Chapter 3: The Romantic Period
General Introduction
1. Historical background: Internationally,
1The French Revolutions: --the great event, arouse great sympathy and enthusiasm in the English liberals and Conservatives, they all declared Liberty, Equality and Fraternity
2Rousseau--the great French Philosopher. Influence by Rousseau, the writers began to explore the new ideas about Nature, Society and Education
These paved the way for the development of Romanticism in the literature internationally.
Nationally,
1Industrial revolution (Industrialization, Further capitalization and Urbanization)
2The survival of fittest (the sharper contradiction between capitalists and the labors) These are the national basis of the production of Romanticism.
2. Literature background: The early works with Romantic tendency are following:
Thomas Paine’s The Declaration of Rights of Man claiming Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
Edmund Burke published his Reflections on the Revolution in France.
William Godwin’s Inquiry Concerning Political Justice. Against the injustice, economic system and the oppression of the poor.
Mary Wollstonecraft urged the equal rights for women in her A Vindication (辩 护) of the Right of Woman.
3. The definition, duration and characteristics of the Romanticism:
1The definition:
The Romantic Movement, which associated with vitality, powerful emotion and dreamlike ideas, is simply the expression of life as seen by the imagination rather than by prosaic common sense.
The contrast between Romanticism and Neoclassicism:
Romanticism: associated with vitality, powerful emotion and dreamlike ideas Neoclassicism: associated with order, common sense and controlled reason
2Duration:
Beginning time: 1798 marked by the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge
Ending time: 1832 marked by the death of Scott and the passage of the first Reform Bill
3Characteristics:
The spontaneous overflow(自然流露的) of powerful feeling
The creation of a world of imagination
The return to nature for materials
Sympathy with the humble and glorification of the common place
Emphasis upon the expression of individual genius
A sense of melancholy and loneliness of the character
The rebellious spirits of the author
The major achievements are poetry
4. The viewpoints of Romanticists on society and literature:
1Socially:
Romanticist saw man essentially as an individual in the solitary state.
The Romanticist emphasized the special qualities of each individual’s mind.
The Romanticists changed the direction from attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirits.
2On Literature:
In essence it designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience
It also place individual at the center of the art
Make the literature most valuable as an expression of his or her unique feeling and particular attitudes
Value its accuracy in portraying the individual’s experiences
5. The development of Romanticism and its principles:
1The development
In this period, we note a new interest in literatures and legends other than those of Greece and Rome. It was in effect a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason.
They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution.
Major Representatives of this movement: Wordsworth and Coleridge
2The principles
General principles:
They saw poetry as a healing energy.
They believe that poetry could purify both individual soul and society.
They explored the new theories and innovated new techniques in poetry:
a. Poetry should be free from all rules in forms
b. Humble people and the common everyday life should be describe in subject
c. Employ the commonplace, the natural and the simple as the poetic materials
d. Seek for the Absolute
e. Bold experiments in poetic language, versification and design
Wordsworth:
Call for simple themes drawn from humble life
The poet as a “man speaking to men”
Poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”
Coleridge:
Imagination is the vital faculty that creates new wholes out of disparate elements. Regard the concepts of spontaneity and inspiration as something crucial for true poetry.
Nature is the major source of poetic imagery and nature is a dominant subject.
6. Main representatives:
1Main representatives—poets:
Pre-Romanticism: (Blake and Burns)
The first generation: (Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey)
The younger generation: (Byron, Shelley and Keats)
2Main representatives—novelists
Jane Austen --- love and marriage Walter Scott --- main works (book) human nature
3Gothic novelists
Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley
Gothic novel:
It is a type of romantic fiction that predominated in the late 18th century & was one phase of the Romantic Movement.
Its principal elements are violence, horror & the supernatural, which strongly appeal to the reader’s emotion.
With its descriptions of the dark, irrational side of human nature, the Gothic form has exerted a great influence over the writer of the Romantic period.
Works like The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe & Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley are typical Gothic romance.
The typical authors during this period
I. William Blake
1. Introduction:
English poet, artist, & philosopher, born in London England, Nov 28, 1757, and died in London, Aug 12, 1827.
Blake made distinguished contributions to both Literature & art.
He ranks with great poets in the English language & may be considered the
earliest of the major English Romantic poets.
His poems range from lyrics of childlike simplicity to mystical or prophetic works of great complexity.
As an artist he is best known for his engravings, which are among the masterpieces of graphic art.
