Emily Dickson 艾米丽

1、Emily Dickson I . Lifen1. Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, a small town in the state of Massachusetts. on December 10, 1830. n2. She was born to an extremely Religious, puritanical family. n3 .Her father was a very wealthy, successful and prominent lawyer and politician.but she was very passive

2、about any social and political activities.n4. Dickinson was educated at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, MassachusettsShe also built one of the first brick homes in Amherst on Main Street, which is now a National Historic Landmark The Homesteadone of the now preserv

3、ed Dickinson homes in the Emily Dickinson Historic District.The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, the Emily Dickinson Museum 2003. The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst (garden)The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst (garden)The Dickinson Homestead in AmherstThe Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, , Massachusetts

4、 Massachusetts (bedroom)(bedroom)TheThe Dickinson Dickinson Homestead inHomestead in AmherstAmherst(Dress)(Dress)nEmily Dickinsons poetry comes out in bursts. The poems are short, many of them being based on a single image or symbol.Within her little lyrics Dickinson addresses those issues that conc

5、erned the whole human beings, which include :nLove, ndeath, nnature, nreligion, nimmortality, npain, nbeauty.(1) poems without titles(2) directness, brevity, compact, severe economy of expression; highly compressed(3) elliptical, Ambiguity of meaningand syntax.(4) capital letters and the use of dash

6、es emphasis (5) short poems, mainly two stanzas n(6) rhetoric techniques: personification n(7) lyric highly subjective (8) influence of Christian tradition: nBiblical language and allusions(暗示暗示)nmeter of hymns(9) new England perspectives: Puritan introspection; brevity and intensity(10) innovation

7、in rhyme1.On poetrynLike Emerson, she thought that only the real poet could understand the world.nTruth, virtue and beauty are all the one thing. nThe most dignified beauty was embodied by the active, affirmative dignity. (-Emerson) nPoetry should express ideas through concrete images. nIt was the p

8、oets duty to express abstract ideas through vivid and fresh imagery.She was against the restriction of the traditional doctrines and argued for the depiction of ones inner world. 2.On nature Dickinson observed nature closely and described it vividly but never with the feeling of being lost in it, or

9、 altogether part of it, nor was she surprised when its creatures also kept their distance. She thought that nature was both kind and cruel, which was similar to Tennyson.3. on deathnShe wrote about nearly 600 poems on death.nHer attitude toward immortality was contradictory.n(1) My Life Closed Twice

10、 before Its Close n(2) Because I Cant Stop for Death n(3) I Heard a Fly Buzz When I died n(4) Wild Nights Wild Nights n(5) To Make a Prairien(6) Success Is Counted Sweetestn(7)Im Nobodyn1.Similaritiesn2.differences1.Similaritiesn(1) Thematically, they both extolled(赞美), in their different ways, an e

11、mergent America, its pexpansionpindividualism pAmericannessntheir poetry being part of “American Renaissance”n(2) Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by pbreaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameterpexhibiting a freedom in form unknown beforenthey

12、were pioneers in American poetry2. differences(1) nWhitman: seems to keep his eye on society at largenDickinson: explores the inner life of the individual(2) nWhitman: “national”nDickinson: “regional”Im nobody!1. Im nobody! Who are you?Are you nobody, too?Then theres a pair of usdont tell!Theyd bani

13、sh us, you know.1. Im nobody!2. How dreary to be somebody!How public, like a frogTo tell your name the livelong dayTo an admiring bog! ThemenThis poem is her most famous and most playful defense of the kind of spiritual privacy she favored, implying that to be a Nobody is a luxury incomprehensible t

14、o the dreary Somebodiesfor they are too busy keeping their names in circulation, croaking like frogs in a swamp in the summertime. TechniquesnBinary Oppositions:1.Nobody vs. somebody;2.An admiring bog vs. a frog;3. A public figure vs. admirers or audience.nAnalogies:1.Somebody, or a public (figure),

15、 is like a frog.2.The audience is like an admiring bog.TechniquesnShe uses her trademark dashes quite forcefully to interrupt lines and interfere with the flow of her poem, as in “How dreary to besomebody!”.nThe juxtaposition in the line “How publiclike a Frog”, combining elements not typically cons

16、idered together, and, thus, more powerfully conveying its meaning. TechniquesnFrogs are “public” like public figuresor somebodies because they are constantly “telling their name” croaking to the swamp, which is personified to the admiring public audience, and constantly reminding all the other frogs

17、 of their identities.2. Success Is Counted Sweetest 1.Success is counted sweetest aBy those who neer. succeed. bTo comprehend a nectar c Requires sorest need. bnThis stanza establishes the theme: that the person who best understands the meaning of success is the person who fails. nThis quatrain can

18、stand alone as a completed observation. nNeer: Example of syncope (词中省略), the omission of letters from the middle of a word. Red Letters: Alliteration (s sound) Blue Letters: Alliteration (k sound) 2. Not one of all the purple Host Who took the Flag today Can tell the definition So clear of Victory nThis stanza introduces military imagery: purple Host (army) and took the Flag (captured the flag, signifying victory), but it cannot stand alone as a completed observation. nRather, it requires the t