How to appreciate a poem
How to appreciate a poem
The involved points to appreciate a poem:
1. Form (rhyme, meter and scheme)
2. Structure
3. Image
4. Language, diction (to solve the meanings of the words and syntactic structure)
5. Musical and sound effects
6. Theme (subject matter) and tone
Appreciating Sonnet 18
Shakespearean sonnets collections contains 154 sonnets, commonly thought to be written between 1593 and 1599, which may be roughly divided into three groups.
1. Numbers 1-17 are variations on one theme.
2. Numbers 18-126 are on a variety of themes associated with a handsome young man.
3. After that, began a new series, principally about a married woman with dark hair and complexion, the so-called “dark lady of the sonnets”.
赏析
It is written in iambic pentameter rhymed abab cdcd efef gg. (3 quatrains, 1 couplet) Shall I /compare/ thee to/ a summ/er’s day?/
Thou art/ more lo/vely and/ more tem/perate:/
Rough winds/ do shake/ the dar/ling buds /of May,/
And sum/er’s lease/ hath all/ too short/ a date:/
2. In poetic structure, it can be divided into introducer, developer, modulator, and terminator. (起、承、转、合).
3. Image: a summer’s day, rough winds, buds, sun.
4. Lease: duration; the eye of heaven: the sun; complexion: appearance;
Fair (the first): beautiful appearance; fair (second): beauty
. Theme: Lines endows one’s beauty with immortality.
6. Shakespeare deals with the traditional themes of time, beauty and poetry and expresses his feelings towards the addressee. The poem is a comparison between the man’s eternal beauty with summer’s temporal beauty, between the inconstancy of nature and the timelessness of poetry. Shakespeare poses the idea that through poetry, beauty gains immortality. This image of transience and eternity is used throughout the poem. More reflections: the theme of homosexual (internet information) Analysis of Sonnet 18
Shakespeare’s sonnets, though they are well with the general tradition of Elizabethan sonnet cycles, are in several ways unique. The principle person addressed by the poet is not a woman but a young man; the dark lady, when she appears, is vastly different from the convention. More important, the depths of moral and aesthetic contemplation in Shakespeare’s sonnets are far more profound than we find in other Elizabethan cycle.
With 3 exceptions (99, 126 and 154)Shakespeare uses the sonnet in popular English form, first fully developed by Shakespeare varies it. The couplet usually ties the sonnet to one of the general themes of the series, leaving the quatrains free to
develop the poetic intensity which makes the separate sonnets so memorable.
Shakespeare’s sonnets constitute a vast landscape of metaphor, surprising often because it seems to anticipate the atmosphere of some of the later plays. In this landscape are some vividly recognizable figures---the poets, the friend, the Dark lady, more indefinite, the rival poet.
Death, Be Not Proud
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
死神，你莫骄傲，尽管有人说你
如何强大，如何可怕，你并不是这样；
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
"overthrow" (conquer, overcome)
[those whom you think you have conquered]
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me;
你以为你把谁谁谁打倒了，其实，
可怜的死神，他们没死；你现在也还杀不死我。
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
(Sleep is just a picture of death)
休息、睡眠，这些不过是你的写照，
既能给人享受，那你本人提供的一定更多；
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
"doe goe" = "do go"
我们最美好的人随你去得越早
Rest of their bones, and soule's deliverie.
Deliverie=freedom
越能早日获得身体的休息，灵魂的解脱。
(With death, we can rest, and our souls are freed from the body. )
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
Not only does death not conquer us, but death itself is only a tool for -- a "slave to" -- fate (destiny), chance (accident, things that just happen), kings (men who order people to be put to death), and those for whom life is so unbearable, they kill themselves ("desperate men").So death has all these bosses over him whom he must obey
你是命运、机会、君主、亡命徒的奴隶，
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
Dwell=live
And look at the horrible friends death has! Who wants to be around poison, war, and sickness?
你和毒药、战争、疾病同住在一起，
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
罂粟和咒符和你的打击相比，同样，
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? (Why do you swell with
pride? )
"thy stroke" is probably a reference to the Grim Reaper's scythe, that sickle with the huge, nasty-looking curved blade.
甚至更能催我入睡；那你何必趾高气扬呢？
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
(we do “sleep" for a short time, but then we wake up and live forever.)
睡了一小觉之后，我们便永远觉醒了，
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
Death himself dies. Once past that short sleep, his so-called victims live eternally and joyfully in heaven, with God.
再也不会有死亡，你死神也将死去。
Abbaabbacddcee
Speaker’s Attitude
Speaker’s attitude is bold and defiant as he attack death’s supposed invulnerability.
Reinforce the meaning.
Form of Expressing
supposed dialogue with “death”
＃mocking tone.
Theme
Man is superior to Death
死亡是瞬间的，将很快不复存在，而死后的欢乐则是永恒的，人对于死亡的畏惧变成了死亡自身的恐惧，死亡对于人来说不过是通往幸福永生的大门。
这种强烈的戏剧化效果和反讽意味的获得最终是通过悖论语言实现的。
The story of Tom Jones
Themes Tom jones
The novel tells the story of an illegitimate child, reared by squire Mr. Allworthy, who lives on his estate together with his sister Miss Bridget, a prudish spinster.
