POETRY
in the ENGLISH LANGUAGE
英语诗歌欣赏

Zhang Yang
China University of Electronic Science & Technology

Lecture 1
What Is Poetry?

The word poem comes from Greek poiçma, meaning “making”.
A poem is a complete and self-contained piece of writing in verse that is set out in lines of a particular length and uses rhythm, imagery, and often rhyme to achieve its effect.
Poetry refers to the art of writing poems or to poems collectively.
Poetry is a way of “saying.” We feel this way for two reasons: the “way of the saying” and the “nature of the said.” as for the “way of the saying,” the strongly marked rhythms, the frequent appearance of rhyme, and the figurative language may seem odd and distracting; and as for the “nature of the said,” it generally contains neither a good, suspenseful story nor obviously useful information. Poetry, in short, may seem both unnatural and irrelevant.

Thomas Nash (1567-1601)
Pamphleteer / Poet / Dramatist / Novelist
Born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, Thomas Nash was educated at the University of Cambridge. His most successful works include:
•     Pierce Penilesse His Supplication to the Devil
•     The Unfortunate Traveller; or, The Life of Jacke Wilton
•     Dido, Queen of Carthage (with Christopher Marlowe), and
•     Lenten Stuffe.
The poem Spring is taken from his play Summer’s Last Will and Testament, whose main characters are Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
For further information about Thomas Nash, please consult the following website:
http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-nashe .

SPRING
Thomas Nash (1567-1601)



Spring, the sweet spring, is the year's pleasant king;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing,
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay,
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,
Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,
In every street these tunes our ears do greet,
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
Spring, the sweet Spring!

春，甜美之春，一年四季的快乐之王，
万物花开，少女围舞，
乍暖还寒，百鸟欢唱，
咕咕，啾啾，布喂，吐-威托-呜！

棕榈山查，点缀乡村农家，
羊羔嬉戏，牧笛整日吹奏，
耳边传来一阵阵鸟语欢歌，
咕咕，啾啾，布喂，吐-威托-呜！

田野四处飘香，雏菊亲吻脚踵，
情侣出入双双，老妪沐浴阳光，
街巷欢歌处处，旋律悦耳优扬，
咕咕，啾啾，布喂，吐-威托-呜！
春，甜美之春！

•    Please pay attention to the ending syllables of the first three lines in each stanza (paragraph). That’s how the basic rhyme scheme is formed.
•    doth: does
•    Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo: 分别为布谷、夜莺、田凫和猫头鹰的叫声
•    palm and may: 棕榈和山查
•    aye: always
•    a-sunning: enjoying the sunshine; the prefix a- is often added to the present participle form of a verb, meaning taking the action at the moment.
•    Do you notice a similar pattern in the middle of the lines?
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Playwright / Poet
Born on 23 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and died on 23 April 1616, William Shakespeare is the grand literary figure of the Western world. During England's Elizabethan period he wrote dozens of plays which continue to dominate world theater 400 years later. Shakespeare handled high drama, romance and slapstick comedy with equal ease. His works rival the King James Bible (also produced in the 1600s) as a source of oft-quoted English phrases. Shakespeare is known as "the Bard of Avon," and many of his plays were originally performed in the famous Globe Theater in London. Among his best-known plays are:
•     Romeo and Juliet
•     Hamlet, and
•     MacBeth.
He is also known for his poetry, especially his 154 sonnets (十四行诗).
This poem is one of his sonnets, Sonnet 18.
For further information about William Shakespeare, please consult the following website:
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=William+Shakespeare .

SONNET 18
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)


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 dimmed,    d
And every fair from fair sometime declines,    c
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:    d
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,    e
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,    f
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st 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

我如何能够将你比作夏日？
你却比夏日可爱也更温婉；
娇嫩的蓓蕾怎敌五月风急，
夏日出租期限又未免太短。
天上的太阳有时过于灼热，
金色的面容显得暗淡无光；
任何美丽均难以留驻美色，
偶然摧残或自然剥去盛装。
而你如永恒夏季不会凋零，
不会失去拥有的秀雅风姿，
这不朽的诗篇将使你永存。
只要人还在呼吸眼能看明，
此诗就将长存并给你生命。

•    Please pay attention to the ending syllables of the lines in this poem. That’s how the basic rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet is formed.
•    Summer is regarded as the best time of the year in England. That’s why Shakespeare would compare someone to a summer’s day.
•    thou: you (second person singular)
•    art: are (second person singular)
•    The suffix –est / ‘st sometimes marks the end of the second person singular of the simple present tense of a verb.
•    owe: the same as own
•    Note the rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet as is marked by some small letters.
•    Another concept of the Western poetry is the meter which indicates the arrangement, called foot, of one stressed syllable in combination with one or more unstressed syllables and the number of feet (plural of foot) in each line. The Shakespearean sonnet line usually follow a particular meter called iambic pentameter (5 feet in a line and each consisting of a stressed syllable after an unstressed one).


  ˘   -- | ˘   -- | ˘   -- | ˘ -- | ˘   -- |
Shall   I     com- pare   thee   to   a   sum-   mer's   day?

˘   -- | ˘   -- | ˘   -- | ˘ -- | ˘   -- |
Thou art     more love-   ly   and more tem-   pe-   rate:

˘   -- | ˘   -- | ˘   -- | ˘ -- | ˘   -- |
Rough winds do shake   the   dar- ling buds   of     May,

˘   -- | ˘   -- | ˘   -- | ˘ -- | ˘   -- |
And   sum-   mer's lease hath   all   too short     a   date:







Lecture 2
Thomas Ernest Hulme (1883-1917)
Poet / Essayist / Philosopher
Born at Gratton Hall in North-East Staffordshire on 16 September 1883, he was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, to read mathematics, and later at University College London to read biology and physics, but continued to spend much time in Cambridge attending undergraduate lectures in philosophy. He travelled to Canada on a cargo boat. He volunteered as an artilleryman in the British Army in France in 1914. Wounded in 1916, he was killed by enemy fire in Belgium in 1917. His major works include:
•    Georges Sorel, "The Ethics of Violence." Reflections on Violence
•    Speculations: Essays on Humanism and the Philosophy of Art
•    Notes on Language and Style
For further information about Thomas Nash, please consult the following website:
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2252 .

AUTUMN
Thomas Ernest Hulme (1883-1917)


A touch of cold in the Autumn night –
I walked abroad,
And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge
Like a red-faced farmer.
I did not stop to speak, but nodded,
And round about were the wistful stars
With white faces like town children.

秋夜飘荡起一丝寒意——
我信步户外，
只见一轮红月傍着树篱
恰似面色红润的庄稼汉。
我径直不语，微微点头，
四周散布着满脸期盼的群星，
脸庞白皙，像城里的孩童。

•    This poem is in blank verse (无韵诗).
•    abroad: outside one’s house
•    wistful stars: To the poet, it seems as if the stars were in deep thought of something yearned for or lost.
•    What does the poet compare the moon and the stars to respectively? Why?
•    宋代诗人欧阳修在《秋声赋》中，描写自己听到风暴兵马一般的声响时，问童子：“此事声也？汝出视之！”童子曰：“星月皎洁，明河在天，四无人声，声在树间。” 予曰：“噫嘻，悲哉！此秋声也，胡为乎来哉？盖夫秋之为状也……”

Robert Frost Nash (1864-1963)
Poet
Born in San Francisco, Frost was best known for his verse about New England life. He was educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard University. In 1912, he moved to England. With the help of some established poets there, his first two volumes of poetry were published, which won him immediate recognition. In 1915, he returned to the States to find that his fame had preceded him. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times; in 1961, he became the first poet to read a poem at a presidential inauguration.
See http://www.marcopolopoet.com/PoemOP/Robert_Frost_Bio.htm .

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
Robert Frost Nash (1864-1963)



Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

我想我知是谁家的树林，
主人的房舍就在村子里。
他不知我在此观林赏景，
独自停留在他家的雪林。
我的小马一定深感诧异：
怎停在不着村店的野地？
左依雪林右靠冻湖之滨，
在一年中最黑暗的夜里。
马儿抖动着身上的挂铃，
像在问我可是停错了地？
此处再无任何别的声音，
只有微风阵阵瑞雪纷纷。
树林迷人阴森而又深邃，
可我还要前去应约赴会，
走够里程方可歇息安睡，
走够里程方可歇息安睡。

•    Please mark out the rhyme scheme of this poem.
•    Can you tell the story in simple words?
•    Why do “I” stop?
•    Can “I” just stay?
•    Why?
•    What does the poet want to tell us?


Lecture 3
SONNET 64
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)



When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age,
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage.
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store.
When I have seen such interchange of State,
Or state itself confounded to decay,
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate
That Time will come and take my love away.
This thought is as a death which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.

当我眼见前代的富丽和豪华
被时光的手毫不留情地磨灭；
当巍峨的塔我眼见沦为碎瓦，
连不朽的铜也不免一场浩劫；
当我眼见那欲壑难填的大海
一步一步把岸上的疆土侵蚀，
汪洋的水又渐渐被陆地覆盖，
失既变成了得，得又变成了失；
当我看见这一切扰攘和废兴，
或者连废兴一旦也化为乌有；
毁灭便教我再三这样地反省：
时光终要跑来把我的爱带走。
哦，多么致命的思想！它只能够
哭着去把那刻刻怕失去的占有。


•    Lines 1-2: “When I have seen the rich-proud cost of buried age defaced by Time’s fell hand.”
•    fell: cruel
•    cost: costly object, ancient relics
•    Lines 5-8: In some parts of the coast the sea is gaining on the land; in others the land is gaining on the sea. Thus, the ‘store’ is balanced by the ‘loss’.
•    Lines 11-12 form the main clause to the adverbial clauses above.
•    Line 13: the antecedent of ‘which’ is loosely ‘thought’ or more accurately the person who has this ‘thought’.


SONNET 73
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)



That time of year thou may’st in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day,
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

在我身上你或许会看见秋天，
当黄叶，或尽脱，或只三三两两
挂在瑟缩的枯枝上索索抖颤——
荒废的歌坛，那里百鸟曾合唱。
在我身上你或许会看见暮霭，
它在日落后向西方徐徐消退：
黑夜，死的化身，渐渐把它赶开，
严静的安息笼住纷纭的万类。
在我身上你或许全看见余烬，
它在青春的寒灰里奄奄一息，
在惨淡灵床上早晚总要断魂，
给那滋养过它的烈焰所销毁。
看见了这些，你的爱就会加强，
因为他转瞬要辞你溘然长往。

•    Metaphors, which compare one thing to another without using words like like and as, are often used in the poetical language. Read this sonnet carefully and try to identify the 3 primary metaphors Shakespeare uses.
•    What do these metaphors mean?
•    The last two lines in a sonnet are always rhymed and serve as a conclusion to the whole poem. They are called the heroic couplet. What conclusion is given in this sonnet?
•    choir: that part of a church where singers (choir) perform
•    ere: before

SONNET 148
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)


O me! what eyes hath love put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight,
Or if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote,
Love's eye is not so true as all men's: no,
How can it? O how can love's eye be true,
That is so vexed with watching and with tears?
No marvel then though I mistake my view,
The sun it self sees not, till heaven clears.
O cunning love, with tears thou keep'st me blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.

