A Cognitive Poetic Analysis of Yahya Kemal’s ‘Silent Ship’

Abstract

This study is a cognitive stylistic/poetic analysis of one of Turkish literature’s best-known poems ‘Sessiz Gemi’ (Silent Ship) by Yahya Kemal Beyatlı. More specifically, based on the premises of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) and Conceptual Blending Theory (Fauconnier & Turner, 1998, 2002), the study aims to identify the conceptual devices and strategies used in the construction and interpretation of the poem. The analysis reveals that the poem is rich in conceptual projections and symbols, which make the whole poem an allegory for the concept of ‘death’. Within the frame of JOURNEY, a blend is constructed between the sea voyage and the abstract concept of death, which entails several conceptualizations that match with the metaphors CHANGE OF STATE IS CHANGE OF LOCATION, DEATH IS GOING TO A FINAL DESTINATION and DEATH IS REST proposed by Lakoff and Turner (1989). The study reveals that a cognitive poetic approach to literary texts is significant in disclosing the conceptual processes the human mind undergoes to sort out the composition of the text by the writer and decomposition by the readers.