Lecturing Plan for poetry.docx

1、Lecturing Plan for poetryTwo false approaches often taken to poetry can be avoided if we keep this conception of literature firmly in mind. The first approach always looks for a lesson or a bit of moral instruction. The second expects to find poetry always beautiful. Let us consider a song from Shak

2、espeares Loves Labors Lost (V,ii).Winter When icicles hang by the wall,And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,And Tom bears logs into the hall,And milk comes frozen home in pail,When blood is nipped and ways be foul,Then nightly sings the staring owl,“Tu-whit, tu-who!” A merry note, While greasy Joan

3、doth keel the pot.When all aloud the wind doth blow,And coughing drowns the parsons saw,And birds sit brooding in the snow,And Marians nose looks red and raw,When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,Then nightly sings the staring owl,“Tu-whit, tu-who!” A merry not, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.Que

4、stions1. What are the meanings of “nail” and “saw”?2. Is the owls cry really a “merry” note? How are this adjective and the verbs “sings” employed?3. In what way does the owls cry contrast with the other details of the poem?Consider another example:DULCE ET DECORUM ESTBent double, like old beggars u

5、nder sacks,Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,And towards our distant rest began to trudge.Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoo

6、tsOf gas-shells dropping softly behind.Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!An ecstasy of fumbling,Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,But someone still was yelling out and stumblingAnd flound ring like a man in fire or lime.Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,As under a green sea, I saw him drow

7、ning.In all my dreams before my helpless sightHe plunges at me, gutting, choking, drowning.If in some smothering dreams, you too cloud paceBehind the wagon that we flung him in,And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin,If you could hear, at every jolt,

8、 the bloodCome gargling from the froth-corrupted lungsBitter as the cudOf vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zestTo children ardent for some desperate glory,The old lie: et decorum est Pro partria mori. Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)Questions1. The Lati

9、n quotation, from the Roman Poet Horace, means “It is sweet and becoming to die for ones country.”(Wilfred Owen died fighting for England in World War I, a week before the armistice.) What is the poems comment on this statement?2. List the elements of the poem that seems not beautiful and therefore

10、“unpoetic.” Are there any elements of beauty in the poem?3. How do the comparisons in lines 1, 14, 20, and 23-24 contributes to the effectiveness of the poem?Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the seaAnd frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff

11、And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff, ohPuff, the magic dragon, lived by the seaAnd frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the seaAnd frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.Together they would travel on a boa

12、t with billowed sailAnd Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puffs gigantic tail,Noble kings and princes would bow wheneer they camePirate ships would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name.Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the seaAnd frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,Puff,

13、 the magic dragon, lived by the seaAnd frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.A dragon lives forever, but not so little boysPainted wings and giants rings make way for other toys,One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no moreAnd Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless

14、 roar.His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rainPuff no longer went to play along the cherry lane,Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be braveSo Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave, ohPuff, the magic dragon, lived by the seaAnd frolicked in the autumn mist in a

15、land called Honah Lee,Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the seaAnd frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.Allegory has been defined sometimes as an extended metaphor and sometimes as a series of related comparisons rather than one comparison drawn out. It differs from symbolism in th

16、at it puts less emphasis on the imagers for their own sake and more on their ulterior meanings. Also, these meanings are more fixed. In allegory there is usually a one-to-one correspondence between the details and a single set of ulterior meanings. In complex allegories the details may have more than one