UnderstandingPoetry英语诗歌欣赏讲义.doc

Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more.------------------------------------------author------------------------------------------dateUnderstandingPoetry英语诗歌欣赏讲义Gdkies 英语诗歌欣赏 I．INTRODUCTION （介绍）No one has adequately defined poetry. The poets speak abstractly and romantically when defining their domain. For example, Samuel Taylor Coleridge rather egotistically called poetry, “the best order.” T.S. Eliot spoke as an idealist when he explained poetry as “not the assertion that something is true, but the making of that truth more fully real to us.” The average reader sees poetry as, “the literature that is written in some kind of verse form..” Perhaps it is sufficient to say that poetry is literature that is not prose.Yet, most people recognize that some literature labeled poetry is not so and that some prose is poetic. Merely setting sentences in verse form does not make poetry. Therefore, poetry must have some requisites.Aside from the basic demand that poetry “say something,” poetry is characterized by the following elements: a musical effect created by rhythm and sounds, a precise and fresh imagery, and multiple levels of interpretation suggested by the connotation of the closer words and by allusions.A poem, however, should not be regarded as a marriage of technical devices and ideas. The devices should enhance or expose the poem’s meaning(s). But, for convenience’s sake, the elements of poetry will be focused on separately in the following so that the reader can devote his /her attention to the effects achieved by certain poetic conventions. II. THE MUSICAL EFFECT OF POETRY （音乐效果）Poetry has its roots in song. The earliest poetic forms were the epics and ballads sung by travelling bards and minstrels. Though no longer sung, poems retain their musical quality. This section deals with the elements of poetry, which create that musicality.A. Meter—loosely defined meter is the “beat” or rhythm of the poem. It is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables used in the poem. Meter is shown by a visual code. The accent mark ( / ) indicates the stressed syllable, the mark ( ) indicates an unstressed syllable.Certain combinations of these syllables are most frequently employed in English verse. One unit, or combination, is called a foot. The following are the basic metric feet. Type Pattern Example iambic 抑扬格 control trochaic 扬抑格 tiger anapestic 抑抑扬格 contradict dactylic 扬抑抑格 foolishness Spondaic 扬扬格 moonstoneThus, the number of syllables in a line is relevant, but the number of stresses is more important in determining the pace of the poem. The more stresses in a line the more weighty and slow-moving is it. Alternately, a preponderance of unstressed syllables gives lightness and guideness to a poem.These metrical feet build the rhythm of the poem. When a line of poetry is divided into metrical feet, the line is named after the number of feet contained therein. The types of lines are: Monometer: 单音步 one foot per line Dimeter: 双音步 two feet per line Trimeter: 三音步 three feet per line Tetrameter: 四音步 four feet per line Pentameter: 五音步 five feet per line Hexameter: 六音步 six feet per line Heptameter: 七音步 seven feet per line Octometer: 八音步 eight feet per line (Rarely does a line contain eight feet or more.)Most poems are not written rigidly in one metric pattern. Monotony would ensure otherwise. The variety of a new foot interspersed among a set of regular feet can call attention to the words of those irregular feet or can obscure unimportant words. Meter is also influenced by pauses. Most metrical poetry evolves into a pattern of pauses at lines’ends. A caesura（停顿）, or pause within a line (usually indicated by a mark of punctuation), can alter, usually slow down, the meter. An enjambement（跨行）, or run-on line, can speed up the flow of the poem.Caesura—Be that as may be, she was in their song. (Robert Frost, “Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same”)Enjambement—This living hand, now warm and capable Of earnest grasping,… (Keats, “This living hand,”)B. Types of Rhyme 押韵种类 Rhyme—(or rime)--the repetition of similar ( or duplicate) sounds at regular intervals. (Usually this repetition occurs at the ends of lines.)1. End rhyme （脚韵、尾韵）---rhyme found at the ends of verse lines.Ex: Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain, 。