英国文化资料
Chapter One：Early and Medieval English Literature (5th century –1485)
1. Beowulf (7th century)
What a Man Is Beowulf?
Beowulf is a grand hero. He is faithful to his people. He goes alone, in a strange land, to rescue his people. He forgets himself in face of danger, thinking only that it profits others.
Features of Beowulf
Alliteration(押头韵): There are generally four accents in a line, three of which show alliteration.
Metaphor(隐喻): ring-giver= king; whale’s road=sea. Such metaphors occur in great number. Understatement(典型特点): not troublesome=very welcome; need not praise=condemn
Literary Terms（文学术语解释）
Legend（传说）: A song or narrative handed down from the past, legend differs from myths on the basis of the elements of historical truth they contain.
Epic（史诗）: 1)Epic, in poetry, refers to a long work dealing with the actions of gods and heroes. 2) Beowulf is the greatest national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. John Milton wrote three great epics: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.
Romance罗曼史/骑士文学: 1)Romance is a popular literary form in the medieval England. 2) It sings knightly adventures or other heroic deeds. 3) Chivalry (such as bravery, honor, generosity, loyalty and kindness to the weak and poor) is the spirit of romance.
Ballad（民谣）: 1)Ballad is a story in poetic form to be sung or recited. 2) Ballads were passed down from generation to generation. 3) Robin Hood is a famous ballad singing the goods of Robin Hood. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 19th century English ballad.
2. Geoffrey Chaucer杰佛利·乔叟（约1340-1400）英国代表作家，现实主义文学的奠基者。
He is ―The founder of English Realism‖―The father of English literature‖ and ―the father of English poetry‖. He was the first author buried in the famous ―poets’ corner‖，Westminster Abbey
The Canterbury Tales《坎特伯雷故事集》(1400)
In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and created a group of vivid typical figures in the middle Ages. →“The founder of English Realism”The Heroic Couplet(英雄双韵体)（英雄对偶句）
Heroic couplet refers to the rhymed couplet in iambic pentameter
Heroic couplets are lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme in pairs (aa, bb, cc).
The Heroic Couplet: 1) It means a pair of lines of a type once common in English poetry, in other words, it means iambic pentameter rhymed in two lines. 2) The rhyme is masculine. 3) Use of the heroic couplet was first pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Questions
2. Why does Beowulf tower above all other literary works written in Anglo-Saxon?
3. What is the social significance of The Canterbury Tales and what is Chaucer’s contribution to English poetry and to the English language?
Chapter Two: The Renaissance
Representatives
1. Dante, 1265-1321 The Divine Comedy《神曲》
2. Boccaccio, 1313-1375 The Decameron《十日谈》
3. Petrarch, 1304-1374 ―Father of Humanism人文主义‖
4. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519 Last Supper; Mona Lisa
5. Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616 Don Quixote《堂吉诃德》
Renaissance in England
The English Renaissance was largely literary, and the greatest achievement may lie in the so-called Elizabethan
drama.
Representatives in England
Dramatist:
Christopher Marlowe, 1564-1593
William Shakespeare, 1564-1616
Ben Jonson, 1572-1637
Some other writers:
Edmund Spenser, 1552-1599
Sir Thomas More, 1477-1535
Francis Bacon, 1561-1626
John Donne, 1571-1613
John Milton, 1608-1674
1. William Shakespeare, poet and dramatist. Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth
Works作品：悲喜剧《罗密欧与茱丽叶》
四大悲剧《哈姆雷特》《麦克白》《奥赛罗》《李尔王》
四大喜剧《仲夏夜之梦》《威尼斯商人》《第十二夜》《皆大欢喜》
历史剧《裘力斯凯撒》《安东尼与克莉奥佩特拉》《约翰王》《亨利六世》上、中、下篇与《理查三世》《理查二世》《亨利四世》
Hamlet
The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered H amlet's father, the King, and then taken the throne and married Hamlet’s mother. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness—from overwhelming grief to seething rage—and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.
