• A part of the transition between Transcendentalism and Realism
• The father of free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.
Although free verse requires no meter, rhyme, or other traditional poetic techniques, a poet can still utilize them to create some sense of structure. For example, Walt Whitman repeats certain phrases and uses commas to create both a rhythm and structure. • Contribution
1. He believes the American poets would create both new forms and new subjects matter for poetry.
2. In terms of poetic form, he advocated a completely new and completely American
form of expression----free verse.
3. In terms of contents, most of his poems are about man and nature, especially
common people and ordinary Americans. He wanted his poetry to be for the common people
• Features of Whitman’s poetry 1. The use of a certain pronoun ―I‖ 2. Two principles
A. Parallelism or a rhyme of thought
B. Phonetic recurrence ( the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of the
line, in the middle or at the end) 3. The adopt of ―free verse‖---poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme 4. The use of colorful words and vivid images (example) • Major works Leaves of Grass Song of Myself I hear America Singing
2. 草叶集
课文中出现的 ONE’S-SELF I SING, Among the Multitude, When I Peruse the Conquer’d Fame, A Noiseless Patient Spider 都是出自草叶集。 Leaves of Grass: A collection of Whitman‘s poems and his lifelong achievement
Whitman experimented in his works with new poetic form of free verse and oral lg. Thus, Leaves of Grass has become landmark in American literary history, which represents the poet, the people, and the nation in the 19th America and celebrates the future of the nation and the ideals of equality, democracy, dignity, self-reliant spirit and joy of common people.
It marked the birth of truly American poetry, which changed Whitman from a conventional, undistinguished man into one of American‘s greatest and most original poets. It has attained almost universal acceptance as America‘s greatest book of poems. It has been praised as ―Democratic Bible‖(共和圣经) and as American Epic. The most famous pieces are: Song of myself, there was a child went fort, etc.
3. 赏析
ONE’S-SELF I SING 当时他对处于上升阶段的资本主义美国充满信心, 对美国的民主抱有幻想。他所体现的主旨和基本内容就是―个性‖和―自我‖。诗人认为一切之―中心‖的个性及其代表者就是―我自己‖, 是像―草叶‖一样平凡的人和事物。诗人一方面把自己描写成为一个普通的美国人, 另一方面又赋予自己超人的能力。选自草叶集，主题中心思想参照草叶集即可
Alliteration 头韵(simple & separate; passion & pulse & power; free & form‘d)
Phonetic recurrence 重复(―I sing‖四次; ―alone‖两次; ―of‖两次; ―worthy‖和―worthier‖) 突出主题的关键词的头一个字母大写 (Self; Democratic; En-masse; Form; Female; Male;
Life; Modern Man)
翻译：
我歌唱人本身
我歌唱人本身, 一个独特的、纯粹的人,
不过要说出―民主的”这个词, 道出“大众”这个词的声音。
我全心全意地歌唱人的生成,
不仅容貌, 不仅头脑, 而整个形体更值得歌颂。 我歌唱男性, 同样也歌唱女性。
我歌唱现代的人,
那饱含激情、生命旺盛和活力无限的巨大生命, 快乐地采取天赋权利的自由行动。
I Hear America Singing A: Diction (the choice and use of words in literature)
Nouns such as: mechanics, mason, work, deckhand, shoemaker, hatter, woodcutter, ploughboy, and mother. ---- Images of the working class society
Verbs: measure, make, singing, sit, stand, sewing, washing ---- a moving picture of people performing their different jobs
B: Main idea
It presents the picture of the Americans who from all occupations are singing for their cheerful and creative work and their dream through out American. Themes:
An eulogy (颂词) to thriving American nation, the laboring people, the poet‘s optimistic attitude toward the world and life. C: Tone
Cheerful, happy, optimistic
D: Language
Simple and even rather crude; Have a tendency to oral English
E: Parallelism and phonetic recurrence
Edwin Arlington Robinson (1860-1935) 1. 简介
Edwin Arlington Robinson was regarded as the leading American poet-the equal of Frost and Stevens. Robinson was a major poet and a pivotal figure in the course of modern American literature.