Once, arriving home from a trip to London, Mr. Allworthy is surprised to find a baby in his bedroom. He adopts the foundling and names him Tom. Shortly afterwards Miss Bridget gets married to a certain Captain Blifil, and gives birth to a boy. Young Blifil’s parents die and the orphan is left in the care of Mr. Allworthy who brings him up together with Tom.
Tom has grown up to be a jolly, open-hearted and handsome young man. He gets involved in several fleeting love affairs. But his light-heartedness gives way to serious love when he meets Sophia, the daughter of a neighboring Squire Western. Young Blifil, contrary to Tom, is sly and faithless. Having an eye to his uncle’s money, he bears a secret hatred of Tom, fearing lest the legacy should fall into his hands. He blackens Tom in Mr. Allworthy’s eyes. Deceived by Blifil’s backbiting, Mr. Allworthy banishes Tom from his home.
Sophia’s father, Squire Western, infuriated upon learning of his daughter’s attachment to the foundling, threatens to marry her off by force to the rich heir, young Blifil. Then the scene is shifted to London, where all the main characters are thrown together, each in pursuit of his own interests: Sophia flees to the capital fearing the
very idea of marriage to hateful Blifil; Squire Western follows his daughter;
young Blifil, accompanied by his uncle, is there in search of Sophia; Tom takes his way to London, accompanied by the schoolmaster Partridge, a simple, lovable man. Tom and Sophia travel independently, ignorant of each other’s plans. Their journey is filled with many exciting incidents. Tom’s imprudence leads him into various love affairs and adventures, some of which endanger his very life.
Blifil, intent on ruining his rival, spares no pains to secure a conviction for Tom, who is supposed to have killed a man in self-defense. However, Blifil’s intrigues are laid bare, and the angry Mr. Allworthy expels him. At the same time the old gentleman learns from his attorney of a letter addressed to him by his sister Bridget on her death-bed. It has been maliciously withheld by Blifil, as it contains her confession that Tom Jones is her illegitimate son.
Mr. Allworthy, rejoiced at this news, reconciles with Tom, and makes him his heir. Sophia forgives Tom his youthful mistakes and squire Western consents to Sophia’s marriage to Tom. All ends happily.
The features of the books
A. Structure:
a. The book follows the form of “comic epic in prose”. It is well-balanced and carefully planned. (in the country-on the road-in London). The story absorbs the features of family novel (Richardson), novel of incidents (Defoe) and picaresque novel (Swift). Novels of incidents mainly reveals the action of the characters or events, not the characters. The plots are loose but flowing. The novel focuses on the funny and adventurous events.
40 characters
All the characters are true to life.
Tom：upright, frank, kind-hearted, sometimes be very rash and commit rather serious errors, particularly in his relations with women, yet who is always ready to help others and never tries to harm anyone for his own benefit.
Blifil: pretends to be extremely moral and selfless, but actually be always thinks up tricks and imposes them on the other people.
Sophia: with sufficient courage and independence to defy the bad world. Her character and behavior were rather advanced for her time, when the compulsory marriage was universally prevailing.
Partridge is a Jack-of-trades. He is a simple, good-natured but a little whimsical fellow, and a very faithful companion to Tom.
The ways of characterization: contrast& dialogue
A. The stories is about human nature. Fielding saw both sides of human nature: the good and the bad. It is human nature to err. And a man who errs may reform and be redeemed so long as he has a good heart, while those who are wicked by nature are beyond redemption.
B. The story gives a panoramic view of the 18th century English life with scores of different places and a whole gallery of characters. Fielding attacked social injustice, hypocrisy, vice and corruption in the government and defended the rights and dignity of the poor and the unfortunate.
I Wandered Lonely as a cloud
我如行云独自游
我好似一朵孤独的流云，
高高地飘游在山谷之上，
突然我看到一大片鲜花，
是金色的水仙遍地开放。
它们开在湖畔，开在树下
它们随风嬉舞，随风飘荡。
它们密集如银河的星星，
像群星在闪烁一片晶莹；
它们沿着海湾向前伸展，
通往远方仿佛无穷无尽；
一眼看去就有千朵万朵，
万花摇首舞得多么高兴。
粼粼湖波也在近旁欢跳，
却不如这水仙舞得轻俏；
诗人遇见这快乐的旅伴，
又怎能不感到欢欣雀跃进；
我久久凝视----却未领悟
这景象所给予我的精神至宝。
后来多少次我郁郁独卧，
感到百无聊赖心灵空漠；
这景象便在脑海中闪现，
多少次安慰过我的寂寞；
我的心又随水仙跳起舞来，
我的心又重新充满了欢乐.
The poem is 24 lines long, consisting of four six-line stanzas. Each stanza is formed by a quatrain, then a couplet, to form a sestet and a ABABCC rhyme scheme.
Comment on the poem
This is simply a superb poem depicting poet's love for nature. It is a lyric poem focusing on the poet's response to the beauty of nature. The poet is never alone when he is with nature.Poet never felt himself isolated in the company of nature. He is truely a Pantheist, who loves nature as a mother.
