英国文学选读复习

英国文学选读

Poetry

1,Shelley Ode to the W est Wind 《西风颂》雪莱

Shelley has a reputation as a difficult poet: erudite, imagistically complex, full of classical and mythological allusions. His style abounds in personification and metaphor and other figures of speech.。

Ode: an elaborately formal lyric poem, often in the form of a lengthy ceremonious address to a person or abstract entity, always serious and elevated in tone.

One of Shelley's most celebrated works, it was written by Shelley on a day when the weather was unpredictable and windy, the poem reflects the mood of the weather and expresses Shelley‟s desire for creativeness and intellect.

This poem reveals Shelley‟s view of life. The power and the cycle of nature are presented in a mythical way. The wind represents the revival, but just of the existing things.

In it we see Shelley fusing the airy imagery, the interplay of colour and light and shadow which are his poetic forte, with the philosophical and moral concerns that tinged his political life.

…Ode to the West Wind‟ is written in terza rima，a poetic rhyme scheme which involve interlocking rhymes,

written in iambic tercets. The rhyme scheme is aba bcb cdc ded (and so forth) for as long as the poet wishes to continue, thus the rhyme scheme is aba bcb cdc ded ee. The lines themselves are in a (not very rigorous) pentameter.

Apart from the alliteration it is also worth noting the capitalisation of West Wind in the poem. In typically Romantic fashion an abstract quality or aspect of Nature is personified and addressed in the poem, such that it appears divine or god-like, or as an expression of the divine entity.

Overall Analysis

The "West Wind" and Shelley himself are the main characters of the ode. The "West Wind" represents liberty, the untamedness of nature and power for Shelley. The wind is the changing part in nature, which also controls heaven and the sea. It can stand for death, but at the same time it means life.

On the one hand, the wind that Shelley discribes is simple in its function ("Destroyer and preserver"), but on the other hand it is a mystical thing. Its power and its position in nature can only be compared with the function of a god. The wind decides on life and death.

Shelley sees the wind as a chance to get a new inspiration and to transmit his ideas and "prophecy".

2,William Wordsworth

the “Lake Poets”: Wordsworth, Southey and Coleridge

In 1843, Wordsworth succeeded Southey as Poet Laureate

Major features of Lyrical Ballads:《抒情诗集》