Semester 1: A Guide to British Literature
Lecture One
What is Poetry?
Eleanor Farjeon (1881--1965)
What is Poetry? Who knows?
Not a rose, but the scent of the rose;
Not the sky, but the light in the sky;
Not the fly, but the gleam of the fly;
Not the sea, but the sound of the sea;
Not myself, but what makes me
See, hear, and feel something that prose
Cannot; and what it is, who knows?
II. Features of poetry
1. Form-----specially arranged in lines and stanzas
Form can give visual aesthetic pleasure, besides it can convey thematic meaning.
Fixed (律诗)
form----poems with rhyme and regular meter(rhythm)
Open form----poems without rhyme and regular meter
(自由诗----free verse)
2．Sound------musical
------rhyme (rime) 韵律 “Jack and Jill, went up to the hill.”
------rhythm (beat-foot-meter) 节奏
(the changing pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line) Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are?
Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky.
------alliteration 头韵 friend and foe clear and clean
The day is dark.
3． Meaning and Language
(Meaning: themes) Poetry express complicated，subtle，unspeakable human feelings, sentiments, passions in artistic ways.
(Language) Best words in best order
-----highly condensed. It distills meaning
Fewest words, richest meaning.
-----highly deformed. deviant from everyday language
Indirect, ambiguous;
-----leaping in logic. Plenty of omission
It leaves “space” for the reader to explore.
syntactical features
----inversion, repetition, parallelism, omitting, adding,
----sentence fragments, rhetorical sentences (requiring exclamation sentences, coinage of new words and phrases
no answer)
----punctuation, capitalization
Images
-----verbal pictures of objects, actions or sensations (feelings),
sensory experiences (what we see, hear, feel, smell, taste)
Imagery
-----a series of images working together to achieve certain effects.
Figure of speech
simile metaphor 隐喻
personification pun
hyperbole(exaggeration)-----overstatement and understatement
paradox the seemingly illogical remarks
有的人活着，他已经死了；有的人死了，他还活着。
臧克家 《有的人》
Symbolism
Symbol----an object or action that represents something beyond itself
-----surface meaning
-----deeper meaning
Allusion
-----references to an outside event, person or fact.
Ancient works, Homer, Greek mythology, Bible and classics
Lecture 2 Voice in Poetry
咏梅 卜算子
（宋 陆游）
驿外断桥边，寂寞开无主。已是黄昏独自愁，更著风和雨。
无意苦争春，一任群芳妒。零落成泥辗作尘，只有香如故。
咏梅 卜算子
（毛泽东）
风雨送春归，飞雪迎春到。已是悬崖百丈冰，犹有花枝俏。
俏也不争春，只把春来报。待到山花烂漫时，她在丛中笑。
Voice: speaker and tone
Who is speaking? What is he speaking about?
What words could you use to describe his emotions?
How Do I Love Thee?
Robert Browning and Elizabeth Browning (1806-1861)
Comprehension Questions:
1. Who is she talking to? What is she talking about?
2. How many ways does she love him?
3. What are the most remarkable rhetorical features of the poem?
Syntactical feature: parallelism
Language: very expressive
By “counting the ways” in a long parallel sequence, the speaker
expresses her greatest innermost feeling to her husband. Her love to him seems to incomparably infinite, boundless and eternal.
Rime scheme: abba cddc efefef
Sonnet 18
Shall I Compare Thee to a summer’s Day
Comprehension Questions:
1. Who is speaking? To whom? What is he talking about?
2. What makes the poet think “thou” are more lovely?
3. What is the theme of the poem?
4. What rhetorical devices are used in the poem?
We can hear a speaker, full of passion and appreciation, expressing his admiration of his friends’ qualities. It is generally agreed that the poem stresses the eternal beauty of man, some incomparable human qualities that Renaissance people began to appreciate.
What is the theme of this poem?
The speaker praises the eternal youth and beauty of his friend, and shows great confidence in his own poetic genius. The theme reflects Renaissance humanist’s admiration and celebration of man and his immortality.
What rhetorical devices are used in this poem?
Rhetorical question
Metaphor
Personification his gold complexion // Nor shall death brag
Exaggeration (hyperbole) eternal summer
Symbol eternal summer
What is the formal feature of the poem?