Wordsworth 's observations are very deep and may be crowd of Daffodils seems to him as heads of angels. Personification is also used by the poet and his intellect is reflected in this poem. All images are full of life and mood of poem is joyous.
The poem tells us that the bliss we can enjoy in the real sense of the term if we can merge in the nature. Actual contact with the daffodils is not the point. Only when he reconstructs the moment with his 'inward eye' does he actually feel pleasure from the experience. The poet is trapped. He cannot feel the world until pulls it through memory (time+imagination). He doesn't 'dance with the daffodils' until he is alone and can reflect on them, and at this moment, isolated from the actual daffodils, he really
only reflects on himself.
Wordsworth simply tells us of an experience he had and what it meant to him, and he also points out that it is this type of experience that you don't know how valuable it will be to you when it happens; it is later, after you have used the memory of it to cheer you up many times in your life that you realize how much it affected you. To me this poem indicates the path to spiritual Enlightenment.
这首诗写于诗人从法国回来不久。诗人带着对自由的向往去了法国，参加一些革命活动。但法国革命没有带来预期的结果，随之而来的是混乱。诗人的失望和受的打击是可想而知的，后来在他的朋友和妹妹的帮助下，情绪才得以艰难地恢复。这首诗就写于诗人的心情平静之后不久。
在诗的开头，诗人将自己比喻为一朵孤独的流云，孤单地在高高的天空飘荡。孤傲的诗人发现一大片金色的水仙，它们欢快地遍地开放。在诗人的心中，水仙已经不是一种植物了，而是一种象征，代表了一种灵魂，代表了一种精神。
水仙很多，如天上的星星，都在闪烁。水仙似乎是动的，沿着弯屈的海岸线向前方伸展。诗人为有这样的旅伴而欢欣鼓舞、欢呼跳跃。在诗人的心中，水仙代表了自然的精华，是自然心灵的美妙表现。但是，欢快的水仙并不能时时伴在诗人的身边，诗人离开了水仙，心中不时冒出忧郁孤寂的情绪。这时诗人写出了一种对社会、世界的感受：那高傲、纯洁的灵魂在现实的世界只能郁郁寡欢。当然，诗人的脑海深处会不时浮现水仙那美妙的景象，这时的诗人双情绪振奋，欢欣鼓舞
诗歌的基调是浪漫的，同时带着浓烈的象征主义色彩。可以说，诗人的一生只在自然中找到了寄托。而那平静、欢欣的水仙就是诗人自己的象征，在诗中，诗人的心灵和水仙的景象融合了。这首诗虽然是在咏水仙，但同时也是诗人自己心灵的抒发和感情的外化。
诗人有强烈的表达自我的意识，那在山谷上的高傲形象，那水仙的欢欣，那郁郁的独眠或是诗人自己的描述，或是诗人内心的向往。诗人的心灵又是外向的，在自然中找到了自己意识的象征。那自然就进入了诗人的心灵，在诗人的心中化为了象征的意象。
She Walks in Beauty
她走在美的光彩中
拜伦
她走在美的光彩中，像夜晚
皎洁无云而且繁星满天；
明与暗的最美妙的色泽
在她的仪容和秋波里呈现；
耀目的白天且嫌光力强
它比那光亮柔和而幽暗。
增加或减少一分明与暗
就会损害这难言的美
美波动在她乌黑的发上，
或者散布淡淡的光辉；
在那脸庞，恬静的思绪
指明它的来处纯洁而珍贵。
呵，那额际，那鲜艳的面颊，
如此温和，平静，
而又脉脉含情，
那迷人的微笑，那容颜的光彩，
都在说明一善良的生命；
她的头脑安于世间的一切，
她的心充溢这真纯的爱情！
Discussion of the Poem
The first verse :The first two lines bring together the opposing qualities of darkness and light . The remaining lines tell us that her face and eyes combine “all that’s best of dark and bright”.
The second verse :The glow of the lady’s face is nearly perfect. The shades and rays are in just the right proportion, and because they are, the lady possesses a nameless grace. This conveys the romantic idea that her inner beauty is mirrored by her outer beauty.
The last verse :The first three lines of physical description and last three lines that describe the lady’s moral characters.
1.Summery:
A love poem about a beautiful woman and all of her features. Throughout the poem, Byron explains the depth of this woman’s beauty. Even in the darkness of death and mourning, her beauty shines through. Her innocence shows her pureness in heart, and her pureness in love. The two forces involved in Byron's poem are the darkness and light-at work in the woman's beauty, and also the two areas of her beauty-the internal and the external.
2. The theme:
A lady’s physical beauty is a reflection of her inner beauty.
