19th-Century American Poets Part I
19th cen American poets Longfellow, Whitman and Dickinson
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
New England poet Works Works Voices of the Night 1839 《夜籁集》 Ballads and Other Poems 1841 《歌谣及其他》 Evangeline 1847 《伊凡吉林》 Hiawatha 《海华沙之歌》 Tales of a Wayside Inn 1863, 1872, 1873《路边酒肆的故事》 Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems 1845 《布鲁茨的钟楼 及其他》 “A Psalm of Life” 1838 《人生礼赞》
Free Verse
A kind of poetry that does not conform to any regular meter: the length of its lines is irregular, as is its use of rhyme.
Stanza
A group of verse lines forming a section of a poem and sharing the same structure as all or some of the other sections of the same poem, in terms of the lengths of its lines, its meter, and usually its rhyme scheme.
Heroic Couplet
a rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines: Let Observation with extensive View Survey Mankind, from China to Peru. It had been established by Chaucer as a major English verse form.
东师《英美文学16秋在线作业1
东北师范大学东师英美文学16秋在线作业1一、单选题（共40 道试题，共100 分。
）1. Howells , Henry James and Mark Twain are representatives of American ______ .A. romanticismB. realismC. naturalism正确答案：2. One of the earliest spokeswomen in English for the Chinese immigrant community is _____.A. Lin YutangB. Sui Sin FarC. Maxine Hong Kingston正确答案：3. Here are four lines from a long poem: “Others for language all their care express, / And value books, as women men , for dress.” The poem must beA. Thomas Gray‟s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”B. John Milton‟s Paradise LostC. Alexander Pope‟s Essay on CriticismD. Shakespeare‟s Midsummer Night‟s Dream正确答案：4. The Elizabethan literature____________A. had a marked unity and the feeling of patriotism and devotion to the queen.B. witnessed a decline of degenerationC. expressed age and sadness, even the brightest hours were followed by gloom and pessimism.D. was not romantic.正确答案：5. Author of Gulliver‟s Ttravels also wroteA. A Modest ProposalB. Robinson CrusoeC. Henry VD. The Tyger正确答案：6. Which of the following best describes the speaker of T.S.Eliot‟s " The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock"?A. He is an man of a action.B. He is a man of apathy.C. He is a man of passion.D. He is a man of inactivity7. “Ode to the West Wind” is the representative work of_______ .A. P.B. Shelley‟sB. John Keats‟sC. Samuel Coleridge‟sD. Lord Byron‟s正确答案：8. ______ saw a new upsurge of Black American Literature in what has come to be known as the Harlem Renaissance .A. 1900sB. 1910sC. 1920s正确答案：9. Shakespeare…s tragedies include all the fOllowing except____.A. Hamlet and King learB. Antony and Cleopatra and MacbethC. julius Caesar and OthelloD. the Merchant of V enice and A Midsummer Night`s Dream正确答案：10. Most of ______ works are set in the American South, with emphasis on the southern subjects and consciousness .A. Hemingway…sB. Fitzgerald…sC. Faulkner…s正确答案：11. Of the following writers , who wrote the critical essay On Poetry and Poets ?A. PoundB. EliotC. Frost正确答案：12. Irving was regarded as ______ .A. father of American dramaB. father of American poetryC. father of American Literature正确答案：13. In Chapter III of Oliver Twist, Oliver is punished for that “impious and profane offence of aski ng for more” . What did Oliver ask for more?A. More time to playB. More food to eatC. More books to readD. More money to spend正确答案：14. Dubliners is writing ofA. realismC. stream of consciousnessD. none of the above正确答案：15. "…I believe you are made of stone,…he said, clenching his fingers so hard that he broke the fragile cup. ……You seem to forget,… she said,…that cup is not!…" From the above quoted passage, we can find the woman…s tone is very _______ .A. sarcasticB. amusingC. sentimentalD. facetious正确答案：16. Which of the following is NOT typical of metaphysical poetry best represented by John Donne‟s works?A. Common speech.B. Conceit.C. Argument.D. Refined language.正确答案：17. The most original playwright of the Theater of Absurd is Samuel Beckett and his first play, _______, is regarded as the most famous and influential play of the Theater of Absurd.A. Waiting for GodotB. Murder in the CathedralC. Too True to Be GoodD. Mrs. Warren‟s Profession正确答案：18. "Not on thy sole but on thy soul, harsh Jew,/Thou mak‘st thy knife keen." In the above quotation taken form The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare employs a（n）_______ .A. oxymoronB. punC. simileD. synecdoche正确答案：19. "Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?…And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you." The above quoted passage is most probably taken from _______ .A. Pride and PrejudiceB. Jane EyreC. Wuthering HeightsD. Great Expectations正确答案：20. Of the following literary giants, is not of Irish origin.A. George Bernard ShawB. William Butler YeatsC. T.S.EliotD. James Joyce正确答案：21. The unquenchable spirit of Robinson Crusoe struggling to maintain a substantial existence on a lonely island reflects .A. man‟s desire to return to natureB. the author‟s criticism of the colonizationC. the ideal of the rising bourgeoisieD. the aristocrats‟ disillusionment of the harsh social reality正确答案：22. Mr. Spectator stands for the ideas ofA. the 16th centuryB. 17th centuryC. the 18th centuryD. the19th century正确答案：23. Dickinson‟s poems include poems of _________.A. natureB. loveC. deathD. all the above正确答案：24. “Drive my dead thought over the universe Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth.” (Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind”) What rhetorical device does the poet use in the quoted lines?A. Synecdoche.B. Metaphor.C. Simile.D. Onomatopoeia.正确答案：25. Dreiser…s Trilogy of Desire includes 3 novels : The Financier , T he Titan and ______ .A. The TycoonB. The GiantC. The Stoic正确答案：26. In Hawthorne…s novels and short stories , intellectuals usually appear as _______ .A. saviorsB. villainsC. observers正确答案：27. The Rape of the Lock gives an account of aA. bull fightingB. knight duelC. writer‟s lifeD. anecdote of the court正确答案：28. “To wage by force or guile eternal war, Irreconcilable to our grand Foe.”（John Milton, Paradise lost) By what means were Satan and his followers to wage this war against God?A. By planting a tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden.B. By turning into poisonous snakes to threaten man‟s life.C. By removing God from His throne.D. By corrupting man and woman created by God.正确答案：29. All of the following are written by Hemingway except _______ .A. The Sun Also RisesB. For Whom the Bell TollsC. Sartoris正确答案：30. Chinese–American Literature can be defined as literature by and about ______ in America .A. Chinese immigrantsB. Chinese studentsC. Asian immigrants正确答案：31. “The novel is structured around the discovery of the hero‟s origin.” This novel is most probably .A. Charles Dickens‟s David CopperfieldB. James Joyce‟s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManC. Thomas Hardy‟s Far from the Madding GrowdD. Henry Fielding‟s Tom Jones正确答案：32. The impact of Darwin…s evolutionary theory on the American thought and the influence of the nineteenth-century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism: American ________ .A. local colorismB. vernacularismC. modernismD. naturalism正确答案：33. “When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table.” (T. s. Eliot, “The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock”) What does the image in the quoted lines suggest?A. Violence.B. Horror.C. Inactivity.D. Indifference.正确答案：34. Daisy Miller…s tragedy of indiscretion is intensified and enlarged by its narration from the point of view of _______ .A. the author Henry JamesB. the Italian youth GiovanelliC. the American youth WinterbourneD. her mother Mrs. Miller正确答案：35. In which of the following works can you find the proper names “Lilliput,” “Brobdingnag,” “Houyhnhnm,” and “Yahoo”?A. James Joyce‟s Ulsses.B. Charles Dickens‟s Bleak House.C. Jonathan Swift‟s Gulliver‟s Trav els.D. D. H. Lawrence‟s Women in love.正确答案：36. provides the main source of influence on American naturalism.A. The puritan heritageB. Howells‟ ideas of realismC. Darwin‟s theory of evolutionD. The pioneer spirit of the wild west正确答案：37. Promethe us Unbound is Shelley‟s greatest achievement. Prometheus, according to the Greek mythology, was chained by Zeus on Mount Caucasus and suffered the vulture‟s feeding on his liver for_________.A. planning a revolt to dethrone GodB. misinterpreting God‟s de cree to reconcile man and natureC. prophesying the arrival of spring in a winter seasonD. stealing the fire from heaven and giving it to man正确答案：38. The one of the following not known as a dramatist is _______ .A. MillerB. PoundC. O…Neill正确答案：39. Macbeth is Shakespeare‟s_______.A. sonnetB. comedyC. history playD. tragedy正确答案：40. “Justice was done ; and the president of the Immortals had ended his sport” is a part of the quotation fromA. The Forsyte SagaB. Jude the ObscureC. The picture of Dorian GrayD. Tess of D‟ Urbervilles正确答案：英美文学16秋在线作业1一、单选题（共40 道试题，共100 分。
十九世纪美国诗歌
Significant Form, Style, or Artistic Conventions
Longfellow’s poems are not only accessible in their meaning, but they are also highly regular in their form. It is very simple to teach metrics with Longfellow because he provides easy and memorable examples of so many metrical schemes. These can be present end in connection chit Longfellow’s personal history, for he is of course an academic poet, and as such a poet writing often self-consciously a learned perspective. Thus, nothing with him seems wholly spontaneous or accidental.
