Download 第十四课English Prosody

第十四课 English
14.1
Prosody
Rhyme //
Aside from metre, English poetry depends heavily for beauty of sound on another device
called the Rhyme. Rhyme seems to be a distinctive means of characterizing poetry in many
languages. In traditional Chinese poetry, for instance, it is a vitally essential feature. In English
poetry, however, it is not so indispensable as in Chinese. Some kinds of poems, such as blank
verse and free verse, can go without rhyme. Still, most traditional English poem types are rhymed.
14.2 Definition of rhyme
Rhyme can be defined as the repetition of similar or duplicate sounds at regular intervals.
Usually this repetition occurs at the ends of lines of verse, as in Chinese:
床前明月光，
疑是地上霜。
举头望明月，
低头思故乡。
——李白：
《静夜思》
Here the first, second and fourth lines end with the same sound〈ang〉, and are hence rhymed.
Likewise, in English poetry, we find similar arrangements:
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.
--Louis Robert Stevenson
Here the second and fourth lines end with the same sound sequence /nd/ and are also
considered rhymed. And this kind of rhyme found at the end of the line are technically called the
end rhyme (尾韵 or 韵脚)
14.3 Masculine rhyme
Where the end rhyme is a repetition of a one-syllabled word, or the stressed final syllable of
the last word of the line, it is called the masculine rhyme.
(1) One thing at a time,
And that thing done well,
Is a very good rule,
As many can tell.
--Anon
(2) Some to conceit alone their taste confine,
And glittering thoughts struck out at every line;
Pleased with a work where nothing's just or fit;
One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit.
--Alexander Pope: An Essay on Criticism
有人做诗专好使用别出心裁的比喻，
每句诗中都突出炫耀自己怪异的思绪，
对以不适当的比喻堆砌成的作品沾沾自喜，
那实际只是乱糟糟一堆诙谐话的大杂烩。
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——蒲柏：
《论批评》
The second and fourth lines of (1) are rhymed bemuse they show the repetition the same
sound sequence /el/ in a one-syllable word. In (2) ,the first line ends with a disyllabic word confine,
while the second with a monosyllabic word line; both of which end in the same sound sequence
/ain/, and are therefore also rhymed. And the third and fourth lines end with the same sound
sequence /it/,and so are rhymed, too.
14.4 Feminine rhyme
When the repetition of the same sound at the end of the line extends over two or more
syllables, with the first one stressed and the following unstressed, it is named the feminine rhyme,
e. g.
(1) We poets in our youth begin in gladness,
But thereof come in the end despondency and madness.
--Wordsworth: "Resolution and Independence, vii"
(2) Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest;
Like a cloud of fire
The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.
--P. B. Shelley: "To a Skylark"
你从地面腾空而起，
高飞复高飞；
像一朵火云似地，
展翅碧落隈；
边飞边唱，边唱边飞。
——雪莱：
《致云雀》
The two lines in (1) end with a repetition of two consecutive syllables //,with the
first stressed, and the last unstressed, and thus fits in the definition of the feminine rhyme. In (2),
lines 2, 4 and 5 repeat the sound sequence //, with a stress followed by an unstress. This
is also feminine rhyme. Lines 1 and 3 repeat the triphthong /ai/. Since triphthong is often
regarded in prosody as a combination of a diphthong /ai/ plus a vowel //, this counts again as a
feminine rhyme.
14.5 Internal rhyme
Apart from the end rhyme, English poetry also derives beauty of sound from repetition of
similar or duplicate sounds in the same line of verse, as in the following example:
With silken coats and caps and gold rings,
With ruffs and cuffs and farthingales and things.
--W. Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew, VI, iii, 55-56
The second and fourth words in the second line ruffs and cuffs repeat the sound sequence
/s/, and form an example of the internal rhyme.
14.6 The leonine/'i:../ rhyme
If the repeated words in the same line appear one before the caesura and the other after it, it is
called the leonine rhyme:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
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Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visiter,"I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door---"
"Only this, and nothing more."
--Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven
久前一个黑沉沉的午夜，我身心疲惫，掩卷凝思
许多卷富有奇趣、令人好奇，但却早已湮没无闻的学问。
我打起盹来，几入睡乡，突然听见一阵轻轻的敲击声，
仿佛有人在轻轻叩击、轻轻地叩击我寝室的房门。
“定是一位不速之客，”我自语道，
“在叩击我寝室的房门——”
“不过如此，不是别的事情。”
——阿伦·坡：
《渡乌》
In the above quotation, the words dreary comes before the caesura in the first line, while
weary after it. So they make up a leonine rhyme. The same is also the case with napping and
tapping in the third line.
14.7 Assonance/'.n.s/
If the repetition in the same line is only a vowel sound, with the consonants following it
dissimilar, it forms a sort of approximate rhyme that also adds to the musical effect. This is known
as assonance. For example:
Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire
Live twitching agonies of men among its brambles.
Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles.
--Wilfred Owen: "Exposure
In line 1, the vowel /i/ repeats in watching and tugging, and the vowel // is repeated in
gusts and tugging. In line 2, the vowel /i/ appears in twitching, agonies and its. In line 3, the vowel
/i/ reappears in flickering after its appearance in incessantly; while the vowel // is found in both
gunnery and rumbles. All these serve as illustrations of assonance.
14..8 Consonance/'k .s.nts/
The repetition of two or more consonants within the same line is also taken as a device to
increase musicality of the poem, as is shown in the following example, which is technically called
consonance.
The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story.
--Tennyson: The Splendor Fall...
The consonant /s/ is repeated once in line 1, and twice in line 2. This well illustrates
consonance.
14.9 Alliteration //
If the repeated consonant appears only at the beginning of words in the same line, it is called
alliteration, as can be seen in:
Full many a flower is born to b lush unseen
--Gray
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The initial letter f (representing the consonant sound /f/ )in Full is repeated in the beginning
letter of flower; and similarly, the letter b (sounding /b/ ) at the head of blush repeats the initial /b/
in born. These are hence typical examples of alliteration. Alliteration used to be a major device for
poetical musicality in Old English poetry, but has, over the centuries of development under foreign
influence, been reduced to a minor or secondary poetic technique in modern versification. Yet it is
still rather important in some types of English poems. For instance, in blank verse (无韵诗 or 素体
诗), where there is no end rhyme,--which is so different from our Chinese habit of poetic
appreciation, and which the readers are expected to take careful notice of --the musicality
predominantly comes from such devices as alliteration, consonance, assonance, and internal
rhyme:
(FAUSTUS-)
Ah, Faustus,
Now has thou but one bare hour to live,
And then thou must be damned perpetually!
Stand sti 11, you ever-mov_i ng spheres of Heaven,
That tim
．e may cease, and midnight never com
．e;
Fair Nature's eye, rise, rise again, and ma ke
Perpetual day; or let this hour be but
A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
That Faustus may repent and sa ve his soul!
--Marlowe: Doctor Faustus Act V: Scene 2. 11.131 – 139
(浮士德：)
浮士德呀，
你只还有一个小时可活，
此后你将被打入地狱，永劫不复!