3. Rhetoric:
simile
metaphor
alliteration
4.Tone: Earnest ,Admiring ,Happy
5. Style:
The rhyme scheme flows as ABABAB CDCDCD EFEFEF
秋颂
mellow: (of flavor) pleasant, smooth and rich
conspire: to make a secret agreement to do sth.
load: to put a large quantity of things into sth
雾霭迷濛、硕果芳醇的秋！
使万物成熟的太阳与你结为挚友；
密谋以累累的珠球，
缀满茅屋檐下的葡萄藤；
村舍前青苔遍布的老树，苹果压弯了枝桠，
让所有的果实都熟透；
swell: to make sth. larger and rounder
plump: to make sth. fat or rounded
budding: producing buds
clammy: damp or sticky
吹胀了葫芦，鼓起了榛子壳
好塞进甜甜的果仁；又为了蜜蜂
让越来越多过季的花儿结上蓓蕾，
直到它们以为温暖的时光永无止休，
因为夏日早已填满它们的粘巢。
What kind of effect does the author achieve by using those verbs, such as “to load”, “to bend”, “to swell”, “to set”, etc.?
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
seek: to travel or proceed toward some place
abroad: out of doors
winnowing wind: the wind that separates the corn from the chaff
谁不常见你藏身于谷仓？
有时，任谁外出都能发现
你无忧无虑地坐在打麦场上，
发丝随着簸谷的风轻扬；
furrow: a long shallow trench in the ground (especially made by a plow)
swath: a row of mown grass; here the row to be mown next
gleaner: someone who picks up grain left in the field by the harvesters
laden head: head which is laden with gleanings
或者，沉迷于罂粟花香，
你酣睡在收割一半的田野上，
让镰刀歇在下一畦庄稼和田垄的花丛旁；
有时，如拾穗者
你稳稳地顶着满载的收获越过溪流；
或者，耐心地守候在榨果架旁，
你长久地凝视徐徐渗下的酒浆。
oozings: slow droppings of apple juice
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they ?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too ,
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
stubble: the short stalks left standing in field after corn or wheat has been cut
What is the connotation of the word “bloom”?
Why does the author say the day is soft-dying?
春之歌飘落何方？唉，何处觅其踪影？
别想这些了，你也有你的乐音，——
当片片浮云把缓缓将逝的一天照映，
玫瑰色的夕阳晕染了茬梗遍布的田野；
wailful: expressing grief or sorrow
aloft: upward
这时，河边垂柳下秋虫的唱吟
交织成悲哀的和声，它们时而飞起
忽而下落，随着微风的轻拂或止息；
长成的群羊在山涧咩咩叫唤；
蟋蟀们在篱下歌唱；而知更鸟
用高音在园中婉转啼鸣；
丛飞的燕子在天空呢喃嘤咛。
There are various sounds of autumn, including robin's high-pitched sound, cheerful song of the crickets, and even swallow’s whisper. In the field where the rosy sun is shining, why does the poet give the priority to describe the gnats’ sad buzz?
Summary
"To Autumn" describes, in its three stanzas, three different aspects of the season: its fruitfulness, its labor and its ultimate decline. Through the stanzas there is a progression from early autumn to mid autumn and then to the heralding of winter. Parallel to this, the poem depicts the day turning from morning to afternoon and into dusk.
Structure
To Autumn" is a poem of three stanzas, each of eleven lines. The stanzas have eleven lines rather than ten, and have a couplet placed before the concluding line of each stanza.
Rhyme scheme
The rhyme of "To Autumn" follows a pattern of starting each stanza with an ABAB pattern which is followed by rhyme scheme of CDEDCCE in the first verse and CDECDDE in the second and third stanzas.
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
This novel is one of the best & most popular work by Hardy. It is a fierce attack on the hypocritical morality of the bourgeois society & the capitalist invasion into the country & destruction of the English peasantry towards the end of the century. Tess, as a pure woman brought up with the traditional idea of womanly virtues, is abused & destroyed by both Alec & Angel, agents of the destructive force of the society. And the misery, the poverty and the heart felt pain she suffers and her final tragedy give rise to a most bitter cry of protest and denunciation of the society. As Hardy say at the end of the story ，“Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals had ended his sport with Tess.” To fully understand the novel, one has take into consideration both its critical realist and naturalistic significance.
The Theme
Mankind is subjected to the rule of some hostile and mysterious fate, which brings misfortune to human life.
Theme
1. The tragic fate of Tess and her family was not that of an individual family, but it was symbolic of the disintegration of the English peasantry-- a process which had reached its final and tragic stage at the end of 19th century.
2. It was also an attack on the moral conventions of the Victorian society and the hypocritical morality which caused the tragedy.
There is a strong naturalistic tendency in the novel. Fate plays an important role in Tess’s tragedy. In a way, Tess seems to be lead to her final destruction step by step by fate. Coincidence adds one “wrong” to another until she is caught up in a dead end. So, it is necessary to understand the ending remark of the author: “Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals had ended his sport with Tess.” (公正已经实现了, 命运之神也停止了和苔丝的游戏)
Structure
The structure of the novel is based on a cyclical pattern, divided into three parts. The first is a prelude, telling how Tess leaves home and encounters Alec. She is seduced by Alec and comes back home disgraced. This is the first cycle, beginning in May and ending in August. The second part is the main love story of Tess and Angel at Talbothays. It begins in May, reaches its climax at the turning of the year and ends in the following winter. The last part represents her decline. Forced by poverty, Tess returns to Alec until Angel comes to claim her. In shame and anger, Tess kills Alec, and is finally arrested and executed. This part starts in winter and ends in spring.