Edwin Arlington Robinson was a poet of transition. He lived at the time following the Civil War when America was rebuilding and changing rapidly and when the dominant values of the country seemed to be growing increasingly materialistic. Robinson's poetry was transitional, evaluating the present by using traditional forms and by including elements of transcendentalism and puritanism.
He was the first to write about ordinary people and events-an honest butcher consumed by grief, a miser with \"eyes like little dollars in the dark,\" ancient clerks in a dry goods store measuring out their days like bolts of cloth. In simple yet powerful rhetoric, he explored the interior worlds of the people around him.
Major Themes： Historical Perspectives, and Personal Issues
1. God is no longer caring.
2. Men suffer from frustrations and want of mutual understanding.
3. Life is in general futile and meaningless.
4. By demonstrating the tragic vision in step with the modern spirit, he suggests
a despairing courage to seek out the meaning of life. 悲观下的执着
Robinson is a \"people poet,\" writing almost exclusively about individuals or individual relationships rather than on more common themes of the nineteenth century. He exhibits a curious mixture of irony and compassion toward his subjects--most of whom are failures--that allows him to be called a romantic existentialist.
Significant Form, Style, or Artistic Conventions：
Although Robinson's subject matter and philosophical stance differ markedly from that of his predecessors', his form is unremittingly traditional. He considered movies, prohibition, and free verse \"a triumvirate from hell,\" and said that if free verse were as easy to write as it was difficult to read, he was not surprised there was so much of it.
Some comments
pessimistic philosophy and a pessimistic poet Realistic view
Story-telling method
Simplicity of style and language
Intricacy and subtlety of thought
Style
1. Realistic point of view 2. simple and plain depiction 3. intricate and subtle thought
2.赏析 Miniver Cheevy \"Miniver Cheevy\" is marked by a broad, hyperbolic humor. The character that the poem displays is a figure of fun. However, the humor is wry; we can laugh at the drunkard who drinks to escape, only as long as we ignore his plight. There is more than a him of self-portraiture in Miniver's deluded enchantment with a past that never was. The poem suggests, in a comic way, what Eugene O'Neill portrays in The Iceman Cometh; the survival value for the unsuccessful of delusion plus drink; for those who, like Cory, face up to the truth of things, a bullet may be inevitable.
他早期有许多诗，写孤独、任性、无所适从、缺乏安全感的人，行文极其细致，有时能够恰如其分地获得新英格兰那种淳朴口语的真趣。这样的诗如《艾萨克与阿奇博尔德》('Isaac and Archibald')，《米尼弗·契维》('Miniver Cheevy')，《爱罗斯·特兰诺斯》('Eros Turannos')和《弗洛德先生的酒会》('Mr. Flood's Party')表现了机智和问题的关键，蕴藏著对於\"徒然\"的深切领悟。他显示了人类的处境表面尽管光润，其实复杂而乏味。甚至在《米尼弗·契维》里(从某些方面看，这是一首滑稽诗)——
米尼弗爱上了梅迪奇家里的人， 虽然他从来没有看见过一个； 如果他能够做其中一个， 他大概会不断犯罪。
即使在这里，最后的调子也是失败的调子∶
米尼弗·契维，出生过迟 抓抓头皮，继续思维；
米尼弗咳了一声，说一切是命， 喝得他大醉酩酊。
Richard Cory This poem is basically an extended description of a man, a very rich, gentle, clean, and successful man, named Richard Cory.
Cory’s social standing, in the narrator’s eyes, Cory continues to be the perfect, polite gentleman, as he was “always human when he talked.” Cory was certainly not the picture of a snobbish or rude man. Cory was also a very popular fellow, as he “fluttered pulses” with a simple “Good-morning”. Add that he “glittered when he walked”, and Cory is an impressive social figure indeed. The poem doesn’t tell the readers why Richard Cory dies the way he dies. It is anybody’s guess. The poem is thus also an illustration of Robinson’s fascination with “psychological enigmas”(解谜)， enigmas that were the product of modern life.
