酷我-北美枫

[anna]

I want to take notes for the good poems and comments from the poetry books I have borrowed.

Here is the book titled: Elements of Poetry By James R. Kreuzer

In the book, when James mentioned the element of Imagery, he gave the fine example of a poem by A.E. Housman.

WHITE in the moon the long road lies,
The moon stands blank above;
White in the moon the long road lies
That leads me from my love.

Still hangs the hedge without a gust, 5
Still, still the shadows stay:
My feet upon the moonlit dust
Pursue the ceaseless way.

The world is round, so travellers tell,
And straight though reach the track, 10
Trudge on, trudge on, ’twill all be well,
The way will guide one back.

But ere the circle homeward hies
Far, far must it remove:
White in the moon the long road lies 15
That leads me from my love.


I like James' analyst, so I copy them here.

In the first line we get (from the simple denotative diction) not only a picture of the road, white in the moonlight, but we are told that the road lies. It does not stretch or go or curve or wander: it lies. We are made to sense complete inactivity, an absence of all motion that we would not have sensed had the poet said stretches or goes or curves or wanders.
The dead white of the moonlight dominates the scene because of the prominent position of white as a result of inversion of normal word order as well as of normal meter and because the long road lies white not in the moonlight but in the moon. The metonymy (moon for moonlight) focuses our attention on the moon and seems to make the road cover the distance from the earth to the moon. The length of the road is further reinforced by the spondee with which the line ends:
White in the moon the long road lies.
Lest the moon be seen as a romantic moon, the poet tells us in the second line that
The moon stands blank above.
The significant words are stands and blank; the moon, too is motionless: it stands as the road lies, and it is blank -colorless, empty, expressionless, meaningless. And the very blankness is emphasized by the substitute spondee in the second foot of the line. The repetition of the first line in the third reinforces the visual image and the feelings associated with it, feelings of desolation, sadness, emptiness, hopelessness. Line 4 gives the reason for the feelings and connects the road with motion for the first time - it leads- but it is motion away from the beloved. It is clear now that we see the road endlessly streching in the moonlight as a picture of desolation because of the poet's feelings. And the poet's feelings are realized by the reader because of the simply constructed yet powerfully effective visual image of desolation.

The second stanza effectively continues the image. Our attention is drawn away from the distance into which the road stretches and is focused on an immediate part of the road. Here the hedge, too, is motionless: it hangs, still, without a gust. Again the poet has used inversion of normal word order to emphasize, this time, the motionlessness of the scene. The word hangs (not grows or even is) connotatively adds the motionlessness of death -death by hanging, perhaps -to the already lifeless scene. The substitute spondaic foot at the beginning of the line further emphasizes the heavy lifelessness as does our awareness that there can be no motion because there is no breath of wind -without a gust. Through repetition of still in the first spondaic foot of the second line and the feelin of permanence produced by stay, the image is furthur strengthened. Line 3 and 4 instoduce motion, but again motion away from the beloved, ceaseless motion in the desolation of the dust. A suggestion of the sound of the walker in the dust is the repetition of s in line 4. In a scene, then, of sterility, we see the figure of a man -but more particularly are we aware of his feet -moving along the endless road away from his love; and because we see, we feel the heavy mood of the poem.
The next stanza introduces a note of hope into what has been an utterly hopeless scene and situation. The world is round and the traveler will return to his starting place if he travels long enough in one direction. Of this, the poet in his mood of despair is skeptical for he says
The world is round, so travellers tell.
And in the last stanza he expresses awareness of the distance involved and centers our attention once more on the long road lying white in the moon that leads him from his love. Thus, the note of hope is negated and we end with the despairing realization of the distance yet to be traveld away for the beloved through the re-evocation of the first and basic image.
Without analyzing further, without cosidering such matters as stanzaic structure and the skillful use of repetition, we can understand how important a role the imagery plays in the total effectiveness of the poem. A poem, then cannot be said to have been read until its imagery has been fully grasped and its function in the poem fully realized.

-----

After I read the poem, I can grasp the sadness of the poet's leaving his love. Only after I read the above analyzing, I understand how good the structure is and how skillful the poet plays the simple image and words.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

I want to take notes for the good poems and comments from the poetry books I have borrowed.