The external action takes Tess step by step into painful isolation, while her internal movement goes from fantasy to reality. Her physical degradation accompanied with spiritual regeneration. In the first part, Tess’s ignorance of life is combined with her natural dreamy passivity, which causes her fall. The seduction itself is not important. What matters are their consequences, that is, how Tess
succeeds in coping with the new situation. She breaks free of the man who has mastered her body, and faces the harsh reality with dignity and courage. Physically stained, mentally she has progressed. Tess’s second chance of happiness merely repeats this pattern of illusion and reality. The villain is replaced by the romantic hero; her fear is replaced by love. The final part again repeats the pattern, but in reverse. The seasons change; now it goes from winter to summer; and the cycle is halted just before winter can return.
Factors contributing to Tess’ tragedy
Through Tess of the D‘Urbervilles Thomas Hardy explores the numerous aspects of human existence, which are inherently controlled by Fate, and he demonstrates Fate’s omnipresence through the uncanny（离奇的）coincidences, Tess's inherited tragic flaws and the pessimistic undertone of the novel.
Furthermore, by allocating all responsibility for Tess‘s downfall to a power outside of human control, Hardy not only absolves（宣告无罪）his heroine of her moralistic sins, but also attenuates（减弱）the crimes of the society that had so ruthlessly victimised a “pure woman.” Ultimately, Fate is not only the invisible and inexorable force that provides the crucial impetus for the narrative, but Hardy also assigned it the key role of conveying his final verdict（结论）on the tragedy of Tess.
Tess is strikingly attractive and distinguished by her keen sense of responsibility and morality. Sarcastically, such a pure young woman is victimized by her ideals of life in which responsibility and morality matter a lot to her. In order to make the plot more impressive, Thomas Hardy portrays Tess as unusual. As Gilbert Phelps said, "To be an unusual human being was to invite tragedy." Tess' tragedy is closely related to her unusual aspects, in terms of her family background and character.
Tess' fate is determined more by the unusualness of her character than her family background. Sometimes, one's character flaws play a decisive role in an individual's tragedy.
Character analysis---Tess
Tess is one of Hardy’s most sympathetic protagonists. She is as likeable as a literary character found in all of English literature. Readers come to understand her plight and her acceptance of the seemingly inevitable things that happen to her. Not once during the novel does Tess exhibit any traits that take away from Hardy’s portrayal of her as a good person. As a result, by the end of the novel, we wish for a happy ending for Tess and Angel, but we know that not all stories end on a positive note.
Tess is a simple country girl/woman who had a basic education growing up, but had little exposure to the wiles of the world outside Marlott. She has curiosity that goes beyond her basic education, as demonstrated when she debates religious and moral issues with both Angel and Alec. Her weakness is her innocence; she is unschooled “in the ways of the world” and therefore unable to protect herself. Tess chides her mother for not telling her full truth about a less-than-kind world: “Why didn’t you tell me there was danger in men-folk?”
Tess is the archetypal anti-heroine. That is, she does not win major battles or influence political decisions; instead, she inhabits her own small world and tries to
cope with the fate that life has dealt her. By the end of the novel, she is a complete, whole character, but the scale of her influence in her own world, Wessex, is small indeed. Nonetheless, Tess has heroic qualities that make her worthy of our admiration. These qualities are most evident in the following scenes: when she baptizes her infant son, Sorrow; when she endures the tortures of Alec’s violation and Angel’s abandonment; and when she finally and irrevocably rids herself of Alec’s influence. Thus, Tess is a heroine, but on an everyday, ordinary scale.
Fate plays a predominate role in what happens to Tess. The acknowledgement of the role of fate is summed up by the locals in the small town as “It was to be.” Even Tess realizes that she and her family are in a tough spot when Prince, the family horse, is killed and she must go to the Stoke-d’Urbervilles for financial recovery. Joan, Tess’ mother, realizing that her daughter has suffered several devastating blows by Alec says, “Well, we must make the best of it, I suppose.” Tess is resigned to accept Alec’s proposal near the end of the novel when she tells Angel, “I don’t care what he [Alec] did wi’ me!” Her own safety and happiness are of no consequence to her. Even when she must atone for murdering Alec, she accepts the inevitable as she is arrested for Alec’s death—“It is as it should be.” That is, she knows her attempt to avoid prosecution and ultimate death are futile, and she must accept her fate. She does so willingly.
Angel Clare is the youngest son of the Reverend and Mrs. Clare. He goes against what the family had intended for him, a career in the ministry. Instead, Angel pursues a career that seems opposite of what his family would like for him—farming. His education comes from his schooling and from his personal experiences. He seems more in tune to the true nature of religion, but in a more practical sense, unlike his university-educated brothers. Farming puts Angel on a level with the common folk who inhabit the rural English countryside. He even rejects the popular notion of farm folk as “Hodge,” or—as Hardy describes it—“the pitiable dummy” portrayed in the newspapers. Angel arrives at Talbothays to educate himself in the workings of a farm and falls for an unpretentious dairymaid, Tess.