Theme:
1.Wealth and Poverty
The poem’s last line is pivotal and surprising because Richard Cory is powerful and in control, and such a man would seem to have no reason to kill himself. The reason his wealth is important is that it is thought to have made him a better person than most other people.
With Cory’s suicide, it becomes clear that happiness has escaped him. Because he had material success, everyone just assumed he had attained a spiritual peace and emotional fulfillment. They misjudged him because of superficial appearances. Like the narrator, readers are left wondering what money really buys, other than material goods. It turns out that the rich are afflicted with the same despair and spiritual bankruptcy as the rest of the population.
2. Success and Failure
As this poem shows, success is relative. Richard Cory evidently was not satisfied with what he had accomplished in his life. Many people admired him and envied his life. The “light” in the 9th line is a mixture of the actual means to pay for gas or electric lighting, of enlightenment, and of God’s grace. The people want some sort of approval that would let them feel that they are not failures, that their lives had attained some level of success. However, with the suicide of Richard Cory, they are completely at a loss, not knowing the differences between success and failure.
Style
“Richard Cory” is a dramatic monologue, meaning that the speaker is assumed to be speaking to an audience. It is divided into four stanzas of four lines. Each line is in iambic pentameter.
The rhyme scheme for “Richard Cory” is abab cdcd efef ghgh. This scheme with the last two lines repeating the rhythmical and rhyme pattern of the first two lines
creates balance between these pairs of lines, which Robinson uses effectively to give a sense of control to the poem’s tone.
William Carlos Williams 1.简介
Williams was a devoted, practicing physician during most of his literary career, and much of his work demonstrates his respect and concern for his patients and their life situations. The poverty, suffering, and means of survival among the ordinary, poor people of his native New Jersey inform most of Williams‘ short fiction. His term for the vernacular language is essential to shaping his vision of the American experience. Unconventional in form and episodic(插话式的) in construction, his realistic, and sometimes graphic, stories often juxtapose（并列，并置） vivid imaged from life to convey their messages. Although Williams wrote a significant amount of prose, his poetry is his marking point. He experimented with many different styles, including terza rima（[,tɛə:tsə‘ri:mə]三行体诗） and free verse. Stylistically, Williams preferred the line over the sentence. Williams was also influenced by many \"-isms,\" two which effected him greatly are dadaism （达达主义：崇尚虚无的艺术派别）and cubism（立体主义）. He was a major writer in the modernist movement, helping to create a clear American voice.
In his work, he wished to speak like an American within an American context of small cities, immigrants, and workers. He wanted his poetic line to reflect the rhythm of everyday speech and drew his subject matter from ordinary surroundings -- a painting, a red wheelbarrow, a dish of plums.
Poetic ideas
Poetry was, for Williams, a crucial and necessary – yet something ignored – means of communicating. Williams’s ideas were basically humanistic respect yourself and others, love those you can, and try to make the world a better place. One quality that Williams admired greatly was persistence. He loved old people who kept their vigorous response to life, just as he admired artists who kept improving and perfecting their work.
Four qualities for new poetry:
1. The use of commonplace subjects and themes. The poet must write about things
people can respond to, things people have seen and know. Otherwise, literature stands separate from its readers.
2. The poet’s duty to write about real events or objects in a language that all people could understand, with an ear for the way people actually speak. 3. Specificity. Williams objects to traditional poetry that talked in generalities,
such as poems that treated love, death, anger, and friendship as abstractions
rather than as real things.
4. Made the point by focusing attention on concrete reality. Also, Williams paid
attention to simple objects, like the read wheel barrows, that other poet ignored, and he found poetic qualities in these everyday objects.
2. 赏析
The Red Wheelbarrow
It is a poem by and often considered the masterwork of American 20th-century writer William Carlos Williams. The 1923 poem exemplifies the Imagist-influenced philosophy of “no ideas but in things”. This provides another layer of meaning beneath the surface reading. The style of the poem forgoes摒弃 traditional British stress patterns to create a typical “American” image.