Here is the book titled: Elements of Poetry By James R. Kreuzer

In the book, when James mentioned the element of Imagery, he gave the fine example of a poem by A.E. Housman.

WHITE in the moon the long road lies,
The moon stands blank above;
White in the moon the long road lies
That leads me from my love.

Still hangs the hedge without a gust, 5
Still, still the shadows stay:
My feet upon the moonlit dust
Pursue the ceaseless way.

The world is round, so travellers tell,
And straight though reach the track, 10
Trudge on, trudge on, ’twill all be well,
The way will guide one back.

But ere the circle homeward hies
Far, far must it remove:
White in the moon the long road lies 15
That leads me from my love.


I like James' analyst, so I copy them here.

In the first line we get (from the simple denotative diction) not only a picture of the road, white in the moonlight, but we are told that the road lies. It does not stretch or go or curve or wander: it lies. We are made to sense complete inactivity, an absence of all motion that we would not have sensed had the poet said stretches or goes or curves or wanders.
The dead white of the moonlight dominates the scene because of the prominent position of white as a result of inversion of normal word order as well as of normal meter and because the long road lies white not in the moonlight but in the moon. The metonymy (moon for moonlight) focuses our attention on the moon and seems to make the road cover the distance from the earth to the moon. The length of the road is further reinforced by the spondee with which the line ends:
White in the moon the long road lies.
Lest the moon be seen as a romantic moon, the poet tells us in the second line that
The moon stands blank above.
The significant words are stands and blank; the moon, too is motionless: it stands as the road lies, and it is blank -colorless, empty, expressionless, meaningless. And the very blankness is emphasized by the substitute spondee in the second foot of the line. The repetition of the first line in the third reinforces the visual image and the feelings associated with it, feelings of desolation, sadness, emptiness, hopelessness. Line 4 gives the reason for the feelings and connects the road with motion for the first time - it leads- but it is motion away from the beloved. It is clear now that we see the road endlessly streching in the moonlight as a picture of desolation because of the poet's feelings. And the poet's feelings are realized by the reader because of the simply constructed yet powerfully effective visual image of desolation.

The second stanza effectively continues the image. Our attention is drawn away from the distance into which the road stretches and is focused on an immediate part of the road. Here the hedge, too, is motionless: it hangs, still, without a gust. Again the poet has used inversion of normal word order to emphasize, this time, the motionlessness of the scene. The word hangs (not grows or even is) connotatively adds the motionlessness of death -death by hanging, perhaps -to the already lifeless scene. The substitute spondaic foot at the beginning of the line further emphasizes the heavy lifelessness as does our awareness that there can be no motion because there is no breath of wind -without a gust. Through repetition of still in the first spondaic foot of the second line and the feelin of permanence produced by stay, the image is furthur strengthened. Line 3 and 4 instoduce motion, but again motion away from the beloved, ceaseless motion in the desolation of the dust. A suggestion of the sound of the walker in the dust is the repetition of s in line 4. In a scene, then, of sterility, we see the figure of a man -but more particularly are we aware of his feet -moving along the endless road away from his love; and because we see, we feel the heavy mood of the poem.
The next stanza introduces a note of hope into what has been an utterly hopeless scene and situation. The world is round and the traveler will return to his starting place if he travels long enough in one direction. Of this, the poet in his mood of despair is skeptical for he says
The world is round, so travellers tell.
And in the last stanza he expresses awareness of the distance involved and centers our attention once more on the long road lying white in the moon that leads him from his love. Thus, the note of hope is negated and we end with the despairing realization of the distance yet to be traveld away for the beloved through the re-evocation of the first and basic image.
Without analyzing further, without cosidering such matters as stanzaic structure and the skillful use of repetition, we can understand how important a role the imagery plays in the total effectiveness of the poem. A poem, then cannot be said to have been read until its imagery has been fully grasped and its function in the poem fully realized.

-----

After I read the poem, I can grasp the sadness of the poet's leaving his love. Only after I read the above analyzing, I understand how good the structure is and how skillful the poet plays the simple image and words.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

Personification:

In the same book, page 104.

