AN ANALYSIS OF SYMBOLIC SIGNS IN JOHN MILTON’S POEMS :

SEMIOTIC APPROACH

By:

Fahria Asuad

O6211811044

ENGLISH LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM

FACULTY OF CULTURAL SCIENCE

KHAIRUN UNIVERSITY

TERNATE

2021
 TABLE OF CONTENT

COVER .......................................................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENT ..............................................................................
CAPTER I INTRODUCTION ...................................................................

1.1 Background ...............................................................................

1.2 Statement of the Problem .........................................................
1.3 Scope of the Problem ................................................................
1.4 Objectives of the Research .......................................................
1.5 Significance of the Research ....................................................
1.6 Review of Related Literature ...................................................
1.6.1 Semiotic ..........................................................................
1.6.2 Michael Riffaterre’s Semiotic Theory ............................
1.6.3 Displacing Meaning ........................................................
1.6.4 Distorting Meaning .........................................................
1.7 Ferdinand de Saussure’s Semiotic Theory ................................
1.8 Definition of Symbol ................................................................
1.8.1 Conventional symbol (Cultural or Universal) ................
1.8.2 Personal symbol (Contextual or Private) ........................
1.9 Previous Research .....................................................................
1.10 Method of Research ...............................................................
1.10.1 Research Design .....................................................
1.10.2 Method of Collecting Data ....................................
1.10.3 Method of Analyzing Data ....................................
REFERENCES
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Communication in human being is not always about literal meaning and text.
Beside words, people can communicate and deliver their intention through gesture
and mostly symbol. “Symbol is an object, event, etc. that represents a more
general quality of situation” (Hornby, 2015). In another words, symbol is
something that can represent a broader meaning than it literally looks like.

Symbol can be found in artworks such as literature. Literary works carries

message from the author to the reader. Even in the past, literary works such as
prose are used as a device to criticize the social environment and reflect the social
life in that time. Because of that, the authors of literary works symbolize the real
meaning in their prose in order to hide it and make the prose looks more artistic.
Symbol in prose also help the author to describe the character in the prose easier.
For example, some symbols in Young Goodman Brown story.

“…...And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty
head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap
while she called to Goodman Brown.” (Hawthorne, 1835)
While the researcher is reading Young Goodman Brown story, the researcher
finds that faith’s pink ribbon is mentioned several times. Because of that, the
researcher tries to analyze this repetition then find the purpose of the repetition is
to symbolize something. According to (Cirlot, 2001) pink color is the symbol of
purity 2 and feminist. In another words, Faith’s pink ribbon is the symbol of
innocence and purity. Implicitly, this pink ribbon symbolizes and describes Faith
as a pure and innocence character in the story.

“……But the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable
was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously
wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living
serpent.” (Hawthorne, 1835)
 In the quotation above, the description of old man’s staff is very specific
meanwhile the author only describes the old man briefly. As the description of the
staff in quotation above, the old man’s staff looks like a snake twist itself. The
snake in this story is a symbol. According to (Cirlot, 2001) “snake is a symbol of
the principle of evil inherent in all worldly things.” In another words, it is the
symbol of evil. Then if the reader knows the meaning of the snake symbol in the
story, the reader could simply know that the old man in the story is the evil
character or the antagonist.

“He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the
forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and
closed immediately behind.…….” (Hawthorne, 1835)
The main plot and the climax in the story take place in a forest. Start from the
exposition to the climax, the setting is in a forest. Therefore, forest has an
important role in this story. This setting has a special meaning and of course it is a
symbol for something. According to (Cirlot, 2001) “The forest is frequently
associated with fear, menace, and evil”. This meaning is connected to the story
because the main character Young Goodman Brown who is good and faithful
changes into a very different 3 person after he went back from the story. In the
end of the story those darkness and fear remain in his heart.

Just like prose, poem also a device that reflects the social life and its
developments through the time. The main differences between them are the
metrical structure and length. Mostly, poem is shorter than prose. Because of that
in the process of writing the poems, the poet use symbols to give a detail
description and a special impression in his poems. For example, the word “light”
in A Light Exist in Spring by Emily Dickinson.