Character of Hamlet
Hamlet is a humanist, a man who is free from medieval prejudice.
Melancholy: It is said not without reason that the key-note of Hamlet’s character is melancholy, and there can be no Hamlet without melancholy.
Hesitation: Hesitation is the main cause for Hamlet’s tragedy. His delay in action comes from his melancholy. But they are not negative, for they are rather the result of his penetrating habit of mind.
the rise and success of “an upstart crow”(用美丽的羽毛装饰起来的狂妄自大的乌鸦)-------- 莎士比亚《亨利六世》
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts... —As Y ou Like It, Act II, Scene 7, 139–42. What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
----Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 303–312
Literary Terms（文学术语解释）
Sonnet(十四行诗)
Definition: A sonnet is a lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of fourteen iambic pentameter lines, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme.
Three types of sonnet:
a) The Italian or Petrarchan(彼得拉克) sonnet:
abba abba cde cde
abba abba cdc cdc
b) The English or Shakespearean(莎士比亚的) sonnet:
abab cdcd efef gg
c) The Spenserian(斯宾塞体) sonnet:
abab bcbc cdcd ee
“sonnet 18”
In this sonnet, the poet expresses his true affection for the person he loves and believes that his poetry will bring forth eternal beauty to the person. This sonnet is made up of three quatrains with a rhyming scheme abab cdcd efef and a couplet rhyming gg.
The theme of the sonnets may be that his poetry can bring eternity to the one he loves.
Soliloquy(独白)
1) Soliloquy, in drama, means a moment when a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud.
2) In the line ―To be, or not to be, that is the question‖, which begins the famous soliloquy from Act3, Scene1 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this soliloqu y Hamlet questions whether or not life is worth living and speaks of the reasons why he does not end his life.
2. Francis Bacon, essayist,
Significances
1. His inductive reasoning(归纳推理) vs deductive reasoning(演绎推论)
→“The real progenitor(先驱) of English materialism”
→“Father of modern science in England”
2. His achievement in the art of prose writing:
→His essays is the first collections of essays in the English literature history: a landmark
“Of Studies”is the most famous and most popular of Bacon’s 58 essays.
（It analyzes what studies chiefly serve for. The different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies, and how studies exert influence over human character. This one-paragraph essay has been a classic in English prose.）
Works作品: Of Marriage and Single Life 《论婚姻》The First One
Literary Terms（文学术语解释）
Induction / 归纳推理
Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is the process of reasoning in which the premises of an argument are believed to support the conclusion but do not entail the premises;
Deduction / 演绎推理
Deductive reasoning is reasoning which uses deductive arguments to move from given statements (premises) to conclusions, which must be true if the premises are true. An example of deductive reasoning, given by Aristotle, is“All men are mortal. (Major premise) Socrates is a man. (Minor premise) Socrates is mortal. (Conclusion)‖
培根至理名言:
爱情就像银行里存一笔钱，能欣赏对方的优点，就像补充收入；容忍对方缺点，这是节制支出。所谓永恒的爱，是从红颜爱到白发，从花开爱到花残。
我活着是为了学习，而学习并不是为了活着。
合理安排时间，就等于节约时间。
在我看来，举止就像是心灵的衣裳，而且具备衣裳的特点。因为举止应当合乎时尚，而不应稀奇古怪；它应在体现出心灵美的同时又能掩饰其不足；总之，举止不能太拘束，太呆板。
生活的理想，就是为了理想的生活。
书籍是在时代的波涛中航行的思想之船，它小心翼翼地把珍贵的货物运送给一代又一代。Knowledge is power. 知识就是力量.
Chapter Three: 17th century literature(the period of English bourgeois revolution and restoration)
1. John Donne(约翰·多恩)
The Songs and Sonnets《歌谣与十四行诗》；Death, Be Not Proud《死神莫骄妄》；The Flea《跳蚤》；A V alediction: Forbidding Mourning《分别：莫忧伤》
2. John Milton(约翰·弥尔顿) (1608–1674) He was an English poet, prose polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England.
