中英诗歌比较与欣赏unit3上课讲义

1. The Songs of the South –an outlet of Qu Yuan’
frustrated ambition, grief, and hatred. s and Folksongs of the Han and Six
Dynasties are all lyrics 3.Both the Tang Poetry and Song Lyrics are lyrical 4. The Yuan Dramatic Verses are mostly lyrical 5.The Tunes of Yuan are all lyrical
Robin Hood and Allin a Dale
Come listen to me, you gallants so free, All you that love mirth for to hear, And I will tell of a bold outlaw, That lived in Nottinghamshire. As Robin Hood in the forest stood, All under the green-wood tree, There was he ware of a brave young man, As fine as fine might be. gallants 豪侠。 mirth 欢乐；欢笑 outlaw歹徒；惯犯
composed by Homer,1000 B.C. turn out to be the pioneers of the western poetry and thus establish the western epic convention.
1. poetics by Aristotle focuses only on epics and
--Julius Caesar Scaliger
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth by calling imagination to the help of reason
-- Dr. Johnson
3. A comparison from philosophical tradition
1.A comparison from the history of poetry
Chinese historically lyrical tradition English historically narrative tradition
Chinese historically lyrical tradition
诗者，志之所之，在心为志，发言为声。《诗大序》
The poem is that to which what is intently on the mind (志)goes. In the mind (心), it I “being intent”(志)；coming out in language (言)，it is a poem.
The Chinese poetry can be dated form the Book of Songs, which is one of six classics
of the Confucian school and the fountainhead of Chinese literature, and which is the anthology of lyrical songs. This corpus of earliest pieces initiates a lyrical tradition which has been passed on one dynasty after another.
Conclusion: Chinese historically lyrical tradition
English historically narrative tradition
The western poetry originates from the
creating of epics. Iliad and Odyssey,
Thus I Pass by And die As one Unknown And gone: I’am made As shade And laid I’ th grave There have My cave Where tell I dwell farewell
Rime
Round the rocks runs the river.
The Book of Laozi, known also as Dao De Jing, which is an important classic of Daoism, and which lays emphasis on non-activity and man’s total abiding by the laws of nature and fancies that human society would return to the primitive state of “small country with small population” denies the enterprising and heroic spirit but call for “inactivity”, letting things take their own course.
Both the Confucianism and Taoism, object to heroic deeds and military affairs, let alone the Buddhism which prevails for a time.
Reading the Epics and the Lyrics
unknown.
The voice
by Thomas Hardy
Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me, Saying that now you are not as you were When you had changed from the one who was all to me, But as at first, when our day was fair. Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then, Standing as when I drew near to the town Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then, Even to the original air-blue gown! Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessness Traveling across the wet mead to me here, You being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness, Heard no more again far or near? Thus I; faltering forward, Leaves around me falling, Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward, And the woman calling.
The ideology of Benevolence and the philosophy of the Mean which advocate the love for the others and selecting the middle certainly abandon the resort to force and warfare
The Chinese philosophy mainly advocates the benevolence and non-activity and oppose to the use of warfare; therefore the heroes seldom find their parts in Chinese poetry The westerners are rooted in the spirit of duel and enterprise; hence the winners are highly sung in their poetry.
Review Foot and Meter
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more termperate:
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night.
poetry 5. Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound is also epic
Conclusion: English historically narrative tradition
2. A comparison from the function of poetry
The Chinese poetry is employed to sing what is in heart and the English poetry is created to eulogize the heroes
诗者，吟咏情性也。严羽《沧浪诗话》
Poetry is “to sing what is in the heart”.
诗可以兴，可以观，可以群，可以怨
Poetry can serve to inspire emotion, to help your observation, to make you fit for company, to express your grievances.
drama 2. The earliest and most influential poem of
English-- Beowulf 3. John Milton’s Paradise Lost, paradise regained,
Samson Agonists – the three epic masterpieces 4. Childe Harold and Don Juan—Byron’s epic
Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king, Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring. Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing.
Poetry in general seems to have sprung from two causes: the instinct of imitation ,the pleasure felt in things imitated
--Aristotle Poetry is making. Imitation, is not the end of poetry but is intermediate to the end. The end is the giving of instruction in pleasurable form.
Laurel is green for a season, and love is sweet for a day.
But love grows bitter with treason, and laurel outlives not may.
Why should I have returned? My knowledge would not fit into theirs. I found untouched the desert of the