英美文学detail 赏析

M ACBETH5. She should have died hereafter.There would have been a ti m e for such a word.Tom orrow, and tom orrow, and tom orrowCreeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded tim e.And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no m ore. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.These words are uttered by Macbeth after he hears of Lady Macbeth’s death, in Act 5, scene 5, lines 16–27. Given the great love between them, his response is oddly m uted, but it segues quickly into a speech of such pessim ism and despair—one of the m ost fam ous speeches in all of Shakespeare—that the audience realizes how com pletely his wife’s passing and the ruin of his power have undone Macbeth. His speech insists that there is no m eaning or purpose in life. Rather, life “is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound an d fury, / Signifying nothing.” One can easily understand how, with his wife dead and ar m ies m arching against hi m, Macbeth succum bs to such pessim ism. Yet, there is also a defensive andself-justifying quality to his words. If everything is m eaningless, the n Macbeth’s aw ful cri m es aresom ehow m ade less awful, because, like everything else, they too “signify nothing.”Macbeth’s state m ent that “[l]ife’s but a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage” can be read as Shakespeare’s som ewhat def lating rem inder of the illusionary nature of the theater. After all, Macbeth is only a “player” him self, strutting on an Elizabethan stage. In any play, there is a conspiracy of sorts between the audience and the actors, as both pretend to accept the play’s reality. Macbeth’s comm ent calls attention to this conspiracy and partially explodes it—his nihilism em braces not only his own life but the entire play. If we take his words to heart, the play, too, can be seen as an event “full of sound and fury, / Sign ifying nothing.”Hamlet’s soliloquyThe question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by sim ply putting an end to them once and for all? Dying, sleeping—that's all dying is—a sleep that ends all the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives us—that's an achievem ent to wish for. To die, to sleep—to sleep, maybe to dream. Ah, but there's the catch: in death's sleep who knows what kind of dreams might com e, after we've put the noise and comm otion of life behind us. That's certainly som ething to worry about. That's the consideration that m akes us stretch out oursufferings so long.After all, who would put up with all life's hum iliations—the abuse from superiors, the insults of arrogant men, the pangs of unrequited love, the inefficiency of the legal system, the rudeness of people in office, and the mistreatment good people have to take from bad—when you could simply take out your knife and call it quits? Who would choose to grunt and sweat through an exhausting life, unless they were afraid of som ething dreadful after death, the undiscovered country from which no visitor returns, which we wonder about without getting any answers from and which makes us stick to the evils we know rather than rush off to seek the ones we don't? Fear of death m akes us all cowards, and our natural boldness becom es weak with too m uch thinking. Actions that should be carried out at once get misdirected, and stop being actions at all. But shh, here com es the beautiful Ophelia. Pretty lady, please rem ember m e when you pray.Sonnet 18Shall I com pare thee to a summ er’s day?Thou art m ore lovely and m ore tem perate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And su mmer’s lease hath all too short a date:Som etim e too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold com plexion dimm’d;And every fair from fair som etime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou owest;Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,When in eternal lines to tim e thou growest:So long as m en can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.SummaryThe speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I com pare thee to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a com parison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what m ainly differentiates the young m an from the summ er’s day: he is “m ore lovely and m ore temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extrem es: they are shaken by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads t o the withering of autum n, as “every fair from fair som etim e declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summ er in that respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will accom plish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it will live “as long as m en can breathe or eyes can see.”CommentaryThis sonnet is certain ly the m ost fam ous in the sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets; it m ay be the m ost fam ous lyric poem in English. Am ong Shakespeare’s works, only lines such as “To be or not to be” and “Rom eo, Rom eo, wherefore art thou Rom eo?” are better-known. This is not to say that it is at all the best or m ost interesting or most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and loveliness of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place.On the surface, the poem is sim ply a statem ent of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extrem es of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always m ild and temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the “eye of heaven” with its “gold com plexion”; the im agery throughout is sim ple and unaffected, with the“darling buds of May” giving way to the “eternal summ er”, which the speaker prom ises the beloved. The language, too, is com paratively unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause—alm ost every line ends with som e punctuation, which effects a pause.Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young m an to have children. The “procreation” sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended with the speaker’s realization that the young m an might not need children to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the end of Sonnet 17, “in m y rhym e.” Sonnet 18, then, is the first “rhym e”—the speaker’s first attempt to preserve the young m an’s bea uty for all tim e. An im portant theme of the sonnet (as it is an im portant theme throughout m uch of the sequence) is the power of the speaker’s poem to defy tim e and last forever, carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloved’s “eternal summer” shall not fade precisely because it is em bodied in the sonnet: “So long as m en can breathe or eyes can see,” the speaker writes in the couplet, “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”Of StudiesIt is an essay written to inform us of the benefits of studying. He tells us that natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study. Studying is applying the mind to learning and understanding a subject, especially through reading, which is perhaps why by 'studying', Sir Francis Bacon m ostly refers to reading. He said read is not for discussion 'but to weigh. In his short essay, he strives to persuade us to study, and tells us how to study if we are to m ake the best of what we read.'Of Studies' m ain point is to be ev idence for the benefits of studying. Sir Francis Bacon attempts to prove to us that "studies serve for delight, for ornam ent and for discourse " by showing us how education is used and can be used in our lives.He said som e books are tasted read only in parts, som e books are swallowed read but not rem arkably and som e chewed and digested read wholly. If a m an read he becom es a full m an, if he talks becom e a ready m an, if he is writing he is exact m an. He also said if a m an writes little he desire great m em ory, if he discuss bit he desire sm artness, and if he read little he need m uch cleverness.A red red roseThe Poem, “A Red, Red Rose” is one of the m ost fam ous songs that Robert Burns wrote for this project and first published in 1794 was “A Red, Red Rose.” Burns wrote it as a traditional ballad, four verses of four lines each.“A Red, Red Rose” begins with a quatrain containing two sim iles. Burns compares his love with a springtime bloom ing rose and then with a sweet melody. These are popular poetic im ages and this is the stanza m ost comm only quoted from the poem.The second and third stanzas becom e increasingly complex, ending with the m etaphor of the “sands of life,” or hourglass. One the one hand we are given the im age of his love lasting until the seas run dry and the rocks m elt with the sun, wonderfully poetic im ages. On the other hand Burns reminds us of the passage of time and the changes that result. That recalls the first stanza and its image of a red rose, newly sprung in June, which we know from experience will change and decay with tim e. These are com plex and competing images, typical of the m ore m ature Robert Burns.The final stanza wraps up the poem’s complexity with a farewell and a prom ise of return.“A Red, Red Rose” is written as a ballad with four stanzas of four lines each. Each stanza has alternating lines of four beats, or iambs, and three beats. The first and third lines have four iambs, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in da-dah, da-dah, da-dah, da-dah. The second and fourth lines consist of three iambs. This form of verse is well adapted for singing or recitation and originated in the days when poetry existed in verbal rather than written form.The Chimney SweeperWilliam Blake’s poem s both entitled “The Chim ney Sweeper” address a political issue publicized during the tim e he was writing. In Songs of Innocence, the boy in “The Chim ney Sweeper” sees his situation through the eyes of innocence and does not understand the social injustice. In Songs of Experience, the boy in the poem sees the injustice and speaks against the establishm ents that left him where he is. Different aspects of one poem illuminate opposing aspects of the other poem. Ideas addressed in Innocence contrast the different views of Experience, as Experience does for Innocence, em phasizing the need for a balance of the two. The fact that these poem s can influence the reader’s interpretation of one another confirms Blake’s notion that neither innocence nor experience is a correct vi ew and that one com pletes the other.The poem “The Chim ney Sweeper,” in both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, protests the living conditions, working conditions, and the overall treatment of young chim ney sweeps in the cities of England. Martin Nurm i discusses the plight of the chim ney sweep extensively in his essay “Fact and Sym bol in ‘The Chim ney Sweeper.’” In 