Works作品：Lycidas《利西达斯》；Defence of the English People《为英国人民声辩》；The Second Defence of the English People《再为英国人民声辩》；Paradise Lost《失乐园》；Paradise Regained《复乐园》；Samson Agonistes《力士参孙》
Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee(弥尔顿，您应该活到现在！英国需要您)。——William Wordsworth(威廉·华兹华斯)
Paradise Lost《失乐园》
It is Milton’s masterpiece, which is a long epic in 12 books written in blank verse. The story is drawn from the Old Testament of the Bible, which tells how Satan, after being defeated in his rebel against God, temps Adam and Eve to eat the apples for the Forbidden Tree, and causes the Fall of Man. Satan is the real hero in the poem. God is a tyranny, a symbol of the English Monarch
On His Deceased Wife (梦亡妻)
3. John Bunyan(约翰·班扬), novelist,
Works作品：The Pilgrim’s Progress《天路历程》
《天路历程》著述基督徒从毁灭之城走出，经过绝望深渊、名利场、怀疑褒，历尽艰辛，战胜妖魔终于抵达欢乐山到达天国。书的价值还在于它描述了英国城乡的现实主义画图。这本书是一本宗教寓言，属于传教，说教的书。
4. John Drydon(约翰·德莱顿)
All for Love《一切为了爱情》An Essay of Dramatic Poesy《论戏剧诗》
Metaphysical Poets（玄学派诗人）
They refer to a group of religious poets in the first half of the 17th century whose works were characterized by their wit, imaginative picturing, compressions, often cryptic expression, play of paradoxes and juxtapositions of metaphor.
The Metaphysical Poets
John Donne (1572–1631)
George Herbert (1593-1633)
Henry V aughan (1621-1695)
Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
Metaphysical Poetry
It is a loose school of highly intellectual poetry in the 17th century marked by bole and ingenious conceits, incongruous imagery, and complexity of thought, frequent use of paradox and often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression.
This term was coined by John Dryden (1631-1700) and later adopted by Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) in his The Lives of the Poets (1781).
The major features of metaphysical poetry in fact characterize mostly Donne’s works.
More Detailed Characteristics
Metaphysical poetry is characterized by:
→energetic, rough, or uneven movement, unlike the studied elegance, sweetness, and smoothness of 16th century verse
→elaborate, strained, or far-fetched “conceits”(奇喻）;
→dazzling displays of wit
→ a tendency toward logical argumentation or the structure of an argument in a poem
→an interest in philosophical questions and speculation
They ―show their learning‖, but not their true feeling in their poetry. They ―wholly employed on something unexpected and surprising‖ and wish ―only to say what they hoped had never been said before.‖
Poetry Appreciation
John Donne: The Flea
Robert Herrick: To the Virgins to Make Much of Time
Style
Miltonic style: a style that is unsurpassed in its sonority, eloquence, majesty and grandeur.
Latinate: Milton used English language according to Latin grammar.
Significance
Milton is the spokesman of the Revolution.
Milton is a great master of blank verse.(is a form of poetry in unrhymed iambic pentameter.)无韵诗或素体诗Milton created the greatest epic in English language.
Chapter Four: Eighteenth Century English Literature (late 17th century --- middle 18th century)
Representative Writers
Poets:
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Samuel Johnson (1709 –1784)
Essayists:
Richard Steele (1672-1729)
Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
Novelists:
Daniel Defoe
Jonathan Swift
T. Smollett
Henry Fielding
1. Alexander Pope亚历山大·保罗(1688-1744)
Essay on Criticism (《论批评》)
The Rape of the Lock (《夺发记》)
An Essay on Man (《人论》)
The Dunciad (《群愚史诗》)
Translation of Iliad and Odyssey
Edition of Shakespeare's works
Quotes(语录) by Pope
A little learning is a dangerous thing
To err is human, to forgive divine.
