ReviewIV 18th century诗歌复习重点

1 Review: IV The 18th Century 1. Social Background:  Historical background  After the violent events of the 17th century, England entered a period of comparatively peaceful development.  The Industrial Revolution brought great wealth to the rich but worsened the working and living conditions of the poor, which gave rise to sharp conflicts between capital and labor.  In England the primarily agricultural society was replaced by a modern industrialized one.  The American and French revolutions greatly inspired the English people fighting for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.  Romanticism as a literary movement appeared in England from the publication of Lyrical Ballads(抒情民谣) in 1798 to the death of Sir Walter Scott. 2 Cultural background  Inspiration for the romantic approach initially came from two great shapers of thought, French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau（卢梭） and German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.（歌德). It is Rousseau who established the cult of the individual and championed the freedom of the human spirit; his famous announcement was “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.( 人是生而自由的，却处处受到束缚 )”  The Romantic Movement expressed a more or less negative attitude towards the existing social and political conditions, for the romantics saw both the corruption and injustice of the feudal societies and the fundamental inhumanity of the economic, social and political forces of capitalism.  Romanticism constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social activities to the inner world of the human spirit, tending to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience.  In literature, the romantics shifted their emphasis from reason, which was a dominant mode of thinking among the 18th century writers and philosophers, to instinct and emotion, which made literature most valuable as an expression of an individual’s unique feelings. 3 The Enlightenment 2

 The Enlightenment in Europe:  The 18th century marked the beginning of an intellectual movement in Europe, known as the Enlightenment, which was, on the whole, an expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism.  The enlighteners fought against class inequality, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual needs and requirements of people.  The English Enlighteners: English enlighteners differed in some way from those of France. While the philosophers and writers of France “cleared the minds of men for the coming revolution,” the English enlighteners set no revolutionary aims before them.  England has gone through its bourgeois revolution in the 17th century. So English enlighteners of the 18th century strove to bring it to an end by clearing away the feudal ideas with the bourgeois ideology. The representatives of the Enlightenment in English literature were Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, the essayists, and Alexander Pope, the poet. In their works, these writers criticized different aspects of contemporary England, discussed social problems, and even touched upon morality and private life.  They intended to reform social life according to a more reasonable principle, though this principle could never go beyond the limit of bourgeois interests. The literature of the Enlightenment in England mainly appealed to the middle class readers. 4 William Black  Songs of Innocence(1789)(天真之歌）  It contains poem which were apparently written for children. Using a language which even little babies can learn by heart, Blake succeeded in depicting the happy condition of a child before it knows anything about the pains of existence. The poet expresses his delight in the sun, the hills, the streams, the insects and the flowers, in the innocence of the child and of the lamb. Here everything seems to be in harmony.  Songs of Experience(1794)（经验之歌）  This volume of poetry paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone. The benighted England becomes the world of the dark woods 3

and of the weeping prophet. A number of poems from the Songs of Innocence also find a counterpart in the Songs of Experience. For instance, the “Infant Joy” is matched with the flaming “Infant Sorrow”; and the pure “Lamb” is paired with the flaming “Tyger”. The two books hold the similar subject matter, but the tone, emphasis and conclusion differ.  The contrast of those two poems collections marks a progress in the poet’s outlook on life. In the earlier collection there seem to be no shadows. To the poet’s eyes, the first glimpse of the world was a picture of light, harmony, peace and love. But in the later years, experience had brought a fuller sense of the power of evil, and of the great misery and pain of the people’s life. Now the poet had to set himself against the current of the capitalist world.  Comments: The Lamb and The Tyger by William Blake  "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," show two opposite extremes: the ultimate good and the contrasting evil aspects of human existence. The ideas of innocence and experience show the different views of creation. These differences can be seen through not only the meaning of the poem, but also through word choice and imagery. The first images that appear to the reader come right from reading the title. Most people see a lamb as being a sweet, innocent animal. The poem describes the lamb as having "a tender voice"(7) and being meek and mild. The lamb can do no harm. However, the tiger is a fierce and ferocious creature. Its "fearful symmetry" (4) makes the animal seem so exotic. These two contrasting animals first set the mood for the poems.  When reading these two poems aloud, one can notice the differences in the two poems just by the sound of them. "The Lamb" has a singsong nursery rhyme cadence to it. The lines flow together very smoothly and calmly. A sense of innocence can be heard from this poem. However, even though both poems use couplets to create that sense of rhythm and continuity, the several questions that are asked in "The Tyger” seem more demanding. The lines are still regular and rhyming, but unlike "The Lamb," the rhythm, as well as the consonants, is heavy. This leads into word choice and how they sound. Good and evil are conflicting aspects of everyman's nature. Without this, innocence and experience, man is not whole. These two states have to deal with creation, which is shown in these poems