Chapter 1 The Romantic Period of American

2. characteristics: 1) influence from European tradition (esp. England), emphasize upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature; 2) It’s American characters, settings (forest), to nature, language (local dialect);the most clearly defined Romantic literary movement in this period is New England Transcendentalism.
3. The Scarlet Letter: tells a simple but very moving story in which four people living in a Puritan community are involved in and affected by the sin of adultery in different ways; the red “A” takes on different layers of symbolic meanings as the plot develops. “A”: adultery, ability, angel
1.life: influenced by Emerson;
2.works:Twice-Told Tales (a collection of short stories); Mosses from an Old Manse; The Snow-Image and other Twice-Told Tales; The Scarlet Letter (masterpiece); The House of the Seven Gables (his great-grandfather, the wrong doing of one generation lives into the successive ones); The Blithedale Romance (his own experience, evil is at the very core of human life); The Marble Faun (a romance set in Italy); “Young Goodman Brown” (everyone possesses some evil secret); “The Minister’s Black Veil” (everyone tries to hold the evil secret from one another);

I．Multiple Choice(40 points in all, 1 for each)Select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement. Write the corresponding letter A, B, C or D on the answer sheet.Chapter23.The Romantic writers would focus on all the following issues EXCEPT the ___ inthe American literary histrory.A.individual feelingsB.idea of survival of the fittestC.strong imaginationD.return to nature (024)24. Henry David Thoreau's work,__,has always been regarded as a masterpiece ofNew England Transcendentalism.5A.WaldenB.The pioneersC.NatureD.Song of Myself(024)23.The hightide of Romanticism in American literature occurred around .[A]1820 [B]1850 [C]1880 [D]1920(034)25.Which group of writers are among those who may be called early pioneers of American literature?[A]Mark Twain and Henry James.[B]Fenimore Cooper and Washington lrving.[C]Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner[D]Jack London and O‘Henry. (034)31.The Romantic Writers would focus on all the following issues EXCEPT the （）in the American literary history.A. individual feelingB. survival of the fittest(054)C. strong imaginationD. return to nature24.The Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, stretches from the end of __________ to the outbreak of ___________.（）A. the 17th century…the American War of IndependenceB. the 18th century…the American Civil WarC. the 17th century…the American Civil WarD. the 18th century…the U.S.-Mexican War(057)29.The them e of Washington Irving‘s Rip Van Winkle is（）.A. the conflict of human psycheB. the fight against racial discrimination(057)C. the familial conflictD. the nostalgia for the unrecoverable past25．The Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, stretches from the end of ______________ to the outbreak of ____________.A．the 17th century…the American War of IndependenceB．the 18th century…the American Civil WarC．the 17th century…the American Civil Wa rD．the 18th century…the U.S. – Mexican War（074）26．Which of the following statements is NOT true of American Transcendentalism?4 A．It can be clearly defined as a part of American Romantic literary movement. B．It can be defined philosophically as ―the re cognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively‖.C．Ralph Waldo Emerson was the chief advocate of this spiritual movement.D．It sprang from South America in the late 19th century. （074）39.A preoccupation with the ______ view of original sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne，Melville and a host of lesser writers.A. optimisticB. CalvinisticC. PlatonicD. Socratic(087)40. The American ______ as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values in the American Romantic period.A. Puritanism B．AtheismC. DeismD. Cynicism(087)39. In the American Romantic writings,______ came to function almost as a dramaticcharacter that symbolized moral law.3A. fireB. waterC. treesD. wilderness(094)40. The desire for an escape from society and a return to ______ became a permanentconvention of the American literature.2A. the family lifeB. natureC. the ancient timeD. fantasy of love(094)24. The fiction of the American _____ period ranges from the comic fables of Washington Irving to the social realism of Rebecca Harding Davis.A. RomanticB. RevolutionaryC. ColonialD. Modernistic（097）32.A preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of _____ and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne, Melville and a host of lesser writers.1A. love and mercyB. bitterness and hatredC. original sinD. eternal life（097）1 Hawthorne28.Hester Pryme, Dimmsdale,Chillingworth and Pearl are most likely the names ofthe characters in ___.A.The Scarlet LetterB.The House of the Seven GablestC.The Portrait of a LadyD.The pioneers(024)27.Hawthorne generally concerns himself with such issues as in his fiction.[A]the evil in man‘s heart[B]the material pursuit[C]the racial conflict [D]the social inequality(034)29. Which of the following works best illustrates the Calvinistic view of original sin? (044)A. Stowe‘s Uncle Ton’s CabinB. James‘s The Portrait of a Lady.C. Hemingway‘s A Farewell to ArmsD. Hawthorne‘s The Scarlet Letter.39.After his experiences in the forest, Young Goodman Brown returns to Salem ______.A. desperate and gloomyB. renewed in his faithC. wearing a black veilD. unaware of his own sin(044)24.The American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his―black vision.‖The term―black vision‖refers to（）.A. Hawthorne‘s observation that every man faces a black wallB. Hawthorne‘s belief that all men are by nature evilC. that Hawthorne employed a dream vision to tell his storyD. that Puritans of Hawthorne‘s time usually wore black clothes(054)36.Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth and Pearl are most likely characters in （）.A. The House of the Seven GablesB. The Scarlet Letter(054)C. The Portrait of a LadyD. The Pioneers23.In Young Goodman Brown by Hawthorne, the name of Goodman Brown‘s wife is （）, which also contains many symbolic meanings.A. RuthB. HesterC. FaithD. Mary(057)36.Nathaniel Hawthorne held an unceasing interest in the―interior of the heart‖ of man‘s being. So in almost every book he wrote, Hawtho rne discussed（）A. love and hatredB. sin and evilC. frustration and self-denialD. balance and self-discipline(057) 29．Nathaniel Hawthorne held an unceasing interest in the ―interior of the heart ‖of man‘s being. So in almost every book he wr ote, Hawthorne discusses______________.A．love and hatred B．sin and evilC．frustration and self—denial D．balance and self—discipline（074）30．In Young Goodman Brown by Hawthorne, the name of Goodman Brown‘s wife is ______________, which also contains many symbolic meanings.A．Ruth B．HesterC．Faith D．Mary（074）28．Hawthorne intended to ______ in The Scarlet Letter.A．tell a story of parental loveB．tell a story of sin and bloody violenceC．call the readers back to the plantation way of livingD．reveal the human psyche after they sinned（084）30．In many of Hawthorne‘s stories and novels, the Puritan concept of life is condemned, or the Puritan past is shown in an almost totally negative light, especially in his ______ and The Scarlet Letter.5A．Twice-Told Tales B．The Blithedale RomanceC．The Marble Faun D．The House of the Seven Gables（084）27. According to ______, ―There is evil in every human heart，which may remain latent，perhaps，through the whole life；but circumstances may rouse it to activity.‖4A. Nathaniel HawthorneB. Edgar Ellen PoeC. William Faulkner D．Theodore Dreiser(087)34. Hawthorne‘s view of man and human history originated，to a great extent，from ______.A. TranscendentalismB. PuritanismC. HumanismD. Expressionism(087)38.Almost every book written by Hawthorne discusses _____，which reflects his unceasing interest in the ―interior of the heart‖ of man‘s being.A. sin and evilB. 