Wordsworth was a defining member of the English Romantic Movement.华兹华斯是英国浪漫主义诗歌的代表人物之一。
Like other Romantics, Wordsworth’s personality and poetry were deeply influenced by his love of nature, especially by the sights and scenes of the Lake Country, in which he spent most of his mature life.对自然的热爱以及他大部分人生所度过的地方--湖区--的风光景色都对他的性格和作品有着深远的影响。
A profoundly earnest and sincere thinker, he displayed a high seriousness tempered with tenderness and a love of simplicity.他是一位真挚深刻的思想者,作品在严谨中充满纯真质朴与敏感。
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud我孤独地漫游,像一朵云William WordsworthI wandered lonely as a cloud我孤独地漫游,像一朵云That floats on high o´er vales and hills,在山丘和谷地上飘荡,When all at once I saw a crowd,忽然间我看见一群A host, of golden daffodils;金色的水仙花迎春开放,Beside the lake, beneath the trees,在树荫下,在湖水边,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.迎着微风起舞翩翩。
Continuous as the stars that shine连绵不绝,如繁星灿烂,And twinkle on the milky way,在银河里闪闪发光,They stretched in never-ending line它们沿着湖湾的边缘Along the margin of a bay:延伸成无穷无尽的一行;Ten thousand saw I at a glance,我一眼看见了一万朵,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.在欢舞之中起伏颠簸。
The waves beside them danced;but they 粼粼波光也在跳着舞,Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:水仙的欢欣却胜过水波;A poet could not but be gay,与这样快活的伴侣为伍,In such a jocund company:诗人怎能不满心欢乐!I gazed--and gazed--but little thought我久久凝望,却想象不到What wealth the show to me had brought: 这奇景赋予我多少财宝,——For oft, when on my couch I lie每当我躺在床上不眠,In vacant or in pensive mood,或心神空茫,或默默沉思,They flash upon that inward eye它们常在心灵中闪现,Which is the bliss of solitude;那是孤独之中的福祉;And then my heart with pleasure fills,于是我的心便涨满幸福,And dances with the daffodils.和水仙一同翩翩起舞。
SummaryThe speaker says that, wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing, fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee. The speaker says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. He says that he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. For now, whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive,” the memory flashes upon “that inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude,” and his heart fills with pleasure, “and dances with the daffodils.”FormThe four six-line stanzas of this poem follow a quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme: ABABCC. Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter.CommentaryThis simple poem, one of the loveliest and most famous in the Wordsworth canon, revisits the familiar subjects of nature and memory, this time with a particularly (simple) spare, musical eloquence. The plot is extremely simple, depicting the poet’s wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which pleases him and comforts him when he is lonely, bored, or restless. The characterization of the sudden occurrence of a memory—the daffodils “flash upon the inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude”—is psychologically acute, but the poem’s main brilliance lies in the reverse personification of its early stanzas. The speaker is metaphorically compared to a natural object, a cloud—“I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high...”, and the daffodils are continually personified as human beings, dancing and “tossing their heads” in “a crowd, a host.” This technique implies an inherent unity between man and nature, making it one of Wordsworth’s most basic and effective methods for instilling in the reader the feeling the poet so often describes himself as experiencing.My last duchess我已故的公爵夫人Type of Work: "My Last Duchess" is a dramatic monologue, a poem with a character who presents an account centering on a particular topic. This character speaks all the words in the poem. During his discourse, the speaker intentionally or unintentionally reveals information about one or more of the following: his personality, his state of mind, his attitude toward his topic, and his response or reaction to developments relating to his topic . The main focus of a dramatic monologue is this personal information, not the topic which the speaker happens to be discussing. The word monologue is derived from a Greek word meaning to speak alone.The Portrait of the Duchess: The portrait of the late Duchess of Ferrara is a fresco, a type of work painted in watercolors directly on a plaster wall. The portrait symbolizes the duke's possessive and controlling nature inasmuch as the duchess has become an art object which he owns and controls.Meter: "My Last Duchess" is in iambic pentameter, which has ten syllables, or five feet, per line. The ten syllables consist of five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables. Lines 1 and 2 of the poem demonstrate the iambic-pentameter pattern..Rhyme: Heroic CoupletsLine 1 rhymes with line 2, line 3 with 4, line 5 with 6, and so on. Pairs of rhyming lines are called couplets. When the lines are written in iambic pentameter, as are the lines of "My Last Duchess," the rhyming pairs are called heroic couplets.Meter......."My Last Duchess" is in iambic pentameter, which has ten syllables, or five feet, per line. The ten syllables consist of five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables. Lines 1 and 2 of the poem demonstrate the iambic-pentameter pattern..Rhyme: Heroic Couplets.......Line 1 rhymes with line 2, line 3 with 4, line 5 with 6, and so on. Pairs of rhyming lines are called couplets. When the lines are written in iambic pentameter, as are the lines of "My Last Duchess," the rhyming pairs are called heroic couplets.Themes :Arrogance:.The theme is the arrogant, authoritarian mindset of a proud Renaissance duke, who says, "I choose / Never to stoop" (lines 42-43). In this respect, the more important portrait in the poem is the one the duke "paints" of himself with his words.Women as Mere Objects: Several lines in the poem suggest that the duke had treated his wife as a mere object. He expected her to be beautiful to look at, but little more. But the duchess was human; she had faults. When the duke became annoyed by them and by her smiling face, he "gave commands" that ended her smiling. In other words, he apparently ordered her to be killed. The word last in the title suggests that the young woman in the portrait was not the duke's first wife. One wonders whether his previous wife (or wives) met the same fate and whether his next duchess will end up like his "last duchess."。