1788, there was an attempt to pass an act to im prove the treatm ent and working conditions of these young children. This would have m ade many people, including Blake, aware of the lives that these chim ney sweeps would live. For instance, they slept in cellars on bags of the soot that they had swept (Nurm i 17), and they were poorly fed and clothed. They would sweep the chim neys naked so their m asters would not have to replace clothing that would have been ruined in the chim neys, and they were rarely bathed. Those who were not killed by fires in chim neys usuallydied early anyway of either respiratory problem s or cancer of the scrotum. Sweeping chim neys also left children with ankles and spines deformed and twisted kneecaps from clim bing up chimneys that were about nine inches in diameter (Nurm i 16). Many people viewed them as subhum an creatures and not a part of hum an society.In Songs of Innocence, Blake features in “The Chimney Sweeper” innocence represented by the speaker (the slightly older chim ney sweep), Tom, and all the other sweeps. This innocence is exploited andoppressed, and those who are being exploited are unaware of the oppression. The narrator is a chim ney sweep whose m other died and was sold by his father at a very young age, as im plied by the lines “And m y father sold m e while m y tongue / could scarcely cry ‘weep weep weep weep!’” (2-3). The phrase “in soot I sleep” (4), refer s to the living conditions of the sweeps. The poem goes on to talk about Tom Dacre and his dream, an important part of the poem. He dreams of the other chim ney sweepers being locked in black coffins, symbolic of the lives that the sweeps lived, being poor outcasts in society and having stained unwashed skin and often disfigured bodies. The angel opening the coffins and freeing the sweeps shows the freeing of Tom and other sweeps from the oppressive lifestyle. The reference to being white and the bags being left behind represents a com plete escape from this oppression including the soot stained skin and the bags of tools and soot which they carried by day and on which they slept at night. One m ay also interpret this dream as the coffins representing their literal deaths, and the chim ney sweeps are not free from the oppression until the afterlife. When the angel tells Tom that “if he’d be a good boy, / He’d have God for his father and never want joy” (19-20), he gives Tom hope that if he is good and does his job, God will be his father and bless him in the next life. The poem concludes with the narrator and his firm belief that if they are obedient and do their duty, all will be well. This last idea expressed em phasizes that he is in the state of innocence and is unaware that he is a victim.In Songs of Experience,the child in “The Chim ney Sweeper” understands that he is a victim and tells the observer (m ost likely the Bard in the “Introduction” to Experience) who sees the “little black thing” (1) in the snow w eeping. Unlike the boy in Innocence, both parents of this child are living and have gone to the church to pray, an overt criticism of the Church of England since chimney sweepers were not welcom e in church (Nurm i 18). The boy believes that his pious parents sold him as a chimney sweeper because he was happy. Clothing him “in the clothes of death” (7) refers to his life as a social outcast and his being destined to an early death because of the working and living conditions of his profession. However, his pa rents believe that they have done no harm and have “gone to praise God and his priest and king” (11). This is not only a criticism of the parents who sell their children into this life but of the Church of England and the governm ent for condoning the ill treatm ent of these chim ney sweeps. He also seem s to be criticizing God himself, who seem s so cruel for allowing those who practice this treatment to go unpunished.For these poem s, an understanding of the ideas of one poem, as well as the ideas that it lacks, illum inates the other poem. This gives the reader a different interpretation of the poem than if one of these “TheChim ney Sweeper” poem s would be read alone. For instance, in Songs of Innocence, the chim ney sweeps are offered hope by the outcom e of To m Dacre’s dream. The narrator offers comfort that no harm or punishm ent will com e to those who obey. Also, Tom is used toillustrate another point. He is originally frightened but later feels “happy and warm” (23), showing that one can experience a certain degree of happiness in the even in the worst of circum stances. These ideas of hope and happiness place further emphasis on the bitterness of the chim ney sweep in Songs of Experience. He understands his circum stances and sees no hope of freedom from his oppression. Instead of believing that obedience will prevent punishm ent, he perceives his current circumstance as a punishm ent for being happy with his childhood. Also, he does not seem to endorse the Christian idea of having joy in the m idst of adversity; he sees little if any reason to be happy in his m iserable predicam ent. In fact, the God that his parents praise seem s as cruel as others who allow children to be mistreated in such a way. These exam ples illustrate how an understanding of the them es of “The Chim ney Sweeper” in Songs of Innocence can further illuminate the som e of the ideas in Songs of