2. Viewpoints on politics and religion:
Blake never tried to fit into the world; he was a rebel innocently & completely all his life.
He was politically of the permanent left & mixed a good deal with the radicals.
Blake strongly criticized the capitalists’ cruel exploitation, saying that the “dark satanic mills left men unemployed, killed children & forced prostitution.”
Meanwhile he cherished great expectations & enthusiasm for the French Revolution, & regarded it as a necessary stage leading to the millennium predicted by the biblical prophets(圣经)
3. Viewpoint on literature: The first important Romantic poet
Showing contempt for the rule of reason
Opposing the classical tradition of the 18th century
Treasuring the individual’s imagination
4. Main works:
Early works: Poetical Sketches 《诗学札记》-- A collection of youthful verse. Joy, laughter, love and harmony are the prevailing note and hint his later innovative style and theme.
Masterpieces
Songs of Innocence《天真之歌》
Songs of Experience《经验之歌》
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell《天堂与地狱的婚姻》
The similarities and differences between two volumes:
Generally:
Hold the similar subject-matter
The childhood is the central to his concern
The tone, emphasis and conclusion differ
Specifically:
Infant Joy against Infant Sorrow
Lamb against Tyger
Chimney Sweeper I against Chimney Sweeper II
Similarity: to reveal the relation between an economic circumstance and an ideological circumstance socially.
Difference: the former indicates the condition which makes religion a consolation, a prospect of illusory happiness
The later reveals the true nature of religion which helps bring misery to the poor children
Later works -- reveal him as the prophet of universal political & spiritual freedom and
show the poet himself as the spokesman of revolt(反抗).
The Book of Urizen
The Book of Los
The Four Zoas
Milton
5. Language styles:
he write his poems in plain and direct language.
His poems often carry the lyric beauty with immense compression of meaning. He distrusts the abstractness and tends to embody his views with visual images. Symbolism in wide range is also a distinctive feature of his poetry.
II. William Wordsworth
1. Introduction:
William Wordsworth, known as “the Lake Poets” together with Coleridge and Southey, is the leading figure of the English Romantic poetry, the focal poetic voice of the period.
He is the voice of searchingly comprehensive humanity and one that inspires his audience to see the world freshly, sympathetically and naturally.
The most important contribution he has made is that he has not only started modern poetry, the poetry of growing inner self, but also changed the course of English poetry by using ordinary speech of the language and by advocating a return to nature.
2. Types of his poem according to his poetic outlook:
According to the subjects, Wordsworth’s short poems can be classified into two groups: poems about nature and poems about human life.
1Poems about nature:
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud is perhaps the most anthologized poem in English literature, & one that takes us to the core of Wordsworth’s poetic beliefs
An Evening Walk
My Heart Leaps up
Tintern Abbey -- remains a profoundly original & imaginative achievement; the valley of the Wye itself, the quiet center of the returning wanderer’s thoughts, is described with a detail that conveys a sense of natural order at once vivid & eternal.
Nature outlook:
Wordsworth is regarded as a “worshipper of nature.” He can penetrate to the heart of things & give the reader the very life of nature.
To Wordsworth, nature act as a substitute for imaginative and intellectual engagement with the development of embodied human beings in their diverse circumstances. It is nature that gives him “strength & knowledge full of peace.”
2Poems about human life: The Thorn
The Sailor’s Mother
The Affliction of Margaret
The Old Cumberland Beggar
The old man in the poem, is seen as precious for his unique self and the benevolence he evoke s in the small rural community.
Michael
Suggests the grave and tender dignity of the author’s meditation on man, the heart of man, and human life
Lucy Poem
Is the verse of love and loss which hold within its delicate simplicity a meditation on time and death which rises to universal stature
The Idiot Boy
The irrational mind sees more deeply into the nature of life than the commonsensical
The Solitary Reaper
Wordsworth intends to suggest the timeless mystery of sorrowful humanity and its radiant beauty.
To a Highland Girl
Use rural figure to suggest the timeless mystery of sorrowful humanity and its radiant beauty
The Ruined Cottage
Rouse the tender, quiet compassion of those who are at one with the timeless truth of existence
In his daring use of subject matter and sense of the authenticity of the experience of the poorest, “resolution and independence” is the triumphant conclusion of ideas first developed in the Lyrical Ballads.
Human life outlook:
Common life is Wordsworth’s only subject of literary interest.
The joys & sorrows of the common people are his themes.