唉，爱把什么眼睛装在我脑里，
使我完全认不清真正的景象？
竟错判了眼睛所见到的[屏蔽]？
如果我眼睛所迷恋的真是美，
为何大家都异口同声不承认？
若真不美呢，那就绝对无可讳，
爱情的眼睛不如一般人看得真：
当然喽，它怎能够，爱眼怎能够
看得真呢，它日夜都泪水汪汪？
那么，我看不准又怎算得稀有？
太阳也要等天晴才照得明亮。
狡猾的爱神！你用泪把我弄瞎，
只因怕明眼把你的丑恶揭发。

•    have no correspondence with: do not agree with
•    whereon: on which
•    This poem reminds us of a Chinese proverb: “情人眼里出西施”.

HAMLET’S SOLILOQUY
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)


To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
生存还是毁灭，这是一个值得考虑的问题；默然忍受命运的暴虐的毒箭，或是挺身反抗人世的无涯的苦难，通过斗争把它们扫清，这两种行为，哪一种更高贵？死了；睡着了；什么都完了；要是在这一种睡眠之中，我们心头的创痛，以及其他无数血肉之躯所不能避免的打击，都可以从此消失，那正是我们求之不得的结局。死了；睡着了；睡着了也许还会做梦；嗯，阻碍就在这儿：因为当我们摆脱了这一具朽腐的皮囊以后，在那死的睡眠里，究竟将要做些什么梦，那不能不使我们踌躇顾虑。人们甘心久困于患难之中，也就是为了这个缘故；谁愿意忍受人世的鞭挞和讥嘲、[屏蔽]者的[屏蔽]、傲慢者的冷眼、被轻蔑的爱情的惨痛、法律的迁延、官吏的横暴和费尽辛勤所换来的小人的鄙视，要是他只要用一柄小小的刀子，就可以清算他自己的一生？谁愿意负着这样的重担，在烦劳的生命的[屏蔽]下呻吟流汗，倘不是因为惧怕不可知的死后，惧怕那从来不曾有一个旅人回来过的神秘之国，是它迷惑了我们的意志，使我们宁愿忍受目前的磨折，不敢向我们所不知道的痛苦飞去？这样，重重的顾虑使我们全变成了懦夫，决心的赤热的光彩，被审慎的思维盖上了一层灰色，伟大的事业在这一种考虑之下，也会逆流而退，失去了行动的意义。




•    This soliloquy is taken from Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Act III, Scene I.
•    To be, or not to be: to continue to exist or not
•    by opposing end them: put an end to them (the sea of troubles) by fighting against them rather than stoically enduring them
•    That flesh is heir to: which the human body has to take
•    consummation: perfect ending
•    rub: difficulty
•    respect: consideration
•    contumely: contempt
•    insolence: aggressive lack of respect
•    and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes: the scornful rejection that the worthy one takes from the unworthy
•    his quietus make: settle his final bill
•    fardels: burdens
•    bourn: boundary
•    others that we know not of: other ills that we do not know about
•    conscience: consideration
•    And enterprises … turn awry: And on this account great actions change their course in the wrong direction


Roger McGough (1937-)
Poet/Playwright/Broadcaster/Children's Author
Born on 9 November 1937 in Liverpool, England, he was educated at St Mary's College, Crosby, Liverpool, and at Hull University.
He has twice won the Signal Poetry Award (1984; 1999). He is also the author of a number of plays He has written for and presented programmes on BBC Radio including 'Poetry Please' and 'Home Truths'. He won the Royal Television Society Award for his science programme The Elements (1993).
His most recent book of poetry is Everyday Eclipses (2002). His Collected Poems, bringing together over forty years of McGough's poetry, was published in 2003, and his live poetry album, Lively, is now out on CD.
See http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth202.

40-LOVE
Roger McGough (1937-)


middle
couple
ten-
when
game
and
go
the
will
be
tween
aged
playing
nis
the
ends
they
home
net
still
be-
them



中
夫
打
球
赛
束
家
球
仍
隔
中
年
妇
网
比
结
回
后
网
将
在
间


OXYGEN
Roger McGough (1937-)


I am the very air
you breathe
Your first
and last
breath

I welcomed you
at birth
Shall bid
farewell
at death

I am the Kiss of Life
its ebb and flow
With your last gasp
You will call my name:
‘o o o o o o o o’



我就是空气
你吸入
你第一口
到最后一口
气息

我迎来你的
出世
还将
告别你的
去世

我是生命之吻
生命起伏兴衰
当你最后一次喘息
你会呼唤我的名字：
‘哦-哦-哦-哦’

Lecture 4
William Wordsworth (1770-1856)
Poet
Born on April 17, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in the Lake District, he was credited with ushering in the English Romantic Movement with the publication of Lyrical Ballads (1798) in collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He studied at Cambridge University. The magnificent landscape in his hometown deeply affected his imagination and gave him a love of nature. He met Coleridge in 1795. Encouraged by Coleridge and stimulated by the close contact with nature, Wordsworth composed his first masterwork, Lyrical Ballads. About 1798 he started to write a large and philosophical autobiographical poem, completed in 1805, and published posthumously in 1850 under the title The Prelude.
In 1843 he succeeded Robert Southey (1774-1843) as England's poet laureate. Wordsworth died on April 23, 1850.

For further information about William Wordsworth, please consult the following website:
http://www.online-literature.com/wordsworth/.

On 15th April 1802, William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, passed Glencoyne Bay, Ullswater in Northwest of England. Dorothy wrote in her journal:
'When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the lake had floated the seed ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more and more and at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road.
I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever dancing ever changing.
This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little knot and a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity and unity and life of that one busy highway. We rested again and again. The Bays were stormy, and we heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like the sea'.

DAFFODILS
William Wordsworth (1770-1856)


I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed — and gazed — but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.


•    Please mark out the rhyme scheme of each stanza.
•    Line 4: host means a large crowd
•    The phrase “golden daffodils” was revised from “dancing daffodils.”
•    The second stanza was added when it was finally republished in 1815. when you have finished reading this poem, please consider why the poet decided to make this addition.
•    Please rearrange the last two lines of the second stanza in the normal word order.
•    What does the pronoun “they” in the first line of the third stanza refer to?
•    glee: joy
•    jocund: cheerful
•    Originally, the fourth line of the third stanza read: “In such laughing company.” Please compare the sound effect of the revision and that of the original.
•    pensive: thoughtful
•    bliss: happiness as if given by God






水仙赋


独步如孤云   漂浮山谷间
抬眼金光耀   垂头水仙娇
树下湖滨处   翩翩清风助

漫天星似海   光彩照银河
群芳顺湾开   满目花增色
一览千万朵   朵朵皆婀娜
碧水泛波澜   花姿更旖旎
相伴有花鲜   诗人生惬意
凝神把花赏   未悟有殊藏

时而塌上卧   思绪有断连
寂寞得思索   依稀见水仙
心随花起舞   久久不能住




傣王宫

如诗如画傣王家
小桥流水映烟霞
山珍傣菜成野趣
海味伴酒情正恰
曲曲心歌抒新义
款款曼舞动丛花
主人摆就凤求凰
名流雅士竞风华

Dai Palace

This is a kingly house of the Dai
By a stream bridge in misty twilight
Where delicacies from land, sea ‘n’ sky
Are served country-style for day and night:
The songs speak out all your heart’s desire,
And the dances make flowers admire—
The host sets up a romantic site
Just to give you a good appetite.


•    This is an advertisement for a Dai restaurant which opened in Chengdu in the mid-1990s. So its purpose is to attract diners, especially those from foreign countries, to have meals at the restaurant.
•    Read the poem carefully and try to establish the relationship between the lines. Form a mental picture of the restaurant and try to translate it into English, paying attention to the meter and rhyme scheme in your translation.


Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
Poet / Writer
Born the second of seven children to poor Swedish immigrant parents in Galesburg, Illinois, Sandburg was educated at public school until he was thirteen, and he then worked in odd jobs in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado. In 1913 Sandburg moved with his family to a suburb of Chicago. He worked as an editor of a business magazine, and published articles in the International Socialist Review. Sandburg's first major collection of poems, CHICAGO POEMS, appeared in 1916. Sandburg's life of Lincoln was published in six volumes (1926-1939) and although historians have criticized its mistakes, it has won admiration of most critics and was praised for its style and readability. In 1928 Sandburg moved to Harbert, Michigan, and in 1943, seeking a milder climate, the family moved to a farm in Flat Rock, North Carolina, where Sandburg lived the rest of his life. Sandburg travelled widely as a poetry-reciter, accompanying himself on a guitar. he died on July 22, in 1967.
For further information about Carl Sandburg, please consult the following website: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/sandburg.htm.


FOG
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)


The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

雾来了，
踩着小猫的脚步。

默默地蹲下
环视着
城市和港口
就悄然移往别处。


•    What is your first impression of this little poem?
•    The poem is indeed very short. Yet can you still divide it into some smaller parts?
•    This poem describes the silence of a harbor city at a foggy moment. Can you identify some special sounds that add emphasis to such silence in this poem?




The Lunchbreak Reader
(severe apologies to Carl Sandburg)

The reader comes
for a little book treat.

He sits looking
over shoulder and shelf
on long lunches
and then moves on.

•    This is a parody (仿作) by someone nicknamed Brockeim who has published a whole volume of parodies of poems originally written by famous poets.
•    Brockeim claims that he tries to describe how Sandburg read over lunch.

Edward Thomas (1878-1917)
Poet / Writer
Born in Lambeth, London to Welsh parents on 3 March 1878, Philip Edward Thomas studied at St Paul's school and Oxford before earning a living as a freelance journalist and author. As a result of his friendship with Robert Frost whom he met in 1912 (after Thomas's death Frost was to describe him as "the only brother I ever had") he turned to poetry and his first collection was published in 1916 under the pseudonym of Edward Eastaway. Between December 1914 and his death two years and four months later he wrote 142 poems and is increasingly regarded as among the finest and most influential British poets of the time. In July 1915 he enlisted in the Artists' Rifles and then was commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1916. He volunteered for service overseas and was sent to France in January 1917. He was killed in the battle of Arras on Easter Monday, 9 April 1917.
For further information about Carl Sandburg, please consult the following website:
http://www.richmondreview.co.uk/library/thomas.html.

THE POND
Edward Thomas (1878-1917)


Bright clouds of May
Shade half the pond.
Beyond,
All but one bay
Of emerald
Tall reeds
Like criss-cross bayonets
Where a bird once called,
Lies bright as the sun.
No one heeds.
The light wind frets
And drifts the scum
Of May-blossom.
Till the moorhen calls
Again
Naught's to be done
By birds or men.
Still the May falls.

五月亮丽的云彩
影子几乎遮着池塘。
远处
翡翠般的海湾
像骄阳一般璀璨；
高挺的芦苇
如刺刀交错
忆当初
鸟雀鸣啼啾啭
无人留意。
微风缕缕
扬起五月缤纷的落英。
当红松鸡再次高啼
人只空自嗟叹
鸟儿已不再啼。
悄悄的
五月凋零了。


•    Read the poem and mark out the rhyme scheme.
•    Try to analyze the sentence that make up lines 3-9.
•    emerald: 绿宝石色的
•    fret: cause ripples by blowing
•    scum: things that floats on the surface of water; foams
•    moorhen: 红松鸡，苏格兰雷鸟
•    naught: nothing







THE POETRY OF DRESS
Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
Clergyman / Poet
Born in London to a wealthy goldsmith family in 1591, he was an English clergyman and poet. In November 1592, two days after making a will, his father killed himself by jumping from the fourth-floor window of his house. However, the Queen's Almoner did not confiscate the Herrick estate for the crown as was usually the case with suicides.
He entered St John's College, Cambridge in 1613, and graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1617, Master of Arts in 1620. In 1623 he was ordained priest. By 1925 he was well known as a poet, mixing in literary circles in London such as that of Ben Jonson. The best of his work was written in the peace and seclusion of country life; 'To Blossoms' and 'To Daffodils' are classical depictions of a devoted appreciation of nature.
He was distinguished as a lyric poet, and some of his love songs, for example, 'To Anthea' and 'Gather Ye Rose-buds' are considered exceptional.

