Deviation corresponds to the traditional idea of poetic license: the writer of literature is allowed in contrast to the everyday speaker to deviate from rules, maxims, or conventions. These may involve the language, as well as literary traditions or expectations set up by the text itself. The result is some degree of surprise in the reader, and his/her attention is thereby drawn to the form of the text itself (rather than to its content). Cases of neologism, live metaphor, or ungrammatical sentences, as well as archaisms, paradox, and oxymoron (the traditional tropes) are clear examples of deviation.When an idea is presented in a way that is different from the expected way, then we say such a manner of carrying it out has deviated from the norm.
When a writer wants to make his language to be creative or inventive, he uses a language different from the conventional and everyday language of his day. Using unconventional or unusual language, he can give his readers unexpected surprise and make a strong impression on their mind. This kind of the creative use of language is technically called linguistic deviations, by which he creates a language deviated from the norms of literary convention.Leech explains linguistic deviations with a concept of foregrounding :
“any one who wishes to investigate the significance and value ,of a work of art must concentrate on the element of interest and surprise, rather on the automatic pattern such deviations from the linguistic or other socially accepted norms have given the special name of foregrounding .The foregrounding figure is the linguistic deviation and the background is the language” . (Leech , 1969:57). The concept of style as deviation is based on the notion that there are rules, conventions and regulations that guide the different activities that must be executed. Thus, when these conventions are not complied with, Deviation is the breaking of rules which others obey. Poetry as a genre is a