1ove and hatredC. frustration and self - denialD. balance and self - discipline(087)34. The Birthmark drives home symbolically ______ point that evil is a man'sbirthmark, something he was born with.A. Whitman'sB. Melville'sC. Hawthorne'sD. Emerson's(094)40. Hawthorne was not a Puritan himself, but his view of man and human history originated, to a great extent, in_______.A. CalvinismB. PuritanismC. RealismD. Naturalism（097）23. With the scarlet letter A as the biggest symbol of all, ______ proves himself to be one of the best symbolists.A. HawthorneB. DreiserC. JamesD. Faulkner(104)40. In 1837, ______ published Twice - Told Tales, a collection of short stories which attracted critical attention.3A. EmersonB. MelvilleC. WhitmanD. Hawthorne(104)39. ―The Birthmark‖ drives home symbolically Hawthorne‘s point that ______ isman‘s birthmark, something he is born with.2A. purityB. generosityC. evilD. love（107）40. The Blithedale Romance is a novel ______ wrote to reveal his own experiences onthe Brook Farm and his own methods as a psychological novelist.1A. Herman MelvilleB. Nathaniel HawthorneC. Washington IrvingD. Walt Whitman（107）2 Whitman26.Walt whitman was a pioneering figure of American poetry. His innovation first ofall lies in his use of __,poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.A.blank verseB.heroic coupletC.free verseD.iambic pentameter(024)31.Whitman‘s poems are characterized by all the following features except.[A]a strict poetic form[B]a simple and conversational language[C]a free and natural rhythmic pattern[D]an easy flow of feelings(034)26.Whitman‘s poems are characterized by all the following features EXCEPT ______ . (044) 5A. the strict poetic formB. the free and natural rhythmC. the easy flow of feelingsD. the simple and conversational language23．Walt Whitman, whose ______________ established him as the most popular American poet of the 19th century.A．Leaves of Grass B．Go Down, MosesC．The Marble Faun D．As I Lay Dying（074）31．Which of the following statements might be true of the theme of ―Song of Myself‖ by Whitman?4A．This poem describes the growth of a child who learned about the world around him and improved himself accordingly.B．This poem shows the author‘s cynical sentiments against the American Civil War. C．This poem reflects the author‘s belief in Unitarianism or Deism.D．This poem reflects the au thor‘s belief in the singularity and equality of all beings in value. （074）37．As ______ saw it, poetry could play a vital part in the process of creating a new nation. It could enable Americans to celebrate their release from the Old World and the colonial rule.A．Wordsworth Longfellow B．William BryantC．Walt Whitman D．Robert Frost（084）38．Walt Whitman is a poet with a strong sense of mission, having devoted all his life to the creation of the ―single‖ poem, ______.A．The Love Song of J．Alfred Prufrock B．The Waste LandC．Murder in the Cathedral D．Leaves of Grass（084）29.What Walt Whitman prefers for his new subject and new poetic feelings is ―______，‖that is，poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme．A. fixed verseB. free verseC. fixed endingD. free ending(087)32.What Whitman prefers for his new subject and new poetic feelings is ―______ ,‖that is, poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.A. blank verseB. free rhythmC. balanced structureD. free verse(094)26. By means o f ―_____,‖ Whitman believed, he has turned the poem into an open field, an area of vital possibility where the reader can allow his own imagination to play. 3A. balanced structureB. free verseC. fixed verseD. regular rhythm（097）24. The author of Leaves of Grass , a giant of American letters, is ______.A. FaulknerB. DreiserC. JamesD. Whitman(104)39. In his poetry, Whitman shows concern for ______ and the burgeoning life of cities.A. the colonistsB. the capitalistsC. the whole hard -working peopleD. the intellectuals(104)23. Two people could be ―twain yet one‖ : their paths could be different, and yet theycould achieve a kind of transcendent contact, ______ believed. 2A. Walt WhitmanB. Ezra PoundC. Washington IrvingD. Nathaniel Hawthorne（107）30. Walt Whitman ‘s ______ is a collection of poems incorporating his emotions andfeelings before and during the Civil War when he stood firmly on the side of the North. 1A. Leaves of GrassB. ―Cavalry Crossing a Ford‖C. ―Song of Myself‖D. Drum Taps（107）3Melville27. ―Then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.‖ In the quoted sentence, the author might imply that ______.(044) 5A. nothing changes in the 5000 years of human historyB. ma n‘s desire to conquer nature can only end in his own destructionC. nature is evil as it was 5000 years agoD. nature has the ultimate creative power30. Beside symbolism, all the following qualities EXCEPT ______are fused to make Melville‘s Moby-Dick a world classic.4A. narrative powerB. psychological analysis(044)C. speculative agilityD. optimistic view of life37.Like Nathaniel Hawthorne,（）also manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through symbolism and allegory in his narratives.A. Mark TwainB. Henry JamesC. R. W. EmersonD. Herman Melville(054)39.In Moby-Dick, the white whale symbolizes（）for Melville, for it is complex, unfathomable, malignant, and beautiful as well.3A. natureB. human societyC. whaling industryD. truth(057)32．In Moby—Dick, the white whale symbolizes ______________ for Melville, for it is complex, unfathomable, malignant, and beautiful as well.A．nature B．human societyC．whaling industry D．truth（074）25．Herman Melville wrote his semi-autobiographical novel ______ concerning the sufferings of a genteel youth among brutal sailors.2A．Typee B．RedburnC．Moby-Dick D．Mardi（084）31．The white whale, Moby Dick, symbolizes ________ for Melville, for it is complex, unfathomable, malignant, and beautiful as well.A．society B．natureC．ocean animals D．both A and C （084）30. By writing _______ Melville reached the most flourishing stage of his literary creativity.A. TypeeB. OmooC. MardiD. Moby-Dick(087)27. In 1849, Herman Melville published ______ ,a semi-autobiographical novel, con-cerning the sufferings of a genteel youth among brutal sailors.A. OmooB. MardiC. RedburnD. Typee(094)38. By writing Moby - Dick, _______ reached the most flourishing stage of his literary creativity.A. Herman MelvilleB. Edgar Ellen PoeC. William FaulknerD. Theodore Dreiser（097）26. Melville is best - known as the author of his mighty book, ________, which is one of the world‘ s greatest masterpieces.A. Song of MyselfB. Moby - DickC. The Marble FaunD. Mosses from an Old Manse(104)27. In 1841, ______ went to the South Seas on a whaling ship, where he gained thefirst- hand information about whaling that he used later in Moby -Dick.A. Herman MelvilleB. Nathaniel HawthorneC. Robert Lee FrostD.T.S. Eliot（107）33. In Moby-Dick, for the character Ahab, the white whale represents only ______.1A. evilB. natureC. societyD. purity（107）34. Melville‘s semi- autobiographical novel, ______, concerns the sufferings of agenteel youth among brutal sailors.A. Moby-DickB. RedburnC. MardiD. Typee（107）PART TWOⅡ.Reading Comprehension (16 points, 4 for each)Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English. Write your answer in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.1 Hawthorne43.―‗Faith! Faith!‘cried the husband. ‗Look up to Heaven, and resis t the Wicked One.‘‖Questions:A.Identify the work and the author.B.What idea does the quoted sentence express? (054)43. A. Nathaniel Hawthorne; ―Young Goodman Brown‖B. Goodman Brown here is obviously addressing the image of his wife, urging herto resist the devil. At the same time he is exhorting himself to have faith, to look heavenward, to withstand the infernal eloquence of the Wicked One.Whitman44.―I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.I loafe and invite my soul,I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.‖(From Walt Whitman‘s ―Song of Myself‖)Questions:A. Who does―myself‖refer to ?B. How do you understand the line―I loafe and invite my soul?