Wit is the lowest form of humor.
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Fools admire, but men of sense approve.
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
2. Samuel Johnson (1709 –1784)
Letter to Lord Chesterfield
The Rise of the English Novel
The Rise of the English Novel:
The modern European novel began after the Renaissance, with Cervantes’ Don Quixote (1605-1615).
The modern English novel began in the 18th century.
The rise and growth of realistic novel is the most prominent achievement of 18th century English literature. The 18th century was the golden age of the (English) novel.
3. Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), novelist, (the Rise of the English Novel)An English writer, journalist, and pamphleteer(小册子作者).
His masterpiece Robinson Crusoe was one of the forerunners of the English realistic novel.
Pamphlets(小册子): The Trueborn Englishman (《地道的英国人》) The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (《消灭不同教派的捷径》) Hymn to the Pillory (《枷颂》)
Paper: The Review 《评论报》
Novels: Robinson Crusoe 《鲁滨逊漂流记》Captain Singleton 《辛格顿船长》Moll Flanders 《摩尔·弗
兰德斯》Colonel Jacque 《杰克上校》
Robinson Crusoe 《鲁滨逊漂流记》
A. The theme of story: We see the glorification of the bourgeois man who has the courage and will to face hardships and the ingenuity(智谋) and determination to preserve himself and improve on his livelihood by struggling against nature. It is also the glorification of labor, physical as well as mental, which enables the hero first to make a bare living for himself and later to improve gradually upon his living condition.
B. Style: simple language, concise (简洁) description, well-knit plot construction（结构严禁）
C. The image of Crusoe:The character of Robinson Crusoe is representative of the English bourgeoisie at the earlier stages of its development. He is most practical and exact, always religious and at the same time mindful of his own profit. He has marvelous capacity for work, boundless energy and persistence in overcoming obstacles. He struggles hard against nature and makes her bend before his will.
4. Jonathan Swift (乔纳森·斯威夫特)(1667-1745), essayist and satirist, political pamphleteer, and poet. Works作品：A Tale of a Tub (《桶的故事》) is written in the form of a parable (寓言), satirizing all religious sects.
《桶的故事》里他攻击英国三大教会，指出三大教会背离基督所教导的简明的宗教信仰，他们凭借朴素的基督教信仰争夺名利、勾心斗角、散步邪说、互相仇恨。起初他不喜欢爱尔兰人，但后来跟爱尔兰人居住了几年后就深深理解到爱尔兰为什么会变成那个样子，于是他写了一本又一本的小册子去反对英国统治者。
The Battle of the Books (《书的战争》) is an attack on pedantry in the literary world of the time.
《麻布商书信集》揭露英国卑鄙不公正的行为，并煽动爱尔兰人起来维护自己的权利。1729年目睹爱尔兰人每况越下的处境他发表了他最具讽刺性的文章《使爱尔兰穷人的孩子不至成为他们父母或者国家的负担。
Gulliver’s Travels《格雷弗游记》gives an unparalleled satirical depiction of the vices of his age.
《格列佛游记》是一最具有魅力的儿童故事，里面的大人国和小人国都是英国缩小或者放大后的形象，该作品表明作者对当时社会人糟蹋人情形的愤慨。威廉赫兹利特说，斯威夫特通过格列佛而试图把骗人的面具从世人的脸上摘下。
Pamphlets on Ireland: A Modest Proposal《一个温和的建议》―一个小小的建议‖
《一个温和的建议》文章清晰地提出应该把爱尔兰穷人的孩子养肥然后屠宰了来吃的强烈讽刺。当时爱尔兰发生灾荒而控制爱尔兰经济的地主却在英格兰或者其他地方花天酒地，体现英国对爱尔兰人民人吃人般的无人道般的压迫。
The Drapier’s letters《布商信札》
Swift’s Style:
His language is simple, clear and vigorous. In simple, direct and precise prose, Swift is almost unsurpassed in English literature.
