英语文学欣赏 Unit Two Spiritual Growth Lecture One I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

英语文学欣赏 Unit Two Spiritual Growth Lecture One I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

精品课程精品课程

Introductory Questions and Discussion

Have you ever read a book, watched a movie, listened to a song, or listened to somebody’s words , experienced an event when you feel touched, enlightened, empowered or changed?

Has the song of birds, the smell of the air, the caress of the wind, the dancing of the leaves, or the smile of the flowers ever changed your mood? brightened your day?

Please have a nice talk with your classmates and exchange such experience.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils,Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending line,Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund companyI gazed– and gazed– but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:

• For oft, when on my couch I lie

• In vacant or in pensive mood,

• They flash upon that inward eye

• Which is the bliss of solitude;

• And then my heart with pleasure fills,

• And dances with the daffodils.

• Listen to the poem.

• The whole class read the poem aloud

• Where to pause when reading the a poem? To pause at where the meaning stops not where the line stops.

Questions that Guide the Students to Interpret the Poem

• What does the poet see?

• What is the poet’s mood before he sees the daffodils? (find out words and imagery describing his mood)

• What is the poet’s mood after he sees the daffodils? (find out words and imagery describing the changed mood)

Discussion

• How does the magical change occur? (relate your own experience which is being shared in the previous discussion)

• What is the theme of the poem. Or what does the poet want to tell you?

The Romantic Idea of Nature

• Nature is also the expression of divinity, which dwells everywhere, in nature, in ourselves, and above

• By looking at nature, we find the divinity which is within ourselves.

• So in nature we find both divinity and ourselves• The idea of “animating imagery” or romantic

anthropomorphism • Nature is both a image and a thought, both a tenor and the

vehicle• Nature is both objective and subjective • The internal external and the external internal

So, that is how!

• So that is how daffodils change the mood of the poet. By looking at the daffodils, he is put in contact with the mysterious power of divinity, or we can say he is awakened to the realization of that mysterious power in himself. Daffodils have awakened him and he turns daffodils internal! (for oft, when on my couch I lie/In vacant or in pensive mood,/ They flash upon that inward eye/which is the bliss of solitude)

This is how the Romantics Work

• The Romantics revolt against rationality, machine, big cities, so nature becomes their best resort. By turning to nature, they turn to the mysterious power of divinity, they turn to their subjective thinking and that thinking is wrapped with emotion. Nature is the best weapon against rationality, industrialization and urbanization.

• “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” becomes one of the best examples of the Romantic idea of nature

A Comparison across Culture

• Compare “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” with 《饮酒》：

• 结庐在人境，而无车马喧。• 问君何能尔？心远地自偏。• 采菊东篱下，悠然见南山。• 山气日夕佳，飞鸟相与还。• 此中有真意，欲辨已忘言。

Questions for the Comparison

• What is the relationship between man and nature in 《饮酒》 ?

• Do the two poems express the same attitude towards nature?

Read for the Form ( )Ⅰ : the Images in the Poem

• Please find out the images in the poem.

• What are images? (see the following slides)

The Images in Poetry

The image in a poem presents a mental picture. Image may also represent a sound, a smell, a taste, a tactile experience and an internal sensatio

Read the following poems and identify the images.

So much dependupon

A red wheelbarrow

Glazed with rainwater

Beside the whitechickens by William Carlos Williams

• IN A STATION OF THE METRO

• The apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.

• by Ezra Pound

I have eatenthe plums

that were inthe icebox and which

you were probablysaving

for breakfast

That’s Just to Say

• Forgive methey were deliciousso sweetand so cold

• By William Carlos Williams

古池塘青蛙入水发清响

--- 松尾芭蕉

《村居》

清代诗人 · 高鼎

草长莺飞二月天，拂堤杨柳醉春烟。儿童散学归来早，忙趁东风放纸鸢。

《宿新市徐公店》 杨万里

篱落疏疏一径深， 树头花落未成阴。 儿童急走追黄蝶，

飞入菜花无处寻。

the Music of Poetry

• Introduce musical elements of poetry (see the following slides)

• After the introduction, ask the students to read the poem aloud again and identify the musical elements.

Read for Form ( ):Ⅱ

The music of Poetry（Ⅰ）Meter: the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Usually, we have meters likeiambic --/ e.g. I wondered lonely as a cloudtrochaic \-- e.g. Tiger, tiger, burning bright/In the forest of the night,anapestic -- -- \ e.g. comprehend, do not weep, maiden, for war is kinddactylic \-- -- e.g. cheerfully

The music of Poetry （Ⅱ）• Foot: the smallest unit of a poetic lin

e, composed of meters

• monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, etc

• Rhythm: the meter and the number of foot in a poetic line, eg. iambic pentameter

The Music of Poetry ( )Ⅲ• Alliteration, e.g. safe and sound,

Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,

He bravely breach'd his boiling bloody breast.

• assonance, e.g. time out of mind, free and easy

• Consonance, e.g. odds and ends, first and last

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,The furrow followed free;We were the first that ever burstInto that silent sea.

• Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down,

• “Twas sad as sad could be;• And we did speak only to break• The silence of the sea!

from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Music of Poetry (Ⅳ )

• End rhyme

• Now read the poem again and identify the musical elements in it.

Further Reading

• Read the following poem and compare it with “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud”

Dust of Snow Robert Frost

The way a snowShook down on meThe dust of snowFrom a hemlock tree Has given my heartA change of moodAnd saved some partOf a day I had rued.