Form: iambic pentameter
in the riming scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, gg
3 Quadruplets + couplet
Shakespeare’s Sonnets 154
theme：humanism
the praise of man, nature, life, beauty, love, friendship and virtues
Lecture 3 Form and Sound of Poetry
Fixed form----poems with rhyme and regular meter(rhythm)
(律诗)
Shakespearean sonnets
Iambic: unstressed and stressed
Pentameter: five beats (feet)
rime scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg (3 Quadruplets + 1 couplet)
Open form----poems without rhyme and regular meter
(自由诗----free verse)
40 ------- LOVE
1. What does the poem write about? (verbal message)
A couple playing tennis.
2. What does the poem shape like? (typograpical, visual message)
3. What is special with the title? (pun)
In tennis, 40----love means 40----0
Is this a good match?
It’s not a good match because it is not close.
4. Theme: What is wrong with the couple?
Net, gap, distance, barrier, wall
Pun----a play on words
----an amusing use of a word or phrase that has two meanings, or words with the same sound but different meanings, in such a way as to play on two or more of the possible applications
侍萍：你是平----凭什么打我的儿子？（曹禺：雷雨）
(you are my----mighty of your fists.)
Sound------musical
------rhyme (rime) 韵律 “Jack and Jill, went up to the hill.”
------rhythm (beat-foot-meter) 节奏
(the changing pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line) Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are?
Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky.
------alliteration 头韵 friend and foe clear and clean
The Owl and the Pussycat
1. Who are the lovers?
2. How are they married?
3. How do they enjoy their life?
-----a nonsense poem
-----popular with children for its romantic and musical elements
rime: end rime, middle rime
Lecture 4 Image and Figure of speech
I. What is image?
He is dirty. He always smells the dead rat.
How is your girl like? She is very beautiful.
Image is the verbal picture of an object, action or abstract idea or sensation (feeling). Poets make effort to excite our responses through sensory experiences (what we see, hear, feel, smell, taste), rather than through abstract language, for it is through our senses that we perceive the world. Images trigger our memories, stimulate our feelings, and command our response.
Image is very useful in expressing the inexplicit feelings of the author and bringing the reader into his world.
II. Image in Chinese Poetry
意象==（言有尽而意无穷）立象以尽意
（托物言志，借物抒情）
意象==意（主体的审美情感）+ 象（客体、景物、事物）
1. 问君能有几多愁， 恰似一江春水向东流。
(唐) 李煜《虞美人》
2. 试问闲愁都几许？一川烟草，满城风絮，梅子黄时雨。
III. Image in English Poetry
A Red, Red Rose
How does he describe his love?
----to use images to arouse the readers’ s feelings
My luve's like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June; My luve's like the melodie that's sweetly play'd in tune.”1. Simile----a comparison of two things with as, like
贺铸《青玉案》
My love is like a red, red rose.
(simile 明喻 explicit comparison)
My love is a red, red rose.
(metaphor 暗喻 Implicit comparison)
婚姻是一座城堡，外面的人想进去，里面的人想出来。
婚姻是一场战争，是男人和女人相互征服与反征服的无休止的战争。
2．Synaesthesia---the description of one kind of sensation in terms of another, such as the description of sounds in terms of colors, “blue note”, of colors in terms of temperature, as a “cool green”
通感：用一种感觉去描绘另一种感觉，“响亮”以光亮写声音，“蓝调子”以颜色写听觉，“冷绿”以触觉写颜色。
热闹、冷清 “红杏枝头春意闹”
朱自清：《荷塘月色》淡淡的荷香
“微风过处,送来缕缕清香,仿佛远处高楼上缈茫的歌声似的”
3. Exaggeration (hyperbole)
till a'the seas gang dry.
the rocks melt wi'the sun;
the sands o'life shall run.
it were ten thousand mile.