A light exists in Spring

Not present on the year
At any other period
When March is scarcely here
A Light Exists in Spring by Emily Dickinson
 The word “light” in the poem above is the symbol hope and happiness
because every single life in earth is so much depends on light. Human can’t do
their activity without light and plants can’t photosynthesize if there is no light.
Just like light, hope and happiness are something that people need to continue
their life. This phenomena make the researcher interested to this topic and write a
thesis regarding to symbols. The researcher chooses some poems from John
Milton as the data source in this research.

John Milton is an English poet that was very famous in his era. He was born
in December 9th 1608 and died in November 8th 1674. He had experienced many
bad incidents in his. He lost his eyesight in February 1652. Just three months after
he lost 4 his eyesight, his wife named Mary died three days after giving birth to
his fourth child Deborah. Not long after his wife death his one-year old son named
John died as well. After that, he married his second wife Katherine Woodcock.
Fifteen months later his second wife also died after giving birth to the couple’s
only child, soon after her mother death, the baby died. Those incident didn’t stop
Milton to write poems. There are some of Milton’s poems that were very famous
before and after he lost his eyesight and his wives death, they are: “On His
Blindness”, “On his Deceased Wife”, and “On His Being Arrived to the Age of
Twenty-three”.

Regarding to symbols, there are some research that had been done. The first is
“Semiotics in Haroun Hashem Rashid Lyrics Relying on the Theory of Pierce” by
(Mohammadi, Pashaki, Reza, Shahri, & Seddighi, 2016). The result of research
showed that the motif “Al-Awda” was an implicit sign to understand the poet and
the poet used signs such as symbols, hyperbolism, synonyms and allusions in his
works. The second is “Semiotic Hidden Codes in the Short Story “A Rose for
Emily” by William Faulkner” by (Satria, 2018). The result showed there are three
codes found in the story, they are action code, hermeneutic code and cultural
code. Based on the summary of their research, it can be seen that the researcher
will conduct a different research with the previous. In this research, the researcher
used John Milton’s poems that were titled “On His Blindness”, “On his Deceased
Wife”, and “On His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-three” as the data
source.

There are some reasons and factors that make the researcher choose this topic
and data source. First is the researcher want to know more about symbols in
poem. Symbols in poems represent something and sometimes it has special
meaning. The second is the researcher want to know the deep meaning of John
Milton’s poems. Then the reason for choosing John Milton’s poem is because he
was an amazing poet. Even though he was blind, he keep wrote his poem and his
masterpiece was written in his blindness. John Milton had written some poems
and they are: Paradise lost, On his blindness, On his deceased wife, Song on May
morning, and On his being arrived to the age of twenty-three. Paradise lost is a
poem that tells about human that fall from heaven because of Satan. On His
Blindness is a poem that describe how was John Milton’s feeling when he was
blind in the middle of his career. On His Deceased Wife is a poem that tells about
how was John Milton’s feeling when his second wife died in childbirth after a
very short marriage. Song on May morning is a poem that celebrates the youth,
innocence, and blessing of the new life that are generally associated with the
coming of spring. On his being arrived to the age of twenty-three is a poem that
reflects John Milton’s feeling when he was twenty years old but he felt so old.

In order to reduce repetitions in the analysis of this research, the researcher

limits the data sources and only used three poems from John Milton. In this
research, the researcher only analyzes the symbols that are used in John Milton’s
poems that were titled “On His Blindness”, “On His Deceased Wife”, and “On
His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-three”.
1.2 Statement of the Problem

Statement of the problem is the way to identify the all problem which occurs
from the background (Creswell, 1994). From the background of the research
above, the researcher found some problems which can be analyzed such as:

1. The symbols used in John Milton’s poems.

2. How John Milton symbolized the meaning.
3. The meaning of symbols in the poem.
4. Kinds of symbols are used in John Milton’s poems.
1.3 Scope of the Problem

Based on the three problems that were listed in the identification of the
problem, the researcher limits this research into two main topics that would be
discussed in this research. They are:

1. The symbols used in John Milton’s poems.

2. The meanings of the symbols used in John Milton’s poems.
3. The kinds of symbols that is the most used in John Milton’s poems.
1.4 Objectives of the Research

The researcher set some goals in this research. The goals of doing this
research were stated below:

1. To find out the symbols and the meaning used in John Milton’s poems.
2. To find out the meaning of symbols that were used in John Milton’s poem.
1.5 Significance of the Research

