英语诗歌鉴赏chapter23.docVIP

Chapter 2 William Shakespeare Renaissance(文艺复兴): Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and 17th century. It means revival of interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture Stanza(诗节): The stanza is a structural division of a poem, consisting of a series of verse lines which usually comprise a recurring pattern of meter and rhyme. In traditional English poetry, there are various stanzaic forms containing two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight or nine lines. Sonnet(十四行诗): The sonnet is a complete lyric consisting of fourteen iambic-pentameter lines. It includes two distinct types: the Italian or Petrarchan and the English or Shakespearean. The Italian sonnet consists of two parts: the first eight-line part is called the octave, with a rhyme scheme of abbaabba; the second six-line part is called the sestet, with a rhyme scheme of cdecde. Generally, the octave presents the poet’s subject or raises a question, while the sestet indicates the significance of the subject, or answers the question or resolves the problem posed in the octave. The English sonnet is made up of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, with the rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. In the Shakespearean sonnet each quatrain deals with a different aspect of the subject and the couplet either summarizes the theme or makes a final, sometimes contradictory, comment. Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summers day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summers lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmd; And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or natures changing course untrimmd; But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou owest;Nor shall Death brag thou wanderst in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this and this gives life to thee. Sonnet