Reading English Poetry

Zhenjiang No.2 Middle School

Unit 4 A garden of poems

Pre-reading

Can you name some famous Chinese poets?

Can you recite any of their poems?

If winter comes ,can spring be far behind?

Shelley

雪莱诗篇《著名的西风颂》（１８１９）以西风扫落叶象征革命力量扫荡反动统治，诗篇结尾的预言：“西风哟，如果冬天已经来到，春天还会遥远？”表达了他对未来的革命乐观主义。雪莱还写了大量优美的抒情诗，如《云》、《致云雀》、《致月亮》、《悲歌》等 。

Byron

                                                                        

英国 19 世纪上半叶伟大的浪漫主义诗人拜伦，由于他的卓越的诗歌创作有力地支持了法国大革命后席卷全欧的民主民族革命运动，并在一定程度上批判了资本主义社会的种种弊端，它是欧洲文学界的一面光辉旗帜。恩格斯赞赏他对现实社会的辛辣讽刺。

William Shakespeare

威廉 . 莎士比亚 是英国文艺复兴时期伟大的诗人和戏剧家。莎士比亚作品可分为四类：历史剧、喜剧、悲剧和传奇剧。它的主要作品有：历史剧《亨利六世》上、中、下三部；喜剧《仲夏夜之梦》、《威尼斯商人》、《第十二夜》；悲剧《罗米欧与朱丽叶》、《哈姆雷特》、《奥赛罗》、《李尔王》 ; 传奇剧《辛白林》《暴风雨》等。他的十四行诗是英语诗歌中的瑰宝。

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Read the text quickly then choose the best answers .

1. Modern English came into being from about the end of the ______ century.

A 16th B 17th C 18th D 19th

2. The poetry of John Donne reminds Chinese readers of the poems by ______.

A Du Fu B Li Bai C Su Dongpo D Guo Moruo3. Byron’s Isles of Greece(1824) is an exampl

e of ______.A a sonnet B romantic poetry C nature poetr

y D modern poetry

A

C

B

4. The wider public in China discovered English poetry at the beginning of the ______ century.

A 17th B 18th C 19th D 20th 5. The advantage of reading English

poetry in Chinese translation is ______.A that you have more choiceB that something of the spirit is lostC that you understand it better D that you learn how to express yourself

in new ways

D

C

Read the text again carefully and answer some questions about it. 1. What does poetry call up?

2. What does the form of poetry refer to?

It calls up all the colors, feelings, experiences and curious images of a dream world.

The number of lines and the number of characters in each line. Poetry often follows special patterns of rhythm and rhyme.

3. Why do Chinese readers admire John Donne’s work?

4. Why do modern poems have their special attraction?

Because of his use of surprising images that reminds them of the works of poems such as Su Dongpo.

Because they stand closest to us both in the languages and images they use.

5. Why are more and more people interested to read modern poetry in English?

Reading in English gives you much more choice;no matter how well a poem is translated, something of the spirit of the original work is lost; reading poems in English opens the door to finding new ways of expressing yourself in Chinese;poems and literature can be bridges between the East and the West.

Match the titles with each paragraph: Paragraph 1 Paragraph 2 Paragraph 3 Paragraph 4 Paragraph 5 Paragraph 6 Paragraph 7

Early English poets Modern English poets The 19th century English poets The introduction of English

poetry into China Why more people are

interested in English poetry Why we read poetry Chinese poets and poetry

What do the words in bold refer to?word

sreference

that

its

their

they

they

poetry plays with sounds, words and grammar

the history of English poetry

poems and literature

Wordsworth’s, Byron’s and Keats’

modern poets

Put all the foreign poets named in the reading passage on the timeline:

1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

Shakespeare

John Donne

John Milton

Alexander Pope

Byron

John Keats

William Wordsworth

Robert Frost

Homework Read the text after class and

collect as much information about the things and persons mentioned in the text as possible.