Pleosemy in Poetry

Abstract

This article distinguishes between the “abundance of meaning” (Mehrdeutigkeit) in poetic discourse and the “multitude of meaning” (Vieldeutigkeit) in everyday discourse, both of which are covered by the English term “ambiguity”. The Vieldeutigkeit of everyday discourse is illustrated with an example adduced by Paul de Man from an American TV series, and the Mehrdeutigkeit of poetic discourse is exemplified by Rilke’s famous epitaph. Based on the example of this short poem, which begins with an apostrophe to the rose, the study demonstrates that poetic discourse does not reduce several meanings to a single meaning; rather, the meanings coexist side by side without excluding each other. The highest condensation of meaning in Rilke’s poem occurs in the word Lust, which may be read in three ways: as referring to the rose, to the speaker (Rilke himself), or to the deceased in his grave. The study traces Rilke’s poem in its segueing from one meaning to another and concludes by suggesting a name for poetic ambiguity. As a counterpart to Vieldeutigkeit, which literally corresponds to the Greek word polysemy, an analogous coinage for Mehrdeutigkeit might be pleosemy, with pleo(n)- denoting the excessive and abundant poetic “more”.