10.7英国文学导读.pdf

April in The Canterbury Tales Images • April rain: power for regeneration/ revival; hope • Flower: blooming • Small fowl: singing Symbolic meaning • The narrator opens the General Prologue with a description of the return of spring. He describes the April rains, the burgeoning flowers and leaves, and the chirping birds. • The springtime symbolizes rebirth and fresh beginnings. Analysis • Connotations of Spring: • Rebirth or revival of nature (biological, erotic) • Reawakening of super-nature (religious) • Natural force (to mellow vegetation, stimulate birds and animals, stir up hearts of men) • Religious force (to waken man’s piety, winter solstice, spring equinox) Analysis • Chaucer’s depiction of April reflected the spirit of the age: in the dawn of Renaissance, there was a revival of humanism. People began to show love to the world and life again. Therefore, the description of April suggested hope, a hope for a new and better life, and for love. The Waste Land -- by T. S. Eliot Fragments • The first 18 lines can be divided into 4 fragments to be considered separately. • Line 1-7: there is an expression of a memory and desire, a theme for the whole poem according to many. • April is the cruelest month. lilac is blossoming from the dead land, mixing memory and desire. spring stirs the dull root. Winter keeps us warm, covering the earth with forgetful white snow, which makes the dried tuber alive. • Lilacs：紫丁香symbol of spring • spring rain：春雨，the power for growing • Dull: unwilling to grow, that means people in the waste land do not want to be disturbed. 料 • The beginning gives us a graphic picture of what is a