His sympathy always goes to the suffering poor.
3. Creative principles:
Wordsworth’s deliberate simplicity & refusal to decorate the truth of experience produced a kind of pure & profound poetry which no other poets has ever equaled poetry.
His premise was that the source of poetic truth is the direct experience of the sense
He asserts poetry originates from “emotion recollected in tranquility.”
Rejecting the contemporary emphasis on form & intellectual approach that drained poetic writing of strong emotion,
He maintains that the scenes & events of everyday life & the speech of ordinary people are the raw material of which poetry can & should be made.
III. Percy Bysshe Shelley
1. Introduction:
Shelley is one of the leading Romantic poets, an intense & original lyrical poet in the English language.
Though gentle by nature, his rebellious qualities were cultivated in his early years.
2. His Literary and political Outlook:
Shelley grew up with violent revolutionary ideas under the influence of the free thinkers like Hume & Godwin, so he held a life-long aversion to cruelty, injustice, authority, institutional religion & the formal shams of respectable society, condemning war, tyranny & exploitation.
However, under the influence of Christian humanism, Shelley took interest in social reforms. He realized that the evil was also in man’s mind.
So he predicted that only through gradual & suitable reforms of the existing institutions could benevolence be universally established & none of the evils would survive in this “genuine society”, where people could live together happily, freely & peacefully.
3. His major works:
Early works:
Necessity of Atheism
Queen Mab: A philosophical Poem: emphasizes how the “Spirit of Nature” pulses in all people and makes an absurdity of selfishness and pride.
Alastor or The Spirit of Solitude: is a record of author’s intense consciousness of his own loneliness in life and a passionate contemplation of the mystery of death. Hymn to Intellectual Beauty.
Mont Blanc
Lyric:
Julian and Maddalo
The Revolt of Islam
The Cenci
Hellas The Cloud:
Shelley created a Platonic symbol of the spirit of man, a force of beauty and regeneration.
To a Skylark: the bird, suspended between reality & poetic image, pours forth an exultant song which suggests to the poet both celestial rapture & human limitation.
Adonais: is an elegy for John Keats. In it, these men become the embodiments of philistinism and reaction, the enemies of truth.
Ode to the west Wind:
Best of all the well-known lyric pieces
Here Shelley’s rhapsodic & declamatory tendencies find a subject perfectly suited to them.
The autumn wind, burying the dead year, preparing for a new spring, becomes an image of Shelley himself, as he would want to be, in its freedom, its destructive-constructive potential, its universality.
“I fall upon the thorns of Life! I bleed!” calls the Shelley that could not bear being fettered to the humdrum realities of everyday! The whole poem has a logic of feeling, a not easily analyzable progression that leads to the triumphant, hopeful & convincing conclusion: “If winter comes, can Spring before behind?”
The poem is written in the terza rima form Shelley derived from his reading of Dante. The nervous thrill of Shelley’s response to nature however is here transformed through the power of art & imagination into a longing to be united with a force at once physical & prophetic.
Here is no conservative reassurance, no comfortable mysticism, but the primal amorality of nature itself, with its mad fury & its pagan ruthlessness. Shelley’s ode is an invocation to a primitive deity, a plea to exalt him in its fury & to trumpet the radical prophecy of hope & rebirth.
Ode to Liberty
Ode to Naples
Sonnet: England in 1819
Shelley expressed his love for freedom and his hatred toward tyranny in several of his poem, such as, Ode to Liberty, Ode to Naples, Sonnet: England in 1819.
Men of England: One of the greatest political lyrics. Not only a war cry calling upon all working people to rise up against their political oppressors but also an address to them pointing out the intolerable injustice of economic exploitation. The poem was later became a rallying song of British Communist Party.
Major prose essay: Defense of Poetry
Poetic drama: Prometheus Unbound
Shelley’s greatest achievement is his four-act poetic drama, Prometheus Unbound.
According to the Greek mythology, Prometheus, the champion of humanity, who has stolen the fire from Heaven, is punished by Zeus to be chained on Mount Caucasus & suffers the vulture’s feeding on his liver.
Shelley based his drama on Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, in which Prometheus reconciles with the tyrant Zeus. Radical & revolutionary as Shelley, he wrote in the preface: “In truth, I was averse from a catastrophe so feeble as that reconciling the Champion with the oppressor of Mankind.” So he gave a totally different interpretation, transforming the compromise into liberation. With the strong support of Earth, his mother; Asia, his bride & the help from Demogorgon & Hercules, Zeus is driven from the throne; Prometheus is unbound.