The subject matter of The Red Wheelbarrow is what makes it the most distinctive and important. He lifts a brazier to an artistic level, exemplifying the importance of the ordinary; as he says, a poem “must be real, not 'realism', but reality itself.\" In this way, it holds more in common with the haiku of Bashō(松尾 芭蕉) than with the verse of T. S. Eliot. The Red Wheelbarrow So much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens
Much attention has been given to the word ―glazed‖ in the fifth line of the poem. It is the only word in the poem that can be said to carry an aesthetic meaning. This word is ―the real agent of the poem‗s efficacy‖, because it transforms the wheelbarrow into an object of aesthetic contemplation.
注： The Young Housewife 找不到赏析
红色手推车 那么多东西 依靠① 一辆红色 手推车② 雨水淋得它 晶亮③ 旁边是一群 白鸡④ 注释:
① “那么多东西”这个意象和漫无边际的雨水相对应，正如“红色手推车”与作者所在的房屋相对应。
② 这首诗的色彩丰富，像一幅水彩画。其中红色是主调，白色是映衬。 ③ “晶亮”也是一种颜色，是一种可由读者自由想象的颜色。 ④ 设想一下这辆手推车是一个轮子的，它摇晃着前行的样子，与小鸡的步态十分相似。 旁白:
一．这首诗的场景是在雨中，每一节的第一行和第二行之间的折断（注意到第二行更短促一些）令人想起了“雨滴”。
二．威廉斯后来曾谈到，写这首诗歌的时候，他坐在一个生病的儿童旁边，这个孩子正抬头望着窗外。这一点对我们理解这首诗应该有所帮助。
三．这首诗并没有什么暗示或象征，它只是一幅清新、具体的画面。它告诉我们，一首诗有时可以纯粹表达喜悦和美，而不要任何深刻的含意。
Wallace Stevens 1. 简介
Wallace Stevens is one of America's most respected poets. He was a master stylist, employing an extraordinary vocabulary and a rigorous precision in crafting his poems. But he was also a philosopher of aesthetics, vigorously exploring the notion of poetry as the supreme fusion of the creative imagination and objective reality.
In Stevens‘ view, the world outside is inevitably transformed within each person‘s mind into something apart from the real world, into something different from ―things as they are‖. Stevens’ Philosophical Thoughts and Writing Style
1. Main topic: the relationship between reality and poetry, nature and imagination 2. 2 kinds of reality:
a. The objective reality: the perceptions by the five senses
b. The subjective reality: mental world dominated by imagination (to arrange the chaotic information from the sensual perception)
3. Hedonism: the significance on the enjoyment of sensual emotions
4. Poetry of statement: an act of faith in the sense of “nothingness” in reality 5. Simple lines: an emphasis on vocabulary and imagery rather than prosody
6. The faith in poetry: when no one believes in God, it is necessary to believe in something else, such as poetry, a thing created by imagination
2. 赏析
Anecdote of the Jar: A Metaphor for Humans' Existence in Nature Actually this poem explains the relationship between art and the natural world. The jar changes how we perceive nature.
Industry and the urbanization of the American landscape had taken a stronghold by the early twentieth century. By the 1950s and 1960s, technology formed the American way of life. The union of man‘s technological inventions with an American wilderness is metaphorically represented in “Anecdote of the Jar.” The poem contains a modern pastoral theme to create an existence of ―harmony‖ surrounding man‘s attempt to order wilderness against nature‗s cyclical and incessant pattern.
Tennessee wilderness, where the narrator places the jar, is an uncorrupted but slovenly nature. Civilization, or art created by man, is composed within the jar, man's manipulation of the natural elements.
The jar of civilization when placed in unadulterated nature \"made the slovenly The wilderness surround that hill.\" It made the wilderness \"no longer wild\" and therefore inhabitable for humankind's pastoral vision.
详细赏析可见word文档“ Analysis of Wallace Stevens‘ Anecdote of the jar‖
Robert Frost 1. 简介
Nature and rural surroundings became for Frost a source for insights into deeper design of life.
