Written by Roger McGough, “At Lunch Time – A story of Love” is a poem that encourages its addressees to seize the moment and to enjoy life while they can. This ethical value, according to Russian Formalist, is not more important as its aesthetical value of the poem. Unlike the classical approaches to literary criticism that focus both on the aesthetical and ethical dimensions of a literary text, Formalists consider that a literary work is recognized through its form rather than its meaning. Accordingly, the literary devices of a text are indispensible to bring the meaning to the surface and to shed light on the literariness of a text. Following a Formalist stance, this essay will tackle some major artistic devices, which are irony and graphological deviation, and how they defamiliarize a literary text.
The striking feature about this poem is the heavily presence of situational irony. This can be seen, for instance, in the speaker’s behavior. He seizes the opportunity of making love to a completely stranger woman in a bus. Ironically, the woman’s refusal of the speaker’s repulsiveness is simply because “it was too early in the morning and too soon after breakfast”. But after that “she joined the exercise”. Situational irony does not only draw readers’ attention to the humorist representation of love making, but also draws his attention to the artfulness of the poem making it unfamiliar from texts such as a newspaper article. This literary device also reflects a message transmitted by the poet in the sense that subverting social norms and values can be a healthy exercise. In a public sphere, people are constrained to behave according to certain ethics and rules. However, in this poem, there is a deviation from those rules. Irony, consequently, does not only mirror the literariness of the poem, but also reproduce a context and a message which is mainly seizing the moment. Roman Jackobson examines the relationship between form and content stating that “ if a work of art draws attention to its own form, then form becomes part of its content: its form is part of what it communicates” (qtd. Bertens 35).
Another literary device used in this poem and marks its literariness is graphological deviation. The arrangement of words such as “ busstpped, younglady, nuclearage, tookoff, buspeople, therewere, shockedandsurprised, amused-andannoyed, thatnight, alittle…”, is visually unfamiliar. Conventionally, words should be written by inserting a space between each one. The poet in this poem subverts linguistic norms and creates unfamiliar words graphologically drawing readers’ attention to the non canonical use of language. This particular form might reflect the passengers’ state in the bus who might be pressed together making love to one another. Pressing words together by the poet can also reflect the pressure imposed by social norms on the individual. As explained above by Jackobson, the form can reflect a meaning. Hence graphological deviation does not only defamiliarize a literary text, but also serve to communicate a meaning.
To conclude, both situational irony and graphological deviation are tools used to defamiliarize a literary text and to bring to the surface its meaning. Meaning, therefore, is not a mere interpretation of readers’ reflections upon the poem. It rather resides in the form of a literary text; a form built though the different devices presented in the poem or any literary text. Defamiliarization also serves to present the poetic license enjoyed by the poet, a license that allows him to manipulate and deviate from linguistic norms and rules. This deviation is not a random act but it rather mirrors a meaning.