this thesis is to study the cognitive processes of the

embodied human mind that include conceptualizing, forming and feeling from the

metaphor of a poem in constructing its image and how the image could reveal the

hidden expression of the speaker.

This thesis is aimed to answer and explain the question mentioned in the

problem formulation above. First, the writer wants to find out how such concept

or reason was built through the presented metaphor and image building. Second,

is to find out how the metaphors and image building were used as an expression of

Emily Dickinson’s private experience in revealing an idea.

D. Definition of Terms

Metaphor

The definition of metaphor is developing , in Merriam Webster,

Encyclopedia of Literature, the word metaphor is [Greek metahorá change

of a word to a new sense, metaphor, a derivative of metaphérein to

transfer, change, from metá after, beyond + phérein to carry] that is figure

of speech in which a word or a phrase denoting one kind of object/action is


9

used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them; it

is an implied comparison of simile (Merriam, 1995: 756) to the recent

study as Lakoff and Johnson stated that metaphor is a property of concept,

not of words (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 25).

To express

The term to express is used in contexts indicating a revival of the root

meaning ex-pressus, from ex-premere, which means ‘to press out’.

Abrams takes one statement about expression from Aristotle that says

“Poetry is indirect expression in word, most appropriately in metrical

words, of some of overpowering emotion, or ruling taste, or feeling, the

indirect indulgence where of is somehow repressed (Abrams, 1953: 48).

Cognitive Study

Cognitive study here is a study to know the way language characterize

meaning, a study of psychological result of perception and learning and

reasoning (Freeman, 2007a: 1179). Cognitive study mainly turns the figure

of speech to the figure of thought (Freeman, 2009b: 11).


10

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies

This part contains reviews of some studies that related to the study. Study

on expression, Emily Dickinson, metaphor and imagery. These studies are chosen

to support the argument in this undergraduate thesis.

First chosen study is written by Joanna R. Williams, Expression and

Communication as Basic Linguistic Functions, different from the common

modern linguistic theory which is based on the assumption that the primary and

fundamental function of language is communication, she argues that there are two

basic linguistic functions of a language; besides the function of communication,

there is also other more fundamental function of a language that is the function of

expression. She noted that a thought has to be expressed verbally before it can be

verbally communicated. Therefore, “expression is a prerequisite to

communication” (Williams, 1993: 94).

The second study is on the way Emily Dickinson lived which is suggested

by Justina I.F. Lied, in her doctoral thesis Emily Dickinson in Her Private Bubble:

Poems, Letters and Condition of Presence (2008). In her thesis, Lied is using an

interesting term, bubble, to picture the way how Emily Dickinson lived. There are

some reasons behind the term bubble. Lied explains that Dickinson’s reason in

living within her bubble is because by being in her bubble Dickinson could protect

and developed her own perception and apprehension of nature from the


11

interference of the outside world. She wanted to only allow the thing which was

important to her and then continued it to the production of her poems. Because of

that reason, Lied added:

…she has at her disposal the lenses through which she can bring nature tofocus and control the caption she wants to apprehend. From that positionDickinson can concentrate her personal feelings, anxieties, and visions(Lied, 2008: 14).

Emily Dickinson withdrawal from the outside world is not merely disappearing;

she could accept the thing she wanted to see and being seen by the outside world

but without being touched.

John B. Pickard in Emily Dickinson: An Introduction and Interpretation

said that “I Like to see it lap the Miles” is a poem about train that consists of

breathless accumulation of action verbs lap, lick, stop, feed, and step in the first

stanza alone. And then he adds ‘These run-on lines and the internal rhyme rush

the poem to its painting finish’ (Pickard, 1967: 76). Melanie, an academic teacher

who concerns a lot about Emily Dickinson’s works stated ‘…adopting a childlike

wonder and enthusiasm, Dickinson plays with the metaphor of the train as an

"iron horse." In her day, the similarities would have had vividness and immediacy

that have been lost in ours’

(http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/train.html).

“I Like to see it lap the Miles” is known of its vividness through the

metaphor and imageries, but rarely been analyzed further. This thesis, tries not

only to explore the poem through its the metaphor, vivid images, but also through

its reason and function because, different from John B. Pickard’s and Melanie’s


12

study, the writer believes that this poem is not only talking about train but also the

process her creativity in producing this poem by also analizing its form on the

page.

B. Review of Related Theories

1. Theories on Cognitive

Theoretical frameworks which are applied in this study are taken from the

Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Poetics insight. Both are using the word

‘cognitive’ to analyze language, and supposedly there is a doctrine about what

‘cognitive theory’ really is to analyze language. Apparently, the cognitivists in

both areas agree that there is no single uniform or single person’s enterprise

doctrine to define ‘cognitive theory’ itself. Instead, cognitive study “embraces a

broad array of theoretical frameworks..” (Freeman, 2006: 404), and “...it arises

from the combination of various pioneering ideas, that acting as a separable

strands of one whole, that have drawn together..” (Dirven and Ibanez, 2010: 13).

Although there is no specific cognitive theory, but from the different frameworks

they have applied, they believe and seek the same thing. They believe that we are

an embodied being and they seek how language characterizes meaning.

Characteristics of meaning from cognitive theories, according to Dirk

Geeraert (2006: 4-5), are:

Perspectival :

Meaning is not just an objective reflection of the outside world, it is a

way of shaping that world.


13

Dynamic :

Meaning changes. New experiences and changes in our environment

require that we adapt our semantic categories to transformations of

circumstances.

Encyclopedic:

It arises from the cumulative association of experience,

conceptualization, context, and culture. It is not separate from other from

other forms of knowledge that we have.

These characteristics of meaning are important to have in mind, especially in

dealing with ‘figurative’ or indirect language because one picture can be

described variously or even one picture can be used to refers something else. The

meaning then, is basicly based on the scene that is being described by the

producer. Perspectival forces to evaluate from which stand point or position the

scene is described, dynamic forces to imagine the mental spaces presented and see

the creativity, and encyclopedic demands not only knowledge of word meaning

but knowledge of word in context from the producer of situation. Following are

the theories under cognitive theory that are applied to seek the meaning to prove

the cognitive believe of the embodied being and language.

2. Theories on Metaphor

Metaphor generally is known as calling one thing into another, from one

domain of thought to another. As commonly known, in the theory of imagery,

imagery could vividly picture an object. But when we go further and try to


14

picture some abstract feeling in an experience, then that imagery would not stand

for an image alone because in vividly picturing an experience there was always a

concept behind our picture in our mind that derives us to the image. “An image

alone does not make a poem. The image has to refer to a complex field of thought

and feeling beyond itself; it has to suggest or to call up a parallel idea, to become

what we call metaphor” (Lakoff and Turner, 1989: 36).

Moreover, Lakoff and Johnson in Metaphor We Live By explain that

metaphor is not only used as an instrument to express an experience. According to

them metaphor have entailments that organize our experience, uniquely express

that experience and create necessary realities. For example in “TIME IS MONEY

metaphor, it entails that TIME IS A LIMITED SOURCE, which entails that TIME

IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY” (1980: 9).

From the above example it is inevitably seen that the concept behind a

metaphor leads us the come to an action based on that concept. Here for Lakoff

and Johnson, metaphor primarily matters of thought and action: “… metaphor is

pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action” (1980:

3). The "isolated similarities" are indeed those created by metaphor, which simply

create a partial understanding of one kind of experience in terms of another kind

of experience. They are grounded in correlations within our experience. As hiding

and highlighting, for example in ARGUMENT IS WAR metaphor, the metaphor

would highlight the action toward the argument therefore word like attack,

defense, shoot, strategy, etc are used and would hide other aspect of the concept

for example its value (cooperative aspect).


15

Metaphor in poetry is not different phenomenon from metaphor in

everyday language but Lakoff and Turner (Lakoff and Turner, 1989) poetic

metaphor exploits and enriches the everyday metaphors available to any

competent speaker of the language. Therefore, the same as metaphor in ordinary

language, poetic metaphorical expressions must also be based on basic

metaphorical concept.

The term conceptual metaphor is derived from the nature that metaphor

always involves understanding one domain in terms of another domain.

‘Technically, metaphor can be understood as a set of mappings from a source

domain to a target domain’ (Lakoff, 1992: 4) or across the conceptual domains in

way that the projected source domain is consistent with the inherent target domain

structure (1992: 10). According to Lakoff, there are two types of mappings:

conceptual mappings and image-mappings (1992: 40). Concept derives the image,

so that from that image/s we can understand the concept. Image mapping is

mapping of the motor-sensory images evoked by linguistic expression. Thus,

metaphorical expressions are used not only just for talking about thing but also for

reasoning about it as well.

3. Theories on Image Schema

“Image schemas derive from sensory and perceptul experience as we

interact with and move about in the world ...” (Evans and Green, 2006 : 178). The

term ‘image’ in ‘image schema’ is equivalent to an imagistic experience relates to

and derives from our experience of the the external world (sensory experience)


16

because it comes from sensory-perceptual. The term ‘schema’ in ‘image schema’

is also very important. It means that image schemas are not rich and detailed

concepts, but rather abstract concepts consisting of patterns emerging from

repeated instances of embodied experience.

