English Poetry:Tradition and Modernism

Lin Yupeng

May,2004

•

I Traditional English Poetry

II Modern English Poetry

III Reading Modern English Poetry

She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to

praise And very few to love. ----William Wordsworth(1770-1850)

她住在僻壤穷乡， 鸽泉之畔； 妙龄少女，何人赞扬， 谁人相伴？（谭天健等译）

I Traditional English Poetry

• 1 content of poetry

• 2 elements of poetry

• 3 metrical features of poetry

• 4 examples

1 content of poetry(themes)

• nature, life,death, belief, time, youth, beauty; • love, feelings of different kinds ;• reason(wisdom);

moral lesson/morality, moralizing, affirms established values;

• meaning fixed, one-dimensional, value orientation clear.

2  elements of poetry:

1) elements peculiar/essential to poetry: meter, rhyme, sound( assonance, consonance,

alliteration), form of poetry 2)  elements important to poetry: imagery, symbols, metaphor, simile,

diction(connotative)

3) other elements: tone, style, character, setting, point of view, allusion etc.

   3   metrical features of English poetry(I):

• 1 ） meter （ 格 律 ） : regularized rhythm ; an arrangement of language in which the accents occur at apparently equal intervals in time

• 2 ） rhyme （韵） : repetition at regular intervals in a line or lines of poetry of similar or identical sounds based on a correspondence between the vowels and succeeding consonants or accented syllables;

3 metrical features(II)

• 3 ） rhyme scheme （ 韵 律 结 构 ） any fixed pattern of rhymes charactering a whole poem or its stanzas

• 4) forms of poetry: ballad, heroic couplet, sonnet, blank verse

• (cf free verse)

metrical features(III):foot

• 5 ） foot （音步） : the basic metrical or rhythmical unit within a line of poetry. A foot of poetry generally consists of an accented syllable and one or more unaccented syllables arranged in a variety of patterns. The four standard feet distinguished in English poetry are:

Some patterns of feet (I)• a)  iamb(iambic)( 抑 扬 格 ) ， eg to

´day

• b) trochee(trochaic)( 扬 抑 格 ),eg ´morning

• c) anapest(anapestic)( 抑 抑 扬 格 ) eg on the ´top

Some patterns of feet(II)• d)  dactyl(dactylic)( 扬 抑 抑 格 ) eg

´evening

• e)  spondee(spondaic) and pyrrhic(pyrrhic)

• iambic tetrameter （抑扬格四音步） or pentameter （五音步）

• (Note: In English usually one-syllable content words are stressed while one-syllable structure words are not stressed.)

She dwelt ︳ among ︳ the untro ︳ dden ways (a)Beside ︳ the springs ︳ of Dove, （ b ）A Maid│wh om there ︳ were none ︳ to praise （ a ）And ve ︳ ry few ︳ to love. （ b ）

balladThe 1st and 3rd lines are in iambic tetrameter the 2rd and 4th lines are in iambic trimeter;Rhyme scheme: a b a b

She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that's best of dark and brightMeet in her aspect and her eyes:Thus mellowed to that tender lightWhich heaven to gaudy day denies. ----George Gordon, Lord Byron(1788-1824)

2 ） b ）她走在美的光华中，像夜空清澈无云，星光万点；最美的明暗色泽会聚于她的明眸玉颜，交融成柔美的光线，不似那耀眼的白天。（谭天健等译）

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? （ a ）Thou art more lovely and more temperate. （ b ）Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. （ a ）And summer's lease hath all too short a date. （ b ）Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, （ c ）And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; （ d ）And every fair from fair sometime declines, （ c ）By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; （ d ）But thy eternal summer shall not fade （ e ）Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st. （ f ）Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade （ e ）When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. （ f ）So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, （ g ）So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. （ g ）----William Shakespeare(1564-1616)

能不能让我来把你比拟作夏日？你可是更加温和，更加可爱：狂风会吹落五月里开的好花儿，夏季的生命又未免结束得太快：有时候苍天的巨眼照得太灼热，他那金彩的脸色也会被遮暗；每一样美呀，总会离开美而凋落，被时机或者自然的代谢所摧残；但是你永久的夏天决不会凋枯，你永远不会失去你美的仪态；死神夸不着你在他的影子里踯躅，你将在不朽的诗中与时间同在；只要人类在呼吸，眼睛看得见，我这诗就活着，使你的生命绵延。（屠岸译）

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,The plowman homeward plods his weary way,And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

----Thomas Gray(1716-1771):Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

晚钟殷殷响，夕阳已西沉。群牛哞叫归，迂回走草径。农夫荷锄归，倦倦回家门。唯我立旷野，独自对黄昏。（丰华瞻译）

II Modern English Poetry

• 1 Content/themes(to be continued):

