In the Commedia of Dante, a poem 14,233 lines in length, some 7,500 words occur only once. These are the hapax. Fewer than 2% of these constitute a minute but distinct subset—the hapax for which there are one or more words in the poem whose spelling is identical but whose meaning is different. These are what I call same-spelling hapax. I identify four categories: part-of-speech, homograph, locus, and name. Analysis of the same-spelling hapax illuminates a poetic strategy continuously in use throughout the poem. This is to use the one-word overlap of Rhyme and line number. Not only is it highly probable that a same-spelling hapax will be a rhyme-word, but it is also probable that it will occupy a rhyme-word’s most significant position—the one place—the single word—where the two intertwined formal entities that shape each canto coincide. Every three lines, their tension-resolving this-word-only union intensifies the reader’s attention and understanding alike.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:GEORGIA/oai:digitalarchive.gsu.edu:english_theses-1083 |
| Date | 27 April 2010 |
| Creators | Soules, Terrill Shepard |
| Publisher | Digital Archive @ GSU |
| Source Sets | Georgia State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | English Theses |
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