Image schema is pre-conceptual. One the recurrent patterns of sensory

information have been extracted and stored as an image schema, sensory

experience gives rise to conceptual representation. This means that:

Image schema are concepts, but of a special kind: they are the foundationsof conceptual system, because they are the first concept to emerge in thehuman mind, precisely because they relate to sensory-perceptualexperience, they are particularly schematic (2006 : 180).

The central idea is that image schemas, which arise recurrently in our perception

and bodily movement, have their own logic, which can be applied to abstract

conceptual domains. It is not merely mental or merely bodily, but body-mind

because there is an underlying continuity that connect our physical interaction in

the world with our activities of imagining and thinking. Image-schematic logic

then serves as the basis for inferences about abstract entities and operations.

Allan Cienki (2005: 431) gave description to some example of image

schemas as follows :

CONTAINER : A container has boundary that separates an insides from

the outside. It can hold things. We can be contained (e.g. in a room), and

our own bodies are containers.

CYCLE : A cycle begins, proceeds through a sequence of connected

events, and returns to the original state to start a new. We experience

cycles through time in nature and in our lives.


17

FORCE : Force ussually implies the exertion of physical strenght in

one or more directions. We can experience force in terms of compulsion,

attraction, blockage, or enablement.

PATH : A path is a route for moving from a starting point to an

end point. We can follow an existing path, or make a path with our own

movement.

These image schema emerge within our daily experience along with our perception and

bodily movement: we explore physical objects by contact with them; we experience

ourselves and other objects as containers with other objects inside or outside of

them; we move around the world; we experience physical forces affecting us; etc.

It structures our sensory motor-experience and serves as the basis of many of our

metaphorical thinking. For example, in metaphorical expression ‘The customer is

boiling with anger’ or ‘He just exploded when i told him that’. This metaphorical

expressions employs CONTAINER schema which comes from our encounter with

our body when we are eating (we put the meal into our mouth) and our encounter

with boiling water in the kettle.


18

4. Theories on Poetic Iconicity

“Poetic Iconicity is the means by which poetry creates the semblance of

felt life” (Freeman, 2007b: 472) or illusion of experience. Our intentional

relationship and our consiousness is realized by our bodily experience with the

world is called phenomenological world. Semblance of felt life means that poetry

is an attempt to capture this experience in its sense and significance through the

creation of forms symbolic of human feeling. Feeling, when we aware of the

world around us and we interact with them, arises from two sources: the first is

sensation, the interaction with the external world through senses, and the second is

emotion, which are internally generated (2009b: 174). These two are effecting one

another with sensation from the external world triggers emotion and emotion

colors sensation. Whereas form is the existance of words on page, this is the

medium that pictures feeling or shows our certain intentional relationship with

the world. It makes the invisible to be visible in various ways.

This Poetic Iconcity theory is appliying the cognitive process of the

embodied mind that not just includes conceptualizing but forming and feeling too.

The relation between form and feeling in poetic iconicity is a total integration. “It

would be misleading to think of them as separate attributes, just as it is misleading

to think of form and meaning as separate entities” (2009b: 175). Then, it involves

mapping between meaning and form. When a poem achieved poetic iconicity

means that the writer in compossing poetry conceives the feeling from which

form-meaning emerges: feeling of sense-emotion creates form-meaning which

embodied or employed in the language of the text. Morover, Freeman also stated


19

(2009a: 14-15), when poetry when acheives poetic iconicity or becomes icon of

the of the reality, it bridges the gap between language and the world, between

conceptualization and senses experience. She also stated that poetic iconicity

occurs when seemingly meaningless poetic attributes like sound pattern, meter,

etc, all work together with imagery and emotion in making a poem which does not

mean but be. Then, the effects of poetic iconicity is to create sensation, emotion

and images that enable the mind to encounter them as phenomenally real (exist in

the here and now moment). It would moves the reader “from the semiotic world of

the poem-world to the phenomenological (world as we experience it) of the poet-

world” (2009b: 189).

C. Biographical Background

Emily Dickinson is well known as a private poet. Her companions, as she

mentioned to Higginson:

You asked of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown and dog as largeas my self, that my father bought me. They are better than beings becausethey know, but do not tell; and the noise in the pool at noon excels mypiano<http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/essays/authors/higginson/twh_dickinson2.html >.

And, she eventually rarely met other people and rarely went outside the house.

But, over one thousand poem she had produced proves that her mind is so active

in contrast to her physical presence in the society. Dickinson proclaimed the

freedom of her active mind, no matter how tight she was being ‘shut’, in one of

her poem: “They shut me up in Prose/As when a little Girl/They put me in the


20

closet/Because they like me ‘still’-/ Still! Could themselves have peeped/And seen

my Brain –go around–” (Franklin, 1999: 206).

‘Prose’, throughout Dickinson’s works is associated with “..sermons,

religious practices, patriarchy, and constrain” (Martin, 2002: 5). These are things

that she did not like because she placed herself in a resistance toward dominant

discourse. But ‘poetry’ which in one of her letter to Higginson she refered it as her

mind: “ Two editors of journals came to my father’s house this winter, and asked

me for my mind”

<http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/essays/authors/higginson/twh_dickinson2.ht

ml>, throughout her works “.. is allied with liberating darkness and inner

freedom” (2002: 5).

The interrelation between poetry, mind and her inner freedom can be seen

in:

The Heart is the Capital of the Mind –The Mind is a single State –The Heart and the Mind together makeA single Continent –

One – is the Population –Numerous enough-This ecstatic NationSeek – it is Yourself (Franklin, 1998: 1202)

Means that her writing and her mind accomadate her to reach her ownself and

finally liberate her inner freedom. This circle was her main concern, things she

dedicated her life to, which gave her joy and even power of living:

Take all away from me, but leave me Ecstasy,And I am richer then than all my Fellow Men –Ill it becometh me to dwell so wealhilyWhen at my very Door are those possessing more,In abject of poverty – (Johnson, 1998: 1123)


21

D. Theoretical Framework

This thesis will focus on the concept behind metaphor in “I Like to see it

lap the Miles” in constructing its image and how the image could reveal the

hidden expression of the speaker in order to catch the idea presented by the writer.

There are some theories used in thesis. They are theory on metaphor, theory on

metaphor and theory on poetic iconicity.

Theory on metaphor is used to find any concept from the metaphor both

covertly and overtly. Theory on image schema is used to help in understanding the

basic reason of the conceptual metaphor that that is by restoring the primacy of

bodily functions in the world: the bodily movement through space, perceptual

interaction, and ways of manipulating object. Theory on poetic iconicity is used to

relate the all the images to the form of the poem.

Metaphor theory is used, first, to find some concept covertly. It is done

by the analysis one-to-one conceptual level mapping of the source domain to any

possible target domain presented by the speaker. Second, metaphor theory is also

used to find the overt concept. It is done by system level mapping which is

mapping between the conceptual domains mediated by the text.

Since there is no reference presented in “I Like to see it lap the Miles”,

this theory is important to find the reference and how the metaphor organizes the

poem. Theory on image schema is used to help in understanding the basic reason

of conceptual metaphor that is by restoring the primacy of bodily functions in the

world: the bodily movement through space, perceptual interaction, and ways of

manipulating object. In this way, theory on image schema is applied on the


22

conceptual metaphor. Theory on poetic iconicity is applied to explain whether or

not the poem succesfully in creating semblance of felt life. The writer will see the

dynamic flows of the image shemas and conceptual metaphors by mapping them

to the organization of all images in the text world (the speaker, object, and the

imaginary figure) and the appearence of the poem on the page (form) as the

medium of the author’s conceived feeling. Then illuminte which concept is most

interlinking to all of them. When there is interconnection between these aspect

then the poem achieves poetic iconity.


23

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The object of this study is a poem entitled “I Like to see it lap the Miles”.

This poem consists of four stanzas. Each stanza contains four lines, except the

third. The breathless accumulation of the action verbs (lap, lick, stop, feed, step in

the first stanza alone), the run-on lines, and the internal rhyme rush the poem to its

painting finish (1967: 76).

“I Like to see it lap the Miles” is a poem written by Emily Dickinson, one

of American greatest poets, whose poems are well known for its richness of

metaphor. That richness can be seen from the wide range interpretations that are

welcomed by the text up till now. “I Like to see it lap the Miles” was written

when her father was one of the proud founders of the Amherst-Belchertown

railroad, he functioned as “Chief Marshal” when the first train arrived in Amherst

about her young age 1850s.

In the Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature, “I Like to see it lap the

Miles” (Iron Horse) is said to be a poem which metaphor becomes the main

power and central concept in controlling the image.


24

B. Approach of the Study

To analyze “I Like to see it lap the Miles”, the writer used two different

approches namely cognitive approach and biographical approach.

