Captain Scott's Diary 1912 Flashcards
Lexis
Uses relatively simple lexis with little complex latinate lexis, instead selects concrete old English and french derived lexis to convey physical sensations
“The”
The anaphoric definite article creates cohesion
“whine”, “crunch”, “ring”
Onomateapia against the “eternal silence”- makes the experience vivid and immediate
“hiss” , “steam”
Alliterative devices employed to create a ‘soundscape”- sibilance echo the sound of a boiling stove (he is remembering his domestic setting)
“gentle flutter..shelter”
Disyllabics and labial dental sounds it conveys the sounds of a flapping canvas
Context
Produced in an extraordinary circumstance as he was close to his own death
Facing a challenge against the hostile Antarctic climate
Form
Written text
Adopts a “prose poem” dividing each observation into a separate line
Writes about the Antarctic wilderness in the form of a poetic travelogue
“blizzard”, “surface crust”, “powdered snow”
employs a precise range of semantic fields related to Antarctic weather conditions
“pale yellow wraiths”
ghost-like and supernatural
Purpose
was at first writing for publication to a wide general audience
“heralding the coming storm”
complex subordinating clause- allows detail to be added economically to develop his impressions
“The whine of a dog and the neigh of our steeds”
Sentences are often connected with ‘and’
“steeds”, “chides”, “wraiths”
Scott deliberately uses archaic poetic terms to create poetic register
How is the poetic register created?
through form and grammatical choices
“great white desert”
employs poetic language/ device to capture weather
