美国文学赏析整理

一

I heard the merry grasshopper then sing, The black-clad cricket bear a second part, They kept one tune, and played on the same string,

Seeming to glory in their little art.

Shall creatures abject thus their voices raise? And in their kind resound their maker’s praise,

Whilst I, as mute, can warble forth no higher lays?

“Under the cooling shadow of a stately Elm, Close state I by a goodly River’s side, Where gliding streams the Rocks did overwhelm;

A lonely place with pleasures dignifi’d.

I once that lov’d the shady woods so well, Now thought the rivers did the trees excel, And if the sun would ever shine there would I dwell.

“While musing thus with contemplation fed, And thousand fancies buzzing in my brain, The sweet tongu’d Philomel percht o’er my head,

And chanted forth a most melodious strain,

Which rapt me so with wonder and delight,

I judg’d my hearing better than my sight.

题目：the 9th of Contemplations

作者：Anne Bradstreet

赏析：

1. Rhyme royal: sevenline iambic

petametre 七行五步抑扬格

2. Rhyme: ababccc

3. Theme: religion

4. 象征：black-clad=death;

abject=admitting defeat; maker= god

5. A genuine expression of poetic

feeling in the presence of nature.

The poem offers the reader an insight into the mentality of the early Puritan pioneering in a new world. The poet heard the grasshopper and the cricket sing, and she searched for her own soul accordingly.

6. She saw sth metaphysical inhering

in the physical, a mode of perception which was singularly Puritan

二

It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous was not sufficient to prevent our slipping and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method.

In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalog more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or

passion bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition, I proposed to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning.

题目：Autobiography

作者：Benjamin Franklin

赏析：

1. One of Ben jamin Franklin’s literary successes. 1771-1788, incomplete when he died.

2. Purpose: to make the experience of his own career, the conduct and habit of life which had led to success in his own case, a source of help and inspiration to others.

3. The story of his struggles, errors, experiments with himself, accomplishment.

4. Wonderful frankness & extreme simplicity

三

“God knows, I’m not myself—I’m somebody else—… and I’m changed, and I can’t tell what’s my name, or who I am.”Rip

Dame Van Winkle

题目：Rip Van Winkle

作者：Washington Irving

赏析：

1. Rip: self-centered, careless,

anti-intellectual, imaginative, and holly as the overgrown child. He symbolizes the immature America.

2. Dame Van Winkle (Rip’s wife):

symbolizes the puritanical discipline and the work ethic of Franklin.

3. Why sleep 20 years?

Purpose: to show us clearly the conflicts and dreams of the nations—the conflict of innocence and experience, work and leisure, the old and the new, the head and the heart. It is also to tell us that a man who has looked toward the beginning of civilization in America can make a choice in his analysis of his own life.

4. Inevitably changing America.

四

A subtle chain of countless rings, The next unto the farthest brings; The eye reads omens where it goes, And speaks all languages the rose;

And, striving to be man, the worm,

Mounts through all the spires of form.

题目：Nature

作者：Ralph Waldo Emerson

赏析：

1. Transcendentalism

2. Prose: casual style (derived from

his journals or lectures);

Characterized by a series of short, declarative sentences, which are quite logically connected but will flower out into illustrative statements of truth and thoughts.

Comparisons and metaphors to make the general ideas of his works clearly expressed.

Employ literary sources to make and enrich his own points but never let them take the full reins of his discussion. 五

Hester Prynne 女主角

Roger Chillingworth 女主角的丈夫

Arthur Dimmesdale 牧师。女主角通奸的对象

Pearl 女儿

“On a field, sable, the letter A, gules”

题目：The Scarlet Letter

作者：Nathaniel Hawthorne

赏析：

1. A story of rebellion within an emotionally constricted Puritan society.

2. U ndisputed masterpiece of Hawthorne. Reveal Hawthorne’s superb craftsmanship

3. Modern psychological insight; secret motivations in human behaviour; guilt & anxiety resulted from sins against humanity, esp. from pride.

4. Setting: Puritan background of New England in 17 C

5. Hawthorne: master of Symbolism.

Pearl= thematic symbol: consequence the sin of adultery has brought to the community and people living in the community.

