Lab Activity: Poststructuralism, Poems, and Gen AI: Deconstructive Reading
This lab activity was given to deepen the understanding of Derrida, Deconstruction, and Poststructuralism through practical application using ChatGPT 3.5 or 4.0.
Given by: Dr. Dilip Barad.
In this lab activity, Sir instructed us to create two poems using ChatGPT on subjects such as Monsoon, Rain, Love, Death, Nature, Flowers, Forest, Literature, Existentialism, Digital Humanities, or any other classical or famous literary text (e.g., metaphysical poems, The Waste Land, Waiting for Godot, Jude the Obscure, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Great Gatsby).
I have chosen "Death" and "Forest" as the topics for my poems, and the style of the poems generated using ChatGPT is the sonnet.
Prompt -Task prompt
Lab activity, post-structuralism and Deconstruction
Poem 1 "Elegy to Death"
In the first poem, Sir instructed us to apply Peter Barry's example of a deconstructive study of Dylan Thomas’s poem using a three-step model (Verbal Stage, Textual Stage, and Linguistic Stage). For this poem, I have chosen the theme of Death
Sonnet 1: "Elegy to Death"
(Theme: Death)
O Death, thou art the hush at end of song,
A breathless pause where all our echoes die,
Thou walk'st unseen but never far along,
A shadow cast beneath the blinding sky.
Thy fingers close the eyes with gentlest touch,
And guide the soul through realms we cannot chart,
Though feared by most, thou askest not too much—
Only the quiet yielding of the heart.
Yet in thy grasp, no tyrant shall remain,
Nor pauper groan beneath the weight of pain;
All fall alike within thy mute domain,
Where crowns and beggar’s rags are both the same.
Still, if thou end’st all sorrow, fear, and breath,
Art thou not mercy, veiled in robes of death?
ChatGpat analyse
generated, titled "Elegy to Death", using Peter Barry’s three-step deconstructive model based on verbal, textual, and linguistic stages. This model is drawn from his analysis of Dylan Thomas’s “A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London.”
Poem for Analysis: "Elegy to Death"
O Death, thou art the hush at end of song,
A breathless pause where all our echoes die,
Thou walk'st unseen but never far along,
A shadow cast beneath the blinding sky.
Thy fingers close the eyes with gentlest touch,
And guide the soul through realms we cannot chart,
Though feared by most, thou askest not too much—
Only the quiet yielding of the heart.
Yet in thy grasp, no tyrant shall remain,
Nor pauper groan beneath the weight of pain;
All fall alike within thy mute domain,
Where crowns and beggar’s rags are both the same.
Still, if thou end’st all sorrow, fear, and breath,
Art thou not mercy, veiled in robes of death?
1. Verbal Stage (Internal contradictions, paradoxes, ambiguities)
Here we look for contradictory phrases, paradoxes, and internal tensions at the level of words and images.
Contradictions:
The poem calls Death "the hush at end of song", implying finality and silence, yet paradoxically it says:
“Art thou not mercy, veiled in robes of death?”
This portrays death both as ending and as a form of relief, merging opposite concepts of pain and peace.
Another contradiction lies in:
"Thou walk'st unseen but never far along"
Death is unseen but always near — both absent and present simultaneously, which creates ontological instability (death as both presence and absence).
Line 11:
"Where crowns and beggar’s rags are both the same."
This collapses hierarchical binaries (rich/poor, power/powerless), but that collapse depends on death’s sameness, which is treated as equalizer. But is this sameness truly comforting, or does it erase individuality? The phrase is ideologically unstable.
Deconstructive Reading:
The poem attempts to dignify death, but these paradoxes expose the unstable idealization of death. Is it peace or annihilation? Justice or nihilism? The poem internally destabilizes its own praise.
2. Textual Stage (Shifts, breaks, silences, discontinuities)
Now we examine the larger structure and tone of the poem to detect instabilities in viewpoint or theme.
Structural Shifts:
The first two quatrains (lines 1–8) present death as gentle, silent, guiding. There’s an almost spiritual reverence.
The next four lines shift sharply:
“Yet in thy grasp, no tyrant shall remain...”
Here, the tone becomes social-political, introducing a moral judgment: Death is an equalizer of worldly injustice.
The final couplet again shifts:
“Still, if thou end’st all sorrow, fear, and breath, / Art thou not mercy, veiled in robes of death?”
It poses a rhetorical question — but it undoes the confidence of the previous lines. The “if” introduces uncertainty. Is Death mercy or menace? The poem doesn’t resolve.
Omission/Silence:
The poem refuses to mourn, but also refuses to fear. It avoids emotional extremes but never justifies why death should be revered — no personal narrative, no image of a specific death.
It elides the process of dying: the pain, the suffering — and speaks only of death as an abstract force. That’s a strategic absence, one that deconstruction highlights.
Deconstructive Reading:
The poem’s tone and perspective keep shifting — spiritual, moral, philosophical — and this undermines a unified stance. The speaker doesn’t “frame” death in a coherent moral or emotional register.
3. Linguistic Stage (Instability of language; exposure of rhetorical trap)
Here we focus on the inadequacy of language itself, and how the poem either acknowledges or falls into this trap.
Language Critiqued by Language:
The poem asks:
“Art thou not mercy...?”
The speaker admits he can’t define death — he questions what he just poetically constructed.
The phrase:
“A breathless pause where all our echoes die”
uses sound-based metaphor (echoes) to describe silence, drawing attention to the impossibility of describing the indescribable — a linguistic paradox.
The metaphor:
“Veiled in robes of death”
suggests that death itself is hiding something. Is language merely a veil too? The poem layers metaphor over metaphor, suggesting that truth is unreachable, even through poetic language.
