The form of poem
We are going to enjoy the second dimension ofthe English poetry—form.
Poetry can bedefined as “the literature that is written in some kind of verse form.” That isto say, what makes poetry different partly lies in how it looks, in the way itis written down and printed in the line form on the page.
Let’s look at anexample.
How do I lovethee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height. Mysoul can reach, when feeling out of sight. For the ends of Being and idealGrace. I love thee to the level of every day’s. Most quiet need, by sun andcandlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely,as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use. In my oldgriefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to loseWith my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all mylife!--and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
(Judging the wayit looks, it would be considered as a piece of prose writing rather than apoem. Actually, this is a very famous poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning--Sonnet43.If we print or write it down this way, it would not be a poem. )
Reading 1Sonnet43 我该怎样爱你？
ElizabethBarrett Browning （1806-1861）飞白译
How do I lovethee? Let me count the ways. 我究竟怎样爱你？让我细数详端。
I love thee tothe depth and breadth and height 我爱你直到我灵魂所及的深度、
My soul canreach, when feeling out of sight 广度和高度，我在视力不及之处
For the ends ofBeing and ideal Grace . 摸索着存在的极致和美的理想。
I love thee tothe level of every day's 我爱你像最朴素的日常需要一样，
Most quiet need,by sun and candlelight. 就像不自觉地需要阳光和蜡烛。
I love theefreely, as men strive for Right; 我自由地爱你，像人们选择正义之路，
I love theepurely, as they turn from Praise. 我纯洁地爱你，像人们躲避称赞颂扬。
I love thee withthe passion put to use 我爱你用的是我在昔日的悲痛里
In my oldgriefs, and with my childhood's faith . 用过的那种激情，以及童年的忠诚。
I love thee witha love I seemed to lose 我爱你用的爱，我本以为早已失去
With my lostsaints -- I love thee with the breath, （与我失去的圣徒一同）；我爱你用笑容、
Smiles, tears,of all my life! -- and, if God choose, 眼泪、呼吸和生命！只要上帝允许，
I shall but lovethee better after death. 在死后我爱你将只会更加深情。
As far as theforms of English poetry are concerned, we will talk about them roughly formthree stages:
1. ConventionalForms
2. Forms at theTransitional Period
3. Modern Forms
Conventional Forms
A poem may consist of as few as one stanza or as many as numerousstanzas. So the stanza form is very decisive for a poem. Common stanzas formschiefly include:
Common StanzaForms常见的诗节
Couplet triplet quatrain sestet octave
对句（双行体） 三行诗节 四行诗节 六行诗节 八行诗节
Couplet对句（双行体）
Reading 1 Ode tothe West Wind
PercyBysshe Shelley(1792-1822)
…
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, 把昏睡的大地唤醒吧！
If Winter comes,can Spring be far behind? 要是冬天已经来了，西风呵，春日怎能遥远？
Triplet三行诗节
The Eagle: AFragment
--Alfred Tennyson (1809--1892） 黄杲昕 译
He clasps the crag with crooked hands; 他用蜷曲的爪子抓着峭岩——
Close to the sun in lonely lands, 背顶着寂寂大地上的太阳，
Ringed with the azure world, he stands. 那周围是一片淡淡的蓝天
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls: 他下面是个蠕动着的海面，
He watches from his mountain walls, 他站在墙似的山脊上凝望——
And like a thunderbolt he falls. 刹时间向下扑去迅如雷电。
quatrain四行诗节
Reading 3 Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 雪夜在林边停留
Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know, 我想我知道这树林是谁的
His house is in the village, though; 虽然主人的茅屋远在村里
He will not see me stopping here 他看不见我再此歇脚逗留
To watch his woods fill up with snow. 观赏这些凝结雪花的树枝。
My little horse must think it queer 相必我的小马正暗自纳闷
To stop without a farmhouse near 不见农舍，怎么就停步不前
Between the woods and frozen lake 在这冰湖与丛树之间
The darkest evening of the year. 是一年中最最黑暗的夜晚
Today we take sonnet form as an example of the conventional form. Sonnetconsists of 14 lines. Before we appreciate the sonnet, a little informationabout Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning may help us understandingthe sonnet better. When Robert first read Elizabeth’s poem, he wrote to her: “Ilove your verse with my whole heart.” Since then, they began write letters toeach other. Elizabeth was six years older, not been able to move, lying in bed,waiting for death until she met Robert. Their love gave the Elizabeth the magicalpower to stand up again, they eloped, running away secretly, against the wishesof the family and society. Elizabeth wrote many poems to express her stronglove for Robert. This Sonnet 43 is one of the 44 sonnets. Entitled for sonnetsfrom Portuguese. With this moving love story in your mind. Let’s begin toappreciate this poem. Let’s read this poem with strong love, as strong as Elizabeth.This sonnet begins with a question “How do I love thee?” In the next lines, thesonneteer (The person who write in the Sonnet form), so the sonneteer goes onto tell how many ways “I love thee”.
