外國語學院2009級《英美詩歌》課程試卷樣本 (1)

1、外國語學院2009級英美詩歌課程試卷樣本Test Paper for English and American Poetry (2009)Directions: No Cheat at the exam. Those found will not be able to get any credit for the course. Write your answers on your answer sheet. Do NOT write on this page, otherwise you will not get any score for this test. Hand in your a

2、nswer sheet only when finished.1Write from memory any one of the poems we have learned from the course on your A4 print paper page, do not forget to put your chinese name, class number and student number at the top of the page.2paraphrase it in prose form as in the sample and3make a short comment on

3、 it with no less than one hundred words, write about the theme, structure, figures of speech, language, metrics and so on of the poem.1. The poem written out from memory:To His Coy Mistressby Andrew Marvell Had we but world enough, and time,This coyness, Lady, were no crime.We would sit down and thi

4、nk which wayTo walk and pass our long love's day.Thou by the Indian Ganges' sideShouldst rubies find: I by the tideOf Humber would complain. I wouldLove you ten years before the Flood,And you should, if you please, refuseTill the conversion of the Jews.My vegetable love should growVaster tha

5、n empires, and more slow;An hundred years should go to praiseThine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;Two hundred to adore each breast;But thirty thousand to the rest;An age at least to every part,And the last age should show your heart;For, Lady, you deserve this state,Nor would I love at lower rate. Bu

6、t at my back I always hearTime's wingèd chariot hurrying near;And yonder all before us lieDeserts of vast eternity.Thy beauty shall no more be found,Nor, in thy marble vault, shall soundMy echoing song: then worms shall tryThat long preserved virginity,And your quaint honour turn to dust,An

7、d into ashes all my lust:The grave's a fine and private place,But none, I think, do there embrace. Now therefore, while the youthful hueSits on thy skin like morning dew,And while thy willing soul transpiresAt every pore with instant fires,Now let us sport us while we may,And now, like amorous b

8、irds of prey,Rather at once our time devourThan languish in his slow-chapt power.Let us roll all our strength and allOur sweetness up into one ball,And tear our pleasures with rough strifeThorough the iron gates of life:Thus, though we cannot make our sunStand still, yet we will make him run.2. Para

9、phrased in prose form (in part as a sample):If we had enough time and space, Lady this of your coyness, would not be any crime. If that is the case, we would be able to sit down and think about which way we would walk and spend our long loves time: You may find the precious stone of rubies on the Ga

10、nges side in the distant country of India, which are said to protect womans virginity while I can complain about your hesitation to accept my love by the River Humber of England. I would love you before the great Flood in legendry in Noahs ark time, and if you prefer to refuse my begging your love,

11、until an impossible time in the future, for example, until the Jews can be conversed one day. And my love would grow as slowly as plants and extend farther than the vast areas of empires. 3. CommentaryThe first two lines of Andrew Marvell's To his Coy Mistress lead readers into a poem of persuas

12、ion, in which the speaker attempts to convince a mistress to love him, or, more to the point, to enter into a sexual relationship with him. "Had we but World enough, and Time, / This coyness Lady were no crime." His point - though softened with grammar choice - is that these lovers do not

13、have world enough or time enough to wait for sex. Therefore the lady's coyness is in fact a crime. From these two lines alone, the reader understands the speaker's goal. The question becomes: How will he obtain it? Many critics of Marvell's poem agree that its three stanzas outline clear

14、 turns in logic that the speaker uses. The first two lines lead us into a stanza describing a world in which the lovers live forever, the man courting his mistress eternally. He appeals to the woman's desire for control and flattery. The second stanza begins with a "But" that leaps off

15、 the page. Here, the speaker reverses his logic and tries to make the real world with limited time seem problematic and even repulsive to the mistress. Her dream world may be more desirable, but it is unattainable. In the final stanza, he suggests that there is something the two of them can do to ma

16、ke use of their time on earth: to experience their love through sex. It is a pity that readers cannot know the mistress's answer, for the poem poses a persuasive argument, without using some of the typical poetic conceits of love poems in Marvell's time.Marvell starts by appealing to the wom

17、an's sentiments, as every smart man who wants something from a woman should do. He claims he would think about her while they are apart: "Thou by the Indian Ganges side / Should'st Rubies find: I by the Tide of Humber / would complain." In this dream world, distance does nothing to

18、 mar the speaker's love for his mistress. The speaker chooses to glorify the position of the woman, who finds rubies where she dwells. In comparison, the speaker's dwelling place by the Humber seems dull and lowly, where he only complains. He forces the mistress to pity his position by descr

