FOREGROUNDING THROUGH PARALLELISM: A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF FARZANA AQIB’S WHEN WILL THESE WALLS GO DOWN

Abstract

This study explores the use of stylistic foregrounding through parallelism in Farzana Aqib’s poem When Will These Walls Go Down. Using Leech and Short’s theory of foregrounding, particularly the concept of parallelism, the analysis identifies repeated structures and deviations in the poem that contribute to its emotional and thematic intensity. Using qualitative textual analysis, the study explores the ways in which lexical, syntactic, grammatical, and semantic parallelism foreground the speaker's emotional turmoil and the poem’s broader social critique. The research concludes that foregrounding through parallelism in Aqib’s poem is not merely aesthetic but deeply functional in voicing emotional urgency, resistance, and a call for personal liberation.  The findings suggest that parallelism in Aqib’s poem serves not merely an aesthetic function but underscores a powerful poetic voice of protest and passion.. A key contribution of this study lies in its novel application of Leech and Short’s stylistic theory to contemporary South Asian English poetry—an area underrepresented in linguistic literary studies