On English Poetry 英语论文.doc

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1、On English Poetry 1. 1. Poetry and Versification2. 2. A Brief History of the English Poetry3. 3. Basic Poetic Concepts4. 4. Application and Exemplification of these Concepts1. 1. Poetry and VersificationAny composition in a certain language can be generally classified into two families, namely prose

2、 and poetry (or verse). Both have rhythm. But the rhythm of prose tends towards variety, and that of poetry toward regularity. However, theres no definite dividing line.Its quite hard to give an accurate definition of poetry. Everyone could have his own standard for judging what belongs to poetry. I

3、n this light, it would be a good idea to introduce a vague and empirical definition rather than a precise and scientific one. Here I make bold to adopt the famous saying concerning western poetry by Clement Wood, a contemporary poet and rhetorician-Occidental Poetry, in its usual form, is the expres

4、sion of thoughts which awake the higher and nobler emotions or their opposites, in words whose rhythm tends towards uniformity or regularity, rather than towards variety.Poetry proceeded prose in the history. As writing was unknown to early man, poetry was far better adapted to be retained in the mi

5、nd. However, rigidity is always a concomitant with regularity. So when men were able to write, prose began to prevail over poetry, for there was no need for men to learn all by heart. Anyway poetry, as the most concentrated and emotional expression of the soul of man, still should have its place in

6、the lyric outbursts, the songs, of man.2. 2. A Brief History of the English PoetryThough girdled by waters, the British islands are far away from tranquility and peacefulness. On the contrary they saw even more migrations and devastations than their continental counterparts.a. The Anglo-Saxon Period

7、The British islands were originally inhabited by the Celts and were annexed to the Roman Empire, when the Roman Empire reached its fullest sway at around the beginning of our calendar.In the fourth and fifth century three powerful Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes brought their native di

8、alect of ancient German into the islands after they had conquered Britain. Several centuries later, Latin was re-introduced to Britain with the Christianizing of the islands. Though well focus mainly on Modern Standard English (MSE) poetry (at most dating back to late Middle English, whose represent

9、atives are Chaucer and Shakespeare), I still think its quite conducive to take a brief look at the evolution of the English poems from its very beginning.Without any doubt, the long epic of Beowulf is one of the earliest extant Anglo-Saxon poems in Ancient English. The 3182-line poem describes the d

10、eeds of the Scandinavian heroes building and defending a magnificent mead hall against the monster Grendel and his witch mother. A section of the original text is given here:Him Scyld ewt to phwleFelahrr feran on Fran wre;H hine tbron t brimes faroe,swse esas, sw h selfa bd,enden wordum wold wine Sc

11、yldinga-lof landruma lange hte.Translation:Then Scyld departed at the fated time, the very strong man, to go into the keeping of the Lord; they then bore him to the seas current, dear companions, as he himself bade, when the friendly lord of the Scyldings wielded words-the dear lands prince ruled lo

12、ng.b. The Anglo-Norman PeriodIn 1066, an event of ever so great consequences happened to Britain. William, Duke of Normandy, made his famous Norman Conquest over Britain. Shortly after that, French became the sole official language in Britain. But in about the 14th and 15th century French and Englis

13、h began to permeate into each other and finally got integrated. This period is termed Anglo-Norman. And an epitome of poetry in that period (in Southern Middle English dialect) is given below:Al so u dost on ire side:Vor wanne snou li iche & wide,an alle wites habbeu singest from eve for amore,Ac ic

14、h alle blisse mid me bringe:Ech wit is glad for mine inge,& blisse hit wanne ich cume,& hite aen mine kume.The Owl and the Nightingale, c. 1195Translation:All so thou dost behave on thy side: for when snow lies thick and wide, and all wights have sorrow, thou singest from evening until morning. But

15、I bring all happiness with me: each wight is glad for my quality and rejoices when I come and hopes for my coming.c. The Contemporary and Modern PeriodI think its time for us to stop indulging ourselves in the charming, though somewhat peculiar, world of ancient and middle English poetry, for well s