For further information about Robert Herrick, please consult the following website:
http://www.poemhunter.com/robert-herrick/biography/poet-3115/.

THE POETRY OF DRESS
Robert Herrick (1591-1674)



1

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness:--
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction,--
An erring lace, which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher,--
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly,--
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat,--
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility,--
Do more bewitch me, than when art
Is too precise in every part.

1

甜雅的褶皱成团
让衣裙显得噪乱：——
双肩耷拉的草坪
露出随意的情景，——
一道飘逸的花边
给肚兜增添缀点，——
那不经意的袖口
缎带蓬松地漂流，——
一股汹涌的波浪
使裙摆起伏跌荡，——
系扎松乱的鞋带
狂野但并不懈怠，——
与精美艺术相比，
叫人更欣喜痴迷。


•    Please pick out the words that are used to describe the dress in this poem.
•    What is your general impression of the dress described in this poem?
•    Can you explain the structure of this poem?



2

Whenas in silks my Julia goes
Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free;
Oh how that glittering taketh me!

2

当我的朱丽亚身着丝衣，
我觉得那是多么的美丽——
那衣裙的流线好不飘逸。

当我投过目光朝她看去，
只见衣裙摆动如此随意；
哦，闪闪的丝光令人心醉！


•    whenas: when
•    methinks: I think
•    liquefaction: turning into a liquid
•    Please pick out the words the poet uses to describe Julia’s dress.
•    What feature of the dress is most strongly emphasized?







3.    Anonymous

My Love in her attire doth shew her wit,
It doth so well become her:
For every season she hath dressings fit,
For Winter, Spring, and Summer.
No beauty she doth miss
When all her robes are on:
But Beauty’s self she is
When all her robes are gone.


3.

爱人的衣装显露智慧，
它是如此合身与得体：
不同的季节风韵尤存，
无论是冬夏还是秋春。
衣裙能包裹玉叶金枝，
但遮不住她体态优美；
倘若衣裙不上她玉身，
她原本就是那位美神。

•    shew: show
•    How does the poet describe the dress in this poem?


Lecture 5
MY HEART LEAPS WHEN I BEHOLD
William Wordsworth (1770-1856)


My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man:
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

天边彩虹映眼帘，
我心动怦然；
初生之时即如此，
而今成人仍未变，
待到暮年也这般，
否则毋宁死！
孩提本是成人父：
愿自然虔诚的意念
将我的每一天串连。


•    behold: look at
•    Pay attention to the verb forms in LL 3-5.
•    Line 5: “So be it when I shall grow old” is in the subjunctive mood, meaning “May it be the same when I grow old.”
•    Line 7: Wordsworth might have derived this line from John Milton’s Paradise Regained: “The childhood shows the man, / As morning shows the day.” The poet is carrying on the idea of fatherhood; in this sense, every today is the child of yesterday and should show filial piety towards it.

SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS
William Wordsworth (1770-1856)



She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!


住在无人踩踏的路边
依傍着多弗河的清泉
乡野的村姑无人赏赞
又怎能奢望得到爱怜

一朵紫葳开在小路边
苔石半掩路人难看见
一颗孤星在夜空闪耀
但也比不上她的美貌

露茜的一生没人知晓
她悄然辞世未传噩耗
静静躺在低矮的坟冢
谁能感受我心中悲痛


•    Dove is a river in Derbyshire, England.
•    What kind of a girl does the poet describe?
•    What does the poet compare her to?
•    Do you think the two comparisons are somewhat contradictory? Why or why not?
•    What might be the effect if the second stanza were omitted?
•    Where is Lucy now?
•    What does Lucy mean to her lover?
THE SOLITARY REAPER
William Wordsworth (1770-1856)


Behold her, single in the field,  
Yon solitary Highland Lass!  
Reaping and singing by herself;  
Stop here, or gently pass!  
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;  
O listen! for the Vale profound  
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?--
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;——
I listen'd, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

•    behold: look at
•    yon: that or those over there
•    reap: getting in (crops)
•    melancholy: sad
•    vale: valley
•    What is described in the first stanza?
•    chaunt: chant; sing
•    haunt: a place often visited
•    Hebrides: a island group along the northwest coast of Scotland. The word is often used to mean somewhere far, far away.
•    What comparison does the poet make in the second stanza?
•    plaintive: sorrowful
•    numbers: musical notes
•    lay: tune
•    In the third stanza, what does Wordsworth say the girl is singing about?
•    What is the main idea of the last stanza?
•    sickle: a cutting tool for getting in crops
•    Line 5 in Stanza 4 originally read: “I liste’d till I had my fill.” Why do you think the poet would have it changed?


看，一个孤独的高原姑娘
在远远的田野间收割，
一边割一边独自歌唱；
请你站住，或者悄悄走过！
她独自把麦子割了又捆，
唱出无限悲凉的歌声，
屏息听吧！深广的谷地
已被歌声涨满而漫溢！


还从未有过夜莺百啭，
唱出过如此迷人的歌，
在沙漠中的绿荫间
抚慰过疲惫的旅客；
还从未有过杜鹃迎春，
声声啼得如此震动灵魂，
在遥远的赫布利底群岛
打破过大海的寂寥。


她唱什么，谁能告诉我？
忧伤的音符不断流涌，
是把遥远的不幸诉说？
是把古代的战争吟咏？
也许她的歌比较卑谦，
只是唱今日平凡的悲欢，
只是唱自然的哀伤苦痛：
昨天经受过，明天又将重逢？


姑娘唱什么，我猜不着，
她的歌如流水永无尽头；
只见她一面唱一面干活，
弯腰挥镰，操劳不休……
我凝神不动，听她歌唱，
然后，当我登上了山岗，
尽管歌声早已不能听到，
它却仍在我心头缭绕。



A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL
William Wordsworth (1770-1856)


A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,
With rocks, and stones, and trees.

昏睡曾蒙住我的心灵，
我没有人类的恐惧；
她漠然于尘世岁月的相侵，
仿佛感觉已失去。

如今她不动，没有力气，
什么也不听不看，
每天与岩石和树木一起，
随地球循环旋转。



•    slumber: sleep
•    Why didn’t I have human fears?
•    What effect did it have that I had no human fears?
•    Note that different tenses are used in the two stanzas. Why?
•    diurnal: daily
•    What does this poem try to tell us?


Lecture 6
Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Poet
Born on 25 January, 1759, Robert Burns didn’t have much schooling. It was to his father and to his own reading that he owed the more important part of his education; and by the time that he had reached manhood he had a good knowledge of English, a reading knowledge of French, and a fairly wide acquaintance with the masterpieces of English literature from the time of Shakespeare to his own day.
After his father died in 1784, his farming venture was unsuccessful. As a result, he resolved to emigrate. To raise money for the passage, he published a volume of the poems which was unexpectedly successful. So instead of sailing for the West Indies, he went up to Edinburgh, and during that winter he was the chief literary celebrity of the season. Later he tried farming for some years without success. He died at Dumfries in his thirty-eighth year.
Burns' poetry falls into two main groups: English and Scottish. His English poems are, for the most part, inferior specimens of conventional eighteenth-century verse. But in Scottish poetry he achieved triumphs of a quite extraordinary kind for which he is regarded as the poet of his people.
For further information, please consult the following website: http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/rburns.html.

MY LUVE’S LIKE A RED RED ROSE
Robert Burns (1759-1796)



O, my luve's like a red red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O, my luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun:
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve,
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile.

我的爱像红红的玖瑰,
它在六月里初开;
我的爱像一支乐曲,
它美妙地演奏起来。

你是那么漂亮,美丽的姑娘,
我爱你也那么深切;
我要爱你下去,亲爱的,
一直到四海枯竭。

一直到四海枯竭,亲爱的,
到太阳把岩石烧裂,
我要爱你下去,亲爱的,
只要生命之流不绝。

再见吧,我的唯一的爱人!
让我们小别片刻;
我要回来的,亲爱的,
即使我们[屏蔽]相隔。


•    luve: love
•    bonnie: beautiful
•     lass: girl
•    a’: all
•    gang: gone
•    wi’: with
•    sands o’ life: sands of life; Sands here refer to a sand clock used in ancient times
•    weel: well
•    Last line: To keep the rhyme, Burn uses “ten thousand mile” instead of “ten thousand miles.”
•    Please try to find some Chinese expressions that roughly correspond with the beautiful phrases Burn uses in this poem, like “Till a’ the seas gang dry,” “And the rocks melth wi’the sun,” “While the sands o’ life shall run.”






Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Poet
Born in Camberwell, south London, Robert Browning received little formal education. However, his father encouraged him to read and he had access to his large (6,000 vols) library. In his teens, Browning discovered Shelley, under whose influence He wrote his first poems.
In 1833, Browning published anonymously Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession. In the mid-1830s, The Monthly Repository published several shorter poems by Browning. In 1834, he travelled to Russia and made in 1838 his first trip to Italy. Browning's early poetical works attracted little attention until the publication of Paracelsus (1835). Between 1841 and 1846, Browning works appeared under the title Bells and Pomegranates. In 1846, Browning married the poet Elizabeth Barrett, and settled with her in Florence. When Elizabeth died in 1861, he moved to London with his son Robert Barrett Browning. There he wrote his greatest work, The Ring and the Book (1869). In 1855 appeared the masterpiece of his middle period, Men and Women. He died on December 12, 1889 in Venice.
For further information, please consult the following website:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/browning.htm/.

MEETING AT NIGHT
Robert Browning (1812-1889)

The grey sea and long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

•    Please read this poem carefully and try to retell the story the poet tells us.
Stanza 1:
•    Where is the poet in the first stanza?
•    What’s he doing?
•    Can you describe the scene?

Stanza 2:
•    Where is he now in the second stanza?
•    Where is he going?
•    What’s happening?
•    Who gives a tap at the window pane?
•    Who quickly strikes a match?
•    Whose voice is it? And why is it less loud? Why joys and why fears?
•    Can you please analyze the structure of this poem?

夜会


银灰的大海漆黑的长岸,
圆圆的新月硕大而浑黄。
涟漪梦中惊醒越起波澜,
在炽热的海上熠熠闪光。
疾驰的小船驶入了海弯,
渐渐停息在泥泞的沙滩。

海香飘逸一里温煦长滩,
村舍越过三块连绵农田,
轻敲玻璃窗火柴急划亮,
蓝火喷射出清脆的声响。
一声惊叫即欣喜又慌乱,
压不过两颗心跳动怦然。









PARTING AT MORNING
Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,
And the sun look'd over the mountain's rim:
And straight was a path of gold for him,
And the need of a world of men for me.

•    This poem is written as an attachment to the Night Meeting poem.
•    What is described?
•    Does he want to stay with his lover?
•    Or does he want to leave?
•    Why?
•    What do you think the pronoun him (line 4) refers to?