Swift is a master satirist, and his irony is deadly. His satire is masked by an outward gravity, and an apparent calmness conceals his bitter irony, which makes his satire all the more powerful.
Homework
Read the except of Ro binson Crusoe in ―Selected Readings‖ with the following questions in mind:
What was his consideration when he was finding a place to live? How did he set up the tent? Why did he mark time?
Why are the good qualities of Robinson Crusoe?
5. Samuel Richardson(塞谬尔·理查森) 18世纪中叶英国著名的小说家，对英国文学和欧洲文学都产生过重要影响。
Pamela《帕梅拉》
《帕梅拉》的重要贡献在于它把社会环境的描写和人物心理活动的分析结合起来，通过有趣的故事使读者得到道德教育。理查森特别注重人物的感情描写，从而产生了现代小说一种新的文学类型——伤感主义文学。《帕梅拉》称得上是伤感主义文学杰出的代表作。
Clarissa《克拉丽莎》
《克拉丽莎》是英国18世纪小说家塞缪尔-理查逊写的一部著名的悲剧小说。迄今为止对该小说的评论大都从它严肃的道德和宗教议题入手。本篇论文揭示了该小说体现的狂欢化特点，比如男主人公拉夫雷
斯的“笑”与嘲讽在精神上与狂欢化的笑有相似之处。狂欢化的笑表现了对痛苦的蔑视、对权威的质疑、挑战和颠覆，在18、19世纪的文学作品中经常弱化成了讽刺等形式，有时夹杂着戏谑与赞扬，有时带着反讽和自嘲的语气，但归根结底都是要打破现实的严肃性。这些特点在拉夫雷斯的叙述中都有体现。
6. Henry Fielding(亨利·菲尔丁) , novelist, father of English novels.
18世纪最杰出的英国小说家，戏剧家。其代表作品《汤姆·琼斯》对后世影响极大。《约瑟夫·安德鲁传》是菲尔丁出版的第一部小说，而他写作的第一本小说是《大伟人江奈生·魏尔德传》（1743 ）。魏尔德是18世纪声名狼籍的罪犯首领，有―伟人‖的称号，最后被处以绞刑。18世纪早期便出现关于他的谣曲、虚构性对话、小传和小册子，其中就有笛福写的小传。
《一七三六年历史纪事》《艾米莉亚》《里斯本航海日记》
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling《弃婴汤姆·琼斯的故事》；
Joseph Andrews《约瑟夫·安德鲁斯》；
The History of Jonathan wild the Great《大伟人乔纳森.菲尔德传》
7. Robert Burns彭斯（1759～1796）, poet, 生平英国诗人, 浪漫主义的先驱。
―My love’s like a red, red rose‖《我的爱人像朵红红的玫瑰》
―Auld Lang Syne‖
Chapter Five：(Romanticism in England) English Literature in the 19th century (1798-1832) Main features:
Imagination
Imagination is the supreme faculty of the mind.
Imagination can change and create.
Imagination can unify different elements into a complex whole.
Suggested poem
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Coleridge
Idealization of Nature
Nature has a healing power.
Nature is a source of subject and image.
Nature is a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization.
"that Nature never did betray the heart that loved her." ---Wordsworth
Suggest poem
Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey
Individualism
Man is the center of all concern.
Romanticists emphasized the dignify of man and the importance of the present life.
Man is an individual in a solitary state.
Romanticists valued the exploration and evaluation of the inner self.
Suggest poem:
George Byron’s
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Quote
―I am not made like anyone I have seen; I dare believe that I am not made like anyone in existence. If I am not superior, at least I am different.‖
------Jean Jacques Rousseau (法: 让-雅克-卢梭)
Glorification of the commonplace
materials: the natural, the commonplace, the simple
common incidents and situations
natural diction and language
Suggested poem:
The Solitary Reaper by Wordsworth
1.William W ordsworth(1770-1850), poet, Lyrical Ballads, The Prelude
Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey were known as Lake Poets.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
Questions:
What does the image of cloud suggest to you?
