《老虎》的修辞赏析A Stylistic Analysis of The Tiger.doc

英语文体学课程论文论文标题：A Stylistic（rhetorical) Analysis of The Tiger成 绩：专业班级：学 号： 学生姓名： 任课教师： 完成时间：2014年1 月 4 日William Blake (1757-1827)Tiger！ Tiger！ Burning bright 老虎！老虎！光焰闪耀，In the forests of the night， 在黑夜的丛林中熊熊燃烧，What immortal hand or eye 什么样的不朽之手和眼Could frame thy fearful symmetry？造成你那可怕的匀称外貌？In what distant deeps or skies 你眼中的烈火熊熊Burnt the fire of thine eyes？ 来自多远的深处或高空？On what wings dare he aspire？ 他凭什么翅膀敢飞到九天？What the hand dare seize the fire？ 什么样的手敢去抓这火焰？And what shoulder, and what art， 什么样的臂力，什么样的技艺Could twist the sinews of thy heart？ 才能拧成你那心脏的腱肌？And when thy heart began to beat， 什么样的手，什么样的脚，What dread hand？And what dread feet？才使得你的心脏开始弹跳？What the hammer？What the chain? 用什么样的锤子？什么样的链条？In what furnace was thy brain？ 在什么样的炉里炼成了你的大脑？What the anvil? What dread grasp 在什么样的铁砧上？用什么样的臂力Dare its deadly terrors clasp？ 敢抓住这可以致命的可怕东西？When the stars threw down their spears， 当星星投下他们的矛枪， And watered heaven with their tears， 用他们的泪水浇灌穹苍，Did he smile his work to see？ 他见到自己的作品时可微笑？Did he who made the Lamb make thee？难道是他造了你也造了羊羔？Tiger！ Tiger！ Burning bright 老虎！老虎！光焰闪耀，In the forests of the night， 在黑夜的丛林中熊熊燃烧，What immortal hand or eye， 什么样的不朽之手和眼Dare frame thy fearful symmetry？ 造成你那可怕的匀称外貌？ContentsAbstract in English.Chapter Introduction.1 1.1 Brief Introduction of the AuthorWilliam blake .1 1.2 The Writing Background of The Tiger.2Chapter The Stylistic Feature of the poems Rhythm2.1Meter.32.2 Rhyme.42.3 Anaphora.5Chapter The Stylistic Feature of the Poems Rhetoric3.1 Symbolism.63.2 Allusion .8Chapter 4.1 Conclusion.9Reference.10Abstract in English The Tiger, William Blakes poem, was published in a collection of poems: Songs of Experience in 1794. Literary critic Alfred Kazin calls it the most famous of his poems, and The Cambridge Companion to William Blake says it is the most anthologized poem in English. It is one of Blakes most reinterpreted and arranged works. In the thesis, I will attempt to make a stylistic analysis of this poem; the analyses will focus on the poems rhythm and rhetoric. The aim is to let readers understand the distinctive features and inner meaning of this poem, at the same time, understand the poets emotion on this poem. Key Words: William Blake The Tiger stylistic Chapter Introduction1.1 Brief Introduction of the AuthorWilliam Blake William Blake is a transitional figure that marks the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century in literature. He tries to show the romantic ideas but the form he used is conventional, close to the 18th century. And of all the romantic poets of the eighteenth century, William Blake is the most independent and the most original poet. Blakes early work was written in a classical style. Later he used the romantic style made popular by Wordsworth and Coleridge. Blake was born in London and educated at Henry Pars Drawing School. After becoming established as a graphic designer and drawing tutor, he opened a print shop in London in 1784. He lived in Sussex from 1800 to 1803, during which time he was charged with high treason but acquitted. He returned to London and staged a rather unsuccessful show of his artistic work in 1809, after which he went into obscurity and became a mystic. As a supporter of the French Revolution, he openly criticized the social evils that he linked with the Industrial Revolution. His work is usually seen in the context of his social, political and religious beliefs. He was not really understood by his peers, but twentieth-century readers appreciate the greatness he achieved in his varied fields of interest. 1.2 The Writing Background of The TigerThe Songs of Experience was published in 1794. At that time, the French Revolution and the American War of Independence broken out. For Black, an underprivileged craftsman lived in London. Which had been internalized into great spiritual event, not just in generally favor, but warmly support. And it inspired him to battle bravely in his heart for the new world as a prophecy of his imminent. The Tiger is written in such a background and expresses a strong desire for revolutionary feelings. Blake puts violent revolution as a great spiritual power that can destroy an old world which represses and imprisons people, and the world can transform the human