晨别

转过海岬大海乍涌波澜,
太阳从山脊上露出脸蛋。
金光大道笔直向前伸展,
男儿的世界为我所期盼。


SUDDEN LIGHT
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
Poet / Painter
Born in London, Dante Gabriel Rossetti had a essentially Italian background. His father had emigrated from Italy to England mainly for political reasons. In the cultural atmosphere of his home, already as a child he became interested in romantic literature. Between the years 1843 and 1846, he attended Cary's Art Academy, and entered in 1848 the Royal Academy. However, he also started to write 'The House of Life', a sequence of 102 sonnets, which is considered his masterpiece. For many years Rossetti was known only as a painter. His early poems were published in the Pre-Raphaelite magazine The Germ in 1850.
In most of Rossetti's early pictures his ideal ladies were portraits of his wife, the beautiful Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal. After his wife died of an overdose of laudanum in 1862, Rossetti buried with her the only complete manuscript of his poems. The manuscript was recovered seven years later and published in 1870.
Rossetti's later years were shadowed by health problems, morbid thoughts, and paranoia. In 1872 he attempted suicide. Before his death at the age of fifty-three in 1882, he published Ballads and Sonnets (1881).
For further information, please consult the following website:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/dgrosset.htm/.

SUDDEN LIGHT
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before,
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow's soar
Your neck turn'd so,
Some veil did fall, I knew it all of yore.

Has this been thus before?
And shall not thus time's eddying flight
Still with our lives our love restore
In death's despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?

•    This poem was written in memorial of the poet’s dead wife Elizabeth Siddal, who died in 1862. With romantic flourish he buried the manuscript of a number of his poems with her. This grand gesture was undone however in the summer of 1869, when he thought better of it and had them exhumed.
•    What does the poet describe in the first stanza? What are the things that arouse his memories?
•    How do you interpret the phrase “at that swallow’s soar”?
•    And “Some veil did fall”?
•    yore: time long ago
•    eddying flight: flying in circular motion
•    Can you put the last four lines in the normal word order?

顿悟


我曾来过这里，
   何时，何故，我已记不起。
只记得gate边小草萋萋，
   芬芳扑鼻。
记得海边的灯光，海浪的叹息。

你曾经属于我，
   记不清那是多久以前，
只记得当那燕子凌空飞翔，
   你微微转动秀项，
轻纱落地，这一幕我似曾相识。

此情此景莫非曾发生在从前？
   时间的飞转莫非能使
我们用生命换取爱情的重现，
   生生死死，
让日月星辰再赐予一次欢恋？



LOVE NOT ME FOR COMELY GRACE
Anonymous


Love not me for comely grace,
For my pleasing eye or face,
Nor for any outward part,
No, nor for my constant heart,—
   For these may fail, or turn to ill,
       So thou and I shall sever:
Keep therefore a true woman’s eye,
And love me still, but know not why—
   So hast thou the same reason still
       To doat upon me ever!

莫爱我只为了优雅的体面，
为我那钩人的眼和迷人的脸，
也莫为别的什么外在的矫健，
不，也莫为我那永恒的心愿；——
   因为这些都会衰败，都不长远，
       所以你我终会说再见：
你就保持女人独具的慧眼，
尽管爱我吧，不要问因缘——
   你有同样的理由给予我爱恋
       一直到永永远远！


•    Please read this poem carefully and try to supply the missing words using the rhyme scheme as the clue.
•    What is the poet’s point of view?
•    Do you agree to it? Why or why not?




William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Poet / Playwright
Yeats was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865, the son of the noted Irish painter John Butler Yeats. He was schooled in London and in Dublin, where he studied painting. In 1887 he moved with his family to London and became interested in Hinduism, theosophy, and occultism. He wrote lyrical, symbolic poems on pagan Irish themes in the romantic melancholy tone he believed characteristic of the ancient Celts. On a visit to Ireland he met the beautiful Irish patriot Maud Gonne, whom he loved unrequitedly the rest of his life. She inspired much of his early work and drew him into the Irish nationalist movement for independence.
Yeats returned to Ireland in 1896. He became a close friend of the nationalist playwright Lady Gregory. With Lady Gregory he helped found what became in 1904 the famous Abbey Theatre. As its director and dramatist, he helped develop the theater into one of the leading theatrical companies of the world, and a center of the Irish literary revival called the Irish Renaissance.
Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923.
He died in Roquebrune, France, on January 18, 1939, and was buried in Sligo, Ireland.

For further information, please consult the following website: http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-bio.html.








WHEN YOU ARE OLD
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)



When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

当你老了，头发白了，睡意酣沉，
在火边打盹，请拿下这本书，
细细品读，回想当年的温存，
那是你昔日的眼波，还有那眸影的幽深。

多少人钟情你优雅欢乐的韶华，
仰慕你的芳容，亦诚亦假。
只有一人深爱你朝圣者的追求，
爱你渐渐衰老的脸上的哀愁。

弯下腰，在火焰炽红的炉栅旁，
低声地，凄婉地，诉说爱的消亡，
看那爱神正漫步在头顶的山岗，
在群星中掩藏脸庞。


•    This poem was written for the poet’s lover Maud Gonne.
•    this book: Here it refers to the poet’s love letters to Maud Gonne.
•    What is the function of the second stanza?
•    the pilgrim soul: Maud Gonne was a passionate patriot who devoted her whole life to the Irish independence cause.
•    What difference is there between many people’s love for maud Gonne and Yeats’ love for her?
•    The third stanza comes back to the scene by the fire. Bars here refer to those around the fire.
•    Love: Goddess of Love


Sidney Lanier (1842-1881)
Poet / Musician
Born in Macon, Georgia, USA and educated at Oglethorpe College, Sidney Lanier served in the Confederate army during the American Civil War (1861-1865). In 1873 he became a flutist in the Peabody Symphony Orchestra of Baltimore, Maryland, and in 1879 he was appointed lecturer in English at Johns Hopkins University. One of the outstanding Southern poets of the late 19th century, Lanier is noted for his poetry's musical quality, its religious and ethical feeling, and its indictment of the social and economic evils resulting from commercialism. His best-known poems include “Corn” (1875), “The Symphony” (1875), “Song of the Chattahoochee” (1877), “The Revenge of Hamish” (1878), “The Marshes of Glynn” (1879), and “A Ballad of Trees and the Master” (1880). His prose works include Science of English Verse (1880), a study of the relationship between poetry and music that asserted that in poetry, as in music, sound is the most important element.
For further information, please consult the following website:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/dgrosset.htm/.

EVENING SONG
Sidney Lanier (1842-1881)

Look off, dear Love, across the sallow sands,
And mark yon meeting of the sun and sea,
How long they kiss in sight of all the lands.
Ah! longer, longer, we.

Now in the sea’s red vintage melts the sun,
As Egypt’s pearl dissolved in rosy wine,
And Cleopatra Night drinks all. ‘Tis done,
Love, lay thine hand in mine.

Come forth, sweet stars, and comfort heaven’s heart;
Glimmer, ye waves, round else unlighted sands.
O night! divorce our sun and sky apart,
Never our lips, our hands.

•    sallow: of the yellowish color of the vegetables
•    vintage: high-quality wine
•    The second stanza describes how the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra took a pearl from her ear-ring, dissolved it in her cup, and drank up the wine as she gave a toast to the Roman general Mark Antony.


晚曲


放眼看啊，亲爱的，看那黄沙的尽头，
那里，夕阳和大海在幽会，
他们在看得见陆地的地方长久地亲吻，
哦，更久，更久的，是我们。

晚霞在大海的红葡萄酒里消融，
恰如埃及珍珠在玫瑰酒里匿踪，
黑夜埃及女皇举杯畅饮方休，
亲爱的，把你的手放入我手中。

过来吧，美妙的星辰，请滋润夜空的心田，
闪光吧，海浪，在幽暗的沙滩四周。
哦，夜色，你可以分[屏蔽]霞和蓝天，
请别分开我们的唇和手。


晚曲


黄沙尽头放眼望，
天边大海会斜阳：
久久长吻妒万邦——
你我情更长！

大海如杯化夕阳，
美酒融珠诉衷肠，
艳后夜饮将军郎——
我牵玉手香。

群星抚慰照天堂；
暗沙燿燿浪花扬。
夜幕遮天避残阳——
莫误好时光。


Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Novelist / Poet
Born on June 2, 1840, in Dorset, England, Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet who set much of his work in Wessex, an imaginary county insouthwestern England.
His novels include:
•    The Return of the Native
•    The Mayor of Casterbridge
•    Tess of the d’Urbervilles
•    Jude the Obscure
His poetical works includes:
•    Wessex Poems
•    The Dynasts
Thomas Hardy died on Jan. 11, 1928, in Dorchester, Dorset.

For further information, please consult the following website: http://www.english.vt.edu/~jmooney/3044biosh-o/hardy.html.

NEUTRAL TONES
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)




We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod,
--They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles solved years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro--
On which lost the more by our love.

The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing....

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.


无韵歌

那个冬日，我俩木立池边，
苍白的日光，如同受了上帝的责备，
几片叶子飘零在干枯的草甸，
——那是岑树的落叶，一片死灰。

你顾盼的目光飘游不定，
仿佛在昔日乏味的迷雾中穿行，
那时我们说话俏皮，唇枪舌剑，
   结果却心灵受损，为的只是爱情。

你唇边的微笑毫无生气，
一如临终前的微笑，冰凉僵滞，
一阵苦笑掠过脸庞，
   如同一只不详之鸟展翅。

从那以后，爱情的[屏蔽]使我铭心刻骨。
酸辛和悔恨，在我心中重新交织出
你的面容，苍白的冬日，那棵树，
   还有池边飘零的枯叶落木。


•    chidden of God: scolded by God
•    starving sod: earth hungry for the sun and rain
•    ash: a kind of tree (岑树)
•    riddles: puzzles, mysteries
•    LL 3-4, Stanza 2: We often played jokes on each other which caused us a lot of losses just because of our love.
•    an ominous bird a-wing: an evil bird on its wings
•    Love has taught me all about life.
Lecture 7
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
Poet
Born with a club-foot, George Gordon Byron inherited the title and property of his great-uncle in 1798. In 1807, Byron's first collection of poetry, Hours Of Idleness appeared. In 1808, he took his seat in the House of Lords, and set out on his grand tour abroad. Real poetic success came in 1812 when Byron published the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. He became an adored character of London society. He married Anne Isabella Milbanke in 1815. The marriage was unhappy, and they obtained legal separation next year.
Byron left England in 1816, never to return. He settled in Geneva with Percy Bysshe Shelley. There he wrote the two cantos of Childe Harold and "The Prisoner Of Chillon". During his years in Italy, Byron wrote Lament Of Tasso and Don Juan, his satiric masterpiece. After a long creative period, Byron had come to feel that action was more important than poetry. He sailed to Greece to aid the Greeks against their Ottoman overlords. However, Byron contracted a fever from which he died on 19 April 1824. Byron's body was returned to England.
Byron created the concept of the 'Byronic hero'—a defiant, melancholy young man, brooding on some mysterious, unforgivable event in his past. Byron's influence on European poetry, music, novel, opera, and painting has been immense, although the poet was widely condemned on moral grounds by his contemporaries.
For further information about Byron, please consult the following website:
http://www.byronmania.com/byron/limnings.html/.

SO, WE’LL GO NO MORE A ROVING
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
So, we'll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the hearth must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
And the days return too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.

