主题：英美文学串讲

3. "With plough and spade and hoe and loom
Trace your grave and build your tomb
And weave your winding-sheet---till fair
England be your Sepulcher"

(1)Explain "sepulcher"
(2)What was the deep implication of the poem?

Answer:
(1)Sepulcher means grave. (P210~211)

(2)The poem ironically addressed to the workers who submit to

capitalist exploitation. It warned them: If they gave up the

struggle, they would be digging graves for themselves wish

their own hands. (P211)

4. "Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:"

(1)Who is the poet? The name?
(2)Explain the sentence.
(3)What was the theme of the poem?

Answer:
(1)This is the "ode on a Grecian Um", which was written by the

poet---John Keats. (P219)

(2)The sentence means: though time has passed, the urn ,
the works of the art still remains, and it tells a

pastoral/lyrical tale to us, and the description of the urn is

much more beautiful than the words of any human. (P218)

(3)The theme is: Human life is transient, but the art is

immortal. (P218)

5. "Place me on Sunium’s marbles steep,
Where nothing, save the waves and I,
May her our mutual murmurs sweep;
There, swan like, let me sing and die:
A land of slaves shall ne’er be mine---
Dash down you cup of Samian wine!"
(1)Identify the poem and its author. (P203)
(2)Explain "swan like, let me sing and die" (P199)

Interpret the passage and spot its implication.

Answer:
(1)The poet is Byron. The poem is taken from "The Isles of

Greece (from Don Juan)" (P203)

(2)Swan is famous for its faith to its lover, one of them die,
the other will refuse to eat and drink, it will cry till death.
Here the author used a simile to show his strong desire to

fight with the invaders till death, and appeal to the

suppressed Greek people to struggle for their freedom and

liberation.

6. "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 dance with the daffodils."

(1) What is the "bliss of the solitude"?
(2) Interpret the passage.
(3) Why did the poet write the poem, what did he want to

express?
Answer:
(1)The Daffodils the poem saw. (P180)

(2)It is a bliss/happiness to recollect the beauty of nature in

his mind when he is solitude/lonely.

(3)The poem depicts/deals with the flowers that he came across

along waterside, by which he expresses the quiet, sympathy,

loving feeling to nature just like his words "poetry is from

"emotion recollected in tranquility".

7. "Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind,
And the angle told Tom, if he’d be a good bye,
He’d have God for his father, and never want joy."

(1)Identify the poem and its poet;
(2)What does the poem implies?

Answer:
(1) The poem is take from "The Chimney Sweeper (from Songs of

Innocence)", which was written by William Blake.(p171)

(2) This is a lovely poem presenting a happy and innocent

world, though the wretched child are exploited and orphaned,
they had nice dream for life and the world, which implies

religion make people obedient to exploitation, and from

religion, they can get consolation and an "illusory

happiness".(p168)

8. "As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh! Lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift and proud."

(1)Explain "I fall upon the thorns of life, I bleed" (P208)
(2)Can you comprehend the deep emotion contained in the poem?

What’s that?
(3)The poet was called the "the heart of all hearts",
he trumpeted the radical prophecy of hope and rebirth.
Please write out his classic words.

Answer:
(1)The sentence call Shelley’s desire that he couldn’t best

being fettered to/limited by the humdrum/too ordinary reality

of everyday! (P208)

(2)In the poem, the west wind has become the poet himself,
he wants to be free, proud and controllable like the wild west

wind,to destruct and construct with the strong power like the

west wind. (P207~208)

(3)"If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" (P208)

9. "O Attic shape! Fair attitude! With brede
…………
As doth eternity: cold pastoral!"

(1)How do you understand "cold pastoral"
(2)What device is used in the poem?
(3)Explain the implication of the poem.
At the end of the poem, the poet gave a famous saying,
and it is also the theme of the poem, what is that?

