英语诗歌欣赏Unit 14

William Butler Yeats

Spring
The Poem Notes Introduction to the Poet Appreciation Questions and Answers Chinese Version



Spring By Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king, Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring, Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing: Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo! The palm and may make country houses gay, Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day, And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay: Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

Questions and Answers 1. How is the rhyme scheme arranged to make the poem read as smoothly and briskly as singing a song? It is a lyric of iambic pentameter. The poet uses a combination of alliteration and end rhyme in its rhyme scheme to make the poem read as smoothly and briskly as singing a song. 2. How are the images depicted in the poem to help intensify the theme of the poem? The poem uses rich and colorful images to depict the beauty of spring. We can see various animals and plants as well as different kinds of people. We can hear the euphonious songs of various birds as well as the shepherd pipe. We can feel the spring wind and the spring sun. And we can smell the fragrance of the field. All these images help to compose a beautiful scene of spring and a pleasant music of spring.

Appreciation The lyric portraits a lively scene of spring and expresses the joy brought by spring. The poet compares spring to the year’s pleasant king that views a harmonious picture of human and nature in the spring. Different kinds of people enjoy a leisurely and comfortable life in the beauty of spring. Simple and plain as the language is, the poem eulogizes the sweet spring with ingenious words, abundant images and concordant rhythms. What’s more, the poet employs various onomatopoeias to imitate the different sounds of some animals, which makes the poem vivid and imaginative.
Unit Fourteen
Nature
Contents of the Unit
ห้องสมุดไป่ตู้
Spring
Thomas Nashe William Wordsworth John Keats
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud On the Grasshopper and Cricket The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Introduction to the Poet

Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) 托马斯· 纳什 Born in Lowestoft, Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, poet，dramatist and satirist. He graduated from St. John’s College, Cambridge in 1586 and became one of the “University Wits”. His best-known work, the novel The Unfortunate Traveler (1594), about the exciting overseas adventures of an English page called Jack Wilton, has been called the first of the picaresque novel in English literature. Summer’s Last Will (1592) is his important play. As a pamphleteer and satirist, he wrote several satiric pamphlets attacking Puritanism under the pseudonym Pasquil. He also wrote fine lyrics.

Notes 这首诗出自托马斯· 纳什的寓言剧《夏天的最后 遗嘱》(Summer’s Last Will)。剧中人物皆以四季 命名。该诗通过运用丰富多彩的意象勾勒出一副生 机盎然的春景画面，表达了春天给人们带来的欢乐 和喜悦的心情。


1. cuckoo: 布谷鸟叫声；jug-jug: 夜莺叫声；puwe: 田凫的叫声；to-witta-woo: 猫头鹰叫声。 2. may: 山楂花。 3. aye和lay都是古英语用法，意为always和song。 4. a-sunning: 晒太阳；前缀“a-”表示动作在进行 之中。




The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet, Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit, In every street these tunes our ears do greet: Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo! Spring, the sweet spring!