Document

Twentieth Century
Poetry 1
Teaching Plan


T.S. Eliot ( 45’)
Thomas Hardy and A. E. Housman(5’)
Technical Revolution in Poetry
Three influences
 Imagism Ezra Pound( Imagism which demands
precision in imagery and freedom in rhythmic
movement
 Metaphysical poets of th e17th c (John Donne)
 French Symbolist poetry
Ps the rediscovery of William Blake and The
publication of th etwo editions of G.M. Hopkins’
poetry also contributed to the development of 20th c
poet
Chief Traits of Modernist Poetry



insisted on ‘direct treatment of things’ and on
the avoidance of all words ‘ that di not
contribute to the prensentation’
freer metrical movement
introduced to poetry a much higher degree of
intellectual complexity because o f the
enthusiasm of Metaphysical p
T. S. Eliot 1888-1965


A poet playwright and literary critic
Born in the US and as an adult became a
British subject, his works are considered a
part of both national literature




In 1915 settled down in London working as a bank
clerk later an editor of a litery magazine and a
reviewer for several journals
In 1917 published his first book , Prufrock and Other
Observations
1922 founded The Criterion an influential right-wing
literary journal the Waste land appeared in the first
issue
In those London years he formed his mutually
admiring and fruitful relationship with Ezra Pound


In 1927 he became a British subject and was
received into the Church of England. He
declared that he was ‘Anglo- Catholic in
religion, royalist in politics and classicist in
literature.’
1948 awarded the British Oder of Merit and
the Nobel Prize


His poetic output is not very large hit its influence on
the development of 20thc poetry has been substantial.
He established his style and demonstrated his
departure from traditional form and metaphor in his
first important poem The Love Song of J.Alfred
Prufrock, . It in general anticipates in germinal form
all of Eliot’s later linguistic and formal achievements.
It is also an example of the important new
experiments and technical innovations in the early
20thc


frequently made use of symbolism which gave
their poetry the subtlety of suggestiveness and
overtones (暗示，泛音，折射光)
brought poetic language and rhythm closer to
that of conversations by the use of colloquial
expressions and even slangs
Continued



employed irony and puns which had been
banished from serious poetry for over two
hundred years.
often international and urban in theme
Modernism is of great importance to the
20th c literature it coexist with more
traditional forms it never achieved the
monopoly
The Waste Land


his most important work,
a long, complicated poem that reveals
disillusionment and pessimism with
contemporary society and is remarkable for its
originality in form and content.
Excerpts of The Waste Land
1. I The Burial of the Dead
 2. V What the Thunder Said
Discussion : What does the author want to say in
the first four lines?
What is the symbolic meaning of
water in the poem?

荒原
赵萝蕤译

“是的，我自己亲眼看见古米的西比尔吊在一个笼子里。孩子们在问
她：西比尔，你要什么的时候，她回答说，我要死。”
（献给埃兹拉·庞德
最卓越的匠人）
一、死者葬礼
四月是最残忍的一个月，荒地上
长着丁香，把回忆和欲望
参合在一起，又让春雨
催促那些迟钝的根芽。
冬天使我们温暖，大地
给助人遗忘的雪覆盖着，又叫
枯干的球根提供少许生命。