The Song of Hiawatha (epic poem) (1855) 《海华沙之歌》
His works:
A Psalm of life 《人生礼赞》 Voices of the Night 《夜吟》 Hymn to the night 《夜的赞歌》
The Beleaguered City 《群星之光》
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returns,
《美国文学》期末考试试卷（A卷）
《美国⽂学》期末考试试卷（A卷）适⽤班级060511-3 考试时间 120 分钟学院班级学号姓名Ⅰ. Choose TEN of the following works and write the names of the authors. (10%)1. Octopus ( )2. Maggie, A Girl of the Streets ( )3. Babbitt ( )4. White Fang ( )5. “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” ( )6. My Antonia ( )7. “Birches” ( )8. Poor Richard’s Almanac ( )9. Light in August ( )10. Twice Told Tales ( )11. The Declaration of Independence ( )12. “Rip Van Winkle ”( )13. Nature ( )14. The Song of Hiawatha ( )15. Uncle Tom ’s Cabin ( )16. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( )17. Sister Carrie( )18. The Waste Land( )19. For Whom the Bell Tolls ( )20. The Emperor Jones ( )(10%)1._________________________was one of the founders of theJamestown colony in Virginia in 1607 and is known for his work describing the colonies.2.__________________________was a determined revolutionary whosework helped the cause of the American Revolution considerably, but who lost his popularity long before his death.3.The term refers to the group of people, some of themimportant to American literature (especially secular essay writing), who led the American Revolution and helped create the early American Republic.4.________________________was an early form of horror fiction thatoriginated in 18th century Europe and was very popular in America during the Romantic Period.5._____________________________, known for her deeply personalpoems and radically different poetic themes and form, didn’t achieve fame as a poet until long after her death.6.The first of American literature was not written by an American, but by___________________, a British captain, who thus became the first American writer.7. _________________ has been entitled the “Father of AmericanPoetry.8._______________________was the first great prose stylist ofAmerican romanticism, author of the first American short stories and familiar essays , the first American author to achieve international distinction, and has a significant position in the history of American literature.9._____________________is the first American professional writer andthe first writer of the detective story in the world.10._______________________is also called novel of the road, it stringsthe incidents on the line of the hero’s travel.Ⅲ. Choose only one answer form the four choices as themost appropriate answer. (30%)1. Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. When her poems were published in England, she became know as the “______” who appeared in America.A Ninth MuseB Tenth MuseC Best MuseD First Muse2. ______ is the sometimes exaggerated use of local language, characters and customs in regional literature.A purple proseB waste-land imageryC local colorD symbolism3. The first great flourishing of African American literature that appealed to a relatively large literate Black readership wasknown as_____.A The HolocaustB The Harlem RenaissanceC AbolitionismD The Civil Rights Movement4. _______ was a leading 19th century feminist and one of the core members of the Transcendentalist movement.A Margaret FullerB Sylvia PlathC Hilda DoolittleD Gloria Stein5. Which of the following is not typical of modern poetry?A gushing sentimentalism and comfortable imagesB abandonment of earlier verse formsC use of free verseD an effort to find and/or explore a new role for the poet in a changing world6. Who was perhaps the most popular of all 20th century American poets?A Ezra PoundB Walt WhitmanC Robert FrostD Allen Ginsburg7. The Fitzgeralds lived so extravagantly that they frequently spent more money than F. Scoot Fitzgerald earned for parties, liquor, entertaining their friends and traveling. It was this living style that nicknamed the decade of the 1920s as_______.A The Jazz AgeB The Gilded AgeC The Roaring AgeD The Beat Age8. Which is true of the “Fireside Poets”?A They were generally strongly in favor of abolishing slavery.B They were deeply involved in the Transcendentalist movement.C They were a group of 19th century New England poets who weretremendously popular and respected at the time they wrote.D They opposed to tradition and were in favor of radical change.9. Ernest Hemingway was badly wounded in Italy and sent to a hospital where he fell in love with a nurse. These two persons later became the characters of his novel ________.A The Old Man and the SeaB For Whom the Bell TollsC The Sun Also RisesD A Farewell to Arms10. The Brahmists or Boston Brahmi, in American literature, refers to _______.A The highest ranking of the Hindu castes.B A movement that emerged from rebellion against Puritan religious ideas and systems.C A group of New England writers known for their scholarship and/or conservative philosophy.D A school of imaginative writing.11. Which of the following is one of Ben Franklin’s famous proverbs?A “A stitch in time saves nine”B “God helps those who help themselves”C “A Friend in need is a friend indeed”D “Ask not who the bell tolls, the bell tolls for thee”12. ___________ was a reaction to the ideas of the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment.A RomanticismB RealismC NaturalismD Modernism13. Although few of her poems were published in her lifetime and a complete collection of them didn’t appear until the 1950’s, _____ had a major impact on 20th century poetry.A Anne BradstreetB Gertrude SteinC Emily DickinsonD Amy Lowell14. Which of the following writers died a natural death in his old age?A Jack LondonB Ernest HemingwayC Stephen CraneD Mark Twain15. Who of the following is NOT a 20th century American poet?A Henry Wordsworth LongfellowB Amy LowellC Ezra PoundD Robert FrostIV. Choose TEN of the following and decide whether thestatements are true or false. (10%)1.Hawthorne was a firm believer in Puritan principles and mourned theirpassing in his works.2.Frederick Douglas was a major 19th century black writer.3.The sou nd of Whitman’s words casts a magic, romantic spell overreaders. His tone is awesome, sad and melancholy.4.Haiku, a form of traditional Japanese poetry, greatly influenced theImagist movement.5.Leaves of Grass is Whitman’s life work.6.Thanks in part to the efforts of Ezra Pound, Robert Frost was publishedin England and quickly became recognized as a major American poet. 7.In 1954, T. S. Eliot was awarded a Nobel Prize for his “mastery of theart of modern narration.”8.Hemingway believed that a man could find meaning in life by facing hisdeath with dignity and courage.9.Thomas Jefferson was famous for powerful, persuasive essays, such ashis pamphlet Common Sense, which persuaded many people to support the American Revolution.10.William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy, written in 1789, is oftencalled “the first American novel”.11.The literary movement of American romanticism was generally dividedinto two stages: pre-romanticism and post-romanticism.12.Realists thought highly of individual status and role in the world. Theromanticists preferred the innate or intuitive perception by the heart of man. They thought that man was essentially of goodwill, only the civilized society made him degenerate. They pointed out, the means to uproot evils and to save mankind was habits, and to return to “natural primitive state”.13.The Scarlet Letter is called an economical novel because there are onlythree chief characters-or four if we include the child Pearl.14.President Lincoln praised Anne Bradstreet as “the little woman whowrote the book that made this great war.”15.Edgar Allan Poe wrote two poems both entitled “ To Helen”.16.Literary naturalism may be regarded as the new development of literaryrealism, and was sometimes called “pessimistic realism.”The naturalistic writers were philosophical pessimists.17.Hemingway, Pound, Cummings, Dos Passos, and Fitzgerald, belong tothe school of “Beat Generation”.18.F. Scott Fitzgerald is called the leader and poet laureate of the Jazz Agewho wrote the novels of the Jazz Age.19.Yoknapatawpha saga is a name for John Steinbeck’s novels.20.“Thanatopsis”is a word Bryant borrowed from Latin meaning“meditation on death”.the questions. (20%)Passage 1The apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.Questions:1.Who is the writer of this poem? _______________(1%)2.What is the title of this poem? _______________(1%)3.What images in this poem suggest Haiku poetry and what images are“modern”? (2%)4.What is the effect of the parallel between lines one and two of the poem?And what feeling and meaning does the poem express to you? (2%)Passage 2It was late and everyone had left the caféexcept an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light. In the daytime the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.Questions:1.This part is from the novel , written by .(2%)2.Why does the old man get drunk every night and why did he commitsuicide? (2%)3.What does the young waiter think of the old man and how does he treathim? (3%)Passage 3I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the es-sential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God.Questions:1.This passage is taken from a famous work entitled _________ . (1%)2.The author of the work is____________ . (1%)3.List by yourself at least five reasons that the author gives for going tolive in the woods. (5%)Passage 4But, on one side of the portal（⼊⼝），and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.Questions:1.This part is from the novel , written by .(2%)2.What does “the wild rose bush” symbolize according to your opinion?(5%)Passage 5It was many and many a year ago,In a kingdom by the sea,That a maiden there lived whom you may know.By the name of Annabel Lee; —And this maiden she lived with no other thoughtThan to love and be loved by me.Questions:1.The stanza is taken from the poem________________?(1%)2.The author of the poem is____________ . (1%)3.What is the most obvious rhetorical device the author uses for effect?(4%)Passage 6Thou hast an house on high erect,Framed by that mighty Architect,With glory richly furnished,Stands permanent though this be fled.It’s purchased and paid for tooBy Him who hath enough to do.Questions:1.This stanza is taken from the poem__________________________by____________.(2%)2.What is one’s real house according to the poet? (5%)VI. Choose TWO of the following and Comment on them.(20%)1.Robert Frost' s The Road Not Taken.（10%）2.Eugene O' Neill’s Long Day's Journey into Night.（10%）3.Talk about Adgar Allan Poe's social outlook and writings （10%）/doc/76a448b9fd0a79563c1e726f.html ment on Hawthorne’s style. （10%）。
19th-Century_Poets
Whitman’s Poetic Style:
Original, revolutionary, indisputably American; Fee-verse; Whitman created nicknames for many different states. Strong tendency to use oral English. Vocabulary-powerful, colorful, rarely used words of foreign origins.
Free Verse
Although free verse had been used before Whitman---notably in Italian opera and in the King James translation of the Bible—it was Whitman who pioneered the form and made it acceptable in American poetry. It has since been used by Ezra Pound. T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, and other major American poets of the twentieth century.
Image
Poetry is aimed at conveying and enriching human experience. Experience is formed through sense impressions. Therefore, the poet’s business is to evoke such sense impressions in the reader’s mind. His method is usually to describe these things in words, or so to speak, to paint word pictures. Such word picture is an image. Image is the representation of sense experience through language. All the images formed into a meaningful whole in a poem which is often called its imagery. Obviously, image is the soul of poetry as language is the body of poetry.
沃特尔惠特曼waltwhitman草叶集
poem lines
Song of Myself Part 1
I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
American spirit
Song of Myself
1345 lines the longest poem in Leaves of Grass two principal beliefs: first, a theory of
universality; second, all things are equal in value.
?我独自在遥远的荒山野外等待猎物的出现?深深地惊喜于我的轻快和昂扬?在天晚时寻觅了一个安全的地方过夜?燃起火烤熟了刚猎到的野味?我全身酥软地躺在集拢来的叶子上我的狗和枪躺在我的身旁
Walt Whitman
One of the greatest innovators /poets in American literature（19th century） He gave America its first genuine epic poem: Leaves of Grass
Dead Poem Society
John Keating: O Captain, my Captain.