Loneliness, isolation, solitude, aimlessness, aloofness
I wandered lonely as a cloud---loneliness
That floats on---aimlessness
High over vales and hills---solitude, isolation
Cloud represents the feelings of the speaker (the poet) essentially.
What has cheered the poet up? And how?
A host of golden daffodils,
Fluttering, dancing and glittering daffodils
Shine and twinkle as the stars
Stretched endlessly
The cloud-like poet is deeply attracted by the beauty of the nature and turns to be high-spirited, instead of being lonely any more.
What has the poet meditated from what he has described? And the theme?
In loneliness or in low spirit, the recollection of the nature beauty brings him ―the bliss‖ and ―pleasure‖ in his heart.
Therefore the idea of going back to nature is advocated and clearly expressed in this poem.
Pay attention to the tense used in this poem. What does it indicate?
Past tense
The recollection of the past experience will arouse a new sense of the old memories
―What wealth the show to me had brought‖
―The bliss of solitude/ flash upon that inward eye‖
Theme: Through describing a scene of joyful daffodils recollected in memory, the poet hopes to put illustrate his theory of poetic inspiration --- ―spontane ous overflow of powerful feelings, which originates in emotion recollected in tranquility‖
Image: dancing daffodils
―fluttering‖, ―dancing‖, ―tossing‖, ―dance‖,
―danced‖, ―dances‖ ―sprightly‖, ―glee‖, ―gay‖,
―jocund‖, ―pleasure‖
Metrical pattern:
a short lyric of 4 sestets(六行诗节) (a quatrain-couplet)
of iambic tetrameter lines rhyming
ABABCC
Structure:
1st stanza occasion
2-3rd stanza happy sensation at the sight of the dancing flowers
4th stanza happy sensation experienced again at the memory of the scene
Stanza summary:
1. The speaker was wandering like a lonely cloud when he encountered a field of dancing daffodils beside a lake.
2. Stretching endlessly along the shore the flowers danced happily.
3. The waves of the lake danced merrily, but the daffodils outdid them in glee, and the poet could only be happy in such a joyful company.
4. Since then, the memory of the happy scene would often come back to refill him with pleasure.
Quotes
“Poetry takes its origin from emotion recollections in tranquility…Tranquil contemplation of an emotional experience matures the feeling and sensation, and makes possible the creation of good poetry like the mellow of old wine‖.
----- William Wordsworth
Summary of the poem
What does the poem impress you most?
Use of image;Vivid description of nature;Daily language
I W andered Lonely as a Cloud
The poem is written in iambic tetrameter. The rhyme scheme of each stanza is ababcc.
The daffodils' beauty (symbolizing the beauty of nature)
The poem describes the harmony between things in nature and the harmony between nature and the poet himself.
W ordsworth’s poetry
What are the main features of Wordsworth’s poetry?
back to nature
deep love of nature
appeal to individual sensations
attention to humble folk of rural life
simplicity and purity in language
W ordsworth’s Poetics 1
Definition: A good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.
Function of poetry: The function of poetry lies in its power to give an unexpected splendor to familiar and commonplace things.
W ordsworth’s Poetics 2
Subject of matter: ordinary peasants, children, ever outcasts, all may be used as subjects in poetical creation. (common people)
On language: real language of men
Major works
?An Evening Walk 黄昏漫步;
?Lyrical Ballads 抒情歌谣集;
?Lucy Poems 露西组诗
?(She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways;
?To the Cuckoo 杜鹃颂;
?I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud;
?The Solitary Reaper 孤寂的刈麦人;
?Ode on Intimations of Immorality 不朽颂;
?To a Skylark 致云雀；
?Tintern Abbey 丁登寺；
?The Excursion 远足;
?The Prelude 序曲
Criticism on William W ordsworth
In honored poverty thy voice did weave
Songs consecrate to truth and liberty—
Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve,
Thus having been, that thou shouldest cease to be.