‖C. What does―a spear of summer grass‖symbolize? (057)44．―I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.I loafe and invite my soul,I learn and loafe at my ease observ ing a spear of summer grass.‖(from Walt Whitman‘s ―Song of Myself‖)Questions:A．Whom does ―myself‖ refer to?B．How do you understand the line ―I loafe and invite my soul‖?C．What does ―a spear of summer grass‖ indicate?（084）43. ―My tongue，every atom of my blood，form‘d from this soil，this air,Born here of parents born here from parents the same，and theirparents the same，I，now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin，Hoping to cease not till death‖Questions：A. Identify the poet and the poem from which the quoted lines are taken.B. What do ―soil‖ and ―air‖ represent in the first line?C. What does the poet try to say in the above four lines? (087)43. A. Walt Whitman, ―Song of Myself‖B. His native land, America or His countryC. I was born and nurtured by this land and shall from now on devote my wholelife to the country.43．There was a child went forth every day,And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became,And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day,Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.Questions:A. Identify the poet.B. From which poem and which collection of the poet are these lines taken?C. What does the poet describe in the poem? (094)43. A. Walt whitman.B. ―There Was a Child Went Forth‖ from Leaves of Grass.C. The poem describes the growth of a child who learned about the world aroundhim and improved himself accordingly. In the poem, Whitman‘s own early experience may well be identified with the childhood of a young, growing America.44. (A lot of common objects have been enumerated in the previous lines, and hereare the last two lines of the poem. )―The horizon‘s edge, the flying sea - crow, the fragrance of salt marsh and shore mud.These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day. ‖Questions:A. Who is the author of this poem? What is the title of the poem?B. What does the child stand for in the poem?C. How do you understand ― These became part of the child‖ ?（107）44. A. Walt whitman. ―There Was a Child Went Forth‖B. the young, growing America.C. The common objects in the poem reflect the natural process of a boy‘s growth.Ⅲ.Questions and Answers(24 points in all, 6 for each)Give brief answers to each of the following questions in English.Write your answers in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.Hawthorne48. ―Young Goodman Brown‖ is one of Hawthorne‘s most profound tales.What is the allegorical meaning of Brown, the protagonist? What does Hawthorne set out to prove in this tale? How does Melville comment on Hawthorne‘s manner of concerning with guilt and evil?（107）4848. A. Allegorically, the protagonist becomes an everyman named Brown, a ―young‖man, who will be aged in one night by an adventure that makes everyone in this world a fallen idol.B. He sets out to prove that everyone possesses some evil secret.C. Melville calls it the ―power of blackness‖.Whitman47. Whitman has made radical changes in the form of poetry by choosing free verse as his medium of expression. What are the characteristics of Whitman‘s free verse? (054) 4747. A. It doesn‘t have fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.B. The poetic lines are simple and prose-like, varying in length, which allows himto express his ideas freely.C. Whitman also applies oral English in his free verse to make it an effective wayto express freely the feelings of common people.Melville47. The white whale, Moby Dick, is the most important symbol in Melville's novel.What symbolic meaning can you draw from it? (024)47. A. To Ahab, the whale is either an evil creature itself or the agent of an evil forcethat controls the universe, or perhaps both.B. To Ishmale, the whale is an astonishing force, an immense power, which defiesrational explanation due to a sense of mystery it carries. It is beautiful, but malignant at the same time. It also represents the tremendous organic vitality of the universe, for it has a life force that surges onward irresistibly, impervious to the desires or wills of men.C. As to the reader, the whale can be viewed as a symbol of the physical limitsthat life imposes upon man. It may also be regarded as a symbol of nature, or an instrument of God's vengeance upon evil man. In general, the multiplicity and ambivalence of the symbolic meaning of the whale is such that it becomesa source of intense speculation, an object or profound curiosity for the reader.Ⅳ.Topic Discussion(20 points in all, 10 for each)Write no less than 150 words on each of the following topics in English in the corresponding space on the answer sheet.Melville50.Retell in a few sentences the story of the last chapter (Ch, 135) ―The Chase－ThirdDay‖ of Melville‘s novel Moby-Dick. Discuss the meaning of the ending of the story. (034) 5050. The story of Moby-Dick is simple, telling the battle between Ahab, captain of thewhaling ship Pequod and the monstrous white whale Moby Dick. Ahab is obsessed by his determination to revenge himself upon the fierce, cunning whale, because it has crippled him. After many days of search and pursuit, the white whale is finally sighted. Chapter 135 is a description of the third day‘s chase.Three boats have been lowered in chase of the whale, but two of them are later destroyed by the whale. Although the whale is harpooned at last, the ship is sunk and all the people aboard are drowned except Ishmale, the narrator of the story who happens to be rescued by another whale ship. Moby-Dick is not merely a whaling tale or sea adventure. It is a tragic epic. The voyage the Pequod has made is a symbolic voyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe, a spiritual exploration into man‘s deep reality and psychology. The battle between Ahab and the white whale symbolizes the struggle between man and nature, man and fate, good and evil.Hawthorne50. ―My faith is gone!‖ cried he (Goodman Brown), after one stupefied moment. ―There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil! For to thee is this world given.‖Comment on this passage from Hawthorne‘s ―Young Goodman Brown‖. (044) 50. A. Goodman Brown utters this cry when he finds his wife Faith, together with lotsof prominent of the village and the church, attending a witches‘ Sabbath inthe woods.B. His cry shows great surprise and disillusionment. Thereafter, he becomesdistrustful and doubtful. He lives a dismal and gloomy life because he is never able to believe in goodness or piety again. Here the author makes a pun of the word ―faith‖. Goodman Brown los es not only his faith in religion and life, but also his faith in his wife, for his wife‘s name is Faith.C. From this story, we also can see that Howthorne is a great allegorist and a masterof symbolism. The story itself is an allegory and is full of symbols such as the forest, the night, the snake and the pink ribbon.50．― ‗My faith is gone!‘ cried he（Goodman Brown）,after one stupefied moment.‗There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil! For to thee is this world given.‘ ‖（from Nathani el Hawthorne‘s ―Young Goodman Brown‖）Make a comment on this passage.（084）50. A. Goodman Brown utters this cry when he finds his wife Faith, together with lotsof prominent people of the village and the church, attending a witches‘sSabbath in the woods.B. His cry shows his great surprise and disillusionment. Thereafter, he becomesdistrustful and doubtful. He lives a dismal and gloomy life because he is never able to believe in goodness or piety again. Here the author makes a pun of the word ―faith‖. Fo odman Brown loses not only his faith in religion and life, but also is faith in his wife, for his wife‘s name in Faith.C. From this story, we can also see that Hawthorne is a great allegorist and amaster of symbolism. The story itself is an allegory and is ful of symbols such as the forest, the snake, and the pink ribbon.00. The most clearly defined literary movement in Romantic period is New England Transcendentalism. Please make a comment on this philosophical and literary school. (047)。