永动不止的天体啊，停止运转吧，
这样时间就会停止，午夜也永不会到来，
造化美丽的眼睛啊，升起，再升起，
好让白昼永留下去；或是把这一小时
延长成一年，一月，一周，或是一天，
好让浮士德忏悔，从而救赎他的灵魂。
——马洛：
《浮士德博士》
，第 5 幕，第二场，第 131—139 行
It is clear to see that while there is no end rhyme found here in thisextract of verse, it abounds
with other poetical devices: The vowel /au/ in now and thou in line 1; the /e/sound in then and
perpetually in line 2; the /e/ sound in ever and Heaven in line 3; the /ai/ sound in time and
midnight in line 4; the /ei/sound in Nature, again and make in line 5; the /e/sound in Perpetual and
let in line 6;and the/ei/sound in may and save in the last line--illustrate assonance. The /b/ sound in
but and bare in line 1; the //sound in then and thou in line 2; the /s/ sound in Stand, still and
sphere in line 3; the /m/sound in may and midnight in line 4, the /b/ sound in "be" and "but" in line
6, and the /s/ sound in save and soul in the last line-- all count as examples of alliteration. The /v/
sound in moving and Heaven in line 3;and the /m/ sound in time and come in line 4 may be
illustrations of consonance. All these are contributors to the musical effects of the poem. So in
reading, the reader is advised to pay enough attention to them, so as to bring out their due features
in sound beauty.
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14.10 Rhyme scheme
The long history of English poetry has developed various conventions in the arrangement of end
rhymes. Such conventional arrangements of rhymes in a unit of verse lines are called rhyme
schemes. Of the vast variety of them, you are here to be introduced to the most commonly-met
patterns.
14.10.1 Stanzaic verse
As English prose can be divided into chapters and paragraphs, so is English poetry,
(most types of them do, with the exception of blank verse and perhaps heroic couplets that can go
on endlessly), capable of similar divisions. The smallest poetic unit equal to the paragraph in a
piece of prose is known as stanza. A bigger division on the same par with the prosaic chapter--in a
longer poem, of course,--is called canto. Stanza is something you oftener come across in reading,
and is hence worth dealing with here, first.
The commonest stanza in English poetry is undoubtedly the quatrain. It consists of four
lines of verse, usually with a rhyme scheme of abab (that is, the first line rhymes with the third,
and so does the second with the fourth):
Think not the thistle seed to cast,
a
And reap the rose full blown;
b
For man must gather first or last
a
The harvest he has sown.
b
--Anon
The first line ends with cast /k:st/, which rhymes with last /:st/at the end of the third
line; while the last word of the second line blown /bln/ rhymes with sown /sn/, the last
word of the fourth line. This rhyme scheme is generally known as interlaced rhyme (套韵). What
must be pointed out is that this pattern is not so rigidly observed by poets, but is capable of a
number of varieties, such as abcb or aabb or abba. For example.
(1) All that you do
a
Do with your might;
b
Things done by halves
c
Are never done right
b
(2) Truth is honest, truth is sure;
Truth is strong and must endure;
Falsehood lasts a single day,
Then it vanishes away.
--Stodart
a
a
b
b
--Anon
(3) We rise by things that are under our feet;
a
By what we have mastered of good and gain;
b
By the pride deposed and the passion slain,
b
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet.
a
--J. G. Holland
Lines 1 and 3 in (1) do not rhyme, nd so they are represented by "a" and "c". This variety
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is called the intermittent rhyme (间韵). The second varied pattern" aabb" is named the couplet
rhyme (联韵). The scheme of abba in (3) is known as the enclosing rhyme (抱韵). Such four-line
stanzas are often used in ballads, and are often called ballad stanzas (民谣诗节). But its more
common name is the quatrain.
14.10.2 The septet /sep'tet/
A second common stanza may be the septet (that is, a stanza made up of seven lines).
Because Chaucer was the first to use it, it is also called the Chaucerian Stanza (乔叟诗节).
Following him, a number of other English poets, like Lydgate, Hoccleve, Skelton, Sir Thomas
Wyatt and William Morris often used it. Its usual rhyme scheme is ababbcc. For instance:
Of Heaven or Hell I have no power to sing,
a
I cannot ease the burden of your fears,
b
Or make quick-coming death a little thing,
a
Or bring again the pleasure of past years,
b
Nor for my words shall ye forget your tears,
b
Or hope again for aught that I can say,
c
The idle singer of an empty day.