The play is an exultant work in praise of humankind’s potential, & Shelley himself recognized it as “the most perfect of my products.”
4. Characteristics of his Poetry:
Shelley is one of the lending Romantic poets, an intense & original lyrical poet in the English language.
Like Blake, he has a reputation as a difficult poet: erudite, imagistically complex, full of classical & mythological allusions.
His style abounds in personification & metaphor & other figures of speech which describe vividly what we see & feel, or express what passionately moves us.
IV. Jane Austen
1. Introduction:
It was Jane Austen who brought the English novels, as an art of form, to its
maturity and she had been regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists.
Although she lived in 19th century (Romantic period), she was a realistic writer. She upheld the traditional ideas of order, reason, proportion and gracefulness in novel
writing
Austen is universally regarded as the founder of the novel which deal with
unimportant middle-class people. 2.Major works:
In her lifelong career, Jane Austen wrote altogether six complete novels, which can be divided into two distinct periods.
Sense and Sensibility 理智与情感 Her first novel
Pride and Prejudice 傲慢与偏见 The most
popular of her novels dealing with the five Bennet sisters & their search for suitable husbands.
Northanger Abbey 诺桑觉寺 satirizes those popular Gothic romances of the late
18th century
Mansfield Park 曼 斯 菲 尔 德 庄 园 presents the antithesis of worldliness &
unworldliness
Emma 爱玛 gives the thought over self-deceptive vanity
Persuasion 劝导 contrasts the true love with the prudential calculations
3. Writing styles:
Austen’s main literary concern is about human beings in their personal relationships. Because of this, her novels have a universal significance. She is particularly preoccupied with the relationship between men & women in love. Stories of love & marriage provide the major themes in all her novels.
The works of Jane Austen, delightful & profound are part of the supreme achievements of English literature. With trenchant observation & in meticulous detail, she presents the quiet, day-to-day life of the upper-middle-class English. Her characteristic theme is that maturity is achieved through the loss of illusions. Faults of character displayed by the people of her novels are corrected when, through tribulation, lessons are learned. Even the most minor characters are vividly particularized in Austen’s lucid style. All these show a mind of the shrewdest intelligence adapting the available traditions & deepening the resources of art with consummate craftsmanship. Because of her sensitivity to universal patterns of human behavior, Jane Austen has brought the English novels, as an art form, to its maturity, & she has been regarded by many critics as one of the greatest of all novelists.
4. Characteristics of her works:
Austen’s novels describe a narrow range of society & events: a quiet, prosperous, middle class circle in provincial surroundings, which she knew well from her own experience.
Her subject matter is also limited, for most of her novels deal with the subject of getting married, which was in fact the central problem for the young leisure-class lady of that age, who had no other choice in her life but to find a good husband.
Austen’s interest was in human nature; in her depiction of human nature, instead of being fascinated by great waves of elevated emotion, by passion or heroic experience, she focused on the trivial & petty details of everyday living, which became very interesting through her truthful & lively description. Austen’s novels are brightened by their witty conversation & omnipresent humor. Her language shines with an exquisite touch of lively gracefulness, elegant & refined, but never showy.
