Stylo-Semantic Appreciation of Wole Soyinka’s Poem ‘Dawn’
Oluwole Akinbode

Abstract
Various linguistic theories have affirmed the importance of linguistics to literature. The application of such theories in any linguistic interpretation of a literary text has been proved to be a more objective critical response to the text. It has also revealed the lapses and subjective nature of impressionistic and expressionistic criticism. This follows from Prague’s Linguistic Criticism, which views literature as a special class of language, which rests on the assumption that there is a fundamental opposition between literary (or poetic) language and ordinary day-to-day language. This study gives the semantic appreciation of Soyinka’s poem ‘Dawn’. Thus, it uncovers the formal underpinning which leads the readers of the poem to the meaning embedded in the poem.

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