1、 Wordsworth substitutes bucolic songs with story-telling as a means for establishing community, through which he attempts to correct his solipsist penchant and combine the solitary and the social man in himself. Key words: Wordsworth pastoral “Michael” ? Author: YU Yu-san holds an M.A. from Universi
2、ty of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Manchester, England. She is currently an associate professor in the Foreign Languages and Literature Department at Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan. She specializes in English Romantic poetry, with a focus on William
3、 Wordsworth.Her publications include various studies on William Wordsworth and ?Xi Pan Tian Wen?, a Chinese translation of Pilgrim at ?Tinker Creek? by Annie Dillard. E-mail: ysyumail.nsysu.edu.tw 标题:从“迈可”到远足论华兹华斯的田园诗 内容提要:法国大革命之后,华兹华斯理想幻灭,遂弃政治而就诗歌,企图透过写诗改革社会。本论文采用保罗•阿尔培斯对田园诗以及田园挽歌之成规的定义,从田园诗的
4、角度阅读华氏的“迈可”和远足这两首诗。作者认为华兹华斯在这两首诗中重写传统的田园诗,其目的一方面是要改变世人对“乡下人”的谬误印象,另一方面则是要提出解救后革命时期英国社会的方法。此外,在远足这首诗中华兹华斯用说故事代替传统田园诗中的牧歌,并藉此建立社群,修正其自身的个人主义倾向。关键词:华兹华斯 田园诗 “迈可” 远足 作者简介:余幼珊,美国加州大学伯克利分校英美文学硕士、英国曼彻斯特大学英国文学博士,目前为台湾中山大学外文系副教授,主要研究领域为威廉&华兹华斯以及英国浪漫时期诗歌,著作包含多篇有关华兹华斯的研究论文以及译著溪畔天问。 Any reader of Wordsworths po
5、em “Michael” would notice that the subtitle of the poem is “A Pastoral Poem.” Yet the poem seems nowhere near this ancient genre except that the hero of the poem is, like the traditional figures in pastoral, a shepherd.So in what sense is the poem “a pastoral”? The answer to this question will lead
6、us to a significant understanding of Wordsworths ?idea? of, as well as his relationship with, the genre of pastoral. In this paper I intend to explore this question by examining, first, “Michael,” and then ?, and I argue that in these poems Wordsworth is rewriting traditional pastoral for contempora
7、ry English society. Examining the pastoral from the perspective of historical continuity in literature, Paul Alpers is of the opinion that, in addition to the many features of pastoral, historical development and the changes incurred are of great significance (“What Is Pastoral” 441). He therefore c
8、laims that in order to define the genre we must first find the “representative anecdote”? of the pastoral (“What Is Pastoral” 441).Here the word “representative” has double meaning: “It means both that the informing anecdote is a means of representing, that is, depicting a certain phenomenon and als
9、o that the anecdote stands as the representative, the summary or characteristic example of the phenomenon” (“What Is Pastoral” 449). Alpers further argues that the “representative anecdote” of pastoral is “the lives of shepherds” (“What Is Pastoral” 449).Drawing on a comparison between the opening p
10、assage in ?Theocrituss? first idyll which is a “representative anecdote,” and that in Virgils first eclogue, he points out that both passages show a discussion between two herdsmen on the theme of pastoral song, but Virgils verse is a reinterpretation of that of his predecessor (“What Is Pastoral” 4
11、50).Since the conditions under which Theocritus wrote his idyll had been changed, Virgils reinterpretation seeks to reveal the new and contemporary political and social environments within which the opening passage of Theocrituss ?Idyll 1? “can be representative of human singing and a way of life” (
12、“What Is Pastoral” 451).This reinterpretation leads to a modification of pastoral. The idea of representative anecdote suggests that pastoral poems are representations of shepherds who are seen to stand for man in general, and in different ages the characters in the pastoral can include other kinds
13、of rural figures or those of inferior social status as long as they are regarded as “the equivalent of shepherds in a given society or world, or that they more truly have the representative status that traditional pastoral ascribes to its herdsmen” (“What Is Pastoral” 456).In conclusion, Alpers main
14、tains that at different times in literary history, pastoral, with all of its conventions, has always been adopted critically to express and represent the reality of and truth ?about? “love, social relations, and experience” (“What Is Pastoral” 460). Alperss theory provides an approach to a reading o
15、f “Michael” as pastoral.As we pointed out earlier, Wordsworth has developed a strong love for shepherds since childhood.In Book VIII of The Prelude, he clearly tells us that among all the rustic people, “shepherds were the men who pleased me first,” and they left a vivid image in his mind.However, i