• sense of loss, frustration, alienation; • doubts and uncertainty about the established values,

the world and nature; • irrational elements, • defiance of conventions

•

•

Content/themes(continued)

• meaning open, multi-dimensional, deliberate ambiguity, possible of different interpretations; challenge the established values, frankness about some taboo subjects( sex , private feelings , personal experience);

• inclusion of the commonplace and the ugly;• not concerned about moralizing, value orientation

vague;

2 form and techniques

  1) no regular meter and rhyme,  free verse with highly flexible rhythm, language of common speech;

2) experiments (innovations) with language; diversity and multiplicity of language;language itself becomes the attention of the poem;

3) to suggest rather than state, absolute freedom in the choice of subject, symbolism etc.

Techniques

1 paradox, irony, tension are favored,

2 images of definite pictures or of intellectual and emotional complex;

3 symbols, especially personal symbols

are more common( c.f. universal symbols);

4 visual poems;

5 form of poetry :open

Demarcation line between T & M

• generally chronological:

• modern period :( 1900 / 1918--)

• but overlapping: features of modern poetry can be found in traditional poems;

• conversely, there are traditional poems in modern period.

Fire and IceSome say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I've tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire;But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction iceIs also greatAnd would suffice.

----Robert Frost(1874-1963)

Wednesday• Cracks, spills, burns , bills• Broken cups, stains, wrong numbers, missing trains• You're doing it on purpose, aren't you• Try it on• To see how far you can go• I swear to you• If the phone rings again• When I am in the bath• I'll pull it out• And ram it down your throat.(Lewis Mancha)

     Resume• Razors pain you;• Rivers are damp;• Acids stain you;• And drugs cause cramp.• Guns aren't lawful;• Nooses give;• Gas smells awful;• You might as well live

• ----Dorothy Parker(1893-1967)

     In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd,

Petals on a wet,black bough.

----Ezra Pound(1885-1975)

Fainter,dimmer,stiller each moment.

Now night.(Max Weber)

Let us go then,you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherised upon a table;

----T.S.Eliot:The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock

     This Is Just To SayI have eatenthe plumsthat were inthe iceboxand whichyou were probablysavingfor breakfast forgive methey were deliciousso sweetand so cold----William Carlos Williams

3)      The Red Wheelbarrow • So much depends

• upon • a red wheel• barrow • glazed with rain• water • beside the white• chickens• ----William Carlos Williams(1883-1963)

Fog

• The fog comes• on little cat feet. • It sits looking• over harbor and city• on silent haunches• and then moves on.

• ---Carl Sandburg(1878-1967)

     We Real Cool• We real cool.We• Left school.We•  • Lurk late.We• Strike straight.We• • Sing sin.We• Thin gin.We• • Jazz June.We• Die soon.• ----Gwendolyn Brooks(b 1917)

Possible reasons

• 1 World Wars created a strong sense of pessimism;

• 2 philosophy of Nietzsche(1844—1900) and other philosophers (God is dead.);

• 3 highly industrialized society, high technology, man becomes alienated;

• 4 diversity and multiplicity of modern life;• 5 democratic ideas.

Images compared

• 1 (squirrel ) sitting like a small gray coffee pot(Humbert Wolfe)

• 2 The cripples pass like question marks(Stephen Spender).

DesignI found a dimpled spider fat and white, On a white heal-all, holding up a mothLike a white piece of rigid satin cloth—Assorted characters of death and blightMixed ready to begin the morning right,A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,And dead wings carried like a paper kite.What had that flower to do with being white,The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?What brought the kindred spider to that height,Then steered the white moth thither in the night?What but design of darkness to appall?—If design govern in a thing so small.

14         

Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm That flies in the night, In the howling storm, Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy And his dark secret love Does the life destroy.(William Blake,1757—1827) 

3)     Sunset

stinginggold swarmsupon the spiressilverchants the litanies thegreat bells are ringing with rosethe lewd fat bells and a tallwindis draggingthe seawithdream-S (e.e.cummings,1894—1962)

[ l (a ) l (a le af fa ll s) one l iness ( e. e. cummings)

As soon as April pierces to the rootThe drought of March, and bathes each

bud and shootGeoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

April is the cruelest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, T. S. Eliot: The Waste Land 

O my love’s like a red, red rose,That’s newly sprung in June;O my love’s like the melodieThat’s sweetly play’d in tune. Robert Burns: A Red, Red Rose

When we two parted In silence and tears, Half broken-hearted, To sever for years.(G. G. Byron) Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.(H.W. Longfellow: A Psalm of Life)

yes is a pleasant country: if’s wintry (my lovely) let’s open the year both is the very weather (not either) my treasure, when violets appear e. e. cummings