Semiotic Analysis of Joyce Kilmer’s Poems

Abstract

This study which is a semiotic analysis of the poems of Joyce Kilmer had discovered through the use of Barth’s Denotation-Connotation Theory the use of both literal and non-literal meanings of some important recurring words in Kilmer’s poems. The recurring words serving as leitmotifs were therefore subjected to semiotic analysis and interpretation.  The study did explore, therefore, the signs (visual images in the poems) by giving the signifier and the signified of some word/s as signs. With the Denotation-Connotation of the word, it even led the researcher to a new level of signified – something higher in meaning than the two, connotative still.  Moreover, the use of semiotic analysis of the poems even became a tool to= experience side benefits of the study – that is, giving a researcher a cue that Joyce Kilmer's poems revolved around nature, God as thematic content with emotion overflowing in the literary opuses. Thus, with the side benefits, the researcher was even led further to realize that the poet (Joyce Kilmer) belonged to the Romantic Era of the literary movement.