2) Poems Sonnets
The first 126 sonnets are apparently addressed to a handsome young nobleman, presumably the author's patron. The poems express the writer's selfless but not entirely uncritical devotion to the young man.
Twenty of the sonnets are about a young woman characterized as a " dark lady," whom the poet distrust but cannot resist. The poems addressed directly to her are perhaps the most remarkable in the sequence because their unsentimental tone is unlike that of traditional love sonnets.
A philosophical theme that appears in many of the sonnets is that of time as the destroyer of all mortal things. Also expressed in the poems is the author's disillusionment with the false ness of earthly life.
The form of the poems is the English Variation of the traditional Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, Shakespeare's sonnets have three quatrains, or groups of four lines, & a final couplet. Their rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. A theme is developed & elaborated in the quatrains, & a concluding thought is presented in the couplet.
5. 领会His Major Theme
1) Shakespeare is against religious persecution & racial discrimination, against social inequality & the corrupting influence of gold & money.
2) He was a humanist of the time & accepted the Renaissance views on literature.
6. 领会His Literary Achievements
1) Characterization
His major characters are neither merely individual ones nor type ones; They are individuals representing certain types. Each character has his or her own personalities; meanwhile, they may share features with others. The soliloquies in his plays fully reveal the inner conflict of his characters. Shakespeare also portrays his characters in pairs. Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to his characters.
华中师范大学英语专业英美文学课中英文课堂讲义
The women in the plays are vivid creations, each differing from the others. Shakespeare was fond of portraying "mocking wenches," such as Kate of the Taming of the Shrew, Rosaline of Love's Labor's Lost, & Beatrice of Much Ado About Nothing, but he was equally adept at creating gentle & innocent women, such as Ophelia in Hamlet, Desdemona in Othello, & Cordelia in King Lear. His female characters also include the treacherous Goneril & Regan, the iron-willed Lady Macbeth, the witty & resourceful Portia, the tender & loyal Juliet, & the alluring Cleopatra.
2) Plot Construction
Shakespeare's plays are well known for their adroit plot construction. He seldom invents his own plots; instead, he borrows them from some old plays or storybooks, or from ancient Greek & Roman sources. There are usually several threads running through the play, thus providing the story with suspense & apprehension.
3) Language
In Shakespeare's time, English grammar & spelling were not yet formalized, so Shakespeare could freely inter charge the various parts of speech, using nouns as adjectives or verbs, adjectives as adverbs, & pronouns as nouns. Such freedom gave his language an extraordinary flexibility, which enabled him to express his thoughts as easily in poetry as in prose.
Most of Shakespeare's dramatic poetry is in blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter. His bland verse is especially beautiful & mighty. He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary & idiom. His coinage of new words & distortion of the meaning of the old ones also create striking effects on the reader.
7. 应用Selected Readings
Hamlet
This is one part of Hamlet's most famous monologue. Hamlet, facing the dilemma of action & mind, is hesitating whether he should revenge for his father, which may bring him death, or he should suffer & hide his hatred for his uncle in his deep heart, which may secure his life.
John Donne/约翰 邓恩作者简介
约翰 邓恩（John Donne，1572-1631），17世纪玄学派诗人。出生于一个罗马天主教家庭。他曾先后在牛津和剑桥大学学习神学、医学、法律和古典文学，但均未获得学位。1598年，邓恩被任命为伊格顿爵士的私人秘书。1601年，他秘密同伊格顿夫人17岁的侄女结婚。尽管婚姻愉快，邓恩却因此获罪，失去了职位，并遭监禁。出狱后十数年间，生活艰苦。后因撰文攻击天主教、维护国王权威而得赏识，于1615年成为王室牧师，1621年出任伦敦圣保罗大教堂教长。邓恩的作品主要包括诗歌、书简和布道文等。邓恩的诗歌以爱情、讽刺、宗教等为题材，在语言、描述、情景、想象等方面独具特色。他的诗歌语言接近口语，描述富于故事性和戏剧性，诗歌中许多“别出心裁的比喻”（conceit）十分奇特，让人初读觉得不可思议，掩卷细想又觉得颇有道理。诗集《歌与十四行诗》（Songs and Sonnets）中的《早安》（The Good-Morrow）、《破晓》（Break of Day）、《挽歌集》（Elegy）中的第16、19首、《圣十四行诗》(Holy
Sonnets)中的第7（描写不知如何忏悔时的心情）和第10首（“死亡，你不要骄傲”）等，都是邓恩诗中较为优秀的作品。在文学史上，邓恩被认为是“玄学派诗人”（Metaphysical poets）的重要代表。
《跳蚤》赏析 /The Flea
这是邓恩被收录最多的诗篇之一。诗作以诗人向情人求爱的说话体写成，语气富有调侃，比附出乎通常想象，推理和结论也超乎意料，典型反映了邓恩式的奇想。