•    a-roving: wandering about; An a- is added to the front of a present participle to indicate an action in procession or simply to add a syllable to the word.
•    LL 3-4: In an adverbial clause of concession introduced by though, the subjunctive mood can be used with the main verb in the form of the bare infinitive.
•    sheath: a covering for the blade of a sword or knife
•    hearth: (the floor of) a fireplace

今后你我不再漫游


今后你我不再漫游
在夜半三更的时候，
尽管心中还有爱情，
而且皓月依旧亮明。

宝剑已经磨穿剑鞘，
心灵也撑破了胸膛，
炉火需要暂时灭掉，
爱情歇息也是应当。

纵然爱情当在良宵，
白昼归来却又太早，
今后你我不再漫游
当月亮高挂在天头。














SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

•    clime: (a place with) a particular kind of climate
•    aspect: appearance
•    gaudy: brightly colored or showy
•    LL 1-4, stanza 2: Even if the slightest amount of color or light is added to or reduced from her, the lady’s grace would have been lost.
•    raven tress: long flowing hair as black and shiny as the feather of a black bird (raven)
•    serenely: calmly and quietly
•    What does the dwelling place refer to in the last 2 lines of stanza 2?
•    tint: a small amount of color


伊人频步美丽中，
犹如繁星照夜空；
明暗色泽透佳艳，
尽汇清秀眉目间：
柔光丰润好可人，
恰似天界落凡尘。

增一丝或减一毫，
高雅风韵尽失掉：
乌丝黑发无光泽，
花容月貌也失色；
恬静思绪挂粉腮，
只因心境洁无猜。

脸颊边与眉宇间，
温柔恬静美不言：
笑容夺目放光彩，
一生行善走过来：
与世无争思如镜，
诚心施爱见真情。



WHEN WE TWO PARTED
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)


When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted,
To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning
Sank chill on my brow
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame:
I hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
Who knew thee too well:
Long, long shall I rue thee
Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met
In silence I grieve
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.


•    Please read this poem and try to explain the poet’s feelings for the lady he describes.
•    knell: the ringing of a bell to announce someone’s death
•    wert: were
•    rue: resent


昔日依惜别，
泪流默无言；
离恨肝肠断，
此别又几年。
冷颊向愕然，
一吻寒更添；
日后伤心事，
此刻已预言。

朝起寒露重，
凛冽凝眉间——
彼时已预告：
悲伤在今天。
山盟今安在？
汝名何轻贱！
吾闻汝名传，
羞愧在人前。

闻汝名声恶，
犹如听丧钟。
不禁心怵惕—
往昔情太浓。
谁知旧日情，
斯人知太深。
绵绵长怀恨，
尽在不言中。

昔日喜幽会，
今朝恨无声。
旧情汝已忘，
痴心遇薄幸。
多年惜别后，
抑或再相逢，
相逢何所语？
泪流默无声。



LOVE AND DEATH
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)


I watched thee when the foe was at our side
Ready to strike at him—or thee and me,
Were safety hopeless—rather than divide
Aught with one loved, save love and liberty.

I watched thee in the breakers when the rock
Received our prow and all was storm and fear,
And bade thee cling to me through every shock;
This arm would be thy bark or breast thy bier.

I watched thee when the fever glazed thine eyes,
Yielding my couch, and stretched me on the ground
When overworn with watching, ne'er to rise
From thence, if thou an early grave hadst found.

The Earthquake came, and rocked the quivering wall
And men and Nature reeled as if with wine.
Whom did I seek around the tottering Hall?
For thee. Whose safety first provide for? Thine.

And when convulsive throes denied my breath
The faintest utterance to my fading thought,
To thee—to thee, e’en in the grasp of death
My spirit turned, oh! oftener than it ought.

Thus much and more, and yet thou lov'st me not,
And never wilt! Love dwells not in our will.
Nor can I blame thee, though it be my lot
To strongly, wrongly, vainly, love thee still.


•    A committee had been organized in England to raise money to support the war of the Greeks against the Turks. Byron was elected to the Committee. He went to supervise the distribution of the Committee Funds. Unfortunately, they were slow to arrive. His emotional life there was, as usual, distractingly complex. He had fallen in love with a fifteen year old Greek boy, his page, named Lukas Chalandritsanos, for whom he wrote this and some other poems not long before his death.
•    save (last line, stanza 1): except
•    breakers (first line, stanza 2): big sea waves, esp. when they just reach the shore
•    bark: a boat
•    bier: a coffin
•    Can you explain the meaning of stanza 3?
•    reel: move unsteadily as if to fall
•    totter: walk unsteadily as if ill or drunk
•    provide for: arrange for; prepare for
•    convulsive throes: the uncontrol-lable state of pains, esp. when something reaches its final stage
•    lot: fate
•    What does the poet think of his love for the boy?








SONNET TO CHILLON
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)



Eternal spirit of the chainless mind!
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art,
For there thy habitation is the heart,
The heart which love of thee alone can bind;

And when thy sons to fetters are consigned
To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom,
Their country conquers with their martyrdom,
And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.

Chillon! thy prison is a holy place,
And thy sad floor an altar, for 'twas trod,
Until his very steps have left a trace

Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod,
By Bonnivard! -- May none those marks efface!
For they appeal from tyranny to God.

不羁心灵萌发的永恒精神；
自由啊，你在监牢里最灿烂。
因为在那里你驻扎在心里，
对自由的爱才能栓住这心。

当你的儿女被套在枷锁里，
投进不见天日的阴暗牢地，
他们的殉难使祖国得解放，
自由的美誉传遍四面八方。

锡荣啊！你的监狱是神圣之地，
你伤心的地面是祭坛，在那里
邦尼瓦践踩出的脚印印在地——

你冰凉的铺地砖似一块草地，
愿地上的足迹永远不会摸去，
因为它们在[屏蔽]下呼唤上帝。


•    Chillon: a prison on Lake Geneva, Switzerland; Composed in the Italian sonnet, this poem was written in memorial of the Swiss freedom fighter Francois de Bonnivard who had been jailed at Chillon for seven years.
•    fetters: foot chains for a prisoner
•    consign: put in an unpleasant situation or place to be forgotten about
•    those marks: footprint left by Bonnivard
•    efface: wipe out
•    appeal: a call for justice and freedom
•    tyranny: rule by someone or people who are very cruel
•    Note the difference in rhyme between the Italian and the Shakespearean sonnets.






Lecture 8
Seamus Heaney (1939- )
Poet
Born in a small agricultural town northeast of Belfast in Northern Ireland, Seamus Heaney won the 1995 Nobel Prize for literature. In 1957, he went to Belfast to study literature at Queen's University, where he returned as a lecturer in 1965. Troubled by the continuing violence between the Roman Catholics and Protestants, Heaney moved to the Republic of Ireland in 1972. He taught at Carysfort College in Dublin from 1975 to 1980. Later, he taught at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and at the University of Oxford, in England.
Heaney's poetry, beginning with Death of a Naturalist (1966), is rooted in the physical, rural surroundings of his childhood. His poems are often short, punctuated by the intensity of his language. His powerful words contrast sharply with the silence of the people he describes. His other books of poetry include Door into the Dark (1969); Wintering Out (1972); North (1975); The Haw Lantern (1987); Seeing Things (1991); The Spirit Level (1996); and Electric Light (2001). Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996 was published in 1998. Heaney's modern English translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf reached best-seller lists in the United States and the United Kingdom in the spring of 2000.
For further information about Heaney, please consult the following website:
http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1995/heaney-bio.html/.









In Memoriam M.K.H., 1911-1984
Seamus Heaney (1939- )



The cool that came off sheets just off the line
Made me think the damp must still be in them
But when I took my corners of the linen
And pulled against her, first straight down the hem
And then diagonally, then flapped and shook
The fabric like a sail in a cross-wind,
They'd make a dried-out undulating thwack.
So we'd stretch and fold and end up hand to hand
For a split second as if nothing had happened
For nothing had that had not always happened
Beforehand, day by day, just touch and go,
Coming close again by holding back
In moves where I was x and she was o
Inscribed in sheets she'd sewn from ripped-out flour sacks.

从晒衣绳上刚取下的床单透着一丝凉气，
让我觉得里面还带着几分潮气
但是当我提起亚麻布床单的两角，
和她相对站着把床单拉开，先把四边拉直
然后又沿对角叠起，接着又拍打，抖搂
那床单却一如逆风中鼓涌的船帆，
发出干爽的波浪拍岸般的啪啪声
我们就这样拉开，叠起，最后手对手地叠拢，
在那一瞬间，似乎什么事也没有发生过，
因为在此之前，这样的事也不断重演，
一天又一天，双手相触又快速分开，
向后退去又再次接近
在移动中我是 X 她是 O
那字母镌刻在她用撕开的面粉袋缝制的床单上。


•    M. K. H.: the poet’s mother whose full name was Margaret Kathleen Heaney
•    linen: sheets
•    hem: the edge of a sheet or a piece of clothes that is folded over and stitched to prevent threads coming loose
•    diagonally: going from a corner to the opposite one
•    flap: move quickly up and down as of the wings of a bird
•    cross-wind: a strong wind blowing across the direction one is moving in
•    undulating: gently moving up and down or from side to side
•    thwack: sound made when two solid objects hit each other
•    LL 10-11: Such things had always happened before.
•    x and o: In a ticktacktoe game, one player puts an x in a square at a time. Then the other player puts an o. The one who first gets 3 x’s or o’s in a row is the winner.


R.S. Thomas (1913 - 2000)
Poet
Born in Cardiff, Wales, the United Kingdom in 1913, R. S. Thomas was educated at University College of North Wales, Bangor. His first book The Stones of the Field was published in 1946 and his Collected Poems 1945 to 1990 was published in 1993 by Dent. His autobiography Neb was published in English in 1997.

For further information about R, S. Thomasney, please consult the following website:
http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/R.S._Thomas#biography.

CHILDREN’S SONG
R.S. Thomas (1913 - 2000)



We live in our own world,
A world that is too small
For you to stoop and enter
Even on hands and knees,
The adult subterfuge.
And though you probe and pry
With analytic eye,
And eavesdrop all our talk
With an amused look,
You cannot find the centre
Where we dance, where we play,
Where life is still asleep
Under the closed flower,
Under the smooth shell
Of eggs in the cupped nest
That mock the faded blue
Of your remoter heaven.

我们生活在自己的天地，
对你们实在太小，
纵然是猫着腰匍匐着
也无法钻得进来——
这不过是大人的托词。
虽然你们搜索翻腾
用分析的眼神，
并偷听到我们说话，
露出好笑的神情，
你们也看不出奥妙——
在那里我们舞蹈，我们游戏，
在那里生命仍在熟睡，
包裹在花蕾中，
隐藏在光滑的蛋壳里，
受到鸟巢的呵护，
而你们遥远的蓝天
色彩褪败自愧不如。



•    Line 1: Who are we?
•    Line 3: Who are you?
•    subterfuge: excuse
•    probe and pry: try to search by poking into our world
•    eavedrop: hear by chance or without the speaker’s notice
•    What does the poet compare the children’s world and the adults’ respectively to?
•    Why does he use words like “mock,” “faded” and “remoter”?


Jenny Joseph (1932-)
Poet
Born in Birmingham, England, Joseph graduated from Oxford University with honors (1953). She worked for a number of provincial English newspapers before moving to South Africa in 1957. There she worked for a publisher and taught at the Central Indian High School in Johannesburg. She returned to England and, with her husband, managed a pub in London between 1969 and 1972. She began teaching English as a second language at West London College in 1972 and served for several years as an adult-education instructor. Between 1966 and 1968, she co-authored several children’s books. Her more recent volumes of verse include Ghosts and Other Company (1997) and Extended Similes (1997). Among her several awards are a Society of Authors traveling scholarship (1995) and the Forward Poetry Prize (1995). One critic noted that when compared to her earliest work, her later work shows “more warmth, more empathy, . . . she is concerned with human characters rather than archetypes.” The same critic praises Joseph’s ability to create dramatic monologues based on vernacular speech.
For further information about Jenny Joseph, please consult the following website:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/experience_literature8e/poetry/joseph.htm.