American LiteratureChapter 1 The Romantic period（浪漫时期）一、十九世纪初期至中叶美国文学产生的历史文化背景；二、该时期文学创作的基本特征、基本主张三、对同时代与后期美国文学的影响四、主要作家作品。

—、The time period :1. The Romantic Period stretchs from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War.2.It started with the the publication of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book and ended with Whitman's Leaves of Grass .3.It is also called " the American Renaissance ."二、The romantic thoughts:1 .The native feature :They revealed unique characteristics of their own in their works and they grew on the native lands .A. The American national experience of "pioneering into the west" proved to be a rich source of material .B. The wilderness came to function almost as a dramatic character that symbolized moral law .C. Literature began to celebrate American farmers ,the poor, the unlettered ,children ,and especially the noble savages .2. The Puritanism :A. The American Puritanism as a cultural heritage exerted great influences over American moral values .B. American romantic writers tended more to moralized than their English and European counterparts.3. The Transcendentalism:A. The most clearly defined Romantic literary movement in this period is New England Transcendentalism.B. It was stared in New England in the 1830s .C. This Transcendentalist group includes two of the most significant writers America has produced so far ,Emerson and Thoreau .D. Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as "the recognition in man the capacity of knowing truth intuitively ,or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the sense ."三、The representatives :1. The poetry:There emerged a great host of men of letters during this period ,among the better-known is Walt Whitman , Whose Leaves of Grass established him as the most popular American poet of the 19th century .2. The fiction:The fiction of the American Romantic Period is an original and diverse body of work .3. The human nature:American Romanticists also differed in their their understanding of human nature . To Emerson and Thoreau , man is divine in nature and therefore forever perfectible ;to Hawthorne and Melville , everybody is potentially a sinner , and great moral courage is therefore indispensable for the improvement of human nature .主要作家作品A. 华盛顿.欧文B. 拉尔夫.华尔多.爱默生C. 纳撒尼尔.霍桑D. 华尔特.惠特曼E. 赫尔曼.麦尔维尔A. 华盛顿.欧文—.The literary creation1 .The works:A History of New York ,which , written under the name of Diedrich knickerbocker , was a great success and won him wide popularity .The book is a parody of the Dutch colony .B.With the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffery Crayon , Gent,Irving won a measure of international fame on both side of the Atlantic .The book contains familiar essays like "Rip Van Winkle " and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow .C.Following The sketch Book , Irving published Bracebridge Hall ,and Tales of a Traveler.2.The literary source and contributions :A. Irving's relationship with the Old World in terms of his literary imagination can hardly be ingored considering his sucess both abroad and at home . A History of New York is a patchwork of references .He parodies or imitates Homer , Fielding ,Swift and many other favorites of his .B. Washington Irving brought to the new nation what its people desired most in a man of letters —"Rip Van Winkle" or"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow " are among the treasures of the American language and culture . It is not the sketches about the Old World but the tales about America that made Washington Irving a household word and his fame enduring. •二、The artistic features :1. Irving's taste was essentially conservative .2. Washington Irving has always been regarded as a writer who " perfected the best classic style that American Literature ever produce . "3. Yet Irving never forgets to associate a certain place with the inward movement of a person and to charge his sentences with emotion so as to create a true and vivid character .B. 拉尔夫.华尔多.爱默生—. The literary creation :1 .The chief spokesman of this spiritual movement, New England transcendentalism is Emerson .2. Nature, Emerson's first little book ,established him ever since as the most eloquent sopkesman of New England Transcendentalism .3. His lasting reputation began only with the publication of Essays . Many of his famous essays are included in Essays ,such as the American Scholar , Self-Reliance , The Over-Soul .二、The thought1. The transcendentalism :A. The nature:Emersonian Transcendentalism is actually a philosophical school with absorbed some ideological concerns of American Puritanism and European Romanticism .B. The contents :Emerson put forward his philosophy of the over-soul , the importance of the Individual , and Nature . Transcendentalists believed that there should be an emotional communication between an individual soul and universal "over-soul "2.The influence :A. By employing nature as a big symbol of the spirit ,or God , or the over-soul , Emerson has brought the puritan legacy of symbolism to its perfection .B. Emerson is the most represntative of the philosophical an literary school , and it inspired in his lifetime a whole generation of famous authors like Thoreau , Whitman , and Dickinson .三、The artistic features :1 .The casual style :Emerson's essays often have a casual style . They are usually characterized by a series of short ,sentencesw .2.To use comparison and metaphors :Emerson's philosophical discussion is sometimes difficult to understande but he uses comparisons and metaphors to make the general idea of his work clearly expressed .3 To employ the literary sources :Emerson often employed these literary sources to make and enrich his own points but never let them take the full reins of his discussion .C 纳撒尼尔霍桑.一The thoughts :1 The view of sin:A According to Hawthorne , "There is evil in every human heart." A piece of literary work should " show how we are all wronged and wronger , and avenge one another." So in almost every book he wrote , Hawthorne discusses sin and evil.B One source of evil that Hawthorne is concerned most is overreaching intellect . The tension between intellect " would be fully revealed .2 The Puritanism :A Hawthorne's view of man and human history originates , to a great extent, in Puritanism . He believed that "the wrong doing of one generation lives into the successive ones ."B In many of Hawthorne's stories and novels , the Puritan concept of life is condemned , or the Puritan past is shown in an almost totally negative light, especially in his The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter .二. The masterpiece —The Scarlet letter:1 The theme:In this particular novel , Hawthorne does not intend to tell a love stroy nor a story of sin , but focuses his attention on the moral , emotional , and psychological effects or consequences of the sin on the people in general and those main characters in particular, so as to show us the tension between society and individuals .2 The imagery :"The custom -House " to The Scarlet Letter proves fruitful to Hawthrone's imagination , By relating a piece of red clothshaped like "A", Hawthorne succeeds in giving his tale a sense of historical reality and an air of authenticity .三The artistic features :1 The structure:The structure and the form of his writings are always carefully worked out to cater for the thematic concern .2 The allegory :Hawthorne is also a great allegorist and almost every story can be read allegorically , as is the case in " Young Goodman Brown."3 The symbolism :Hawthorne is a master of symbolism . The symbol can be found everywhere in his writing . By using pearl as thematic symbol,Hawthorne emphasizes the consequence the sin of adultery has brought to the community and people living in that community .4 The ambiguity :And the ambiguity is one of the salient characteristics of Hawthorne's art.D 华尔特惠特曼—'. The works —Leaves of Grass :1 .Leaves of Grass has alwasys been considered a monumental work which commands great attention .2.The work has nine editions and the first edition was published in 1855.