Theme of His Poems
美国文学浪漫主义时期
美国文学浪漫主义时期浪漫主义时期开始于十八世纪末,到内战爆发为止,是美国文学史上最重要的时期。
华盛顿·欧文出版的《见闻札记》标志着美国文学的开端,惠特曼的《草叶集》是浪漫主义时期文学的压卷之作。
浪漫主义时期的文学是美国文学的繁荣时期,所以也称为"美国的文艺复兴。
"美国社会的发展哺育了"一个伟大民族的文学"。
年轻的美国没有历史的沉重包袱,很快在政治、经济和文化方面成长为一个独立的国家。
这一时期也是美国历史上西部扩张时期,到1860年领土已开拓到太平洋西岸。
到十九世纪中叶,美国已由原来的十三个州扩大到二十一个州,人口从1790年的四百万增至1860年的三千万。
在经济上,年轻的美国经历向工业的转化,影响所及不仅仅是城市,而且也包括农村。
蒸汽动力在工、农业生产上的运用、工厂的建立、劳动力的大量需求以及科技上的发明创造使经济生活得到了重组。
另外,大量移民促进了工业更加蓬勃的发展。
政治上,民主与平等成为这个年轻国家的理想,产生了两党制。
值得一提的是这个国家的文学和文化生活。
随着独立的美国政府的成立,美国人民已感到需要有美国文学,表达美国人民所特有的经历:早期清教徒的殖民,与印第安人的遭遇,边疆开发者的生活以及西部荒原等。
这个年轻国家的文学富有想象,已产生了一种文学环境。
报刊杂志如雨后春笋,出现了一大批文学读者,形成了十九世纪上半叶蓬勃的浪漫主义的文学思潮。
外国的,尤其是英国的文学大师对美国作家产生了重大影响。
美国作家由于秉承了与英国一样的文化传统,形成了同英国一样的浪漫主义风格。
欧文(Irving)、库柏(Cooper),坡(Poe),弗伦诺(Freneau)和布雷恩特(Bryant)一一反古典主义时期的文学样式和文学思潮,开创了较新的小说和诗歌形式。
这一时期大多数美国文学作品中,普遍强调文学的想象力和情感因素,注重生动的描写、异国情调的表达、感官的体会和对超自然力的描述。
陶洁版美国文学选读第三版课后习题集标准答案
美国文学选读第三版课后习题答案陶洁(部分)Unit 1 Benjamin FranklinQuestions1.Why did Franklin write his Autobiography?Franklin says that because his son may wish to know about his life, he is taking his one week vacation in the English countryside to record his past. He also says that he has enjoyed his life and would like to repeat it2.What made Franklin decide to leave the brother to whom he had been apprenticed?His brother was passionate, and had often beaten him. The aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to him through his whole life .After a brush with the law, Franklin left his brother.3.How did he arrive in Philadephia?First he set out in a boat for Amboy, the boat dropped him off about 50 miles from Burlington, the next day he reached Burlington on foot, in Burlington he found a boat which was going towards Philadelphia, he arrived there about eight or nine o’clock, on the Sunday morning and landed at the Market Streetwharf.4.What features do you find in the style of the above selection? It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision(言简意赅). The narrative is lucid(易懂的), the structure is simple, the imagery is homely(朴素的).Unit 2 Edgar Allen Poe1.Who is the narrator? What wrong does he want to redress? Montresor.Fortunato, one of wine experts insulted him, so he wanted to murder him.2.What is the pretext he uses to lure Fortunato to his wine cellar?He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained what he believes to be a cask of Amontillado a rare and valuable sherry wine.Fortunato is anxious to determine whether or not it is truly Amontillado, so he goes to the vault with Montresor.3.What happens to Fortunato in the end?He was walled up alive behind bricks in a wine cellar.4.Describe briefly how Poe characterizes Montresor and Fortunato as contrasts?Poe uses color imagery to characterize them. Montresor face is covered in a black silk mask, In contrast, Fortunato dresses the motley-colored costume of the court fool, who gets literally and tragically fooled by Montresor's masked motives.The color schemes here represent the irony of Fortunato's death sentence.Through the acts, words, and thoughts of Fortunato,we know He is greedy, he was lured into the dark and somber vaults just because a cask of Amontillado.This is also due to his bad habit of bibulosity(酗酒）. He lost himself on hearing the wine.At the same time, he was cheated by his enemy, which reflected his ignorance.When he heard the pretended compliment from Montresor, he became very boastful and arrogant.He was easily confused by the superficial phenomena and failed to watch out for others. He couldn’t tolerate that others werestronger than him.For example, Montresor always stimulated him with Luchresi who was good at connoisseur（鉴赏）in wine.Under the impulse of vanity, he fell into Montresor’s terrible trap.In fact, he was careless and foolish and didn’t find that the danger was approaching him.He looked down upon Montresor and others.He didn’t realize his foolishness until the death was coming. Talking from the appearance, Monstresor was a well-educated and “kind” businessman.He enjoyed the honor and respect in the city. But in fact, he was an evil and awful person.His inner feelings were so cruel that they even made people tremble.Under his rich appearance was the dirty soul and despicable character.We couldn’t see any glorious virtues in his mind. Instead, his heart was cold and dark.It was the revenge that threw Montresor into the deep evil valley.unit 4 Nathaniel Hawthorne1.Why is the prison the setting of Chapter 1 ?No matter how optimistic the founders of new colonies may be, they are quick to establish a prison and a cemetery in their “Utopia,” for they know that misbehavior, evil, and death are unavoidable.This belief fits into the larger Puritan doctrine, which puts heavy emphasis on the idea of original sin—the notion that all people are born sinners because of the initial transgressions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. he is therefore using the prison building to represent the crime and the punishment which are aspect of civilized lifeWhat is the implication of the description of the roses?The rosebush symbolizes the ability of nature to endure and outlast man's activities.The narrator suggests that roses offer a reminder of Nature's kindness to the condemned; for his tale, he says, it will provide either a “sweet moral blossom” or else some relief in the face of unrelenting sorrow and gloom.2.Describe the appearance of Hester Prynne and the attitude of the people towards her.The second paragraph on page 30.The crowd in front of the jail is a mixture of men and women, all maintaining severe looks of disapproval.Several of the women begin to discuss Hester Prynne, and they soon vow that Hester would not have received such a light sentence for her crime if they had been the judges.One woman, the ugliest of the group, goes so far as to advocate death for Hester.3.What has happened to Hester?As a young woman, Hester married an elderly scholar, Chillingworth, who sent her ahead to America to live.While waiting for him, she had an affair with a Puritan minister named Dimmesdale, after which she gave birth to Pearl.The scarlet letter is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. Why does she make the embroidery of the letter A so elaborate? It seems to declare that she is proud, rather than ashamed, of her sin.In reality, however, Hester simply accepts the “sin” and its symbol as part of herself, just as she accepts her child.And although she can hard ly believe her present “realities,” she takes them as they are rather than resisting them or trying toatone for them.How does this tell us about her character?Throughout The Scarlet Letter Hester is portrayed as an intelligent, capable. It is the extraordinary circumstances shaping her that make her such an important figure.Unit5 Herman Melville1.What are the stories Ismael tells about Moby Dick? Ishmael compares the legend of Moby Dick to his experience of the whale.He notes that sperm whale attacks have increased recently and that superstitious sailors have come to regard these attacks as having an intelligent, even supernatural origin.In particular, wild rumors about Moby Dick circulate among whalemen, suggesting that he can be in more than one place at the same time and that he is immortal. Ishmael remarks that even the wildest of rumors usually contains some truth. Whales, for instance, have been known to travel with remarkable speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific; thus, it is possible for a whale to be caught in the Pacific with the harpoons of a Greenland ship in it.Moby Dick, who has defied capture numerous times, exhibits an “intelligent malignity”（狠毒）in his attacks on men2.Why does Ahab react so violently against the white whale? First, he lost one of his legs because of the white whale. Second,He considers Moby Dick the embodiment of evil in the world, and he pursues the White Whale，because he believes it his inescapable fate to destroy this evil.Ishmael suggests that Ahab is “crazy”and call him “a raving lunatic.” Do you agree with him? Why or why not?Ishmael describes Ahab as mad in his narration, and it does indeed seem mad to try to fight the forces of nature or God.3. What narrative features can you find in the selected chapter? In the selected charpter, Melville employed the technique of multiple view of his narrative to portray Moby Dick to achieve the effect of ambiguity and let readers judge the meaning.Unit 6 Henry David Thoreau1.Where indeed did Thoreau live, both at a physical level and ata spiritual level?He lived in a cabin on Walden Pond, which belonged to Emerson’s property.2.Had Thoreau ever bought a farm? Why did he enjoy the act of buying?No, he hadn’t.He avoided purchasing a farm because it would inevitably tie him down financially and complicate his life.Thoreau didn’t see the acquisition of wealth as the goal for human existence, he saw the goal of life to be an exploration of the mind and of the magnificent world around us.He regarded the places as an existence free of obligations and full of leisure.3.Is it significant that Thoreau mentioned the Fourth of July as the day on which he began to stay in the woods? Why? Yes, it is.Because The Fourth of July is known as Independence Day,the birthday ot the United States.Here Thoreau uses the day to express his beginningof regeneration at Walden.It also means a symbol of his conquest of being.4.How could you answer the question Thoreau asked at the end of this selection?Unit 7 19th Century American Poets1. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1) I Shot an Arrow…1. Why did the speaker lose sight of his arrow and song? The arrow flies too swiftly and too far away to be seen by the speaker; whereas the song is naturally invisible.2. In what circumstances did he find them again?He finds them unexpectedly years later from the trunk of a tree and the heart of a friend.3. What do arrow and song stand for in this poem?The images of arrow and song here may stand for friendship.(2) A Psalm of Life1. What kind of person is the speaker of this poem?The speaker is a man of action, always optimistic and cheerful, trying to achieve as much as possible in the short span of life.2. According to the poem, how should our lives be led to overcome the fact that each day brings us nearer to death? We should work harder and live happier.3. Interpret the metaphor of "Footprints on the sand of time" (line 28).The metaphor refers to human deeds in real life.2. Walt Whitman(1)One's Self I Sing1. What is the significance of singing about one's self?It is an exaltation of the individual spirit, which is typical of American people.2. What is the difference between physiology and physiognomy?Physiology is a science that deals with the functions and life process of human beings, whereas physiognomy refers to an art of judging character from contours of face itself or the appearance of a person.3. What does Whitman mean by the term of "the Modern Man"? He means that a man should be free from any prejudice and pride, totally different from the traditional one, that is full of bias.(3) O Captain! My Captain!1. Why is the word "Captain" capitalized throughout the poem?In this poem the word “Captain” specially refers to Abr aham Lincoln, president of the United States.2. What overall metaphor does the poet employ in this poem? Life is a journey.3. Why do people on the shores exult and bells ring, while the speaker remains so sad?They welcome the ship returning from its hard trip, whereas the speaker is sad because the captain fails to receive his own honor.3.Emily Dickinson(1) To Make a Prairie …1. What things are needed to "make" a prairie? In what sense can one really do it?Some grass and insects and small animals. People can make a prairie with their imagination.2. How can "revery alone" create a prairie?The prairie stays in one's mind.(2) Success Is Counted Sweetest1. Why is success "counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed"?Those who have tasted the bitterness of failure would have a keener desire for success.2. Who are "the purple host"?The so-called successful people in the world.3. Who is "he" in the last stanza?Anyone who is pursuing his success.(3) I'm Nobody!1. Who are the "pair of us" and "they" in this poem? The "pair of us" refers to the speaker in the poem and the reader, and "they" refers to the public, especially those in power.2. What does "an admiring bog" really mean?" (line 28).It Implies the vain and empty common people, who are always admiring and pursuing the celebrities.3. What is the theme of this poem?The real admirable life is a secluded and common one.4. Do you want to be "nobody" or "somebody"? Explain your reasons.Different persons would have different answers to this question. Personally, I prefer to be nobody.Unit 8 Mark Twain1: Why do you think Mr.Wheeler is so eager to tell these stories?From Mr.Wheeler’s behaviors and contents of his narration we can know he is so eager to tell these stories.First, when "I" asked him to tell "me" something about W.Smiley, he “ backed me into a corner and blockaded me with his chair, and then sat down and reeled off the narrative”. And during the process of telling his stories, he never paid any attention to others'response to his story and just went on telling what amused him. At last when the listener felt boring and wanted toleave, Mr.Wheeler even didn't notice it and still asked him to sit there listening to him.2: Does his audience share his enthusiasm in telling the stories? No. the audience does not show any interest in Mr.Wheeler’ stories. In fact, the narrator was very feverish about his stories, but ,in the eyes of the listener,the stories were very boring and had nothing to do with his preoccupation. As an educated man, the listener couldn't understand the way of laborers for joy, and he would never bother himself to understand it. So after the long time of Mr.Wheeler’ solo narration and when the audience got a chance, he fled away.3: Do you think the narrator and his listener ever suspect the presence of humor? Why? How do you interpret their interactions?The narrator and his listener never noticed or suspected the presence of humor.During the intercourse,the narrator went vigorously on his monotonous narrative "wihout a little smiling" talking about the animals and the things like ,while the listener felt rather puzzled or bothered by his stories.It seemed to bekind of coarse things. So the two different scenes go on separately without a intersection.And their interaction was a complete failure according toour common sense about communication.But it in this sense produced the effect of humor which can be tasted by our readers due to the skills adopted by Mark Twain .Unit 14 F·Scott Fitzgerald1.Do you think Gatsby deserves to be called “the great”? Why?