The researcher has some purposes in doing this research. The first is the
researcher wants to give more information about symbolic sign in poems. Second,
this research is expected to develop the readers’ knowledge about symbolic signs
in poem. Last is the researcher hopes that this research would be a useful
reference for the students who want to conduct a new research about symbolic
signs.
1.6 Review of Related Literature

1.6.1 Semiotic

Communication is the most frequent activity done by people. People do it in

order to deliver their ideas through languages to the receivers. The ways people
express their idea are different. Some of them speak them orally and the others us
text to express them. When they come with texts, words play the most important
part in communication, especially in literary works such as poetry. In poetry, the
poet and poetess use some symbolic signs to make their works look more artistic
and indirect. Signs is everything which can be taken as significantly substituting
for something else, Eco in (Sendera, Yakin, & Totu, 2014). For example, red
traffic light in the road substitutes a command to stop to the drivers. In the study
of language, there is a branch of study that discusses signs and it called semiotics.
Semiotics is the study of exploring signs and interpretive process, finding the
occasion between the signifier and signified, and focusing on the systematic study
of all the factors involved in the production and interpretation of signs and the
whole process (Mohammadi et al., 2016). In the simple words, semiotics is a
study of signs. The main point of semiotics is to analyze and define the meaning
of the signs. As stated before, the meaning of the signs can’t be found easily from
the signs because they can represent something beyond their literal meaning and
there are many factors affect the meaning, a further analysis is needed in order to
get the meaning. From the definition above, it can be concluded that semiotics is
the study of language which focuses at the sign and its meaning. A deep
comprehension is needed to get the meaning of the symbolic signs. There are
some theories of semiotics proposed by experts because it had been studied for a
long time. One of the semiotics theory is proposed by an expert named Michael
Riffaterre.
 1.6.2 Michael Riffaterre’s Semiotic Theory

Michael Riffaterre (as cited in Lantowa, Marahayu, & Khairussibyan, 2017)

“a poem says one thing and means another.” It means that language in poems is
very different from language in daily life. Language in poems usually has wider
range of referent and sometimes the meanings of the words in poems are abstract.
It can be seen from the word “rainbow” in “My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold”
by William Wordsworth below.

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold by William Wordsworth
The meaning of rainbow in the poem above is hope. It is clearly seen from the
context in the poem above. The narrator in poem becomes lively when he saw the
rainbow in the sky. Riffaterre stated that there are three ways which indirectness is
created in poetry, they are displacing of meaning, distorting of meaning and
creating of meaning. As cited in (Lantowa et al., 2017) Riffaterre calls this
indirect expressions are also known as “Ungramatikalitas”.

1.6.3 Displacing Meaning

Riffaterre (as cited in Lantowa et al., 2017), displacing meaning is “when the
sign shift from one meaning to another, when one word stands for another, as
happens with metaphor and metonymy.” In another words, displacing meaning
happens when a word which has a clear literal meaning used to refer something
beyond and different from its literal meaning, for example.

“I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,”
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
Based on the citation of poem above, the narrator in the poem compares
himself as a cloud that floats on high over the landscape. This metaphor indicates
that the position of the narrator is like a cloud which is high over the landscape
and he can see all of the landscape below. This can be concluded because cloud is
an object that floats in the sky than the narrator directly compares himself to
cloud.

1.6.4 Distorting Meaning

Distorting meaning is meaning that deviate from the literal meaning.

According to (Riffaterre, as cited in Lantowa et al., 2017) distorting meaning
happens “when there is ambiguity, contradiction, or nonsense.” In simple words,
this happens when the poems contains a word which is created by the poet and the
meaning occur based on the context of the poem. Distorting meaning also happens
when the poet uses ambiguous words in the poem or use figurative language such
as irony, for example.

“Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by S.T. Coleridge
In the quotation of poem above, the narrator in the poem says that there is
water everywhere and even far out of sight is water but they cannot drink that
water. This irony has some meanings. The first is the setting of the poem is in the
sea, because there is only water in the sea. The second is the character in the poem
can’t drink the water because the water is sea water. Dehydrated human can’t
drink sea water and if they drink it, they will die. This stanza also indicates the
suffering that is caused by thirst.