1.romanticism [rə(ʊ)'mæ ntɪsɪz(ə)m] n. 浪漫主义;浪漫精神 E.g. The French Revolution paved the way for the development of Romanticism in the literature internationally. 法国大革命(尤其是受法国哲学家卢梭的影响)为浪漫主义在国际文学上的发展奠定了基础。
2.romantic [rə(ʊ)'mæ ntɪk] adj. 浪漫的;多情的;空想的 E.g. The Romantic Period begins in 1798 marked by the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge. 1798 年华兹华斯与塞缪尔·泰勒·柯勒律治合作的《抒情诗歌谣》的出版象征着浪漫主义文学的开始。
3. ode [əʊd] n. 赋;颂歌;颂诗 E.g. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” the quoted line comes from Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind.“冬天来了,春天还会远吗?”该行引述来自雪莱的《西风颂》。
4. typical ['tɪpɪk(ə)l] adj. 典型的;特有的;象征性的 E.g. Typical lines 名句 The typical authors during this period 该时期重要作家。
5. individual [ɪndɪ'vɪdjʊ(ə)l] adj. 个人的;个别的;独特的 n. 个人,个体 E.g. Romanticists also place individual at the center of the art.浪漫主要作家们把个人放在艺术的中心。
6. subject ['sʌbdʒekt] n. 主题;科目; adj. 服从的;易患...的;受制于...的 vt. 使...隶属;使屈从于... E.g. According to the subjects, William Wordsworth’s short poems can be classified into two groups, poems about nature and human life. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, “An Evening Walk” and “Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth are masterpieces on nature.按照主题,华兹华斯的短诗可分为两大类:关于自然的和关于人类生活的。《我好似一朵流云独自漫游》,《丁登寺》和《黄昏漫步》是他的自然诗歌。
7. regard [rɪ'gɑːd] vt.看待;把...看作;vi. 注意,注重 n. 注意;尊重;问候;凝视 E.g. Among the Romantic poets William Wordsworth is regarded as a “worshipper of nature”.在浪漫主义诗人中,华兹华斯被称为”大自然的膜拜者”。
8. emotion [ɪ'məʊʃ(ə)n] n. 情感;情绪 E.g. Poetry is defined by William Wordsworth as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, which originates in emotion recollected in tranquility”.诗歌被华兹华斯定义为“强烈情感的自然流露,它起源于在平静中回忆起来的情感”。
9. exploitation [eksplɒɪ'teɪʃ(ə)n] n.剥削, 开发,开采;利用;广告推销 E.g. Shelley’ s political lyrics Men of England is not only a war cry calling upon all working people to rise up against their political oppressors, but an address to them pointing out the intolerable injustice of economic exploitation.雪莱的政治抒情诗《致苏格兰人民》不仅是一种呐喊,呼吁全体劳动人民起来反抗他们的政治压迫者,而且是与他们的对话,指出了对经济剥削无法忍受的不公。
10. imagination[ɪ,mæ dʒɪ'neɪʃ(ə)n] n. [心理] 想象力;空想;幻想物 E.g. The declaration that “I know that This World is World of Imagination & Vision” and that “The Nature of my work is visionary or imaginative.” belongs to William Blake. 布莱克热切得宣布:“我认为人世凡尘是一个充满想象与幻想的世界,我的作品也如人世凡尘一样充满想象与幻觉。
11. lyric ['lɪrɪk] adj. 抒情的;吟唱的 n. 抒情诗;歌词 E.g. Ode to the west Wind is best of all Shelley’s well-known lyric pieces. 《西风颂》 是雪莱著名的抒情诗中最好的一个。
12. lyrical ['lɪrɪk(ə)l] adj. 抒情诗调的;感情丰富的;充满愉悦的 E.g. The work ranked by many critics as William Wordsworth’s greatest work was Lyrical Ballads. 《抒情诗歌谣》被许多评论家认为是华兹华斯最伟大的作品。
13. ballad ['bæ ləd] n. 歌谣,民谣;叙事歌谣;流行抒情歌曲 E.g. The work ranked by many critics as William Wordsworth’s greatest work was Lyrical Ballads. 《抒情诗歌谣》被许多评论家认为是华兹华斯最伟大的作品。
14. prejudice ['predʒʊdɪs] n. 偏见;侵害 vt. 损害;使有偏见 E.g. pride and prejudice《傲慢与偏见》without prejudice 无偏见 prejudice againstvt. 对......的偏见
15. Prometheus [prəu'mi:θju:s] n. 普罗米修斯(希腊神话中人名,为人类盗火种甘受罚) E.g. Shelley’s greatest achievement is his four-act poetic drama Prometheus Unbound, which is an exultant work in praise of humankind’s potential. 雪莱的最伟大的成就是他的四幕诗剧《解放了的普罗米修斯》,这是赞美人类潜能的佳作。