Angel’s life is characterized by quick decisions that are not well thought out. He seems reasonable but makes decisions based on impulse, not rational thinking: his quick proclamation of love for Tess, his intent to go to Brazil, and his asking Izz to accompany him to South America. He sees the errors of his ways and regrets his past declarations: “Viewing her [Tess] in these lights, a regret for his hasty judgment began to oppress him.” He later asks Tess for forgiveness. But he exhibits the kind of decisions that ordinary people make in everyday situations. He promises to take care of Tess after she kills Alec and to make Liza-Lu as his wife after Tess is gone, and he lives up to that promise. Thus, Angel is a character likeable to most readers.
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is a poem written by the English poet Christopher Marlowe, who was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. He reformed the English drama and perfected the language and verse of dramatic works. It was Marlowe who first made blank verse the principal instrument of English drama.
This poem The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is a typical pastoral, that is, a type of poem that deals in an idealized way with shepherds and rustic life. It sings heartily for the pure and faithful love, which is the most beautiful thing in the world. The poem brings us to valleys, grooves, hills and fields, entertaining us with a joyous song flowing naturally from the heart of a lovely and harmonious picture of shepherds, sheep, roses and so on. In the beginning, the poet sketched a peaceful and fine view of shepherd’s surrounding, such as hills, valleys, all of which seemed essential in pastoral poetries. Then the shepherd promised his lover to give her what he can to make her happy, including “beds of roses”,” cap of flowers”, ”belt of straw and ivy -buds”. The writer showed pure and immortal love by reciting excellent verse .It also gives us a hint that though the flowers might wither and fall, human being’s faithful and sincere love won’t fade away. Besides, the word in this poetry is simple but elegant, which makes the poem so appealing to our hearts, especially to our ears. The poem impresses me with its musical beauty, and the structure is naturally conducted
I like this poem. It is not just because it shows me a typical image, but also because that it is a pastoral poem from that kind of China. Maybe Western culture is different from Chinese culture. Chinese poets wrote pastoral poems because of disappointment about the government or because the emperor did not like them. They wrote poems in a bad mood. They tried to release their sorrow in creating poems and in drinking a lot. Western poets wrote pastoral poems just because they wanted to do it. They enjoyed the beauty of nature and sing for it. Sometimes they wrote fine ?
He finally convinces her of his intentions to marry her, but his views of love and marriage seem to have very little flexibility: “Yet Clare ’s love was doubtless ethereal to a fault, imaginative to impracticability.”His weakness is his impractical, idealistic love of Tess. He later regrets his rashness and quick decisions and strives to make up to Tess.?Like Tess, Angel has a past, when he was nearly lead into a relationship with a woman in London. When Tess relates her own tale, he seems to have forgotten his own lurid tale and denies Tess the forgiveness that she so willingly grants him, thus indicating a flaw in Angel ’s character: his intractability. This flaw sets up the reason for Angel to reject Tess as a wife and begin his excursion to Brazil.
pastoral poems to present their love toward their lover. The culture background differs, so the atmosphere differs.
So I like the poem The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, which is a love one and makes me to trust pure true love.
The second stanza ’description is the idealization of the pastoral form, in which nature is benign and safe, filled with "shallow rivers" and "melodious birds." In the early pastoral tradition, the shepherd would be alone, daydreaming about the woman he loves. But in Marlowe's poem, the isolation of the shepherd is removed with his mistress by his side watching the flocks feeding and enjoying the peacefulness of country life.】
From the third stanza to the fifth stanza, an image of the shepherd's mistress begins to emerge. The woman is dressed from head to foot and wrapped up in "posies." If the woman takes the poet's promises quite literally, she would look like a huge floral bush that glitters with gold, coral, and amber. In the final two lines of the fifth stanza, the shepherd restates his plea that the woman consider his offer. The repetition of the first line makes clear how easy and simple the woman's choice would be to join the shepherd in love.】
辨析：Structure:
The poetry started out with a direct initiation. The speaker showed his purpose clearly, which is asking the woman he admired to be his lover. The following stanza showed a picture on what he would promise if she accepts to be his love. There was a heavenly like scene in the picture, he imagined them sitting upon the rocks, watching the other busy shepherd who had to work hard, and they relaxed themselves by listening to the birds' singing, and seeing the river falls. The shepherd also ensured her that he is willing to do whatever it takes to please her. This could be seen from the line 9~18. He made promises on difficult mission such as making bed of roses, thousand fragrant posies, and leaves of myrtle, coral clasps and amber studs…ext. From line 19, it responded to the idea of the first stanza that is to persuade the woman to be his love and to live with him. The repeating sentences "come live with me and be my love," may work as the function of emphasizing, and expression of eagerness. Speaker and Listener
The speaker is a passionate shepherd. He promises to his love a fanciful, and
somehow an unrealistic future. The shepherd does not rank high in the society; he is probably not wealthy at all. However, he is a very poetic person, he that imply possible proposal in the poetry. This statement is seen from words such as bed, slipper, and kirtle. Those daily used subjects in the family. The listener in this poetry is the shepherd's lover. There are no clues on her personality or appearance.
