美国文学2 Edgar Allan Poe

1、Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1849)Introduction to poetry 1.1. What is poetry a. Emily Dickinson: “when I read something I feel so cold that no fire can warm me, I know its poetry; when I read something I feel my head is chopped off, I know its poetry.” b. The poet has found the emotion, the emotion has foun

2、d the word. c. Wordsworth: “All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”. d.“A good poem is the crystalization of word and emotions.” e. The traditional American dictionary defines poetry as : A verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and

3、 imaginative way, characterized by the use of condensed languages chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme.1.2.Types of poetry 1.2.1. Narrative poetry a. Epic: long narrative poems that record the adventures of a hero whose ex

4、ploits brave or adventurous deeds or action are important to the history of a nation. As Homeric epics (a blind bard): The Iliad and The Odyssey b. Ballad: a simple poem(less ambitious than epics) that tells a story. c. Romance: another type of narrative poem, in which adventure is a central feature

5、.1.2.2. Lyric poetry a. Epigram诙谐诗: short poem expressing an idea in clear and amusing way b. Elegy: a lament for the dead. c. Ode: a long stately poem in stanzas of varied length, meter, and form. d. Sonnet: 14 lines, the Italian (or Petrarchan: 8-line octave + 6-line sestet; typical rhyming: abbaa

6、bba+cdcdcd/cdecde) and the English (or Shakespearean: three 4-line quatrains + a concluding 2-line couplet)1.3. Elements of poetry 1.3.1. Voice: speaker and tone 1.3.2. Diction: the best words in the best order (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) 1.3.3. Imagery: a concrete representation of a sense impression

7、, a feeling, or an idea. Images: visual, aural, tactile, olfactory (something smelled), gustatory (sth tasted) 1.3.4. Figures of speech: simile and metaphor 1.3.5. Symbolism: a symbol is any object or action that means more than itself, any object or action that represents sth beyond itself. 1.3.6.

8、Syntax: the grammatical structure of words in sentences and the development of sentences in longer units throughout the poem.Rhyme: two or more words or phrases contain an identical or similar vowel-sound, usually stressed, and the consonant sounds that follow the vowel-sound are identical and prece

9、ded by different consonants.eg. bright and night heaven and seven see and thee1.3.7. SoundOn the basis of soundExact rhyme: repeat end sounds precisely eg. day waySlant rhyme: provide an approximate sound eg.sun bone Identical rhyme: repeating the entire sound, including the initial consonant, somet

10、imes by repeating the same word in a rhyme position and sometimes by repeating the sound with two senses eg. two tooEye rhyme: look alike, but sound different eg. laughter daughterOn the basis of the number of syllables Masculine rhyme: the recurrence of sound is restricted to the final stressed syl

11、lable eg. cold boldFeminine rhyme: the stressed rhyming syllables are followed by identical unstressed syllables eg. spiteful delightfulTriple rhyme: the rhyming stressed syllable is followed by two identical unstressed syllables eg. tenderly slenderlyOn the basis of the position in a lineInternal r

12、hyme: occurs at the beginning, sometimes combined with end rhymeeg. the grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother.End rhyme: occurs at the end of a lineeg. Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.Alliteration is the repetition of consonants, especially at

13、the beginning of words or stressed syllables.Eg. The willows waved violently in the wind.Assonance is the repetition of similar vowel sounds within a noticeable range. Eg. All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone Thro every hollow cave and alley lone.Consonance is the repetition of identical

14、 consonant sounds before and after different vowels.Eg. tit and tat creak and crack 1.3.8. Rhythm and meter a. rhythm: beat we feel in a phrase of music or a line of poetry, the regular recurrence of the accent or stress in poem. b. foot音步: unit of rhythm in a line of poetry containing one stressed

15、syllable and one or more unstressed syllables, as in the four division of “four man/may come/and men /may go” c. meter格律: poetic metre with a given number of feet, or fixed arrangement of accented and unaccented syllables. Rising feet/meter: iamb (iambic), anapest (anapestic) Falling feet/meter: tro

16、chee (trochaic), dactyl (dactylic) Number of feet per line Monometer Dimeter Trimeter Tetrameter Pentameter Hexameter Heptameter Octameter1.4. Some features of poetry 1.4.1. emotional, passionate, Expressing and arousing strong feeling such as love, pity, fear, sadness, joy, etc from the author or f