（1）I think it is too complicated to simply say Gatsby deserves to be ―great‖or not.For one thing, Gatsby was ambitious, hardworking, generous and passionate. He was so extremely loyal to his love and Daisy that he could do anything to get Daisy back: he did shady business to earn money and social position; he threw luxurious parties just to draw Daisy’s attention; he could take the blame for a death that he did not cause.（2）In this respect, he is much ―greater‖than his contemporaries. For another thing, Gatsby never realized that Daisy wasn’t the girl he loved anymore. Gatsby was so innocent that he staked everything on his dreams, not realizingthat his dreams are unworthy of him. He wasn’t sober enough to be great.2.Does “the green light”Gatsby believed in exist in reality? Why or why not ?（1）I think ―the green light‖does not exist in reality. Because the green light which situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from West Egg lawn represents Gatsby’s unattainable dream. Although the color itself can be seen as hope and bright future, Gatsby’s quest for Daisy back is doomed to be impossible. Daisy lived in ―a material world without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dream like air‖.（2）After five years when Gatsby met Daisy again, the miracle Daisy had lost her original glory. Therefore, there is no delaying that Gatsby’s dream would not come true. In the novel, the green light not only represents that innocent Gatsby looked forward to the future, but also means his longing for the history –his happy past with Daisy. The distinction between ideal and reality was huge. As if American dream between golden past and golden future always suffered from the realistic betrayal and crush.3.What does Gatsby’s Schedule reveal about him and how does it relate to the American Dream?（1）The schedule is a reflection of Gatsby’s determination and ambition. It reveals that he is hard on himself in pursuit of his goal—to be an upper-class man.（2）On one hand, we can know that he is persistent in pursuing his American Dream-- to attain wealth and happiness through his struggle. On the other hand, he is too idealistic and naive.（3）He tries his best to make money and learns everything required to be an upper-class man so that he can get access to his beloved girl.Money is important，but there are other barriers difficult to penetrate. The girl he loves is as vulgar and superficial as others in her circle, she is unable to meets Gatsby’s romantic fantasy. So his dream is destined to shatter, which indicates the disillusion of American Dream.4.When you read the line “He (the man with owl-eyed glasses) took off his glasses and wiped them again, outside and in ,” what images does it create in your mind, given the novel’snumerous references to the strikingly strange scene of the spectacled eyes?（1）From this line , superficially, owl-eyes is a person with thick and blurry glasses who can not see clearly all the things in the world. However, we know he is actually an owl-wise observer and sees more clearly than anyone else in the novel. Owl-Eyes, except Nick, is the only friend to appear at the rain-soaked burial of Gatsby, when others are unwilling to come. He feels sympathy for Gatsby’s tragedy.（2）After reading this line, I cannot help thinking of the Dr.Eckleburg billboard with its huge yellow spectacles in this novel. In many rainy days, Dr. Eckleburg’s eyes are also dimmed and seem blind. But in fact this is a pair of "all-seeing" eyes. The Owl-Eyed Man is similar to Dr. Eckleburg, sadly looking at the people’s life and idealism of this time. Both of them symbolize an uninvolved spectator god. They watch all the activities of the humans. Owl-eyes is the avatar of the sightless Dr. Eckleburg.Unit 16 Ernest Hemingway1. How do you interpret the irony of the title after reading the story?（1）The title ―A Clean Well-Lighted Place‖refers to the caf éin the text. The caféwas very clean and well- lighted. From the literary meaning, we may feel this place was very warm and comfortable, was a place where people need warmth wanted to go. So the old man, who was rich but deaf and lonely came here to find warmth and avoided nada. It was the only place he could go and could find some comfort.（2）However, the younger waiter was very selfish. As his wife was waiting him on the bed, he wanted to go home early. Therefore, he refused to offer the old man another cup of wine by the excuse that the business was finished. In fact, there was still an hour from closing time. The younger thought an hour was more important to him than to the old man. The old man needed to leave the only place where he could get far away from nada/ nothing. This café should be warm but the younger waiter forced the lonely and deaf to leave without any sympathy. This is the irony of the title.2. Do you think youth and confidence can help one withstand the metaphorical dark？Why or why not? （1）I don’t thinkso.In our opinion, the metaphorical dark means nada，nothing in one’s inner heart. In the article, the younger waiter had both youth and confidence; however, he never made full use of them. As we can see, he didn’t understand the old man’s suicide and excessive drinking, and failed to see his tomorrow through the old man’s present situation.（2）What’s more, he had no idea that youth is not permanent, which cannot guarantee love and work. From above, there is no denying that he didn’t realize his nada. Therefore, his youth and confidence never contributed to withstanding his metaphorical dark.（3）I think that, nowadays, youth and confidence do can help to withstand the metaphorical dark, for one can bravely face the reality and overcome the nada with youth and confidence. But they only serve as two main factors. In fact, we need some other factors such as courage, dignity and so on if we want to withstand the metaphorical dark successfully.3.The older waiter said to the younger waiter:“We are of two different kinds.”In what way do you think they are different?（1）I think they are different from each other in the following four aspects：In the beginning, they are in different ages.The older waiter was in his middle age; while the other was much younger.（2）Then, they have different attitudes towards the old man. From the article, we know the older waiter had suffered a lot. He had maintained a clean and well-lighted place in his heart, and he could understand the old man and show sympathy to him. However, the young man was very selfish. He wanted to go home early so that he finished the business one hour earlier and forced the old man to leave. He showed hatred rather than sympathy to the old man.（3）Next, they have different attitudes towards life. The older waiter had a deep sense of life. He was brave and wanted to fight again nada. Besides, he cared about others. The younger one was totally different; he has a shadow understanding of life. He satisfied with his present love and work, he only care about himself and was reluctant to take others into consideration. He even never thought of his future.（4）Finally, they have different attitudes towards nada. The older waiter had realized that it is impossible to avoid nada in one’s whole life. The only thing hecan do is to keep a kind of clearness in his own mind. So he was willing to work late for the lonely old man and was pleased to help those who are suffering nada. But out of youth and confidence, he failed to overcome nada. On the contrary, the younger waiter had the two most important factors for withstanding nada; however, he didn’t realize the nada in his heart at all. Then his youth and confidence became useless.Unit 17 20th -Century American Poets1. Ezra Pound In A Station of the Metro1. Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians "apparition"?These pedestrians are all walking in a hurry amidst the drizzling rain.2. What do "petals" and "bough" stand for? Petals refer to the faces while the bough stands for the floating crowd.2. Wallace Stevens Anecdote of the Jar1. What does the jar in poem symbolize? Why does the speaker place it on top of a hill? The jar here symbolizes a certainperspective on looking at this world. If the perspective of the viewing is creative and unique, it will change the conventional order of the old world. When a new perspective comes out, it will certainly hold attention from the rest.2. The jar is "round" and "of a port in air," meaning that it has a stately importance. What effect does it have on surroundings when placed on the ground? Maybe the round jar assumes the air of a domineering figure, which helps to form a certain order out of the disordered surrounding.3. How did the wilderness of Tennessee characterized? What words or phrases does the poet use to describe it? Tennessee seems to a place full of life and energy. “Slovenly,” “sprawl” and “wild” are some of the words used to describe the place. (See Anecdote of the Jar )4.Robert Frost(1)Fire and Ice1. What are the symbolic meanings of fire in this poem? Fire symbolizes natural disaster, human passion, as well as war.2. Why does the speaker say that ice is also great for destruction? Explain what ice stands for here. Ice, oppose to fire, is also a dreadful natural disaster in this world, and ice is always related to indifference, coldness, hatred, and the other negative sentiments of human beings.3. What is your opinion about fire and ice? Which one is more destructive? Both fire and ice can destroy this beautiful world if they are beyond control of human beings. Therefore we should be open-minded and reduce our prejudice and pride so as to keep this world in peace.(2)Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening1. In your opinion, what was the reason that made the speaker stop by the woods on a snowy evening? The poet was deeply attracted by the natural beauty of the scene at that very moment.2. Why did the horse give the harness bell a shake? The horse grew impatient by stopping in the middle of the dark, cold woods at midnight. It was eager to go home.3. Why couldn't the speaker stay longer by the woods to appreciate its mysterious beauty? He realized that it was lateat night and he would have to hurry home to get some food and sleep, because the next morning he would have a lot of work to do.4. What is the effect of repetition in the last two lines? The refrain-like repetition in the last two lines reminds the reader a simple fact of life: whatever happens, one must go forward in the journey of his or her life.(3) The Road Not Taken1. What is the speaker's initial response to the divergence of the two roads? The speaker is at a loss which road he should choose, and he feels sorry that he cannot explore both roads at the same time.2. Describe the similarities and differences of these two roads. Which one does the speaker take? Two roads are similar except one of them is more “grassy,” which implies that it is less traveled by people. The speaker prefers the less traveled one, because he likes adventure.3. What might the two roads stand for in the speaker's mind? One road stands for the traditional one and the other is unconventional one and full of challenges and difficulties. Tofollow other people's footsteps or to open a new road for himself is really not an easy decision for us to make in our lives.Unit22 Allen GinsbergAll through the poem, the speaker is addressing to Walt Whitman. Is this poem about Walt Whitman or about modern America?-----from Allen Ginsberg A Supermarket in CaliforniaThe author in this poem wanted to emphasis his theme about showing his respect to the passed age and showing his worry about the corrupt in the part of spirit and society. As we all know, Walt Whitman’s poetry was a revolution in American literature can be seen in the first publication of Leaves of Grass in 1855. His poetry is “free verse” in that the lack of meter and rhyme is known as his major technical innovation. Allen Ginsberg had a highly praise on him. As the movement of Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg used poetry as weapon to express his own understanding of Beat---beatific and beat down.In this poem, the author wrote the sentence “shopping for images”. What he wanted to buy is the things which were listed by Walt Whitman many years ago. What is in the supermarket? The fresh fruits on the shelf fit the needs of customers and the families. We across a strange statement: shopping for images. How can we shop for images? What he refers to us is still the pure image---“dreaming of your enumerations”. The things on the shelf are the images o f languages in Walt Whitman’s poetry. The language in Walt Whitman’s poetry and the spirit in his poetry are the things which Allen Ginsberg dreamed of. A young America which is full of energy is worth being praised. Allen Ginsberg found the song of himself, the song full of courage and the echo of the real world among Walt Whitman’s work. The meaning of age in this poem is that the nation or the race opens the age which belongs to them and creates the history of them own. To a certain extend, the age singer equals the national singer. The world is the world which has its features of timing and events. This means that the link of combining the world is not the same as the goods on the shelf but the things which contain the world and individual spirits.。
19th-Century American Poets
《海华沙之歌》
1858 The Courtship of Miles Standish 《迈尔斯· 斯坦狄什的求婚》 1863 《路畔旅舍的故事》 1872诗剧《基督》三部曲，包括《神
圣的悲剧》、《金色的传说》和 《新英格兰悲剧》
Translation: Dante Alighieri‘s The Divine Comedy
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Introducation
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was one of the greatest poets of American Romanticism. He was also known as an educator and the first American to translate Dante‘s The Divine Comedy . Besides, he was one of the five Fireside Poets(炉边诗人）.
