patterns, repetition, rhyme and other sound patterns. Besides these, Watson observes, there is a noticeable scarcity of many elements typical of prose. All these indicators appearing in the poetic text result in what linguists refer to as ‘defamiliarisation’ of the language, a concept first given expression by Victor Shklovsky of the Russian formalist school.5 By the defamiliarisation of the language is meant the device of ‘making it strange and the device of impeded form which augments the difficulty
Page 2