WARNING
Jenny Joseph (1932-)

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

•    What do you think of an old lady wearing purple clothes and a red hat?
•    I you can spend money on brandy, summer gloves, and satin sandals, how can you complain that you don’t have money for butter?
•    What other things does the poetess say she would do when she gets old?
•    sobriety: clear-minded-ness as opposed to the state of being drunk
•    Who might “you” be?
•    What kind of life does the poetess depict for “you”??
•    hoard: buy or get in large quantities
•    What does the poetess say she must do now?
•    What is the main idea of this poem?




等我老了我要穿紫红的衣裳
还要戴一顶不合身不配套的红帽。
我要用养老金来买白兰地和夏季手套
还有绣花凉鞋，并抱怨没有钱买黄油。
当我走累了就坐在人行道上
大口地吞咽商店里供品尝的食品，乱按警报
用拐杖在路边栏杆上拨响
以弥补年轻时的循规蹈矩。
我要穿着拖鞋到外面去淋雨
在别人的花园里摘花掰草
还要学会啐痰。


你就穿糟糕的衬衣再多发点体
一口气吃掉三磅重的红肠
或面包盐菜吃它一个星期
整箱购买钢笔铅笔杯托等等东西。

但如今咱们还得穿上干燥的裤衣
交纳房租并不得随便骂街
还得给孩子们把表率树立。
咱们还得请客吃饭还得看报学习。

兴许我现在就应该练习练习？
免得认识我的人会感到过分[屏蔽]诧异
当我突然变老，并穿起紫红的裙衣。



Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Poet
Born 21 May, 1688, in London, Alexander Pope was educated at Catholic schools. His disease—apparently tuberculosis of the bone—became evident when he was about twelve. Later in Pope's life, he was described as "about four feet six high; very humpbacked and deformed." William Wycherley, impressed by some of Pope's early poetry, introduced him into fashionable London literary circles in 1704. Public attention came with the publication of Pastorals in 1709. The Rape of the Lock helped secure Pope's reputation as a leading poet of the age. Pope moved to his villa in Twickenham in 1717. While there he received visitors, attacked his literary contemporaries, and continued to publish poetry. He died on 21 May, 1744, at Twickenham.
For further information about Alexander Pope, please consult the following website:
http://people.umass.edu/sconstan/popebio.html.

THE QUIET LIFE
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)



Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.

Blest, who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix'd; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

幸福之人无忧虑，
家传良田三亩许，
浸肺舒心好空气，
脚踏故乡地。

牛羊供奶田供粮，
皮毛做衣暖洋洋；
大树庇荫夏乘凉，
冬天炉火旺。

无虑无忧得天佑，
时光岁月缓缓流，
身体无恙心自幽，
不论夜与昼。

夜晚安睡日用功，
劳逸结合好轻松，
清白天真在心中，
心静思如空。

默默今生无人问，
死时悄然也不闻；
静静离开此红尘，
坟头无碑文。


•    Please read this poem and find what kind of life the poet wishes to lead.
•    paternal acres: farm land inherited from one’s father
•    Stanza 2: The phrase supply with is used in these lines.
•    unconcern’dly: unconcernedly, unworriedly, leisurely
•    study and ease: read and relax
•    meditation: thinking
•    stone: tombstone



Thomas Campbell (1777-1844)
Poet
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, July 27, 1777, Thomas Campbell was obliged to resort to private teaching. He attained considerable distinction at the university. He very early gave proofs of his aptitude for literary composition, especially in the department of poetry. At the age of twenty in Edinburgh, he attended lectures at the university, not unknown to a circle of young men then resident in the Scottish metropolis, whose names have become historic. Among these were Walter Scott, Henry Brougham, James Jeffrey, Dr. Thomas Brown, John Leyden and James Grahame. In 1799, his poem, "The Pleasures of Hope," was published. For more than three-fourths of a century, the poem has maintained its popularity.
Critics may dispute regarding the comparative merits of his longer works; and, as they incline toward didactic or narrative poetry, may prefer the one composition to the other. Both are entitled to praise and honor, but it is on his lyrics that the future reputation of Campbell must principally rest. They have taken their place, never to be disturbed, in the popular heart; and, until the language in which they are composed perishes, they are certain to endure. He died on July 15, 1844, at the age of sixty-seven. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
For further information about Thomas Campbell, please consult the following website:
http://www.2020site.org/poetry/tc.html.

THE RIVER OF LIFE
Thomas Campbell (1777-1844)



The more we live, more brief appear
Our life's succeeding stages;
A day to childhood seems a year,
And years like passing ages.

The gladsome current of our youth,
Ere passion yet disorders,
Steals lingering like a river smooth
Along its grassy borders.

But as the careworn cheek grows wan,
And sorrow's shafts fly thicker,
Ye stars, that measure life to man,
Why seem your courses quicker?

When joys have lost their bloom and breath,
And life itself is vapid,
Why, as we reach the Falls of Death
Feel we its tide more rapid?

It may be strange—yet who would change
Time's course to slower speeding,
When one by one our friends have gone,
And left our bosoms bleeding?

Heaven gives our years of fading strength
Indemnifying fleetness;
And those of youth, a seeming length,
Proportion'd to their sweetness.


越是到后期阶段
生活显得越短暂；
儿时一天如一年，
一年就像十年般。

韶华青春似江河，
情深绵绵更清澈，
潺潺流淌无波折，
两岸青草呈翠色。

一旦愁容挂两腮，
哀箭似雨穿胸怀，
命运星辰照下来，
何显人生更急快？

青春欢乐气渐短，
生命失色好惨淡。
死亡瀑布泻飞泉，
百丈只需一眨眼。

时光轨迹谁能改，
让它速度慢下来，
亲朋好友尽离开，
内心流血何悲哀？

上天注定人生路：
幸得老迈飞不住；
青春年少方起步，
甜蜜岁月漫漫度。


•    steal: move away in secret and silence
•    careworn: worn with worries
•    wan: pale, colorless
•    shaft: length of something
•    vapid: tasteless; flat
•    indemnify: repay








Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1827)
Poet
Born on August 4, 1792 into an aristocratic family, Percy Bysshe Shelley attended Syon House Academy and Eton and in 1810 he entered the Oxford University College.
In 1811 Shelley was expelled from the college for publishing The Necessity Of Atheism. Shelley's father withdrew his inheritance in favor of a small annuity, after he eloped with the 16-year old Harriet Westbrook, the daughter of a London tavern owner. In 1813 Shelley published his first important poem, the atheistic Queen Mab. His marriage to Harriet was a failure. In 1814 Shelley traveled abroad with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. During this journey Shelley wrote an unfinished novella, The Assassins (1814). Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine in 1816. Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft in 1816.
Shelley spent the summer of 1816 with Lord Byron at Lake Geneva. In 1817, he published The Revolt Of Islam and the much anthologized "Ozymandias" appeared in 1818. Among Shelley's popular poems are the Odes "To the West Wind" and "To a Skylark" and Adonais, an elegy for Keats.
In 1818 the Shelleys moved to Italy, where Byron was residing. In 1819 they went to Rome and in 1820 to Pisa. To welcome his friend Leigh Hunt, he sailed to Leghorn. During the stormy return voyage to Lerici, his small schooner the Ariel sank and Shelley drowned with Edward Williams on July 8, 1822. The bodies were washed ashore at Viareggio, where, in the presence of Lord Byron and Leigh Hunt, they were burned on the beach. Shelley was later buried in Rome.
For further information about Shelly, please consult the following website:
http://www.online-literature.com/shelley_percy/.

A LAMENT
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1827)



O World! O Life! O Time!
On whose last steps I climb,
Trembling at that where I had stood before;
When will return the glory of your prime?
No more—oh, never more!

Out of the day and night
A joy has taken flight:
Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar
Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight
No more—oh, never more!

哦，世界！哦，人生！哦，时间！
在你最后的台阶上登攀，
回望先前不禁心惊胆战：
韶华的荣光何时能再现？
不会再现——哦，永远不会再现！

不论是在白昼还是夜晚
已逝去曾有的欢乐瞬间：
到如今新春、盛夏与冬寒
满怀的是愁哀，欢乐安在?
不会再现——哦，永远不会再现！


•    Line 2: on the last steps of world, life and time
•    Line 4: I am shocked at those steps I climbed before.
•    LL 6-7: A joy has fled from the day and night.
•    hoar: grayish white
•    LL 8-10: My heart is now filled only with grief but no delight.




















Lecture 9
John Donne (1572-1631)
Poet / Churchman
Born in London, John Donne entered the University of Oxford at the age of 11. According to some accounts, he spent the next three years at the University of Cambridge but took no degree at either university. He began the study of law at Lincoln's Inn, London, in 1592. Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Keeper of the Great Seal, in 1598. His secret marriage in 1601 to Egerton's niece resulted in his dismissal from this position and in a brief imprisonment. During the next few years Donne made a meager living as a lawyer.
Donne became a priest of the Anglican Church in 1615 and was appointed royal chaplain later that year. In 1621 he was named dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. He attained eminence as a preacher, delivering sermons that are regarded as the most brilliant and eloquent of his time.
Donne's poetry embraces a wide range of secular and religious subjects. He wrote cynical verse about inconstancy, poems about true love, Neoplatonic lyrics on the mystical union of lovers' souls and bodies and brilliant satires and hymns depicting his own spiritual struggles.
Obsessed with the idea of death, Donne preached what was called his own funeral sermon just a few weeks before he died in London on March 31, 1631.
For further information about John Donne, please consult the following website: http://www.online-literature.com/donne/.

DEATH BE NOT PROUD
John Donne (1572-1631)



Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure: then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

死神，你莫骄傲，尽管有人说
你恐怖而强悍，然而，并非如此，
你自以为曾把谁打倒，而他们并未死掉，
可怜的死神，你也不能把我杀戮；
休憩、睡眠，多么惬意，而这不过是你的写照，
你，只能给人更多的欢愉，
我们最优秀的人儿，早早随你而去，
他们的肉体早一些休息，灵魂早一些解脱。
你是命运、机会、君主和亡命徒的奴隶，
你同毒药、战争和疾病同居一起，
罂粟、魔咒同样能令我们入睡，
或更甚于你；你又何必洋洋得意？
小睡过后，便是永恒的清醒，
不会再有死亡；死神，你将死去。


•    What does the poet think of death?
•    LL 3-4: Those you overthrow do not die, nor can you kill me.
•    LL 5-6: Much pleasure flows from rest and sleep, but much more pleasure must flow from death.
•    delivery: liberation
•    LL 11-12: Death is no more powerful than poppy or charms. Why should it be so proud (swell)?






Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
Poetess
Born in London on 5 December 1830, Christina Rossetti was published in the Germ, the Pre-Raphaelite journal, and sat for a number of paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites, including some by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
The existential themes in her poetry turned from unrequited love to the renunciation of earthly love. Death hovered above all of her work. Her famous poem "Goblin's Market" is an amazing meditation on women as sexual prey.
She was a devout Anglican who never married. There's this sexist assumption that something is solemn about women who never marry. Men who don't marry seem roguish and sexually charged. She died on 29 December 1894.

For further information about Christina Rossetti, please consult the following website:
http://www.walrus.com/~gibralto/acorn/germ/CRossetti.html/.




SONG
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)


When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.


当我死了，亲爱的人，
不要为我把哀歌唱；
不要把玫瑰种我坟，
也莫栽柏树庇荫凉——
只愿青草盖我坟上，
挂着湿润雨水露珠；
假如你愿意，请记起，
假如你愿意，就忘记。

我看不到大树林荫，
我感受不到那雨露；
我听不到婉转夜莺
鸣唱哀歌表达痛苦——
我只能如梦般穿行
在不升不落的霞雾，
或许我可能会记起，
或许我可能会忘记。


•    cypress: 柏树
•    Line 5: May the green grass be above me.
•    haply: perhaps


MUSIC, WHEN SOFT VOICES DIE
Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1827)


Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory,
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.