Representative works
1839 Voices of the Night 诗集《夜吟》 Hyperion
浪漫主义小说《许珀里翁》
1841 Ballads and Other Poem
《歌谣及其他》 1847 Evangeline 《伊凡杰林》
1855 The Song of Hiawatha
Family background
Name: Walt Whitman, immediately nicknamed "Walt" to distinguish him from his father. Birth: May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island. The second of nine children. Parents: Farmers.
美国文学课后习题
Unit2 Edgar Allan Poe1) Who is the narrator? What wrong does he want to redress?It is Montresor. Fortunato has given Montresor thousands of injuries that he has to bear before he has this opportunity of taking revenge.2) What is the pretext Montresor uses to lure Fortunado to his wine cellar?He claims that he has just got a cask of Amontilado and stores it in the wine cellar before he may find a connoisseur to testify to its authenticity.3) What happens to Fortunado in the end?The deceived Fortunado is killed because of his inability of getting out of the catacomb.4) Describe briefly how Poe characterizes Mortresor and Fortunado as contrasts. Poe characterizes Mortresor and Fortunado as seemingly contrasting characters chiefly by presenting their identical habit in wine and their different manners towards each other, but actually he intends to show some similarly defective aspects in their nature. The similarity in their nature is also suggested by their names as synonyms in Italian: Mortresor means “fortune” while Fortunado “treasure”. Their defective nature is highlighted when the revenger Mortresor, who is fully prepared on psychological and operating levels, throws the hardly prepared but totally deceived wrong-doer Fortunado into the deep and damp catacomb and blocks up its entrance with huge rocks.Unit 7 19th Century American Poets1.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1)I Shot an Arrow…1. Why did the speaker lose sight of his arrow and song?The arrow flies too swiftly and too far away to be seen by the speaker; whereas the song is naturally invisible.2. In what circumstances did he find them again?He finds them unexpectedly years later from the trunk of a tree and the heart of a friend.3. What do arrow and song stand for in this poem?The images of arrow and song here may stand for friendship.(2)A Psalm of Life1. What kind of person is the speaker of this poem?The speaker is a man of action, always optimistic and cheerful, trying to achieve as much as possible in the short span of life.2. According to the poem, how should our lives be led to overcome the fact that each day brings us nearer to death?We should work harder and live happier.3. Interpret the metaphor of "Footprints on the sand of time" (line 28).The metaphor refers to human deeds in real life.2. Walt Whitman(1)One's Self I Sing1. What is the significance of singing about one's self?It is an exaltation of the individual spirit, which is typical of American people.2. What is the difference between physiology and physiognomy?Physiology is a science that deals with the functions and life process of human beings, whereas physiognomy refers to an art of judging character from contours of face itself or the appearance of a person.3. What does Whitman mean by the term of "the Modern Man"?He means that a man should be free from any prejudice and pride, totally different from the traditional one, that is full of bias.(3)O Captain! My Captain!1. Why is the word "Captain" capitalized throughout the poem?In this poem the word “Captain” specially refers to Ab raham Lincoln, president of the United States.2. What overall metaphor does the poet employ in this poem?Life is a journey.3. Why do people on the shores exult and bells ring, while the speaker remains sosad?They welcome the ship returning from its hard trip, whereas the speaker is sad because the captain fails to receive his own honor.3.Emily Dickinson(1)To Make a Prairie …1. What things are needed to "make" a prairie? In what sense can one really do it? Some grass and insects and small animals. People can make a prairie with their imagination.2. How can "revery alone" create a prairie?The prairie stays in one's mind.(2) Success Is Counted Sweetest1. Why is success "counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed"?Those who have tasted the bitterness of failure would have a keener desire for success.2. Who are "the purple host"?The so-called successful people in the world.3. Who is "he" in the last stanza?Anyone who is pursuing his success.(3) I'm Nobody!1. Who are the "pair of us" and "they" in this poem?The "pair of us" refers to the speaker in the poem and the reader, and "they" refers to the public, especially those in power.2. What does "an admiring bog" really mean?" (line 28).It Implies the vain and empty common people, who are always admiring and pursuing the celebrities.3. What is the theme of this poem?The real admirable life is a secluded and common one.4. Do you want to be "nobody" or "somebody"? Explain your reasons.Different persons would have different answers to this question. Personally, I prefer to be nobody.Unit 17 20th-Century American Poets1.Ezra PoundIn A Station of the Metro1. Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians "apparition"?These pedestrians are all walking in a hurry amidst the drizzling rain.2. What do "petals" and "bough" stand for?Petals refer to the faces while the bough stands for the floating crowd.2. Wallace StevensAnecdote of the Jar1. What does the jar in poem symbolize? Why does the speaker place it on top of a hill?The jar here symbolizes a certain perspective on looking at this world. If the perspective of the viewing is creative and unique, it will change the conventional order of the old world. When a new perspective comes out, it will certainly hold attention from the rest.2. The jar is "round" and "of a port in air," meaning that it has a stately importance. What effect does it have on surroundings when placed on the ground?Maybe the round jar assumes the air of a domineering figure, which helps to form a certain order out of the disordered surrounding.3. How did the wilderness of Tennessee characterized? What words or phrases does the poet use to describe it?Tennessee seems to a place full of life and energy. “Slovenly,” “sprawl” and “wild” are some of the words used to describe the place. (See Anecdote of the Jar )3. William Carlos WilliamsWilliam Carlos Williams1. How does the first two lines differ from the other pairs of lines?Each of the last three couplets creates a visual image (“a red wheelbarrow,” “glaz ed with rainwater,” and “the white chickens”), whereas the first one does not.2. What is the most visually compelling word in each of the last three pairs of lines? They are “red, glazed and white”. (See EXPLANA TION: “The Red Wheelbarrow” below)3. What is the meaning of "depends upon" in the first pair of lines?The opening lines set the tone for the rest of the poem. Since the poem is composed of one sentence broken up at various intervals, it is truthful to say that 'so much depends upon' each line of the poem. This is so because the form of the poem is also its meaning. This may seem confusing, but by the end of the poem the image of the wheelbarrow is seen as the actual poem, as in a painting when one sees an image of an apple, the apple represents an actual object in reality, but since it is part of a painting the apple also becomes the actual piece of art. These lines are also important because they introduce the idea that 'so much depends upon' the wheelbarrow.SEE answer 1.4.Robert Frost(1)Fire and Ice1. What are the symbolic meanings of fire in this poem?Fire symbolizes natural disaster, human passion, as well as war.2. Why does the speaker say that ice is also great for destruction? Explain what ice stands for here.Ice, oppose to fire, is also a dreadful natural disaster in this world, and ice is always related to indifference, coldness, hatred, and the other negative sentiments of human beings.3. What is your opinion about fire and ice? Which one is more destructive?Both fire and ice can destroy this beautiful world if they are beyond control of human beings. Therefore we should be open-minded and reduce our prejudice and pride so as to keep this world in peace.(2)Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening1. In your opinion, what was the reason that made the speaker stop by the woods on a snowy evening?The poet was deeply attracted by the natural beauty of the scene at that very moment.2. Why did the horse give the harness bell a shake?The horse grew impatient by stopping in the middle of the dark, cold woods at midnight. It was eager to go home.3. Why couldn't the speaker stay longer by the woods to appreciate its mysterious beauty?He realized that it was late at night and he would have to hurry home to get some food and sleep,because the next morning he would have a lot of work to do.4. What is the effect of repetition in the last two lines?The refrain-like repetition in the last two lines reminds the reader a simple fact of life: whatever happens, one must go forward in the journey of his or her life.(3) The Road Not Taken1. What is the speaker's initial response to the divergence of the two roads?The speaker is at a loss which road he should choose, and he feels sorry that he cannot explore both roads at the same time.2. Describe the similarities and differences of these two roads. Which one does the speaker take?Two roads are similar except one of them is more “grassy,” which implies that it is less traveled by people. The speaker prefers the less traveled one, because he likes adventure.3. What might the two roads stand for in the speaker's mind?One road stands for the traditional one and the other is unconventional one and full of challenges and difficulties. To follow other people's footsteps or to open a new road for himself is really not an easy decision for us to make in our lives.5. Langston Hughes(1)Dreams1. Why must we stick to our dreams?If God is not the first move in our life, surely our dreams are the same.2. What images does the poet employ to describe the life once we lose our dreams? Without dreams our life will be a broken bird and a barren field. I think without dream our life will be a grand ship drifting on the vast ocean, never knowing its destination.(2)Me And The Mule1. Why does the speaker identify himself with the mule?They share a lot in their life: hard-working and full of strength, submissiveness and kindness and honesty.2. What figure of speech does the poet employ in describing the mule? Personification.。
19th美国诗歌2
Her Unconventional Poetic Style
1.
Diction Words of Latin and Greek origin -- for ideas Concrete Saxon element -- fpr [erce[topms
Her Unconventional Poetic Style
Whitman and Dickinson(1)
Both Whitman and Dickinson were American poets in theme and technique. Thematically, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance.” In technical terms, both added to the convention of iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry pointing to Ezra Pound and the Imagists, and to William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens and other traditions in modern American poetry.
Themes of Dickinson’s Poems
2. Love (120 poems) Although she remained a spinster until her death, she undoubtedly experienced the sweetness and bitterness of love.
