Ø E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings (October
14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), known as E. E. Cummings,
with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase
letters as e e cummings (in
the style of some of his poems—see name and capitalization, below), was an American poet, painter,
essayist, author, and playwright. His body of work encompasses
approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays and several
essays, as well as numerous drawings and paintings. He is remembered as an
eminent voice of 20th century English literature.
Ø somewhere i have never
travelled gladly beyond: your eyes have their silence (this
mention in last week)
Ø anyone lived in a pretty how town( ü red is the senrences that I like)
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t he danced his did.
Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn’t they reaped their
same
sun moon stars rain
children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more
when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone’s any was all to her
someones
married their everyones
laughed
their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream
stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)
one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was
all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.
Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain
Ø The burial of the dead
Ø The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales (Middle English:
Tales of Caunterbury) is a
collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in
Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1386, Chaucer became Controller of
Customs and Justice of Peace and, three years later, Clerk of the King's work
in 1389. It was during these years that Chaucer began working on his most
famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a
story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel
together on a journey from London to Canterbury in order to visit
the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this
contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.
The Canterbury Tales is
near-unanimously seen as Chaucer's magnum opus. He uses the tales and
the descriptions of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the
time, and particularly
of the Church. Chaucer's use of such a wide range of
classes and types of people was without precedent in English. Although the characters are fictional, they still offer a variety of
insights into the customs and practices of the time. Often, such insight leads
to a variety of discussions and disagreements among people in the 14th century.
For example, although various social classes are represented in these stories
and all of the pilgrims are on a spiritual quest, it is apparent that they are
more concerned with worldly things than spiritual. Structurally, the collection
resembles The Decameron, which Chaucer may have read during his first
diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372.
It is sometimes argued that the greatest
contribution The Canterbury Tales made to English literature was in popularising the literary use of the
vernacular, English, rather than French, Italian or Latin.
While Chaucer clearly states the
addressees of many of his poems, the intended audience of The Canterbury Tales
is more difficult to determine. Chaucer was a courtier, leading some to believe
that he was mainly a court poet who wrote exclusively for nobility.
Ø General Prologue:
The
General Prologue is the first part of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
The frame story of the poem, as set out
in the 858 lines of Middle English which make up the general prologue, is of a religious
pilgrimage. The narrator, Geoffrey Chaucer, is in The Tabard Inn in
Southwark, where he meets a group of "sundry folk" who are all on the way to Canterbury, the
site of the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket.
The
setting is April, and the prologue starts by singing the praises of that month whose rains and warm
western wind restore life and fertility to the earth and its inhabitants.
This abundance of life, the narrator says, prompts people to go on pilgrimages; in England, the goal of such pilgrimages is the
shrine of Thomas Becket. The narrator falls in with a group of pilgrims, and the
largest part of the prologue is taken up by a description of them; Chaucer
seeks to describe their 'condition', their 'array', and their social 'degree':
At
the end of the section, the Host proposes the story-telling contest: each pilgrim will tell
two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. Whoever tells the best story, with "the
best sentence and moost solaas" (line 798) is to be given a free meal.
Ø Frame story (故事一圈圈起來)
A frame story (also known as a frame tale or frame
narrative) is a
literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story
within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is
presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more
emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories. The frame story leads readers from a first story into
another, smaller one (or several ones) within it.
Ø When Lilacs Last in the
Dooryard Bloom’dRelated Poem Content Details
BY WALT WHITMAN
When lilacs last in the dooryard
bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the
western sky in the night,
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with
ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me
you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star
in the west,
And thought of him I love.
l "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
is a long poem in the
form of an elegy written by American poet Walt Whitman
(1819–1892) in 1865.
It was written in the summer of 1865 during a period of profound national
mourning in the aftermath of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on
April 14, 1865. Despite the poem being an elegy to the fallen president,
Whitman
neither mentions Lincoln by name nor discusses the circumstances of his death.
Instead, Whitman uses a series of rural and natural imagery
including the symbols of the lilacs
, a drooping star in the western sky ( Venus ), and the hermit thrush , and
employs the
traditional progression of the pastoral elegy in moving from grief toward an
acceptance and knowledge of death.
Ø Captain! My Captain!Related
Poem Content Details
BY WALT WHITMAN ( 悼念林肯)
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is
done,
The
port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While
follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart!
heart! heart!
O the bleeding
drops of red,
Where on the
deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the
bells;
Rise
up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For
you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For
you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath
your head!
It is some dream
that on the deck,
You’ve fallen
cold and dead.
My Captain does not
answer, his lips are pale and still,
My
father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The
ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From
fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
- "O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written in 1865 by Walt Whitman, about the death of American president Abraham Lincoln. The poem was first published in the pamphlet Sequel to Drum-Taps which assembled 18 poems regarding the American Civil War, including another Lincoln elegy, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd".
Ø I Wandered Lonely as a
CloudRelated Poem Content Details
BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
I
wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
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 dances with the daffodils.
Ø Herman Melville
Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 –
September 28, 1891) was an American
novelist , short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period best known for Typee
(1846), a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his
whaling novel Moby-Dick. His writing draws on his
experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy,
and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid
change. He developed a complex, baroque
style: the vocabulary is rich and original, a strong sense of rhythm infuses
the elaborate sentences, the imagery is often mystical or ironic, and the abundance of allusion
extends to Scripture, myth, philosophy, literature, and the visual arts.
Ø Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick or,
The Whale is a novel by American writer Herman Melville
, published in 1851 during the period of the American Renaissance .
Sailor Ishmael tells the story of the
obsessive quest of Ahab , captain of the whaler Pequod
, for revenge on Moby Dick
, the white whale which on an earlier voyage destroyed his ship and severed
his leg at the knee. The novel
was a commercial failure and out of print at the
time of the author's death in 1891, but during the 20th century its
reputation as a Great American Novel was established. William Faulkner
confessed he wished he had written it himself, and DH Lawrence called it
"one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea
ever written". "Call
me Ishmael" is among world literature's most famous opening
sentences.
Ø Bartleby, the Scrivener
Bartleby, the Scrivener:
A Story of Wall Street
is a short story by the American writer Herman Melville , first serialized anonymously in
two parts in the November and December 1853 issues of Putnam's Magazine , and
reprinted with minor textual alterations in his The Piazza Tales in 1856. A
Wall Street lawyer hires a new clerk who—after an initial bout of hard work—refuses to make copy and any other
task required of him, with the words "I would prefer not
to". The
lawyer cannot bring himself to remove Bartleby from his premises, and decides
instead to move his office, but the new proprietor removes Bartleby to prison,
where he perishes.
Ø Vocabulary
Ø fra- break
into pieces
l frail:
not strong and therefore likely to be damaged or destroyed
Ø ann-; enn-:
year
l annuity:
a fixed amount of money that someone receives regularly each year
l annual
fee
l anniversary:
a date when you celebrate something that happened in a previous year that is important to
you
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