二. the thoughts :1 The nationalism :As Whitman saw it, poetry could play a vital part in the process of creating a new nation . The abundance of themes in his poetry voices freshness. He shows concern for the whole hardworking people and the burgeoning life of cities .2 The individual value :The realization of the individual value also found a tough position in Whitman's poems in a particular way . pursuit of love and happiness is approved of repeatedly and affectionately in his lines .3.The political thoughts :Some of Whitman's poems are politically committed , Such as a collection under the title of drum Taps , " Cavalry Crossing a Ford ." And " When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd ."三The artistic features :1 The brand-new means :Whitman employed brand-new means in his poetry .A Whitman's poetic style is marked , first of all, by the use of the poetic "I".B Usually , the relationship Whitman is dramatizing is a triangular one :"I" the poet, the subject in the poem , and " you " the reader .C What he prefers for his new subject and new poetic feeling is " free verse ,"that is , poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme . However , there is still a strong sense of the poems being rhythmical .2 The imagery :A unifying images of the body , the crowd , the sexuality are pervasive in his poems .B One of the most often-used methods in Whitman's poems is to make colors and images fleet past the mind's eye of the reader.3 The Language:A Another characteristic in Whitman's language is his strong tendency to use oral English .B Whitman's vocabulary is amazing . He would use powerful , colorful , as well as rarely-used words , words of foreign origin and sometimes even wrong words .E 赫尔曼麦尔维尔—. The literary creation :Melville's writings can be well divided into two groups .1 .The early period :His early works were writen after he was back from the sea.A. Among them are Typee , Omoo , and Mardi, which drew from his adventuresB Redburn is semi-autobiographical novel.C In White Jacket Melville relates his life on a United states man-of-war .D Moby-Dick proves to be the best.2 The later period :With the publication of Pierre ,Melville's public fame was on the decline .A Among them are "Bartleby , the Scrivener," "Benito Cereno," The Confidence -Man .B Bill Budd again deals with the sea and sailors and the theme of a conflict between innocence and corruption .3 The themes respectively :A In the early ones , Melville is more enthusiastic about setting out on a quest for the meaning of the universe , hencethey are more metaphysical and the main characters are ardent and self-dramatizing "I", defyign God , as best reflected in Moby-Dick.B In the late works , Melville becomes more reconciled with the world of man .二. The Masterpiece —Moby -Dick :1 .The literary status :Moby-Dick is regarded as the first American prose epic .2 The features :It is difficult to read because much of the talk in the talk in the novel is sailor's talk and much of the language is purposely old-fashioned and Elizabethan .3 The outline :The story is not complicated , dealing with Ahab , a man with an overwhelming obsession to kill the whale which has crippled him , on board his ship Pequod in the chase of the whale .4 The symbolism :It turns out to be a symbolic yoyage of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of the universe , a spiritual exploration into man's deep reality and psychology .三. The artistic features:1 .The style of symbol and imageryA Different people on board the ship are representations of defferent ideas and different social and ethnic groups .B Facts become symbols and incidents acquire universal meanings .C Pequod is the microcosm of human society , and the voyage becomes a search for truth .D For author,Moby-Dick is still a mystery , an ultimate mystery of the universe .2. The other stills :Melville's great gifts of language , invention , psychological analysis , speculative agility , and narrative power are fused to make Moby-Dick a world classic .chapter2 The Realistic period一十九世纪中期现实主义文学产生的历史，文化背景二美国现实主义文学创作的基本主张，基本特征三对同时代与后期美国文学的影响四主要作家作品— .. The time period :The period ranging from 1865 to 1914 has been referred to as the Age of Realism in the literary history of the United States.二The theoretical base :l.The thoughts of Howells :A The literary principle :The fidelistic reflection of human reality is most clearly expressed by William Dean Howells .B The influence :Guided by this principle of adhering to the truthful treatment of life , the realists touched upon various contemporary social and political issues .2 The subject matters :A The characters :They introduced industrial workers and farmers , ambitious businessmen and vagrants , prostitutes and unheroic soldiers as major characters in fiction .B The modes :They approached the harsh realities and pressures in the post Civil War society either by a comprehensive picture of modern life , or by a psychological exploration of man's subconsciousness .3 The three towering figures :The three dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells , Mark Twain and Henry James .A The common features :1）They brought to fulfillment native trends in the realistic portrayal brought to perfection the vernacular style .2）They established the literary indentity of distinctively American protagonists , specifically the vernacular hero and the "American Girl."3）In short, they set the example and charted the future course for the subjects , themes .techniques and styles of fiction .B The distinctions :1) They differed in their understanding of the " truth " .While Mark Twain and Howells seemed to have paid more attention to the "life" of the Americans ,Henry James had apparently laid a greater emphasis on the "inner world " ofman.2) Though Twain and Howells both shared the same concern in presenting the truth of the American society , they had each of them different emphasis . Howells focused his discussion the rising middle class and the way they lived , While Twain preferred to have his own region and people at the forefront of his stories .三The naturalism in literature :1 The sources :The impact of Darwin's evolutionary theory and the influence of the 19th century French literature on the American men of letters gave rise to yet another school of realism: American naturalism .2. The subject matter:They chose their subjets from the lower ranks of society , and portrayed misery and poverty of the "underdogs " who were demonstrably victims of society and nature .3 The themes :One of the most familiar themes in American naturalism is the theme of human "bestiality "especially as an explanation of sexaul desire .4 The features:Artistically naturalistic writings are usually unpolished in language , lacking in academic skills and unwieldy in structure . Philosophically , the naturalists believe that the real and true is always partially hidden from the eyes of the individual , or beyond this control . In a word , naturalism is evolved from realism when the author's tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic .主要作家作品A 马克吐温B 亨利詹姆斯C 艾米莉狄金森D 西奥多德莱塞A 马克吐温—The works :1 .The early period :A With works like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn an Life on the Mississippi Twain shaped the world's view of America.B The first among these books is Roughing it.C Two of the best books during this period are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn .2.The late period :A the Gilded Age is Written in collaboration with Warner , the novel explored the scrupulous individualism .B In A Connecticut Yankee in king Arthu's Court , Twain follows the journey of a representative of modern technology and ideas into a historically backward , feudal society .C The others include:The Tragedy of Pudd's nhead Wilson The man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and The Mysterious Strager.