The Tyrant Kings in “Sonnet 29”

Henriono Nugroho

Jurusan Sastra Inggris

Fakultas Sastra Universitas Jember

Jalan Kalimantan 37 Jember 68121

Abstract

This article concerns with a stylistic analysis on a poem in terms of Systemic Functional Linguistics and Verbal Art Semiotics. The writing uses library research, qualitative data, documentary study, descriptive method and intrinsic-objective approach. The semantic analysis results in both automatized and foregrounded meanings. Then the automatized meaning produces lexical cohesion and in turn, it produces subject matter. Meanwhile, the foregrounded meaning produces the literary meaning and in turn, it creates theme. Finally, the analysis indicates that subject matter is about a poet who disgraces his kingdom, the literary meaning is about the tyrant kings and theme is about tyranny.

Keyword: automatized meaning, foregrounded meaning, subject matter, literary meaning, theme