Experience.However, in Songs of Experience, m any of the ideas are m ore realistic in som e ways. The chim ney sweeper understands that he has been placed in a situation where he is isolated from society and will alm ost certainly die young because of the hazards of his profession. He mentions established institutions such as the Church of England and the governm ent in the sam e line with his m other and father, who think they have done no harm. These institutions could have used their power to improve life for the chim ney sweeps, but they have m ade little if any effort to do so. The understanding that this particular sweep possess emphasizes the naivete of the speaker in “The Chim ney Sweeper” of Innocence, who believes that everything will be fine if he is obedient even though his obedience will eventually cost him his own life. The naive child is m ore accepting of his circum stances, and the narrator himself does not seem to see anyone as being at fault but whose faith in God is a constant source of hope. This exam ple of the “Chim ney Sweeper” poems in Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience illustrates William Blake’s view that neither naive innocence nor bitter exper ience is com pletely accurate. There is a higher state of understanding that includes both innocence and experience. Both are need to com plete one another to form the m ore accurate view. In this case, it is an expression on the poet’s view of the political issue dealing with chim ney sweeps that dom inates both poem s. Although the viewpoints of each poem are different, both show plight of the m ajority of the chim ney sweepers in the cities of England, and while one endorses hope and the other bitterness, the reader m ust acknowledge that som ething needs to be done to improve life for these children.I Wandered Lonely as a CloudWilliam Wordsworth (1770-1850) - He was born on 7th April in Cockerm oth, Cum berland in the Lake District. The beauty of the region and stunning landscape provided him with the perfect setting and inspiration to writepoems about nature. In 1804, he wrote the poem "Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", a poem also known as "The Daffodils". His sister Dorothy, played an im portant part in his life and she also influenced him with her love of nature. The inspiration to write this poem cam e while he was out walking with Dorothy near Lake Ullswater in Grasm ere and they cam e upon som e daffodils growing near the river. The poem was later revised in 1815.I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils,Beside the lake, beneath the treesFluttering and dancing in the breeze.The poem is rich with imagery, and in the first stanza, Wordsworth describes the scene as he wanders "as lonely as a cloud". He compares himself to a solitary cloud that is floating over the valleys and the hills and then he sees a "crowd" of golden daffodils which are under the trees and beside a lake and are "fluttering and dancing in the breeze". His choice of words is soft and gentle and it is alm ost as if there is silent m usic in the background to which the daffodils are dancing. He is admiring the beauty around him and capturing a beautiful snatched m om ent in time that nature has presented to him. It is as if the daffodils have com e alive just for him and they have an alm ost hum an like quality in the way they are behaving.Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the Milky Way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the m argin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glanceTossing their heads in sprightly danceIn the second stanza, he com pares the daffodils to the shining stars that twinkle in the Milky Way as the number of daffodils lined near the river seems to be thousands in num ber. He com pares the quantity of the flowers to the continuity of the stars using words like "never-ending" and "continuous". His words paint the picture of all of them dancing while they toss their heads in a "sprightly dance" There is an alm ost funny aspect to the flowers as they "toss" their heads like a group of dancers performing for som eone on a stage.The waves beside them danced, but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gayIn such a jocund com pany:I gazed -and gazed -but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to m e had broughtIn the third stanza, though he can see the waves of the river m ove as if in a dance it is no com parison to the performance the daffodils are providing just for him. They outdo the "sparkling" waves in a way that is exhilarating to him as he looks at the scene and the "jocund" com pany he is in. He cannot help but feel "gay" at the show presented to him and his choice of words like "sparkling" and "glee" and "jocund" reflect these feelings. The final line of the stanza is his indirect thanks to nature for providing him with "wealth" by putting up a show like this.For oft, when on m y couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive m ood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then m y heart with pleasurefills And dances with the daffodils.In the last stanza, he describes how that scene has affected him because whenever he is indoors in his hom e and on his own "in the bliss of solitude" the mem ory of those flowers fills him with pleasure and it is as if his heart "dances with the daffodils". Again