AMBIGUITY AND TIME IN W. H. AUDEN’S IF I COULD TELL YOU THROUGH A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS USING LEECH AND SHORT’S MODEL

Abstract

This study examines the ambiguity and deeper meanings in W. H. Auden’s poem If I Could Tell You by exploring the literary techniques and devices employed by the poet. The analysis adopts the stylistic approach proposed by Leech and Short (2007), with particular attention to lexical choices and figures of speech in the poem. The study demonstrates that Auden deliberately employs simple language and a restrained use of figurative devices the most notably anaphora and personification to convey underlying themes of greater complexity. These themes relate to the unknowability of time, uncertainty, and the limitations of language. Furthermore, these stylistic techniques help elucidate the poem’s complex meanings by addressing its ambiguities, while the poem’s structural elements emphasise the tension between human longing and the relentless passage of time. By highlighting the close interplay between form and content, this article contributes to existing scholarship on Auden’s work and shows how stylistic devices strengthen the poem’s engagement with universal concerns such as time and existence.