英语诗歌欣赏Unit 09

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
• Born in Huntington, Long Island, Whitman was proclaimed the “greatest of all American poets” by many foreign observers. He fell in love with the written word at the age of twelve and read voraciously the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible. His Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855 and enlarged for several times until his death, won enormous popularity for its original and innovative expression of American individualism. The representative piece of the book is a long poem, Song of Myself (1855). Leaves of Grass is characterized by natural speech rhythms, free verse form and fresh use of language and it is widely recognized as a formative influence on the work of such American writers as Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams, and Wallace Stevens. Whitman’s defiant break with traditional poetic concerns and style exerted a major influence on American thought and literature. Whitman died on March 26, 1892.
• 这首诗于1860年在《草叶集》（Leaves of Grass）第三 版首次出现。年轻共和国的经济迅速发展使诗人感到欢 欣鼓舞。惠特曼早在1855年就说过：“事实上，北美合 众国是最伟大的诗篇”（《草叶集》出版序言）。这首 诗刻画出一个迄今为止仍受美国人热爱的美国形象：自 豪、健壮、欢快的富有个性的美国人，在新世界用自己 的双手开创新生活，从城市到农村，从海上到陆地，到 处回荡着对创造性劳动的讴歌。全诗热情歌唱蒸蒸日上 的美国，同时也表现了劳动者的尊严与伟大，洋溢着诗 人对世界和生活的乐观态度。
• I Hear America Singing • Introduction to Walt Whitman • Poem Appreciation • Questions • Keys to Questions • Chinese Translation
I Hear America Singing
• Introduction to Free Verse • I Hear America Singing • Chicago • The Red Wheห้องสมุดไป่ตู้lbarrow • The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Free Verse
• A fluid form which conforms to no set rules of traditional versification. The free in free verse refers to the freedom from fixed patterns of meter and rhyme, but writers of free verse employ familiar poetic devices such as assonance, alliteration, imagery, caesura, figures of speech, etc., and their rhythmic effects are dependent on the syllabic cadences emerging from the context. The term is often used in its French language form, vers libre.
• The poem is an example of Walt Whitman at his best. Whitman said of his own poetry and poetic theory: "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.” • In the poem, the poet envisions a country of people working for the greater good of mankind. These people come together as part of the whole society developing industry and production. Each person has a different occupation, but each job is important. So the poem shows the poet’s ideal of a nation: everyone is working together to create a successful and harmonious civilization.