英语修辞与文体 论文.docx

Not marble, nor the gilded monumentsOf princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;But you shall shine more bright in these contentsThan unswept stone, besmeard with sluttish time.When wasteful war shall statues overturn,And broils root out the work of masonry,Nor Mars his sword nor wars quick fire shall burnThe living record of your memory.Gainst death and all-oblivious enmityShall you pace forth; your praise shall still find roomEven in the eyes of all posterityThat wear this world out to the ending doom.So, till the judgment that yourself arise,You live in this, and dwell in lovers eyes. Sonnet 55 is one of Shakespeares most famous works and a noticeable deviation from other sonnets in which he appears insecure about his relationships and his own self-worth. Here we can find an impassioned burst of confidence as the poet claims to have the power to keep his friends memory alive evermore.We should focus on the translation of this poem at first. Not marble, nor the gold-plated shrines. Of princes shall outlive the power of poetry. You shall shine more bright in these verses than on dust-covered gravestones, ravaged by time. When devastating war shall overturn statues and conflicts destroy the masons handiwork, the cause of war (Mars) nor the effects of war (fire) shall destroy the living record of your memory (this poem). Against death and destruction, which render people forgotten, shall you push onward; praise of you will always find a place even in the eyes of future generations. That survives until the end of humanity. So, until you arise on Judgment Day, you are immortalized in this poetry, and continue to live in lovers eyes.Then we will discuss its stylistics. First, we focus on this poems rhyme. Sonnet 55 is a fourteen-line sonnet, metered in iambic pentameter: x / x / x / x / x / No marble, nor the gilded monuments x / x / x / x / x / Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme It consists of three quartrains followed by a couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCDEFEFGG.ABABCDCDEFEFGGNot marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time When wasteful war shall statues overturn And broils root out the work of masonry Nor Mars his sword nor wars quick fire shall burn The living record of your memory Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity Shall you pace forth, your praise shall still find room Even in the eye of all posterity That wear this world out to the ending doom So, till the judgment that yourself arise You live in this, and dwell in lovers eyes Second, we focus on this poems metaphor. The poet uses metaphors like marble, monuments, and stone in the first four lines to say that none of them will be as everlasting as this poem. Then he says that war and broil may destroy many tough things like statues and masonry, but not peoples memory of youthe hero in this poem. It will survive your death and all the powers which work against you. You shall still move on, people will always honor you even their off springs will praise you for what you have done now. We will always remember you and your behaviors until you are judged reasonably.Third, we focus on this poems comparisons. Comparisons are frequently used in this sonnet as a foregrounding to the ideas that the poet wants to convey. At the beginning he compares the marble and monument with the rhyme, and tells us that the rhyme will outlive all these things as time goes by. He uses comparison again in the third and fourth lines to say it again that this rhyme will be everlasting. Again in the fifth and sixth lines he uses comparison to highlight his idea that this poem, this rhyme will survive time, the fire of war. The ninth line begins to say something different from the first eight lines. He begins to talk about some abstract subjects like enmity, judgment, praise, and memory. But in the last couplet he concludes with so to say that you will always be remembered by your offspring till you are fairly judged by history. He uses the Christian concept in the last two lines about the arising of the hero. Fourth, we focus on this poems alliteration. He uses alliteration in the first line with not and nor to connect the two objects. Then he uses “shall shine” for alliteration to make the internal rhyme. Alliteration is also used with “wasteful war shall statues” in the fifth line to make the internal rhyme.Fifth, Repetition is also used with the sentence pattern like you shall or shall you. It makes readers to feel the strong feelings of the must of immortalization.Finally, Inversion is used in several lines. The fifth line should be: when wasteful war shall overturn statues , and the eighth and ninth line should be: you shall pace forth against death and all-oblivious enmity.Sonnet 55 is a poem about time and immortalization. The speaker claims that his beloved will wear out this world to the ending doom. The speakers poem wont last much compared to his beloved, even though his beloved is immortalised in the poem, adhering to a larger theme of giving and possessing that runs through many of Shakespeares sonnets. This poem, however, emphasizes the concept of time slightly differently. He argues that the sonnet traces the progression of time, from the physical endeavours built by man (monuments, statues, masonry), as well as the primeval notion of warfare depicted through the image of Mars his sword and wars quick fire, to the concept of the Last Judgment. The young man will survive all of these things through the verses of the speaker. Although the poets previous pride in writing verse is missing in this sonnet, he still manages to demonstrate a superbly confident spirit: Not marble, nor the gilded monuments. Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rime. He clearly abandons, at least for the time being, his earlier depressing opinion of his verse as barren rime, for next he contrasts his verses immortality to unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time, meaning that the young man will be remembered longer because of the poets having written about him than if descriptions of his beauty had been chiseled in stone. The next four lines address the same theme of immortality, but now the poet boasts that not only natural forces but human wars and battles cannot blot out his sonnets, which are a living record of the youth. Monuments and statues may be desecrated during war, but not so these rhymes. In the first seventeen sonnets, the poet worried about deaths effect on the youths beauty and questioned the nature of his sonnets reputation after both he and the young man died. Now, however, in lines 9 through 12, he boldly asserts that death is impotent in the face of his sonnets immortality: To the youth he says, Against death and all-oblivious enmity, shall you pace forth. In fact, he asserts that the young mans name will be remembered until the last survivor on earth perishes: your praise shall still find room. Even in the eyes of all posterity. That wears this world out to the ending doom. Only then, when no one remains alive, will the youths beauty fade, but through no fault of the youth or the poet. This notion of the ending doom is the main point in the concluding couplet. The syntax of line 13So, till the judgment that yourself arise is confusing, restated, the line says, Until the Judgmen