Leonie Adams uses personification to good effect in Home-Comming

When I stepped homeward to my hill
Dusk went before with quiet tread;
The bare laced branches of the trees
Were as a mist about its head.

Upon its leaf-brown breast, the rocks
Like great gray sheep lay silent-wise;
Between the birch trees' gleaming arms
The faint stars trembled in the skies.

The white brook met me half-way up
And laughed as one that knew me well,
To whose more clear than crystal voice
The frost had joined a crystal spell.

The Skies lay like pale-watered deep.
Dusk ran before me to its strand
And cloudily leaned forth to touch
The moon's slow wonder with her hand.

The whole poem is built on the personfication of dusk as it falls on the land. It makes the bare branches of trees seem a mist about the hilltop: the trees grow indistinct in the dusk. Ine the second stanza, we see the images of rocks on the hill's breast; we see stars, personified, as trembling (twinkling -but the poet's word is much more effective) through the birch trees personified as having gleaming arms, a perfect description of white birch bark at dusk. The brook, too, is personified in the next stanza: its noise is a welcome laugh as it meets the homecomer. In the last stanza, we return to the dusk, which changes the quality of the moon's light as the moon slowly rises. The whole home-coming experience has been made vivid and memorable through a series of images evoked by personification.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Personification:

In the same book, page 104.

Leonie Adams uses personification to good effect in Home-Comming

When I stepped homeward to my hill
Dusk went before with quiet tread;
The bare laced branches of the trees
Were as a mist about its head.

Upon its leaf-brown breast, the rocks
Like great gray sheep lay silent-wise;
Between the birch trees' gleaming arms
The faint stars trembled in the skies.

The white brook met me half-way up
And laughed as one that knew me well,
To whose more clear than crystal voice
The frost had joined a crystal spell.

The Skies lay like pale-watered deep.
Dusk ran before me to its strand
And cloudily leaned forth to touch
The moon's slow wonder with her hand.

The whole poem is built on the personfication of dusk as it falls on the land. It makes the bare branches of trees seem a mist about the hilltop: the trees grow indistinct in the dusk. Ine the second stanza, we see the images of rocks on the hill's breast; we see stars, personified, as trembling (twinkling -but the poet's word is much more effective) through the birch trees personified as having gleaming arms, a perfect description of white birch bark at dusk. The brook, too, is personified in the next stanza: its noise is a welcome laugh as it meets the homecomer. In the last stanza, we return to the dusk, which changes the quality of the moon's light as the moon slowly rises. The whole home-coming experience has been made vivid and memorable through a series of images evoked by personification.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

Apostrophe: 直呼。。。

Like in my poem: After Reading Ted Hughes' "Full Moon and Little Frieda"
the first line:

I fall in love with you, Moon


Metonymy: 转喻。as has been indicated, is the use of one word for another which it suggests, as the effect for the cause, the cause for the effect, the sign for the thing signified, the container for the thing contained.

Example: (Herrick's To the Virgines, to Make Much of Time:

That age is best which is the first,
when youth and blood are warmer.


Blood suggests the emotions, the passions.


In To Night, Sheelly, suggests the heat and languor of mid-day through metonymy:

And noon lay heavy on flower and tree. (noon heavy....)


Synedoche: 提喻 is a "figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole, the whole for a part. the following is an example.

And James Joyce in a lyric from Chamber Music makes a person into a voice:

Because your voice was at my side
I give him pain.

Both metonymy and synecdoche have as their major function in poetry the creation of images.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Apostrophe: 直呼。。。

Like in my poem: After Reading Ted Hughes' "Full Moon and Little Frieda"
the first line:

I fall in love with you, Moon


Metonymy: 转喻。as has been indicated, is the use of one word for another which it suggests, as the effect for the cause, the cause for the effect, the sign for the thing signified, the container for the thing contained.

Example: (Herrick's To the Virgines, to Make Much of Time:

That age is best which is the first,
when youth and blood are warmer.


Blood suggests the emotions, the passions.


In To Night, Sheelly, suggests the heat and languor of mid-day through metonymy:

And noon lay heavy on flower and tree. (noon heavy....)