1.6.5 Creating Meaning

Creating meaning is “when the textual space serve as a principle of

organization for making signs out of linguistics items that may not be meaningful
otherwise” Riffaterre (1978) in (Lantowa et al., 2017). To make it simply, creating
meaning happens when meaningless linguistics items such as spaces between lines
and ungrammatical capitalization, for example;
 kawin
kawin
kawin
kawin
kawin
Tragedi Winka dan Sihka by Sutardji Calzoum Bachri

The spaces between words and the zig zag pattern in the poem above have
a deeper meaning and symbolize a meaning. The zig zag pattern of the words in
the poem means the journey of human in marriage which twists and turns,
sometimes above and sometimes below.

1.7 Ferdinand de Saussure’s Semiotic Theory

Ferdinand de Saussure is a Swiss linguist who is known as the father of

modern linguistic. The main focus of Saussure’s theory is the system of sign.
According to Saussure in (Jensen, 2015) sign has two sides, signified and
signifier. Signifier and signified can’t be separated. Signifier is the sound image or
sign in language that represent the signified. Signifier can be a spoken words,
written signs, images, symbols or gestures such as word “cat”, dog photos, cross
symbols and thumb up emoji. Meanwhile signified is the concept that is
represented by the signifier. It is called as concept because it is the mental
representation of the character of the sign. The relation between signifier and
signified can be seen from the explanation below. Just like two side in a coin, it
can’t be separated. However, the relation of signifier and signified is arbitrary or
conventional. Signifier doesn’t always stand for a specific signified and vice
versa. In another words, a word does not always have one specific meaning. The
meaning of the words can be changed such as meaning in connotation. For
example it can be seen from the word “Water”.
 Based on Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the definition of water
is “a liquid without color, smell or taste that falls as rain, is in lakes, rivers and
seas, and is used for drinking, washing, etc.” (Hornby, 2015) and this meaning is
the most common in the people mind. If people hear the word “water”, the mental
representation in their mind would be the colorless, tasteless and odorless liquid
that can be drunk. But in a certain situations and use, especially in literature, the
meaning of “water” can be different from the previous one. The meaning of
“water” can be purification, cleansing or the source of life.

1.8 Definition of Symbol

A good literary work usually has something artistic and unique in it.
Sometimes, literary works are used as tool to criticize the society. Because of that,
creating a good critical literary works need some tools and pattern. One of the
tools in literature works is symbol. Symbol is an object, event, etc. that represents
a more general quality of situation (Hornby, 2015). In another words, symbol is a
thing that represent something. For example, “Sun” can be a symbol of life.
Literally the meaning of sun is the star that shines in the sky during the day and
gives the earth heat and light (Hornby, 2015). Sun is the main source of energy in
earth. Sun can recycle water in earth, giving warmth for life beings and it is the
main source of light. From the importance and effects of the sun, it can be
concluded that sun is the source of life for life beings in earth and it becomes the
symbol of life. Because of that, symbol plays an important part and it is very
useful in literature and arts. Quoted from (Jandaghi & Zohdi, 2018) there are two
kinds of symbols, they are conventional symbol and personal symbols.

1.8.1 Conventional symbol (Cultural or Universal)

Conventional symbols are the symbols that have the meaning in a specific
culture. To understand the conventional symbols, the reader or receiver should
know the background information of the culture or have the identical culture.
Sometimes, the meaning of the symbol can be completely different from a culture
to another culture context. In the simple words, conventional symbols are the
culture based symbol. For example: white color. In general culture especially in
America, Indonesia and Singapore, the color of the wedding dress is white but
different from India, white dress is worn for funeral which is the symbol of grief.

1.8.2 Personal symbol (Contextual or Private)

Personal symbol is the symbol that has different meaning from one person
to another person. The meaning of personal symbol changes based on the context
of the text and sometimes it has multiple interpretation. This kind of symbol
usually used to make the artist’s works looks original. To make it simply, personal
symbols is the contextual based symbol and if the reader want to know the
meaning, further comprehension is needed. For example: Red color. When two
men saw red color, their interpretation would be different, one man interpret it as a
symbol of courage but the other one interpret it as a symbol of danger and
violence.