1. Cognitve Approach

Cognitive approach to language studies the way language characterize

meaning, and mainly turns figure of speech to figure of thought. The term comes

from the word cognition. Cognition “is used to refer to all information processing

activities of the brain, ranging from the analysis of immediate stimuli to the

organization of subjective experience” (Tsur, 2003: 3). Cognitive approach to

language was originated “in the late seventies and early eighties in the work of

George Lakoff, Ron Langacker, and Len Talmy that focus on the language as

instrument for organizing, processing, and conveying information” (Geeraerts and

Cuykens, 2007: 3). These researchers were applying cognitive science (study of

the brain), particularly in work relating to human categorization and gestalt

psychology, to the study of language. They identified themselves as cognitive

linguist.

Cognitive linguist believes that language reflects pattern of thought. Their

basic assumption is that there is an intimate relationship between meaning and

knowledge of the world, which has risen out of our embodied interaction with the

world (Gavins and Steen, 2003: 8). The nature of human mind is largely

determined by the form of the body. All aspects of cognition such as ideas,

thoughts, concepts dan categories are shaped by our body. These aspects include

the perceptual systems, the intuitions that underlie the ability to move, activities


25

and interactions with our environment and the understanding of the world that is

built into the body and the brain.

Cognitive linguist rejects traditional’s view that special language, such as

metaphor, as a kind of figurative language which merely function as fancy or

decorative language. When cognitive linguists trace back the metaphorical

expression to the way how mind or brain works, what is called figurative language

apparently pictures the cognitive process of the human mind. For example, we

have statement “My mind is overloaded” because we have experienced the

“container”, our body is a container, which can be empty or overloaded. Once it is

overloaded, it hardly can work properly. Then, “overloaded” would not be

attached to the “mind” if we do not have “container” concept that we get from our

embodied experience. Margaret Freeman stated that meaning from the cognitive

perspective is “..encyclopedic: that is arise from the cumulative association of

experience, conceptualization, context, and cultural-historical.” (Freeman, 2007:

483). “One of the highly significant cognitive abilities that human being possess is

the ability to categorize: that is, we can see sameness in the diversity” (Shogimen,

2009: 9), it means that:

“An understanding of how we categorize is central to the understanding ofhow we think and how we function, and therefore central to anunderstanding what makes us human” (Lakoff, 1987: 6).

This embodiment understanding of the mind relects in language then is

expanded to the cognitive investigation of literary text, especially poetic text. This

study is called Cognitive Poetics. Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Poetics are

naturally allied. Some components in Cognitive Linguistics, such as embodied


26

cognition, conceptualization, construal, etc, are often also applied in analyzing

issues relevant in specifically analyzing literary or poetic text. But eventually, as

stated by Reuven Tsur, Cognitive linguistics focuses on the conceptualizing

process of the mind and “shows very succesfully how wide range of quite

different metaphor comes from or be reduced to the same underlying conceptual

metaphor” <http://cogprints.org/3239/> sometimes is not enough to analyze

literary, especially poetic text. That’s why Cognitive Poetics also recognizes the

importance of the role of feeling and the existance of the words on the page

(form). As stated by Margaret Freeman, “cognitive process of the embodied mind

include not just conceptualizing but form[ing] and feeling too” (Freeman, 2009:

174).

Poetry, as art in general, argued by Susan K. Langer is “semblance of felt

life.. an illusion experience” : “What [the author] makes is a symbol – primarily a

symbol to capture and hold his own imagination of organized feeling, the rhythms

of life, the forms of emotion” ( Freeman, 2009: 177). To handle this, Elena

Semino who is the editor of Cognitive Stylistics: Language and cognition in the

text analysis noted:

Cognitive poetics therefore combines the detailed analysis of linguisticchoices and patterns in the text with systematic consideration of the mentalprocesses and representation that are involved in the process ofinterpretation (Freeman, 2006: 6).

At its best, cognitive poetics is Janus-faced: looking toward the text and toward

the mind.

In this study, the cognitive approach that is applied is cognitive poetics –

the application of cognitive linguistics to literature. The reason why the writer


27

does not directly call it cognitive poetics is because the application of cognitive

poetics in this study focuses on the metaphor and image building but does not

involve sound pattern, as the writer has read in some of cognitive poetics study to

literature (especially in Reuven Tsur works which rarely leave the analysis of how

cognitive processes shape and constrain poetic rhythm and the rhythmical

performance of poetry), which might enrich the analysis. And this is the limitation

of this study.

.

2. Biographical Approach

In relating the poem to the poet, the writer uses Wilfred Guerin

biographical approach because biographical approach assert the necessity for the

appreciation of the author’s ideas, thought and feeling to understand literary

object. It means that a work of art is an expression of the author’s life and

experience.

There two reasons why cognitive approach (cognitive poetics – the

application of cognitive linguistics to literature) and biographical approach are

chosen for analying Emily Dickinson’s “I Like to see it lap the Miles”. First,

because cognitive approach could handle the richness, the complexities of its

metaphor, image, and even its form on the page as an integration of the whole

poem. It is interesting to see how the mind works, how the knowledge from the

experience with the world is being manipulated to see what human can do to

create semblance of felt life. Second, because in cognitive approach has to deal

with knowledge of the experiencer in dealing with certain context, then


28

biographical approach would help in supplying evidences that the analysis does

not violate the poet knowledge and believe so that it would strenghten the

analysis.

C. Method of the Study

In analyzing the thesis, the writer collected the data such as theories from

some books in the library and from internet. It means that the most of the

references both primary and secondary were taken from the library and also

internet. The primary data was Emily Dickinson’s Iron Horse (1940s), the

secondary data consists of some criticisms from other researchers, and reviews on

the biographical background of the author and theories related to the study.

In analyzing the works, the writer mainly applied close readings on the

work by extracting the poem till there was nothing left to be extracted. There

would be three layer extraction that are applied. The first and the second would

answer problem formulation number one and the third layer extraction would

answer the problem formulation number two.

On the first extraction, the writer would identify the imaginary figure to

find what picture is being presented by generally mapping the nature and

characteristics of that imaginary figure because there’s no explicit reference of the

object appears in the poem. The second layer extraction, the writer revealed what

the picture stands for by applying conceptual and image schema mapping on one-

to-one level mapping.


29

Third layer extraction, continued its findings to reach the coherent path to

go deeper and reached the coherent path in analyzing how this poem can be seen

as the expression of Emily Dickinson’s felt experience. First, after studying the

metaphor mapping and image schema mapping, the writer would map it to

speaker and the form (system mapping). It means that the writer would relate the

data to generate backward reasoning that finally connect up with speaker and the

existance the poem on the page itself. Second, relating the speaker, and the poem

on the page to the action of the writer. After having done the analysis, the last

step was drawing a conclusion of the whole analysis.


30

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

I Like to see it lap the Miles -And lick the Valleys up -And stop to feed itself at Tanks -And then - prodigious step

Around a Pile of Mountains –And supercilious peerIn Shanties – by the sides of Roads –And then a Quarry pare

To fit it’s sides,And crawl betweenComplaining all the whileIn horrid – hooting stanza –Then chase itself down Hill

And neigh like BoanergesThen – prompter than a StarStop – docile and omnipotentAt it’s own stable door – (Franklin, 1999: 176)

1 I see it] I hear it 9 sides]Ribs14 And] And, ‘then (written, And, or then) 15 promter than] punctual asDivision 3 at quatrain. (Johnson, 1998: 448)

Emily Dickinson’s poem, “I Like to see it lap the Miles”, is an interesting

poem. Even in the first reading, the reader could never fail to feel such an

immediate movement, and power brought in it since the picture is vividly

presented through its imageries. But then, when we try to find what object that is

being presented by the speaker, there is no explicit reference of the object can be

seen here though it is the main subject that is being described. There is no other

way to understand this poem unless we understand what the speaker has

experienced.


31

In this analysis the writer is going to reveal its reference, what ‘it’ really is,

to catch an easier understanding to know this poem better.

A. Projection from the Imagery to Metaphor, and Its Establishment

In general, “I Like to see it lap the Miles” describes about the nature of an

object, it, that is observed and enjoyed by speaker. On this first layer extraction,

the focus is to get general picture about how the object is being presented. From

the close reading there are some characteristics of the object that make the poem

is vividly pictured. They are: ‘lap’, ‘lick’, ‘feed itself’, and ‘step’ in the first

stanza; ‘fit its sides’, ‘crawl’, ‘complaining’ and ‘chase’ in the third stanza; and

‘neigh’ and ‘stop’ in the last stanza.

In the first stanza the speaker presents ‘it’ as able to ‘lap’ and ‘lick’. From

those images, we can notice that this object is presented as an animal since ‘lap’

and ‘lick’ characterize verb of an animal. Both verbs are employing tongue.

Literally ‘lap’ means to drink something with quick movement of the tongue and

‘lick’ means to take something with tongue. But then, what being lapped is not

substance but ‘Miles’ and what being licked is ‘Valleys’:

I like to see it lap the Miles – (1.1)And lick the Valleys up (1.2)

So here we could paraphrase these lines as: I like to see it quickly pass through the

miles and climb the valleys up. Next:

And stop to feed itself at Tanks – (1.3)And then – prodigious step (1.4)

And ‘it’ stops to eat at tanks. And then, starts a distance move.