Synedoche: 提喻 is a "figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole, the whole for a part. the following is an example.

And James Joyce in a lyric from Chamber Music makes a person into a voice:

Because your voice was at my side
I give him pain.

Both metonymy and synecdoche have as their major function in poetry the creation of images.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

oxymoron: 矛盾形容法; 逆喻 is defined as " a combination for epigrammatic effect of contradictory or incongruous words (cruel kindness)."

hyperbole: 夸张法。is defined as "extravagant exaggeration of statement; a statement exaggerated fancifully"

litotes: 间接肯定法,反语法.

inversion:倒置。
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

oxymoron: 矛盾形容法; 逆喻 is defined as " a combination for epigrammatic effect of contradictory or incongruous words (cruel kindness)."

hyperbole: 夸张法。is defined as "extravagant exaggeration of statement; a statement exaggerated fancifully"

litotes: 间接肯定法,反语法.

inversion:倒置。
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[trueiron]

这么多的星星，我将抓到那颗呢？
_________________
以满腔的热情去融熔每个焊点。
http://trueiron.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

[[烙铁子]]

这么多的星星，我将抓到那颗呢？
_________________
以满腔的热情去融熔每个焊点。
http://trueiron.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

[anna]

读书札记 （二）

Copied from Book "The Process of Reading Poetry"

In second school, poetry in the classroom becomes lessons in literary appreciation. There are five general approaches to the teaching of poetry in secondary schools:
The criticism approach; the genre approach; the heritage approach, which may be biographical and /or historical; the heritage approach; and the thematic approach.
In the critical appreciation approach, the main objective is to develop skill in literary analysis, for comparing one work by an author with another work by him, or with works by other authors of the period, or with other samples of the genre.
If genre is to be stressed, the various prosodic elements of a genre are selected and their characteristics illustrated, after which further sample poems in that genre are studied with respect to the regularities and irregularities of the chosen features. For example, the rhythm of a poem in blank verse would e examined, the rhyme scheme of a sonnet, the oral qualities of a ballad, the stanza form of the elegy, the sustained structures and lists in the epic, and the patterns and figures of speech in an ode.
In the heritage approach, the main objective is to build up a descriptive catalogue of the treasures of literature. The teacher presents the life history of the poet, the influences on his life and writing, and the specific situation which gave rise to the poem about to be studied; for example, Robert Burn’s financial problems, John Keats’ health, Emily Dickinson’s reclusiveness, E.J. Pratt’s boyhood in the Maritimes. A complete understanding of the work of art presented within this approach necessitates a study of the political and philosophic climate in which the poet wrote and the related characteristics of the literary movement of which the poem is a noteworthy example. “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed” is read in terms of the influence on Walt Whitman of the Civil War and the interest of some of his friends in humanitarianism. William Wordsworth’s “London 1802” is put in the background of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Romantic Movement. Canada’s Confederation poets are looked at in relation to the Wordsworth generation. T.S.Eliot’s “Wasteland” must be seen to grow out of the Bloomsbury Group’s post-war disillusion and the trend to realism. Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium” is given a background of Ireland and the movement towards imaginative mysticism.
In the experiential approach, the individual reader’s own personal response to the poem in question is of the utmost importance. The students discuss their own intellectual and emotional response to the poem. Each individual explores his own background for experiences comparable to those which motivate the respective poems.

The thematic approach is a more recent development. It has been widely used by teachers who feel that some imposed sense of relevance might offset the indifference or distaste expressed by students in literature classes. It is organizational and tends to concentrate on what is said rather than on literary considerations. It generally relates a preselected group of poems, novels, plays and essays to some large theme.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

读书札记 （二）

Copied from Book "The Process of Reading Poetry"