17、rom the reader 1.4.2. Symbolic A symbol is something that stands for something else. In literature, it refers to any word, object, action, or character that embodies and evokes a range of additional meaning and significance. Imagery is the use of figurative language to produce a picture in the minds

18、 of readers or hearers. 1.4.3. Condensed and vivid language Language is the most important thing in poetry. Poetic language is the most vivid and condensed language in literature.II. Introduction to Poe2.1. Life experience child of traveling actors born in Boston 3, Father deserted the family, Mothe

19、r died taken to a rich merchant of Richmond, Virginia 17, the University of Virginia gambling debts of $2000 quarrels with Allan left the University, joined the army in Boston published his first volume in 1827, left the army in 1829,published his 2nd volume in 1832, five short stories 27, married h

20、is 13-year-old cousin who died in 1847 died in Oct. 1849 2.2. Poes major literary works1) Tamerlane 帖木儿帖木儿the first book of poetry 2) Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque 述异集述异集 a collection of short stories Poes major literary works 3) “The Fall of the House of Usher” a story in Tales of the Grotes

21、que and Arabesque 4) The Ravenmade Poe famous as a poet “Nevermore”永不再symbol of his dark doubtsand frustrated longingthe ravenPoes major literary works5) “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” “英格街谋杀案” 6)“The Gold Bug”（金甲虫）（金甲虫） a story of ratiocination推理推理2.3. Poes features a. A short story writer stories

22、:two kinds Horror Ratiocination（推理） “The Fall of the House of Usher” “The Black Cat” “The Cask of Amontillado”“Ligeia”（莉盖亚）（莉盖亚） “The Purloined Letter”（被窃的信件）（被窃的信件） Poes featuresfifty poems typically Romantic in both form and content Poes poetictheories Poetry should be short and readable at one si

23、tting, should appeal only to “beauty” (aiming at “an elevating excitement of the soul”) True poetry is “the rhythmical creation of beauty”“The Philosophy of Composition “The Poetic Principle”b. A poetc. A literary critic Poes aesthetic theory a. “Beauty is the sole purpose of the poem.” Poetry must

24、concern itself just with “supernal beauty”, not with the narration of a story, nor even with the beauty of particular things. b. The immediate object of poetry is pleasure, not truth. The function of poetry is not to summarize, nor interpret earthly experience, but to create a mood in which the soul

25、 soars. c. Melancholy is the most legitimate of all the poetic tones. Sickness, abnormal love, death of a beautiful woman, are to him, unquestionably, the most poetical topics in the world. d. The length of writing, both of tales and poetry, should be about 100 lines, so that the reader can be well

26、engaged in it without any interruption. III. Understanding “The Raven”3.1. Topic of the poem: death: “the death of a beautiful woman is , unquestionably, the most poetic in the world” a sense of melancholy over the death of a beloved beautiful young woman 3.2. Setting of the poem: midnight: a time a

27、ssociated with the end of life bleak December: a season associated with the end of life the room: warmed and lighted by “dying embers”, associated with the supernatural the purple curtains: a color associated with Funereal custom melancholic, sorrowful, even desperate (The repetition of the word “Ne

28、vermore” increases the speakers feelings of pain and loss. This pattern of self-inflicted torture builds in intensity until the speaker breaks down emotionally and demands that the raven “Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door”).3.3. Mood of the persona3.4. Sound It take

29、s Poe 4 years to complete “The Raven” a marvel of regularity: 719 feet of which 705 are perfect trochees (1 strong + 1 weak), 10 doubtful trochees and only 4 clearly dactyls (1 strong + 2 weak) Rhyme scheme: abcbbb Internal rhyme (dreary, weary; remember, December) Alliteration (flirt, flutter; stat

30、ely, saintly) Assonance (dreary, weary; napping, tapping, rapping; morrow, borrow, sorrow, with the sound “o” to show ones sadness, sorrow and grievous mood; ) Sound and rhythm make the poem musical and melodious. They contribute a lot to the mood and the theme of the writing at the same time.3.5 sy

31、mbolism 3.5.1 Raven: disaster and misfortune Raven, the large bird-like crow with black feathers, in Western countries, as well as it is in China, is conventionally regarded as an ominous fowl, a symbol of misfortune. Thus with the repetition of the napping and tapping the poet was filled with fantastic terrors never felt before. 3.5.2 the lost Lenore : the soul of the radiant maiden, beauty and hope At the moment when the poet was in the darkness peering, wondering, expecting and whispering Lenore but was just responded with a nothing more, the Rav