英语诗歌的韵律

英语诗歌的韵律(metre)英诗节奏(Rhythm) 构成英诗节奏的基础是韵律(metre)。在希腊语中，“metre”这个字是“尺度(标谁)”的意思。英诗就是根据诗行中的音节和重读节奏作为“尺度(标准)”来计算韵律的。

英诗的特点之一是与其他文体不同的排列格式。各诗行不达到每页页边，每行开始词首大写。几行成为一节(stanza)，不分段落。各行都要讲究一定的音节数量，行末押韵或不押韵，交错排列。

……音节重读(stressed)，非重读(unstressed)。……这就是一种正规的重读形式，在诗歌中即体现为韵律。研究诗歌韵律规则的科学叫作韵律学(Prosody)。

1．音步(Foot)：

英诗中这种重读与非重读音节的特殊性组合叫作音步。一个音步的音节数量可能为两个或三个音节，但不能少于两个或多于三个音节，而且其中只有一个必须重读。分析英诗的格律就是将它划分成音步，并区分出是何种音步以及计算音步的数量。这种音步划分叫scansion。根据一首英诗组成的音步数量，每一诗行一个音步称“单音步”(monometer)；每一诗行有两个音步的，称“双音步”(dimeter)；含有三个音步的，称“三音步”(trimeter)；此外还有四音步(tetrameter）、五音步、(pentameter)、六音步(hexameter)、七音步(heptameter)、八音步(octometer)。

Is this | a fast, | to keep

The lard | or lean

And clean? (Herrick)

2．韵律(Metre)：

英诗的韵律是依据音步包含音节的数量及重读音节的位置而加以区分的。传统英诗的音步有六种：即:抑扬格(Lambus)、扬抑格(Trochee)、抑抑扬格(Anapaest)、扬抑抑格(Dactyl)及：扬抑抑格(Dactyl)及抑扬抑格(Amphibrach)：

“⌒”非重读音节；“／”重读音节。

英诗的韵(rhyme)

英语诗歌的押韵可以根据单词的内音素重复的部位不同而分成不同种类，最常见的有头韵（Alliteration）、谐元韵（Assonance）和尾韵（Rhyme）。头韵指词首重复，如great和grew；谐元韵是指词中重读元音重复，如great和fail；尾韵则指词尾音素重复，如great 和bait。但一行诗中可能同时存在多种押韵形式：

The light that lies in women''s eyes. --Thomas Moore

这行诗中既有头韵light和lies，谐元韵light、lies、eyes，又有且有尾韵（这种押韵方式称行中韵middle rhyme）lies和eyes。

英语诗歌的行与行之间的押韵格式称韵法（rhyming scheme）。常见有两行转韵（AABB）、隔行押韵（ABCB）、隔行交互押韵（ABAB）

和交错押韵（ABBA）。

英诗体例：

十四行诗(sonnet)：过去也曾音译为《商籁诗》。十四行，抑扬格，五音步用作全诗的形式。首先出现于意大利，16世纪中传入英国，为伊丽莎白时代(伊丽莎白一世在位时期为1558一1603)文人所宠爱，莎士比亚、斯宾塞及西德尼(sidney)全都写下过著名的十四行诗。18世纪十四行诗曾受到冷落。但后又被浪漫派诗人济慈、沃兹沃斯等人所复兴，以后许多诗人也多所采用。英国十四行诗有两种类型：意大利式(Petrarvhan)及莎士比业式(Shakesperoan)(英国式)。

A．意大利式十四行诗：模仿意大利诗人皮特拉克(Petrarch)所创的样式，由两部分组成：第一部分八行(The Octave)，由两个四行诗体(Quatrains)组成，韵脚是abbaabba；第二部分六行(The Sestet)，韵脚可有不同形式。按严格的意大利十四行诗体，在前八行结尾诗意应告一段落，而后六行又转入新的诗意。

B．莎士比亚式十四行诗：由三个四行诗体组成，韵脚交替进行。最后是押韵的双行诗体。整个韵脚是ababcdcdefefgg。在莎士比亚式十四行诗中意境一气呵成，直到最后双行体，为全诗高潮。除莎士比亚外，其他诗人也采用此种形式。

SONNET 21

So is not with me as with that Muse,

Stirr''d by a painted beauty to his verse,

Who heaven itself for ornament doth use

And every fair with his fair doth rehearse, Making a couplement of proud compare,

With sun and moon, with earth and sea''s rich gems.

With April''s first-born flowers, and all things rare That heaven''s air in this huge rondure hems.

O, let metrue in love, but truly write,

And then believe me, my love is as fair

As any mother''s child, though not so bright

As those gold candles fix''d in heaven’s air.