当歌声已消逝的时候，
音乐还在记忆中回响；
当紫薇已凋谢的时候，
芬芳还在空气中荡漾。

当玫瑰已败落的时候，
花叶把花朵灵榻铺起；
而当你已故去的时候，
爱情将依旧怀念着你。


•    Please read the poem carefully and try to identify the sentences contained in the lines.
•    thy thoughts: the thoughts about thee
•    LL 7-8: Love itself shall slumber on thy thoughts when thou art gone.
















Anna Lætitia Barbauld (1743-1825)
Poetess
Born on June 20th, 1743, Anna Lætitia Aikin received a conventional domestic education from her mother. She later convinced her father to teach her some Latin and Greek.
In 1758, Mr. Aikin moved to Warrington to act as theological tutor. Anna Lætitia Aikin became a close friend of Joseph Priestley, whose verse is believed to have inspired her to write her own.
Anna's younger brother, John Aikin, strongly encouraged her to write and to publish. Her first published pieces were appeared in 1771. In 1774, Anna Lætitia Aikin married Rochemont Barbauld, the minister of a church. A number of Barbauld's poems celebrate their love and friendship.
Together, the Barbaulds established a boarding school, which they managed until 1785. They had no children of their own, but adopted her brother's third son. Anna drew heavily on her experience with children in her writing.
By 1790, however, Barbauld's published writing was focusing primarily on political and social concerns.
Unfortunately, the Barbauld's home life deteriorated tragically in later years. Her husband became mentally ill, and increasingly violent. He attacked her with a table knife. She escaped by leaping through a window. The once-happy couple separated. On November 11, 1808, Rochemont escaped from his keeper and drowned himself in the New River. Anna wrote of her grief and loss. Anna Lætitia Aikin Barbaud died on 9 March 1825.
For further information about Anna Lætitia Barbauld, please consult the following website:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barbauld/biography.html.

A THOUGHT ON DEATH
Anna Lætitia Barbauld (1743-1825)


When life as opening buds is sweet,
And golden hopes the fancy greet,
And Youth prepares his joys to meet,--
Alas! how hard it is to die!

When just is seized some valued prize,
And duties press, and tender ties
Forbid the soul from earth to rise,--
How awful then it is to die!

When, one by one, those ties are torn,
And friend from friend is snatched forlorn,
And man is left alone to mourn,--
Ah then, how easy 'tis to die!

When faith is firm, and conscience clear,
And words of peace the spirit cheer,
And visioned glories half appear,--
'Tis joy, 'tis triumph then to die.

When trembling limbs refuse their weight,
And films, slow gathering, dim the sight,
And clouds obscure the mental light,--
'Tis nature's precious boon to die.


当生命像含苞的花蕾，
满怀希望幸福又甜美，
青春正准备迎接欢愉——
唉！多么艰难的是死亡！

当功亦将成名亦将就，
责任重负与亲情带纽
容不得灵魂升天出窍——
多么可怕的又是死亡！

当一根根纽带被扯断，
亲朋好友都尽奔黄泉，
独自一人在哀鸣悲叹——
啊，多么轻松的是死亡！

当信念如磐内心似镜，
轻言细语宽慰着心灵，
已经看到光辉的前景——
欢乐和胜利就是死亡！

当四肢颤抖失去体力，
视觉朦胧渐渐地消失，
云遮雾障阻断了神智——
难得的福份便是死亡。


•    Read the poem carefully and try to understand what the poet thinks of death at different stages of life.
•    Line 2: And golden hopes greet the fancy
•    Line 5: When some valued prize is just seized
•    LL 6-7: Love and kinship cannot afford death.
•    forlorn: deserted, abandoned; hopeless
•    Line 15: when we have seen our glorious goals being achieved
•    films: something that blurs our sight
•    boon: benefit, fortune, godsend








Mary Elizabeth Frye (1904?-?)
Poetess
No exact information available.
The poem first appeared publicly in a Federal Printing Press postcard. In 2000, a Mary Elizabeth Frye claimed to have originally composed a different but very similar version. The poem have been in a number of different versions. The one we are going to be introduced to is just another of them.

I DID NOT DIE
Mary Elizabeth Frye (1904?-?)


Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!

不要站在我坟头哭泣，
我并不在那里面安息。

我是刮起的千阵疾风；
我是钻石闪耀在雪中；
我是那阳光洒向稻谷；
我是那秋天绵绵雨露。

当你从晨寂中醒过来，
我是那鸟儿展翅飞快，
默默地翱翔攀升盘旋；
我是那夜空星光灿烂。

不要站在我坟头哭泣，
我并不在那里面安息。
不要站在我坟头悲涕，
我不在那里未曾死去。


•    The poetess writes this poem as if she were the one who has died. She is telling those who are close to her not to be sad about her death and that they can still feel her presence in all things around.
•    glint: sparkle, shine


Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Statesman / Writer / Scientist
Born in Boston on January 17, 1706, Benjamin Franklin was the tenth of the 11 children of a soap maker. He ran away to Philadelphia in 1723. In 1729, Benjamin Franklin bought a newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin not only printed the paper, but often contributed pieces to the paper under aliases. In 1733 he started publishing Poor Richard's Almanack.
Franklin helped launch projects to pave, clean and light Philadelphia's streets. He helped to launch the Library Company in 1731. Thus was born the nation's first subscription library. In 1743, he helped to launch the American Philosophical Society, the first learned society in America. Recognizing that the city needed better help in treating the sick, Franklin brought together a group who formed the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1751.
In 1736, he organized Philadelphia's Union Fire Company, the first in the city. His famous saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," was actually fire-fighting advice.
In 1743, he had already invented a heat-efficient stove — called the Franklin stove — to help warm houses efficiently. Among Franklin's other inventions are swim fins, the glass armonica and bifocals.
In the early 1750's he turned to the study of electricity. His observations, including his kite experiment which verified the nature of electricity and lightning brought Franklin international fame.
Politics became more of an active interest for Franklin in the 1750s. In 1757, he went to England and remained there to 1775, as a Colonial representative of Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
In 1765, Franklin was caught by surprise by America's overwhelming opposition to the Stamp Act. His testimony before Parliament helped persuade the members to repeal the law. Thomas Hutchinson was an English-appointed governor of Massachusetts. Although he pretended to take the side of the people of Massachusetts in their complaints against England, he was actually still working for the King. Franklin got a hold of some letters in which Hutchinson called for "an abridgment of what are called English Liberties" in America. He sent the letters to America where much of the population was outraged. After leaking the letters Franklin was called to Whitehall, the English Foreign Ministry, where he was condemned in public. Then Franklin came home.
He started working actively for Independence. Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and worked on a committee of five that helped to draft the Declaration of Independence. Though much of the writing is Thomas Jefferson's, much of the contribution is Franklin's. In 1776 Franklin signed the Declaration, and afterward sailed to France as an ambassador to France.
The French loved Franklin. The humble American dressed like a backwoodsman but was a match for any wit in the world. He spoke French, though stutteringly. He was a favorite of the ladies. Several years earlier his wife Deborah had died, and Benjamin was now a notorious flirt.
In part via Franklin's popularity, the government of France signed a Treaty of Alliance with the Americans in 1778. Franklin also helped secure loans. Franklin was on hand to sign the Treaty of Paris in 1783, after the Americans had won the Revolution.
Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at the age of 84. 20,000 people attended his funeral.
For further information about Franklin, please consult the following website:
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/index.htm/.

DEATH IS A FISHERMAN
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)


Death is a fisherman, the world we see
His fish-pond is, and we the fishes be;
His net some general sickness; howe'er he
Is not so kind as other fishers be;
For if they take one of the smaller fry,
They throw him in again, he shall not die:
But death is sure to kill all he can get,
And all is fish with him that comes to net.

死神是渔夫，世界是鱼池，
我们便都是那池中的鱼；
死神的渔网就是那病魔；
但他不比别的渔夫仁厚：
如果网到的只是条鱼仔，
别的渔夫会放一条生路。
但被死神捕获只有死亡，
所有的鱼都要落入其网。


•    What does Franklin compare death, the world, and the people to respectively?
•    Line 3: His net (is) some general sickness;
•    fry: young fish that are newly hatched
•    come to net: get caught in the net



Lecture 10
LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY
Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822)



The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle--
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea--
What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?

泉水总是向河水汇流，
河水又汇入海中，
天宇的轻风永远融有
一种甜蜜的感情；
世上哪有什么孤零零？
万物由于自然律
都必融汇于一种精神。
何以你我却独异？

你看高山在吻着碧空，
波浪也相互拥抱；
你曾见花儿彼此不容：
姊妹把弟兄轻蔑？
阳光紧紧地拥抱大地，
月光在吻着海波：
但这些接吻又有何益，
要是你不肯吻我？

•    mingle: mix
•    divine: holy
•    Why not I mingle with thy spirit?
•    clasp: hold on to, grasp









ONE WORD IS TOO OFTEN PROFANED
Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822)



One word is too often profaned
For me to profane it;
One feeling too falsely disdained
For thee to disdain it;
One hope is too like despair
For prudence to smother;
And pity from thee more dear
Than that from another.

I can give not what men call love;
But wilt thou accept not
The worship the heart lifts above
And the heavens reject not,--
The desire of the moth for the star,
Of the night for the morrow,
The devotion to something afar
From the sphere of our sorrow?

有一个字常被人滥用，
我不想再滥用它；
有一种感情不被看重，
你岂能再轻视它？
有一种希望太象绝望，
慎重也无法压碎；
只求怜悯起自你心上，
对我就万分珍贵。

我奉献的不能叫爱情，
它只算得是崇拜，
连上天对它都肯垂青，
想你该不致见外？
这有如飞蛾向往星天，
暗夜想拥抱天明，
怎能不让悲惨的尘寰
对遥远事物倾心？


•    profane: disrespect
•    disdain: scorn
•    prudence: caution
•    smother: oppress
•    Please try to understand the question raised in the second stanza.
•    But wilt thou not accept the worship which the heart lifts above and which heaven does not reject?
•    The desire of the night for morning

OZYMANDIAS
Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822)



I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

我遇见一个来自古国的旅客，
他说：有两只断落的巨大石腿
站在沙漠中……附近还半埋着
一块破碎的石雕的脸；他那绉眉，
那瘪唇，那威严中的轻蔑和冷漠，
在表明雕刻家很懂得那迄今
还留在这岩石上的[屏蔽]和愿望，
虽然早死了刻绘的手，原型的心；
在那石座上，还有这样的铭记：
“我是奥西曼德斯，众王之王。
强悍者呵，谁能和我的业绩相比！”
这就是一切了，再也没有其他。
在这巨大的荒墟四周，无边无际，
只见一片荒凉而寂寥的平沙。

•    antique: ancient
•    trunkless: without the body
•    visage: face
•    sneer: scorn
•    LL 7-8: Those passions outlive the artist (whose hand mocked them) and the king (whose heart fed them).
•    Line 8: The sculptor understood those feelings very well, and he vividly represented the facial expressions in his sculpture.
•    The last three lines remind us of what is said in The Dream of the red Mansion: “古今将相在何方？荒冢一堆草没了。“







THE INDIAN SERENADE
Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822)




I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright.
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Has led me--who knows how?
To thy chamber-window, Sweet!

The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream--
The champak odours fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart,
As I must die on thine,
O beloved as thou art!

Oh lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast;
Oh press it close to thine again,
Where it will break at last!

