英语诗歌鉴赏知识

英语诗歌鉴赏知识

英诗浩瀚，篇幅长短不一，长至成集，短至仅句。为使英语学习者了解英诗，特拟此文，从实用角度阐述英诗的欣赏：诗的格律、诗的押韵、诗的体式、诗的评判。

诗以高度凝结的语言表达着人们的喜怒哀乐，用其特有的节奏与方式影响着人们的精神世界。诗讲究联想，运用象征、比喻、拟人等各种修辞手法，形成了独特的语言艺术。（有关修辞手法可参考相关书籍）。

一、诗的格律

“格律是指可以用脚打拍子的节奏”，是每个音步轻重音节排列的格式，也是朗读时轻重音的依据。而音步是由重读音节和非重读音节构成的诗的分析单位。重读音节为扬（重），在音节上用“－”或“ˊ”标示，非重读音节为抑（轻），在音节上用“︶”标示，音步之间可用“／”隔开。以下是五种常见格式：

1．抑扬格（轻重格）Iambus：是最常见的一种格式，每个音步由一个非重读音节加一个重读音节构成。

As fair / art thou / my bon/nie lass,

So deep / in luve / am I :

And I / will luve / thee still,/ my dear,

Till a` / the seas / gang dry:

Robert Burns(1759-1796): My Luve Is like a Red, Red Rose

注；art=are luve=love bonnie=beautiful a`=all ga ng=go

上例中为四音步与三音步交叉，可标示为：︶－／︶－／︶－／（︶－）

2．扬抑格（重轻格）Trochee：每个音步由一个重读音节加一个非重读音节构成。

下例中为四音步扬抑格（少一个轻音节），可标示为：－︶／－︶／－︶／－

Tyger!/ Tyger!/ burning / bright

In the / forests / of the / night

William Blake: The Tyger

3．抑抑扬格（轻轻重格）Anapaestic foot: 每个音步由两个非重读音节加一个重读音节构成。如：三音步抑抑扬格︶︶－／︶︶－／︶︶－

Like a child / from the womb,

Like a ghost / from the tomb,

I arise / and unbuild / it again.

4．扬抑抑格（重轻轻格）Dactylic foot: 每个音步由一个重读音节加两个非重读音节构成。如：两音步扬抑抑格－︶︶／－︶︶

ˊTouch her not / ˊscornfully,

ˊThink of her / ˊmournfully.

-- Thomas Hood

5．抑扬抑格（轻重轻格）Amphibrach：每个音步由一个非重读音节加一个重读音节再加一个非重读音节构成。如：三音步抑扬抑格︶－︶／︶－︶／︶－︶

下例中最后一个音步为抑扬格。

O ˊhush thee / my ˊbabie / thy ˊsire was / a knight.

在同一首诗中常会出现不同的格律，格律解析对朗读诗歌有一定参考价值。现代诗中常不遵守规范的格律。

二、诗的押韵

押韵是指通过重复元音或辅音以达到一定音韵效果的诗歌写作手法。

1．尾韵：最常见，最重要的押韵方式。

1）联韵：aabb型。

I shot an arrow into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;

For, so swiftly it flew, the sight

Could not follow it in its flight.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: The Arrow and the Song

2）交叉韵：abab型。

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea,

Alfred Tennyson(1809-1892): Crossing the Bar

3）同韵：有的诗押韵，一韵到底，大多是在同一节诗中共用一个韵脚。

如下例就共用／i:p／为韵脚。

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost (1874-1963): Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

2．头韵：是指一行（节）诗中几个词开头的辅音相同，形成押韵。下例中运用／f／、／b／与／s／头韵生动写出了船在海上轻快航行的景象。

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free,

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.

T.S. Coleridge: Rime of the Acient Mariner

3．内韵（同元音）：指词与词之间原因的重复形成的内部押韵。

下面一节诗中／i／及／iη／重复照应，呈现出一派欢乐祥和的气氛。

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king;

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,

Cold dath not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

Cuckoo,jug-jug,pu-we,to-witta-woo!

Thomas Nashe(1567-1601): Spring, the Sweet Spring

三、诗的体式

有的诗分成几节（stanza），每节由若干诗行组成（每行诗均以大写字母开头）；有的诗则不分节。目前我们常见的诗体有：

1．十四行诗 (Sonnet)，源于中世纪民间抒情短诗，十三、十四世纪流行于意大利，意大利彼特拉克（Petrarch）为代表人物，每行十一个音节，全诗一节八行，加一节六行，韵脚用abba, abba, cdcdcd (cdecde)。前八行提问，后六行回答。

后来，怀亚特（Thomas Wyatt,1503-1542）将十四行诗引人英国，五音步抑扬

格，全诗三个四行一个二行,前三节提问，后二句结论。斯宾塞（Edmund

Spenser,1552-1599）用韵脚abab, bcbc,cdcd,ee。莎士比亚（William

Shakespeare,1564-1616）用韵脚abab,cdcd,dfdf,gg，称英国式或莎士比亚式。举

例见本文第四部分。

2．打油诗（Limericks）：通常是小笑话甚至是胡诌，一般没有标题也无作者姓名，含有幽默讽刺性，常运用双关，内韵等手法。每首诗五个诗行，押韵为aabba，格律以抑扬格和抑抑扬格为主。

1) There was a young lady of Nigger

Who smiled as she rode on a tiger;

They returned from the ride

With the lady inside,

And the smile on the face of the tiger.