美国文学复习资料
American Literature Lecture One 060511/2, 9th Nov. 2009Part I. IntroductionPart I: introduction questions1.Teaching schemes, examination, requirements, advice, contacts, and so on2.What is literature?3.How to define American Literature?4.How to study literature?1. What is literature?1)The definition of 14th century:It means polite learning through reading. A man of literature or a man of letters = a man of wide reading, “literacy”2)The definition of 18th century:practice and profession of writing3)The definition of 19th century:the high skills of writing in the special context of high imagination4)Robert Frost’s definition:performance in words5)Modern definition:We can define literature as language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages. Literature is characterized by beauty of expression and form and by universality intellectual and emotional appeal.2. How to define the American literatureAmerican literature mainly refers to literature produced in American English by the people living in the United States.3. How to study literatureHistorical Perspectives: Biographical-Historical and Moral-Philosophical.(Diverse Types of Historicisms: including Feminist, Sociological or Marxian Studies of Language, Literature and Translation)Structuralist Perspectives: Looking for Systematic Deep Structures both in Form and Content.(Semiotics, TG Grammar, Systematic/Functional Grammar, Narratology, Freudian psycho-analysis, Russian Formalism, Anglo-American New Criticism, Archetypalism, Myth Criticism, Structural Marxism, Ideology)Poststructuralist or Postmodern Perspectives: Deconstructing Structuring Binaries (No Clear Distinction between Form and Content)[Postmodern Feminism, Postcolonialism, Postmodern Narratologies, New Historicism, Ideological Studies, Discourse Analysis, Reception Theories, Trauma Studies, Trans-Atlantic Studies, Transnationalism, Eco-criticism, Cultural Pathology, and other Postmodernisms]Approaches on Literature1. The Traditional Approaches:1)Analytical ApproachBe familiar with the elements of a literary work, eg: plot, character, setting, point of view, structure, style, atmosphere, theme, etc; answer some basic questions about the text itself.2)Thematic Approach“What is the story, the poem, the play or the essay about?”3)Historical - Biographical Approach4)Moral - Philosophical Approach.2.The Formalistic AppoachStructuralism, Poststructuralism, Semiotics3.The Psychological Approach: Freud4.Mythological and Archetypal Approach5.Feminist Approaches6.Sociological Approach7.Deconstruction8.Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theory9.Cultural CriticismAmerican MulticultualismThe New Historicism, British Cultural Materialism10.Additional Approaches:①Aristotlian Criticism②Genre Criticism③Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Stylistics④The Marxist Approach⑤Ecological Criticism⑥Post ColonialismLecture Two 060511/2, 10th Nov. 2009Part II. The periods of American literature①The colonial period (约1607 - 1765)②The period of Enlightenment and the Independence War (1765 -1800)③The romantic period (1800 - 1865)④The realistic period (1865 - 1914)⑤The period of modernism (1914 - 1945)⑥The Contemporary Literature (1945 - 2000)1.The colonial period (约1607 - 1765)The main featuresPuritanism2.The period of Enlightenment and the Independence War (1765 -1800)Benjamin Franklin3.The romantic period (1800 - 1865)1)The early romanticismWashington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper2)“New England Transcendentalism” or “American Renaissance (1836 - 1855)”Emerson, Thoreau/ Whitman, Dickinson/ Hawthorne, Melville , Allan Poe3)“New England Poets” or “Schoolroom Poets”Bryant/ Longfellow/ Lowell/ Holmes/ Whittier4) The Reformers and AbolitionistsBeecher Stowe/ Frederick Douglass4.The realistic period (1865 - 1914)1)Midwestern RealismWilliam Dean Howells2)Cosmopolitan NovelistHenry James3)Local ColorismMark Twain4)NaturalismStephen Crane/ Jack London/ Theodore Dreiser5)The “Chicago School” of PoetryMasters/ Sandburg/ Lindsay/ Robinson6)The Rise of Black American LiteratureWashington/ Du Bois/ Chestnutt5.The period of modernism (1914 - 1945)1)Modern poetry: experiments in form (Imagism)Ezra Pound/ T.S.Eliot/ Robert Frost/ Wallace Stevens/ Carlos Williams2)Prose Writing: modern realism (the Lost Generation)F.Scott Fitzgerald/ Ernest Hemingway/ William Faulkner3)Novels of Social AwarenessSinclair Lewis/ Dos Passos/ John Steinbeck/ Richard Wright4)The Harlem RenaissanceLangston Hughes/ Zora Neals Hurston5)The Fugitives and New Criticism6)The 20th Century American DramaEugene O’ Neil6.The Contemporary Literature (1945 - 2000)I.American Poetry Since 1945: the Anti-traditionII.American Prose Since 1945: Realism and Experimentation.I. Poetry:1)Traditionalism2)Idiosyncratic poets3)Experimental poetry4)Surrealism and Existentialism5)Women and Multiethnic poets6)Chicano / Hispanic / Latino poetry7)Native American poetry8)African-American poetry9)Asian-American poetry10)New DirectionsExperimental Poetry:1)The Black Mountain School2)The San Francisco School3)Beat Poets4)The New York SchoolII. Prose:1.The Realist Legacy and the Late 1940s2.The Affluent but Alienated 1950s3.The Turbulent but Creative 1960s4.The 1970s and 1980s: New Directions1.The Realist Legacy and the Late 1940s1)Robert Penn Warren2)Arthur Miller3)Tennessee Williams4)Katherine Anne Porter5)Eudora Welty2.The Affluent But Alienated 1950s1)John O’Hara2) James Baldwin3) Ralph Waldo Ellison4) Flannery O’Conner5) Saul Bellow6) Bernard Malamud7) Isaac Bashevis Singer8) Vladimir Nabokov9) John Cheever10) John Updike11) J.D.Salinger12) Jack Kerouac3. The Turbulent but Creative 1960s1) Thomas Pynchon2) John Barth3) Norman Mailer4. The 1970s and 1980s: New Directions1) John Gardner2) Toni Morrison3) Alice WalkerPart II. Early American and Colonial Period to 17651. Introduction1. Instead of beginning with folk tales and songs the American literature began with abstractions and proceededfrom philosophy to fiction because there were no written literature among the more than 500 different Indian languages and tribal cultures that existed in North America before the first Europeans arrived there and set up the first colony Jamestown in about 1607.2. American writing began with the work of English adventurers and colonists in the New World chiefly for thebenefit of readers in the mother country. Some of these early works reached the level of literature, as in the robust and perhaps truthful account of his adventures by Captain John Smith and the sober, tendentious journalistic histories of John Winthrop and William Bradford in New England. From the beginning, however, the literature of New England was also directed to the edification and instruction of the colonists themselves, intended to direct them in the ways of the godly.3. Therefore the writing in this period was essentially two kinds: (1) practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming,hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people “at home” what life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration; (2) highly theoretical, generally polemical, discussions of religious questions.4. Furthermore, the influential Protestant work ethic, reinforced by the practical necessities of a hard pioneer life,inhibited the development of any reading matter designed simply for leisure-time entertainment.It is the belief that work itself is good in addition to what it achieves; that time saved by efficiency or goodfortune should not be spent in leisure but in doing further work; that idleness is always immoral and likely to lead to even worse sin since “the devil finds work for idle hands to do”. This belief late r developed into the American philosophic idea Puritanism.5. divines who wrote furiously to set forth their views was to defend and promote visions of the religious state. They set forth their visions —in effect the first formulation of the concept of national destiny —in a series ofimpassioned histories and jeremiads from Providence (1654) to Cotton Mather ’s epic Magnalia Christi Americana6. Even Puritan poetry was offered uniformly to the service of God. Michael Wigglesworth ’s Day of Doom (1662) wasuncompromisingly theological, and Anne Bradstreet ’s poems, issued as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650), were reflective of her own piety. The best of the Puritan poets, Edward Taylor , whose work was not published until two centuries after his death, wrote metaphysical verse,Sermons and tracts poured forth until austere Calvinism found its last utterance in the words of Jonathan Edwards . In the other colonies writing was usually more mundane and on the whole less notable, though the journal of the Quaker John Woolman is highly esteemed, and some critics maintain that the best writing of the colonial period is found in the witty and urbane observations of William Byrd , a gentleman planter of Westover, Virginia.2. The Main Features of this period1) American literature grew out of humble origins. diaries, histories, journals, letters, commonplace books, travelbooks, sermons, in short, personal literature in its various forms, occupy a major position in the literature of the early colonial period.2) In content these early writings served either God or colonial expansion or both. In form, if there was any format all, English literary traditions were faithfully imitated and transplanted.3) The Puritanism formed in this period was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought andAmerican literature.3. Puritanism1) Simply speaking, American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans who settled in the NorthAmerican continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions. In content it means scrupulous moral rigor, especially hostility to social pleasures and indulgences, that is strictness,sternness and austerity in conduct and religion.2) With time passing it became a dominant factor in American life, one of the most enduring shaping influences inAmerican thought and American Literature. To some extent it is a state of mind, a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the American breathes, rather than a set of tenets.3) Actually it is a code of values, a philosophy of life and a point of view in American minds, also a two-facetedtradition of religious idealism and level-headed common sense.Part III. The period of Enlightenment and the Independence War (1765 -1800)I. Introduction1) The 18th-century American enlightenment as a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather thantradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in place of monarchy.2) Enlightenment thinkers and writers, such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine, were devoted to the idealsof justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man.3) In these period with the exception of outstanding political writing, such as Common sense, Declaration ofIndependence, The Federalist Papers and so on, few works of note appeared. Even if there appeared poetry and fiction, they were full of imitativeness and vague universality. So most Americans were painfully aware of their excessive dependence on English literary models. The search for a native literature became a national obsession.4) Despite these we should pay attention to several points in this period:William Hill Brown (1765-1793) published the first American novel The Power of Sympathy in 1789.Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) was the first American author to attempt to live from his writing. Hedeveloped the genre of American Gothic.The Dictionary edited by Noah Webster (1758-1843) based the American lexicography. Updated Webster’sdictionaries are still standard today.Philip Freneau’s (1752-1832) was known as "the poet of the American Revolution". His major themes are death, nature, transition, and the human in nature. All of these themes become important in 19th century writing. All the while...in romanticizing the wonders of nature in his writings...he searched for an American idiom in verse. II. Benjamin Franklin1706 - 1790(An Extraordinary Life and An Electric Mind)1. His Life1)Born the tenth of fifteen children in a poor candle and soap maker’s family, he had to leave school before he waseleven.2)At twelve he was apprenticed to an older brother, James, a printer in Boston.3)As a voracious reader he managed to make up for the deficiency by his own effort and began at 16 to publishessays under the pseudonym, Silence Dogood, essays commenting on social life in Boston.4)When he was 17 he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune marking the beginning of a long successstory of an archetypal kind.5)He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher, found the Junto Club and subscription library,issued the immensely popular Poor Richard’s Almanac.6)Retired around forty-two, he did what was to him a great happiness: read, make scientific experiments and dogood to his fellowmen. He helped to find the Pennsylvania Hospital, an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania, and the American Philosophical Society.7)At the same time he did a lot of famous experiments and invented many things such as volunteer firedepartments, effective street lighting, the Franklin Stove, bifocal glasses, efficient heating devices, lightning-rod and so on.8)Beginning his public career in the early fifties, he became a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, the DeputyPostmaster-General for the colonies, and for some eighteen years served as representative of the colonies in London.9)During the War of Independence, he was made a delegate to the Continental Congress and a member of thecommittee to write the Declaration of Independence. One of the makers of the new nation, he was instrumental in bringing France into an alliance with America against England, and played a decisive role at the Constitutional Convention.2. Major Works1)Poor Richard’s AlmanacMaxims（谚语，格言）and axioms（哲理，格言）a)Lost time is never found again.b) A penny saved is a penny earned.c)God help them that help themselves.d)Fish and visitors stink in three days.e)Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.f)Ale in, truth out.g)Eat not to dullness. Drink not to elevation.h)Diligence is the Mother of Good Luck.i)One Today is worth two tomorrow.j)Industry pays debts. Despair encreaseth them.2)Autobiographya.It is perhaps the first real post-revolutionary American writing as well as the first real autobiography in English.b.It gives us the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state ofpoverty and obscu rity into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man.c.First of all, it is a puritan document. The most famous section describes his scientific scheme of self-examinationand self-improvement.d.It is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Franklin was spokesman for the new order of eighteenthcentury enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free, by nature endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.e.It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision. The plainness of its style, the homeliness ofimagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression