-
湖南科技大学外国语学院
课程学期论文
课程名称：英语修辞学
论文题目：
姓
名：
班
级：
学
号：
学年学期：
A Stylistic Analysis of Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
’
s Poem
“
A
Psalm
’
of
Life
”
周文雅
教育英语三班
2012-2013-1
A
Stylistic Analysis of
Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow
’
s Poem
“
A
Psalm
’
of
Life
”
Introduction
Longfellow has
emerged as the most
beloved
American romanticism poet of the
19
th
century,
even
though
his
reputation
diminished
in
the
20
th
century.
Longfellow
formed and promoted the American
Romantic Literature, which is more stressed on
emotion, faith and intuition than the
form, to rebel against the formalism of the
18
th
century.
Longfellow
produced
a
large
number
of
poems
in
his
life
which
strongly
embodied
the
optimistic
sentiment
and
the
love
that
characterized
the
didacticism.
Much of his
work is categorized as lyric poetry, Longfellow
experimented with many
forms,
including
hexameter
and
free
verse.
His
published
poetry
shows
great
versatility,
using
anapestic
and
trochaic
forms,
blank
verse,
heroic
couplets,
ballads
and sonnets.
He
modeled his works on European works which center
on the morality
by
insisting
on
the
traditional
meters,
stanza
forms,
stereotyped
metaphors
and
superficial symbolism.
Many of his works helped shape the American
character and
its legacy.
Analysis
Longfellow
’
s poem
“
A
Psalm
’
of Life
”
is undoubted the most
remarkable work
to him. When he wrote
this poem, he still fighted for the loss of his
first wife who had
died
in
a
disease.
After
a
heartfelt
conversation
he
had
with
his
friend
of
matters, which lie near one's soul, and
how to bear one's self doughtily in Life's battle,
and make the best of
things
the poet expresses not a empty
grandiloquence but an active, positive, and
optimistic
attitude towards life. He
praises the optimistic feelings to counterattack
the depressed
feelings.
He
loves
life,
praises
life,
appreciates
the
beauty,
the
colorfulness
and
the
wonderfulness of life.
The poem is encouraging and inspiring.
I. At the Phonological
Level
1.
Meter
In
this
poem,
Longfellow
adopted
a
traditional
meter---trochaic
tetrameters
.
Trochaic
is
most
suitable
feet
for
cheerful
theme
because
they
express
so
violent,
emphatic,
challenging and strong that the poem sounds
inspiring, cheerful, emphatic,
and
powerful with the stressed syllable followed by
the unstressed syllable. Meantime,
there are some mutations in meter to
strongen its inspiration. For example, the first
two feet in the fourth line of the
first stanza and the first foot in the fourth line
of the
second stanza are iambic; the
first foot in the third line of the sixth stanza
is spondee.
With
all
these
changes
in
meter,
the
poem
is
more
natural,
lively
and
artistic.
Furthermore, the
combination of the quatrain and trochaic
tetrameters have an unique,
lively and
readable sound effect.
2.
Rhyme
Longfellow
’
s
choice of rhymes went
along with his
conventional use of meter.
The whole
poem consists of nine stanzes of four lines. The
end rhyme schemes are
a
-b -
a - b, c - d - c - d, e - f- e - f, g - h - g - h,
k - l- k -l, m - n - m - n, o - p - o - p, q- r -
q
-
r,
s-
t
-
s
-
t
,
in
which
the
ood
lines
are
feminine
rhymes
expressing
gentle,
euphemism and the even lines are
masculine rhymes showing power and speed. The
poem is full of a quick and powerful
rhyme by interlacing of these two rhymes.
3.
Alliteration
and assonance
Alliteration is the
commonest figure of speech that repeats the
initial consonants
in
a
succession
of
words
in
the
poem.
For
example,
the
first
line
of
the
first
three
stanzes
use
allit
eration:
“
Tell
me
not,
in
a
mournful
numbers
”
,
“
Life
is
real,
Life
is
earnest!
”
,
“
Not enjoyment, and not
sorrow
”
. These three lines
convey
Longfellow
’
s
opinion
on
the
value
of
life
in
a
serious
and
magnificent
manner:
there
is
no
enjoyment and no sorrow
in life but the reality. At the same time, the
poem reads very
fluent and rhythmed.
Assonance is not the popular figure of
speech that repeats similar vowel sounds
in a succession of words, but
Longfellow uses it frequently in this poem. For
example,
“
muffled
drums
”
,
“
Let the dead past bury it
is dead
”
,
“
Lives of great men all
remind
us
”
,
“
we make our lives
sublime
”
,
“
take heart
again
”
etc. These assonances
not only
connect the meaning of poem
but also develope a catching rhyme.
II. At the Graphological Level
1.
Capitalization
The tendency that Longfellow
capitalized three words deliberately
“
Time, Future,
Present
”
which
related
to
the
time
aimed
at
giving
additional
meaning.
From
these
words,
“
Time
”
can represent life , so
“
Fut
ure
”
and
“
Present
”
are
life
’
s future dream
and
life
’
s
present
condition.
A
obvious
contrast
emerged
in
the
readers
mind
and
indicated a life philosophy--- be up
and doing--- appreciating what you have now.
2.
Punctuation
Through
the
use
of
exclamation
in
the
poem,
especially
the
sixth
stanza,
Longfellow expresses his thoughts and
appeal to the reader to act immediately.
What
’
s
more,
the
sixth
line
is
almost
in
the
middle
of
the
poem,
the
exclamation
creates
a
climax
of
the
poem---act
in
the
living
Present!
Besides,
the
dashes
slow
down
the