英语诗歌选读

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• 10. The 20th c. • -- the early stage: the Imagist Movement • -- Eliot, Hopkin, Yeats… • 11. In the contemporary time: more diverse than before
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ii. American poetry
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• 7. The 18th c.: the Age of Enlightenment (Reason) • -- Pope, Addison, Steele, Johnson…: a revival of classical standards of order, balance and harmony in literature • -- the middle of the century: sentimentalism, grief and mild protest, Thomas Grey: Elegy written in a Country Churchyard • -- later years of the century: the forerunner of Romanticism, Burns and Blake
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• 6. The 17th c.: the Stuarts, different political and religious beliefs • -- the Cavaliers: Robert Herrick, royalistic against the British Revolution • -- metaphysical poets: John Donne… • -- Puritan poets: John Milton: Paradise Lost • -- Restoration poet: John Dryden
Part I (I) Introduction
A Short History of British and American Poetry II. What Is Poetry III. How to Read and Evaluate Poetry IV. Poetic Literary Terms V. The Arrang百度文库ment of the Class
What is poetry?
• “poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility…” • -- William Wordsworth in the preface to Lyrical Ballads
• 1. Early Puritan stage: • -- the cultural allegiance to Britain • -- the purpose of poetry: careful Christian examination of people life • -- the Puritan’s religious subject and imitation of English literary traditions • -- Anne Bradstreet
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• 5. The 20th c.: • -- Robinson, Frost, Sandburg • -- the Imagist Movement: Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Stein, Stevens, Williams, Cummings, Hughes, Crane • -- After WWII: the Confessional movement, the Black Mountain poets… • -- 1970s: surrealism • -- 1980s: the New Formalists
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III. How to read and evaluate a poem
• i. A premise: • Poetry is written to read aloud and heard.
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• ii. Some basic steps: • 1. first-time overall reading for a general impression • 2. identifying the sentence structure • 3. figuring out the meter • 4. reading aloud for the rhyme and rhythm • 5. checking new and unknown words • 6. marking off any sections • 7. analyzing the tone • 8. re-reading • 9. asking questions for literary study 19
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What is poetry?
• -- “poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and higher thing than history, for poetry tends to express the universe, history, the particular” • -- poetry is a species of imitation or mimesis • -- using different mediums, objects and modes in order to carry out an imitation 14 • -- Aristotle: Poetics
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vi. Poem, Poetry and Verse
• 1. Poem 诗歌 • -- piece of creative writing in verse, esp. one expressing deep feelings or noble thoughts in beautiful language, written with the intention of communicating an experience • 2. Poetry诗歌（总称） • -- poems collectively or in general • 3. Verse 韵文；诗歌 • -- writing arranged in lines, often with a regular rhythm or rhyme scheme; poetry
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2. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, under the influence from France: the romance: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 3. The 14th c.: the first harvest in English literature, Geoffrey Chaucer – the Father of English poetry 4. The 15th c.: ballads, Robin Hood Ballads
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I. A short history of British and American poetry
i. British poetry: 1. The earliest stage: -- the Anglo-Saxon period -- a verse literature in oral form -- pagan poetry: Beowulf:
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• 4. From the middle of the 19th c.: • -- Walt Whitman: bridging the gap between the New England Group and the contemporary poets, Leaves of Grass • -- Emily Dickinson: intensity of emotion and idiosyncratic form • -- Herman Melville
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• iii. Difficulty in arriving at a final definition: • iv. Possibility of making an attempt to describe its properties, function, and characteristics as clearly as possible • v. But, at least, poetry uses the best language.
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• 2. Colonial poets of the 18th c.: • -- traditional forms with new subjects in order to create the first truly American poetry • -- Philip Freneau: The Wild Honey Suckle • -- nature • 3. The 19th c.: real literary value • -- Bryant, Poe.. • -- the New England Group: Longfellow, Emerson, Thoreau, transcendentalism
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• 8. Early 19th c.: the Romantic Age • -- Passive Romanticists: Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey • -- Active Romanticists: Byron, shelley and Keats • 9. The rest of the 19th c.: the Victorian Age • -- experimental • -- Tennyson • -- the Brownings: dramatic monologue • -- Swinburne and Arnold
• iii. Literary evaluation: • 1. evaluation • -- making an assessment of the poem’s literary value • -- making a judgment on how good and successful it is in the achievements of its poetic goals • 2. a basic way to start • -- to paraphrase
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II. What is Poetry?
• i. Can you give a definition to poetry? • ii. Let’s see some famous definitions in history: • 1. Plato • 2. Aristotle • 3. Sidney • 4. Wordsworth • 5. Shelley • …
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• 5. The 16th c.: the Tudor dynasty, the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the period of Renaissance: • -- Wyatt introducing the Italian sonnet to England • -- Henry Howard creating the English form of the sonnet • -- Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queen, the Spenserian stanza • -- Christopher Marlowe: making blank verse the principal instrument of English drama • -- William Shakespeare: 154, the Shakespearean sonnet