How you counted how many ways? 7 ways. There’s one sentence repeatagain and again. “I love thee.” The repetition of “I love thee.” Keepsreminding that it’s love that keeps alive and gives the poem power.
Reading 1 Sonnet43 我该怎样爱你？
Elizabeth Barrett Browning （1806-1861）飞白 译
How do I love thee? Let me count theways. 我究竟怎样爱你？让我细数详端。
I love thee to the depth and breadth andheight 我爱你直到我灵魂所及的深度、
My soul can reach, when feeling out ofsight 广度和高度，我在视力不及之处
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. 摸索着存在的极致和美的理想。
I love thee to the level of everyday's 我爱你像最朴素的日常需要一样，
Most quiet need, by sun andcandlelight. 就像不自觉地需要阳光和蜡烛。
I love thee freely, as men strive forRight; 我自由地爱你，像人们选择正义之路，
I love thee purely, as they turn fromPraise. 我纯洁地爱你，像人们躲避称赞颂扬。
I love thee with the passion put touse 我爱你用的是我在昔日的悲痛里
In my old griefs, and with my childhood'sfaith. 用过的那种激情，以及童年的忠诚。
I love thee with a love I seemed tolose 我爱你用的爱，我本以为早已失去
With my lost saints -- I love thee with thebreath, （与我失去的圣徒一同）；我爱你用笑容、
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, ifGod choose, 眼泪、呼吸和生命！只要上帝允许，
I shall but love thee better afterdeath. 在死后我爱你将只会更加深情。
Let’s come back to the form of the sonnet. This sonnet has twodivisions, that’s is to say, it’s divided into 2 parts, 2 divisions. The first division,8 lines, octave(八行诗节).
Rhyme scheme: abba abba (ways, grace,day’s, praise),(height, sight, light, right)
The second divisionconsists of 6 lines, sestet(六行诗节).
Rhyme scheme：cdcdcd (use,lose, choose),(faith, breath, death)poetic license破格，you canread the same pronunciation( faith, breath).
Wehave read another sonnet by William Shakespeare-- Sonnet 18
Variants of the Sonnet Form
| Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 | Origin of Sonnet | |
| Term | Shakespearean Sonnet/English Sonnet | Petrarchan Sonnet/ Italian Sonnet |
| Sonneteer | William Shakespeare | Petrarch(an Italian poet) |
| Divisions | Three quatrains+a couplet | An octave + a sestet |
| Rhyme scheme | abab cdcd efef gg | abbaabba cdecde(cdc cdc) |
Spenserian Sonnet：threequatrains + a couplet, rhyming abab bcbc cdcd ee
Miltonic Sonnet: an octave + a sestet,rhyming abba abba cde cde
Elizabeth Browning's sonnet: an octave + asestet, rhyming abba abba cdcdcd
Forms at the TransitionalPeriod
Poets keep experimenting onthe form so that poetry could be more flexible and more expressive.
Have you noticed any difference between this poem and the previousone we have just learned?
The length of the line is different. Sometimes it’s short, sometimesit’s long. It’s not regular. The line is not regular, the number of the line isnot regular. The first stanza consists of 3 lines, the second stanza consists 2lines. The third stanza consists of 4 lines. This kind of poems is free, freefrom the conventional regular lineless and stanza form. Since it’s free fromthe lines and the confinements.
Where does the rhyme come from? Why do we still call it a poem?
Song of Myself
Walt Whitman(1819-1892)
I celebratemyself, and sing myself, 我赞美我自己，歌唱我自己，
And what I assume you shall assume, 我所讲的一切，将对你们也一样适合，
For every atombelonging to me as good belongs to you. 因为属于我的每一个原子，也同样属于你。
I loafe and invite my soul, 我邀了我的灵魂同我一道闲游，
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of 我俯首下视，悠闲地观察
summer grass. 一片夏天的草叶。
My tongue,every atom of my blood, 我的舌，我的血液中的每个原子，
form'd fromthis soil, this air, 都是由这泥土，这空气构成，
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, 我在这里生长，我的父母在这里
and their parents the same, 生长，他们的父母也同样在这里生长，
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, 我现在是三十七岁了，身体相当健康，
Hoping to cease not till death. 希望继续不停地唱下去直到死亡。
……… ………
We don’t have the meter, we don’t have thelineless, and we have something else to tell this is a poem, and we have rhyme.First, why it is a poem? The definition (the line form ) rhyme? From mythoughts, my breath.
This poem is of “open form” verse, termed literarily as Free Verse, theverse not only free from conventional regular line length or stanza form, butalso free from conventional regular meter, rhyme, rhyme scheme, and so on.