二The masterpieces :1 The literary status :The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn proved themselves to be the milestone in American literature , and thus firmly established Twain’s position in the literary world .2 The features:The books are noted for their unpretentious ,colloquial yet poetic style ,their wide -ranging humor , and their unviversally shared dream of perfect innocence and freedom .3 The language:the novel is written in a language which is not grand , pompous , but simple , direct , lucid , and faithful to the colloquial speech .4 The character portrayal :The profound portrait of Huckleberry Finn is another great contribution of the book to the legacy of American literature .三The artistic features:1 The local color:Twain is also known as a local colorist, who preferred to present social life through portraits of the local characters of his regions , Unlike James and Howells , Mark Twain wrote about the lower -class people .2 The language :Another fact that made Twain unique is his magic power with language , his use of vernacular . His words are colloquial, concrete and direct in effect, and his sentence structures are simple ,3 The sense of humor:Mark Twain's humor is remarkable , too . Mark Twain shared the popular image of the American However , his humor is not only of witty remarks , but a kind of artistic style used to criticize the social satirize the decayed romanticism . B. 亨利詹姆斯—. The literary creation :The literary of Henry James is generally divided into three periods .l.The early period :A The theme:James took great interest in international themes he treated with great care the clashes between two different cultures and the emotional and moral problems of American in Europe , or Europeans in America .B The Works :the American , Daisy Miller , The Europeans , The Portrait of A Lady is generally considered to be hsi masterpiece .2 The middle period :A the Theme:James experimented with different themes and forms in his middle period .B The works :The Bostonians , The Princess Casamassima , The Death of a Lion , The turn of the Screw , and The Beast in the Jungle .3 The late period :A The theme :In his last and major period , James returned to his " international theme ."B The works :What Maisie Knows , The Wings of the Dove , The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl. These demanding novels are widely considered to be James' most influential contribution to literature .二. The contributions to literature :1 .The international themeA James' fame generally rests upon his novels and stories with the international theme . These novels are always set against a larger international background , usually between European and America . The typical pattern of the conflict between the two cultures would be that of a young American man or American girl .B Marriage and love are used by James as the focal point of the confrontation between the twol value systems .2.The literary criticism :A Henry James's literary criticism is an indispensable part of his contribution to literature . The theme of his essay " The Art of Fiction " clearly indicates that the aim of the novel is to present life .B He also advoctes the freedom of the artist to write about anything that concerns him , even the disgreeable , the ugly and commonplace.三. the artistic features :1 .The psychoanalysis:A James's realism is characterized by his psychological approach to his subject matter .His fictional world is concerned more with inner life of human beings than with overt human actions .B This emphasis on psychology and on the human consciousness proves to be a big breakthrough in novel writing James is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th -century "stream-of -consciousness " novels and the founder of psychological realism .2 The narrative point of view :A James avoids the authorial omniscience and makes his characters reveal themselves .B In his novels we usually learn the main story by reading through one or several minds and share their perspetives .3 The language:As to his language , James is not so easy to understand . With a large vocabulary , he is always accurate in word selection , trying to find the best expression for his literary imagination.C 艾米莉狄金森—. The literary themes :1 .About eternity :A Dickinson's poems are usually based on her own experiences , her sorrows and joys . But within her little lyrics Dickinson addresses those issues that concern the whole human beings .B Closely related to Dickinson's religious poetry are her poems concerning death and immortality .2.About love :A Love is another subject Dickinson dwelt on . One group of her love poems treats the suffering and frustration love can cause.B The other group of love poems focuses on the physicalaspect of desire . However , it is those poems dealing wiht marriage that have aroused critical attention first.二The artistic features :1 .The unique style :Her poems have no titles. In her poetry there is a particular stress pattern .2 The unconventional style :The form of her poetry is more or less like that of the hymns is community churches ,familiar ,communal ,and sometimes, irregular.3 The other styles :Her poetic idioms is noted for its laconic brevity , directness and plainness . Her poems are usually short, and many of them are centered on a single image or symbol and focused on one subject matter .D 西奥多德莱塞—. The works1 The literary status :Theodore Dreiser is generally acknowledged as one of America's literary naturalists .2 The representatives :A Sister Carrie is the best -known works .B His best short fictions were Nigger Jeff, Old Rogaum and His Theresa .C His " Trilogy of Desire," The Financier , The Titan and The Stoic .D Dreiser's greatest wrok is An American Tragedy .二The thoughts of literary creation:1 The naturalism :A With the publication of Sister Carrie ,Dreiser was launching himself upon a long career later known as literary naturalism , which emphasized heredity and environment as important deterministic forces shaping individualized characters .B In his words , man is a "victim of forces over which he has no control ." To him ,life is " so sad , so strannge , so mysterious and so inexplicable. "2 The Darwinism :A The effect of Darwinist idea of" survival of the fittest" was shattering .B In Sister Carrie Dreiser expressed His naturalistic pursuit . In his " Trilogy of Desire ," Dreiser's focus shifted from the American Tragedy proves to be his greatest work Dreiser intended to tell us that it is the social pressure .3.The American Values :A From the first novel Sister Carrie on , Dreiser set himself to project the American values the human individual is obsessed with a never -ending , yet meaningless search for satisfaction of his desires . One of the desires is for money . Sex is another human desire .B Dreiser never forgot to imply that these human desires in life could hardly be defined .三The artistic features:1 For lack of concision , his writings appear more inclusive and less selective . He has been always accused of being awkward in setence structure , inept and occasionally flatly wrong in word selection and meaning , and mixed and disorganized in voice and tone .2 He broke away from the genteel tradition of literature and dramatized the life in a very realistic way .Part 11 Chapter 3 the Modern Period一20世纪初期到中叶美国现代文学产生的历史文化背景二美国现代文学创作的基本特征，基本主张三对当代美国文学发展的影响The cultural background1 .Darwinism and Maxism :A Darwinism was still a big influence over the writers of this period .B Marx believed that the root cause of all behavior was economic , and that the leading feature of the economic life was the division of society into antagonistic classes based on a relation to the means of production .2 Freudian theories :A Freud propounded an idea of human beings themselves as grounded in the "unconsious ",and made the practice of the psychoanalysis .B William J ames ,famous for his theory of "stream of conciousness ."and Carl Jung, noted for his " collective unconscious "and "archetypal symbol " plus Freud's interpretation of dreams , have infused modern American literature .3 The modern European arts :A. In painting ,both the French Impressionist and the German Expressionist artists depicted the human reality in arather subjective point of view .B Cubism is the name for another School of modern painting . Its emphasis on the formal structure of a work of art, especially its emphasis on the multiple-perspective viewpoints ,had provided the writers with more than one way to explain the reality .C Composers like Igor produced music in a " modern "mode .featuring dissonance and discontinuity .