Deconstructive Reading:
The poem creates a concept of death through metaphors, but simultaneously questions or undermines each metaphor. Language is used to build meaning, but the poem shows that language fails to fix meaning. The poet identifies the trap, then falls into it — just like Thomas in “A Refusal to Mourn…”
Conclusion (Deconstructive Insight)
Through Peter Barry’s model:
At the verbal level, the poem contradicts itself on death’s meaning — is it end or mercy?
At the textual level, the poem’s shifts in tone and silences (lack of personal context) reveal instability.
At the linguistic level, it builds metaphors only to suggest their inadequacy, implying language cannot truly capture death.
Thus, the poem appears unified and reverent on the surface, but under deconstruction, it reveals disunity, contradiction, and linguistic fragility — precisely the hallmark of a deconstructive reading.
Poem 2 The forest' s Tongue
In this poem, sir instructed us to use a ChatGPT prompt to study Catherine Belsey’s analyses of "The Red Wheelbarrow," "In a Station of the Metro," and "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?" from her book on Poststructuralism, and to ask for an analysis of the second poem.
Sonnet 2: "The Forest's Tongue"
(Theme: Forest)
Beneath the vaulted roof of emerald hue,
Where sunbeams drip like gold through leafy lace,
The forest speaks in tones both old and true—
A language carved in bark and rooted grace.
The whispering wind recounts forgotten lore,
The sighs of branches echo ancient songs,
Each step upon the moss reveals yet more
Of life that to the greenwood deep belongs.
The owl’s lone cry, the fox’s silent tread,
Are notes within a symphony unseen.
Here, time dissolves where primal roots are spread,
And man becomes a guest, subdued and keen.
O forest, keep thy secrets safe and wide,
For in thy hush, the world’s true truths abide.
ChatGpat analyse
Poem for Analysis: "The Forest’s Tongue"
(Theme: Forest)
Beneath the vaulted roof of emerald hue,
Where sunbeams drip like gold through leafy lace,
The forest speaks in tones both old and true
A language carved in bark and rooted grace.
The whispering wind recounts forgotten lore,
The sighs of branches echo ancient songs,
Each step upon the moss reveals yet more
Of life that to the greenwood deep belongs.
The owl’s lone cry, the fox’s silent tread,
Are notes within a symphony unseen.
Here, time dissolves where primal roots are spread,
And man becomes a guest, subdued and keen.
O forest, keep thy secrets safe and wide,
For in thy hush, the world’s true truths abide.
Applying Catherine Belsey’s Poststructuralist Reading
1. Primacy of the Signifier (Not the Forest Itself)
This poem appears to depict a forest — but does it describe a forest in the literal world? Or does it instead construct a linguistic forest, composed of signifiers like “vaulted roof of emerald hue”, “leafy lace”, “symphony unseen”, etc.?
These are not referential descriptions — no literal forest has lace, a vaulted roof, or speaks.
Instead, the forest here becomes a textual effect — a metaphorical, symbolic construction made of cultural signs: cathedrals (vaulted roof), music (symphony), and mystery (secrets, songs, lore).
In this light, the poem generates a romanticized forest, more constructed by language than observed from reality. Like Williams’s wheelbarrow, it may claim materiality but actually gestures toward idealized, imagined purity.
2. Semiotic Power — Rhythm and Sensation Over Logic
Belsey (following Kristeva) identifies the semiotic as the musical, sensual power of poetry — its rhythm, repetition, and pre-logical joy.
This poem is filled with sonorous repetition and lush consonance:
“sunbeams drip like gold through leafy lace” – the soft ‘l’ and ‘s’ sounds create a whispery, immersive rhythm.
“The whispering wind recounts forgotten lore” – alliteration and sibilance.
“symphony unseen”, “sighs of branches” — sensory rhythm overtakes logical syntax.
These features evoke what Kristeva calls childlike musicality — as though the forest is being sung before it’s described. Meaning here arises through rhythm, texture, and emotional association, not empirical fact.
3. Non-referentiality — A Dream Forest, Not a Real One
Like Belsey’s view of “The Red Wheelbarrow”, the forest here may seem referential (realistic), but on close reading it reveals:
No mud, decay, insects — no realistic ecology.
Instead, an idealized world of whispers, song, and sacred silence — a fantasy or archetype, not a physical place.
The forest becomes a metaphor for the unconscious or the poetic itself, where “true truths abide”. This positions the poem not as about a forest, but as a metaphysical meditation constructed by poetic language.
4. Visual and Rhythmic Signification
While this is a traditional sonnet (not visually fragmented like Imagist poems), its formality is part of its signification:
ABAB rhyme scheme gives balance and recurrence — mirroring the cyclical, natural rhythms of the forest it describes.
Iambic pentameter, flowing like footsteps on moss, creates a calm, meditative tempo. This rhythm is not just a vehicle for meaning — it is meaning.
Just as Belsey notes how the spacing, line-breaks, and rhythm of “In a Station of the Metro” create meaning beyond the words, so too does the elegant structure of this sonnet.
Conclusion: A Belsey-Inspired Poststructuralist Reading
Under Catherine Belsey’s poststructuralist lens:
The forest in the poem is not a place, but a network of signifiers—symbols of mystery, silence, wisdom, and the poetic.
The semiotic power lies in the poem’s sonic textures, metaphors, and rhythms — which precede logic and create a sensory world that seduces the reader emotionally.
The poem’s meaning is not fixed or referential, but generated through language, through a play of signs, not a mirror of the world.
Thus, "The Forest's Tongue" becomes not a description of the forest, but a product of poetic language itself — much like Williams’s wheelbarrow, Pound’s petals, or Shakespeare’s summer’s day.
Conclusion :
This lab activity is designed to help us understand Post-structuralism and Deconstruction as introduced by Jacques Derrida and use ChatGpat effectively
