美国文学之爱伦坡 Unit 7 Allen Poe

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

TOPIC: Edgar Allan Poe and To HelenA) Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe B) Major works and special features C) Study of To Helen

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

Edgar Allan Poe

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

A) Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe1. literary position.2. controversial 3. a short life.

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

B) Major works and special features1. “The Philosophy of Composition” “The Poetic Principle”; 2. “The Fall of the House of Usher” 《鄂榭府崩溃记》 “The Cask of Amontillado” 《一桶白葡萄酒》 “Ligeria” 《丽姬娅》 3. “The Raven” “Annabel Lee” “To Helen”

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

Special features:1. Gothic elements 2. Analysis of human psychology3. Sadness

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

Themes:1. death 2. horror

3. negative thoughts of science

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

Style:1. Generalizing 2. Traditional 3. brevity and imagination 4. metrical flow in versification.

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

Study of To HelenBackground:

The poem is inspired the beauty of the mother Mrs. Jane Stanard of a schoolmate of Poe’s. He called her “the first purely ideal love of my soul.”

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

Mrs. Jane Stanard

“the first purely ideal love of my soul.”

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

About Helenthe daughter of Zeus, wife of King Menelaus(墨涅俄 斯)of Sparta. the Trojan prince Paris / the Trojan War. ten-year siege of Troy / wooden horse.

the idiom “Helen of Troy”

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

About Psychegoddess in Greek mythology / a Hellenistic personification Keats’s “Ode to Psyche”

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

Psyche and Eros

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

ThemeThe poem eulogizes the eternal and infinite beauty of Helen to express his Poe’s first purely ideal

love for Mrs. Jane Stanard.

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

Special features1. It is famous for its rhyme scheme, its varied line lengths, its metaphor of a wanderer on the sea, and its oft-quoted lines “To the glory that was Greece,/ And the grandeur that was Rome. 2. It is a poem of quintet with a rhyme scheme of ababb ababa abbab. The classic restraint of this poem marks the turning point of Poe’s career in art.” 3. The use of classical allusions.

英美文学之美国文学——爱伦坡

ComprehensionTo Helen 《致海伦》

Helen, thy beauty is to me 海伦，在我眼里，你的美 Like those Nicean barks of yore 宛若从前尼西亚的归船， That gently, o’er a perfumed sea, 轻轻漂过芳香的海洋， The weary, way-worn wanderer bore 载着疲惫不堪的游子， To his own native shore. 回到他故乡的海岸。