美国文学作品问答题

Part III. The Literature of Romanticism

Passage 4

Once upon a midnight dreary, while i pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

"Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—

Only this, and nothing more. "

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; —vainly I had tried to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost.

1. Who is the writer of these lines?

2. What is the title of this poem from which the selection is selected?

3. Recognize the sound devices in the following lines. LI ________ L4 ________L7________ L10________

4. Describe the mood of this poem.

Answers:

1. Edgar Allan Poe

2. The Raven

3. LI—Alliteration, L4—Onomatopoeia, L7—Internal rhyme, L10—Assonance

4. A sense of melancholy over the death of a beloved beautiful young woman pervades the whole poem, the portrayal of a young man grieving for his lost Leno-re, his grief turned to madness under the steady one-word repetition of the talking bird.

Passage 5

Lo! in you brilliant window-niche

How statue-like I see thee stand,

The agate lamp within thy hand!

Ah, Psyche, from the regions which

Are Holy-Land!

1. This is the last stanza of a poem To Helen. Who wrote this poem To Heleni

2. With whom is Helen associated in Line 4 of the present stanza?

3. Who is Psyche?

Answers

1. Edgar Allan Poe

2. Psyche

3. Psyche is the goddess of the soul in Greek mythology.

To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these preachers of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.

Questions:

1. This paragraph is taken from a famous essay. What is the name of the essay?

2. Who is the author?

3. What does the author say would happen if the stars appeared one night in a thousand years?

4. Give a peculiar term to cover the author's belief.

Answers:

1. Nature

2. Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. Then, the men cannot believe and adore the God, cannot preserve there membrance of the city of God which had been shown.

4. Transcendentalism

Passage 7

Standing on the bare ground—my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space—all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.

Questions:

1. Which work is this selection taken from?

2. How do you understand the philosophical ideas in these words?

Answers:

1. Nature

2. Ralph Waldo Emerson regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature. In this connection, Emerson' s emotional experiences are exemplary in more ways than one.

3. Now this is a moment of "conversion" when one feels completely merged with the outside world, when one has completely sunk into nature and become one with it, and when the soul has gone beyond the physical limits of the body to share the omniscience of the Oversoul. In a word, the soul has completely transcended the limits of individuality and become part of the Oversoul. Emerson sees spirit pervading everywhere, not only in the soul of man, but behind nature, throughout nature.