AKWA IBOM STATE UNIVERSITY JOUNAL OF ARTS

Ellipsis, a stylistic attribute of poetry especially haiku poems, serves for the creation of poetic effects on the reader/audience. This study engaged with an analysis of the stylistic significance or effects of the various elliptical structures that typify the stylistic creations in Ezeigbo’s haiku poems. From a close reading of representative texts, findings revealed that the dominant elliptical categories, namely VP-ellipsis, ellipsis of prepositional elements and ellipsis of conjunctive elements, have been deployed to create specific poetic effects: to draw the reader into the context of the poems as well as to engage the reader in the poetic processing of meaning. The brevity and shortness of the elliptical structures, many of which are largely realized by nominal sentences, have also helped to sharpen and sustain the artistic edges of the poems. The study therefore concluded that the poetic use of ellipsis in the poems does not occur merely as an optional grammatical process, but that they function as important means of supporting the discourse structure of the poems

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