A STUDY OF DEVIATION IN SHADAB ZEEST HASHMI’S POEM “I LOOKED OUT THE MUGHAL WINDOW”

Abstract

This current study stylistically analyzed Shadab Zeest Hashmi’s poem “I looked Out the Mughal Window” from the perspective of foregrounding. Foregrounding theory has two devices i.e. deviation and parallelism, hence the scholars have chosen the device of deviation for the analysis of the poem understudy. In the poem we observed a lot of stylistic elements which give support to
the main idea of the poem. The poem deviates from the normal standard of poetry writing because it is replete with a lot of semantic, grammatical, lexical and synthetic deviations. The scholars only dealt with the analysis of the poem through semantic deviation. On the other hand, the scholars also found code-switching in the poem which gave it uniqueness and attractiveness. Hashmi has perhaps deliberately used other words instead of the same language in which she writes and this is called code-switching. Being a Pakistani born, she has a natural inclination to use words of her national language. That’s the reason that she used Urdu words in more of her poems, and that is why her poetry is attractive and appealable to the Urdu speaking/knowing people. The scholars found the poem suitable and attractive for analysis to appreciate the local writer as local voices represent the society in which they live.