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Break, Break,
Break----
T
ennyson
“
冲激，
冲激，冲激
”
is a lyric poem that
Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) was
believed to have completed in 1834. It centers
on Tennyson's grief over the death of
his best friend, Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet.
Lyrical poetry presents the deep feelings and
emotions of the poet as opposed to
poetry that tells a story or presents a witty
observation.
A
lyric
poem
often
has
a
pleasing
musical
quality.
The
word
lyric
derives
from
the
Greek
word
for
lyre,
a
stringed
instrument in use since ancient times.
Rhyme Scheme and
Meter
Lines 2 and 4 of each
stanza have end rhyme. The meter in the poem
varies, but the anapestic foot creates the
musicality of the
poem.
Rhetorical
Devices
;Following
are
examples
of
figures
of
speech
and
other
rhetorical
devices
in
Break,
Break
Apostrophe (Lines 1 and
2):
The narrator addresses the sea.
Personification and
metaphor also occur in Lines 1 and 2, for the poet
regards the sea as a human being.
Alliteration (Line
8):
boat on the bay
(Lines 9-12):
Stanza 3 uses this figure of speech as follows:
And
the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O
for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of
a voice that is still!
Alliteration (Line 15):
day
that is dead
Repetend:
Line 13 repeats
Line 1; Line 7 repeats the first two words of Line
5.
Paradox:
Touch of a vanished hand (Line 11), sound of a
voice that is still (Line 12).
Themes
Grief
The
main
theme
is
bereavement,
heartache,
emptiness. In
the
narrator's
dark
hour
of
grief,
the sun
rises,
children laugh,
business goes on as usual. How could the world be
so cruel and unfeeling?
Summary
The
narrator
grieves
the
loss
of
his friend,
Arthur
Henry
Hallam,
a
promising
poet
and
essayist who
had
been
engaged
to Tennyson's sister, Emily. Hallam died of a
stroke in 1833 when he was only 22. Nature, of
course, does not stop to
mourn the loss
of anyone. Cold and indifferent, it carries on,
the waves of the ocean breaking against rocks
along the seashore
without pausing even
for a moment. The rest of the world carries on as
well: the fisherman's boy happily playing with his
sis
ter,
the sailor merrily
singing, the ship busily plying the waters of
commerce. Downcast, isolated by his grief, the
narrator yearns to
touch the hand of
his friend once more, to hear the sound of his
voice. But, no, Hallam is gone forever; his
ill
never again return.
Robert Browning
(1812-1889)
Works of Robert Browning
Pauline
(1833)
The Ring and the Book
(10
verse narratives, 1868)
My Last
Duchess
(a dramatic monologue that
explores the idea of possessive/distorted love)
(1842)
《我已故的公爵夫人》
Porphyria‘s Lover
(a poem of
love lust, and murder) (1836-42)
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad
(1845)
Bells and Pomeganates
(a series of his works,1841-46)
You
’
ll Love Me
Yet
你终将爱我
Meeting
at Night
《月夜相会》
Parting at Morning
《晨别》
The Ring and the
Book
《指环与书》
Home Thoughts from
Abroad
《异国相思》
Dramatic
monologue
戏剧独白诗；
a type of
poem in which a character, at some specific and
critical moment, addresses an
identifiable but silent audience,
thereby unintentionally revealing his or her
essential temperament and personality
Browning?
s
dramatic
monologue
:
the
poet
is
neutral
&
the
speaker
is
independent
–
the
poem
becomes
more
dramatic
involving often
different layers of meaning, & the poet?s
intention is often vague with their envelope
–
“implied
author”
Elizabeth Barrett
Browning
；
major works are
Sonnet from the Portuguese
and
The Cry of Children.
Unlike Tennyson who felt melancholy in
the process of his spiritual search, Browning was
always optimistic. He, like Tennyson,
also preached God and Immortality, but
he looked boldly at the evils in human beings
without losing faith
Similarities--
Preached God and Immortality
Differences
；
Tennyson--felt melancholy
。
Browning--
optimistic
Browning?s poetry
features
：
Frequent use of “Dramatic monologue” is
the most important feature of his
poe
try
.