About the poem itself
Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” fits perfectly into the poetic genre of the period. Poets of the Elizabethan age used poetry as a way to express their wit and talent. It is likely that Marlowe’s poem would have been passed around among his friends long before its publication in 1599 in England, six years
after the poet’s death. Few Elizabethan poets published their own work, especially one as young as Marlowe, and so it is fairly certain that the poem was well-known long before its publication. In addition to being one of the most well-known love poems in the English language, it is considered one of the earliest examples of the pastoral style of British poetry in the late Renaissance period. It is often used for scholastic purposes because the poem is a good example of regular meter and rhythm. The composition date is thought to be about 1588, and probably it generated many responses well before its publication nearly a dozen years later. Among these responses was Sir Walter Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” (date unknown, but thought to be about 1592), which provides the woman’s response to Marlowe’s shepherd.
The speaker in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” is a shepherd, who pledges to do the impossible if only the female object of his desires will accept his pleas. The poem is static in time, with no history or clearly defined future. Only the present matters. There is never any suggestion that the poet is asking the woman for a long-term commitment; there is no offer of marriage nor does he offer a long-term future together. Instead, he asks her to come and live with him and seek pleasure in the moment. The use of “passionate” in the title suggests strong emotions, but may also refer to an ardent desire to possess the woman sexually, since there is never any declaration of love. The shepherd makes a number of elaborate promises that are generally improbable and occasionally impossible. The woman’s response is never heard, and she is not present in any way except as the object of the shepherd’s desire.
3. Type of the poem
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” is a pastoral poem. Pastoral poems generally center on the love of a shepherd for a maiden (as in Marlowe’s poem), on the death of a friend, or on the quiet simplicity of rural life. The writer of a pastoral poem may be an educated city dweller, like Marlowe, who extols the virtues of a shepherd girl or longs for the peace and quiet of the country. Pastoral is derived from the Latin word pastor, meaning shepherd.
4. Characters in the poem
The Passionate Shepherd: He importunes a woman—presumably a young and pretty country girl—to become his sweetheart and enjoy with him all the pleasures that nature has to offer. The Shepherd’s Love: The young woman who receives the Passionate Shepherd’s message. Swains: Young country fellows whom the Passionate Shepherd promises will dance for his beloved.
5. Theme
The theme of “The Passionate Shepherd” is the rapture of springtime love in a simple, rural setting. Implicit in this theme is the motif of carpe diem—Latin for “seize the day.” Carpe diem urges people to enjoy the moment without worrying about the future.
6. The Poem’s Enduring Appeal
Over the centuries, Marlowe’s little poem has enjoyed widespread popularity because it captures the joy of simple, uncomplicated love. The shepherd does not
worry whether his status makes him acceptable to the girl; nor does he appear concerned about money or education. The future will take carry of itself. What matters is the moment. So, he says, let us enjoy it—sitting on a rock listening to the birds.
Sonnet75
Spenserian stanza. ―Sonnet 75 was according to this structure, which is special in the rhyme abab bcbc cdcd ee:
Theme
time and immortality.
the transience of life, and the decline of youth and beauty.
love and sea image
Spenser's love poem seldom separate from the ocean image.
All change except the true love.
Feature
Metaphor.The use of image is the most highlight in this poem.
The wave's ebb and flow symbolizes the human's life.
The image --sea is contraditory, both the living and death.
Only the love won't change, because poem makes it eternal.
First-person view
The poet put himself in the center of the poem, to express his situation, emotion, and faith.
Structure and Rhyme
This sonnet can be read in the structure of three quatrains and a couplet.
And the rhyme is abab bcbc cdcd ee
The order of the verse is the development and change of love.
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
激情牧人的情歌
Come live with me and be my love
来，与我同住，做我的爱人
And we will all the pleasures prove
我们将证实所有的欢乐
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields
冈峦丛林，溪谷田野
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
和危岩峭壁的群山所滋生的
And we will sit upon the rocks
我们将并肩坐在那山石上
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
看牧童喂他的羊群
By shallow rivers to whose falls
在浅流小溪旁，与流水相抑扬
Melodious birds sing madrigals
悦耳的小鸟齐声鸣唱情歌
And I will make thee a bed of roses
在那里我要为你砌玫瑰花床
And a thousand fragrant poises
和无数芳香馥郁的花束
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
制一顶饰有花朵的帽子，一件短裙
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle
每一处都绣满爱神木的叶子
A gown made of the finest wool
一件上好羊毛织成的长袍
Which from our pretty lambs we pull
从我们漂亮的小羊身上采下
Fair lined slippers for the cold
寒冬时为你送上里衬舒适的拖鞋
With buckles of the purest gold
缝上纯金制成的扣结
A belt of the straw and ivy buds
麦秆与长青藤做你的腰带
With coral clasps and amber studs
珊瑚为钩，琥珀为钮
And if these pleasures may thee move
倘使这些欢乐打动了你
Come live with me and be my love
来，与我同住，做我的爱人
The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
牧童要成群为你歌舞
For thy delight each May morning
在每个五月的清晨为了使你愉悦
If these delights thy mind move
倘使这些欢乐令你动心
Then live with me and be my love
来，与我同住，做我的爱人
Sonnet 75
This kind of interlocking pattern made the two quatrains connect closely, which is consistence with the romantic dialogues between poet and his lover. And the main theme of the poem was expressed naturally. Romantic dialogues, fluent structure
made the whole poem more like a prose. Exactly, it became a prose poem. Sonnet 75 was also according to the tradition of iambic feet, emphasizing on unstressed syllable and stressed syllable which is corresponding with tide’s fluctuation. When readers read it, as if they were in the shore and have watched the scenes by themselves.