Letter A= different symbolic meanings (adultery, angel, able, advance, admiration, etc.). The ambiguity is one of the salient features of the work.

6. Hester: committed sin but true to God and herself; not a real sinner; sinful just in the sinful eyes of the conventional Puritans.

7. Chillingworth: physician, cold observer of life, looking on mankind as the subject of experiment; lost in revenge; not true to himself/others/God; real villain of the story, true sinner.

8. Dimmesdale: partner of Hester’s sin; the concealment of the first sin led to the second sin; no longer true to God/others, but kept true to himself; intellectual arrogance & betraying of honesty conflict within him, led to the twisting and distortion of his personality; suffer most in story.

六

Ahab / Pequod/Ishmael

题目：Moby Dick

作者：Herman Melville

赏析：

1. Ahab: captain of the whaling ship

2. Pequod: name of the whaling ship

3. Theme: the rebellious struggle of Captain Ahab against the overwhelming, mysterious vastness of the universe and its awesome sometimes merciless forces.

4. Symbols & allegory:

Pequod= microcosm of human society;

The voyage= a search for truth;

Moby Dick= nature (complex, unfathomable, malignant, beautiful), an ultimate mystery of universe.

七

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -

Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -

Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -

This it is, and nothing more,'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;

But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,

That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -

Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!' This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!' Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.

`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;

Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -

'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door - Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door - Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,

`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven. Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'

Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;

For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being

Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -

Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,

With such name as `Nevermore.'

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,

That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.

Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -

Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -

On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.' Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,

`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,

Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster

Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -

Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore

Of "Never-nevermore."'

But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,

Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door; Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking

Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore

Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing

To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;

This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining

On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,

But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,

She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.

`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'

Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -

Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -

On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -

Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'

Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -

`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!

Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!

Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'

Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted - nevermore!

题目：The Raven

作者：Edgar Allan Poe

赏析：

1. Alliteration; onomatopoeia; internal rhyme; assonance

2. Symbols:

Raven= self-turtore; one of the most profound impulses of human nature Midnight& December= and end of sth, the anticipation of sth new, a change. Chamber= loneliness of the man; the sorrow for the loss of Lenore; the isolation of the man

Helen, thy beauty is to me

Like those Nicean barks of yore,

That gently, o’er a perfum’d sea, The weary, way-worn wanderer bore To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam, Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, Thy Naiad airs have brough me home To the beauty of fair Greece,

And the grandeur of old Rome.

Lo! In that little window-niche

How statue-like I see thee stand!

The folded scroll within thy hand-

A Psyche from the regions which

Are Holy Land!

题目：To Helen

作者：Edgar Allan Poe

赏析：

1. Theme: celebrate the nurturing

power of women—Helen’s beauty is soothing and provide safety & security.

2. Create the image & impression of

the idealized & unreal woman;

3. Represent beauty, melancholy.

Though heart desired, inaccessible.

4. Allusion, assonance, consonance,

repetition

5. Ababb/ababa/abbab

6. Naiad= goddess; Psyche=

goddess of the soul

八

Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem.

Life is real—life is earnest—And the grave is not its goal: Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.

题目：A Psalm of Like

作者：Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 赏析：Optimism

九

ONE’S-SELF I sing—a simple, separate Person;

Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-masse.

Of Physiology from top to toe I sing;

Not physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for the muse—I say the

Form complete is worthier far;

The Female equally with the male I sing.

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,

Cheerful—for freest action form’d, under the laws divine,

The Modern Man I sing

题目：One’s Self I Sing

作者：Walt Whitman

赏析：en masse, democratic, individualism, humanity, political equality of male and female

十

To make a prairie it takes a clover and a bee, One clover, and a bee,

And revery.

The revery alone will do,

If bees are few

题目：To Make a Prairie …作者：Emily Dickinson

赏析：Without any physical objects at all, the mind of one advanced in the art of revery can produce any object that mind desires.

十一

The Fog comes,

On Little cat feet

It sits looking

Over harbour and city On silent haunches, And then moves on

题目：Fog

作者：Carl Sandburg

赏析：

1. Chicago Poems, 第56首。

2. Imagery: cat & fog

3. Juxtaposition

十二

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

题目：In a Station of the Metro

作者：Ezra Pound

赏析：

1. Imagism

2. Petal= beautiful faces in the crowd waiting for the train Bough=subway station