资产阶级革命时期英国文学
Metaphysical poetry
+ It is a school of highly intellectual poetry marked by bold and ingenious conceits, incongruous imagery, complexity of thought, frequent use of paradox and often deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression. It was a reaction against the deliberately smooth and sweet tones of much 16th century verse. A metaphysical poem is always tightly woven and is brief but intense meditations characterized by striking use of wit, irony, and word play. So it is poetry of the library or poetry for the few.
资产阶级革命时期英国文学
+ It presents the author’s political views in allegorical religious form. It is built on the stories and myths in the Bible through which western people have sought to understand the meaning of their experience of life.
+ Metaphysical poets
资产阶级革命时期英国文学
Cavalier poets
+ Cavalier poets: royalists whose poetry was marked by courtliness, urbanity and polish. Their poems reflected the extravagance and moral looseness of court life.
+ The work contains Milton’s ambition, his love of freedom and his deep-seated Puritanism.
资产阶级革命时期英国文学
Paradise lost
+ The story is about Satan’s revolt against God and man’s loss of paradise. The poem begins with a detailed description of Satan and his followers re-assembling in hell and scheming for revenge against God. Though the purpose of the poem is to justify the ways of God to men, as Satan tries to justify himself by posing as a rebel against tyranny, Milton apparently unconsciously makes the devil serve as his mouthpiece. Throughout the epic Milton shows a Puritan’s revolt against the established doctrines of the Catholics and the Anglican Church by interpreting the story in the Bible freely for himself.
资产阶级革命时期英国文学
John yan
+ Puritan writer who participated in the struggle against the corrupt, dissolute feudal-aristocratic regimes of Charles II and James II.
+ Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling and Richard Lovelace were famous Cavalier poets.
资产阶级革命时期英国文学
John Donne (1572-1631)
+ Metaphysical poet + His poetry is noted for its
+ Poet: 24 sonnets
+ Works include: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes.
资产阶级革命时期英国文学
+ In literature, Milton occupied a transitional position. He came immediately after the Elizabethan period and absorbed the humanist culture; at the same time, he was a faithful puritan in his belief. In his poetry, he blends the tradition of the Renaissance with the spirit of revolutionary struggle and the ideas of puritanism.
+ So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity our love.
资产阶级革命时期英国文学
Pilgrim’s progress
+ The work has often been read and appreciated as a religious allegory, though many critics have noted the many realistic pictures of the personified figures and allegorical places in the book, pointing out that the people Christian meets on the way are such as might be seen in Bunyan’s day in Restoration England. The satires focus upon the ruling class. For example, At Vanity Fair Bunyan gives us a symbolic picture not only of London at the time of the Restoration but the of the English society in general where all things were brought and sold and where cheating and roguery, murders and adulteries were normal. No wonder that the great critical realist of the 19th century Thackery employed Vanity Fair as the title for his important novel.
资产阶级革命时期英国 文学
2020/12/18
资产阶级革命时期英国文学
John Milton
+ Pamphleteer, a supporter of Oliver Cromwell.
+ Milton argued for religious freedom and stood against the authority of the bishops.
vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor----conceit.
资产阶级革命时期英国文学
conceit
+ When a simile or metaphor is elaborate or far-fetched and strikes you at first as being inappropriate, it is called a conceit. Though it is unexpected, the comparison is intriguingly right. The metaphor is so contrived and intellectually convoluted that the very unlikeness between two things remains paramount. By turning upon a surprising and ingenious analogy between apparently unrelated areas of experience, the metaphysical poet is able to display their wit. The best metaphysical conceits are telling, effective and original.