二The literature between WWI and WW II :1 .The expatriate movement:A The most recognizable literary movement that gave rise to the twentieth century American literature , the second American Renaissance , is the expatriate movement.B When the First World War broke out, many young men volunteered to take part in " the war to end wars " only to find that modern warfare was not as glorious or heroic as they thought it to be . They began to write and they wrote from their own experiences in the war.C They were basically expatriates who left America and formed a community of writers and artists in paris . These writers were later named by an American writer , Gertrude Stein, "The Lost Generation ."2 Imagist movement:A Modern American literature are famous poets such as EZra Pound , Williams, Frost , Pound's role as a leading spokesman of the famous imagist movement in the history of American literature can never be ignored .B Williams rooted his poetic imagination in American native tradition .Frost is always liked by the Americans because the subject and the landscape of his poems are forever New England and his simplicity never fails to reveal some profound truth .C Cummings, Stevens are also remembered for. The former always used "i" instead "I" to refer to himself as a protest against self-importance , while the later. Whose style is more cultivated and refined .3 The great novelists :A Fitzgerald , Hemingway , Faukner are considered to be the masters in the field of American fiction . The Jazz Age of the 1920s is brought vividly to life in The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald .Hemingway dramatizes in his novels the sense of loss and despair Faulkner creates his own mythical kingdom .B Besides , writers like Anderson Lewis , Steinbeck contributed a great deal to modern American literature . Anderson explores the motivations and frustrations of his fictional characters . Lewis is a sociological writer and his Babbit presents a documentary picture of the narrow and limited middle-class mind , Steinbeck is a representative of the 1930s . His The Grapes of Wrath proves to be a symbolic journey of man an the way to finding some truth about life and himself.4 The plays :A The leading playwright of the modern period in American literature is Eugene O' Nell . For his tragic view of life and most of his plays are about the root, the truth of human desires and human frustration .B Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams were yet to acclaim the literary recognition and to hold the central position in American drama until the present times .三. The literature after WWII:1 .The poetry:A The postwar poets , with Robert Lowell in the lead , would typically write about an object or a situation showing a growing sense of resistance to the express culture and at the same time an assertion of the self.B The outstanding ones are Gary Snyder , who tends to liberate poetry from the academy and Allen Ginsberg , whose | " Howl" became the manifesto of the Beat Movement.2.The features :A First of all , a group of new writers who survived the war wrote about their traumatic experience among whom we have Norman Mailer and Herman Wouk . Warren and O' Conner are representatives of the talented Southern writers .B By the 1950s a significant group of Jewish -American writers had appeared and one of them was Saul Bellow . Their work , Examined subtly the dismantiling of the self by an intolerable modern history .C Black fiction began to attract critical attention during this period too . The two major figures are Wright and Ralph Ellison.D Other important writers who were writing at the time include J.D. Salinger and John Updike . Salinger is considered The Catcher in the Rye is regarded as a students' classic Updike's Rabbit novels examine the middle-class values .E American fiction in the 1960s and 1970s is always referred to as " new fiction," with Kurt V onnegut , Joseph Heller, John Bath, and Thomas Pynchon at its forefront . These writers shared almost the same belief that human being are trapped ina meaningless world.四. The features :1 .In creation :A Modern American writings are notable for what they omit -the explanations , interpretations connections and。

The Romantic Period. Historical Background1.Economy: Industrial Revolution (end of the 18th century)-----great wealth to the rich and worsen the working and living condition of the poor2.Politics: French Revolution(1789,Bastille)American Independence War(1776-1783)----- revolution enthusiasm swept nearly all European countries.3.Culture: The Romantic MovementII. Age of Romanticism1. Time: 1798 (publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge) to 1832 (death of Sir Walter Scott)2. Essence: shift from reason to emotion3. definition: A term applicable to philosophy, politics and the arts in general. Reacting against neoclassicism, romantic writers.1) emphasized emotion over intellect; inspiration over logic. 2) felt that nature is the source of sublime feeling, divine inspiration, and even moral action.3)stress the individual over society, discipline and order; the natural over the tamed.4. Features1) The general feature is a dissatisfaction with the bourgeois society.2) Their writings are filled with strong-willed heroes or even titanic images, formidable events and tragic situations, powerful conflicting passions and exotic pictures.3) The romanticists paid great attention to the spiritual and emotional life of man.4) Most of them had strong desire to escape from the reality.5) They are all concerned much about the influence of nature.6) Their writings are free from any rules, they fight against the rules of new classicism: order, harmony, balance, reason. They ask for the freedom of expression.7) Most works are supernatural and full of imagination.8) Creation is the centre of English Romanticism.9) Romanticism is characterized by the 5 ―I‖s: a) Imagination; b) Intuition; c) Idealism; d) Inspiration; e) Individuality.5. classification:(1) passive/escapist romanticists. e.g. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey.(2) active/Satanic romanticists. e.g. Byron, Shelly, Keats.I. titleThe representative poet and chief spokesman of the Romantic poetry . II. lifeborn in April 7th 1770, in EnglandAfter the death of their mother, he and Dorothy were separated by their fatherWordsworth began attending St John‘s College, Cambridge in 1787In November 1791, Wordsworth visited to France. He fell in love with a French woman, Annette VallonLack of money and Britain‘s tensions with France made him return alone to England the next yearThrough this period, many of his poems revolve around themes of death, endurance, separation, and grief.starting in 1810, Wordsworth and Coleridge were estranged over the latter‘s opium addictionWith the death in 1843 of Robert Southey, Wordsworth became the Poet LaureateIII. Major WorksLyrical BalladsLucy PoemsThe Prelude (1850, posthumous, W‘s autobio- graphical poem, in 14 books ).Famous Poems:—―Lines Composed A Few Miles above TinternAbbey‖—―I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud‖—―My Heart Leaps Up‖—―Ode: Intimations of Immortality‖—―The Solitary Reaper‖IV. Wordsworth‘s Principles of Poetry1. ―all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling‖2. ―poetry takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility‖3. Wordsworth ―endeavored to bring language near to the real language of man‖, ―by fitting to the metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men‖.4. Wordsworth is regarded as a ― worshipper of nature.