This paper shows the potential of Contextual Prosodic Theory, developed by Bill Louw, to contribute to better interpretation and appreciation of poetic texts. The analysis focuses on the poem by Iosif Brodsky « Онзнал, чтоэтабольвплече.. .» (‘ He knew that this pain in the shoulder… ’). The consistency of the author’s usage deviating from the corpus norm in the case of several modal expressions shows that the persona suffers from self-deception, while deep down he in fact does anticipate death, which comes at the end of the poem. We also analyze the corpus-derived subtext to explain the mechanism of personification.
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