Looking into the contents of this sonnet, we find that Spenser claims to give her wife immortality in his verse. Line 1 tells of how the man wrote his beloved's name on the beach, Line2 of how the wave washed them away, Line 3 and 4 of how he rewrote them and the tide erased them again. Line 5-8wrote is about his beloved
words. She criticized the man saying all these are in vain. Like she herself will die and vanish, her name also can not stay on the beach forever. The first four lines of the octet have described the action of the sea; the second four lines then quote the beloved as drawing a moral from that action. Spenser thus makes explicit the parallel between the transitory words and mortal human life. The octet contains a step-by-step argument. And then in the sestet Spenser made a claim that his verse will bestow immortality upon the beloved.
Edmund Spenser is a representative English poet in the period of the Renaissance; it is obvious to find that the author displayed humanity’s desire in pursuing of truth, goodness and beauty in this sonnet. For example:
―Not I‖, quod I, ―let baser things devize,‖
To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame;
Here, poet first made a contrast——His lover and ―baser things‖. Different people had different results depending on one thing——character. What were characters of ―baser things‖? They were impudent, despicable and vacuous. The result of baser things is to ―devize‖. Poet thought his lover was opposite to baser things. Therefore, it is easy to know what characters of his lover were. She must have not only the beautiful appearance, but also have rare virtues. Compared with ―baser things‖, his lover has dazzling brilliance. Therefore, in the following line, poet said:‖ My verse your virtues rare shall eternize‖. ―Virtues rare shall eternize‖. That is right. The body of human is destined to disappear whereas the spirit, the virtue of human can be immortal. The true love can be immortal.
In a word, Sonnet 75 has two aspects. One is that poem can keep his lover perpetual. As a kind of genuine art creation, poem can contend with time. His lover can exist forever in his poems and his poems can exist in the world forever. The other is that his poems expressed the main ideas of humanism, which means considering human beings as the true master of fate, putting human in the core position of the universe. All of these embodied the humanity fully.
那天，我在沙滩上写下她的芳名，
浪涛打来，字迹被洗劫一空，
我又一次的把它写下，
潮汐再次掠夺了我的辛苦。
“蠢货”她指责，“凡俗的事物
怎么可能不朽，瞎耽误工夫。
连我自己也会花容凋谢，
更何况名字消除殆尽，亦是自然。”
“错了”我说，“卑微的事物
终归入了尘土，但你美名永世难除：
我诗文令你美德彰明而恒长，
也令你名讳的光芒闪烁于天堂。
虽然死亡让世间一切臣服屈从，
而我们的爱永在，生命重燃。
远大前程
Plot
The story is divided into three phases of Pip’s life expectations.
Ⅰ. When Pip was young, he wanted to become a blacksmith like his brother in law.
Ⅱ. His meeting with Havisham changed his attitude towards life, and he admired he decent way of living like a gentleman. He met Estella and fell love with her, but he cannot marry her because of his inferior status and his expectations changed- raise his social status and to become a gentleman, get a better education and then marry Estella.
Ⅲ. Pip realized the money and social status is not the most important thing in life. What is important is love and loyalty. Man’s true value has nothing to do with his money and status.
Themes
A novel about "great expectations", or dreams and disillusions
The personal development of Pip from a innocent, honest boy to a vain, selfish, snobbish young gentleman. The painful experience in the struggle to grow up, to “climb up” or to succeed in the commercialized world.
Ambition and self-improvement
Crime, Guilt, and Innocence
Three stages of human development
Innocence
experience and
higher stage of innocence
Symbols
Satis House
The Mists on the Marshes
Satis House (Miss Havisham's house)
A magnificent Gothic setting symbolizes Pip’s romantic perception of upper classes. Miss Havisham’s wedding dress on her decaying body is a symbol of death and degeneration. The wedding feast and the stopped clocks symbolize her attempt to stick to that day; the brewery next to the house indicates the connection between commerce and wealth, for her fortune is of a recent success in industrial capitalism; the crumbling dilapidated stones of the house and darkness and dust suggest the general decadence of the lives of its inhabitants and the upper class.
The mists on the marshes
The misty marshes are used several times to symbolize danger and uncertainty. Whenever Pip goes into the mists, something dangerous is likely to happen. Significantly, Pip must go through the mists when receiving his fortune, which alerts the reader the apparently positive development in his life may have dangerous consequences.