are some of the salient features we cannot mistake.3. Evaluation1)He was a rare genius in human history. Nature seemed particularly lavish and happy when he was shaped.Everything seems to meet in this one man, mind and will, talent and art, strength and ease, wit and grace, and he became almost everything: a printer, postmaster, citizen, almanac maker, essayist, scientist, inventor, orator, statesman, philosopher, political economist, ambassador, musician and parlor man.2)He was the first great self-made man in America, a poor democrat born in an aristocratic age that his fineexample helped to liberalize.3)Politically he brought the colonial era to a close. For quite some time he was regarded as the father of allYankees, even more than Washington was. He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the treaty of peace with England, and the constitution.4)Scientifically, as the symbol of America in the Age of Enlightenment, he invented a lot of useful implements. Hisresearch on electricity, his famous experiment with his kite line and many others made him the preeminent scientist of his day.5)Literally, he really opened the story of American literature. D. H. Lawrance agreed that Franklin waseverything but a poet. In the Scottish philosopher David Hume’s eyes he was America’s “first great man of letters”.Assignment: Please read the material by Ralph Waldo EmersonLecture Three 060511/2, 16th Nov. 2009The American Romanticism(I)I. What is RomanticismSimply speaking, Romanticism is a literary movement flourished as a cultural force throughout the 19th C and it can be divided into the early period and the late period. Also it remains powerful in contemporary literature and art.Romanticism, a term that is associated with imagination and boundlessness, as contrasted with classicism, which is commonly associated with reason and restriction. A romantic attitude may be detected in literature of any period, but as an historical movement it arose in the 18th and 19th centuries, in reaction to more rational literary, philosophic, artistic, religious, and economic standards.... The most clearly defined romantic literary movement in the U. S. was Transcendentalism.The representatives of the early period includes Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, and those of the late period contain Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe.II. The reasons on the rise of American RomanticismInternal causes:1)American burgeoned into a political, economic and cultural independence. Democracy and political equalitybecame the ideals of the new nation. Radical changes came about in the political life of the country. Parties began to squabble and scramble for power, and new system was in the making.2)The spread of industrialism, the sudden influx of immigration, and the pioneers pushing the frontier furtherwest, all these produced something of an economic boon and, with it, a tremendous sense of optimism and hope among the people.3)Ever-increasing magazines played an important role in facilitating literary expansion in the country.External causes:1)Foreign influences added incentive to the growth of romanticism in America.2)The influence of Sir Walter Scott was particularly powerful and enduring.III. Characteristics of American Romanticism (b)1)Sentimentalism, primitivism and the cult of the noble savage2)Political liberalism3)The celebration of natural beauty and the simple life4)Introspection5)The idealization of the common man, uncorrupted by civilization6)Interest in the picturesque past and remote places7)Antiquarianism8)Individualism9)Morbid melancholy10)Historical romanceIV. The Representatives of the early American romanticismA. Washington Irving(1783-1859 )1. About the Author1)Washington Irving was born in New York City on April 3, 1783 as the youngest of 11 children. His parents,Scottish-English immigrants, were great admirers of General George Washington, and named their son after their hero.2)Early in his life Irving developed a passion for books. He studied law privately but practiced only briefly. From1804 to 1806 he travelled widely in Europe. After returning to the United States, Irving was admitted to the New York bar in 1806.3)He was a partner with his brothers in the family hardware business and representative of the business inEngland until it collapsed in 1818. During the war of 1812 Irving was a military aide to New York Governor Tompkins in the U.S. Army.4)Irving's career as a writer started in journals and newspapers. His success in social life and literature wasshadowed by a personal tragedy because his engaged love died at the age of seventeen. So he never married or had children.5)After the death of his mother, Irving decided to stay in Europe, where he remained for seventeen years from1815 to 1832.6)In 1832 Irving returned to New York to an enthusiastic welcome as the first American author to have achievedinternational fame. Between the years 1842-45 Irving was the U.S. Ambassador to Spain.7)Irving spent the last years of his life in Tarrytown. From 1848 to 1859 he was President of Astor Library, laterNew York Public Library. Irving's later publications include Mahomet And His Successors(1850), Wolfert's Roost(1855), and his five-volume The Life of George Washington(1855-59). Irving died in Tarrytown on November 28, 1859.2. His Major Works1)His earliest work was a sparkling, satirical History of New York (1809) under the Dutch, ostensibly written byDiedrich Knickbo cker (hence the name of Irving’s friends and New York writers of the day, the “Knickbocker School”.)2)The Sketch Book (1819-20 as Geoffrey Crayon) - contains 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'3)The Life of George Washington (1855-59, five volumes)3. Evaluation to him1)American author, short story writer, essayist, poet, travel book writer, biographer, and columnist. Irving hasbeen called the father of the American short story. He is best known for 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,' in which the schoolmaster Ichabold Crane meets with a headless horseman, and 'Rip V an Winkle,' about a man who falls asleep for 20 years.2)The first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame, so he was regarded as father ofAmerican literature.3)The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving’s The Sketch Book, ACOLLECTION OF ESSAYS, SKETCHES, AND TALES. It also marked the beginning of American Romanticism.B. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)1. His Major WorksIn his life Cooper wrote over thirty novels which can be divided into frontier novels, detective novels and reference novels. He considered The Pathfinder (1840) and The Deerslayer (1841) his best works.The unifying thread of the five novels collectively known as the Leather-Stocking Tales is the life of Natty Bumppo. Cooper’s finest achievement, they constitute4 a vast prose epic with the North American continent as setting. Indian tribes as Characters, and great wars and westward migration as social background. The novels bring to life frontier America from 1740 to 1804.1)The Pioneers(1823): Natty Bumppo first appears as a seasoned scout in advancing years, with the dyingChingachgook, the old Indian chief and his faithful comrade, as the eastern forest frontier begins to disappear and Chingachgook dies.2)The Last of the Mohicans(1826): An adventure of the French and Indian Wars in the Lake George county.3)The Prairie(1827): Set in the new frontier where the Leatherstocking dies.4)The Pathfinder(1840): Continuing the same border warfare in the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario county.5)The Deerslayer(1841): Early adventures with the hostile Hurons on Lake Otsego, NY.2. Contributions of CooperThe creation of the famous Leatherstocking saga has cemented his position as our first great national novelist and his influence pervades American literature. In his thirty-two years (1820-1851) of authorship, Cooper produced twenty-nine other long works of fiction and fifteen books - enough to fill forty-eight volumes in the new definitive edition of his Works. Among his achievements:1)The first successful American historical romance in the vein of Sir Walter Scott (The Spy, 1821).2)The first sea novel (The Pilot, 1824).3)The first attempt at a fully researched historical novel (Lionel Lincoln, 1825).4)The first full-scale History of the Navy of the United States of America (1839).5)The first American international novel of manners (Homeward Bound and Home as Found, 1838).6)The first trilogy in American fiction (Satanstoe, 1845; The Chainbearer, 1845; and The Redskins, 1846).7)The first and only five-volume epic romance to carry its mythic hero - Natty Bumppo - from youth to old age. 3. His Skills1)He is good at making plots.2)All his novels are full of myths.3)He had never been to the frontier and among the Indians and yet could write five huge epic books about them isan eloquent proof of the richness of his imagination.4)He created the first Indians to appear in American fiction and probably the first group of noble savages.5)He hi t upon the native subject of frontier and wilderness, and helped to introduce the “Western” tradition intoAmerican literature.V. American Renaissance1. The Concept1)It also called New England Renaissance period from the 1830s roughly until the end of the American CivilWar in which American literature, in the wake of the Romantic movement, came of age as an expression of a national spirit.2)The literary scene of the period was dominated by a group of New England writers, the “Brahmins”. They werearistocrats, steeped in foreign culture, active as professors at Harvard College, and interested in creating a genteel American literature based on foreign models.3)One of the most important influences in the period was that of the Transcendentalists, including Emerson,Thoreau and so on.4)The Transcendentalists contributed to the founding of a new national culture based on native elements. Theyadvocated reforms in church, state, and society, contributing to the rise of free religion and the abolition movement and to the formation of various utopian communities, such as Brook Farm. The abolition movement was also bolstered by other New England writers, including the Quaker poet Whittier and the novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) dramatized the plight of the black slave.5)Apart from the Transcendentalists, there emerged during this period great imaginative writers—NathanielHawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman—whose novels and poetry left a permanent imprint on American literature. Contemporary with these writers but outside the New England circle was the Southern genius Edgar Allan Poe, who later in the century had a strong impact on European literature.Lecture Four The American Romanticism(II)TranscendentalismIt is a 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought.Emerson defined it as “idealism” simply. In reality it was far more complex collection of beliefs: that the spark of divinity lies within man; that everything in the world is a microcosm of existence; that the individual soul is identical to the world soul, or Over-Soul. By meditation, by communing with nature, through work and art, man could transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty and goodness and truth.In application, American transcendentalism urged a reform in society, and that such a reform may be reached if individuals resist customs and social codes, and rely rather on reason to learn what is right. Ultimately, transcendentalists believed that one should transcend society's code of ethics and rely on personal intuition in order to reach absolute goodness, or Absolute Truth.It was indebted to the dual heritage of American Puritanism. That is to say, it was in actuality romanticism on the puritan soil.Transcendentalism dominated the thinking of the American Renaissance, and its resonance reverberated through American life well into the 20th century. In one way or another American most creative minds were drawn into its thrall, attracted not only to its practicable messages of confident self-identity, spiritual progress and social justice, but also by its aesthetics, which celebrated, in landscape and mindscape, the immense grandeur of the American soul.The Representativesof American RenaissanceI. The Essayists1)Ralph Waldo Emerson2)Henry David ThoreauRalph Waldo Emerson(1803 - 1882)1.His philosophy:1)Strongly he felt the need for a new national vision.2)He firmly believes in the transcendence of the Oversoul and thought that the universe was composed of Nature。
了不起的盖茨比中颜色象征意义的研究
苏州大学应用技术学院2009级学士学位论文A Study of Color Symbolism in The Great Gatsby《了不起的盖茨比》中颜色象征意义研究专业：09英语学号：0916411014姓名：周丽莎导师：张荣兴2012.12.23AcknowledgementsThe thesis would probably have never been possible without the help, support, foresight and inspiration of my supervisor, teachers and classmates, so I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of them.My deepest gratitude goes first to my supervisor, Mr. Zhang Rongxing, who has contributed to getting the nuts and bolts of the thesis into place. His careful and microscopic scrutiny of the manuscript resulted in the elimination of many inconsistencies and in the development of the study throughout the thesis. His witty ideas and valuable advice brought me a new way of learning and different vision of the research.What’s m ore, my thanks go to my parents and friends who give me support and encouragement.AbstractFrancis Scott Fitzgerald, one of the most prominent novelists in American literary history in the 1920s, has been regarded as “the singer of the jazz age”, and “chronicler” and “poets Laureate”. He works give us an accurate picture of the social state of America in early twenties of last century. The Great Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s finest n ovel, which was published in 1925, and Eliot considered it “to be the first step that America has taken since Henry James”. Finished in 1925, this novel wins lots of favorable praise. Nowadays, people keep reading it, and many films have been adopted from it.Just as above said, The Great Gatsby is a symbolism story, in which, many color symbols are used, for example, green and green light, blue, yellow or golden and so on. This paper will analyze the novel by means of the respective symbolism meanings of these color symbols.Key words: Francis Scott Fitzgerald; The Great Gatsby; color; symbolism.摘要美国著名象征主义代表作家Francis Scott Fitzgerald ，20世纪20年代美国文坛最著名的作家之一，素有爵士时代代言人，编年史家和桂冠诗人的称号。
19th American Poets
2. Leaves of Grass
On 4th of July, 1855, the first edition of Leaves of Grass was published. A milestone. Nine editions in all. More than 400 poems
1854, 35
American Poets of the 19th Century
I. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
His style: - Traditional subjects. - Traditional style with regular meters and feet, in regular rhyming schemes. - Delicate words and expressions. - Simple but musical and
To Helen
Helen: the beautiful female image: - The prototype and archetype of female beauty. - The daughter of Zeus and Leda. - Wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. She eloped with Paris, then bought the siege Troy War, destruction of Troy.