c
--William Morris: The Earthly Paradise
我无力歌颂地狱或天堂，
也不能将你恐惧的重担减轻，
或让你等闲看待匆至的死亡，
或带回给你过去的欢欣。
你决不会忘掉悲伤，因为听了我的歌吟，
或因此而期盼我唱更多的歌曲，
我只是一个闲散的歌手，在空闲无聊的日子。
—莫里斯：
《人间天堂》
If the seven verse lines all consist of ten syllables, it is also known as the Rhyme Royal
(君王体诗)
14.10.3
Triplet/'trp.lt/
This is a stanza made up of three lines. It is also called tercet /'tst/. Its rhyme
scheme is generally aaa. For example:
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
a
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
a
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands,
a
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
b
He watches from his mountain walls, .
b
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
b
--Tennyson: The Eagle
他以弯曲的利爪，紧抓危岩；
几近太阳，独立峭壁之巅，
耸立壁顶，背衬蔚蓝苍天。
海浪缓缓，在下起伏不定，
他俯视于上，在那壁立的山顶，
继而俯冲而下，其势雷霆万钧。
——丁尼生：《鹰》
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There is a variant of the tercet, which rhymes aba bcb cdc, etc., e. g.
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
a
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
b
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
a
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes. O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
c
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
d
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
c
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
d
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
e
With living hues and odours plain and hill:
d
--P. B. Shelley: Ode to the West Wind
哦，狂放的西风，你秋神的呼吸!
你遁形而至，吹得枯叶满空，
宛似鬼魅，在法师面前逃逸：
黄叶，黑叶，苍白色叶，还有些呈潮红，
如同染了瘟病的一大群；哦，你，
你驱车把有翅的种子凌空运送
到其幽暗的冬床，令其僵卧于斯，
每一粒都如像墓中一具尸体，直到
你那蔚蓝色的春天妹妹
在沉睡的大地上吹响她嘹亮的号角，
(赶羊般催赶美丽的蓓蕾到空气中觅食，)
将生命的色彩布满平原和山包。
——雪莱：
《西风颂》
This variant is known as the terza rima /tets. 'ri:.m/(三行套韵体). Triplets are
comparably less common than quatrains or septets in English poetry.
14.10.4 The quintet kwtet/
A quintet is a stanza made of five lines. Its common rhyme scheme is ababb , e. g.
Teach us, sprite or bird,
a
What sweet thoughts are thine;
b
I have never heard
a
Praise of love or wine
b
That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.
b
----Shelley: "To a Skylark"
告诉我们吧，鸟或是精灵，是什么
愉快的思绪在你心中激荡?
我从来还未曾听到过
对爱情或醇酒的颂扬
能够进涌成这种天国才有的销魂乐章。
——雪莱：《致云雀》
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The quintet is rarely used, too.
14.10.5 The sestet /ses'tet/
This is a six-line stanza, technically known as the sestet. It is oftener met than a quintet
or a triplet. One of its most common rhyme scheme is ababab. For exampleShe walks in beauty, like the night
a
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
b
And all that's best of dark and bright
a
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
b
Thus mellowed to that tender light
a
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
b
--G. G. Byron: She Walks in Beauty
她款款行来，仪态万方，美不胜收，
宛似点点繁星，闪烁在无云的夜空；
明与暗的最佳配置，效果绝优，
在她的容颜与眼波里汇融：
汇融成一片恬淡清光，无限柔和，无限温柔——
那是骄阳撒艳的白日晴空所不能容。
——拜伦：
《她款款行来，仪态万方，美不胜收》
14.10.6 The octave/'/
This refers to a stanza made up of eight lines. It has another name: the octet /k
tet/. If its verses are iambic pentameter, it is also named the ottava rima /':v. ri:.
m/(八行三韵体), a form of Italian origin, introduced by Wyatt into English in the 16th century.
Its usual rhyme scheme is abababcc. Byron's famous Don Juan was written in this stanza.