In second school, poetry in the classroom becomes lessons in literary appreciation. There are five general approaches to the teaching of poetry in secondary schools:
The criticism approach; the genre approach; the heritage approach, which may be biographical and /or historical; the heritage approach; and the thematic approach.
In the critical appreciation approach, the main objective is to develop skill in literary analysis, for comparing one work by an author with another work by him, or with works by other authors of the period, or with other samples of the genre.
If genre is to be stressed, the various prosodic elements of a genre are selected and their characteristics illustrated, after which further sample poems in that genre are studied with respect to the regularities and irregularities of the chosen features. For example, the rhythm of a poem in blank verse would e examined, the rhyme scheme of a sonnet, the oral qualities of a ballad, the stanza form of the elegy, the sustained structures and lists in the epic, and the patterns and figures of speech in an ode.
In the heritage approach, the main objective is to build up a descriptive catalogue of the treasures of literature. The teacher presents the life history of the poet, the influences on his life and writing, and the specific situation which gave rise to the poem about to be studied; for example, Robert Burn’s financial problems, John Keats’ health, Emily Dickinson’s reclusiveness, E.J. Pratt’s boyhood in the Maritimes. A complete understanding of the work of art presented within this approach necessitates a study of the political and philosophic climate in which the poet wrote and the related characteristics of the literary movement of which the poem is a noteworthy example. “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed” is read in terms of the influence on Walt Whitman of the Civil War and the interest of some of his friends in humanitarianism. William Wordsworth’s “London 1802” is put in the background of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Romantic Movement. Canada’s Confederation poets are looked at in relation to the Wordsworth generation. T.S.Eliot’s “Wasteland” must be seen to grow out of the Bloomsbury Group’s post-war disillusion and the trend to realism. Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium” is given a background of Ireland and the movement towards imaginative mysticism.
In the experiential approach, the individual reader’s own personal response to the poem in question is of the utmost importance. The students discuss their own intellectual and emotional response to the poem. Each individual explores his own background for experiences comparable to those which motivate the respective poems.

The thematic approach is a more recent development. It has been widely used by teachers who feel that some imposed sense of relevance might offset the indifference or distaste expressed by students in literature classes. It is organizational and tends to concentrate on what is said rather than on literary considerations. It generally relates a preselected group of poems, novels, plays and essays to some large theme.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

Copied from Book: Lectures On The English Poets
--The spirit of the age by william hazlitt

P46

In comparing the four most greatest poets in English poetry (Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, and Milton) together, it might be said that Chaucer excels as the poet of manners, or of real life; Spenser, as the poet of romance; Shakspeare as the poet of nature (in the largest use of the term ); and Milton, as the poet of morality. Chaucedr most frequently decribes things as they are; Spenser, as we wish them to be; Shakspeare, as they would be; and Milton as they ought to be. As poets, and as great poets, imagination, that is, the power of feigning thing according to nature, was common to them all: but the principle or moving power, to which this faculty was most subservient in Chaucer, was habit, or invetervate prejudice; in Spencer, novelty, and the love of the marvellous; in Shakspeare, it was the force of passion, combined with every variety of possible circumstances; and in Milton, only with the highest. The chararcteristic of Chaucer is intensity; of Spenser, remoteness; of Milton, elevation; of Shakspeare, everything.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Copied from Book: Lectures On The English Poets
--The spirit of the age by william hazlitt

P46

In comparing the four most greatest poets in English poetry (Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, and Milton) together, it might be said that Chaucer excels as the poet of manners, or of real life; Spenser, as the poet of romance; Shakspeare as the poet of nature (in the largest use of the term ); and Milton, as the poet of morality. Chaucedr most frequently decribes things as they are; Spenser, as we wish them to be; Shakspeare, as they would be; and Milton as they ought to be. As poets, and as great poets, imagination, that is, the power of feigning thing according to nature, was common to them all: but the principle or moving power, to which this faculty was most subservient in Chaucer, was habit, or invetervate prejudice; in Spencer, novelty, and the love of the marvellous; in Shakspeare, it was the force of passion, combined with every variety of possible circumstances; and in Milton, only with the highest. The chararcteristic of Chaucer is intensity; of Spenser, remoteness; of Milton, elevation; of Shakspeare, everything.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

读书札记 （二）In Memory of W. B. Yeats (ZT)
http://coviews.com/viewtopic.php?t=44859
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

读书札记 （二）In Memory of W. B. Yeats (ZT)
http://coviews.com/viewtopic.php?t=44859
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com