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 observing a spear of summer grass. 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 their parents the same, I, now thirty seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death. Creeds and schools in abeyance, Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten. I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard. Nature without check with original energy.
5、Epic poetry
it is a long verse narrative on a serious subject, told in a formal and elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race. 史诗是叙述英雄传说和重大历史事件的叙事长诗。 一种庄严的文学体裁，内容为民间传说或歌颂英雄 功绩的长篇叙事诗，它涉及的主题可以包括历史事 件、民族、宗教或传说
7、Ballads and popular ballads大众民谣


f the ballad: A ballad, flourished in the 15th century, is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. Popular Ballads Ballads are anonymous narrative songs that have been preserved by oral transmission. Literature of the common people. flourished in the 15th century, printed until the 18th and 19th. The best known of the earliest collections was Bishop Thomas Percy’s “Reliques of Ancient English Poetry”. 英国民谣（English Ballad），起源于中世纪末期，即12、 13世纪，兴盛于14、15世纪，复兴于18、19世纪，是英国 最古老的诗歌形式之一。它主要包括两大部分，英格兰民谣 和苏格兰民谣。
The Canterbury Tales---General Prologue


As soon as April pierces to the root The drought of March, and bathes each bud and shoot Through every vein of sap with gentle showers From whose engendering liquor spring the flowers; When zephyrs have breathed softly all about Inspiring every wood and field to sprout, And in the zodiac the youthful sun His journey halfway through the Ram has run; When little birds are busy with their song Who sleep with open eyes the whole night long Life stirs their hearts and tingle in them so, Then off as pilgrims people long to go, And palmers to set out for distant strands And foreign shrines renowned in many lands. And specially in England people ride To Canterbury from every countryside To visit there the blessed martyred saint Who gave them strength when they were sick and faint.
4、自由诗（Free Verse）
自由诗（Free
Verse）:现代诗中常见的体式， 长短不同的诗行存在于同一首诗中，不讲究 押韵与格律，只注重诗歌所表达的意象和传 递的情感。美国诗人Walt Whitman的<<草叶 集>>（Leaves of Grass）中，就采用此格式。
Song of Myself
3、素体诗(无韵体诗)（Blank Verse）：五音步抑扬格，不押
韵诗体。the unrhymed iambic pentameter line
William
Wordsworth: There Was a Boy
There was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs And islands of Winander! many a time, At evening, when the earliest stars began To move along the edges of the hills, Rising or setting, would he stand alone, Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake; And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth Uplifted, he, as through an instrument, Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls That they might answer him.—And they would shout Across the watery vale, and shout again, Responsive to his call,—with quivering peals, And long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud Redoubled and redoubled; concourse wild Of jocund din! And, when there came a pause
2、打油诗（Limericks）：通常是小笑话甚至是胡诌，一般没 有标题也无作者姓名，含有幽默讽刺性，常运用双关，内韵等 手法。每首诗五个诗行，押韵为aabba，格律以抑扬格和抑抑 扬格为主。 1) There was a young lady of Nigger Who smiled as she rode on a tiger; They returned from the ride With the lady inside, And the smile on the face of the tiger.

Notes: a spear of: a piece of school:学说，流派 hazard:chance abeyance: the condition of not being in use for a certain time 惠特曼（Walt Whitman,1819-1892），美国诗人。此诗选自其巨著<<草叶集>>。 本文是Song of Myself 一诗的第一部分，采用自由诗体，语言接近当时的美国口 语。
Of silence such as baffled his best skill: Then, sometimes, in that silence, while he hung Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise Has carried far into his heart the voice Of mountain-torrents; or the visible scene Would enter unawares into his mind With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, Its woods, and that uncertain heaven received Into the bosom of the steady lake. This boy was taken from his mates, and died In childhood, ere he was full twelve years old. Pre-eminent in beauty is the vale Where he was born and bred: the churchyard hangs Upon a slope above the village-school; And through that churchyard when my way has led On summer-evenings, I believe that there A long half-hour together I have stood Mute —looking at the grave in which he lies!