夏天来得出人意外，在下阵雨的时候
来到了斯丹卜基西；我们在柱廊下躲避，
等太阳出来又进了霍夫加登，
喝咖啡，闲谈了一个小时。
我不是俄国人，我是立陶宛来的，是地道的德国人。
而且我们小时候住在大公那里
我表兄家，他带着我出去滑雪橇，
我很害怕。他说，玛丽，
玛丽，牢牢揪住。我们就往下冲。
在山上，那里你觉得自由。
大半个晚上我看书，冬天我到南方。
什么树根在抓紧，什么树根在从
这堆乱石块里长出？人子啊，
你说不出，也猜不到，因为你只知道
一堆破烂的偶像，承受着太阳的鞭打
枯死的树没有遮荫。蟋蟀的声音也不使人放心，
焦石间没有流水的声音。只有
这块红石下有影子，
（请走进这块红石下的影子）
我要指点你一件事，它既不像
你早起的影子，在你后面迈步；
也不像傍晚的，站起身来迎着你；
我要给你看恐惧在一把尘土里。
风吹得很轻快，
吹送我回家去，
爱尔兰的小孩，
你在哪里逗留？
“一年前你先给我的是风信子；
他们叫我做风信子的女郎”，
——可是等我们回来，晚了，从风信子的园里来，
你的臂膊抱满，你的头发湿漉，我说不出
话，眼睛看不见，我既不是
活的，也未曾死，我什么都不知道，
望着光亮的中心看时，是一片寂静。
荒凉而空虚是那大海。
马丹梭梭屈里士，著名的女相士，
患了重感冒，可仍然是
欧罗巴知名的最有智慧的女人，
带着一副恶毒的纸牌，这里，她说，
是你的一张，那淹死了的腓尼基水手，
（这些珍珠就是他的眼睛，看！）
这是贝洛多纳，岩石的女主人
一个善于应变的女人。
这人带着三根杖，这是“转轮”，
这是那独眼商人，这张牌上面
一无所有，是他背在背上的一种东西。
是不准我看见的。我没有找到
“那被绞死的人”。怕水里的死亡。
我看见成群的人，在绕着圈子走。
谢谢你。你看见亲爱的爱奎尔太太的时候
就说我自己把天宫图给她带去，
这年头人得小心啊。
并无实体的城，
在冬日破晓的黄雾下，
一群人鱼贯地流过伦敦桥，人数是那么多，
我没想到死亡毁坏了这许多人。
叹息，短促而稀少，吐了出来，
人人的眼睛都盯住在自己的脚前。
流上山，流下威廉王大街，
直到圣马利吴尔诺斯教堂，那里报时的钟声
敲着最后的第九下，阴沉的一声。
在那里我看见一个熟人，拦住他叫道：“斯代真！”

你从前在迈里的船上是和我在一起的！
去年你种在你花园里的尸首，
它发芽了吗？今年会开花吗？
还是忽来严霜捣坏了它的花床？
叫这狗熊星走远吧，它是人们的朋友，
不然它会用它的爪子再把它挖掘出来！
你！虚伪的读者！——我的同类——我的兄弟！
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock


S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. 2
Dante Alighieri
Inferno
爱尔弗瑞德·普鲁弗洛克的情歌
——托马斯·斯登斯·艾略特







假如我认为我是在回答
一个会返回人世的人
这火焰将不再颤动；但是,
既然从未有人从这深渊
活着回去, 如果我听的是真,
我就回答你, 不怕是流言。
——但丁：《地狱篇》

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table; 3
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent 4
To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?“
Let us go and make our visit.












那么, 我们走吧, 你和我一起,
此时黄昏正在蔓延, 伸向天际,
像麻醉的病人躺在手术台上；
我们走吧, 穿过一些半冷落的街巷,
僻静的憩息地熙熙攘攘,
便宜的歇夜旅店夜夜不安,
露天的餐馆里牡蛎壳遍地,
条条街道宛如在乏味地作冗长争议
怀着阴险的目的
把你引向一个压倒一切的大问题……
噢, 别问“是什么？”
让我们去走访一趟。

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo. 5
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.










客厅里的女人来来回回如穿梭
正在谈论着米开郎琪罗。
黄色的雾在玻璃窗上擦着背,
黄色的烟在玻璃窗上擦着嘴,
它的舌头伸进黄昏的角落, 舔过以后
就在干涸的水池上面徘徊。
让烟囱里的烟灰落在它的脊背,
滑过斜坡地, 蓦然一跃,
发现正值温柔的十月夜晚,
于是在房屋附近蜷伏起来, 安然睡觉。

Among his other poems, The Hollow Men and
Ash Wednesday are considered his most
personal statements.
Eliot’s chief poetic influence



the French Symbolists
the English metaphysical poets
the contemporary Imagists
He added complexity and suggestiveness to the
precision stressed by the Imagists.
He also introduced into modern English and
American Poetry the kind of irony achieved by
sudden shifts from the formal to the colloquial
and by oblique(间接的) allusions to objects or
ideas that contrasted sharply with those carried
by the surface meaning of the poem.


He is as important and influential as critic as
he was as a poet.
His literary criticism includes a revaluation of
the past and a representation of the new poetic
theories. The Sacred Wood, Homage to Dryden,
the Use of Poetry, On Poetry and Poets

Eliot also did much to revive the verse drama
that had been dead for more than 200 years
Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Union,
the Cocktail party , the confidential (机密
的)Clerk, the Elder Statesman.
Main References

王佩兰，马茜，黄际英，《英国文学史及
作品选读》，东北师范大学出版社，1992

Download Report