Literary stylistics
Linguistic analysis, in other words, can describe and analyse the language of a literary text but is not of itselfa n applied linguistic activity.It is not perhaps in itself applied linguistics as it
involvesn opractical decision making, but itis, as we shall see, an
important resource for the analysis of powerful and persuasive uses of language in general.An example, however, can be foundin the
extract byRoger Fowler in Section .2
Stylistic analyses tend to highlight three related aspects o f
literary language: its frequent deviation from the norms of more
everyday language use; its patterning of linguistic units to create
rhythms, rhymes, and parallel constructions; and the ways in
which the form of the words chosen seems to augment o r
intensify the meaning.I wanderthroughe a c h charter' dstreet
Near wherethecharter'd Thamesdoesflow
And mark in every face Imeet
Marks ofweakness, marks of woe.It raises awareness, not only of the importance of exact wording but of how there is far more at stake in the use of language than the literal meaning of the words.Literary analysis, of its nature, cannot be brief if it is to do justice to its complex subject-matter and there is no space to go

 into any detail here.All these features are present in the melancholyopening stanza of WilliamBlake's poem 'London'.It begins to move in that direction, however, when linguistic choices are linked to their effects upon the reader and some attempt is made at an explanation.This is the endeavour of literary stylistics.