The Conservatory of Language

Abstract

Close reading and syntactical analysis are used as the foundation of a method that, through the language of music, seeks to describe a means by which Stein's and Loy's poetry creates meaning. Passages are broken down into parts that function in much the same way as the musical elements rhythm, melody, and harmony. While the sound of the poetry is discussed to some degree, the primary focus of the thesis is to describe the ways in which components of the poetic language interact to create possibilities of meaning in which the effect is dependent upon musical relationship.