And I will war, at least in words(and--should
a
My chance so happen--deeds)with all who war
b
With Thought ; --and of Thought's foes by far most rude
a
Tyrants and sycophants have been and are.
b
I know not who may conquer; if ! could
a
Have such a prescience, it should be no bar
b
To this my plain, sworn, downright detestation
c
Of every despotism in every nation,
c
--G. G. Byron: Don Juan, Canto IX
我要作战，至少用文字(如有可能，
也用行动)抗击一切同思想为敌
的人；而在思想的敌人中，暴君
和献媚的奴才始终是最下流卑鄙。
我不知道谁会战胜；如果我能
有这种预知本领，它也不能阻止
我对于一切国家的一切专制暴政
怀有这种公开、坚决、毫不含糊的怼憎。
——拜伦：
《唐璜：第 9 章》
Notice The war in line 2 is used to rhyme with are and bar. It is an imperfect rhyme(不完
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全韵 ), or eye rhyme (视韵), i. e., words that look as if the rhyme, but actually do not. It is
something permitted in English prosody.
An octave can also form the first part of a sonnet. In this case, its usual rhyme scheme is
abbaabba. For example:
The poetry of earth is never dead:
a
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
b
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
b
From hedge to hedge about the new-mom mead;
a
That is the Grasshopper's--he takes the lead
a
In summer luxury,--he has never done
b
With his delights; for when tired out with fun,
b
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
a
--John Keats: On the Grasshopper and Cricket
地上的诗歌从未终止
当百鸟被烈日晒得发困，
躲人林阴，却传来一阵声音，
穿过层层树篱，飘荡在草地。
那是蝈蝈儿的声音，——他赶在头里
享受夏日的荣华富贵，——他欢歌不停，
永无止境，一旦尽兴犯困，
他便在一棵野草下歇息。
——济慈：
《蝈蝈与蟋蟀》
Notice Here, the word dead in line 1 used to rhyme with mead and weed, is another case of
eye rhyme.
14.10.7 The Spenserian stanza
The is a stanza consisting of nine lines. It acquired this name because it was the English
poet Edmund Spenser that first used it in his masterpiece The Faerie Oueene(仙后). After being
neglected through the 17thand early 18thcenturies,it was revived in people's interest in the later
18thcentury, and was then utilized by such celebrated Romantic poets as Byron, Shelley and Keats.
Its rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc. For example:
Did ye not hear it? --No; 'twas but the wind,
a
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;
b
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
a
No sleep till mom, when Youth and Pleasure meet
b
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet.-b
But hark! that heavy sound breaks in once more,
c
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;
b
And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before !
c
Arm! arm! it is -- it is -- the cannon's opening roar!
c
--G. G. Byron: Chide Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto HI
听见了吗?——没有；那不过是风声，
或是在石街上隆隆驶过的车辆；
继续跳舞吧!让欢乐无边无垠；
当青春遇快活，为追享良辰，联袂飞膛，
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岂可倒头睡去——还未跳到天亮。——
可是，你听!那沉重轰鸣声又再度传来，
仿佛是雷声在云端回响。
而且越来越近，越清晰，越令人惊骇!
取枪!取枪!那是—田 g6 是——大炮又怒吼了起来!
——拜伦：
《恰尔德·哈洛尔德游记：第 3 章》
The wind in line 1 should be pronounced /waind/, and is perfectly rhymed with the last syllable of
confined /kn'fnd/ in line 3. The word o'er (pronounced /:/)is an instance of syncope, i, e.,
the omission of a letter or syllable in a word to keep the regularity of the metric pattern. Here, by
omitting the letter v, the poet has shortened original disyllabic word over into a monosyllabic word,
so that the line of verse is kept in ten syllables.