19、ibing their state of separation.Marvell mirrors the first two lines of the poem with the form of the first stanza, moving from space to time. In lines seven through ten, the speaker again argues that in an ideal world, his love for the mistress could not be weakened by time: ".I would / Love yo

20、u ten years before the Flood: / And you should if you please refuse / Till the Conversion of the Jews." Most analyses of this poem agree that the Conversion of the Jews references Christ's return to Earth, or the end of the world. In this dream world, there is no sense of urgency for the wo

21、man to do anything. The speaker will show a stark contrast to this later on; in reality, there is an urgent need to act on love.The next few lines have been heavily debated about: "My vegetable Love should grow / Vaster than Empires, and more slow." The most apparent interpretation, within

22、 the context of Marvell's time theme, is that a vegetable (undisturbed) takes plenty of time to grow large and ripe. A vegetable can be a simple metaphor for his love. Or, these lines could mean that time acts as nourishment for his love. There are plenty of ways that these curious lines can be

23、interpreted. However, the most striking aspect of the phrase is its unconventional nature. In The Judgement of Marvell, Christene Rees notates this: "Instead of the rose, he resorts to the notorious 'vegetable' to define not beauty but love" (95). Marvell's contemporaries often

24、 used the rose, or a flower, to describe a woman's beauty. Marvell steers away from the stereotypical conceits. Not only does he use a vegetable as a symbol, but he focuses on "love" and the "heart". He does not describe physical beauty alone to flatter the mistress (he does

25、bring body parts into the first stanza). Using unconventional conceits elevates the speaker's persuasive ability - his mistress has inspired him to be unique.In the second stanza, the speaker sucks us back into the reality of time, space, and mortality. He brings time and space together as a ter

26、rible force: "But at my back I always hear / Times winged Charriot hurrying near: /And yonder all before us lye / Desarts of vast Eternity". He describes the mistress in her death, lying in a "marble Vault". Rees argues that, in these lines, Marvell conjures ".two opposite b

27、ut related phobias: terror of wide open spaces, heightened by the fear of pursuit, and terror of confined spaces.In both environments, human action and pleasure cease" (97). So, the speaker amplifies the frightening aspects being alone within time and space in hopes of making taking action toge

28、ther seem favorable to the mistress. He becomes more intense as the stanza continues: "Nor, in thy marble Vault, shall sound / My echoing Song; then Worms shall try / That long preserv'd Virginity: / And your quaint Honour turn to dust; / And into ashes all my Lust." Based on this desc

29、ription, if coyness is not a crime, it is a characteristic to grow out of rapidly. If the choice is to experience sex for the first time with worms as a corpse or with a man who claims to love you, the decision is quite easy to make. She must seize the chance to give her body to him quickly, too, fo

30、r time's Wingèd Charriot could arrive in 50 years or today to take the mistress's life. The speaker counts on this thought to enter her mind by the third and final stanza.By the third stanza, the speaker has finished flattering his love with dreams, and has buried them, leaving her scar

31、ed of dying without experiencing love as something physical. He obviously feels confident, as he begins the stanza with a strong "Now therefore." The language changes drastically from a loving, grandiose tone and becomes animalistic and rugged: "Now let us sport us while we may; / And

32、 now, like am'rous birds of prey, / Rather at once our Time devour / Than languish in his slow-chapt pow'r." After hearing about human powerlessness in the face of time and the destruction it causes, it is rather invigorating to think that humans have the ability to "devour" i

33、t. In order to devour it, however, the mistress has to give in to sex, and not just passively. Marvell writes it as a very active "submission": "Let us roll all our Strength, and all / Our sweetness, up into one Ball: / And tear our Pleasures with rough strife, / Thorough the Iron gat

34、es of Life." By rolling into one Ball and molding together, the lovers destroy any fears that space might instill within them. The speaker's desire for sex involves strength, sweetness, and strife - all are things that one experiences in the span of a lifetime. The speaker paints it for the

35、 mistress as if she really would experience with a short act what might otherwise take her all her life to feel. Thus, space and time no longer have control of them.If those lines are not enough to convince her to take control of the time she has, Marvell writes a powerful and eloquent couplet to fi

36、nish off the poem: "Thus, though we cannot make our Sun / Stand still, yet we will make him run." Time cannot stop for the lovers. They can choose to live life passionately though, pushing through time without fear. Marvell smartly ends the poem with a phrase that does not describe sex. If

37、 he ended it with sex, the speaker might seem too desperate, undermining his previous eloquence and his persuasiveness.Marvell also picks up the pace of the last stanza with choice of phrasing. In the first two stanzas, he uses a lot of enjambment, putting lots of stops between the speaker's tho

