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名词解释
1. Epic (史诗)（appeared in the the Anglo-Saxon Period ）
It is a narrative of heroic action, often with a principal hero, usually mythical in its content, grand in its style, offering inspiration and ennoblement within a particular culture or national tradition.
A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated.
Epic is an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, like Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey. It usually celebrates the feats of one or more legendary or traditional heroes. The action is simple, but full of magnificence. Today, some long narrative works, like novels that reveal an age & its people, are also called epic. E.g. Beowulf （ the pagan（异教徒），secular(非宗教的) poetry） Iliad 《伊利亚特》，Odyssey《奥德赛》 Paradise Lost 《失乐园》，The Divine Comedy《神曲》
2. Romance （传奇）(Anglo-Norman feudal England)
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Romance is any imaginative literature that is set in an idealized world and that deals with heroic adventures and
battles between good characters and villains or monsters.
Originally, the term referred to a medieval (中世纪) tale dealing with the love and adventures of kings, queens, knights, and ladies, and including supernatural happenings.
Form: long composition, in verse, in prose
Content: description of life and adventures of a noble hero
Character: a knight, a man of noble birth, skilled in the use of weapons; often described as riding forth to seek
adventures, taking part in tournaments(骑士比武), or fighting for his lord in battles; devoted to the church and the king
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Romance lacks general resemblance to truth or reality.
It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtues.
It contains perilous (dangerous) adventures more or less remote from ordinary life. It lays emphasis on supreme devotion to a fair lady.
①The Romance Cycles/Groups/Divisions
Three Groups
? matters of Britain Adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table （亚瑟王和他的圆桌骑士） ? matters of France Emperor Charlemagne and his peers
? matters of Rome Alexander the Great and the attacks of Troy Le Morte D’Arthur （亚瑟王之死）
②Class Nature (阶级性) of the Romance
Loyalty to king and lord was the theme of the romances, as loyalty was the corner-stone（the most important part基石）of feudal morality.
The romances were composed not for the common but for the noble, of the noble, and by the poets patronized（supported 庇护,保护） by the noble.
3. Alliteration（押头韵）: a repeated initial(开头的) consonant(协调,一致) to successive(连续的) words.
e.g. 1.To his kin the kindest, keenest for praise.
2.Sing a song of southern singer
4. Understatement（低调陈述）（for ironical humor）
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not troublesome: very welcome need not praise: a right to condemn
5. Chronicle《编年史》（a monument of Old English prose）
6. Ballads （民谣）（The most important department of English folk literature ）
①Definition:
A ballad is a narrative poem that tells a story, and is usually meant to be sung or recited in musical form.
An important stream of the Medieval folk literature
②Features of English Ballads
1. The ballads are in various English and Scottish dialects.
2. They were created collectively and revised when handed down from mouth to mouth.
3. They are mainly the literature of the peasants, and give an outlook of the English common people in feudal society.
③Stylistic （风格上） Features of the Ballads
1. Composed in couplets （相连并押韵的两行诗,对句） or in quatrains （四行诗） known as the ballad stanza （民谣诗节 ）, rhyming abab or abcb, with the first and third lines carrying 4 accented syllables （重读音节） and the second and fourth carrying 3.
2. Simple, plain language or dialect （方言，土语） of the common people with colloquial （口语的，会话的）, vivid and, sometimes, idiomatic （符合当地语言习惯的） expressions 3. Telling a good story with a vivid presentation around the central plot.
4. Using a high proportion of dialogue with a romantic or tragic dimension （方面） to achieve dramatic effect.
④Subjects of English Ballads
1. struggle of young lovers
2. conflict between love and wealth 3. cruelty of jealousy
4. criticism of the civil war 5. matters of class struggle
7. Heroic couplet （英雄双韵体）（introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer）
Definition: the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter; a verse form in epic poetry, with lines of ten syllables and five
stresses, in rhyming pairs.
英雄诗体/英雄双韵体：用于史诗或叙事诗，每行十个音节，五个音部，每两行押韵。
8. couplet（两行诗，对句）: Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.A heroic couplet is an iambic
pentameter couplet. During the Restoration period and the 18th C. it was a popular verse form.
9. iambic pentameter: A poetic line consisting of five Verse feet (penta- is from a Greek word meaning “five”),
with each foot an iamb-- that is, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
10. Rhyme（韵，押韵）: the repetition (反复) of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to
each other in a poem. E .g . river/shiver, song/long
11. meter (格律) （属于Prosody ['pr?s?d?]（韵文学;诗体学；(某语言的)韵律(学)））: A generally regular
pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables（音节） in poetry.
The meters with two-syllable feet are:
Iambic (x /)（抑扬格）: That time of year thou mayst in me behold
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Trochaic (/ x)（扬抑格）: Tell me not in mournful numbers
Spondaic (/ /)（扬扬格）: Break, break, break/ On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
The meters with three-syllable feet are:
anapestic (x x /)（抑抑扬格）: And the sound of a voice that is still
dactylic (/ x x)（强弱格，长短格，扬抑抑格）: This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlock
(a trochee replaces the final dactyl)
12. Rhythm（节奏，韵律）（属于Prosody ['pr?s?d?]（韵文学;诗体学；(某语言的)韵律(学)））： refers
to the regular recurrence（反复，重现） of the accent（重读） or stress in poem or song.
e.g. the rhythm of day and night, the seasonal rhythm of the year, the beat of our hearts, and the rise and fall of sea tides, etc.
basic patterns of rhythms
a) Iambic foot (iamb['ai?mb])（抑扬格）: an unstressed syllable followed by an stressed one as in the word
“prevent” or “about”
It’s time the children went to bed. We’ll learn a poem by Keats.
b) Trochaic [tr?u'keiik] foot (trochee ['tr?uki:])（扬抑格）: a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one as in “football”, “never”, “happy” or “English” William Morris taught him English. Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burns and cauldron bubble.
c) Anapestic foot (anapest [??n?pi:st] )（抑抑扬格）: two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one as in “comprehend” or “intervene”
I’ve been working in China for forty years.
d) Dactylic foot (dactyl)（强弱格，长短格，扬抑抑格）: a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones as in “dangerous”, “cheerfully”, “yesterday” or “merrily”
13．Common line lengths:
number of feet per line
? one foot monometer [m?'n?mit?] (rare)（单音部） ? two feet dimeter ['dimit?] (二步) ? three feet trimester ['trimit?](三步)
? four feet tetrameter [te'tr?mit?](四步) ? five feet pentameter [pen't?mit?](五步) ? six feet hexameter [hek's?mit?] ? seven feet heptameter [hep't?mit?] (rare) ? eight feet octameter [?k't?mit?] (rare)
14．Line patterns:
Couplet（相连并押韵的两行诗,对句）: 2 lines rhyming with each other
? A heroic couplet is an iambic pentameter couplet.
Tercet ['t?:sit]（三行押韵诗句,三拍子）: 3 lines, terza rima (aba, bcb, cdc, ded) Quatrain ['kw?trein]（四行诗）: 4 lines, ballad stanza (abcb) Octave ['?kt?v, -,te?v]（八行诗）: 8 lines, ottava rima (abababcc)
Spenserian stanza （斯宾塞诗节）: 9 lines (ababbcbcc) （The Faerie Queene（仙后））
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英国文学名词解释大全(整理版)