the use of words like "bliss"show his happiness each tim e the m em ory of those flowers and the way they danced that day com es back to him.This is a beautiful but simple poem about the beauty of nature and how inspiring it can be. The images that Wordsworth uses to describe the scene are like an artist painting a scene vividly so the reader can see it with his mind's eye. You can clearly visualise the day exactly how Wordsworth m ust have seen it all those years ago. It was interesting how Wordsworth gave the daffodils an alm ost human quality in the way they seem ed to resemble dancers dancing in unison as if presenting a show. There are rhym ing words at the end of every alternate line of the poem giving it both continuity and a sense of rhythm throughout.By William Wordsworth, 1802-1804The World Is Too Much with Us"The world is too m uch with us," by William Wordsworth, written between 1802 and 1804, is a Petrarchan sonnet lam enting the lose of nature to m odern society. It is a Petrarchan sonnet because it has fourteen lines; is written in iambic pentameter, that is five feet; written in iambs;a unstressed followed by a stressed syllable. It begins with two quatrains in the octave, first eight lines, rhym ing ABBAABBA; the sestet, final six lines, rhym es CDCDCD; it has a volta in line eight; and the them e is about nature.Wordsworth intended to highlight the fact that we receive nature in its abundance but see very little, and have given our hearts away. We need to get up and pay attention because we are out of tune with nature. "Great God," how could we do such a thing. Wordsworth highlights that information be subtly varying the m eter. As well, the poet symbolizes nature in the past by suggesting he would rather be "A Pagan," which is pre-Christian. Nature itself is sym bolized in Proteus and Triton. Proteus is the shape-changing herdsman of the sea; Triton, usually depicted blowing a conch shell, is a sea deity. As with m uch of Wordsworth's work, he sees deity in nature.Although this sonnet is written in iam bic pentameter, it does have eight variations. The variations are purposeful; to obtain the attention of the reader. In this case, the variations are in line two, the word"Getting" is a trochee; a stressed and unstressed syllable; line three, the word "Little" is a trochee; a stressed and unstressed syllable; line four, the word "given" is a trochee; a stressed and unstressed syllable; line seven, the phrase "And are up" is an anapest; an unstressed, unstressed and stressed syllable; line eight, the words "we are" and "out of" represent two trochees; a stressed and unstressed syllable, and "tune" is a single spondee; a single stressed syllable; line nine "Great God" is a spondee; a stressed and stressed syllable.Work Cited:"The Longm an Anthology of British Literature, Fourth Edition," Damrosch, David, and Kevin J.H. Dettmar, General Editors, Volum e 2A, "The Rom antics and their Contem poraries," Wolfson, Susan and Peter Manning, Long Man, New York, New York, 2010.She Walks in Beauty"She Walks in Beauty" is one Byron’s m ost fam ous works. It was published in 1815 as a part of his volum e Hebrew Melodies which was set to m usic [5]. The poem was inspired by actual events in Byron’s life. Once while at a ball Byron happened upon a beautiful wom an as she walked by. That wom an was Byron’s cousin by m arriage, Mrs. John Wilm ot, and the next m orning the poem was written [6].She was in m ourning, wearing a black dress set with spangles, which would explain the opening lines;“She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless clim es and starry skies ”However, Nathan, in his reminiscences of Byron, indicates that the subject of the poem may have been Byron's half-sister, Augusta.[7]. She walks in Beauty is considered to have been Byron’s tribute to the beauty of art [8]. The poem begins with the im age if a wom an who “walks in beauty like the night” (poem), which would lead the reader to ask how she could be found [9]. The answer to that question is answered in the next line when the speaker says that the night is cloudless and that the stars illum inate the sky, bringing into focus the im agery of light and darkness [10]. When the first line of a poem is presented with no punctuation, but is followed by a line that will clarify the previous statem ent is referred to as enjam bment, and this technique is used in the first four lines of the poem [11]. In the next few lines Byron draws attention to the word m eet; it emphasizes the contrasts in the wom an being described; the im agery presented in the first two lines reappears in these lines, and the contrast of light and dark makes another appearance [12].The light and dark appear in her face and in her eyes. Her face contains light alabaster skin, yet has dark hair, and her eyes are dark in the iris in contrast with the white of her eye. This repeat of the contrast between light and dark reinforces the imagery introduced in the beginning of the poem [13]. The poem goes on to say that if she were to have even one bit m ore light or less dark she would not be ruined but she would be only “half im pair’d” [14]. As the poem begins to end Byron speaks of the woman’s inner thoughts and how they are all good, which serves to convey t he wom an as pure , m aking her all the m ore beautiful [15].The reference to her angelic looks gives a。