文体学 诗歌分析 The Eagle "A Stylistic Analysis of The Eagle by Alfred Tennyson"
(2012-03-11 22:04:16)
标签:
教育文化 |
分类: 英语学习 |
He clasps the crag with crooked hands, Close to the sun in lonely lands, ringed with the azure world he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, and like a thunderbolt he falls. |
The Eagle is a short poem, in which the poet describes a
strong, pride, brave and great eagle. In fact, it`s to memorize the
poet`s
A. Sound
1. This poem has two stanzas, six lines and each line contains 8 syllables.So this poem is very shourt but is also seems to nbe very neat.
2.In metre, this poem is written in tetrameter. It’s also in the commonest type of verse foot - iambic foot, after each weak sound, a stressed sound is exactly followed.
3.The most of the words in this poem are monosyllables,no more than three syllables,excepet “thunderbolt’,which has three syllables.So those words are terse, short but forceful. And they can express the eagle`s handsome and speediness.
4.It has a rhyme. The rhyme scheme of this poem is “aaa, bbb”. And the rhyming words are “hands,lands ,stand, crawls,walls,falls”, expressing a stronger feeling or a greater strength.
5.As for phonetic devices,we can see it consists many kings of phonetic devices, which picture out the prominent image of the eagle,and also make the poem full of musical effect and full of melody.
(1)Alliteration is used many times in this poem, such as
“claps , crag, crooked’in the first line of the first stanza. Those
words show the vitalityand the masculinity of the eagle by the
powerful pronounce /k/.
(2)Assonance also can be seen here, such as “claps, crag,, hands”, “close , lonely”, “sea, beneath” and “wrinkle , him”. They provide this poem the beauty of sound.
(3)Consonance is an important phonetic device in this poem, such as “claps, hands”, “ringed , world”, “wrinkled , crawl” and “watches, his , walls”.They also give this poem a good coherence in sound.
(4)There is another special phonetic device in this
poem---Onomatopoeia. In the poem we can see, the short but loud
vowels such as /æ/ ,and the plosive sound,such as / k/ , /p/ , / g/
, / d/,
B. Words
This poem shows the poet`s careful choice of words, especially to choose words to describe the eagle and his environment. So that each word can express exactly what needs to be expressed and suggest every emotional shade that the poem is calculated to evoke in us.
1. When describe the eagle,words such as “ clasp”,“ Close to”, “stand” ,’watch” and “thunderbolt” are used. And those words give us an brave and strong image of the eagle.
2. Then,when the poet describe the environment, words like “lonely”, “beneath”, “wrinkled” and “crawl” are used. In this way, the vaste and boundless sky and ocean seem to be nothing in the eyes of the eagle. So it also serves as a foil to the powerful and mysterious of the eagle.
3. We also should pay special attention to the pronoun “he”. It`s a personnification.The poet describes the eagle as a male, and this refer to the pride and other spirits associated with male. The subjective case "he" occurs four times, the objective case "him" once and the third person possesive pronoun "his" once. In short, those words also show great masculinity upon the eagle.
4. So when it comes to words of this poem , we can see the beauty of pattern. And the language of poetry is the vivid language,which also has rich artistic glamour.Maybe that`s one of the reasons why Tennyson`s poem is attractive.
5. Lexical repetition can be found in this poem. The word “he” has been used four times in such a short poem, within thetwo stanzas. And even the definite article “the” has been repeted four times,which also give a special sound effect and view effect.. Such repetition is to heighten the atmosphere of the poem, to emphasize the meaning of the eagle, and strengthen the coherence of the poem as a whole .
C. Sentences
1. First of all, let`s pay attention to the title. There is no sentence at all, except a fragment, I mean a noun phrase “the eagle”. But this phrase is exactly the shining point, for it just the right style of this poem.It`s short and brief, just like the right spirit of the eagle.
2. Then, seen from the whole poem, we find the sentences are very similar in length,not very long. And there are six lines in the poem, and we can even say there are six sentences in the poem. Those six sentences ,the three sentences in the first stanza are all composed by 7 words, and every sentence in the second stanza is composed by 6 words,but allsentences in the poem has 8 syllables.So this poem has a complete and united structure.
3. As for sentence
4. What`s more, syntactical Repetition is used too. It has
repeted the same structure in the third and the sixth sentences.
“He stands” and “he falls”, these two short sentences are both at
the end of each stanza. And these two sentences may be called
periodic sentence, which give more emphasis the hero “he”
,
D.Figure of speech
1.Personification is one of the most important fatures in this poem.In the whole poem, the eagle is written like an brave man.The poet uses “he” refering to the eagle and describing eagle’s talons as "hands", thus make the eagle full of human emotions and spirits.
2.Overstatement also is used here. In the second line, “close to the sun” is an exanple of exaggeration. So it can emphasis the power of the eagle and express the author`s or his friend`s insistence of pursuing truth and beauty.
3.Similer is also here.For example,in the last sentence of the poem,“like a thunderbolt”is both a similer and overstatement at the same time. And from such a powerful word, we can find the high tide of the poem and the emotion of the poet. So, in this way, the special rhytorical effect can be expressed.
4.Pun may be uesd here ,too. In the last but one line, we
can see “like a thunderbolt he falls”.In this sentence, “falls ”can
be understood as the fall of the eagle, maybe it`s too tired ,and
it want to fall down to have a short rest,or it will fall down to
death. But also,it can be understood as the fall of his friend,
which just died at the golden age of his life and will never
reback.. So, that`s the very
E. Imagery
Imagery is one important part of a poem, and they convey much more than what the words appear to mean .By those words, the poet expresses his feeling and thought in a more romantic way or a more suitable way.
And many images are used here, such as the eagle, the sun,
the azure wolrd, the sea, the
Then, the other images in this poem also have their special usage. Just as we have mentioned above, all the images work together to convey the eagle’s prominent characters.
After the whole analysis of the poem in stylistic way, we
may find there are so many perfect points in this little poem.And
the eagle`s characters , such as aggressiveness, powerfulness and
unyieldingness, are all revealed fully.To analysis this poem
deeper, we also could find the deep sorrow in Tennyson`s heart for
his lost friend and his vivid express of his own spirit