20世纪美国诗歌.ppt

The 20th American Poetry POETRY Definition History Background Features Representative Poets Definition All poetry is a reproduction of the tones of actual speech. Milton defines poetry as “thoughts that voluntary move harmonious( 和谐的) numbers; and Chatfield says, Poetry is the music of thought, conveyed to us in the music of language. History Background After the WWI, there appeared in poetry a strong reaction against Victorian poetry whose chief characteristics are its moralizing(说教) tendencies(倾向), emptiness(空虚) of themes, and traditional prosodies[诗体]. Modernist writers emphasize the economy of expression and the use of dominant images. Features 1. Emotion, strong passion Expresses and arouses strong feeling such as love, pity, fear, sadness, joy, etc 2. Condensed ( 浓缩的) and vivid language Language is the most important thing in poetry. Poetic language is the most vivid and condensed language in literature 3. Special form alliteration(头韵), meter(韵律), rhyme 4. Symbolic Representative Poets Ezra Pound(埃兹拉·庞德) Robert Frost(罗伯特·弗罗斯特) Ezra Pound (1885 - 1972) American poet and critic “the poets poet” “poetry is the highest of arts” His Life Ezra Pound is one of the most ambitious, influential, and innovative poets of the modernist period (the first half of the 20th century). Pound made significant contributions to American poetry not only as poet but also as a translator, editor, polemicist(善辩论者), and essayist( 散文作家). His Works 1. In his best-known work, a collection of 117 poems, called The Cantos《诗章》, he combined his own ideas with material from different cultures and languages, historical texts, and newspaper. 2. He is regarded as the father of modern American poetry and founder of imagism. Definition Imagism(意象主义): A literary movement launched by British and American poets early in the 20th century tha