Abstract: This article practices a narratological approach to unravel and clarify the involved temporal structure of “The Voice” and define its function: the interconnection of two narrative sequences, namely, on the one hand, the chronological process of recollecting a past love-relationship ending in estrangement and loss and, on the other, the counter-chronological imaginative re-telling of this recollected past experience, tracing the deteriorating development of the love-relation back to its happy beginnings. The two sequences are distinguished by tense and mode of presentation as well as by their position within the setup of the poem: the recovered, condensed story of the past is embedded in the present narrative, the ongoing process of recollection. The event-structure of the poem is complex, too, featuring negative events in both sequences: The attempt at recovering the happy past, as a desired positive eventful turn, ends in disillusionment and frustration and, as a consequence, the process of recollection results in the speaker’s heightened awareness of his present desolation and decline. The emphasis on disillusionment and self-consciousness can be classified as modernist features.

Key words: transgeneric narratology, frame, script, event, modernism