16. chimney ['tʃɪmnɪ] n. 烟囱 E.g. William Blake’s central concern in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience is childhood, such as the Chimney Sweeper and the Lamb which gives the two books a strong social and historical reference. 布莱克的两部诗集《天真之歌》和《经验之歌》中的作品,大多涉及儿童的生活和经历,如《扫烟囱的小男孩》,《小羊 羔》等。
17. economic [,iːkə'nɒmɪk] adj. 经济的,经济上的;经济学的 E.g. Shelley’ s political lyrics Men of England is not only a war cry calling upon all working people to rise up against their political oppressors, but an address to them pointing out the intolerable injustice of economic exploitation. 雪莱的政治抒情诗《致苏格兰人民》不仅是一种呐喊,呼吁全体劳动人民起来反抗他们的政治压迫者,而且是与他们的对话,指出了对经济剥削无法忍受的不公。
18. Gothic ['ɡɔθik] adj. 哥特式的;野蛮的 n. 哥特式 gothic style 哥特式 gothic architecture 哥特式建筑 gothic novel 哥特小说;哥特式小说 E.g. Northanger Abbey《诺桑觉寺》satirizes those popular Gothic romances of the late 18th century.简奥斯汀的作品《诺桑觉寺》讽刺了 18 世纪晚期的哥特式浪漫。
19. universal [juːnɪ'vɜːs(ə)l] adj. 普遍的;通用的;宇宙的;全世界的 n. 一般概 念;普通性 E.g. Because of her sensitivity to universal patterns of human behavior, Jane Austen has brought the English novel, as an art form, to its maturity. 由于她对人类行为的普遍模式十分敏感,奥斯汀使英国小说走向成熟。
20.circumstance ['sɜːkəmst(ə)ns] n. 环境,情况;事件;境遇 E.g. The Similarity between Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience is that they both reveal the relation between an economic circumstance and an ideological circumstance socially. 《天真之歌》和《经验之歌》的相似之处在于他们都揭露了经济环境和社会意识形态环境之间的关系。
21. concern [kən'sɜːn] vt. 涉及,关系到;使担心 n. 关系;关心;关心的事 E.g. William Blake’s central concern in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience is childhood, which gives the two books a strong social and historical reference. 布莱克的两部诗集《天真之歌》和《经验之歌》中的作品,大多涉及儿童的生活和经历。
22. describe [dɪ'skraɪb] vt. 描述,形容;描绘 E.g. “The Solitary Reaper” is an example of Wordsworth’s literary views. It describes vividly a young peasant girl working alone in the fields & singing as she works. 《孤独的收割者》是华兹华斯的文学观点很好呈现。它生动的描述了一个年轻的民女独自在田地间边唱歌边劳作。
23.humble ['hʌmbl] adj. 谦逊的;简陋的;(级别或地位)低下的;不大的 vt. 使谦恭;轻松打败(尤指强大的对手);低声下气 E.g. William Wordsworth’s theory of poetry is calling for simple themes drawn from humble life expressed in the language of ordinary people. 诗歌华兹华斯的诗歌理论是要求用普通人的语言,从卑微的生命中提取简单的主题。
24. injustice [ɪn'dʒʌstɪs] n. 不公正;不讲道义 E.g. Shelley’ s political lyrics Men of England is not only a war cry calling upon all working people to rise up against their political oppressors, but an address to them pointing out the intolerable injustice of economic exploitation. 雪莱的政治抒情诗《致苏格兰人民》不仅是一种呐喊,呼吁全体劳动人民起来反抗他们的政治压迫者,而且是与他们的对话,指出了对经济剥削无法忍受的不公。
25. liberty ['lɪbətɪ] n. 自由;许可;冒失 E.g. Statue of Liberty 自由女神 Ode to Liberty 自由颂
26. mystery [ˈmɪstri] n. 秘密,谜;神秘,神秘的事物; E.g. Wordsworth intends to suggest the timeless mystery of sorrowful humanity and its radiant beauty. 华兹华斯倾向于展示人性悲哀的永恒之谜以及它的光辉之美。
27. representative [reprɪ'zentətɪv] adj. 典型的,有代表性的;代议制的 n. 代表; 典型;众议员 E.g. A number of representatives were present at the meeting. 一些代表出席了会议。 E.g. The major representatives of the poetic revolution in English Romantic period were Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.英国浪漫主义时期诗歌革命的主要代表有柯尔律治和华兹华斯。
28. present [prɪˈzɛnt] vt. 提出;介绍;呈现;赠送 E.g. The work Songs of Innocence by William Blake is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy world, though not without its evils and sufferings. 威廉·布莱克的《天真之歌》是一部诗集,呈现了一个虽然也不乏邪恶和痛苦,但是依然幸福的世界。
