美国文学诗歌赏析

1.

Analyze the poem “The Wild Honey Suckle”

Understand the title: 1.

The name honeysuckle comes from the sweet nectar that the flower

produces to intoxicate the greedy bee. Its powerful fragrance seduces the human senses as it

pervades the air. The perfume o

f this passionate plant may turn a maiden?s head, hence wild

honeysuckle is a symbol of inconstancy in love.2. The word “wild” implies her living place; she

lives in wilderness not in paradise or house; so she will not be appreciated by others and feels

sorrowful. Also it implies the nature, so we can say the writer is describing the nature.

2.

Analyze Whitman’s “Song of Myself” (Over 200 words)

of

Myself

is

all

about

the

human

experience.

The

human

experience,

here,

means what men of the past, present and future have seen, touched, smelt, and heard.

In

this poem Whitman is explaining how all of humanity is like one living organism, and no one part

is more important than the other. In section 44 of

far exhausted trillions of winters and summers, There are trillions ahead, and trillions ahead of

them. Births have brought us richness and variety, And other births will bring us richness and

variety. I do not call one greater and one smaller, That which fills its period and place is equal to

any.

most writers. More specifically, Whitman speaks of equal contribution to the human experience

in section 42:

brains

liberally

spooning,

Tickets

buying,

taking,

selling,

but

in

to

the

feast

never

once

going,

Many sweating, ploughing, thrashing, and then the chaff for payment receiving, A few idly owning,

and they the wheat continually claiming. This is the city and I am one of the citizens, Whatever

interests

the

rest

interests

me,

politics,

wars,

markets,

newspapers,

schools,

The

mayor

and

councils, banks, tariffs, steamships, factories, stocks, stores, real estate and personal estate.

3.

Emily’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” (Over 300 words)

The poem begins with a leisurely image. At first, the protagonist feels totally at ease and

the usually frightening death is described as if a familiar friend, gentle and polite. Continuingly,

the poem is developed upon a basic metaphor that life is a journey. It was truly rather old a

comparison,

but

Dickinson

enriched

it

with

her

creativity

and

imagination:

where

Children strove

Then “the Dews drew quivering and chill

-

” makes the protagonist feel terribly cold, which may

mean

that

they

are

getting

nearer

and

nearer

to

the

tomb.

But

at

last,

his

companions,

Immortality and Death, finally desert him and leave him alone to go toward Eternity.

So

it

seems

that

though

death

cheats

him

and

at

the

same

time

deserts

him,

the

experience

of

death

itself

is

not

painful.

Emily

Dickinson?s

poems

just

explain

this

kind

of

essence of life, which then lead you to a world of imagination and thinking.

4.

Appreciate the poem “In a Station of the Metro”.

The poem is essentially a set of images that have unexpected likeness and convey the

rare emotion that Pound was experiencing at that time. Arguably the heart of the poem is not

the first line, nor the second, but the mental process that links the two together.

this

sort,

as

Pound

explained,

is

trying

to

record

the

precise

instant

when

a

thing

outward

and

objective

transforms

itself,

or

darts

into

a

thing

inward

and

subjective.

This

darting

takes

place

between

the

first

and

second

lines.

The

pivotal

semi-colon

has

stirred

debate as to whether the first line is in fact subordinate to the second or both lines are of equal,

independent

importance.

Pound

contrasts

the

factual,

mundane

image

that

he

actually

witnessed with a metaphor from nature and thus infuses this “apparition” with visual beauty.

There

is

a

quick

transition

from

the

statement

of

the

first

line

to

the

second

line?s

vivid

metaphor;

this

?super

-

pository?

technique

exemplifies

the

Japanese

haiku

style.

The

word

“apparition”

is

considered

crucial

as

it

evokes

a

mystical

and

supernatural

sense

of

imprecision

which

is then

reinforced

by

the metaphor of

the

second

line. The

plosive

word

?Petals? conjures ideas of delicate, feminine beauty which contrasts with the bleakness of the

?wet,

black

bough?.

What

the

poem

signifies

is

questionable;

many

critics

argue

that

it

deliberately

transcends

traditional

form

and

therefore

its

meaning

is

solely

found

in

its

technique as opposed to in its content. However when Pound had the inspiration to write this

poem

few

of

these

considerations

came

into

view.

He

simply

wished

to

translate

his

perception of beauty in the midst of ugliness into a single, perfect image in written form.

It is also worth noting that the number of words in the poem (fourteen) is the same as the

number of lines in a sonnet. The words are distributed with eight in the first line and six in the

second, mirroring the octet-sestet form of the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet.

5.

Appreciate the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening”.

“Stopping

by

Woods

on

a

Snowy

Evening,”

like

many

of

Frost's

poems,

explores

the

theme of the individual caught between nature and civilization. The speaker's location on the

border

between

civilization

and

wilderness

echoes

a

common

theme

throughout

American

literature. The speaker is drawn to the beauty and allure of the woods, which represent nature,

but

has

obligations

—“promises

to

keep”—

which

draw

him

away

from

nature

and

back

to

society and the world of men. The speaker is thus faced with a choice of whether to give in to

the allure of nature, or remain in the realm of society. Some critics have interpreted the poem

as a meditation on death

—

the woods represent the allure of death, perhaps suicide, which the

speaker resists in order to return to the mundane tasks which order daily life.

6.

Analyze the poem “The Road Not

Taken”.

the poem is inspirational, a paean to individualism and non-conformism.

The poem consists of four stanzas. In the first stanza, the speaker describes his position.

He has been out walking in the woods and comes to two roads, and he stands looking as

far down each one as he can see. He would like to try out both, but doubts he could do that,

so

therefore

he

continues

to

look

down

the

roads

for

a

long

time

trying

to

make

his

decision about which road to take. The ironic interpretation, widely held by critics, is that

the poem is instead about regret and personal myth-making, rationalizing our decisions.

In this interpretation, the final two lines:

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

are ironic : the choice made little or no difference at all, the speaker's protestations to the

contrary.

The

speaker

admits

in

the

second

and

third

stanzas

that

both

paths

may

be

equally worn and equally leaf-covered, and it is only in his future recollection that he will

call one road

The sigh, widely interpreted as a sigh of regret, might also be interpreted ironically: in a

1925 letter to Cristine Yates of Dickson, Tennessee, asking about the sigh, Frost replied:

sorry for the way I had taken in life.