16、oon encounter Geoffrey Chaucer, who is reputed to be the Father of (modern) English Poetry. In contradiction to the alliterative verse of the Anglo-Saxon poetry, Chaucer chose the metrical form, which laid the foundation of the English tonico-syllabic verse.Then came a time of transitions, namely th

17、e Renaissance (14th to 16th century) and the Industrial Revolution (17th to 18th century). With the emancipation of mans thoughts made possible by the previous, followed by the upheaval in industrial efficiency effected by the latter, an outburst of poetic inspiration welled out of the long secular

18、and parochial inner world of the English people. Here we can find Williams Shakespeare (the almost consecrated one), John Milton (a radical, iconoclast and the author of Paradise Lost), Thomas Gray (the pioneer of the melancholy poetry and the author of Elegy) and William Blake (a mystic and transce

19、ndental artist and a pre-romanticist).As the bourgeoisie fought their way through to the ascendancy in Britain, which was then the Workshop of the World, a new type of conflict came into existence, namely proletariats versus bourgeoisie. Under the spirit of pursuing Liberty, Equality and Fraternity,

20、 which was first initiated in the French Revolution (1789), the enlightened English people started and never stopped demanding reform for many years to come. It was amid these social conflicts that Romanticism arose as a main literary trend, which prevailed in England during 1798 to 1832. This perio

21、d features William Wordsworth, George Gordon Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and Walter Scott, which destined the first half of the 19th century as an age of poetry.With the crush of the Spanish Armada, the British Empire, under the reign of Queen Victoria, succeeded in exercising its s

22、upremacy over the whole world. At the same time, as the class conflicts embitters, realism, particularly in novel and drama, began to flourish. Anyway, this period still presents us with some of the greatest English poets, such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning.When the wheel of time turned t

23、o the 20th century, quite to our dismay, the poetry seemed to be forgotten by the literateurs. Its hard for us to pick out a few equals to their predecessors in poetry. Well, lets just take it easy and let our offspring tell us which poets and poems are to be remembered for good and all.3. 3. Basic

24、Poetic Concepts (in Modern English poetry)a. a. RhythmRhythm is the emphasis structure of successive sounds. It may be defined as-The successive rise and fall of sounds, in pitch, stress, or speed; when used of words, depending on accents, pauses, or durational quantities.Modern poetry written in En

25、glish must be in words whose rhythm, based upon accent, tends towards uniformity. Moreover it did not necessarily feature certain form of line division.Please note it is the accent or the rise and fall of a sentence that constitute the basis of rhythm, NOT the relative time taken to pronounce a cert

26、ain vowel. b. b. Rhyme and AlliterationRhyme is the identity in sound of an accented vowel in a word, usually the last one accented, and of all consonantal and vowel sounds following it; with a difference in the sound of the consonant immediately preceding the accented vowel.Rhyme deals exclusively

27、with sounds and has nothing to do with spelling.Alliteration, like rhyme, is a repetition of sounds. But the sound repeated is only the initial consonant of syllables or words. This was one of the major devices of Anglo-Saxon poetry.c. c. Stanza PatternsA single line of poetry is called, technically

28、, a verse of poetry. A series of lines arranged formally as a part of a poem is called stanza. Stanza forms may be rigid, with a fixed order of sequence as to line length, meter, or rhyme; or they may be mere divisions of a poem, corresponding to the paragraphs of prose.d. d. Divisions of PoetryIn n

29、arrative poetry, the poet tells us a story as if he had been a spectator, but not a participant, in the events. In dramatic poetry, the poet lets the characters of the story speak their own words. In lyric poetry, the poet speaks his own moods, thoughts and aspirations.One last word, therere no abso

30、lute rules in composing a poem. Anything is acceptable, so long as it appeals to our inner ear and complies with our aesthetic values. Here Ill list some of the poetic conventions, which have stood the test of time.4. 4. Application and Exemplification of these Conceptsa. a. Rhythm (cf. 3.a)Lets fir

31、st introduce the concept of Meter, which is a convenient tool of analyzing a verse.Meter is a comparatively regular rhythm in verse or poetry. And a foot is a unit of poetic meter consisting of stressed and unstressed syllables in any of various set combinations. Therere four common metric feet used

