英美文学欣赏考题整理及答案

Part One：English Poetry

1.William Shakespeare Sonnet 18

•Why does the poet compare `thee` to a summer’s day? And who could `thee` be?

Because summer’s day and thee both represent beauty . thee could be beauty, love.

•What picture have you got of English summer, and could you explain why?

Warm, beautiful, sunshine. Because summer is the best season of a year ,the most beautiful season. It is like our May.

•How does the poet answer the question he puts forth in the first line?

Thee is more beautiful than summer.

•What makes the poet think that “thou” can be more fair than summer and immortal?

Because humanism is more eternal than summer and immortal.

•What figures of speech are used in this poem?

Simile, metaphor, personification, oxymoron and so on .

•What is the theme of the poem?

Love conquers all, Beauty lives on.

2. Thomas Nashe Spring

•Read the poem carefully, pay attention to those image- bearing words, and see how many images the poet created in the poem and what sense impressions you can get from those images.

There is “Blooms each thing, maids dance in a ring, the pretty birds do sing, the palm and may make country houses gay, Lambs frisk' and play, the shepherds pipe all day, And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay, The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet, Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit, In every street these tunes bur ears do greet!”

The “Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit，”impressions me most because of the harmony of the people’s relationship.

•Can you point out and explain the sound and their musical effect in the poem?

In the Poem, each section has four lines, each line has ten syllables ( five tone step ) . In order to give the reader a spring breeze , streams , flowers , winding , Song Xin texture of sound and light flavor, Naixi greater uses English word S , z , f , V , R , L , and θconsonants means. In Naixi's poem, the use of phonological is also very harmonious, very smooth , very mellow. Section I of the poetry has Three pairs [ ing ] , section II of the poem has three pairs [ ei ] and the third quarter has three pairs [ i : ].

3.John Donne A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

•What is a “valediction” any way? Is the speaker in the poem about to die?

Why does the speaker forbid mourning?

No, it is about the lover s’separation. As the poem metaphors, the poet believed he and his wife’s love is sacred, he didn’t hope they cry when separation comes, let their love be stained by the ordinary and mundane.