Answer:
(1)Cold pastoral means the lyrical scene on the Grecian urn

lacks life and warmth. (P222)

(2)Contrast. (P218)

(3)The poet wanted to show the permanence of the art and the

transience of human passion presenting his ambivalence/opposing

feelings about time and nature of beauty.
The saying is "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" (P218~219)

10. "Where fore feed and Clothe and save
From the cradle to the grave
Drain your sweat---nay, drink your blood?"

(1)Who wrote the poem? What’s its name?
(2) Explain "drones",
(3) Interpret the passage.

Answer:
(1)The poem is "A song: Men of England" by Shelley. (P209)

(2)Drones the male of the honey-bees that don’t work ,
referring to the parasitic class in human society.
(drones and bees are the devices of metaphor) (P210)

(3)The poet called all working people to rise up against their

political oppressors, but point out the intolerable injustice

of economic exploitation. It expressed the love for freedom and

the hatred to tyranny of the author. (P207)

11. "Wild spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!"

(1)What does the "wild spirit "refer to?
(2)Why called it "Destroyer and Preserver" at the same time?
(3)Identify the poet and the poem.

Answer:
(1)"wild spirit" refers to west wind/autumn wind. (P212)

(2)Because west wind buried the dead year and year and prepared

for a new spring, the poet call it "Destroyer and preserver".

(3)It is "Ode to the west wind" of Shelley. (terza rima)

III. Questions and answers:
1.Please list the subjects and the faculties of the

Romanticism.

Answer:
(1) The subjects are: love, nature, nationalism, individualism,

(2) The faculties they cherished are: imagination, spontaneity,

inspiration. (P162)

2.William Wordsworth was the first representative author of

Rom,How do you know his idea and style?

Answer:
(1)His poems are most about Nature and Human Life;

(2)Beyond the pleasure of the picturesque with the eye and the

external aspects of nature, however, lies in deeper moral

awareness, a sense of completeness in multiplicity.
(it means poem not only deals with the beautiful world, but

express moral)

(3)Common life and the joy and sorrow of the common people and

inner self are his subjects;

(4)He is a poet in memory of the past and was called "prophets

of nature";

(5)He deliberately writes in simple and ordinary speech ,
refuses to decorate the truth of experience of pure and

profound feeling;

(6)He thought poet is "a man speaking to men," poetry is "the

spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, which originates in

emotion recollected in tranquility."

(7)He always writes an elusive beauty of simplicity or a rural

figure. (P176-179)

3.What thoughts and event influenced the period of Romanticism?
Answer:
(1) Rousseau (a French philosopher) explored new ideas about

nature, society and education, which provided guiding priding

principles for the French Revolution and Romanticism;

(2) The French Revolution and "the Declaration of Rights of

Man"(written by Thomas Paine)aroused the great sympathy and

enthusiasm in the English liberals and radicals,which became a

great source for Romanticism.

(3) England itself had experienced profound economic and social

changes as industrialism,which were reflected in the works of

literature. (P157-159)

4.Byron’s greatest contribution is his creation of the "Byronic

hero" What kind of the hero he is? Give comment on him.

Answer:
(1) "Don Juan" is Byron’s masterpiece, a great comic epic,
in which Byron described a hero named Don Juan.
He was a great lover and seducer of women.
In the conventional sense,al positives like courage,

generosity, and frankness…
In a word, Don was proud Juan was immoral,
but Juan had his own mor, mysterious, and a noble rebel

figure.
He was a young man with unconquerable wills and

inexhaustible energies,
one of rebellious individuals against outworn/outdated

social systems and conventions.

