The Analysis and its Symbolic Meaning of The Eagle

2002年4月阴山学刊Apr. 2002第15卷第2期YINSHAN ACADEMIC JOURNALVo1.15 No.2The Analysis and its Symbolic Meaning of The Eagle朱凤英(包头师范学院外语系,内蒙古包头014030)摘戛:丁尼生的名诗<鹰>中 ,综合运用了多种艺术手法,从音韵节奏、词汇选取,及至标点符号,无一不经过深思熟虑。读者的视听感官得到调动,诗的彝征意又也得以充分展现。关键词:丁尼生;(鹰);艺术手法;象征意义中围分类号:H319.4文献标识码:A 文聿编号:004-- 1869<2002)02 -0084- 02ThE EACLEHe claps the crag woith croked hands;The wrinkled sea beneath him craols ;Cloe lo the sun in lonely lands，He walches from his mountain wolls ,Ring' d wish the aure world, he sands .And like a thunderbol he flls.Alfred Tennyson was a lamous Brish poet in Victoria Period . He was very interested in poems and began writing poems at seven. He pub-lished many poems in his Hetime mo of which u master pices, such凹, The Mile' ; Daught,he May Queen, The Eagle. He began hislong serice of iyIs of Engish lte,shont araives richly pictured aod mloioualy luned,wih whch he was destinod to win the pubic all themore easily ,perhapo because of their touches of senimentaliy and urealiy,he wrole the poem-- The Eagle in 1851.htis lyric poetry inmemory of Artbur H. Hallam who was not only the best friend of Tennyeon but also an excellent ppreciative reeder of his poeliy . Halla infuenced Tennyson grealy. In 1833 Hallam suddenly died. His death made Tenyon very sad and was 8 very bard blow for Tennyson. Afer hisfriend died, Tenyon missed him for many years. Halam' o fgure appeared in his mind again and again. Tennyson cherished tbe memony of hisfriend deeply . So in the poem The Eagle , he crcaled a brave esgle flying everywhere . He compared his friend Hallam l0 the eagle . Bceause heand his friend indulged in self - adnmiration he described the agle lying frely and lonely in order to extol the outstanding personality and in-domitable spint of his friend.Tennyson writes the poeroThe Eagle kilfully . Though it is sbort and simple ,it is meaningful . The cagle in the poem is favorably pesentedas being strong and lough, proud and majestie ，sharp - eyed, alert and quick in movement . Instcad of stating these qualities direly, the poetmakes use of potic dervices to achieve this eltect. The devices used in the pem ineludc:sound pttem, rhyme sechene, word choic and careful-.ly used punctuation marks. These devices make the whole poem appeal to the readers' visual酷well as Bural scn8e.It is 8s if the readers couldsee and bear the bind.The poem is divided ino Iwo stanzas . The first stanza, which seems to give us“stutic" scenery , ends with " slands" .The word “stands" in-plics a sill state. Ths stanza represents a kind of harmonious beauly betwcen the eagle and bis living environment .The second stanzs ,ending with“alls" ,gives us a pictue of lhe flying eagle and the sea. These two staras form a sharp contrast between static beauty and dynamnic beauty.Thus Tennyson creales B complete contrast between the two places where the eagle lives.One is high,the ober is low. In the first stanzathe poet uses the word“erag”and the purase "close to the sun" . Both of them tell us that the eagle is ina high place- -on he top of日moun-uain. On the other hand, in the second stanza , the poet uses “sca beneath him" , and "he flls" . This means the eagle changes living places .Itlies down from the mountain and goes somewhere that is lower. In this way , the author clearly indicates to us the sting of the poem and the en-vironment where the eagle lives .In order to express the intended meaning of he poem, and to show u5 whal中国煤化工,the poet also combines收稿日期:2001-09-18fYHCNMHG84the two parts slly The thind line of the pem is a link in the chain o lhe cnex. Ring' d with the aure world,he stande" ll us lhal theaure world can be boh ube sky and lhe sea. In dhe fimt suaa lbe parase "elose lo the sun”apeas ,and in the sead one“the winkled e"dose.“The azure world" links the Iwo parts of the poem-- the two stanzas make a whole.In contrast to he harsh sound used to deseribe lhe cagle , Tennyson shows the environment--the blue sky ,the sea, and he mountain.Heuses eoft sounds such“azure world" ,"rinkled sea" ," mountain wall" and "Ionely land" I0 decribe he enionment . Through the aural im-age, we can fel that the momeatum of the enionment is weaker than lhe cagle . Actally ,ompered wih nature , the egle is saller.Thle poetdeliberntely chooses thee soft sounding words, which have a strong efe on the prominence through sound contns. For readers, the environ-ment provides a foil to set of the cagle.The other ise raised concemning the poem The Eagle is that