Frost’s poetic theory:
He emphasized on the dramatic qualities of poetry. He believed that all poetry is essentially metaphorical. He insisted that poetry cannot be forced into being. He thought that poetry serves as a means of giving patterns to man‘s existence.
Frost’s writing features
1. Focus on mental conflicts of modern men, unlike the modern poets, they reflected the incapability, weariness, boringness, and so on. Frost does not deprive the natural color totally. He is different, giving us beautiful images about modern men and nature. 2. regional poet
a. local color, new England scenery
b. closely concerned about farmers‘ life, nature
c. wrote in a very traditional way, language is always conversational
3. philosophical poet
Frost‘s subject matter was New England life and farming, but underneath the descriptions of country life there is often a deeper and wider meaning, some experience and truth about life.
When he is expressing his thought, he is not very radical, but neutral in expressing the opinion. He is not inclined to take sides confronting paradoxes of life. He seems to be very calm and controlled. He did not stoop to answer, to explain and leave the readers to draw their own conclusion.
4. Robert Frost‘s achievement in poetic form is his combination of the traditional verse pattern and a colloquial distinctive language.
His language is free from the old-fashioned poetical words. It is the speech of New England speakers. The incorporation of the traditional form and regional colloquial language makes a fresh voice of his poems and is characteristic of his poetry.
5. Frost's poems show deep appreciation of natural world and sensibility about the human aspirations.
His images - woods, stars, houses, brooks, - are usually taken from everyday life. With his down-to-earth approach to his subjects, readers found it is easy to follow the poet into deeper truths, without being burdened with pedantry.
Often Frost used the rhythms and vocabulary of ordinary speech or even the looser free verse of dialogue.
2. 赏析
Fire and Ice Fire—desire
Ice—hate 详细赏析请见word文档 “Fire and Ice 的解析”
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening The analogy between
the specific experience of the rural traveler
the general experience of any individual whose life is so frequently described as a
journey; a journey including pleasures and hardships, duties and distances.
Theme of the poem:
The poem is primarily oriented towards the pleasures of the scene and the responsibility of life. Metaphors:
Promises – Our own promises or duties that we must fulfill. Miles - experience we must travel through before death Sleep - death
Interlocking enclosed rhyme (连锁韵，交错用韵)
The first stanza rhymes in ―aaba‖ and ―b‖ becomes the new repeated end rhymes in the second stanza. That makes stanza 2 rhyming in ―bbcb‖. Similarly, the third stanza rhymes in ―ccbc‖, whereas the very last stanza rhymes in a consistent ―d‖ which brings the poem to a harmonious end.
The road not taken 翻译：黄叶林中分出两条小路，
可惜我一人不能同时涉足， 我在路口伫立良久，
向着其中一条翘首极目， 直到它消失在丛林深处。 但我选择了另一条路， 芳草待踏，分外幽寂 同样显得诱人、美丽，
虽然这两条路是如此相似， 都几乎没有旅人的足迹。
那天清晨落叶满地，
两条都是未经脚步践踏的小径， 呵，留下一条路等下次再走 但我知道路径延绵没有尽头， 恐怕一走就再难回首。 也许多年后在某地， 我回首往事轻声叹息，
两条道路分散在树林里—— 而我选择的那条更少人迹，
从此决定了我人生的迥异。
Themes :
无限美景在险峰
世上本没有路，走的人多了变成了路。 路漫漫其修远兮，吾将上下而求索。
―人，最宝贵的是生命。生命对每个人只有一次。这仅有的一次生命应当怎样度过呢？每当回忆往事的时候，能够不为虚度年华而悔恨，不因碌碌无为而羞耻；在临死的时候，他能够说：‗我的整个生命和全部精力，都已经献给了世界上最壮丽的事业为人类解放而进行的斗争.‖
Frost replied: \"It was my rather private jest（笑话） at the expense of those who might think I would yet live to be sorry for the way I had taken in life.\"
Understanding:
Realistic nature description
Portrayal of basic qualities of human nature.
Structure :
each has a rhyme scheme of abaab
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