16、n the same book of this ?autobiographical? poem, we find Wordsworth repeatedly making an effort to clarify the idea that the shepherd that he represents is nothing like those illustrated in traditional pastorals: Not such as, in Arcadian fastnesses Sequestered, handed down among themselves, So ancie
17、nt poets sing, the Golden age; Nor sucha second race, allied to these As Shakespeare in the wood of Arden placed, Where Phoebe sighed for the false Ganymede, Or there where Florizel and Perdita Together danced, Queen of the feast and King; Nor such as Spenser fabled. (?Prelude?VIII:184-91)? Wordswor
18、th further adds that he has heard of the old customs of May Day festivities and all the other joyful activities associated with rural people.Also, in the ancient times and in other lands, the shepherds did lead an easy life.This way of life, however, is not to be found in contemporary Britain, and n
19、either do the old customs exist anymore. Read in the context of the pastoral tradition, what Wordsworth does in Book VIII of ?The ? is offering a critique on traditional pastoral, that is, the life of the shepherd as depicted in such kind of pastorals can no longer be considered “representative anec
20、dotes” in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain.What is also worth noticing is that the passage on the May Day rites alludes to an episode in Spensers May Eclogue of ?The Shepherdes Calender?, in which two shepherds contend about the relationship between the shepherd and his flock, a contention
21、that carries symbolic meanings.Alpers argues that Wordsworths passage on May Day festivities is a “rewriting” of Spensers lines in the May Eclogue, which suggests that he is well aware of the pastoral contention represented by his predecessors (“What Is Pastoral” 445).The editors of ?, however, poin
22、t out that Wordsworth in this passage is commenting on Spensers “idealization of pastoral life” (? 276). I think both Alpers and the editors are correct, for the passage may contain both meanings.In the lines that follow the May Day passage, Wordsworth gives an account of a shepherd boy who gets cau
23、ght in a storm whilst looking for a stray sheep.A. J. Sambrook has pointed out that most eighteenth-century poets who wrote on rural life shared similar knowledge of the works of Theocritus, Virgil and Horace, and readers also followed a “norm” when reading such eighteenth-century poetry.Hence they
24、were sensitive enough to any suggestion of challenge to the genre (Sambrook 21).Placed after the discussion on traditional pastorals and the disappearance of May Day rituals, the story of the stray sheep suggests that Wordsworth is providing a “modern” version of the pastoral.What is interesting is
25、that this tale, first told by Ann Tyson to Wordsworth as a child, was originally written for “Michael.”This indicates that “Michael” serves the same function of modifying the pastoral to suit contemporary needs.It is in this sense that the poem can be read as pastoral.The life of Michael reflects wh
26、at Wordsworth believes to be a true version of a ?shepherds? life at the turn of the century. Richard Feingold has argued that the shepherd Wordsworth delineates in ?The Prelude? “does not inhabit the bucolic landscape where nature and art are blended in mans virtuous and mundane work,” and therefor
27、e is “not an embodiment of them” (Feingold 200).This may be true of the shepherd figure in ?, but in Michael we would find the old shepherd just such an embodiment who combines rural virtues and hard labour.It is worth pointing out that at the very beginning of “Michael,” echoing the theme of Book V
28、III in ?, Wordsworth tells us how love of nature leads him to love of man: It was the first Of those domestic tales that spake to me Of Shepherds, dwellers in the valleys, men Whom I already loved;not verily For their own sakes, but for the fields and hills Where was their occupation and abode. And
29、hence this Tale, while I was yet a Boy Careless of books, yet having felt the power Of Nature, by the gentle agency Of natural objects, led me on to feel For passions that were not my own, and think (At random and imperfectly indeed) On man, the heart of man, and human life. Therefore, although it be a history Homely and rude, I will relate the same For the delight of a few natural hearts; And, with yet fonde
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