38、ughts. In the last stanza, he does not pause to think. The words fly out of him fluidly, coming to a breathtaking climax. The flow of the poem could represent the actual act of sex for the speaker. The first two stanzas work up to the orgasm in the third. So the speaker persuades not only with word

39、choice, but with the form that in which he delivers the words. The tripartite structure works logically and stylistically.Poems were written persuading one to love through pleasure during Marvell's time. Critics and literature lovers continue analyze To His Coy Mistress because of its unconventi

40、onal, but still persuasive use of language. Or perhaps, readers are so interested in it because they want to know the mistress's reply. This will never be known for sure, but I imagine the speaker would be content with her answer.To His Coy Mistress is a metaphysical poem written by the English

41、author and politician Andrew Marvell (16211678) either during or just before the Interregnum.This poem is considered one of Marvell's finest and is possibly the best recognized carpe diem poem in English. Although the date of its composition is not known, it may have been written in the early 16

42、50s. At that time, Marvell was serving as a tutor to the daughter of the retired commander of Oliver Cromwells army, Sir Thomas Fairfax.1The speaker of the poem addresses a woman who has been slow to respond to his sexual advances. In the first stanza he describes how he would love her if he were to

43、 be unencumbered by the constraints of a normal lifespan. He could spend centuries admiring each part of her body and her resistance to his advances (i.e., coyness) would not discourage him. In the second stanza, he laments how short human life is. Once life is over, the speaker contends, the opport

44、unity to enjoy one another is gone, as no one embraces in death. In the last stanza, the speaker urges the woman to requite his efforts, and argues that in loving one another with passion they will both make the most of the brief time they have to live.The poem is written in iambic tetrameter and rh

45、ymes in couplets. The first verse paragraph ("Had we.") is ten couplets long, the second ("But.") six, and the third ("Now therefore.") seven. The logical form of the poem runs: if. but. therefore.Until recently, “To His Coy Mistress” had been received by many as a poem

46、 that traditionally followed conventions of carpe diem love poetry. However, critics consider Marvells use of complex and ambiguous metaphors challenges the perceived notions of the poem. It as well raises suspicion of irony and deludes the reader with its inappropriate and jarring imagery.2Some cri

47、tics believe the poem is an ironic statement on sexual seduction. They reject the idea that Marvells poem carries a serious and solemn mood. Rather, the poems opening lines“Had we but world enough, and time/ This coyness, Lady, were no crime”seems to suggest quite a whimsical tone of regret. In the

48、second part of the poem, there is a sudden transition of imagery that involves graves, marble vaults and worms. The narrators intention of using such metaphors to depict a realistic and harsh death that awaits the lovers was to seemingly shock the lady into submission. As well, critics note the sens

49、e of urgency of the narrator in the poems third section, revealing the alarming comparison of the lovers to “amorous birds of prey.” 1Many authors have borrowed the phrase "World enough and time" from the poem's opening line to use in their book titles. The most famous is Robert Penn W

50、arren's 1950 novel World Enough and Time: A Romantic Novel, about murder in early-19th century Kentucky. With variations, it has also been used for books on the philosophy of physics (World Enough and Space-Time: Absolute versus Relational Theories of Space and Time), geopolitics (World Enough a

51、nd Time: Successful Strategies for Resource Management), a science-fiction collection (Worlds Enough & Time: Five Tales of Speculative Fiction - Dan Simmons), a short story by Terry Pratchett (#ifdefDEBUG + "world/enough" + "time"), and, of course, a biography (World Enough a

52、nd Time: The Life of Andrew Marvell). The verse serves as an epigraph to Mimesis, literary critic Erich Auerbach's most famous book.Also in the field of science fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote a Hugo-nominated short story whose title, "Vaster than Empires and More Slow", is a borrowin

53、g. Ian Watson notes the debt of the latter story to Marvell, "whose complex and allusive poems are of a later form of pastoral to that which I shall refer, and, like Marvell, Le Guin's nature references are, as I want to argue, "pastoral" in a much more fundamental and interesting

54、 way than this simplistic use of the term.".3 There are other allusions to the poem in the field of Fantasy and Science Fiction: the first book of James Kahn's "New World Series" is titled "World Enough, and Time;" and Peter S. Beagle's novel A Fine and Private Place about a love affair between two ghosts in a graveyard. The latter phrase has been widely used as a euphemism for the grave, and has formed the title of several mystery novels.The phrase "there will be time" occurs repeatedly in a section of T. S. Eliot