14.10.8
The sonnet
It is a distinctive English poetic form that must be treated here. A verse form containing
14 lines in iambic pentameter, it originated in Italy and was introduced into English by Sir Thomas
Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey early in the 16thcemury. Later it developed into three types in
English, still 14 lines, but with various rhyme schemes. The first is the Italian or Petrarchan
sonnet (意大利型 or 彼特拉克型), which consists of an octave with a rhyme scheme of
abbaabba ,and a sestet rhyming cdecde. For instance:
When I consider how my light is spent
a
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
b
And that one talent which is death to hide
b
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
a
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
a
My true account, lest He returning chide,
b
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
a
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
c
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
d
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
e
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
c
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
d
They also serve who only stand and wait."
e
--John Milton: On His Blindness
当我想到：在这茫茫漆黑的世界里，
我还未过完半生，我的视力已耗光；
想到我竟将上帝赐的他连得无用地匿藏，
上帝会惩罚我，弃我于死的幽谷中毙殪；
虽然我想用它侍奉造物主，一心一意：
为免遭他责骂，向他如实报账；
想到此地，我不禁自问，愚鲁异常：
“上帝不给我光明，为何还日日差我服役?”
但“忍耐”为了制止我的这种抱怨，迅速
答道：
“上帝不需要人的劳役，或归还其赐物。
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谁能担负他的轻微任务，谁就是他的好仆人。
上帝之乡有王者气象：只消他一声吩咐，
便有千万天使在海洋中、陆地上奔波忙碌；
而侍立其左右待命者，同样是他的好仆人。
”
——密尔顿：
《叹咏失明》
The second type is called the Spenserian sonnet (斯宾塞型十四行诗 ), since it was
developed by Edmund Spenser. Its rhyme scheme is abab bcbc cdcd ee. It is really made up of
four units, the former three may be somewhat like quatrains whose ending rhyme runs on as the
beginning rhyme of the next unit. So the rhyme pattern seems to become something of a link to
string the units together as a whole. It is thus also known as the link sonnet (连环体十四行诗).
The last unit consists of two lines that form a sort of epigram to sum up the whole poem, rhyming
with each other. It can be called a couplet (双行联韵组). In printing, a Spenserian sonnet often
contains no break between the octave and the sestet. For instance:
Happy ye leaves when as those lily hands
a
Which hold my life in their dead-doing might
b
Shall handle you, and hold in love's soft hands,
a
Like captives trembling at the victor's sight,
b
And happy lines, on which with starry light
b
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look,
c
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite,
b
Written with tears in heart's close bleeding book,
c
And happy rhymes bath'd in the sacred brook
c
Of Helicon, whence she derived is,
d
When ye beheld that Angel's blessed look,
c
My soul's long lacked food, my heaven's bliss,
d
Leaves, lines, and rhymes, seek her to please alone,
e
Whom if ye please, I care for other none.
e
--Edmund Spenser: Amoretti , I
你们真幸运啊，诗笺，那双把我的性命
死死紧攥的纤纤玉手
就要翻阅你们，盈握中充满爱的柔情，
令你们像俘虏见到胜利者时那样发抖!
幸运的诗句啊，她那双如炬的明眸
将像闪闪明星般地注视
并且阅读我相思欲绝的哀愁——
这些用泪水写在几近泣血的心扉上的诗!
幸运的诗韵啊!你曾在赫利孔山的小溪中洗礼；
那座圣山也是她所发祥的地方，
在那儿你曾目睹她那天使般的容仪，
而那正是我灵魂所渴求的食粮，是我幸福的天堂!
诗笺、诗句、诗韵，只管讨她喜欢!