29. powerful ['paʊəfʊl] adj. 强大的;强有力的 adv. 很;非常 E.g. Poetry is defined by William Wordsworth as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, which originates in emotion recollected in tranquility”.诗歌被华兹华斯定义为“强烈情感的自然流露,它起源于在平静中回忆起来的情感”。
30. solitary ['sɒlɪt(ə)rɪ] adj. 孤独的;独居的 n. 独居者;隐士 E.g. “The Solitary Reaper” is an example of Wordsworth’s literary views. It describes vividly a young peasant girl working alone in the fields & singing as she works. 《孤独的收割者》是华兹华斯的文学观点很好呈现。它生动的描述了一个年轻的民女独自在 田地间边唱歌边劳作。
31. sweeper ['swiːpə] n. 清洁工;清扫夫;清扫器 E.g. Chimney Sweeper《扫烟囱的人》E.g. William Blake’s central concern in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience is childhood, such as the Chimney Sweeper and the Lamb which gives the two books a strong social and historical reference. 布莱克的两部诗集《天真之歌》和《经验之歌》中的作品,大多涉及儿童的生活和经历,如《扫烟囱的小男孩》,《小羊 羔》等。
32.theme [θiːm] n. 主题;主旋律;题目 E.g. William Wordsworth’s theory of poetry is calling for simple themes drawn from humble life expressed in the language of ordinary people. 诗歌华兹华斯的诗歌理论是要求用普通人的语言,从卑微的生命中提取简单的主题。
33. wander ['wɒndə] vi. 徘徊;漫步;迷路;离题 vt. 游荡,漫游 E.g. According to the subjects, William Wordsworth’s short poems can be classified into two groups, poems about nature and human life. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, “An Evening Walk” and “Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth are masterpieces on nature.按照主题,华兹华斯的短诗可分为两大类:关于自然的和关于人类生活的。《我好似一朵流云独自漫游》,《丁登寺》和《黄昏漫步》是他的自然诗歌。
34. central ['sentr(ə)l] adj. 中心的;主要的;中枢的 E.g. William Blake’s central concern in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience is childhood, which gives the two books a strong social and historical reference. 布莱克的两部诗集《天真之歌》和《经验之歌》中的作品,大多涉及儿童的生活和经历,如《扫烟囱的小男孩》,《小羊羔》等。
35. drama ['drɑːmə] n. 戏剧,戏剧艺术;剧本;戏剧性事件 E.g. Shelley’s greatest achievement is his four-act poetic drama Prometheus Unbound, which is an exultant([ɪɡ'zʌltənt]欢欣鼓舞的) work in praise of humankind’s potential. 雪莱的最伟大的成就是他的四幕诗剧《解放了的普罗米修斯》,这是赞美人类潜能的佳 作。
36. innocence ['ɪnəsəns] n. 清白,无罪;天真无邪 E.g. William Blake’s central concern in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience is childhood, which gives the two books a strong social and historical reference. 布莱克的两部诗集《天真之歌》和《经验之歌》中的作品,大多涉及儿童的 生活和经历(如《扫烟囱的小男孩》,《小羊羔》等)。
37. leading ['liːdɪŋ] adj. 领导的;主要的 n. 领导;铅板;行距 E.g. The leading figure of the English romantic poetry and the focal poetic voice of the period is William Wordsworth. 华兹华斯是英国诗歌史上的精英,是浪漫主义时期的杰出代表。
38. marriage ['mæ rɪdʒ] n. 结婚;婚姻生活;密切结合,合并 E.g. William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell composed during the climax of the French Revolution plays the double role both as a satire and a revolutionary prophecy. 威廉·布莱克在法国大革命的高潮期间创作的《天堂与地狱的结合》,扮演了讽刺和革 命性预言的双重角色。
39. maturity [mə'tʃʊərətɪ] n. 成熟;到期;完备 E.g. William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell marks his entry into maturity. 威 廉·布莱克的《天堂与地狱的结合》,标志着他的作品进入成熟期。
40. misery ['mɪz(ə)rɪ] n. 痛苦,悲惨;不幸;苦恼;穷困 E.g. William Blake’ s Songs of Experience paints a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone(忧郁语调).威廉·布莱克 第一本诗集《经验之歌》以一种忧郁的语气描绘了一个充满悲伤,贫穷,疾病,战争与压迫的世界。
