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In:Practising Stylistics: Essays in Honour of Paul Simpson
Edited by Clara Neary, Simon Statham and Peter Stockwell
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 45] 2026
► pp. 45–60

Chapter 4
Reading Covid poetry

A cognitive modal grammar account

 | Aston University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Simpson’s modal grammar (1993) is one of the most useful and best used stylistic frameworks of point of view in literary fiction, and its influence is evident in studies of narrative perspective (see Neary, 2023 for an overview), pedagogical applications (e.g. Simpson, 2025; Giovanelli, 2018a), and as the basis for other theories and methods (e.g. Gavins, 2005). In this chapter, Marcello Giovanelli analyses Jackie Kay’s poem ‘Where are my keys?’ — taken from New Poems in Response to Covid-19, a collection of poems posted online by Kay during the Covid-19 pandemic — via a reframing of Simpson’s model through the lens of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker, 1987; 1991; 2008). Through the practice of stylistic analysis, Giovanelli successfully shows how Simpson’s original taxonomy operates in a way that aligns with our current best understanding of the relationship between language and the mind.
Article outline
  • Modal grammar
  • Cognitive Grammar and modality
    • Cognitive linguistics and Cognitive Grammar
    • Modality
  • Analysing ‘Where are my keys?’
  • Reading ‘Where are my keys?’
  • Conclusion
  • References
References (38)
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