Modern Forms
Poets keeps experimenting, especially theform of the poetry, and they also borrow other artistic forms, like paintingand calligraphy, like Line Breaks Stanza Breaks. And they also borrow suchskills like Line Expression.
Line Breaks Stanza Breaks Line Expression deviation(变异)
| Calligraphy |
Line Expression诗行表达: rearranging words within or outside linesto achieve original and interesting effects.重组单词，在诗行内外对词进行重组，使之具有原创性。
Deviation: 变异breaking normal forms or ordinary writing patterns to realize theindividuality and subjective feelings, like e. e. Cummings' poem mOOn OvertOwns mOOn.指打破常规形式或通用的书写形式以获得独特性。
Line Breaks StanzaBreaks
Color Scheme Line Expression
Kinesthesia 动感技巧 Deviation
Icon 图案 White Space
| Calligraphy |
| Painting |
Reading 3 I[(a] 孤 [(一]
e.e. cummings(1894-1962) 傅浩 译
Let’slook at the name of the poet, we all know that a person’s name should becapitalized. It’s a mistake by a worker in the publishing house. He mistakenlytyped E.E cummings this way. And when E.E cummings saw it, he loved it. Hethought it was a beautiful mistake. That’s what he was trying to find—even theform of this name indicate his individuality and originality.
l(a 孤（一
le 片
af 树
fa 叶
ll 飘
s) 零）
one 独
l 伶
iness 仃
Poets borrowfrom Calligraphy, the line expression. That is to say, within sth and outsidesth. Within the bracket (a leaf falls), actually, E.E cummings handwriting, theoriginal form of this poem in E.E cummings handwriting could tell perfectly theway a leaf falls, but this typing is very different. There’s a word outside thebracket—loneliness. How is it formed? You have one (一)， I（我）and ness(名词后缀). We allknow I should use quotation “I”, because the character “I” is veryspecially from others. It should be capitalized everywhere it goes. This is why“I” is actually very lonely, because he is different.
Notice another 2words, la and le. Who can tell us the difference between la and le? La and leboth mean “the”, but la for female, le for male.
Judging from theform of this poem, we can know what loneliness is.
Interpretationof loneliness:
Just like a leaf, it’s fallingalone I am one. I am individual. I am lonely.
Especially if you form a leaf,loneliness and I together, just like a leaf, when the autumn comes, it mustfall down. Loneliness is when time comes, I have to go, whether a feel lonelyor not, whether male or female. And when I go alone, I exactly know where I’mgoing to. To dust, to death. No second chance to come back again, no matter howmuch a cling the world, and how much a love this life.
Reading4 The Red Wheel barrow 红色手推车
袁可嘉 译
William Carlos Williams (1883 - 1963)
so much depends 那么多东西
upon 依靠
a red wheel 一辆红色
barrow 手推车
glazed with rain 雨水淋得它
water 晶亮
beside the white 旁边是一群
chickens 白鸡
Actually, thereis only one sentence in the poem. This picture show that So much depends upon ared wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.
Composition: Goethe (歌德）prefers “com-position，” believing that “com-position” can best describe the true meaning ofit, positioning things in different places together to produce tension. 把不同地方的东西联系到一起。Like professional painters, the poet seeks to discover a new, freshand individual arrangement for words in a form different from our ordinary way.
The Beauty of the Form of Reading 4
Painterly property: Color Scheme (William Carlos Williams, anamateur painter, borrowed from painting-- Color Scheme. Red and white.)
Red and white. By using the painting color, the poet causes thevibration(共鸣) in our eyes, and 2 eye-catching colors of red and white,immediately leap off the canvas and leaves you a deep impression.
Calligraphic artistry: Line Breaks and Stanza Breaks (The poemconsists only one sentence, but this one sentence poem is broken into 4 stanzasand 8 lines, and each line stress different thing, red, wheel, barrow, rain,water, white, chickens. Each stanza stresses sth, a red wheel barrow; rainwater; white chickens)
In terms of the form of the poem, we all know that the first letterof a letter should be capitalized, but this one is not capitalized. Because to WilliamCarlos Williams, everyone and everything should be equally small and necessary,there shouldn’t be capitalization in the world. This one sentence is brokeninto so many lines and stanzas. Have you ever noticed red barrow in your life? Haveyou ever noticed how necessary the rain water is? Have you ever noticed thechickens at your home? If you break this one line in so many lines and so manystanzas, and each line and each stanza could emphasis one thing, and thesethings may be not noticed suddenly appear so eye catching, so touching and soimportant. Maybe that is life itself, the richness of life and beauty of life,so simple, so random, but enough.
Conclusion
To conclude our lecture today, I’d say: it is the relative stabilityof the conventional forms of English poetry that shapes and strengthens itstradition, but it is the consistent and creative experimentation especially inthe form that provides poetry with major vitality and keeps it developing andflourishing forever.
