Walt Whitman: was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d 為Elegy的一種

Free verse 的代表 Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson: Dickinson left no formal statement of her aesthetic intentions and, because of the variety of her themes, her work does not fit conveniently into any one genre. She has been regarded, alongside Emerson (whose poems Dickinson admired), as a Transcendentalist. However, Farr disagrees with this analysis, saying that Dickinson's "relentlessly measuring mind ... deflates the airy elevation of the Transcendental". Apart from the major themes discussed below, Dickinson's poetry frequently uses humor, puns, irony and satire.

Here is a poem that is also a revelation with perfect economy and internal order.

Because I could not stop for Death

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

 

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,

And I had put away

My labour, and my leisure too,

For his civility.

 

We passed the school where children played, →指early childhood

Their lessons scarcely done;

We passed the fields of gazing grain, → 指中年

We passed the setting sun. → 老年

 

We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarcely visible,

The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries; but each

Feels shorter than the day

I first surmised the horses' heads

Were toward eternity.

 

討論plague 議題小說The Masque of the Red Death: "The Masque of the Red Death", originally published as "The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy" (1842), is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey.

 

Poem

260

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?

Then there’s a pair of us!

Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

 

How dreary – to be – Somebody!

How public – like a Frog – 

To tell one’s name – the livelong June – 

To an admiring Bog!

Nobody!可聯想到Odysseus

To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe

Helen, thy beauty is to me

   Like those Nicéan barks of yore,

That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,

   The weary, way-worn wanderer bore

   To his own native shore.

喜歡討論死亡，名詞喜歡大寫是德語的殘留

591

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

The Stillness in the Room

Was like the Stillness in the Air -

Between the Heaves of Storm –→ 相信死亡時會走向漩渦(見補充)

 

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry -

And Breaths were gathering firm

For that last Onset - when the King

Be witnessed - in the Room -

 

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away

What portion of me be

Assignable - and then it was

There interposed a Fly -

 

With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz -

Between the light - and me -

And then the Windows failed - and then → Windows複數意指為眼睛

I could not see to see –

補充:

whirlwind 光亮的旋風

Job, the most righteous person on earth

scapegoat 代罪羔羊

The Chosen People: Throughout history, various groups of people have considered themselves to be chosen people by a deity for a purpose, such as to act as the deity's agent on earth. In monotheistic faiths, like Abrahamic religions, references to God are used in constructs such as "God's Chosen People". 選民，夠好的才會被選中

afterlife 來生，會有加倍回報    trial 試煉

Keepsakes – The Bible - Cain Murders Abel

I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" – Cain

1865- 1914

Henry James: Henry James, was an American writer who spent most of his writing career in Britain. He is regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. 跟T.S. Eliot 一樣最終歸化英國，女弟子為Edith Wharton

Kate Chopin & Charlotte Perkins Gilman → 探索女性情慾的爆發

Mark Twain: Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel".

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: 包含爭取小讀者認同的孩童主角(child protagonist)、弱勢族群的集結以挑戰權威、領導統禦與兄弟情誼、追求夢想與冒險等元素，馬克·吐溫還擅長用方言俚語來突顯地方色彩和角色身份 Ex: Aunt Poly的話I ain't doing my duty by that boy, and that's [the Lord's truth], goodness knows. Spare the rod and spile the child, as [the Good Book] says. I'm a laying up sin and suffering for us both, I know. He's full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he's my own dead sister's boy, poor thing, and I ain't got the heart to lash him, somehow. Every time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so, and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. Well-a-well, man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, as [the Scripture] says, and I reckon it's so. 這段英文忠實地再現波麗阿姨這個密蘇裏鄉下女人的方言口音。

Colloquial 口語化文學

續集(The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1885)  “He ain’t comin’ back no mo, Huck.”” 黑人講話常會這樣 Double negative