32

In the second stanza we are invited to see the settings when ‘it’ travels in a

distance move:

Around a Pile of Mountains –And, supercilious, peerIn Shanties – by the sides of Roads –And then a quarry pare (Second Stanza)

When it is around a pile of mountains, and in supercilious feeling, ‘it’ arrogantly

spies the shanties that lay between roads. After that, ‘it’ runs to the quarry.

The third stanza describes its movements through the quarry:

To fit it sides,And crawl betweenComplaining all the whileIn horrid – hooting stanza –Then chase itself down hill (Third Stanza)

While it has to fit the sides in passing through the quarry, its sound reverberates

all the while that produce such a loud terrifying sound. Then, it moves fast down

the hill.

In the first stanza we already have a picture that the object is being

presented as an animal. Last stanza provides some hints, ‘neigh’ and ‘stable’, that

the object is being presented as not just an animal but specifically pointed as a

horse. The word neigh is characteristic sound of a horse, while ‘stable’ means a

farm building for housing horses. The last stanza, it describes the ending of its

distance moves. After the hill has been passed down:

Neigh like a BoanergesThen – promter as a StarStop – docile and omnipotentAt its own stable door – (Fourth stanza)


33

The horse neighs powerfully like Boanerges, when it comes on time as a Star.

Then ‘it’ stops, it is harmless, but still the power is seen when ‘it’ is in its own

house door.

In the following analysis, the writer will explicate the poem for the second

extraction by applying Cognitive Metaphor theory to see how the metaphor is

built. According to the Cognitive Metaphor theory, metaphor is “understanding

one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain” (Kövecses, 2002:

4) which is formulated in TARGET DOMAIN IS SOURCE DOMAIN. The

comprehension of target domain in terms of source domain is based on a set of

mapping or correspondence between those conceptual domains (2002: 29).

Because there is no explicit name of references from the domains to be drawn for

the full metaphorical mapping, so the writer firstly will map the concept from

imageries lays on the metaphorical expressions in this poem which potentially

lead to the domain. After the domains for both target and source are clear, the

writer secondly will then draw the full mapping mapping to see the metaphorical

establishment.

From the previous finding which has been found, it appears that the

presentation of the imageries are characterizing a horse. It can be seen especially

from the utilization of the words ‘neigh’ and ‘stable’ so for the source domain we

get the spesific reference that is a horse. Then to find the target domain, we need

to see the element presented that does not belong to the characteristics of a horse.

The speaker provides a hint, lies in the third line of the first stanza:

And stop to feed itself at Tanks – (1.3)


34

Here, the word ‘Tank’ does not characterize a horse. ‘Tank’ means a large

container (usually metallic) vessel for holding gases or liquid. In other words, this

horse actually is a machine that needs to ‘feed itself’ or be filled up with fuel. As

we get the key that ‘it’ is actually not a horse but a machine, or specifically a

vehicle because it needs to ‘feed itself’ with fuel in order to be alive. The last line

of this stanza glides with the above concept:

And then – prodigious step (1.4)

This last line emphasizes the previous line ‘it feed self at Tanks’ gives certain

effect to the ‘it’. That after ‘feed itself’ with fuel, ‘it’ immediately moves

prodigiously.

In order to know what kind of vehicle is meant here, let us jump to the last

stanza:

Neigh like Boanerges (4.1)Then – prompter than a Star (4.2)

This stanza firstly offers us a sound, and then presenting the second line ‘Then –

promter than a Star’. ‘Prompter’ means done immediately without delay, while a

Star, although it has been already made with a schedule but still sometimes cannot

be seen when the cloud covers it. This picture of the second line shows its arrival

and, as the reader, we are invited to imagine its arrival, even more time than the

star does. Then right after the sound come, the vehicle appears. This vehicle is

characterized to be always come on time without delay more than a star. Besides,

the last two lines also characterize ‘it’.

Stop – docile and omnipotent (4.3)At its own stable door (4.4)


35

When it stops and has its own door to pass through. Now, it is clear that the

vehicle is a train because there is no other vehicle which has its own stable door

at its house. Then we have TRAIN IS IRON HORSE metaphor. The concept of

IRON HORSE in this poem to picture the train is well known. According to the

interpretation of John B. Pickard in Emily Dickinson: an Introduction and

Interpretation and many other interpretations, “I Like to see it lap the Miles” is

seen as a poem about a train which has been presented vividly as a horse (Pickard,

1967: 76).

Now, both the source and the target domain is clear. the writer will apply

cognitive metaphor theory to see how the metaphor TRAIN IS IRON HORSE

works. It is done by mapping the source domain of a horse to the target domain of

a train based on the image projection. If the poem is under TRAIN IS AN IRON

HORSE metaphor then this concept would structure the activity in mind, and

consequently influence the language to fit the concept . The following of this part

is the complete explication of this poem.

I like to see it lap the Miles (1.1)And lick the Valleys up (1.2)

There is a speaker in this poem who tells the reader that the speaker likes

to see the train with its movement to pass through the miles and valleys. The

movement is experienced as the lapping and licking of a horse. With this picture,

the speaker transfers mental picture of a quick movement of a horse taking up

liquid into mouth using the tongue to quick movement of the train passing through

the miles and climbing up the valley.


36

Since this second layer extraction is under TRAIN IS AN IRON HORSE

metaphor, we have to see these lines base on the underlying concept above. The

first line contains metaphorical expression IT LAP THE MILES, the second line

contains IT LICK THE VALLEYS UP. To whatever it represents, the miles could

not be lapped literally. This metaphorical expression maps that LAPPING THE

MILES IS QUICKLY PASSING THROUGH THE MILES. This metaphorical

expression comes from the basic metaphorical concept PASSING THROUGH IS

CONSUMING. One basic metaphorical concept can create various metaphorical

expressions for example, from PASSING TROUGH IS CONSUMING metaphor

we could have: metaphorical expression like ‘I have eaten all of my work’, ‘I

consume 20 miles a day in exercising my body’.

Imagine the process of consuming base on the imagery brought to the

metaphorical expression. Lap literally means drinking quickly, this imagery

highlight speed or rush and lap the Miles expression hides the liquid object that

should be lapped. This new meaning that derived from the combination of the

source domain and target domain is called blending (see Figure 1). The process of

conceptualizing the target domain onto the source domain for the second line is

more or less similar to the conceptualizing process on the first line.

From the above figure, it is easier to picture the metaphorical expression.

Although the image of this expression doesn’t emphasizes on virtual forward

movement of ‘it’, but the speaker notice that passing through is a matter of

reaching one point from another point. Imagine there are some points on the

miles, let we called it the A, B, C, D, and E points. Then, imagine from point to


37

It (A) lap the Miles , And lick the Valleys up

Horse space

Train Space

Figure 1. The metaphorical mapping process of lap the Miles; And lick the Valleys up

points when those miles are being lapped; first the A point, then B, then C, then

D, and stop. When ‘it’ stops lapping, the miles right in front of ‘it’ is E. So the

location of it is now at E.

And stop to feed itself at Tanks (1.3)And then – prodigious step (1.4)

The third line contains metaphorical expression. Plausibly, the English

readers posses an underlying metaphorical concept view of MACHINES AS

LIVING CREATURES. Therefore there is a metaphorical expression as implicitly

presented that TRAIN FEED ITSELF WITH FUEL. The metaphorical expression

as TRAIN FEED ITSELF WITH FUEL is entirely commonplace. In terms of

metaphorical concept theory this metaphorical expression is underlied from the

metaphorical concept that MACHINE IS A LIVING CREATURE metaphor. This

conceptual metaphor maps container onto container, substance onto substance,

A lap the miles and lick the valleys up

Lap and lick help:

A to be animate being (reachingis consuming)

Miles and valleys as the objectto be consumed by A

Miles and valleys moves insideA quickly.

Miles and valleys are passed

through quickly by A


38

abstract concept onto abstract concept. When we embodied in our mind base on

the mental process of conceptualizing MACHINE IS A LIVING CREATURE

metaphor, it able us to map food onto fuel, body onto container, biologically

active onto move, and spend the energy onto spent the fuel. And the fourth line

presents the effect after it bunkered (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

The fourth line still derives from the MACHINE IS A LIVING

CREATURE metaphor entails MACHINE NEEDS FOOD TO ALIVE that

creates the metaphorical expression TRAIN IS AN IRON HORSE, with fuel as

food and fuel makes the train able to biologically move. After it feed itself at

IT (A) FEED ITSELF WITH FUEL

Metaphorical mapping

A feed itself with fuel

fuel map:

A to be alive

A is living creature

A ingest gasoline

A is a train

fuel helps:

A to run

A uses gasoline

Feed helps:

A to be biologically active


39

Tanks, follows by And then – on the fourth lines to emphasize direct effects of the

previous statement. . While prodigious step gives some image of a distance moves

just in a single step. It maps the travel from one station to another station,

therefore there is only single step which prodigious.

