《英美诗歌鉴赏课件》English Poetry (3).pptVIP

Chapter Two Lyric Poetry Lyric poetry originally takes its name from songs sung by individuals or a chorus accompanied by the lyre. It is believed that the lyric began in its earliest stage in ancient Egypt around 2600 BC in the forms of elegies, odes or hymns generated out of religious ceremonies. The first of the lyric poets was probably Archilochus of Paros, who might have lived in as early as 700 BC. The earliest surviving lyric poems in the Western tradition are arguably the Song of Solomon and the Psalms. During the Middle Ages, lyric poetry was dominated by the courtly love tradition in most European languages. It was upper-class poetry intended for the courts of the nobility. Many of the poets who wrote in the courtly love tradition also produced other lyric poetry outside the courtly milieu. The shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance was best exemplified by Francesco Petrarch, whose sonnets, observing his love for Laura, widely spread in Europe and gave his name to one form of the sonnet. The Renaissance, and particularly Elizabethan England, saw a great flowering of lyric poetry. With the new emphasis on the individual rather than the community, the lyric poet, who addresses the reader directly in the first person, became prominent on the literary scene. The Elizabethan lyrics were typically smooth and sweet in diction against which Metaphysicals reacted with their harsher and wittier argumentative verse. Much of the lyric poetry of the 17th and 18th centuries is little read today because of its dependence on classical mythology and standard forms. Notable exceptions are John Milton, Andrew Marvel and John Donne. It was not until the end of the 18th century with such poets as Johann Wolfgang Goethe and William Wordsworth that another flowering of great lyric poetry began. The fixed forms of lyric poetry began to be dissolved and broken. Much 20th century lyric poetry is not dependent on rhyme or regular meter. The typical lyrical subject ma