英国文学作品选读5.Donne

unit

5

John

DonneJohn

DonneDonne

is

famous

for

writing

in

at

least

twogenres

of

poetry:

erotic

love

poetry,

like

"To

HisMistress

Going

to

Bed"

and

"The

Flea,"

anddevotional

(religious)

poetry,

like

the

famous"Holy

Sonnets."There

is

not

always

a

strict

line

between

religioand

eroticism

in

Donne"s

poetry,

and

in

theseventeenth

century

you

could

be

a

preacher

andstill

take

a

passionate

interest

in

sex.Donne,

we

should

add,

was

a

well-knownpreacher

who

converted

from

Catholicism

toProtestantism.Metaphysical

poetMetaphysics:形而上学==形而下学metaphysical

poets:玄学派a

term

coined

by

the

poet

and

critic

Samuel

Johnson

to

describe

a

logroup

of

British

lyric

poets

of

the

17th

century,

whose

work

wascharacterized

by

the

inventive

use

of

conceits,

and

by

speculationtopics

such

as

love

or

religion.These

poets

were

not

formally

affiliated;

most

of

them

did

not

eveMain

Metaphysical

poetsJohn

Donne

(1572–1631)George

Herbert

(1593–1633)Andrew

Marvell

(1621–1678)Abraham

Cowley

(1618–1667)Saint

Robert

Southwell

(c.

1561–1595)

Richard

Crashaw

(c.

1613–1649)

Thomas

Traherne

(1636

or

1637

–

1674)Henry

Vaughan

(1622–1695)Conceitan

extended

metaphor

with

a

complex

logicthat

governs

a

poetic

passage

or

entire

poeBy

juxtaposing,

usurping

and

manipulatingimages

and

ideas

in

surprising

ways,

a

concinvites

the

reader

into

a

more

sophisticateunderstanding

of

an

object

of

comparison.In

the

Renaissance,

the

term

(which

isrelated

to

the

word

concept)

indicated

anyparticularly

fanciful

expression

of

wit.Andrew

Marvell:

To

his

Coy

MistressThy

beauty

shall

no

more

be

found,Nor,

in

thy

marble

vault,

shall

soundMy

echoing

song;

Then

worms

shall

tryThat

long-preserved

virginity你的美绝不会再现芳踪，你大理石墓穴里，我的歌声也不会回荡；那时蛆虫会成阵来品尝那一瓶久藏的童贞John

Donne:

The

RelicsWhen

my

grave

is

broke

up

againSome

second

guest

to

entertain,And

he

that

digs

it,

spiesA

bracelet

of

bright

hair

about

the

bone,当人们重新掘起我的坟，去取乐某些二流的客人

那个掘墓的人，一眼看到环绕着皑皑白骨的一圈金色头发The

FleaWhat

is

the

main

image

of

this

poem?"The

Flea"

was

written

in

an

age

when

peoplewere

not

such

squeamish

germophobes

as

theyare

now.Fleas

were

a

not-infrequent

subject

ofseventeenth-century

European

painting.The

image

of

a

flea

sucking

blood

would

nothave

automatically

led

a

Renaissance

audienceto

recoil

in

horror.Form

of

the

poemThis

poem

alternates

metrically

betweenlines

in

iambic

tetrameter

and

lines

iniambic

pentameter,

a

4-5

stress

patternending

with

two

pentameter

lines

at

theend

of

each

stanza.The

rhyme

scheme

in

each

stanza

issimilarly

regular,

in

couplets,

with

the

fline

rhyming

with

the

final

couplet:

AA-BBCC-DDD.The

first

stanzaThe

speaker

notices

a

flea

and

points

itout

to

the

woman

he

loves.

The

flea

hasbitten

them

both,

and

now

their

blood

ismixed

inside

the

flea.

He

says

that

no

onewould

consider

it

a

sin

or

shameful

fortheir

bodily

fluids

to

mix

inside

a

bug.The

second

stanzaNow

she

(quite

rationally)

tries

to

kill

tflea,

but

the

speaker

stops

her.

He

saysthe

flea

represents

the

joining

of

theirblood,

as

in

marriage.

If

she

squashes

theflea,

she

will

be

killing

herself,

the

speaand,

committing

sacrilege

against

theinstitution

of

marriage.The

third

stanzaSplat.

She

kills

the

poor,

innocent

flea.

Shethinks

this

disproves

the

earlier

claim

thatkilling

the

flea

would

kill

them

both.But

Donne

has

a

comeback

ready:

the

factthat

she

hasn"t

suffered

from

the

death

of

theflea

in

which

their

bloods

w