Around a Pile of Mountains –And supercilious peerIn Shanties – by the sides of Roads –And then a quarry pare (Second Stanza)

This second stanza presents the journey of its travel. When it is surrounded

by a pile of mountains and in supercilious feeling, it watches searchingly the

shanties that are by the sides of roads. Being Around a Pile of Mountains enable it

to superciliously peer. It shows how its feels toward the shanties as if the shanties

is nothing compared to it since the shanties is seen as its quarry which are trapped

by the sides of roads. Supercilious which projects the arrogance of the horse refers

to the power of the train compared to shanties. Since this poem is built from

TRAIN IS A HORSE metaphor, this train able to superciliously peers the shanties

that is by the sides of roads. Again the words And then appears, to shows that a

quarry pare is happened as the result of the previous act that is And, supercilious,

peer. A quarry pare here means it cuts the shanties by passing between as its

quarry.

To fit its sides,and crawl betweenComplaining all the whileIn horrid – hooting stanza –Then chase itself down hill (Third stanza)


40

This third stanza pictures when it passes through, between the shanties and

roads that is pictured on the previous stanza as its quarry. But is the shanties really

its quarry? No, this stanza counters the previous stanza. Instead of directly ‘hunt’

its quarry, it needs To fit its sides, and crawl between. This first line pictures both

a narrow space left for it to pass through and a crowded situation. The word crawl

emphasizes these mental pictures: because the shanties are crowded, makes it has

crawled or moved slowly between them. So the quarry is just in it-s imagination.

The result is that it has to complaint all the while to be able to pass it through. But

still the quarry in it-s imagination, we can see it from how it sounding. It is

complaining, In a horrid – hooting stanza. Horrid hooting stanza shows how it

sounds. It produces loud and horrifying sound that would drive out the crowd

automatically. The length of the sound is like stanza, long, it consists of lines. The

last line also emphasize that the quarry is only in it-s imagination. After it

horrified the quarry, there is no victim appears, or pictures about slaughtering.

Instead, it moves to chase itself downhill, not to chase anything from the shanties.

And neigh like BoanergesThen – prompter then a StarStop – docile and omnipotentAt its own stable door – (Fourth stanza)

After its long travel, it produces powerful sound to signal its arrival to its

station. Here, neigh, the original sound of the horse is compared to Boanerges, a

name Christ gave to the disciples James and John, meaning ‘son of thunder’

(Pickard, 1967: 77), which could also means a loud preacher or orator. The time

when Emily Dickinson wrote this poem was when the first train arrived at her

hometown, Amherst in 1850s. The great religious revivals swept across the town,


41

and most people were infected, only Emily and her brother, Austin, did not join

them because their orthodox approach failed to satisfy her. She kept searching for

deeper answer and not being apathetic, once she read about new preacher in

Philadelphia, she commented to her brother: ‘I’ve read about Dr. Wardsworth

being presented with elegant casket filled with five-dollar gold pieces…. He must

touch men’s soul or they’d never open their pocket so wide. If only I could hear

him sometime!” (Fisher, 1966: 91). This is how the power of an orator or preacher

is waited. Beside, it also influences people life by touching the soul with their

words.

Different from the other comparisons in the poem, both the first and

second line comparison of this last stanza uses simile to separate and differentiate

it visually as an indication that these lines does not come from the characteristic of

a horse. But it is the horse that is also been characterized as Boanerges and a Star.

Boanerges shows not only that it has a loud sound which is like a thunder but also

it has a power on its neigh like a preacher or the Christ’s disciples, and it has been

waiting enthusiastically by a lot of people. The arrival of the train is compared to

the arrival of a Star, a star always has a schedule. The results: as it neigh, then

punctually as a star it arrives, to control its door to stop docilely and omnipotent

for it to enter its stable.

B. Metaphor and Its Image Building

This part will analyze the poem on its third layer extraction: relate the

metaphor, and all of the images built in it, both from mental image and concrete


42

image on the page or form. In doing so, the writer will utilize not only Cognitive

Metaphor theory which but also Poetic Iconicity by mapping the

conceptualization to the imagery and to the form. According to the Poetic

Iconicity theory, when a poem succesfully achieves poetic iconicity: it bridges the

gap between language and the world, between conceptualization and senses

experience (2009a: 14-15); create sensation, emotion and images which exist in

here and now moment (2009b: 189). Therefore, in this analysis the conceptual

metaphorical mapping which will be done is on the system level mapping or

reading the text as a whole metaphorically, developing from the previous one-to-

one level analysis.

Most of the images are related to the characteristics of a horse as the

source domain to project the first train arrived to Amherst, as the target domain,

and when the characterization applies images outside the horse or train domain,

the speaker utilizes simile or explicit comparison as in the first and second lines of

the last stanza:

And neigh like Boanerges (4.1)Then – promter than a Star (4.2)

But on the third line of the third stanza, the speaker directly attaches in horrid –

hooting stanza to the horse’s complaining as if this expression naturally belongs

to the characteristics of the horse because stanza is a term used in poetry.

Different from the third line of the first stanza, and feed itself at Tanks, that is

taken from a machine then enable us to relate it to a train, apparently in horrid –

hooting stanza doesn’t naturally belong to the characteristic of a train either.


43

For many literary critics, human beings or an author creates images and

imagery to make vivid and externalize his thought and feelings to stimulate

further his mental activity and consciousness. Furthermore, M. Freeman notes

Susanne K. Langer view that ‘image refers to the forming of a concept in the mind

as in imagination, and can thus denote mental concepts arising from external

stimuli (through senses) or internal stimuli (through emotion and memory)

(Freeman, 2009: 172). While metaphor in cognitive study, ‘metaphor is not just a

matter of language’ or a figurative language ‘but of thought and reason’ as

suggested by Lakoff and Johnson in their famous book Metaphor We Live by. It

involves mapping of a source, or some of its elements, in a way that it is

consistent to the target domain (Lakoff 1992: 10), which often follows the pattern

TARGET-DOMAIN IS SOURCE-DOMAIN.

In the cognitive theory of metaphor, as the speaker only talking about a

single object, this poem should be derived from one metaphor which relates all of

the images unless it can be regarded as inconsistent. To deal with in horrid –

hooting stanza, I argue that “I Like to see it lap the Miles” is also picturing the

process of this poem production. But by combining the journey of a horse to the

journey of a train to reach its stable, the speaker blends the structure of the poem

in meaning, mental image and form into the process of how the mind work in a

poem production. Step by step of how the mind captures stimuli both from

external and internal, how these stimuli influence its feeling, with the ability of the

mind to conceptualize the world that leads to an imagination from an object to

build an illusion of experience/s in form of an new expression. Therefore the


44

journey of IRON HORSE is not only metaphor for a train but also for the

embodiment of the mind in producing this poem, as i would present below.

In the first and the second lines, the speaker elaborate image of the lapping

and licking process to the rush of the train by activating REACHING IS

CONSUMING metaphor. Therefore, this image builds mental space of the ability

of the mind in quickly captures external stimuli. But when this poem is only

interpreted as a train, there will be no answer why the horse is projected to be

unmoved when the train already moves.

The speaker projects the horse to be unmoved because it also employs

BODY IS CONTAINER to map MIND IS CONTAINER, this points the fact that

in the production process, the mind’s ability to captures external stimuli doesn’t

result in any move yet. And why the train is projected to move even before the

horse does not moves yet because the human brain cannot stop to capture or

receive external stimuli (See figure 3).

Image on third line is different from the previous image. The speaker

projects that in order to move lap and lick are not enough. The action is:

And stop to feed itself at TanksAnd then – prodigious step

And stop to points a momentary pausing, it consciously needs something else.

Feed is different from lap and lick, it needs a longer process of consuming

because it needs a hard food as the object. There is a chewing process before

swallowing. Beside, feed means to give some food to a person or animal that

would likely give more power. For itself, the speaker divides the agent, it, into

two: it and itself in itself, the speaker points an internal process that there is an


45

interaction between the self. While Tanks, it refers to the containers which

contains the objects eat.

Horse space Train space

Iron Horse space

Figure 3

Again, the embodiment image on this line is under MIND IS

CONTAINERS metaphor, the activation of consuming action, momentary

pausing and splitting of the self emerge together tightly emphasizes a moment of

how the internally process is generated. This emphasis on the internal process to

take objects from the mind, the internal process is longer than just to capture the

external stimuli. By combining the need to eat from the horse space to produce a

move and the need to bunker to continue the journey from the train space, the

A lap the miles and lick the valleysup

Lap and lick entails:

A is animate beingREACHING ISCONSUMING

Miles and valleys as theobject to be consume by A

Miles and valleys movesinside quickly

Lap and lick help:A not to moveBODY IS CONTAINER

A is reaching miles and valleysto come to Amherst

Active: Fills the mind quicklyor

Mind’s will to capture anyexternal stimuli

Passive: MIND IS CONTAINERDoesn’t result inproducing any progressyet.


46

speaker transfers the desire to process the mind; each container can hold different

things that are why this poem contains of different things boundless together.

Afterward, all of those processes: lap, lick and feed, enable it to produce some

move (see Figure 4).

The second stanza projects to where the journey of the mind’s movement.

First line:

Around a Pile of Mountains (2.1)

Amherst is surrounded by mountains, hills and valleys (Hitchcock, 1891: 56).

