十四行诗赏析

1、注：第11行语出旧约诗篇第23篇第4节：“虽然我穿行于死荫之幽谷，但我不怕罹祸，因为你与我同在”英文赏析：This is one of the most famous of all the sonnets, justifiably so. But it would be a mistake to take it entirely in isolation, for it links in with so many of the other sonnets through the themes of the descriptive power of verse; the ability of t

2、he poet to depict the fair youth adequately, or not; and the immortality conveyed through being hymned in these eternal lines. It is noticeable that here the poet is full of confidence that his verse will live as long as there are people drawing breath upon the earth, whereas later he apologises for

3、 his poor wit and his humble lines which are inadequate to encompass all the youths excellence. Now, perhaps in the early days of his love, there is no such self-doubt and the eternal summer of the youth is preserved forever in the poets lines. The poem also works at a rather curious level of achiev

4、ing its objective through dispraise. The summers day is found to be lacking in so many respects (too short, too hot, too rough, sometimes too dingy), but curiously enough one is left with the abiding impression that the lovely boy is in fact like a summers day at its best, fair, warm, sunny, tempera

5、te, one of the darling buds of May, and that all his beauty has been wonderfully highlighted by the comparison1. Shall I compare thee to a summers day?This is taken usually to mean What if I were to compare thee etc? The stock comparisons of the loved one to all the beauteous things in nature hover

6、in the background throughout. One also remembers Wordsworths lines:Well talk of sunshine and of song,And summer days when we were young,Sweet childish days which were as longAs twenty days are now.Such reminiscences are indeed anachronistic, but with the recurrence of words such as summer, days, son

7、g, sweet, it is not difficult to see the permeating influence of the Sonnets on Wordsworths verse.2. Thou art more lovely and more temperate:The youths beauty is more perfect than the beauty of a summer day. more temperate - more gentle, more restrained, whereas the summers day might have violent ex

8、cesses in store, such as are about to be described.3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,May was a summer month in Shakespeares time, because the calendar in use lagged behind the true sidereal calendar by at least a fortnight.darling buds of May - the beautiful, much loved buds of the ear

9、ly summer; favourite flowers.4. And summers lease hath all too short a date:Legal terminology. The summer holds a lease on part of the year, but the lease is too short, and has an early termination (date). 5. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,Sometime = on occasion, sometimes;the eye of heav

10、en = the sun.6. And often is his gold complexion dimmed,his gold complexion = his (the suns) golden face. It would be dimmed by clouds and on overcast days generally.7. And every fair from fair sometime declines,All beautiful things (every fair) occasionally become inferior in comparison with their

11、essential previous state of beauty (from fair). They all decline from perfection.8. By chance, or natures changing course untrimmed:By chance accidents, or by the fluctuating tides of nature, which are not subject to control, natures changing course untrimmed.untrimmed - this can refer to the ballas

12、t (trimming) on a ship which keeps it stable; or to a lack of ornament and decoration. The greater difficulty however is to decide which noun this adjectival participle should modify. Does it refer to nature, or chance, or every fair in the line above, or to the effect of natures changing course? KD

13、J adds a comma after course, which probably has the effect of directing the word towards all possible antecedents. She points out that natures changing course could refer to womens monthly courses, or menstruation, in which case every fair in the previous line would refer to every fair woman, with t

14、he implication that the youth is free of this cyclical curse, and is therefore more perfect.9. But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Referring forwards to the eternity promised by the ever living poet in the next few lines, through his verse.10. Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst,Nor shall i

15、t (your eternal summer) lose its hold on that beauty which you so richly possess. owst = ownest, possess.By metonymy we understand nor shall you lose any of your beauty.11. Nor shall death brag thou wanderst in his shade,Several half echoes here. The biblical ones are probably Oh death where is thy

16、sting? Or grave thy victory? implying that death normally boasts of his conquests over life. And Psalms 23.3.: Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil In classical literature the shades flitted helplessly in the underworld like gibbering ghosts. Shakespeare wo

17、uld have been familiar with this through Virgils account of Aeneas descent into the underworld in Aeneid Bk. VI.12. When in eternal lines to time thou growst,in eternal lines = in the undying lines of my verse. Perhaps with a reference to progeny, and lines of descent, but it seems that the procreat

18、ion theme has already been abandoned.to time thou growst - you keep pace with time, you grow as time grows.13. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,For as long as humans live and breathe upon the earth, for as long as there are seeing eyes on the eart.14. So long lives this, and this gives li

19、fe to thee.That is how long these verses will live, celebrating you, and continually renewing your life. But one is left with a slight residual feeling that perhaps the youths beauty will last no longer than a summers day, despite the poets proud boast.这是逐句赏析中文版：以莎氏十四行诗第18首为例，以往从未有人指出过它的缺点，但笔者根据教学实践

20、得来的体会，认为它至少有两大缺点，一是在音韵方面，其韵脚、头韵和韵格均不同程度的破坏了诗歌的音美和形美；二是某些比喻和描述的平淡或离奇破坏了诗歌的意美。一、音韵参差，破坏了音美和形美全诗的基本格律是五音步抑扬格（iambic pentameter），包括三个四行组（quatrain）和一个对偶句(couplet)，采用典型的莎氏十四行的韵式，即abab cdcd efef gg。但本诗音韵并不十分齐整。在韵脚（end rhyme）方面，第二行的temperate与第四行的date押韵，但两个词的重音位置却不同，这一韵就既非阳韵（masculine rhyme）也非阴韵（feminine rhy

21、me），显得不伦不类，与其它严整的韵对比，这一韵念起来令人颇感突兀，破坏了诗歌的音韵美。头韵（alliteration）方面，第六和第七行都以And 起头，形成头韵，但这两个并列的简单陈述句从意义上看，造成了语意在同一水平上徘徊而不是递进，而且用相同的And起头使两句不仅在语意也在形式上显得拖沓而无变化，破坏了诗歌的音韵美和形式美。韵格(meter)方面，五音步抑扬格的诗歌是常有破格的，特别是在诗歌首行的第一个音步，经常是前重音后轻音。适当的破格可使诗歌免于呆板，增加变化，使音韵更显其美。但过多的破格就会打乱诗歌的格式，使其音律显得零碎，给诗歌带来负面影响，本诗即是如此。第一行“Shall I

22、 compare thee to a summers day?”中的“thee to”是无法按轻重音的顺序来念的，第二行“Thou art more lovely and more temperate”中的两个more是强调，要念重音，因此这一行的韵格就不是抑扬格了。第六行“And often is his gold complexion dimmd”中前两个音步的轻重音位置是模糊的。第十行“Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest”中的第一个音步可以看作是破格，第十一行“Nor shall Death brag thou wanderst in his shade”中的“Nor shall Death brag”重音和轻音顺序应是“重轻重重”，也不是抑扬格。可见，本诗因为破格过多，格律形式有点混乱，诗歌齐整的音韵美受到了损害。实际上，学生也经常反映这首诗歌读起来有些地方很