午夜初眠梦见了你，
我从这美梦里醒来，
风儿正悄悄地呼吸，
星星放射着光彩；
午夜初眠梦见了你，
呵，我起来，任凭脚步
（是什么精灵在作祟？）
把我带到你的gate户。

漂游的乐曲昏迷在
幽暗而寂静的水上，
金香木的芬芳溶化了，
象梦中甜蜜的想象；
那夜莺已不再怨诉，
怨声死在她的心怀；
让我死在你的怀中吧，
因为你是这么可爱！

哦，把我从草上举起！
我完了！我昏迷，倒下！
让你的爱情化为吻
朝我的眼和嘴唇倾洒。
我的脸苍白而冰冷，
我的心跳得多急切；
哦，快把它压在你心上，
它终将在那儿碎裂。


•    I wake up from dreams of you soon after I go to sleep.
•    I get out as if carried by a spirit and come to your window.
•    airs: music
•    champak: 金香木
•    LL 5-7, Stanza 2: The nightingale’s complaint dies on her heart as I must die on yours.
•    LL 3-4, Stanza 3: Please give me a rain of kisses on my lips and eyelids.
•    Last two lines: Press my heart to yours again, and my heart will break in your heart.

ODE TO THE WEST WIND
Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822)


1
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, O hear!

哦，狂暴的西风，秋之生命的呼吸！
你无形，但枯死的落叶被你横扫，
有如鬼魅碰到了巫师，纷纷逃避：
黄的，黑的，灰的，红得像患肺痨，
呵，重染疫疠的一群：西风呵，是你
以车驾把有冀的种子摧送到
黑暗的冬床上，它们就躺在那里，
像是墓中的死穴，冰冷，深藏，低贱，
直等到春天，你碧空的姊妹吹起
她的喇叭，在沉睡的大地上响遍，
（唤出嫩芽，像羊群一样，觅食空中）
将色和香充满了山峰和平原。
不羁的精灵呵，你无处不远行；
破坏者兼保护者：听吧，你且聆听！


•    enchanter: a priest who drives away ghosts with charms
•    hectic: feverish as from tuberculosis
•    pestilence: bubonic plague
•    chariot: ride on a chariot, a horse-drawn two-wheeled vehicle used in ancient warfare
•    azure: blue
•    clarion: trumpet
•    Why does Shelly call West Wind both a destroyer and a preserver?


2
Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean,
Angels of rain and lightning; there are spread
On the blue surface of thine airy surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith's height--
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail, will burst: O hear!

没入你的急流，当高空一片混乱，
流云象大地的枯叶一样被撕扯
脱离天空和海洋的纠缠的枝干。
成为雨和电的使者：它们飘落
在你的磅礴之气的蔚蓝的波面，
有如狂女的飘扬的头发在闪烁，
从天穹的最遥远而模糊的边沿
直抵九霄的中天，到处都在摇曳
欲来雷雨的卷发，对濒死的一年
你唱出了葬歌，而这密集的黑夜
将成为它广大墓陵的一座圆顶，
里面正有你的万钧之力的凝结；
那是你的浑然之气，从它会迸涌
黑色的雨，冰雹和火焰：哦，你听！



•    ‘mid: amid
•    commotion: disorder
•    shook: here same as shaken
•    surge: flow
•    maenad: a wildly excited woman
•    zenith: highest point in the sky
•    locks: hairs
•    dirge: funeral song
•    sepulchre: burial place
•    congregate: gather together
•    might: power



3
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams,
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,
Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic's level powers
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know
Thy voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!

是你，你将蓝色的地中海唤醒，
而它曾经昏睡了一整个夏天，
被澄澈水流的回旋催眠入梦，
就在巴亚海湾的一个浮石岛边，
它梦见了古老的宫殿和楼阁
在水天辉映的波影里抖颤，
而且都生满青苔、开满花朵，
那芬芳真迷人欲醉！呵，为了给你
让一条路，大西洋的汹涌的浪波
把自己向两边劈开，而深在渊底
那海洋中的花草和泥污的森林
虽然枝叶扶疏，却没有精力；
听到你的声音，它们已吓得发青：
一边颤栗，一边自动萎缩：哦，你听！

•    lull: gently shake
•    coil: twirl
•    pumice: light rock full of ayr spaces
•    Baiae: a bath resort in ancient Rome
•    faint: weaken
•    chasm: a deep hole in the ground
•    oozy: leaking moisture
•    sapless: having no saps (plant fluid)
•    foliage: leaves
•    despoil: loot, plunder



4
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,
As then, when to outstrip the skiey speed
Scarce seemed a vision, I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
O, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

哎，假如我是一片枯叶被你浮起，
假如我是能和你飞跑的云雾，
是一个波浪，和你的威力同喘息，
假如我分有你的脉搏，仅仅不如
你那么自由，哦，无法约束的生命！
假如我能像在少年时，凌风而舞
便成了你的伴侣，悠游天空
（因为呵，那时候，要想追你上云霄，
似乎并非梦幻），我就不致像如今
这样焦躁地要和你争相祈祷。
哦，举起我吧，当我是水波、树叶、浮云！
我跌在生活底荆棘上，我流血了！
这被岁月的重轭所[屏蔽]的生命
原是和你一样：骄傲、轻捷而不驯。

•    The poetess writes this poem as if she were the one who has died. She is telling those who are close to her not to be sad about her death and that they can still feel her presence in all things around.
•    glint: sparkle, shine


5
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth;
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawakened earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

把我当作你的竖琴吧，有如树林：
尽管我的叶落了，那有什么关系！
你巨大的合奏所振起的音乐
将染有树林和我的深邃的秋意：
虽忧伤而甜蜜。呵，但愿你给予我
狂暴的精神！奋勇者呵，让我们合一！
请把我枯死的思想向世界吹落，
让它像枯叶一样促成新的生命！
哦，请听从这一篇符咒似的诗歌，
就把我的话语，像是灰烬和火星
从还未熄灭的炉火向人间播散！
让预言的喇叭通过我的嘴唇
把昏睡的大地唤醒吧！要是冬天
已经来了，西风呵，春日怎能遥远？


•    The poetess writes this poem as if she were the one who has died. She is telling those who are close to her not to be sad about her death and that they can still feel her presence in all things around.
•    glint: sparkle, shine














Lecture 11
John Keats (1795-1821)
Poet
Born in London on October 31, 1795, John Keats was the oldest of four children, who remained deeply devoted to each other. He was educated at Clarke's School in Enfield, where he began a translation of the Aeneid. In1811 he was apprenticed to a surgeon-apothecary. Before devoting himself entirely to poetry, Keats worked as a dresser and junior house surgeon. In London he had met the editor of The Examiner, Leigh Hunt, who introduced him to other young Romantics, including Shelley.
Keats's first book, Poems, was published in 1817. Keats's greatest works were written in the late 1810s, among them "Lamia", "The Eve of St. Agnes", the great odes including "Ode to a Nightingale", Ode To Autumn" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn".
In 1820 the second volume of Keats poems appeared and gained critical success. However, Keats was suffering from tuberculosis and his poems were marked with sadness partly because he was too poor to marry Fanny Brawne, the woman he loved.
Declining Shelley's invitation to join him at Pisa, Keats went to Rome, where he died at the age of 25, on February 23, 1821. Keats told his friend Joseph Severn that he wanted on his grave just the line, "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."
For further information about Keats, please consult the following website:
http://www.online-literature.com/keats/.






LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
John Keats (1795-1821)


O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!
So haggard and so woebegone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.

I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheek a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

"I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful -a faery's child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery's song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said
`I love thee true.'

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept, and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dreamed -Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dreamed
On the cold hill's side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried -`La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side.

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing."


•    What does the poet think of death?
•    LL 3-4: Those you overthrow do not die, nor can you kill me.
•    LL 5-6: Much pleasure flows from rest and sleep, but much more pleasure must flow from death.
•    delivery: liberation
•    LL 11-12: Death is no more powerful than poppy or charms. Why should it be so proud (swell)?
•    What does the poet think of death?
•    LL 3-4: Those you overthrow do not die, nor can you kill me.
•    LL 5-6: Much pleasure flows from rest and sleep, but much more pleasure must flow from death.
•    delivery: liberation
•    LL 11-12: Death is no more powerful than poppy or charms. Why should it be so proud (swell)?
•    What does the poet think of death?
•    LL 3-4: Those you overthrow do not die, nor can you kill me.
•    LL 5-6: Much pleasure flows from rest and sleep, but much more pleasure must flow from death.
•    delivery: liberation
•    LL 11-12: Death is no more powerful than poppy or charms. Why should it be so proud (swell)?

ODE TO AUTUMN
John Keats (1795-1821)

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

•    What does the poet think of death?
•    LL 3-4: Those you overthrow do not die, nor can you kill me.
•    LL 5-6: Much pleasure flows from rest and sleep, but much more pleasure must flow from death.
•    delivery: liberation
•    LL 11-12: Death is no more powerful than poppy or charms. Why should it be so proud (swell)?
•    What does the poet think of death?
•    LL 3-4: Those you overthrow do not die, nor can you kill me.
•    LL 5-6: Much pleasure flows from rest and sleep, but much more pleasure must flow from death.
•    delivery: liberation
•    LL 11-12: Death is no more powerful than poppy or charms. Why should it be so proud (swell)?
•    What does the poet think of death?
•    LL 3-4: Those you overthrow do not die, nor can you kill me.
•    LL 5-6: Much pleasure flows from rest and sleep, but much more pleasure must flow from death.
•    delivery: liberation
•    LL 11-12: Death is no more powerful than poppy or charms. Why should it be so proud (swell)?


ON THE GRASSHOPPER AND CRICKET
John Keats (1795-1821)

The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead
In summer luxury,—he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

•    Please read the poem carefully and try to identify the sentences contained in the lines.
•    thy thoughts: the thoughts about thee
•    LL 7-8: Love itself shall slumber on thy thoughts when thou art gone.





BRIGHT STAR, WOULD I WERE STEADFAST AS THOU ART
John Keats (1795-1821)

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.

•    Read the poem carefully and try to understand what the poet thinks of death at different stages of life.
•    Line 2: And golden hopes greet the fancy
•    Line 5: When some valued prize is just seized
•    LL 6-7: Love and kinship cannot afford death.
•    forlorn: deserted, abandoned; hopeless
•    Line 15: when we have seen our glorious goals being achieved

ODE ON A GRECIAN URN
John Keats (1795-1821)


Thou still unravished bride of quietness!
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flow'ry tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal -yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoyed,
For ever panting and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty, -that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."











•    The poetess writes this poem as if she were the one who has died. She is telling those who are close to her not to be sad about her death and that they can still feel her presence in all things around.
•    glint: sparkle, shine
•    The poetess writes this poem as if she were the one who has died. She is telling those who are close to her not to be sad about her death and that they can still feel her presence in all things around.
•    glint: sparkle, shine
•    The poetess writes this poem as if she were the one who has died. She is telling those who are close to her not to be sad about her death and that they can still feel her presence in all things around.
•    glint: sparkle, shine
•    The poetess writes this poem as if she were the one who has died. She is telling those who are close to her not to be sad about her death and that they can still feel her presence in all things around.
•    glint: sparkle, shine
•    The poetess writes this poem as if she were the one who has died. She is telling those who are close to her not to be sad about her death and that they can still feel her presence in all things around.
•    glint: sparkle, shine
•    The poetess writes this poem as if she were the one who has died. She is telling those who are close to her not to be sad about her death and that they can still feel her presence in all things around.
•    glint: sparkle, shine