(2) Comment: The poet’s true intention is to present a

panoramic view of different types of society,the main theme of

the works the basic ironic theme of appearance and

reality,during which the poet also presented various materials

and the clash of emotions. (P194-196)

5. What is the difference between Romanticism and

Neoclassicism?
(Neoclassicism=Augustans=enlightener)

Answer:
(1)The Romantic Movement expressed negative attitude toward the

existing social and political condition, the Romantics saw the

corruption and injustice of the
inhumanity of capitalism;

(2)The Neo saw man as a social; while Rom saw him as an

individual in the solitary state;

(3)Neo stressed the common features of men; but the Rom

stressed the special qualities of each individual’s mind;

(4)Neo celebrated rationality, equality and science of the

outside world; while Rom changed to the inner world of the

human spirit, whose theory saw the individual as the center of

all experience;

(5)Literature was heavily didactic and moralizing. There were

fixed laws for each type of literature; Rom expressed his

feeling, valued accuracy in portraying, they thought literature

should be free from all rules.

(6)The most important form in Neo was prose; while Rom was an

age of poetry. (P160-161)

6.Analyze the characters of John Keats’s poetry.

Answer:
(1)The poems are sensuous, colorful, and rich in imagery,
(which expresses the acuteness of his senses)

(2)Words are beautiful and musical.

(3)The ancient Greek and English poetry provides the most

important imaginative resource.

(4)The construction of poems are knit, and the description go

beyond the physical beauty of the world. (P218-219)

7. Jane Austen was the only important female author in the

18-19th century, how do you know about her?

Answer:
Generally speaking, Austen was writer of the 18th century.

(1)Her novels always dealt with the romantic entanglement of

the heroines;

(2)She believed in it that reason over passion, sense of

responsibility, good manners,
and clear judgment over romance; she honored the Augustan

virtues of moderation,
dignity disciplined emotion and common sense;

(3)She contempt snobbery, stupidity, worldliness etc;

(4)Her main concern was the relationship between men and women

in love;

(5)Her writing range was limited, all restricted to the

provincial life of the 18th century England;

(6)She presented the quiet, day-to-day country life of the

middle -upper -class English.

(7)Her characteristic theme was: maturity is got by the loss of

illusions. (P223--226)

Chapter 4 The Victorian Period

I. Choose the right answer:
Chronologically the Victorian refers to__________.
A.1798---1832
B.1836---1901
C.the Romantic period
D.the Neoclassical Period
Answer: B (P233)

____works are characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.
A.Thomas Hardy’s
B.Charles Dickens’s
C.Charlotte Bronte’s
D.George Eliot’s
Answer: B (P241)

3. _____is famous for its vivid descriptions of the workhouse and life of the underworld in the 19th century London.
A.Oliver Twist
B.Great Expectations
C.David Copper Field
D.Hard Times
Answer: A (P243)

____is an elaborate and powerful expression of Alfred Tennyson’s philosophical and religious thoughts.
A.Idylls of the King
B.“Ulysses”
C.Poems, Chieoqy Lyrical]
D.In Memoriam
Answer: D (P274)

4. The most distinguishing feature of Charles Dickens’s works lies in his ______.
A.social criticism
B.optimism
C.character-portrayal
D.social setting
Answer: C (P241)

_____is based on the Celtic legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table.
A.In Memoriam
B.“Ulysses”
C.Idylls of the King
D.The Princess
Answer: C (P275)

5. _____is Robert Browning’s best-known dramatic monologue.
A.“My Last Duches”
B.“Meeting at Night”
C.“Parting at Morning”
D.“Pippa Passes”
Answer: A (P287)

6. _____initiates a new type of realism and sets into motion a variety of developments, leading in the direction of both the naturalistic and psychological novel.
A.Charles Dickens
B.George Eliot
C.Charlotte Bronte
D.Thomas hardy
Answer: B (P292)

7. _____works are known as “novels of characters and environment.”
A.Charles Dickens’s
B.George Eliot’s
C.Jane Austen’s
D.Geroge Eliot’s
Answer: B (P300)

8. ____belives that man’s fate is predeterminedly tragic, driven by a combined force of ‘nature”, both inside and outside.
A.Charles Dickens
B.Thomas hardy
C.Bernard Shaw
D.T.S. Eliot
Answer: B (P301)