Style
• Free verse: • Alliteration: sing, simple, separate; top to toe; Nor physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse; passion, pulse, power; freest action form’d under; modern man • Key-words capitalized: Democratic, En-Masse; the Female, the Male; Modern Man • Repetition: of I sing (4 times)
(完整word版)美国文学选读课后习题答案(word文档良心出品)
3.Is it significant that Thoreau mentioned the Fourth ofJuly as the day on which he began to stay in the woods?Why?
Yes, it is.Because The Fourth of July is known asIndependence Day,the birthdayofthe United States.HereThoreau uses the day to express his beginningof regeneration at Walden.It also means a symbol of hisconquest of being.
This belief fits into the larger Puritan doctrine, which puts heavy emphasis on the idea of original sin—the notion that all people are born sinners because of the initial transgressions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. he is therefore using the prison building to represent the crime and the punishment which are aspect of civilized life. What is the implication of the description of the roses?The rosebush symbolizes the ability of nature to endure and outlast man's activities. The narrator suggests that roses offer a reminder of Nature's kindness to the condemned; for his tale, he says, it will provide either a “sweet moral blossom” or else some relief in the face of unrelenting sorrow and gloom.
Unit 7 19th-Century American__ Poets 1
Comment:
1) In this poem, Poe followed the rhyme scheme of Shakespearean sonnet, that is, abab cdcd efef gg.
2) The tension between science on the one hand and art and imagination on the other endows the poem with a unique power and significance. The poem is a good indication that Poe was in essence a Renaissance man. He derived in part from Plato the notion that the universe was endowed with myth, and tried to restore it to the primordial unity which the cosmos once possessed.
A Psalm of Life
(What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist) TELL me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream ! — For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real ! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal ; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way ; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day. Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.
20th-Century American Poets
2. Principles a. Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective; b. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation; c. As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome. 3. Characteristics: a. Each word must be an image seen. b. one dominant image.
b. During the World War II, Pound supported the Fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and made radio broadcast openly criticizing the US and its efforts in the war. Though arrested fro treason after Italy fell to the Allies, Pound was declared mentally unfit to stand trial. He was then sent to a mental hospital, where he continued to write. Thirteen years later, the charges against him were dropped, and Pound returned to Italy. c. Ezra Pound was born in 1885 and died in 1972.
美国文学(19世纪)_1 美国文学之父：华盛顿·欧文_
5) This is a period of foreign influences
Sir Walter Scott, The Gothic tradition and the graveyard tradition Burnsion
• Romanticism (or the Romantic Era) was a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution. In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education and natural history.
11.19th-century American Poets
Theme
Under the traditional Shakespearean sonnet structure, Poe expresses nontraditional accusations of science. It is spoken through the vision of a passionate man mourning the slaughter of mythology, fantasy, art by its alleged arch enemy, science. Science is portrayed as evil and words like "preyest," "Vulture," and "torn" are used to describe science's impact on mankind.
• The first quatrain condemns Science as a “true daughter of Old Time” and as a “Vulture” that “preyest . . . upon the poet’s heart” • The second quatrain, poses rhetorical questions asking how a poet could like, respect, or join Science . • The third quatrain, accuses Science of spoiling some beautiful myths, such as that of Diana and the Hamadryad. • Finally, the concluding couplet reveals the reason for the persona’s lament; here, with the poem’s only first-person pronoun, the persona focuses attention on himself, accusing Science of depriving him of his reverie.
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Nature
• As a fond mother, when the day is o'er, • Leads by the hand her little child to bed, • Half willing, half reluctant to be led, • And leave his broken playthings on the floor, • 象一位慈爱的母亲， 见天色已晚， • 牵着手儿，领孩子上 床歇息； • 孩子半情愿半勉强， 跟她走去， • 边走边回头，望着门 外边，
• 造化对待我们也正象这 般， • 把我们喜爱的玩意儿一 件件拿开， • 牵着手儿，仁慈地领我 们去睡觉； • 我们去了，分不清情愿 不情愿， • 睡意太浓，顾不得打听 明白 • 未知的比这已知的胜过 多少。
The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
• The tide rises, the tide falls, • 潮水升，潮水落 The twilight darkens, the curlew calls; • 潮水升了，潮水落了， Along the sea-sands damp and 天色已晚，鷸鸟啼鸣 brown ﹔ The traveler hastens toward the 踏着暗黃的湿润海沙， town, 行人赶路，前往小城。 And the tide rises, the tide falls. 潮水升，潮水落。
• 我把一支箭向空中射出， 它 落下地来，不知在何处； 那么急，那么快，眼睛 怎能 跟上它一去如飞的踪影？
• I breathed a song into the air, • It fell to earth, I knew not where; • For who has sight so keen and strong • That it can follow the flight of song?
• Still gazing at them through the open door, • Nor wholly reassured and comforted • By promises of others in their stead, • Which though more splendid, may not please him more;
• 伟人的生平启示我们： 我们能够生活得高尚， 而当告别人世的时候， 留下脚印在时间的沙上； 也许我们有一个兄弟 航行在庄严的人生大海， 遇险沉了船，绝望的时刻， 会看到这脚印而振作起 来。
• Let us, then, be up and doing, • With a heart for any fate; • Still achieving, still pursuing, • Learn to labor and to wait.
19th-Century American Poets Part I
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
• There are two reasons for the popularity and significance of Longfellow's poetry. First, he had the gift of easy rhyme. He wrote poetry as a bird sings, with natural grace and melody. Read or heard once or twice, his rhyme and meters cling to the mind long after the sense may be forgotten. • Second, Longfellow wrote on obvious themes which appeal to all kinds of people. His poems are easily understood; they sing their way into the consciousness of those who read them. Above all, there is a joyousness in them, a spirit of optimism and faith in the goodness of life which evokes immediate response in the emotions of his readers.
• 廊里的驿马跺蹄长嘶， 天亮了，它听见马夫 呼唤﹔ 白天回來了，那位行 人呢， 他却永远不再回海岸。 潮水升，潮水落。
A Psalm of Life
• • • • • • • • Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. • 不要在哀伤的诗句里告诉我： “人生不过是一场幻梦！” 灵魂睡着了，就等于死了， 事物的真相与外表不同。 人生是真切的！人生是实在 的！ 它的归宿决不是荒坟； “你本是尘土，必归于尘 土”， 这是指躯壳，不是指灵魂。
• 世界是一片辽阔的战场， 人生是到处扎寨安营； 莫学那听人驱策的哑畜， 做一个威武善战的英雄！ 别指望将来，不管它多可 爱！ 把已逝的过去永久掩埋！ 行动吧－－趁着活生生的 现在！ 心中有赤心，头上有真 宰！
• • • • • • • •
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time;-Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.
• 那么，让我们起来干 吧， 对任何命运要敢于 担戴； 不断地进取，不Βιβλιοθήκη 地 追求， 要善于劳动，善于 等待。
The Arrow and the Song
I SHOT an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For, so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight.
• 我们命定的目标和道路 不是享乐，也不是受苦； 而是行动，在每个明天 都超越今天，跨出新步。 智艺无穷，时光飞逝； 这颗心，纵然勇敢坚强， 也只如鼙鼓，闷声敲动着， 一下又一下，向坟地送 丧。
• • • • •
In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! • Let the dead Past bury its dead! • Act,--act in the living Present! • Heart within, and God o'erhead!
• Darkness settles on roofs and • 屋頂、墙垣都沉入黑 暗里， walls, 黑暗里，大海呼号不 But the sea, the sea in 息﹔ darkness calls; 細浪用又软又白的手 The little waves, with their soft, 儿 white hands 抹去沙上行人的脚迹。 Efface the footprints in the 潮水升，潮水落。 sands, • And the tide rises, the tide falls.
• 我把一支歌向空中吐出， 它落下地来，不知在何 处； 有谁的眼力这么尖，这 么强， 竟能追上歌声的飞飏？
• Long, long afterward, in an oak • I found the arrow, still unbroke; • And the song, from beginning to end, • I found again in the heart of a friend.
• 很久以后，我发现那支 箭 插在橡树上，还不曾折 断： 还有那支歌，首尾俱全， 我也找到了：在朋友的 心间。
Walt Whitman (1819—1892)
Emerson
• Emerson helped Whitman to “find himself”: “I was simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil.”
• The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls; The day returns, but nevermore Returns the traveler to the shore. And the tide rises, the tide falls
Whitman and Phrenology