莎士比亚十四行诗第18首

Sonnet: A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter. There are generally two kinds of sonnets: the Petrarchan sonnet and the Shakespearean sonnet. The Shakespearean sonnet consists of 3 quatrains and one couplet. The three quatrains are devoted to the different aspects of one subject, paralleling in structure. The concluding couplet is actually the summary or comments made by the poet. One telling example is Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare.

Soliloquy: It refers to an extended speech delivered by a character alone onstage. The character reveals his or her innermost thoughts and feelings directly to the audience, as if thinking aloud. One of the most famous soliloquies is the part of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, beginning with the line “To be, or not to be: that is the question.”

Conceit: Conceit is actually an extended metaphor. It refers to the comparison drawn between two startlingly different objects. The leading figure of the “Metaphysical School”, John Donne, makes a high use of conceits in his poetic creation. For instance, he compares the souls of lovers to compasses.

Imagery：A general term that covers the use of language to represent sensory experience. It refers to the words that create pictures or images

in the reader’s mind. Images are primarily visual and can appeal to other senses as well, touch, taste, smell and hearing.

Ode：A complex and often lengthy lyric poem, written in a dignified formal style on some lofty or serious subject. Odes are often written for a special occasion, to honor a person or a season or to commemorate an event. Two famous odes are Percy Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”and John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.

莎士比亚十四行诗第18首

William Shakespeare - Sonnet #18

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:

But thy eternal Summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

我怎么能够把你来比作夏天？

你不独比他可爱也比他温婉；

狂风把五月宠爱的嫩蕊作践，

夏天出赁的期限又未免太短；

天上的眼睛有时照得太酷烈，

他那炳耀的金颜又常遭掩蔽；

给机缘或无常的天道所摧折，

没有芳艳不终于凋残或销毁。

但你的长夏将永远不会凋落，

也不会损失你这皎洁的红芳；

或死神夸口你在他影里漂泊，

当你在不朽的诗里与时同长。

只要一天有人类，或人有眼睛，

这诗将长在，并且赐给你生命。