艾米莉·狄金森

1、Emily DickinsonThis Is My Letter To The World This is my letter to the World That never wrote to Me The simple News that Nature told With tender Majesty Her Message is committed To Hands I cannot see For love of HerSweetcountrymen Judge tenderlyof Me 这是我给世界的信 这是我给世界的信 因为它从来不写信给我 那是温柔崇高的存在 自然在把简单的信息诉

2、说 她的信是交付给 一双我无法看见的手 因为她的爱亲切的同乡 请温柔地评判我 On Poetry Poetry should be powerful and touching. The inspiration of the poet came from his inner world or intensity of his emotions and the past literary traditions. Poetry should express ideas through concrete images. It was the poets duty to express abstract

3、 ideas through vivid and fresh imagery. She was against the restriction of the traditional doctrines and argued for the depiction of ones inner world.Style A: Her poems have no titles, hence the first line of each poem is always quoted as the title of each poem. B: particular stress pattern: dash“ ”

4、 C: Capital letters as a means of emphasis; D: Language: brief, direct, and plain; E: Poem: short, always on original images or symbols F: Conventional meters, iambic tetrameter, off-rhymes. G: Short poetic lines, condensed by using intense metaphors and by extensive use of ellipsis. H: Regular mete

5、rhymn meter and ballad meter, also known as Common meter Quatrains Alternating tetrameter and trimeter Often 1st and 3rd lines rhyme, 2nd and 4th lines rhyme in iambic pentameter Visual and audible effects, great imagination, sincere emotions. I: Her poems tend to be personal and meditative (e.g. “B

6、ecause I could not stop for Death”). ThemesDickinson often brought dazzling originality to overwrought topics.LifeLoveNatureTime and EternityDeath and MourningReligion and FaithIsolation and DepressionPoetry and Language 要造就一片草原，只需一株苜蓿一只蜂 一株苜蓿，一只蜂 再加上白日梦 有白日梦也就够了 如果找不到蜂 To make a prairie She begins

7、by claiming that to make a physically large item, “a prairie,” all one needs is two small physical items, “a clover and one bee.” Then she qualifies that by saying, “One clover, and a bee / And revery”; then she qualifies that claim further, by saying if you dont have one of those physical component

8、s, “bees,” (and by implication, the clover as well), then you can still make the prairie by revery alone. “Revery” means dream, thought, extended concentration on any subject, or even day-dreaming wherein the mind is allowed to roam free over the landscape of unlimited expansion, but to the speaker

9、in this poem, “revery” is more like meditation which results in a true vision. The speakers power of revery demonstrates an advanced achievement, far beyond ordinary day-dreaming. this speaker is claiming that without any physical objects at all, the mind of one advanced in the art of revery can pro

10、duce any object that mind desires.Success is counted sweetest 1. Only those who desire success most can tell how sweet it is; and people who easily obtain success can hardly realize what it really means. 2. Even though the old-time fighters could not taste the sweetness of victory in all their life,

11、 they are those who know what success really is. Compared with the present easy success winners, they deserve more respect. 3.In consideration of the poets life experience and her temperament, here in this poem she may imply her determination to pursue or quest her ideal even though her value was no

12、t recognized at her time. That is to say, she firmly believes that even she was regarded as a loser at her time (few poems were published in her life), she herself clearly knows where she stands. 4.In a broader sense, the little poem can serve as a piece of encouragement for those who are struggling

13、 for and pursuing their dreams and ideals- if what you are fighting for is meaningful, dont give up, no matter what the result is. The easy success is not so sweet.Im Nobody! Im Nobody! Who are you? Are you-Nobody-too? Then theres a pair of us! Dont tell! theyd banish us-you know! 我是无名之辈，你是谁？ 你,也是,无

14、名之辈？ 这就有了我们一对！可是别声张！ 你知道，他们会大肆张扬！ Im Nobody! How dreary-to be-Somebody! How public-like a Frog- To tell your name-the livelong June To an admiring Bog! 做个，显要人物，好不无聊！像个青蛙，向仰慕的泥沼在整个六月，把个人的姓名聒噪何等招摇！（江枫译）1. Who are the “they” in line 4? The “admiring bog” in line 8?2. Do you prefer solitude to public li

15、fe? Give your reasons.QuestionsMetaphor/Simile Metaphor: A comparison.Example: “A frog is a celebrity.” Simile: A comparison using like or as.Example: “How publiclike a frog” 我是无名之辈，我是无名之辈，我是无名之辈，你是谁？你也是无名之辈？那么，咱俩是一对且莫声张！你懂嘛，他们容不得咱俩。做个名人多无聊！象青蛙到处招摇向一洼仰慕的泥塘把自己的大名整天宣扬！） （汪义群译 孙梁校；英美名诗一百首，北京：中国对外翻译出版公司

16、，1987） Translation 我是无名之辈! 你是谁? 我是无名之辈! 你是谁? 你也是无名之辈吗? 那么我们为一对! 别说! 他们会传开去- 你知道! 多无聊- 是- 某某名人! 多招摇- 象个青蛙- 告诉你的名字 - 漫长的六月- 给一片赞赏的沼泽! Commentary This 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

17、 to the dreary Somebodiesfor they are too busy keeping their names in circulation, croaking like frogs in a swamp in the summertime. Comparison: Whitman vs. DickinsonSimilarities:Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its

18、Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance”.Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry. differences:

19、 Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”. Dickinson has the direct, simple style which Whitman doesnt have.Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson Whitman, in his poems, he expresse

20、d his strong love toward his country, his nation and his people, and he showed great optimism and confidence towards the future of America. Because Emily Dickinson withdraw herself from the society and lived like a hermit, any political and social things did not influence her. she just focused her a

21、ttention on the inner world. Her themes ranged from love, death, religion, nature, immortality, pain and beauty, especially about the exploration of death. She was a pessimistic writer.I Died For Beauty But Was Scarce I died for beauty but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, When one who died for truth

22、 was lain In an adjoining room. He questioned softly why I failed? For beauty, I replied. And I for truth, the two are one; We brethren are, he said. And so, as kinsmen met a night, We talked between the rooms, Until the moss had reached our lips, And covered up our names. The speaker : died for Bea

23、uty a man laid in a tomb next to her : died for Truth. When the two softly told each other why they died, the man declared that Truth and Beauty are the same so he and the speaker were Brethren. and talked as Kinsmen between their tombs until the moss reached their lips and covered up the names on t

24、heir tombstones. bizarre, allegorical death fantasy its manner of presentation belongs uniquely to Dickinson. Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty -Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn the macabre physicality of death , the high idealism of martyrdom (I died for Beauty. . . One who died for Truth) a certain kind of

25、 romantic yearning combined with longing for Platonic companionship (And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night-), and an optimism about the afterlife (it would be nice to have a friend) with terror about the fact of death (it would be horrible to lie in the cemetery having a conversation through the walls of

26、a tomb). As the poem progresses, the high idealism and yearning for companionship gradually give way to mute, cold death, as the moss creeps up the speakers corpse and her headstone, obliterating both her capacity to speak (covering her lips) and her identity (covering her name). The ultimate effect of this poem is to show that every aspect of human life-ideals, human feelings, identity itself-is er