Let them say more that like of hearsay well;

I will not praise that purpose not to sell. (Shakespaere)

《十四行诗集》第21首

我的诗神①并不像那一位持神

只知运用脂粉涂抹他的诗句，

连苍穹也要搬下来作妆饰品，

罗列每个佳丽去称赞他的佳丽，

用种种浮夸的比喻作成对偶，

把他之太阳、月亮、海陆的瑰宝，

四月的鲜花，和这浩荡的宇宙

蕴藏在它的怀里的一切奇妙。

哦，让我既真心爱，就真心歌唱，

而且，相信我，我的爱可以媲美

任何母亲的儿子，虽然论明亮

比不上挂在天空的金色烛台。

谁喜欢空话，让他尽说个不穷；

我志不在出售，自用不着祷颂。

见《梁宗岱译诗集》，第107页，湖南人民出版社，1983年版。

①(原译注)诗神：即诗人，下面用男性代词“他”字。

哀歌elegy

为哀悼一位公共活动家、一位友人或所爱的人而写的一种沉思抒情诗；推而广之，又指悲叹人世无常的、题材更广泛的任何内省性质的抒情诗。在古典文学中，所谓哀歌只不过用哀歌格律（诗行交替使用扬抑抑格的六音步句和五音步句)写的诗篇，题材也不限制。在某些现代文学，例如德国文学中，人们使哀歌格律适应于语言，因此哀歌一词变成只指这种格律，而不是指诗歌的内容。

《简明不列颠百科全书》中国大百科全书出版社1985年版170

页超星存其它可参阅的读物（Dasha注：文中许多概念不统一，请注意，以其中英文的定义为准）：

谢祖钧, 《英语修辞》, 1988年6月第1版, 第151-179页

王佐良丁往道, 《英语文体学引论》, 1987年12月第1版, 第365-385页

陈淑华, 《英语修辞与翻译（英汉对照）》, 1990年6月第1版, 第321-324页

徐鹏, 《英语辞格》, 1996年10月第1版, 第341-450页

梁守涛《英诗格律浅说》商务印书馆1979

Metrics in English Poetry By Samuel Schuman, Univ. of MN, Morris

Metrics How to go about the analysis of the rhythm, the meter and the rhyme scheme of an English poem.

(作者通篇都是用下面这首简单的小诗来介绍诗歌)

A Stupid Poem

I put my hat upon my head And walked into the strand And there I met

another man Whose hat was in his hand.

First, divide the lines into syllables(音节), and count them:

I / put / my / hat / up/on / my / head (8) And / walked / in/to / the /

strand (6) And / there / I / met / a/noth/er / man (8) Whose / hat / was /

in / his / hand (6)

(诗歌分析的第一步是划分音节。对我们这样非英语母语的人可能有点困难。基本的方法是一个元音一个音节，例如upon是两个音节，another是三个音节。有的时候诗人为了强调方言等原因，会使用省略字，这种情况就要具体问题具体分析了。也有的时候是为了凑音节而省略的)

Which syllables are accented or “stressed?”(重读)

“Stress” in English poetic metrics means “said loudly.” It has

nothing to do with the tension in your life. The symbol u means unstressed; the symbol / means stressed(诗歌里的重读，与一个单词本身发音里的重读未必是一回事。一般来说，重读的词，都是有实际意义，在句子中起重要作用的词。只要听清重读的词，就能够理解一句话的意思。比如第一句，听清了put/hat/pon/head

这四个字就大致知道说的是什么，而只听清楚I/my/u/my 这四个字的话......)

u / u / u / u /

u / u / u / u / I put my hat upon my head u / u / u / And walked into the

strand u / u / u / u / And there I met another man u / u / u / Whose hat

was in his hand

Notice the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables:

In this poem, there is a repeated pattern of one unstressed syllable

followed by one stressed syllable: (在这首诗里面，总是一个重读的音节跟着一个非重读的音节)

I PUT / my HAT / upON / my HEAD

The smallest unit (always 2 or 3 syllables) of repeated patterned stress is called a “poetic foot.”(音步? 我译的对吗？) Here, the first foot is “I put”the second “my hat”and so on.(若干个重读/非重读的音节重复出现，就构成了诗歌里最小的组成部分- 音步)

In this idiotic poem, the lines are made up of alternating numbers of

“feet:” Line 1 has 4 feet, line 2 has 3 feet, line 3 has 4 feet, and line

4 has 3 feet.(这首诗的音步是交替的四音步/三音步)

Here, I’ve indicated the “feet:”

I put * my hat * upon * my head (4 ft.) And walked * into * the strand (3)

And there * I met * anoth*er man (4) Whose hat * was in * his hand (3)

Types of Poetic Feet

u / Iambic (抑扬格) - unstressed, stresssed (u /) - re peat

/ u Trochaic (扬抑格) - (/ u) - un it

u u / Anapestic(抑抑扬格) - (u u /) - in ter cede

/ u u Dactylic(抑扬扬格) - (/ u u) - wash ing ton

/ / Spondaic（扬扬格）- (/ /) - heart break

Types of Poetic Lines (Number of Feet)(下面就简单了，学过字根的应该都认识哦。

单音步，二音步，以次类推。）Monometer - 1 foot (e.g. “I put.”) Dimeter - 2 (I put my

hat) Trimeter - 3 (I put my hat upon) Tetrameter - 4 (I put my hat upon my

head) Pentameter - 5 Hexameter - 6 Heptameter - 7So...for example,

“trochaic tetrameter(扬抑格四音步）”is a line with 4 feet (8 syllables) with a

pattern of stress-unstress in each foot:

/ u * / u * / u * / u Lovely Morris figures rebates

and, “iambic pentameter” means five feet (10 syllables) with each foot

consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable:

u / * u / * u /*u /* u / “Which alters when it alteration finds”

Most of Shakespeare’s verse is “iambic pentameter.”