32、 in English (the first four) and some varying forms (rare or never)-Name of footScansionDescriptionExamplePronunciationIamb- /Unaccent-accentDelightta-TUMTrochee/ -Accent-unaccentGoingTUM-taAnapest- - /Unaccent-unaccent-accentAppertainta-ta-TUMDactyl/ - -Accent-unaccent-unaccentMerrilyTUM-ta-taSpond

35、 / - - / - - - / - / -The slings | and arrows | of outrageous | fortune - / - / - - - / - / -Hamlet, William Shakespeare.b. b. Rhyme (cf. 3.b)Correct rhymes may be spelled alike: Ate, plate, mate, abate, syncopateThey may be spelled differently:Ate, bait ,straight, freight Dont rely on eye rhymes. E

36、arth and hearth is a pair of incorrect rhyme. They are just consonance.Identities do not rhyme, no matter what the spelling; since the preceding consonants sounds must differ. The following are identities, and not rhymes:Bay, obeyBare, bear, forbearLaying, overlaying.Sounds almost alike, after the i

37、dentical accented vowel sounds, do not rhyme. These are properly called assonance, e.g. Main, game, reins, lamed Hate, shape, playedc. c. Stanza Pattern (cf. 3.c)(1) CoupletThe Simplest stanza is one of two lines, called a couplet. The word couplet is used to mean either a two-line poem or a two-lin

38、e stanza, which is a part of a poem. It also holds true for triplets or tercets and so on. Theres only one rhyming way herein, that is each line must should be followed immediately by its rhyming mate.By the way, five-foot iambic lines rhymed couplet fashion are called heroic couplets.(2)Triplet or

39、TercetA group of three lines, whether a complete poem or a stanza, is called a triplet, or tercet. Example:A still small voice spake unto me,1“Life is so full of misery,1Were it not better not to be?”1The Two Voices, Alfred TennysonIt is clear that with three lines to work from, the lines in such a

40、group might be rhymed 1, 1, 2; or 1, 2, 2; or 1, 2, 1. In the case of groups of triplet stanzas, the rhymes my be interlocked:Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:1What if my leaves are falling like its own!2The tumult of thy mighty harmonies1Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,2Sweet though

41、 in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,3My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!2Drive my dead thoughts over the universe3Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!4And, by the incantation of this verse,3Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth4Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!5Be through my li

42、ps to unawakened earth 4The trumpet of a prophecy! O wind,5If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?5Ode to the West Wind, Percy Bysshe Shelley(3)QuatrainA quatrain is a stanza or poem of four lines. This is the most popular brief stanza in English versification, and has a variety of familiar rhyme

43、 schemes. Ordinary ballad meter was originally seven-foot rhymed couplet. But they are normally printed today in this way:As Robin Hood in the forest strayed1 All under the greenwood tree, 2He was aware of a brave young man, 3 As fine as fine might be.2Almost as popular is the quatrain rhymed on alt

44、ernate lines:A violet by a mossy stone1 Half-hidden from the eye!2-Fair as a star, when only one1 Is shining in the sky.2 The Lost Love, William WordsworthAnd quatrains may be rhyme couplet-wise, that is 1, 1, 2, 2. Moreover 1, 2, 2, 1 or1, 1, 2, 1 and many other variations (almost all, though some

45、are virtually rare) are allowed.Of course, there are poems or stanzas consisting of well more than four lines. As the variations become exponentially complicated, I suggest we stop here and give a little intention to indentation.Indenting a line means sinking it inward by an increased bland space in

46、 the left-hand margin.The purpose of doing this is primarily to indicate the rhyme scheme.The second purpose of indentation is to center short lines in the central portion of the poem, instead of leaving them dangling off to the left.Please remember an improper indentation may be regarded as a sign of illiteracy.Reference and Bibliography:The Complete Rhyming Dictionary, Clement WoodHistory and Anthology of English Literature (Vol. I & II), Wu WeirenThe History of English, A. C. Baugh and T. CableBeowulf and other Old English Poems, C. B. HieattPostsc

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