标题: English poetry (I) [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 10-22-2018 14:20 标题: English poetry (I) Two weeks ago, I started reading English poems for the first time in my life.
Note:
(a) A commentator in recent years said most English-speaking people do not know what pease porridge is, though they know this poem by heart.
(b) Pea. Online Etymology Dictionary, undated. https://www.etymonline.com/word/pea
Note: refrain. Encyclopaedia Britannica, undated https://www.britannica.com/art/refrain
(" Three common refrains are the chorus, recited by more than one person; the burden, in which a whole stanza is repeated; and the repetend, in which the words are repeated erratically throughout the poem. A refrain may be an exact repetition, or it may exhibit slight variations in meaning or form as in the following excerpt from 'Jesse James' ") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_James_(folk_song) 作者: choi 时间: 10-22-2018 14:28
(c) Alfred Pollard (ed), Works of Robert Herrick. revised edition, vol I. London: Lawrence & Bullen (1898), page 175 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22421/22421-h/i.html#p349
(at age 175: "349 HER LEGS[:] Fain would I kiss my Julia's dainty leg, Which is as white and hairless as an egg")
Note:
(a)
(i) That is the entire poem.
(ii) fain (adj; adv) https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fain
(b) The URL indicates it is a Project Gutenberg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gutenberg
(c)
(i) The English surname Pollard was "nickname for a person with a large or unusually shaped head, from Middle English [noun] poll head (Middle Low German polle (top of the) head’) + the pejorative suffix -ard." Dictionary of American Family Names, by Oxford University Press.
An example in modern English: poll tax.
(ii) Robert Herrick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Herrick_(poet)
(1591 – 1674; English(man); "Herrick never married, and none of his love-poems seem to connect directly with any one woman")
(A) The top graphic in this Wiki page says, "Robert Herrick, 1904 illustration based on Hesperides impression."
A definition in
The classic Greek dictionary : in two parts: Greek-English and English-Greek. New York: Hinds, Noble & Eldredge (1901), page 275 https://books.google.com/books?i ... q=greek+dictionary+ἕσπερος&source=bl&ots=Hocwop36NR&sig=_wlUvuifO6ZDquYZVHF7rwjFAAM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjJovPb25reAhUNO60KHbWRC1A4ChDoATADegQIBBAB#v=onepage&q=greek%20dictionary%20ἕσπερος&f=false
(ἙΣΠΕʹΡΑ ἡ, Lat. VESPERA, fem. of the Adj. ἕσπερος: I (sub. ὥρᾱ), evening")
What does ἡ mean? See Ancient Greek grammar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_grammar
(section 2.1 Nouns, section 2.1.1 Gender: "The gender of a noun is shown by the definite article (the word ὁ, ἡ, τό ([transliteration:] ho, hē, tó) 'the') which goes with it")
Without the diacritic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacritic
(derived from Ancient Greek that means "to distinguish")
at the top, η itself is a Greek letter. See Greek alphabet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet
("[uppercase] Η [lowercase] η eta") 作者: choi 时间: 10-22-2018 14:31
(4) "Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."
The Italics are part of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The lyrics of witches' incantation is in roman type. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_type
(ii)
(A) About About Pan Macmillan. undated
("Pan Macmillan UK is one of the largest general book publishers in the UK, with imprints including Macmillan, Mantle, Pan, Picador, Boxtree, Sidgwick & Jackson, Bello, Tor, Kingfisher, Macmillan Children’s Books, Two Hoots, Bluebird, Campbell Books, Macmillan New Writing and Macmillan Digital Audio. Pan Macmillan is part of Macmillan Publishers International Limited. * * * Pan Macmillan is part of the Macmillan Group, which operates in over 70 countries worldwide. * * * In the UK, Australia, India, and South Africa, Macmillan publishes under the Pan Macmillan nam")
(B) Pan Books https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Books
("Pan Books began as an independent publisher, established in 1944 by [Englishman] Alan Bott, previously known for his memoirs of his experiences as a flying ace in the First World War. The Pan Books logo, showing the ancient Greek god Pan playing pan-pipes, was designed by Mervyn Peake")
(b)
(i) With modifications, the song was performed by Frog Choir in the 2004 film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
(ii)
(A) "Double" means twice the amount -- of what, it does not say. Could be ingredients, toil or trouble (see definition mext, which is what all say: effort). Toil can be a noun or a verb -- meaning hardworking or work hard.
(B) trouble (n): "an effort made : PAINS <took the trouble to do it right>" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trouble
(d) Double, Double, Toil and Trouble: Meaning Then. Shmoop, undated https://www.shmoop.com/shakespea ... e/meaning-then.html
("usually Shakespeare writes in iambic pentameter, but he switches it up here. The witches' lines are written in something called trochaic tetrameter. * * * A trochee is the opposite of an iamb. It's an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable. It sounds like DUM-da. For those of you out there who know your Latin roots, you might know that 'tetra' means 'four.' So 'trochaic tetrameter' is a kind of rhythmic pattern that consist of four trochees per line")
(a) iambic pentameter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter
(section 1 Meter, section 1.1 Meter)
(b) meter
(noun 1; First Known Use before the 12th century; from Latin metrum, from Greek metron measure, meter): rhythm
(noun 3; First Known Use 1797; French mètre, from Greek metron measure): metric system https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meter
("Did You Know?")