the punctuation pattemns in the two slaneas are just the same," ;." .Thereis only one diferece between the third line and the last line. What is its purposc? The diference is that a comma is used in front of the phrase"he stands" ,but in ube last line of tbe poem there isn' a conma in front of the phrase "he flls" .Two pupoes for he poet to do 60 are sug-gested. The frst one is to make a strict demand on granmar because both the econd line and the third line are a priet sntece. " Ring’d withthe azure world" is an aboute element and is inserted there .It is used as an adverbial.In order to separate the adverbial from lhe main clause,lhe poel uses a comma belore "he stands" .So we may rewrie the senlence like this:"He stands close 1to the sun in lonely lndas."seibly inthis way ,the poet' 8 ideas are clearer and we can undersland him btter.The second purpose is 10 emphasize the meaning of the wond and t0 secure the ateation of the reader .The tiny comma makes the lwo stan-zas slighuly diferent in pltenr but a sharp contrast in fclig , Cenerally speaking, where there is a conna,there is a pause . Whenever we meetit and if we read it aloud,we must slop for a monent. So the comnta here draws us into it. The conoma reinforces the implied meaning of“beslands" loo.“Sland" ,as we know ,is a static verb.It introduces a static environment and shows a felig of slownes and the felig of being altleisure .In order to make this kind of feling stonger , the poet uses a comma . Meanwhile the poet invites us to read the poen slowly and com-prchend the implied meaning thoroughly .He also paints 8 word picture of how an eagle acts when itis ina static stilc.In the lasl line the poetuses the phrase "like a tunderbol" which shows the quality of quicknes and rapidity of the action"Fall" is a dynamic vetb. If he used acomma before“he olls," ,we would not get the strong felig of quickness. It is not gramnatical usage . The sentence would appear lose.It is .beller not using 且conm here. The last line of tbhe poem is s perdeet senlence, 60 a cormonas should nol be used . But the comma in the third lineplays a very important role in the pocm.It not only makes the two stanzas fom 8 whole but alo adds an emotional coloring to the poe中. On thewhole it is well organized and better unified.The poet carefully chooses the words deribing the eagle and his environment. He uses “clasp" ，cloee 1o”," watch" ,“stand" and“thun-derbolt" to describe the eagle, but“lonely" , "beneath" ,”wrinkled" and “craw!" to describe the environment-- the sky and the sea . Generallyspeaking ,the sky and the se8 give the reader 8 sense of vastness and bundesness, power and mystery .The wave of the sea is tremendous andturbulent. But in the eyes of he eagle , the wave of the sea is wrinkled and crawls.The pet uses anthropomophie device:the cagle is personalized;personal pronouns 8uch 鸱"he ,his, hin" are used lo describe the bird.Personification is used to imply that the eagle has human qualities such 8s "hands" . What is the purpose of the poet in using these particularimages and writing ski? In the poem, he emphasizes the visual sense. Such words的‘crag” ,“loncly lands" ，“wrinkled sea" ,“the azureworld" are used to echieve the goel . Throughout the poem the poet associales tbhe agle with the beauty of nature . Thus readers can imagine howbrave , pewerful and strong the eagle is .The namatives are extremely visual This analogy achieves Beveral purpoes. Firsly ,it makes the readerfeel that an eagle has the characteristics of a human being and makes the eagle more vinid;secondly , the poet shows his own ttilude toward theeage ;thirdly●the poet expeses his own fcling for loving nature.The alicration in the first line creales a musical elcl. The words' 'clasps" ，crag" and* crooked" have a harsh /k/ sound, which impliesadverse cireunsances such s the harsh climste and the mighty image of the eagle.The thymnes secheme of the frst three lines end with AAAand that of the last three lines end with BBB . The diferent endings divide the poem into two stanzas , and the diference in rhymes correspondsto the diference of ideas in he two slanzes.Ln short, the symbolic meaning of the pocm is strong and magnifcent.The poet' s wing slyle diles from obens' because it is very sil-ful . Aexible and exquisite .参考文献:[1]ALfred Tenyson. The Eogle[z]. 1851.[2]WU Wwei - ren. Hiusory and Anthologoy of Englsh Lierature[M]. Beijing For中国煤化工Pets.[3}YANG Qishen ,SUN Zbu. Selected Readings in English Lieraue (Book 1;fYHCNMHG4常芳芳)35