你们如能讨她喜欢，旁人我全然不管。
——斯宾塞：《爱情小唱：第 1 首》
The third type is named the Shakespearean sonnet(莎土比亚型十四行诗). Like the
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Spenserian sonnet, it also falls into four units, the former three also being quatrains, while the last
one a concluding couplet. But it follows a rhyme scheme slightly different from the Spenserian,
going somewhat like this: abab cdcd efef gg. For example:
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
a
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
b
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
a
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
b
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned
c
In process of the seasons have I seen,
d
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
c
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green,
d
Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
e
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
f
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
e
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:
f
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred,
g
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
g
--Shakespeare: Sonnets: 104
在我眼里，俊友，你永远不会衰老，
因为一如我当年初睹君的明目丰仪，
君至今风采依然。三个严冬的寒潮
已三度吹落盛夏林木的娇丽；
在季节交替的过程中，我看见
美好的阳春三度化作枯黄的深秋。
自我初见你鲜丽的颜色，四月的芬芳已三番
在炎热的六月里烧尽，而你却色泽依旧。
啊，然而美颜宛似日晷指针，在刻度间
偷偷地行进，却看不出步履之移动；
你的美貌亦应如是，在我眼中是未变，
而实际却是在动：是我眼睛受了瞒哄。
忧心到这一层，后世的人啊，且听我讲：
在你尚未出生时，美的盛期业已消亡。
——莎士比亚：
《十四行诗：第 104 首》
The rhyme schemes of sonnets are not so rigid as the Chinese regulated verse (律诗)or ci
(词). Variations are always allowed. That may account for its currently continuing vitality after
hundreds of years of growth and existence.
1. Listen to the taped texts of the following poetic selections. And then scan and define their
metric patterns and rhyme schemes:
(1) As Robin Hood next morning stood,
Amongst the leaves so gay,
There did he espy the same young man
Come drooping along the way.
The scarlet he wore the day before,
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It was clean cast away;
And every step he fetcht a sigh,
"Alack and a well a day!"
--Robin Hood and Allen-a-Dale
(2) Do not look for wrong or evil,
You will find them if you do;
As you measure to your neighbour,
He will measure back to you.
--Alice Cary
(3) Life is real! Life is earnest !
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
--Longfellow: A Psalm of Life
(4)
He was among the prime in worth,
An object beauteous to behold;
Well born, well bred;I sent him forth
Ingenuous, innocent, and bold:
If things ensued that wanted grace,
As hath been said, they were not base;
And never blush was on my face.
--Wordsworth: Affliction of Margaret
(5) The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece!
Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose, and Poebus sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set.
---G. G. Byron: Don Juan
(6) And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor.
--Longfellow: The Village Blacksmith
(7) "St. Agnes! Ah! it is St. Agnes's Eve-Yet men will murder upon holy days:
Thou must hold water in a witch's sieve,
And be liege-lord of all the Elves and Fays,
To venture so: it fills me with amaze
To see thee, Porphyro ! --St. Agnes' Eve !
God's help! my lady fair the conjuror plays
This very night: good angels her deceive!
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But let me laugh awhile, I've mickle time to grieve."
--John Keats: The Eve of Agnes
(8) The face of all the world is changed, I think,
Since first I heard the footsteps at thy soul
Move still, oh, still, beside me, as the stole
Betwixt me and the dreadful outer brink
Of obvious death, where I, who thought to sink,
Was caught up into love, and taught the whole
Of life in a new rhythm. The cup of dole
God gave for baptism, I am fain to drink,
And praise its sweetness, Sweet, with thee anear.
The names of country, heaven, are changed away
For where thou art or shalt be, there or here;
And this.., this lute and song.., loved yesterday
(The singing angels know), are only dear
Because thy name moves right in what they say.
--Elizabeth B. Browning: Sonnets from the Portuguese,
(9) When men shall find thy flowers, thy glory pass,
And thou, with careful brow sitting alone,
Received hast this message from thy glass,
That tells thee truth, and says that all is gone,
Fresh shalt thou see in me the wounds thou madest,
Though spent thy flame, in me the heat remaining,
I that have loved thee thus before thou fadest,
My faith shall wax, when thou art in thy waning.
The world shall find this miracle in me,
That fire can bum when all the matter's spent,
Then what my faith hath been thyself shall see,
And that thou wast unkind thou mayst repent.
Thou mayst repent that thou hast scorned my tears,
When winter snows upon thy golden hairs.
--Samuel Daniel: Delia, X X X III
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