This movement of the horse, that is Around a Pile of Mountains, is projected to

picture the path that has to be passed through by the train to arrive to Amherst.

Since the first train to Amherst came from Palmer via Belchertown, the path that

has been passed through was Holyoke Mountains range. By projecting the path,

the speaker also projects the path of process of the poem production. From the

conceptual metaphor GOOD IS UP for Mountains, this caption brings the mind to

the high position that is in the middle of a lot of mountains. And a Pile means a

large amount or number maps that it is in the middle of a lot of stimuli lies

together inside the mind. The projection of the high position of the horse and train

points the high feeling after having external and internal stimuli.

The high feeling of the mind and a lot of stimuli it has, and then it

continues:

And, supercilious, peer (2.2)In shanties – by the sides of roads – (2.3)


47

Train space

Horse space

Iron horse space

Figure 4

A doesn’t only need taking up

quickly (external stimuli).

A needs a longer process of

capturing what are needed that

already inside the mind

(internal stimuli)

And then:

Continue to process the mind

with the internal and external

stimuli.

The first movement as the

result of combining external

and internal stimuli.

Stop to feed itself (A) at TanksAnd then – prodigious step

Stop to emphasis:

A doesn’t only needlapping and licking

`feed itself entails:

A chooses food

A gets power from food

feed entails:A eats: chewing, tasting, andswallowing.

Tanks entails:The container of the food

And then:Produce next action that is adistance move

Tanks entails:

A to be a machine (train)

Tanks is the container ofthe fuel

A bunkered

A gets power

And then:A able to continue thetravel from New Londonto Amherst


48

The projection on this line is still taking the path schema of the horse to the train.

Besides being Around a Pile of Mountains, it also arrogantly searches in the

shanties; we can see it on the supercilious. Supercilious means ‘having or

showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy’.

Because supercilious raises when one thinks of having something over the other,

to be showed, reflecting to the time of the first train arrival when the poem was

written. A train at that time was considered as a magnificence thing for them.

Besides that it was a new thing, naturally its size, strength and power was over all

other that people had seen before. Moreover, peer/ In shanties in the projection of

a horse gives such effect that the shanties cannot move. This image is emphasized

by the projection of in shanties –by the sides of road – that was taken from a

farming village in Belchertown.

The way the horse finds the trapped shanties, it may represent an object

that easily could become a target for the horse (mind). The image building of its

position and strength leads to an act of imagination in the last line:

And then – a quarry pare (2.4)

This line is different from the previous image. It contains A QUARRY PARE

metaphorical expression that leads to an image of a horse would pass through

between the shanties. The difference lays on the target domain of that

metaphorical expression, previously the target domain is always taken from the

train space: IT LAP THE MILES, LICK THE VALLEYS UP, FEED ITSELF

AT TANKS (the bold words are the source domain and the underlined words,

which are taken from the train space, are the target domain) but A QUARRY


49

PARE takes both source domain, pare, and target domain, quarry, from a one

space that is the horse space to refer to the shanties. Therefore this projection

gives us a hint how the horse alone creates its own image. It able to conceptualize

an object to be something else. The conceptualization of SHANTIES IS ITS

QUARRY maps SHANTIES IS ITS TARGET since literally a quarry means a

chasing or pursuit with a disire to obtain. While pare which literally means to cut

something away the rind, skin, covering, rough surface of anything (Webster).

This point the reaction upon the target, the target is going to be cut. The

embodiment of the whole image in this second stanza then relates the source space

of the horse and characteristic of the train at that time to points the process inside

the mind to have an image and the reaction upon that image (see Figure 5).

On the second stanza, we already knew how it feels toward itself in the

shanties, it feels supercilious that able to conceptualize a quarry for shanties with

SHANTIES AS ITS TARGET. Interestingly we are not given it on the second

stanza, this evokes that this is internally generated. The third stanza fulfills the last

line of the previous stanza to continue the journey of the mind in cutting the

target:

To fit its sides (3.1)And crawl between (3.2)

This line is interesting because if we see it from the train space, though a train

always has its own track to move but it still needs to fit the body. Thus, from the

train space, this image points the avoidance of a harm.


50

Train space

Iron horse space

Figure 5

On the first stanza we have BODY IS CONTAINER to refer to MIND IS

CONTAINER, then automatically activates BODY IS MIND metaphor. Then, the

projection of this line evidently suggests when the horse meets reality, passes

In the middle of a lot ofstimuli

GOOD IS UP:A is in a high feeling

A has strength that is over theobject

The object is easily beinganalyzed

The object is experienced assomething else (imagecreation).

Around a pile of Mountains:

A is in the middle of a lot ofMountains

Mountains help:

A in a high position

Supercilious helps:

A to be arrogant

Peer in shanties helps:A searchingly looks into theshanties (targeting)

By the sides of roads helps:Shanties to be trapped

And then:Shanties is its quarry

A pares the shanties

A is in the middle of HolyokeMountains range

A is magnificent

A is near the farmhouses inBelchertown

Shanties are nothingcompared to A

Shanties are crowded

A would attract people’sattention by passes throughbetween shanties


51

through between shanties, it needs a struggle and carefulness to move forward. To

fit its side pictures the body of the horse need to be fit the shanties, and thus

reflects how the mind need to be fit with the reality and the image since the

previous stanza suggests that the mind already have an image toward the reality it

has been seen. While crawl between, if we reflect this projection from the first

train at that time, gives image of slower move that emphasizes the carefulness.

Having an image and reality at the same time, this carefulness and

struggle in moving forward is needed to stated a reason of the following action:

Complaining all the while (3.3)In a horrid hooting stanza (3.4)

As I have stated at the argument of beginning in this interpretation, the word

‘stanza’ in 3.4 has directly been attached as the action of it eventhough it has no

relation either with the horse or the train when we see the horse as the source

domain and the train as the target domain. This direct attachement of stanza gives

a clue to the target domain of the whole poem. Stanza literally means a group of

lines forming a unit in some types of poem; a verse of poetry, the direct

attachment of complaining all the while and in horrid hooting stanza as the

expression of the horse without utilizes simile is activated from the MIND IS AN

IRON HORSE space that employs COMPLAINING IN HORRID HOOTING

STANZA with complaining as the source domain taken from the iron horse space

and in horrid hooting stanza as the target domain from the mind space.

At the train space, the horn sound of the train as an extraordinary object at

that time when passed through a village, if it is compare to the peaceful situation

of farmhouses on the hill, would produce an uproar sound that distract the natural


52

harmony and this is captured by the author as a complaining of the horse that is

horrid and hooting. Complaining derives from the word ‘complaint’ which

literally means an expression of dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction expression is

done in its way along the shanties that is the target image for the horse. This

image embodies the process of how a poem is created, that this expression –

complaining – is come out when it is along – all the while - the reality – the

shanties – and the image – shanties that is conceptualized as a quarry -. While the

loud and horrifying sound on the train space would draw people’s attention

because the train at that time was an extraordinary thing.

Moreover, the image on these lines also projects and performs an idea

believed by Emily Dickinson: words are powerful and have to be taken carefully.

On her poem A Word dropped reflects the idea that ‘written words remain long

after their writer has died may still exert power over their reader’ (Freeman, 2009:

184). In other words, careless use of language can be harmful for their reader. The

carefulness thought in expressing dissatisfaction to the reality due to its difference

with image that the mind has was revealed through a powerful poem that would

draw reader’s attention is projected through the image building on these lines.

If we look closely to the number of this stanza, it has different from the

other three stanza. This stanza is iconically displayed the horrid – hooting stanza.

This draws us back to the poet space who able to create this stanza in such a way.

The poet preforms horrid – hooting stanza in this stanza. An adaptation for this

stanza to be quantrin that will match to the other stanza, as in Martha Bianchi


53

Dickinson Edition, will lose the chance to relate IRON HORSE to the poet world

as the one who perform her words on the page.

The next line:

Then chase itself down Hill (3.4)

Unlike the other two of the last line at the previous stanza, the speaker doesn’t

attach and before then on this line. This arouses a sequence of events rather than

cause and effect events as previously. And since it is a sequence of events,

therefore this blurs the shanties as its main target but points the one that is being

pursuit is itself. While downhill, at the train space, refers to the train station at

Amherst that is located at the downhill, and the gliding of the train to reach the

station would build a mental image of an anticlimactic movement of the journey

to end it or to reach its own stable on the last stanza.

The image on the last stanza is like the other stanzas, this stanza is the

fulfillment of the last line of the preceding stanza, Then chase itself downhill

(3.5). The word chase literally means to run after somebody/something in order to

catch them. If we back to the last line of second stanza, And then a quarry pare, it

is also an image about running after a target in order to catch it. And what is being

projected on the following stanza after that image is the it is inside or in the

middle of its target. The word between in to fit its sides/ And crawl between (3.1,

3.2) shows us the location of it on that scene. Again, an image about running after

a target in order to catch it is displayed on 3.5 and interestingly the target is itself.

