诗歌欣赏英文教程

Part one

What is Poetry

POETRY might be defined as a kind of language that says more and says it more intensively than does ordinary language.

POETRY is a kind of saying. A in addition to B a and b

POETRY is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. It consists of oral or literary works in which language is used in a manner that is felt by its user and audience to differ from ordinary prose. It may use conde nsed or compressed form to convey emotion or ideas to the reader‘s or listener‘s mind or ear; it may also use devices such as assonance and repetition to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Poems frequently rely for their effect on imagery, word association and the musical qualities of the language used. Because of its nature of emphasizing linguistic form rather than using language purely for its content, poetry is notoriously difficulty to translate from one language into another.

The Eagle

He claps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809--1892)

Red wheelbarrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

William Carlos Williams (1883---1963)

Dust of Frost

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

Robert Frost (1874--1963)

The Careful Angler

The careful angler chose his nook

At morning by the lilied brook,

And all the noon his rod he plied

By that romantic riverside.

Soon as the evening hours decline

Tranquilly he‘ll return to dine,

And, breathing forth a pious wish,

Will cram his belly with full of fish.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850--1849)

There is no Frigate like a Book

There is no frigate like a book

To take us lands away,

Nor any courser like a page

Of prancing poetry:

This traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of toll;

How frugal is the chariot

That bears the human soul!

Emily Dickinson (1830--1886)

Part two

Characteristics of poetry

Poetry as whole is concerned with all kinds of experience—beautiful or ugly, strange or common, noble or ignoble, actual or imaginary.

1. Poetry is the most condensed and concentrated form of literature, saying most in the fewest number of words.

2. Poetry is a kind of multidimensional language.---intellectual, sensuous, emotional and imaginative.

A Man He Killed

Thomas Hardy (1840--1928)

Had he and I but met

By some old ancient inn,

We should have sat us down to wet