41. original [ə'rɪdʒɪn(ə)l] n. 原件;原作;原物;原型 adj. 原始的;最初的;独创 的;新颖的 E.g. Pride and Prejudice, originally drafted as “First Impressions” in 1796, is the most delightful of Jane Austen’s works. Our first impression, according to Jane Austen, are usually wrong.《傲慢与偏见》原名《第一印象》是奥斯汀最出色的作品。奥斯汀认为人的第一印象总是有失偏颇的。
42. intense [ɪn'tens] adj. 强烈的;紧张的;非常的;热情的 E.g. Shelley is one of the leading Romantic poets, an intense & original lyrical poet in the English language. 雪莱是英国浪漫主义时期的杰出诗人,是一位情感浓烈的原创抒情诗人。
43. range [reɪn(d)ʒ] n. 范围;幅度;排;山脉 vi. (在...内)变动; E.g. His poems range from lyrics of childlike simplicity to mystical or prophetic works of greatcomplexity. 他的诗歌范围广泛,从孩子般天真的抒情诗到神秘的预言性的极其复杂的问题。
44. reaper ['riːpə] n. 收割者;收割机;收获者 E.g. “The Solitary Reaper” is an example of Wordsworth’s literary views. It describes vividly a young peasant girl working alone in the fields & singing as she works. 《孤独的收割者》是华兹华斯的文学观点很好呈现。它生动的描述了一个年轻的民女独自在 田地间边唱歌边劳作。
45. revolt [rɪ'vəʊlt] vi. 反抗;反叛;反感,厌恶 vt. 使反感;使恶心 n. 反抗;叛乱;反感 E.g. The development of Romanticism was in effect a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason. 浪漫主义的发展事实上是英国人的想象力对新古典主义理性的反叛。
46. revolutionary [revə'luːʃ(ə)n(ə)rɪ] adj. 革命的;旋转的;大变革的 n. 革命者 E.g. William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell composed during the climax of the French Revolution plays the double role both as a satire and a revolutionary prophecy. 威廉·布莱克在法国大革命的高潮期间创作的《天堂与地狱的结合》,扮演了讽刺和革命性预言的双重角色。
47. solitude ['sɒlɪtjuːd] n. 孤独;隐居;荒僻的地方 In Wordsworth’s poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, he thinks that it is bliss to recollect the beauty of nature in his mind while he is in solitude. 在华兹华斯的诗歌我好似一朵流云独自漫游中,他认为孤身一人时回忆起自然的美是一件很美好的事情。
48. sorrow ['sɒrəʊ] n. 悲伤;懊悔;伤心事 v. 为...悲痛 sorrowful ['sɒrə(ʊ)fʊl] adj. 悲伤的,伤心的 E.g. Wordsworth intends to suggest the timeless mystery of sorrowful humanity and its radiant beauty. 华兹华斯倾向于展示人性悲哀的永恒之谜以及它的光辉之美。
49. spiritual ['spɪrɪtʃʊəl] n. 圣歌(尤指美国南部黑人的)adj. 精神的,心灵的 E.g. “Where intelligence was fallible, limited, the Imagination was our hope of contact with eternal forces, with the whole spiritual world.” was said by William Blake.布莱克说“当智力不可靠,有限的时候,想象力是我们与永恒的力量及整个精神世界接触的希望。
50. tranquility [træn'kwɪləti] n. 宁静;平静 E.g. Poetry is defined by William Wordsworth as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, which originates in emotion recollected in tranquility”.诗歌被华兹华斯定义为“强烈情感的自然流露,它起源于在平静中回忆起来的情感”。
51. unbound [ʌn'baʊnd] adj. 未装订的;已自由的,解脱束缚的 v. 解开;释放 E.g. Shelley’s greatest achievement is his four-act poetic drama Prometheus Unbound, which is an exultant work in praise of humankind’s potential. 雪莱的最伟大的成就是他的四幕诗剧《解放了的普罗米修斯》,这是赞美人类潜能的佳作。
52. universally [juːnɪ'vɜːsəlɪ] adv. 普遍地;人人;到处 E.g. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” The quoted lines are taken from Pride and Prejudice.《傲慢与偏见》中家喻户晓的一句话是“这是一个众所周知的真理,一位单身, 多金的男人一定需要一位妻子“。
53.recollect [,rekə'lekt] v. 回忆,想起 E.g. Poetry is defined by William Wordsworth as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, which originates in emotion recollected in tranquility”.诗歌被华兹华斯定义为“强烈情感的自然流露,它起源于在平静中回忆起来的情感”。
54.suffering ['sʌf(ə)rɪŋ] n. 受难;苦楚
55. volume ['vɒljuːm]n. 量;体积;卷;册 E.g. The work Songs of Innocence by William Blake is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy world, though not without its evils and sufferings. 威廉·布莱克 的《天真之歌》是一部诗集,呈现了一个虽然也不乏邪恶和痛苦,但是依然幸福的世界。