1.9 Previous Research

The researcher has used some of previous researches which have the same
topic discussed as the references and comparison to this research. The first
research is “Semiotics in Haroun Hashem Rashid Lyrics Relying on the Theory of
Pierce” (Mohammadi et al., 2016). The approach used in Mohammadi’s research
is semiotic approach. The theory use in the research is Charles Sanders Peirce’s
semiotic theory. In Mohammadi’s research, the data source is Haroun Hashem
Rashid Lyrics. The result of research shows the motif “Al-Awda” is an implicit
sign to understand the poet and the poet uses signs such as symbols, hyperbolism,
synonyms and allusions in his works. There are several differences can be found
from Mohammadi’s research and the researcher’s. The first is the theory, the
researcher uses Michael Riffaterre’s semiotic theory meanwhile Mohammadi uses
Charles Sander Peirce’s theory.

The second is the data source. Mohammadi uses Haroun Hashem Rashid’s
lyrics as the data source but the researcher uses selective poems of John Milton as
the data source. The second previous study is “Symbolism in Edgar Allan Poe’s
Selected Short Stories” (Jandaghi & Zohdi, 2018). The topic of the research is
focusing on recognizing the use of symbolism in Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories
entitled “Hop – Frog” (1850), “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1842) and “The Cask
of Amontillado” (1846). Herman Northrop Frye’s symbolism theory is used in this
research. The result showed conventional symbols are found in those short story.
There are differences could be seen between Jandaghi and Zohdi’s research and
the researcher’s. The first difference is the theory. Jandaghi and Zohdi used
Herman Northrop Frye’s symbolism theory in analyzing the data but the
researcher used Michael Riffaterre’s theory. The second is the data source,
Jandaghi and Zohdi used Edgar Allan Poe’s selected short story but the researcher
uses John Milton’s selected poems as the data source.

The third research about semiotic is “Semiotic Hidden Codes in the Short
Story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner” (Satria, 2018). In this research
Satria uses semiotic approach which is the same approach used in the researcher
research. Semiotic theory that used in his research is five system of codes
proposed by Roland Barthes, they are Action code, Hermeneutic code, Cultural
code, Semic code, and Symbolic code. The objectives of the study are to find the
hidden codes and the meaning behind the codes in A Rose for Emily by William
Faulkner. The result shows there are three codes found in the story, they are action
code, hermeneutic code and cultural code. There are some differences found
between Satria’s research and the researcher’s research. First, the theory used in
Satria’s is Roland Barthes’ theory and the researcher uses Michael Riffaterre’s.
Then the data source is different, Satria uses a short story entitled “A Rose for
Emily” by William Faulkner and the researcher uses John Milton’s poems. The
similarity between Satria’s research and the researcher’s is only in the approach.
Both of the researches used semiotic approach.

The fourth research is “Semiotic Reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s Poem The
Raven” (Balan, 2015). The objective of the research is to show the semiotic in
general. The theories used in this research are Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles
Sanders Peirce’s theory. Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven” is used as the data
source in the research. Research result showed the raven is signified for the
picture that came to our mind as a signifier, it could be symbol of loneliness, death
and hopelessness. There are differences found between Balan’s research and the
researcher’s. The first is the focus of the research. Balan focuses on showing
semiotic in general in the poem but the researcher focuses on finding the symbols
and the meaning. The second difference is the data source. Balan used a poem
entitled “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe as the data source but the researcher
uses selective poems by John Milton as the data source.

The fifth research is “Semiotic Elements on William Shakespeare’s

Hamlet Prince of Denmark” (Atrinawati, 2018). The objective of the research is to
find the out basic narrative scheme, prime signifier, paradigmatic and syntagmatic
aspect of the drama. Semiotics and close reading are the approach used in the
research. The result showed William Shakespeare’s contain prime signifier. There
are some differences between Atrinawati’s research and the researcher’s. The first
difference is the objective of the research. Atrinawati’s research focused on
finding outbasic narrative scheme, prime signifier, paradigmatic and syntagmatic
aspects of a drama meanwhile the researcher focuses on finding the symbol used
in the poems and the meanings. The second difference is the data source. William
Shakespeare’s Hamlet was used by Atrinawati as the data source.