2) A tutor who taught on the flute

Tried to teach two tooters to toot,

“Is it harder to toot, or

Said the two to the tutor,

To tutor two tooters to toot?”

3．无韵体（Blank Verse）：五音步抑扬格，不押韵诗体。

Across the watery bale , and shout again,

Responsive to his call, -- with quivering peals,

And long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud.

Redoubled and redoubled:concourse wild

Of jocund din!…

William Wordsworth: There Was a Boy

4．自由诗（Free Verse）:现代诗中常见的体式，长短不同的诗行存在于同一首诗中，不讲究押韵与格律，只注重诗歌所表达的意象和传递的情感。美国诗人Walt Whitman的<<草叶集>>（Leaves of Grass）中，就采用此格式。例子见第四部分。

四、诗的评判

对一首诗，个人的感受会有不同。节奏流畅，语言精炼，联想新颖的诗可算是好诗。堆砌词藻，一味抒发感情而无实际内容的诗，只能是下乘的诗。

二十世纪英美诗歌大量采用自由诗体，接近口语，可谓大胆创新，大概也是诗歌发展的大势所趋吧。以下通过三首诗的分析看诗的评判。

1．That Time of Year

That time of year thou may’st in me b ehold

When yellow leaves,or none,or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang,

In me thou see’st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

When by and by black night doth take away,

Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie.

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

This you perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Notes:may’st:may behold:see late:no long ago thou:you see’st:see

fadeth:fades doth:does seals up all at rest:彻底埋葬

thy:your perceivest: perceive ere long: before long

此诗是莎士比亚（William Shakespeare, 1564-1616）的一首十四行诗。作为英国文学巨匠，他以37部剧作和154首十四行诗屹立于世界文坛。

此诗为五音步抑扬格，每个诗行格律为：︶－／︶－／︶－／︶－／︶－／。

全诗涉及衰老、死亡及爱情问题。前十二行：通过描写深秋的树枝黄叶凋零，曾是百鸟争鸣的歌坛，联想到自身青春会如夕阳消逝在远方，被黑夜吞没；自身的青春会如将尽的柴火奄奄一息，被曾滋养过它的火焰焚化。其中choirs （歌坛），deathbed（灵床）使用暗喻手法，同时又用夕阳和柴火象征人的衰

老死亡。最后两行：点题，人们对即将永别的东西会更珍惜。本文动词变化具有明显的伊利沙白时代的特点。

2．The Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed --- and gazed --- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

Ans then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Notes: a crowd, a host of: many sprightly:happy glee:joy

jocund:happy bliss:complete happiness pensive:sadly thoughtful

华兹华斯（William Wordsworth，1770-1850），十九世纪初英格兰北部湖区三大“湖畔派诗人”（浪漫主义）之一。此诗向我们描绘了一幅美好的自然景象，同时抒发作者对自然美景的喜欢。黄水仙据说是威尔士国花（1282年，威尔士归顺英格兰，被封公国），在英国广泛栽种，春季开花，花期不长。有许多关于黄水仙的诗歌，这首诗无疑是脱颖而出的。

全诗语言精炼，通俗易懂，四音步抑扬格，分四节（stanza），每节6行，每节押韵均为ababcc。

第一节写诗人孤寂时外出散步，偶遇水仙；第二节写水仙争相开放，千姿百态；第三节，诗人看到这景象感到欣喜异常；第四节写诗人在日后忧郁时，回想当时情景，又让他心中充满了欢乐，随着水仙跳起舞来。

3. Song of Myself

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,

I learn and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,

Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,

I, now thirty seven years old in perfect health begin,

Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance,

Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten.

I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard.

Nature without check with original energy.

Notes: a spear of: a piece of school:学说，流派 hazard:chance

abeyance: the condition of not being in use for a certain time

惠特曼（Walt Whitman,1819-1892），美国诗人。此诗选自其巨著<<草叶集>>。本文是Song of Myself 一诗的第一部分，采用自由诗体，语言接近当时的美国口语。

文中I指作者，you指读者，这种写法使读者身临其境，进入作者描写的世界。作者在文中表明人的价值是平等的，同时他把自己融入到自然带给他的启发思考中。

从上看出，诗歌的欣赏评判并非可望而不可及，关键要抓住诗中的意象，了解其语义，以便把握诗的大意。纵然每个人的读后感会有不同，但每个人都会在阅读过程中感受到诗歌带来的美和精神上的共鸣。