soul in order to establish an earthly kingdom . Chapter The Stylistic Feature of the poems Rhythm2.1MeterMeter is the basic structure with a foot in western poetry verse rhythm. There are four commons: iambic, trochaic, and anapestic iambic and dactylic. A line of poetry can be divided into several groups feet. A group foot usually obeys the following forms: iamb/iambic, trochee/trochaic, dactyl/dactylic, anapest/anapestic, spondee/pyrrhic. And they can be mixed with the use. When need to divide the English poetry foot, we usually mark with a tone to express its strong or weak. In this poem, William Blake adopts the trochaic tetrameter in the whole poem so as to imitate the sound in a forge and set the dignified and stately tone for the whole poem: / / / /Tiger! |Tiger! | Burning| Bright By deliberately making the stress sounds fall into the more important words, Blake expresses the power and strength of the tiger, and adds to the musical beauty when reading it. The Tiger, beginning with plosive, abrupt, rapid in the first sentence, is trochaic tetrameter step. This is the basic metrical rhythm of the poem. Such a heavy tone () and a light tone () are in line with the rhythm produced by the hammer blacksmith waves and beats struggle on the anvil. So, it is formed an anvil music. This rhythm, swirling in the poem, fits the scenes of casting tiger and perfectly loads “forging tiger” in this content. The poem at the end of step 7 syllables four syllables trochaic line eliminates the need for a light syllable, which adds to the intensity of the sound fourth step. That makes the readers cannot stop and hurrily turn downward and feel the cast who cannot wait begins a new round of percussion. The poem tiger is in syllables step trochaic tone and intersperses among some of declension. For example the first 4、10、11、18、20、24 lines, each line has eight syllables and basically can be divided into four syllables iambic tetrameter. The sixth verse repeats the first verse on the contents excepting on word (dare VS could). But it expresses the sublimation on the poets admiration for The Tiger. On the rhythm, the sixth stanza and the first stanza verse are completely identical: loop back and forth, resonance, end to end convergence, and that forms a non-porous integral, the theme of The Tiger imagery performs indestructible and cathartic thoroughly.2.2 RhymeRhyme is an important element of musical beauty of poetry and is an important means to make rhyming words so rich in musical association.Alliteration and assonance can trip string of words in poetry; end rhyme can be connected to the line into articles. Rhyme can make poem become an organic whole by resonant voice resonates. Alliteration is made by plosive; end rhyme and assonance are consisted by loud vowel and diphthongs in The Tiger. This makes the poem harmony compact, context similarities. Plosive in this poem looks like percussion under the hammer. Loud vowel is like an explosive cry when the blacksmith is struggling to build. This extraordinary force creates that tiger has “fearful symmetry”, “the fire of thy eyes”, “the sinews of thy heart”， “In what furnace was thy brain?” where this is by no means made the flesh body, and its divinity makes us awesome. The alliteration of the poem, The Tiger，plays an important role in sound and the theme. For example, the first verse “Tiger！Tiger！Burning bright”, the fifth verse “distant deeps” and the eleventh verse “began to beat” help create a sing-song rhythm, among which many stops such as /b/ /d/ /t/ /p/ are used to imitate the sound of the hammer, thus which paint a vivid image in front of the reader of the making the tiger, also give them a hint of the destructive force of the beast. Every two verses have the same end rhyme (bright/night, eye/symmetry, skies/eyes) and most of the rhymes are masculine rhymes “bright/ night, art/ heart, see/ thee”, which strengthen the image of the tiger with an overwhelming momentum.2.3 AnaphoraAnaphora is the oldest and the most practical means of writing poems. In terms of its classification whatever is from what kind of angle, the function and role of the repetition is the same: rendering the feelings, heighten the atmosphere; form the melodious rhythm; strengthen the repeated parts