朗费罗和生命颂

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

?Outline:

?Introduction

?Life and Career

?Major Works

?Contributions and Limitation

?Writing Style

? A Psalm of Life

?Introduction

Name: Longfellow

Nationality: America

Born: February 27,1807 in Portland

Died: March 24,1882 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Career: poet professor

?Life and Career

1.Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, to Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah

(Wadsworth) Longfellow in Portland, Maine, and he grew up in what is now known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House.

2.Henry was enrolled in a dame school (an early form of a private elementary school in

English-speaking countries. ) at the age of three and by age six was enrolled at the private Portland Academy.

3.In the fall of 1822, the 15-year-old Longfellow enrolled at Bowdoin College in

Brunswick, Maine, alongside his brother Stephen.

4.After graduating in 1825, he was offered a job as professor of modern languages at his

alma mater.

5.Then he went to Europe to study language, against the wish of his father who thought his

son should become a lawyer. For 4 years, he studied languages in France, Spain, Italy, Germany and England.

6.In Madrid, he spent time with Washington Irving and was particularly impressed by the

author's work ethic. Irving encouraged the young Longfellow to pursue writing.

7.He served as a professor of modern languages at Bowdoin College from 1829---1835.

8.He taught modern languages at Harvard from 1836 to 1854.

9.His first marriage ended in 1835, when his wife died. In 1843, he married the daughter of

a wealthy industrialist who gave him wealth, and domestic happiness.

10.He spent his last days in Cambridge in 1882.

11.He is the only American man of letters to be honored with a bust in the Poet’s Conner in

Westminster Abbey.

? Major Works

1) V oices of the Night (1839)

?夜吟?

his first collection of poems

2) Ballads and Other Poems (1841)

?歌谣及其他?

Ballads and Other Poem contains:

(1 ) The Village Blacksmith 《乡村铁匠》

(2) A Psalm of Life 《人生礼赞》

(3) The Skeleton in Aromor 《铠甲骷髅》

3) Evangeline ?伊凡吉林?

4) Hiawatha, based on American Indian legends . ?海华沙之歌?

5) Tales of a Wayside Inn

?路畔旅舍的故事?

6) His translation of Divine Comedy

《神曲》of Dante

? Contributions and Limitation

Contributions :

1. He is the most important one of the “New England

P oets ”(other poets: William Cullen Bryant, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes and John Greenleaf Whittier).

2. Based on his knowledge of European literary tradition, he became a master of sonnets and reflective lyric.

3. He did a great service to American literature in domesticating certain forms from European literature.

4. His search for new forms and his efforts in conveying didacticism （教导主义） in popular poems brought him a popularity with the common readers in America that has never been approached by any other poet.

He was also important as a translator; his translation of Dante became a required possession for those who wanted to be a part of high culture. He also encouraged and supported other translators. In honor of Longfellow's role with translations, Harvard established the Longfellow Institute in 1994, dedicated to literature written in the United States in languages other than

English.

Mary Storer Potter

became

Longfellow's first

wife in 1831 and

died four years later.

After a seven-year courtship, Longfellow married Frances Appleton in

1843.

Contemporary writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote to Longfellow in May 1841 of his "fervent admiration which [your] genius has inspired in me" and later called him "unquestionably the best poet in America".

Limitation：

1.He failed to reflect what he felt personally, instead of what he attained from reading.

2.His poems lack of such depth and insight of a great artist as that of Whitman.

For the reasons above, Longfellow's popularity rapidly declined, beginning shortly after his death and into the 20th century as academics began to appreciate poets like Walt Whitman, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Robert Frost.

?Poetic Style

?Simplicity, directness, sweetness, purity, gentleness, musicality, sentimentality

?Belong to the milder aspect of the romantic movement, and strongly influenced by the German romantic lyrists

?Major themes: idealized vision of world and life

?Major Themes, Historical Perspectives, and Personal Issues

Longfellow's themes in the poems in this collection are nearly indistinguishable from those of his contemporaries in England. It's useful to show him, therefore, as an example of the branch of American literature that created itself in admiring imitation of English literature. He is also that rare thing, a genuine celebrity of a poet, whose fame has subsided and whose stature has shrunk accordingly. Many of the poems we now admire most are from his later years, and conform better to modern taste than the poems for which he was famous in his lifetime. Thus, he can be used as a good example of the ways in which changing literary tastes alter literary reputations.

?Significant Form, Style, or Artistic Conventions

Longfellow's poems are not only accessible in their meaning, but they are also highly regular in their form. It is very simple to teach metrics with Longfellow because he provides easy and memorable examples of so many metrical schemes. These can be presented in connection with Longfellow's personal history, for he is of course an academic poet, and as such a poet writing often self-consciously from a learned perspective. Thus, nothing with him seems wholly spontaneous or accidental.

A Psalm of Life, 1839

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

—What the Heart of the Young Man said to the Psalmist

朗费罗《人生颂》

年青人的心对歌者说的话——

不要在哀伤的诗句里告诉我：Tell me not, in mornful numbers,

“人生不过是一场幻梦！”"Life is but an empty dream!"

灵魂睡着了，就等于死了，For the soul is dead that slumbers,

事物的真相与外表不同。And things are not what they seem.

人生是真切的！人生是实在的！Life is real! Life is earnest!

它的归宿决不是荒坟；And the grave is not its goal;

①“你本是尘土，必归于尘土”，"Dust thou art, to dust returnest."

这是指躯壳，不是指灵魂。Was not spoken of the soul.