-------by Percy Shelley
lyric poem 抒情诗
iambic tetrameter四音步抑扬格
2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, ―The Rime of the Ancient Mariner‖, ―Kubla Khan‖
Major works: Demonic poems; The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Kubla Khan; Christabel
Conversational poems; Frost at Morning
Dejection: An Ode
Essays; Biographia Literaria; Lectures on Shakespeare.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
It is Coleridge’s contribution to The Lyrical Ballads. It tells us a strange story in ballad meter. Three guests are on their way to a wedding party when an ancient mariner stopped one of them. The mariner tells of his adventures on the sea. When his ship sails towards the South Pole, an albatross (信天翁）comes through the snow-fog and alights on the rigging.
The mariner shoots at it quite thoughtlessly. Then misfortune befalls. The whole crew, with the only exception of the old mariner, die of thirst as punishment for the act of inhospitality. The spell breaks only when the mariner repents his cruelty.
The poem is famous for its beautiful cadence（音韵）and wonderful imagery. The combination of the natural and supernatural, the ordinary and extraordinary makes it one of the masterpieces of Romantic poetry.
The significance of Lyrical Ballads
The preface to ―Lyrical Ballads‖ served as the manifesto of the English Romantic movement, a landmark of English romanticism and the beginning of a new era.
The essence the preface: ―all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of the powerful feeling.‖
3. George Gordon Byron, poet, Don Juan
Two schools for romantic poets grouped according to the political viewpoints:
passive romantic school
active romantic school
Passive romanticists: these romanticists turned to the past, i.e., ―the merry old English‖ for their idea, represented by Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey.
The passive romantic poets Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey are usually mentioned as ―Lake Poets.‖ Active romanticists:these young poets held out an ideal of an future society free from oppression and exploitation, represented by Byron, Shelley and Keats.
Characteristics of romantic poets and their works
An increasing interest in nature and scenery, the beauty of nature appealed strongly to the imagination of the poets.
More attention to the spiritual and emotional life to man.
Loose poetic form
Informal, free language of the common people
Symbolic approaches
Dissatisfaction with the bourgeoisie society expressed in a revolt against or escapes from the prosaic, sordid daily life.
Inspired by and uphold the French revolution
What the preface advocates?
Poetry should be written in the natural language of common speech, rather than in the lofty and elaborate dictions that were the considered ―poetic.‖
The first principle of poetry should be pleasure; the chief duty of poetry is to provide pleasure through a rhythmic and beautiful expression of feeling.
The theme is to be incidents and situation chosen from common life –ordinary things to be presented in an unusual way with imagination.
Poetry should offer access to the emotions contained in memory.
The Lake Poets:
William Wordsworth,
Samuel Coleridge
Robert Southey
They lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England.
They traversed the same path in politics and in poetry, beginning as radicals and ending up as conservatives.
I corrected because it was as pleasant to me to correct as to write.
What oft was thought, but never so well expressed.
To err is human, to forgive, divine.
For fools rush in where angles fear to tread.
Hope springs eternal in human breast.
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
The proper study of mankind is man.
Literary Terms[文学术语]
Critical Realism(批判现实主义)1)The Critical Realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the beginning of fifties.2)The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils.3) Charls Dickens is the most important critical realist.
Psychological novel(心理小说)1)A vague term to describe that kind of fiction which is for the most part concerned with the spiritual, emotional and mental lives of the characters and with the analysis of characters rather than with the plot and the action.2)Th ackeray’s characterization of Rebecca Sharp is very much psychological.
Passive Romanticists?
Elder generation: Coleridge and Wordsworth
Y ounger generation: Byron and Shelley