Not
easy
to
understand. The rhythms
of
his
poetry
are
often too
fast
too rough
and
unmusical .The
syntax
（句法结构）
is
usually c
lipped and highly
compressed. The
allusions(
典故
) and
implications(
含意
)
are sometimes odd and farfetched
（不着
边际的）
.All this makes up his
obscurity (
晦涩难懂
).
His poetic style belongs to the
twentieth century rather than to the Victorian
age. The rough grotesque and disproportionate(
不
成比例的
) appearance,
the non-poetic
jarring(
刺耳的，不和谐的
) diction
and the clumsy rhythms fit marvellously a life
that is
just as imperfect and
incongruous (
不协调的，不合适
)
In general,
Browning?s poems are supposed to keep them alert,
thoughtful and enlightened.
My Last Duchess
?
The poem
provides a classic example of a dramatic
monologue:
?
the speaker is clearly distinct from
the poet;
?
an
audience is suggested but never appears in the
poem;
?
and the revelation of the Duke's
character is the poem's primary aim.
This is one of the best known of
Browning?s dramatic monologues. The speaker in
this poem is apparently a certain duk
e
of Ferrara, a northern Italian city
near V
enice. This
feudal(
封建的
) ruler who had
ruthlessly put to death his first wife (last
duchess
)is
negotiating
with
an
envoy
(
媒人
)from
a
certain
count
for
the
hand
of
the
count?s
daughter,
and
in
this
monologue the duke is
represented as trying to tell the envoy very
frankly abou
t his “lass duchess”, whose
portrait(
画像
)
they
had been looking at in the course of the
interview. Here the heartlessness and barbaric
（野蛮的）
cruelty of a
despotic
（暴虐的）
ruler
of
early
Renaissance Italy
is
very
vividly
pictured,
though
the
poet?s censure
（责难）
on the
highly
refined
tyrant
（专制统治）
seems to be lost in the ample
（充足的）
humor throughout the
poem.
My Last Duchess is
written in
heroic
couplets
（英雄体双行诗）
, but most
of the lines being “run
-
on”
lines and the
riming
syllables
（音节）
often getting little or no stress, the
metrical
（
有节奏的）
effect of the poem almost resembles
that
of blank verse.
Somewhere it was called
rhyming pentameter(
押韵的五音部
)
.
Form
：
Rhyme
Scheme: iambic pentameter
The
lines
do
not
employ
end;
rather,
they
use
enjambment,
where
sentences
and
other
grammatical
units
do
not
necessarily
conclude at the
end of lines.
Consequently, the rhymes
do not create a sense of closure when they come.
This poem depicts the
themes of love, relationships and possessions.
Rhyme Scheme
：
Browning uses many techniques,
including a simple rhyme scheme, enjambment, and
caesura to convey various characteristics
and qualities .
Browning uses an AA
BB rhyme
scheme, which is very common to ballads and songs.
Browninesque dramatic monologue has 3
requirements:
The reader
takes the part of the silent listener.
The speaker uses a case-making,
argumentative tone.
We
complete the dramatic scene from within, by means
of inference and imagination.
Themes
；
Arrogance
；
The theme is the arrogant,
authoritarian mindset of a proud Renaissance duke,
who says,
to stoop
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
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
Conclusions:
Robert Browning
was one of the most recognized and respected poets
of his times. The V
ictorian period that
he
lived in and his
upbringing(
教养
) made him the
dramatic and intelligent poet that
he was. His most famous types of poetry
were
his
lyrical(
热情奔放
的
;
抒情般的
)and
romantic
poems.
Browning
influenced
poetic
society
with
his
dramatic
monologues, long
poems, and silent listeners techniques. He can be
compared to Elizabeth
Barrett browning
and Alfred lord
Tennyson,
other
literary
figures
of the
time.
Therefore,
because
of
Browning?s
unique
and
sometimes
absurd
poetry
.
People
have been fascinated with his
writing and still are today.
Browning?s
Inf
luence
：
Much of
Robert Browning's legacy to poets writing after
him in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
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