The sixth research is “A Semiotic Analysis Found on The Cigarette

Products” (Prasojowati, Natsir, & Ariani, 2019). The objective of the research is
to find out if the visual image can deliver a message or not. Qualitative method
and content analysis approach are used in the research. The theories that are used
in the research come from some experts. The result shows that the messages from
the image are successfully conveyed to the receiver especially active smokers. But
the images are not strong enough to stop the smokers to smoke. Based on the
description above, there are differences found from their research and this current
research. The first is data source. In their research they use visual image in
cigarette products but this research uses John Milton’s selective poems. The
second is the objective of the research. Their research want to find out if the visual
image can deliver the message or not, but in this current research, the researcher
wants to find the symbols used and the meaning.

The seventh research is “Gender Equality in Media Television (Semiotics

Analysis of Fair and Lovely Advertisement Issue of Marriage or Master Degree)
(Dwita & Wijayani, 2018). The purpose of the research is to analyze the displayed
signs about gender equality in Fair and Lovely advertisement. Semiotics approach
and semiotics theory by Roland Barthes are applied in this research. The method
used in this research is qualitative interpretative method. The data source is Fair
and Lovely advertisement. The result shows the visual signs used in “Fair and
Lovely” advertisement show women and men are equal especially in career and
education. From the summary above, there are several differences between Dwita
& Wijayani’s research and this current research. The first is the theory. Dwita &
Wijayani’s research uses Roland Barthes’ theory but this current research used
semiotic theory of Riffatere. The second difference can be seen from the data
source. Dwita & Wijayani’s uses “Fair and Lovely” advertisement as the data
source but in this research, John Milton’s poems are used as the data source.

1.10 Method of Research

1.10.1 Research Design

This research is a qualitative research. According to Ratna (as cited in

Santosa, 2015) qualitative research is a type of social science research that works
with nonnumerical data that intend to interpret the meaning of these collected
data. To make it simple, qualitative research is a research that doesn’t use
numbers and produces an output in sentence or paragraph. Then, descriptive
qualitative research is a research that describe a phenomenon and its
characteristics (Nassaji, 2015). This research design is appropriate with literary
research which doesn’t involve any numerical analysis and only use description in
analysis and presenting data. It is different from quantitative research that use
table and number as an output. Another reason is because the data sources of this
research were poems, it is impossible to take a numerical analysis and data from
them.

1.10.2 Method of Collecting Data

In the process of collecting data for this research, the researcher will use
documentation method. According to (Sugiyono, 2012) documentation is a data
collection method that is used to collect data from document such as book,
biography and artworks such as movie, novel and poems. This data collection
method is compatible for this research because the primary data source of this
research is poems. In documentation process, the researcher will make a note that
contains the data which are gathered from the data source. The specific techniques
of documentation that will be done by the researcher are:

a. First the researcher will search the poems from all reliable source such as book
and internet.

b. The researcher will mark the data in each poems.

c. Then the researcher writes down and lists the data in a note.

d. Finally, the researcher sorts and classifies the data based on the poem.

1.10.3 Method of Analyzing Data

The process of analyzing data from literary works such as poems is

different from the others. As mentioned in the previous chapter, poems say one
thing and mean another. Because of that a special method is needed in order to
analyze the data. In this research, the researcher uses content analysis method.
Ratna (as cited in Santosa, 2015) content analysis is a method of analysis that is
used to analyzing document and its meaning.
 To make it more specific, there are several technique that will be done by
the researcher in analyzing data, they are:

a. First the researcher read the entire poem from the first line to the last line
several times in order to find the general meaning of the poem.

b. Then the researcher analyzes the symbols by searching the possible meaning
from secondary data such as writing that describes several events that occur in the
same time when John Milton wrote the poem and bible.

c. After finding the meaning of the symbols, the researcher connects the data to
the poems in order to get an accurate meaning and analysis.
 REFERENCES

Callaway, HG. 2014. Semantic Competence and Truth Conditional Semantic

Hadiwidjoyo, M Purbo. 1999. Kata dan Makna. ITB

Geeraets, Dirk. 2010. Theories of Lexical Semantics. Oxford University Press

Gibbs, Raymond W. 2012. Interpreting Figurative Meaning. University of

California Griffiths,. Patrtrick. 2006. An Introduction to English Semantics and

Pragmatics. Edinburgh University Press

Portner, Paul. 2002. Formal Semantics. Library of Congress

https://poemanalysis.com/john-milton/

https://www.owleyes.org/text/on-his-blindness/read/text-poem

https://poets.org/poem/his-deceased-wife

https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/his-having-arrived-
age-twenty-three