A Comparative Analysis of Ch’orti’ Verbal Art and the Poetic Discourse Structures of Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

Poetics and the Hieroglyphic Script

Perhaps one of the more unappreciated aspect of the Maya hieroglyphic writing system is its underlying poetic composition. Josserand (1991) has laid an important foundation by sectioning texts into structural units of narrative. Coggins (1992) study on Copán Stela A succeeded in showing the metaphorical and highly poetic structure of this marvelous monument. My Master’s thesis on the poetic forms of the hieroglyphs was the first large-scale study on the poetics of the hieroglyphic script (Hull 1993). Schele and Ayala’s (1993) analysis of the Tablet of the 96 Glyphs from Palenque was pioneering effort to treat the hieroglyphic texts as literature, not simply as historical or mythological documents.

The following is a brief description of some of the poetic devices that were employed by the Maya scribes of the hieroglyphic script.

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