英语诗歌赏析
广东海洋大学外国语学院 康翠琴
A Brief Introduction to George Herbert and His Virtue
1.Introduction
This thesis aims to introduce a Metaphysical poet George Herbert and one of his poem Virtue in which virtue is sung highly of.
T与虎谋皮的意思here are two parts in the main body of the thesis. The first part gives readers a brief introduction of George Herbert, his family and his writing styles. In the cond part, the poem Virtue is analyzed in two aspects: musicality and image, added by an appreciation of the poem as an accompaniment. In the end of the thesis, what have been mentioned are brought to a conclusion to reveal George Herbert’s values toward life.
真理之口2.George Herbert and His Virtue
George Herbert lived in the period of Renaissance in the Great Britain, influenced by John Donne, the reprentative of the Metaphysical school, also by the religion of Anglicanism, most of his works praid highly of the God and beauty, which can be found in one of his poem Virtue.
2.1George Herbert and His Family
George Herbert, (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was a Welsh poet, orator and priest. Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education which led to his holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. [1] His mother was a patron and friend of John Donne and other poets and one of his brothers was an important poet and philosopher, often regarded as “the father of English deism” which give little George an intellectual environment that is full of arts.
2.2George Herbert’s Writing Style
George Herbert was a religious poet as well as one of the Metaphysical poets. [2] His p
oems are characterized by “a precision of language, a metrical versatility, and an ingenious u of imagery or conceits that was favored by the metaphysical school of poets”. [3] Great talent can been found in his teenage hood. When at the age fifteen, George created his first two sonnets in which he expresd the theme of “the love of God is more honorable than that of a woman”衡的组词. Since then he had made up his mind to devote all his life to the God. [4] His works The Temple, published in 1633, mainly sang the prais of the greatness of the God and conveyed his sincere devotion. Under the influence of Metaphysical poetry in which a primary Platonic concept can be found of the idea that “the perfection of beauty in the beloved acted as a remembrance of perfect beauty in the eternal realm”, [5] such beauty-advocating theme can be also found in George Herbert’s writings.
2.3General Analysis of Virtue
The poem Virtue, by three simple demonstrations of however cool, calm and bright, sweet day being replaced by the night; however angry and brave, sweet ro is bound to
die; no matter how much sweet days and ros, sweet spring will gone finally, illustrates the eternal natural truth of everything will meet its end. However in the last stanza, the poet indicated that “only a sweet and virtuous soul”虎跟什么相冲 (virtue) can survive forever, which makes a bright contrast with the previous natural truth to highlight the theme of the poem.
2.3.1 Musicality
Musicality is embodied in two aspects of meter and rhyme.
2.3.1.1 Meter [6]
In poetry, meter is the specific pattern in which stresd and unstresd syllables are put together The Virtue has the beauty of rhythm, especially in the first and the last stanzas.
In the first stanza, as listed as follow, the bold capital letters stand for stresd syllables or arsis while the lowerca letters stand for unstresd syllables or thesis. And the punctuation of slash”/” divides different foots in each ver:
sweet day/ so cool/ so calm/ so BRIGHT!,
the bridal/ of the earth /and sky:
the dew/ shall weep/胜春朝 thy fall/ to-night;
for thou/ must die.
Generally speaking, in the above stanza there is a unstresd syllable followed by an stress syllable, this stanza belongs to the Iambic Foot. This arrangement forms a kind of clear and vivid rhythm.
In the last stanza, the poet applied another different meter:
only a sweet/ and virtuous souL,
like asoned timber/ never gives;
but though/ the whole world/ turn to coaL,
then chiefly lives.
This stanza mainly has the characteristics of two unstresd syllables followed by a stresd syllable, which agrees with the usage of the Anapaestic Foot. This arrangement makes an emphasis of the uniqueness of virtue and the winding melody of the pronunciation.
2.3.1.2 Rhyme
A rhyme is “a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often ud in poetry and songs”. [7] And a rhyming scheme is “the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem or song”. [8]
George Herbert ud the poetic technique of End Rhyme, more exactly: Perfect Rhyme and Alternating Rhyme Scheme (ABAB-CBCB-DBDB-EFEF) in his Virtue to cau a particular effect as analyzed as follow:
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright! A
The bridal of the earth and sky: B
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night; A
For thou must 交通扣分die. B
财务预测模板Sweet ro, who hue, angry and brave, C
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, B
Thy root is ever in its grave, C
And thou must die. B
Sweet spring, full of sweet days and 蟒袍玉带ros, D
