The Meaning of Gelombang in D. Zawawi Imron’s Poetry Collection Lautmu Tak Habis Gelombang: A Structural-Semiotic Approach

This study examines how the recurring sign Gelombang acquires meaning in D. Zawawi Imron’s poetry collection Lautmu Tak Habis Gelombang (2000), using a structural-semiotic approach in which structural description precedes Riffaterre’s two-stage semiotic reading. Six of the collection’s 83 poems, written between 1975 and 1995, were selected through purposive sampling because Gelombang occurs in their title and/or body. For each poem, physical structure (diction, imagery, figurative language, versification, typography) and inner structure (theme, feeling, tone, message) were recorded on data cards. Heuristic reading decoded the literal meaning of each line containing Gelombang and marked its ungrammaticalities; hermeneutic (retroactive) reading resolved them through the poem’s theme and religious and cultural conventions, and each reading was tested against textual evidence. The poems share nature-based diction, kinesthetic and auditory imagery, personification, hyperbole, free rhyme, and a religious-humanist orientation. Against this background, Gelombang moves between a human register (a fisherman’s fervor, hard-won hope, regret, perseverance) and a divine register (God’s power; God as Creator and forgiver). A recurring lexical sign can keep a constant semantic core while its variants cross registers, so its meaning must be established poem by poem. The six meanings are interpretive readings, not claims about the poet’s intention.