英国文学复习资料

Suggestive Questions 英国文学复习资料

1.What events mark the beginning and end of the romantic period in

the history of British literature?

Romanticism arose as a main literary trend ,which prevailed in England during the period of 1798--1832,beginning with the publication of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads (1798),ending with Walter Scott's death.

2.What are the most important features of Romanticism?

Under the influences of the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution，the social life changes a lot especially in literature. With the changes，the romantics like George Gordon Byron，John Keats etc.，expressiny their feelings、particular attitudes about life in their respective style instead of old forms，and the Romantic works generally appears the follwing characteristics：as an emphasis on feeling、imagination、intuition and all in all，on subjective；a love for nature；a belief in individulity and freedon；the glorification of commmon place；an interest in the past，the unusual，the unfamiliar，a feeling of loneliness.

some of the Lake Poets.

William Wordsworth,Robert Southey,Samuel Taylor Coleridge

several poems by William Wordsworth

The Solitary Reaper / London/I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

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5.Identify the following and explain the whole stanza in your own words, using prose style.

Behold her, singer in the field,

Yon solitary Highland Lass!

Reaping and singing by herself;

Stop here, or gently pass!

Alone she cuts and binds the grain,

And sings a melancholy strain;

O listen! For the Vale profound

Is overflowing with the sound

It is the poem called The Solitary Reaper written by William Wordsworth Look!There is a young and beautiful girl on the highland.She is alone in the

field.She is singing while reaping by herself.The melody is so attract that you couldn't stop listening.If you want to leave ,just go gently.She is still cutting and binding with her songs. Her melody is so dreary that just like telling us a sad story.Oh,listen!Her melody is overflowing with the sound in the deep valleys.

6.What is the most important poem of Samuel Taylor Coleridge?

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

7.Identify “all good poetry is the spontan eous overflow of powerful

feelings,” and give your own understanding of this expression.

It comes from Preface to Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth.

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In my opinion,it is quite right. To be a good poet,you should have a sensitive mind. You should use your imagination to realize the fusion of the description or events with expression of inward state of mind.

several poems by Lord Byron.

When We Two Party/She Walks in Beauty / Don Juan.

9.For what was Percy Bysshe Shelley expelled from school?

In 1811 he and his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg published their pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism, which resulted in their immediate expulsion from the university.And it is against the religion on The Victorian Period.

10.Identify “O Wind, If Winters comes, can Spring be far behind?”

It comes from the poem called Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley .

11.In what ways is the west wind both a destroyer and a preserver?

Shelly shows the irony of the wind that acts in a contradictory manner.

The west wind is a destroyer because it spreads the dead leaves destroyas old plants.

It is the preserver as it brings life to the dead atmosphere, it spreads the seeds and they lie two inches beneath the ground and eventually sprout into seedlings.

12.Who wrote the poem “Adonais”, and for what purpose?

T he poem “Adonais” was wrote by Shelley in order to remember Keats .When the report of Keats' death reached him, he was convinced that

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