robertbrowning終稿.ppt

Robert Browning (1812-1889),Social Background ( the Victorian Age),Political reform 1. The king and the peers were both stripped of their power. 2. The House of Commons became the ruling power. 3. A series of new reform bills rapidly extend the suffrage, until the whole body of English people choose for themselves the men who shall represent them. The most important immediate legislative accomplishment of the reformed parliament was the emancipation of slaves in British dominions. ( 1833 ) Popularization of education. Advance in technology. All the above have been reacted in prose and poetry.,The Chartist Movement,During the years after 1832, the major contradiction in the political arena became more definitely that between labor and capital. The years between 1832 and the early 50s saw an important series of events known as the Chartist Movement. As Lenin said, “the first broad ,really mass, politically formed, proletarian revolutionary movement.” In 1836 the London Workingmens Association determined to embark upon a campaign of political propaganda and drew up a “Charter”. Though this program was on the face of its political, the basic purpose of the Chartists was the redress of social grievances which could, they held, be accomplished only when workingman had representation in Parliament. The revival of Chartism in 1846-1848, was the last flicker of what had once threatened to become a conflagration.,Early Life,Born on May 7,1812, in Camberwell. Robert was an impulsive, fearless little boy who was also rather a prodigy, writing poems and reading Homer at a very young age. In his teens, Browning discovered Shelley, adopting the authors confessionalism in poetry. He learned many languages and devoured his fathers history books. He also liked to read books that were considered rather shocking and not quite suitable for children.,The Camberwell Palace (1900),Early Life,At 16, Robert began attending the newly-formed London University, established for those Nonconformists【 非國教徒】like Robert who were barred from Oxford and Cambridge. Robert attended for only just over a year, though thanks to his reading, he was really quite an educated man. He also was quite arrogant at times. His family had enough money to support him in these poetical endeavors . His first published work, Pauline, was considered not very good, but promising; His second, Paracelsus, was well-received and Robert was always proud of it.,Middle Life,He even wrote several stage plays (between 1836 and 1843) which were also well-received, though quite forgotten today. Between 1841 and 1846, he published four books, mainly collections of his shorter poems that would become among his most famous works. It was about this time that Roberts correspondence with Elizabeth Barrett began, when he wrote to thank her for a flattering mention of his work in one of her poems.,Middle Life,In this very first letter, he told her that he loved her, which alarmed Elizabeth immensely. Still, he managed to meet her face to face in May of 1845 and marry her in September of that year. The happy couple went to Florence and were enchanted by it, finally settling in the famous Casa Guidi. The years in Florence were among the happiest for both of them. Her love for him was demonstrated in the Sonnets from the Portuguese, and to her he dedicated Men and Women, which contains his best poetry.,Brownings Wife,Brownings wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861). She is a socially engaged realist. The most respected and successful woman poet of the Victorian period.,Later Life,It was only after his wifes death, in 1861, when he returned to England and became part of the London literary circle, that his reputation started to take off. In 1868, he completed and published the long blank-verse poem The Ring and the Book, and finally achieved really significant recognition. Wrote a great deal right up to the end of his life, though he was plagued by colds and bronchitis; his last book, Asolando, was published the day of his death, December 12, 1889. Assumed he would be buried beside Elizabeth, but for the cemetery had been closed to further burials, he instead received a grand funeral at Westminster Abbey.,Work List,Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833) 波林 Paracelsus (1835) 巴拉賽爾士 Sordello (1837) 斯特拉福 Dramatic Lyrics (1842) 戲劇抒情詩 Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845)戲劇傳奇及抒 情詩 Men and Women (1855)男男女女 Dramatic Personae (1864) 登場人物 Solando (1889) 索爾戴洛 Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) 葡萄牙十四行詩 The Cry of the Children (1843) 孩子們的哭聲,Poetic Style,his interest lay, not only in universal law, but in individual passion. And his style, instead of being eclectic(折中)and carefully elaborated, was highly individual, and often more intent on meaning than on form. He is good at analyzing the causes of spiritual growth and decay as well as motive and countermotive, with the language of noble passion and eloquence. However, due to his pursuit of implied meanings very often, his theme is obscure and hard to understand.,Dramatic Monologue,Dramatic monologue 【戲劇獨白】A dramatic monologue is a combination of the words dramatic and monologue (obviously). The “dramatic“ says that it could be acted out, and is a form of drama, while the “monologue“ defines it as a speech that one person makes, either to themselves or to another. is a kind of poem in which a single fictional or historical character other than the poet speaks to a silent “audience” of one or more persons. Such poems reveal not the poets own thoughts but the mind of the impersonated character, whose personality is revealed in the presence of an listener, which distinguishes from a soliloquy【獨白】. Robert Browning is associated with the term. His My Last Duchess is a case in point.,Influence,Much of Robert Brownings legacy on literary creation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries comes from the dramatic monologue. Victorian and modern poets have found it can fully present the characters who are quite alien to their values and beliefs by allowing them to speak for themselves. But this puts a greater burden on the reader, and may be the source of the idea that literature, especially poetry, is not a popular form, and is really only to be enjoyed by specialists. These monologues greatly influenced many later poets, including T.S.Eliot and Ezra Pound.,Fear death？to feel the fog in my throat, 怕死？感覺濃霧在喉 The mist in my face, 云煙滿臉 When the snows begin, and the blasts denote 雪降伊始，有風勢作證 I am nearing the place, 我已經(jīng)接近那個地點 The power of the night, the press of the storm, 暗夜之威，風暴迫近,Prospice 向前看,The reward of it all. 回報，整體的酬勞 I was ever a fighter, so one fight more, 我向來自恃斗士，何妨再來 The best and the last！ 最后最美好的一遭！ I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore, 無意讓死亡蒙望眼屈服 And bade me creep past. 強制俯首爬行通過認輸。,The post of the foe； 讎仇的崗哨； Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form, 他在那里，大有畏凜凜長立 Yet the strong man must go. 惟強者勢非通過 For the journey i