meaning; modificate the verse. Anaphora is used for the subject discussed “tiger! Tiger！” and also the first stanza and the last one are identical so that readers can feel the power of the beast from the very beginning. On the one hand, the anaphora expresses the poets emotion and resonate readers feelings, on the other hand, it can highlighten the theme-support the French Revolution, praise the violent revolutionary forces. Chapter The Stylistic Feature of the Poems Rhetoric3.1 SymbolismSymbolism, borrowing a specific image of the things to implie a specific person or affair, is based on a link between things to show some kind of abstract concepts, ideas and emotions. The performance results of the symbolic are: have pregnant meaning; enrich peoples association; make people thought-provoking; give people a concise, real sense of the image; express sincere feelings. The meaning of symbolism in The Ttiger is open. Firstly, tiger has a religious symbolism with mysterious. In first-second stanza, the poet praises the magic and the courage to take wings to catch fire of the creator. “On what wings dare he aspire ？” means courage and expresses the broad mindness of the tigers founder. In first stanza “What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry？ ” poet makes a strong question. “Fearful” and “symmetry” express the image-tiger powerful and the poets praise on molder. Secondly, tiger has a significance symbolism of the revolution. From the view of historical background, Blakes era is the era that British society changes dramatically. Society change that is of great historical significance has been ensuing. British Industrial Revolution, the American Revolution, the French Revolution. This is an era which revolutionary and counterrevolutionary forces fight fiercely. So his poetry is the product of this troubled era. At the beginning of the poem, “Tiger！ Tiger！Burning bright”, we can feel the tremendous power of the fire of the revolution. In poetry, “the tiger” symbolizes revolution; “fearful symmetry” is a symbol of the great revolution; “the fire of thine eyes” stands for the fire of revolution. “thy heart” symbolizes the core of the revolution; “dread hand ”and “dread feet” is a symbol of the power of the revolution; “thy brain” symbolizes the guiding ideology of the revolution. “Did he smile his work to see？Did he who made the Lamb make thee？” expresses where there is oppression, where there is the emergence of resistance. And the tiger is symbolic of the revolutionary forces-the French people in the French Revolution. Blake is a supporter and he believes it could destroy the old system and establish a new one. In a word, Blake wants to show anti-traditional and anti-rationalism by this passion of the revolution and the spirit of the rebellion.Some words in this poem also bore other symbolic meanings. For example, “the fire imagery” symbolize trials (baptism by fire perhaps); “the forest of the night” represents unknown realms or challenges; “the blacksmith” represents the Creator; “the fearful symmetry” symbolizes the existence of both good and evil, the knowledge that there is opposition in all things, a rather fearful symmetry indeed. “The lamb” represents innocence, youth, and pleasant aspect of nature.3.2 Allusion Allusion is an indirect reference to people or things outside the text in which it occurs, without mentioning them explicitly. Allusions require common reading and cultural experiences shared by the writer and the reader. Allusion is the figure of speech based on resemblance which is as a reference of work of literature to another work of literature or to a well-known person, place or event outside of literature. The allusion in The Tiger is mainly derived from Greek mythology, the Bible, literary classics and historical events. For example, In first-second stanza, the poet praises the magic and the courage to take wings to catch fire of the creator. “On what wings dare he aspire ？”(line 7) means courage. That uses the story about Daedalus and his son Icarus of the Greek myth. Poet borrows this story to express the broad mindness of the tigers founder. “Seize the fire” (line 8) is borrowed from the Greek mythology that Prometheus takes the fire in order to benefit mankind. This ex