Syntactical features:
the use of parallelism, invertion, repetition helps to express strong feelings
Formal feature:
English Ballad===Tetrameter+trimeter abab abcb
Robert Burns
----A Best Loved National Poet of Scotland
-----his poetry is unsurpassed for its beautiful lyricism and sincerity of emotions
----played important role in reviving the Scottish culture
Poems Chiefly in Scottish Dialect
Themes:
---love and friendship Auld Lang Syne (good time long ago)
---the natural beauty of Scotland
---the life and labor of the common people
---the patriotism and the struggle for liberty
---satire on the corruption an hypocrisy of the high society
Language:
colloquial, Scottish dialect, simple, sincere, musical (lyrical)
Lecture 5 Image and Figure of speech
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
1. Compare the mood of the speaker in the beginning and in the end, and explain what leads to the change.
2. How does the poet describe the features of the daffodils?
3. Pay attention to the syntactic features of the poem.
Lecture 6-8 Drama (theatre, play)
----- stage art, for stage performance(theatre). Plays are written for stage performance 综合艺术
舞台性, 直观性, 综合性, 观众参与性
What makes drama dramatic?
----Act, Scene
----dialogues
----stage directions(in the present tense)
describe anything on the stage, scenic background, props and costumes, lighting and sound, people’s movements, non-verbal gestures, speech manner and position on the stage
1. Dialogue 戏剧语言：对话
Features: colloquial, easy for mouth and pleasant for ear.
口语化，上口，入耳，浅显，易懂
Three functions
---to advance plot (有动作性，能产生冲击力，影响力，推动剧情)
---to reveal character（个性化，三言两语便使人物立起来，闻其声，知其人）
---to establish setting（潜台词，含有言外之意，展现社会，历史，文化背景）
2. Conflict：戏剧冲突
戏剧冲突是戏剧情节的构成成分，是两种对抗力量相互作用的过程及结果，是体现戏剧性的最高，最尖锐，最集中的形式，能激起并保持观众的兴趣，造成悬念。
戏剧冲突是戏剧的真正灵魂----“没有冲突就没有戏”
Man----nature 人----自然
Man----society 人----社会
Man----man 人----人
Man----self 人----自我
3. Stage directions (in the present tense)
Stage directions describe anything on the stage: scenic background, props and costumes, lighting and sound, people’s movements, non-verbal gestures, speech manner and position on the stage
Types of Drama
1. comedy
Comic plays end happily, often with a celebration such as an marriage, success or good fortune. They celebrate(affirm) life, and are typically joyous
and festival. The fortune of comic characters turns from bad to good Aristophanes
2. tragedy
Tragic plays end sorrowfully, often with the death of the hero. They highlight life’s sorrows and are typically brooding and solemn. The fortune of tragic characters turns from good to bad.
Tragic hero: grand, of noble character, “man of high estate”, “enjoy great reputation and prosperity”
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides
tragedy of character
tragedy of circumstances
Why not depressing?
ARISTOTLE: the pity and fear aroused in the audience are purged and released and the audience experiences a cleansing of those emotions and a sense of relief that the action is over.
悲剧能引起怜悯和恐惧使思想得到净化，使情感得到陶冶
伟大的人犯错误，Oedipus(complex), Othello
-----产生震撼，崇敬，使人敬畏生命
-----能激发人的深沉的悲愤，奋发向上的激情和对自由，理想的向往追求。
鲁迅：喜剧-----将无价值的东西撕破给人看
悲剧-----将有价值的东西毁灭给人看
3. tragicomedy---- a mix of tragedy and comedy
more suitable for representing a complex, uncertain and often irrational world than tragedy or comedy alone
正剧---严肃崇高与诙谐幽默 tragedy of social problems
本学期佳作赏析课程目标与要求
1. 掌握主要文学体裁诗歌/戏剧/小说/散文的文体特点, 并结合具体文本的分析, 学
习实践赏析方法.
2. 了解英语国家的文化背景, 包括历史文化及宗教文化
佳作赏析课程诗歌、戏剧部分复习提纲：
Poetry
1. Analyze the theme and form of the poem 40-Iove. 2. Comment on the poetic style of a Red, Red Rose and My Heart’s in the Highlands.
3. Comment on the poem Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day in terms of theme, rhetorical devices, form, etc)
4. How is syntax effective in poetry? Illustrate with the example of I Wandered Lonely and How Do I Love Thee? Drama
1. Analyze the selection of Pygmalion. (What is the main event in the selection? How is it important for the whole? What is revealed about the character of Eliza and Higgins? How is humor achieved?)
2. How do you understand the title of the play “Pygmalion”?
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