陶洁《美国文学选读》课后习题详解(19世纪美国诗人)【圣才出品】

第7单元19世纪美国诗人

“I Shot an Arrow”

1. Why did the speaker lose sight of his arrow and song?

Key: Because that the arrow flew so swiftly and the song was invisible and no one had so knee and strong sight to catch them, he lost sight of his arrow and song.

2. In what circumstances did he find them again?

Key: After a long, long time, he found the arrow still unbroken in an oak, and the song, from beginning to end, in the heart of a friend. They were both well-preserved after a very long time.

3. What do arrow and song stand for in this poem?

Key: Arrow and song stand for friendship, affections and true sentiments towards friends in this poem.

“A Psalm of Life”

1. What kind of person is the speaker of this poem?

Key: The speaker of the poem is an optimistic person. He loves life and is enthusiastic about life. He is encouraging and invigorative. He encourages those who encountered hardships and were suffering. He is also a doer who always acts

rather than yearns for future and makes plan for it. He knows that a person should “be up and doing, with a heart for any fate” and keep achieving and pursuing, and learning to labor and wait.

2. According to the poem, how should our lives be led to overcome the fact that each day brings us nearer to death?

Key: According the poem, “life is real, life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal.” Although we go towards death every day, it is not our destination, for the aim of life of ours is to pursue, achieve and improve ourselves. That is, “but to act, that each tomorrow / Find us farther than today.” So, we should“Be a hero in the strife” and “act in the living present!”

3. Interpret the metaphor of “Footprints on the sand of time” (line 28).

Key: “The sand of time”refers to the lifetime of a man. If a man has done nothing and achieved nothing, his whole life would be empty and worthless. There was no any “footprints”. “Footprints on the sand of time” refers a person’s traces of struggle and his ac hievement recognized by others.

“Sonnet-To Science”

1. What kind of image does science have in this poem?

Key: According to the poem, science is “the daughter of Old Time” and changes all things with its “peering eyes”. It becomes formidable adversary to

imagination and poetry, because it stops the poets’ wandering in the jeweled shies.

2. According to Poe, what will a poet do, if he is free from the bondage of science? Key: If a poet is free from the bondage of science, he will wander in the jeweled skies to seek treasure, that is, writing materials, for his poems, and have the summer dream beneath the tamarind tree so as to send his imaginations fly.

3. What might science deprive the speaker of?

Key: Science might deprive the speaker of “wandering” and “the summer dream beneath the tamarind tree”, because science, like a vulture, preys “upon the poet’s heart” and it also ruins many beautiful legends. Science explains everything in a scientific way, leaving poets no place to imagine and wander. In the end, the speaker even cannot dream under the tamarind tree.

“To Helen”

1. Why does the poet compare Helen’s beauty to “those Nicean barks of yore”? Key: Because the poet thinks that Helen is a classical beauty and “those Nicean barks of yore” implies the same kind of beauty, which is gentle, dreamy and heart-shaking.

2. What have brought the wayfaring speaker home?