What is the form of the “stupid poem” we hav e been examining?

u / u / u / u / I put * my hat * upon * my head u / u / u / And walked *

into * the strand u / u / u / u / And there * I met *anoth*er man u / u /

u / Whose hat * was in * his hand.

ANSWER:It is all iambic, with alternating lines of TETRAMETER (4 feet -

lines 1 & 3) and TRIMETER (3 feet - lines 2 & 4). No problem, right?

And now, for something easier--

Rhyme Schemes(韵律安排？)The sound of the last syllable of every line is assigned a letter, beginning with “a”(韵律划分是诗歌分析的关键。每一行的最后一个音节是一个韵律，用字母表示。

第一个韵律是a, 以次类推。遇到和前面重复的韵律就用和前面相同的字母标记。)

I put my hat upon my head (a) And walked into the strand (b) And there I

met another man (c) Whose hat was in his hand (b) The rhyme scheme is: a b

c b

Stanzas(节）

The combination of rhythm (that is, “iambic, trochaic, dactylic”, etc.),

meter (that is, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, etc.), and rhyme scheme

(for example, “a b c b”) can create certain s tanzaic forms which

have become accepted poetic conventions.(又是一个很重要的概念。简单的说，一个rhyme scheme 就可以当作一个stanza)

Some of these historically important stanza forms in English poetry are:

Couplets(对句)：Any two lines which rhyme, regardless of rhythm and meter(couplets 是诗歌最早的形式，压韵即可)

Example of a COUPLET

Candy Is dandy

Heroic Couplet(我找不到准确的译法，好象是英雄双韵体英雄双句体)Two lines which rhyme (a couplet) which are written in iambic pentameter. The “Heroic Couplet” was the dominant form of English poetry in the 18th century, and lots of authors from Chaucer to the present have used this form.

Example of an HEROIC COUPLET英雄双韵体

Say first, of God above, or man below

What can we reason, but from what we know?

(from Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man )

Quatrains(四行诗)

Any stanza with 4 lines

Candy

Is dandy

But liquor

Is quicker.

Ballad Stanza(民谣诗)

A “quatrain” with alternating tetrameter and trimeter

E.g., the idiotic poem we have been studying! I put my hat upon my head And walked into the strand And there I met another man Whose hat was in his hand.

A serious example of BALLAD STANZA

The king sits in Dumferline town, Drinking the blood-red wine: “O where will I get a good sailor To sail this ship of mine?”

from anonymous, Sir Patrick Spens (after 1200)

The Sonnet(十四行诗)

14 lines Iambic pentameter Two main types:

Italian or Petrarchan( 彼特拉克体十四行诗) - Two quatrains plus a “sestet”(6 line

unit) - often abba abba cdecde

English or Shakespearean(莎士比亚体十四行诗) - Three quatrains plus a couplet -

often abab cdcd efef gg

An Italian Sonnet

Divers doth use, as I have heard and know, When that to change their

ladies do begin To mourne and wail, and never for to lin, Hoping

thereby

to pease their painful woe. And some there be, that when it chanceth so

That women change and hate where love hath been, They call them false and

think with words to win The hearts of them which otherwhere doth grow. But

as for me, though that by chance indeed Change hath outworn the favor that

I had, I will not wail, lament, nor yet be sad, Nor call her false that

falsely did me feed, But let it pass, and think it is of kind That often

change doth please a woman’s mind. Wyatt, Divers Doth Use (c. 1540)

A Shakespearean Sonnet

That time of year thou mayst in me behold 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 seest the

twilight of

such day As after sunset fadeth in the west; Which by and by black night

doth take away, Death’s second s elf that seals up all the rest. In me thou

seest 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 thou perceiv’st which makes thy love more strong, To

love that well, which thou must leave ere long. (1609)

Blank Verse(无韵诗)

Unrhymed iambic pentameter Torment, sweet friend, that base and aged man

That durst dissuade me from thy Lucifer, With greatest torments that our

hell affords. Marlowe, Dr. Faustus (1604)

Some other stanzaic forms

Rime royal - 7 lines, iambic pentameter, rhyming ababbcc Ottava rima - 8

lines rhyming abababcc Spencerian stanza - 9 lines, rhyming ababbcbcc,

first 8 lines iambic pentameter, line 9 iambic hexameter You don’t need to

know these !!!