‖ It is nature that gives him ―strength & knowledge full of peace.‖5. 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.6. Wordsworth is a poet in memory of the past. To him, life is a cyclic journey. Its beginning finally turns out to be its end. 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.7. Rejecting the contemporary emphasis on form & intellectual approachthat 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.V. I Wandered Lonely as a CloudThe four six-line stanzas of this poem follow a quatrain- couplet rhyme scheme like ABABCC.Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter.Each stanza represents meeting, familiarity, joy and pleasure of sympathy: introduction, development, turn and conclusionThe theme of this poem is ‗The pleasure of sympathy with nature‘.Using metaphors and similes creates imageries of daffodils - the reverse personification.VI. Themes of Wordsworth‘s poems1.natural impressions2.the feelings of the common people3.harmony between humanity and natureVIII. term:Lake Poets---- Wordsworth, Coleridge and Robert Southey are mentioned a s the ―Lake Poets‖ or ―negative romantic poets‖ because they lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England. All had radicalinclinations in their youth but later turned conservative and received pensions and poet laureateships from the aristocracy.Byron and Shelley were hailed as ―positive (revolutionary) Romantic poets‖.I. Life Experienceborn in London on the 22nd of January 1788.On the 13th of March 1809, he took his seat in the House of Lords. Then he published the first two canto s of Childe Harold‘s Pilgrimage, which made him famous overnight.In 1815, he married a solemnly religious woman, Miss Milbank who wanted to ―reform‖ Byron but left him by saying ―he was insane‖. This made Byron fall into a scandal and leave England forever.Then he travelled around the Continent, and met Shelley in Switzerland. The two became close friends.He went to Greece to fight for the Greek people‘s rights after Shelley‘s death, and died of fever in Greece.II. Literary WorksHours of Idleness (1807)English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809)Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812): his first important workHebrew Melodies (1815)Manfred (1817)Don Juan (1818-19): his masterpieceCain (1821)III. She Walks in Beauty1. It was inspired by Mrs. Wilmot, Byro n‘s cousin, when he saw her wearing a spangled dress at Lady Sitwell's party in June, 1814. Byron's friend, James W. Webster, had written about the event:‗I did take him to Lady Sitwell‘s party in Seymour Road. He there for the first time saw his cousin, the Beautiful Mrs. Wilmot. When we returned to his rooms in Albany, he said little, but desired Fletcher to give him a tumbler of Brandy, which he drank at once to Mrs. Wilmot's health, then retired to rest, and was, I heard afterwards, in a sad state all night. The next day he wrote those charming lines upon her --She walks in Beauty like the Night....‘2. The Form of the PoemCritics have admired it for its gracefulness, lyricism, and masterful use of internal rhyme: a work of ―peculiar sweetness and beauty.‖The three stanzas of this poem all follow the same rhyme scheme (ababab, cdcdcd, efefef) and the same metrical pattern.IV. ―Childe Harold‘s Pilgrimage‖---oriented tales1. content: Harold‘s travels in Europe. The poem is about a gloomy, passionate young wanderer who escaped from the society he disliked &traveled around the continent, questing for freedom. It teems with all kinds of recognizable features of Romantic poetry —— the medieval, the outcast figure, love of nature, hatred of tyranny, preoccupation with the remote & savage, & so on.2. form: four cantos. Spenserian stanza (a 9-line stanza rhymed ababbcbcc, in which the first eight lines are in iambic pentameter while the ninth in iambic hexameter)3. theme:a. the struggle of the Spaniards against foreign aggre- ssionb. the heroic past of the Greeks.c. encourage the Greeks to strive for liberty with arms4. Features:a. vivid & exotic descriptive passages on mountains, rivers & seas.b. strong passion for liberty & intense hatred for all tyrants, sympathy for the oppressed Portuguese under French occupation；c. he glorifies the French Revolution & condemns the despotic Napoleon period；he appeals for the liberty of the oppressed nations while exalting the great fighters for freedom in history.V. Don Juan1. a long satirical poem. Juan is an aristocratic libertine, amiable & charming to ladies. Byron puts into Don Juan his rich knowledge of world & wisdom. It presents brilliant pictures of life in its various stagesof love, joy, suffering, hatred & fear. The unifying principle in Don Juan is the basic ironic theme of appearance & reality, i.e. what things seem to be & what they actually are.2. "The Isles of Greece―, is taken from Canto III, which is sung by a Greek singer at the wedding of Don Juan & Haidee, the pure & beautiful daughter of a pirate. In the early 19th century, Greece was under the rule of Turk. By contrasting the freedom of ancient Greece & the present enslavement, the poet appealed to people to struggle for liberty.VI. Characteristics of Byron‘s Poems1. Byron‘s poetry, though much criticized by some critics on moral grounds, was immensely popular and exerted great influence on the Romantic Movement.2. This popularity owed to the author‘s persistent attacks on ―can t（伪善）political, religious, & moral,‖ to the novelty of his oriental scenery, to the romantic character of the Byronic hero, & to the easy, fluent, & natural beauty of his verse.3. Byron‘s diction, though unequal & frequently faulty, has on the wholea freedom, copiousness(丰富性) & vigor.4. His descriptions are simple & fresh, & often bring vivid objects before the reader.5. Byron‘s poetry is like the oratory which hurries the hearers without applause. The glowing imagination of the poet rises & sinks with thetones of his enthusiasm, roughing into argument, or softening into the melody feeling & sentiments.6. Byron employed the Ottva Rima (Octave Stanza) from Italians mock-heroic poetry. It was perfected in Don Juan in which the convention flows with ease & naturalness, as Colonel Stanhope described "a stream sometimes smooth, sometimes rapid & sometimes rushing down in cataracts-a mixture of philosophy & slang-of everything."VII. Byronic heroesa proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt world, and would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies. The conflict is usually one of rebellious individuals against outworn social systems and conventions.Shelley (1792-1822)I. TitleThe most wonderful lyric poet England has ever produced.II. Life1. born into a wealthy family at Sussex. At 18, Shelley entered Oxford University, where he had written & circulated a pamphlet，The Necessity of Atheism (1811), this resulted in his expulsion from theuniversity & being disinherited by his headstrong father. Early in 1818, Shelley & his wife Mary left England for Italy. During the remaining years of his life, Shelley traveled & lived in various Italian cities. Shelley was drowned in 1822 in storm near La Spezia, at the age of 30. 2. Gentle and kind by nature, he could not stand any injustice. He and Byron are justifiably regarded as two great poets of revolutionary romanticism in England. The inscription on his tombstone reads: ―Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Heart of Hearts.‖COR CORDIUM（众心之心）Nothing of him that doth fade,But doth suffer a sea-changeInto something rich and strange.众心之心他的一切并没有消逝只是经历过海的变异已变得丰富而且神奇(莎士比亚暴风雨中的3句. 1822年12月，雪莱的心脏和骨灰葬于罗马新教徒墓地，墓碑上刻有―波西·比希·雪莱——众心之心‖的字样。