Thus the running shows process of going deeper to the mind and find out how the


54

mind works to become a single unity when it is finally been caught. Thus, how the

following image projected is:

And neigh like Boanerges (4.1)

This line is utilizing simile instead of metaphor, a structure that doesn’t

appear at all previously. In metaphor, the source domain and the target domain are

directly attached which make the image merges together and becomes a single

entity, while in simile the source and the target domain have been kept apart by

the preposition that keeps the two domains difference entities. Though this

structure seems to be insignificant since the source domain is Boanerges, a thing

which has no relation either to a horse or to a train, we could easily say that this

simile structure is used to emphasizing this distance between the source and target

domains without any consideration of what motivation might be intended from

this structure. But when we see it deeper from the mind space, the distance that is

build by the speaker is not without purpose, but it shows that the unity between

the self is reached.

By utilizing the simile structure, it takes a position and finally realizes who

itself is. It can be seen from the way the speaker keeps the self and the thing

outside the self in two difference things, the other thing outside the self is

regarded as something alike only which has some same quality/ies but is not

regarded as part of the self anymore. It from the horse space in this stanza

produces its natural characteristic sound: neigh, not importing [+human] term as

in complaining (3.3) anymore. In other words the it finally realizes who itself is.

According to Webster’s Twentieth Century Unabridged Dictionary, the word


55

Boanerges derives from Hebrew words benõi and regesh which is interpreted in

Greek as “son of thunder”. The first entry from that dictionary defines Boanerges

as “sons of thunder: an appellation given by Jesus to two of his disciples, James

and John: Mark iii. 17”, the second entry defines it as “[construed in sing.] a

loudmouthed, declamatory preacher or speaker” (Webster’s, 1972: 201).

Boanerges, son of thunder, as a nickname given to James and John by Jesus

according to Hapercollins Bible Dictionary refers to their tempestuous disposition

or manner of speech (Achtemeier, 1996: 149). Moreover, though the definitions of

Boanerges as a loud mouthed and declamatory preacher or speaker is not clear

enough but those two definitions bring a clue that Boanerges has a relation to a

strong voice.

Interestingly it is only in an epistle of James, one of the Boanerges,

explains the power of voice specifically in one chapter as something so powerful

that could bring damage or life. In King James Version Holly Bible James 3: 3

writes “Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we

turn about their whole body” (2001: 683). James wrote this analogy in relation to

how words should be controlled on whole of this chapter due to its power. In

another Bible version this chapter entitled Taming the Tongue which means

mastering the tongue.

Then – promter than a Star (4.2)

Structurally this line employs similar pattern to the preceding line that

utilizing simile and matchs the story that has been told. The image of a star is built

to show a certain time that can be predicted. From the train space, it underlies a


56

concept STAR TIME AS TRAIN TIME. This underlying concept points is used

because a star will be at a certain place on a certain time and refers to the certainty

about the train time. From the mind space, this certainty also points the certainty

toward the journey of the mind or a certainty of the cycle of the mind that the poet

understands. Therefore, mind is promter than a star means a mind with this

predicted cycle guides their way to finally reach some destination that is:

Stop – docile and omnipotent (4.3)At its own stable door – (4.4)

The word Stop initializes the end of the journey, and creates a mediation

moment. There is an image building of the horse reaches stable door maps that the

train reaches its destination, which is its station, and stands still when it finally

ends up the journey. An attachment of an adjective own, from the train space,

specifies the place to be a privately belonging that it is only a train could enter that

place. When we look it from the mind space, the destination of the journey is

reached to be at this privately belonging place with the feeling of being docile,

teachable or easily being instructed, and omnipotent, having unlimited power. The

double possession determiners its and own emphasize this personal possession

only, not mine nor your but its.

Docile and omnipotent are two different things. They are opposite to each

other because one is being controlled and the other is full of control but

interestingly they are uncommonly connected with conjunction and. Generally,

those two different adjectives are used to point different things so that the

conjunction would be but and create different spaces, for example: She is a docile

wife, but an omnipotent boss. Means, the docile would point that ‘she is docile


57

wife to her husband’ and the omnipotent would point that ‘she is an omnipotent

boss to her employees. However, the conjunction and in this poem points only to

a single space which is created here. In other words, the conjunction and evokes

those two contradiction characters which turn to be a mutual relationship. Here,

all of the experiences that have happened from the beginning to the moment are

being reflected and the understanding of the self is completely achieved.

As a whole this stanza is different from the other three stanzas in some

respects. First is the structure, the structure of the comparison is in simile, not

metaphor. Second are the dictions, the speaker employs various kind of

vocabularies which is not literally taken from the horse, train nor mind space.

Third, there is a double possession determiner. If we go back to the speaker’s

space, tt the very beginning of the poem the speaker states I like to see it… only

once. So that, all of the processes she reveals from the beginning to the end has

been enjoyed with no exception and also she already knew how she feels about it

since like would only occur only if one has the experience. One event to another

event flows and tightly links with a chain until the last stanza. Apparently, all of

these differences make this stanza seems to be treated as the most ‘special’ one.

Why does this stanza seem to be the most special one? From the train

space, when the first train had reached Amherst, there was a big celebration to

welcome its arrival. Austin, Emily Dickinson’s brother, pictured that big

celebration as a gala occasion with speechmaking and festivities with nobody

cared that the day was hot and dusty (Fisher, 1966: 104). From that picture we can

see the day when the first train arrived was considered as a special moment for the


58

people in Amherst. While in this poem, the speaker prefers to expose how it feels

when it reaches its destination rather than picturing about how the crowds

welcomed the train. In other words, the gala occasion, in celebrating the

achievement of it when finally accomplished its journey, is seen from the

personally achievement side only. There is no need of a crowded situation to

celebrate that other people could feel the achievement, but the celebration is

iconically created in its structure, dictions, and double possession determiner. The

difference of this stanza among the others stanza makes the emphasis of the

important of the unified self at the end of the journey is absolutely felt more

special

A. Emily Dickinson and “I Like to see it lap the Miles”

There are several ‘in-visible’ ideas about a mind expresses in this poem

that can be revealed through its image building, metaphor, and metaphorical

expressions. The word in-visible here means “lying latent, hidden as another

dimensionality” (Freeman, 2009:176). Those ideas lay within the combination

image building of a horse and the train at the time that were built from the

underlying concept of MIND IS IRON HORSE metaphor. In this analysis, I argue

that by this poem, Emily Dickinson as the poet implicitly reflecting how she

enjoyed the journey mind she conducted.

From the analysis on the interpretation of the poem, the main in-visible

idea of this poem is about the mind that is enjoyed by the speaker. All of its

actions and the characteristic which are given by speaker metaphorically and


59

iconically reflect the poet’s mind. The mind that she enjoyed, ‘I like to see it...’,

and maintained.

Emily Dickinson is known as one of the greatest poets. Though she

decided to withdraw her life from the outside world, indeed she has an active

mind to consume the world and produce more than a thousand poems. We can see

that her mind is so active that she proclaimed it in one of her poem: “they shut me

up in Prose/as when a little Girl/they put me in the Closet/because they like me

‘still’-/still! Could themselves have peeped/ and seen my Brain – go around – .”

The idea of her active mind in consuming the world can be seen in the first and

the second lines ‘I like to see it lap the Miles/ And lick the Valleys up’. Moreover,

Emily Dickinson also has the consiousness or the will to make use of it, ‘And stop

to feed itself at Tanks’, to activate sources in mind consciously to start the mind’s

journey to explore more that is ‘prodigious step’.

Before she made a journey she has ‘Miles, Valleys’ inside her mind and

then goes ‘Around a Pile of Mountains’. These elements of natural object that had

been involved in this mind’s journey are often used by the author. As in one of her

first letters sent to T.W. Higginson, one of her famous correspondence who

worked as a poetry editor of Atlantic Monthly, Emily Dickinson shows she

concerned to the natural objects than to human beings:

You ask of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown and dog large asmy self, that my father bought me. They are better than beings becausethey know, but do not tell; and the noise in the pool at noon excels mypiano (Todd, 2003:254)

Object which do not tell a word in for Emily Dickinson due to its infinity that it

can be explored more and more. Those object are companions for her to draw


60

analogies between objects that intrigued her knowledge about it. Beside, it also

apparent in any other of her poems how she also aware of natural phenomenon as

in prompter than a Star in this poem. She selects an instant caption in this poem

done by the horse, ‘And than a quarry pare’, performs her power of imagination to

select a specific object and embody the confrontation of her knowledge and

realities of the natural object into a stanza of unexpected caption as she performed

it in ‘to fit its sides and crawl between/Complaining all the while/ In a horrid –

hooting Stanza’. This performance was the result of experiencing a train privately

and instantly as stated by her brother, Austin:

Emily’s growing reluctance to be with crowds kept her from attending thecelebration... Instead she watched the activities from the shelter ofProfessor Tyler’s wood and marveled at the way the locomotive could lapthe miles and lick the valley up. When she finally saw the train move off,she ran home for fear of seeing someone and having to make conversation.(fisher, 1966:104)

Emily Dickinson’s reluctant motivation to be with crowds as stated by her

brother can be seen on last stanza of the poem. First, the importance of the unified

self is iconically displayed by the special from structure which is employing

simile instead of metaphor to distant the self from the outside self. With the last

stanza performs the specialty of the unified be the master as well as tied self has

been emphasized on ‘docile and omnipotent’, ‘To be the master as well as the

scholar; (Lied, 2008:106) toward what she has chosen. As stated by Lied that ‘she

sets rules for imagination while being ruled by regulation she has established for

herself’ (Lied, 2008:106). Being the person like this, she doesn’t need the

exposure from the external world because reaching mutual relationship with the

self is more important. This could be the reason why she did not force herself to


61

be with the society because she has standart to follow and she did not aim to

publish her unique poems that violated the tradition of established poetry at that

time.