我们命定的目标和道路Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

不是享乐，也不是受苦；Is our destined end or way;

而是行动，在每个明天But to act, that each to-morrow

都超越今天，跨出新步。Find us farther than to-day.

②智艺无穷，时光飞逝；Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

这颗心，纵然勇敢坚强，And our hearts, though stout and brave,

也只如鼙鼓，闷声敲动着，Still, like muffled drums, are beating

一下又一下，向坟地送丧。Funeral marches to the grave.

世界是一片辽阔的战场，In the world's broad field of battle,

人生是到处扎寨安营；In the bivouac of life,

莫学那听人驱策的哑畜，Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

做一个威武善战的英雄！Be a hero in the strife!

别指望将来，不管它多可爱！Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!

把已逝的过去永久掩埋！Let the dead Past bury its dead!

行动吧－－趁着活生生的现在！Act, - act in the living Present!

心中有赤心，头上有真宰！Heart within, and God o'evhead!

伟人的生平启示我们：Lives of great men all remind us

我们能够生活得高尚，We can make our lives sublime,

而当告别人世的时候，And, departing, leave behind us

③留下脚印在时间的沙上；Footprints on the sand of time;

也许我们有一个兄弟Footprints, that perhaps another,

航行在庄严的人生大海，Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

遇险沉了船，绝望的时刻， A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

会看到这脚印而振作起来。Seeing, shall take heart again.

那么，让我们起来干吧，Let us, then, be up and doing,

对任何命运要敢于担待；With a heart for any fate;

不断地进取，不断地追求，Still achieving, still pursuing,

要善于劳动，善于等待。Learn to labor and to wait.

①“你本是尘土，必归于尘土”，这是耶和华对亚当说的话，见《旧约·创世记》第3章。

②此语原出于古希腊医学家希波克拉底（约前460-前377）的《格言集》。

③“沙”指古代计时用的沙漏中的沙粒。“时间的沙”指人类的历史。而从下一节诗来看，这里的“沙”又可解释为“人生大海”岸边的沙滩。

《人生颂》是19世纪美国诗人朗费罗最著名的抒情诗之一。它以一位年轻人的口吻表达了诗人对人生的见解，以及如何认识生命的时间性，并指出人生的目标、道路在于行动和不断的自我超越。

《人生颂》一诗是朗费罗最著名的抒情诗之一。它首次发表在一份名为《内克波克》（Knickbocker Magazine）的杂志上，后来收入诗人的第一部诗集《夜吟》中。该诗以一位年轻人的口吻来表达诗人对人生的见解（避免了诗人直接说教之嫌），在前两小节开门见山，以什么是人生起笔，诗人同时故意设置一个悲观人生论的“歌者”作为批驳的对象，反对将肉体的必死性作为把人生视为一场幻多的因由，以恢复生命的灵性维度来维护人生的现实意义。因此，这两节已经预示了下面要进一步引申的两点内容：一是如何对待生命的时间性，二是如何认识和评定这样的生命。所以，从第三小节开始，诗人以如何度过人生为承接，开始阐释全诗的主题，指出人生的目标和道路在于行动和不断的自我超越。人生既然是真刃而实在的，那么就应该“趁着活生生的现在”而行动，就应该做一个敢于面对一切现实的“威武善战的英雄”。在第七、八小节，诗\转入到对人生价值的诠释上，以说明人生要如此度过的终极意义——那些伟大的勇敢者的生命划出的轨迹终究不会消失，它留在“时间的沙上”（即人类的历史上），给后人带来永恒的启示。第九小节是对全诗的总结，呼吁人们行动起来，不断追求，不断进取，以拥有一个有意义有价值的人生。从整体结构上看，全诗层层递进，环环相扣，起承转合，十分自然，体现出诗人不凡的技巧和构思。

这首诗属于典型的教谕诗，体现了朗费罗的诗学理念。朗费罗是积极的“为人生而艺术”论者，主张艺术应该鞭挞现实，激扬人们的生活热情与斗志，从而造福人类。他在《歌手们》一诗中指出诗人有三项任务：娱悦、鼓舞和教导。为了实现这样的目的，朗费罗的诗歌往往选用最常见的英文传统格式和常见的语言，用词口语化，琅琅上口，易于让普通读者阅读并引发他们的共鸣。《人生颂》即采用传统格律诗中最常用的四行诗节形式，诗行则主要采用抑扬格四音步（有一部分是三音步），一轻一重的音节在同一行诗里出现四次。此诗韵律整齐，采用a，a-b，c-d-c-d，e-f-e-f这样的隔行韵形式，而且脚韵还穿插了单韵和双韵的变化，奇数行用双韵，偶数行用单韵，如第一小节中一、三行的“numbers”“slumbers”，二、四行的“dream”“seem”。双韵幽婉明快，单韵则强劲有力，两者的乏叉使用无疑进一步增强了该诗抑扬顿挫的节奏感。除此以外，部分诗行还采用了头韵的修辞形式，如诗中第三行、第六行、第八行与第十七行中的soul and slumbers，grave and goal，spoken and soul，broad and battle 等皆为典型的头韵修辞法。所有这些韵格、脚韵与头韵的运用从总体上形成了这首诗工整和谐的韵律，使之节奏明快、语气流畅，读起来铿锵有力，优美动听，而这又恰好与诗的思想内涵珠联壁合，共同给人们带来一种奋发向上的感觉，具有极强的感染力，与当时正值西进运动与工业革命时期的美国人那种蒸蒸日上、拼搏进取的时代精神十分吻合，这也许就是它能够广为流传的根本原因所在。