The way she opens this poem, ‘I like to see it...’, is inviting someone to

join her, open the space for her imaginary reader to present and see her felt

experience. This gives the evidence that even though she has a lack of interest to

publish her poems and withdraw herself from public but she could imagine that

someone would find thousand of her original manuscripts which she collected into

booklets and sewed them together with string. Finally, the opening of this poem, I

like to see it, gives the clue to organization of the whole poem. That is, the reader

should see this poem specialty that is by employing mainly our sight.


62

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

Metaphor IRON HORSE is well known as the central metaphor of Emily

Dickinson’s “I Like to see it lap the Miles”. From the above analysis, this poem

consists of some image schemas like CONTAINER, JOURNEY, and CYCLE.

These image schemas become basic of underlying concept of the metaphorical

expressions are also the same pattern the common thought system. One-to-one

level mapping on the explication showed that images of a horse moving fast,

eating at tanks, making a huge step, producing such a loud noise and ending up

the journey at its own stable are built from the train space. This makes metaphor

IRON HORSE is associated with the train. What is left behind from the analysis

IRON HORSE IS TRAIN is the significance of the appearence of the speaker in

the first stanza, the different number of lines for stanza 3 and the different

comparison strategy for stanza 4.

The application of cognitive approach to the interpretation of this poem

helps in making use of all metaphor and image building (form and imagery) of the

poem as a whole integration. The result from the interpretation analysis is that

there is interrelation between conceptualization and image building (imagery and

form), between the text world and the phenomenological world of the author

(world as she experienced it). That interrelation is icon of felt life, bring to the

realities what is said on its appearence on the page. Emily Dickinson successfully


63

built the poem for picturing the train she was excited about as well as picturing

her own experience in writing inside it.

Harold Bloom once said that Emily Dickinson having “..the most authentic

cognitive skills of all poet writing in English in nineteenth and twenty century”. It

is not the cognitive process in conceptualizing her world which is pictured in the

poem makes her an authentic poet, but the the way she exploitated those process

in the poem so that it can be phenomenally real as we read it or be the poet

medium in showing her experience. No wonder, that Emily Dickinson ever

strongly complained when the editor made changes to the poem before she finally

decided no to publish them at all. It can be seen in the other version of this poem,

that the editorial change made to stanza 3 in Martha Bianchi version for instance

would lost the poem strategy in creating a semblance of felt life. In this case, the

poem as the body of the poet telling/experience, as Emily Dickinson called poem

as her own ‘Mind’ (Lied, 2008: 29).


64

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrams, M.H. The Mirror and The Lamp. London: Oxford University Press, 1953

Achtemeier, Paul J. Hapercollins Bible Dictionary. San Francisco: Hapercollinspublisher, 1996.

Bloom, Harold. Poets and Poems. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publisher, 2005

Cienki, Alan. “Image Schemas and Gesture” in From Perception to Meaning:Image Schemas in Cognitive Linguistics. New York: Mouten de Gruyter,2005, pp. 421 – 441.

Dirven, Rene´ and Francisco Jose´ Ruiz de Mendoza Iba´n˜ez. “Looking Back at30 Years of Cognitive Linguistics” in Cognitive Linguistics in Action: FromTheory to Application and Back. Elzbieta Tabakowska, Michał Choinski andŁukasz Wiraszka. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2010, pp. 13 – 70.

Evans, Vyvyan and Melanie Green. Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction.Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.

Fisher, Aillen and Oliver Rabe. We Dickinson: the life of Emily Dickinson as seenthrough the eyes of her brother Austin. New York: McClehand and StewardLtd, 1966.

Franklin, R.W. (ed.). The Poems of Emily Dickinson Reading Edition. Cambridge:Harvard University Press. 1999

_____ The Poems of Emily Dickinson Volume 3. Cambridge: Belknap Press ofHarvard University. 1998

Frederick, Juliana T. English Poetry. Jakarta: DEPDIKBUD, 1988.

Freeman, Margaret H. “Cognitive Linguistics Approaches to Literary Studies:States of the Art in Cognitive Poetics” in The Oxford Handbooks of CognitiveLinguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007a, pp. 1175 – 1202.

______ “Cognitive Mapping in Literary Analysis” in Style Vol.36 No.3, 2002, pp.466-83.

______“Minding: Feeling, Form, and Meaning in the Creation of PoeticIconicity” in Cognitive Poetics: Goals, Gains and Gaps. Geert Brone andJeroen Vandaele. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2009a, pp.169-235

______“Making Sense of the (Non) Sense: Why Literature Counts”.NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, elzbieta chrzanowska-kluczewska, grzegorz


65

szpila, eds, cambridge scholar publishing, 2009b.<http://ssrn.com/abstract=1400234>(2 September 2009)

_______ “Poetic Iconicity” in Cognition in Language: Volume in Honor ofProfessor Elzbieta Tabakowska. Wladyslaw Chlopicki, Andrzej Pawelec andAgnieszka Pokojska. eds. Kraków: Tertium, 2007b, pp. 472-501

_______ “Poetry and The Scope of Metaphor: Toward a Cognitive Theory ofLiterature” in Metaphor and Metonymy at the Crossroads: A CognitivePerspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2000, pp. 253 – 81.

_______ “The Fall of the Wall Between Literary Studies and Linguistics:Cognitive Poetics” in Cognitive Linguistics: Current Applications and FuturePerspectives. Gitte Kristiansen, Michel Achard, René Dirven, and FranciscoRuiz de Mendoza. eds. Berlin: Mouton Gruyter, 2006, pp. 403-428

Geeraerts, Dirk and Hubert Cuyckens. ‘Introducing Cognitive Linguistics’ in TheOxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, Inc, 2007, pp. 3-21.

Gavins, Joanna and Gerarf Steen. Cognitive Poectics in Practice. New York:Routledge, 2003.

Guth, Hans P. The Literary Heritage. Massachusetts : D.C. Health & Company,1981.

Hitchcock, Frederick H. The Handbook of Amherst, Massachusetts. Boston: ,1891<http://ia311203.us.archive.org/3/items/handbookofamhers00hitcrich/handbookofamhers00hitcrich.pdf>(11 November 2009)

Johnson, T.H. (ed.). The Poem of Emily Dickinson: including variant readingscritically compared with all known manuscripts.Cambridge: HarvardUnversity Press. 1998

Kövecses, Zoltan. Metaphor: a Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 2002.

Lakoff, George. “Contemporary Theory of Metaphor” in Metaphor and Thought(2nd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.<http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~israel/lakoff-ConTheorMetaphor.pdf>(23 July 2009)

______ Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What CategoriesReveal about the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1980.


66

Lakoff, George and Mark Turner. More Than Cool Reason: A Field Guideto Poetic Metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

Lied, Justina I.F. Emily Dickinson in Her Private Bubble: Poems, Letters andCondition of Presence. Dissertation. 2008.

Martin, Wendy. The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. 2002

Merriam – Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature. Massachusetts: Merriam –Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature, 1995.

Parini, Jay. An Invitation to Poetry. Englewood Cliff: Prentice Hall, Inc.,1987.

Pickard, John B. Emily Dickinson : An Introduction and Interpretation. NewYork: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1967.

Preminger, Alex and Brogan. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry andPoetics. New Jersey: Princeton University Press,1993.

Reeves, James. The Poet’s World: An Anthology of English Poetry. 1957.

Shogimen, Takashi. Context and Metaphor: A New Approach to the History ofIdeas. Toronto: University of Otago, 2009.

Thelen, Ellen. “The Dynamics in the Development of an Embodied Cognition”in Mind in Motion. Ed. R. Port and T. van Gelder. Cambridge, MA: MITPress, 2001.

Tsur, Reuven. Aspects of Cognitive Poetics, 2003.<http://cogprints.org/3239/>(10 October 2009)

Vandaele, Jeroen and Geert Brône. ‘Cognitive Poetics: A Critical Introduction’ inCognitve Poetics: Goals, Gains and Gaps. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2009, pp.1-29.

Webster New Twentieth Dictionary Unabridge. 2nd ed. New York: Simon andSchuster, 1972.

Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of English Language. New York:Portland House, 1989.

William, Joana. “Expression and Communication as Basic Linguistic Functions”.Intercultural Communication Studies III. New York: Stony Brook, 1993,pp.91-100.

<http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/essays/authors/higginson/twh_dickinson2.html>

(1 March 2011)


PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT ...

Documents

Transcript of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT ...