American Literature
Lecture 3
Objectives
• Enable the Ss to know the background,
representative writers and their works of the
Romantic period in American literary history;
• Enable the Ss to know spirit of
transcendentalism by reading Emerson’s “ The
American Scholar”
• Enable the appreciate Hawthorne’s style by a
close reading of “The Minister’s Black Veil”
Teaching Materials
• William Cullen Bryant
“To a Waterfowl”
“The Yellow Violet”
• Emerson
“ The American Scholar”
• Hawthorne
“The Minister’s Black Veil”
Teaching Methodology
• Lecturing
• Text-analysis
Chapter Three
American Romanticism
(1810-1860)
General Introduction

Simply speaking, Romanticism is a
literary movement flourished as a cultural
force throughout the 19th C and it can be
divided into the early period and the late
period. Also it remains powerful in
contemporary literature and art.
General Introduction

Romanticism, a term that is associated with
imagination and boundlessness, as contrasted
with classicism, which is commonly associated
with reason and restriction. A romantic attitude
may be detected in literature of any period, but
as an historical movement it arose in the 18th
and 19th centuries, in reaction to more rational
literary, philosophic, artistic, religious, and
economic standards.... The most clearly
defined romantic literary movement in the U. S.
was Transcendentalism.
General Introduction

The representatives of the early period
includes Washington Irving, James
Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen
Bryant and those of the late period
contain Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry
David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan
Poe.
Its origins may be traced to :
the economic rise of the middle class,
struggling to free itself from feudal and
monarchical restrictions;
 the individualism of the Renaissance;
 the Reformation, which was based on the
belief in an immediate relationship
between man and God;
 the scientific deism(自然神论), which
emphasized the deity’s(上帝)
benevolence;

 the
psychology of Locke, Hartley,
and others, who contended that
minds are formed by
environmental conditions, thus
seeming to be indicate that all
men are created equal and may be
improved by environmental
changes;
 the optimistic humanitarianism of
Shaftsbury;
 the writings of Rousseau who
contended that man is natural
good, institutions also having
made him wicked.
Romantic Attitudes
 1.
Appeals to imagination; use
of the "willing suspension of
disbelief."
 2. Stress on emotion rather
than reason; optimism,
geniality(和蔼,亲切).
 3. Subjectivity: in form and
meaning.
1. Time Range

From the beginning of the 19th
century through the outbreak
of the Civil War.
2. Ideals:

Ideals: Democracy and
political equality became
the ideals of the new
nation.
3. Social Background

Economic boom:
Industrialism
Immigration
Westward expansion
optimism and
hope among
people
Radical changes came about in the political life
of the country. Parties began to squabble and
scramble for power, and a new system was in
the making.
 A nation bursting into new life cried for literary
expression. The buoyant mood of the nation
and the spirit of the times seem in some
measure responsible for the spectacular
outburst of romantic feeling in the first half of
the nineteenth century. The literary milieu
proved fertile and conducive to the imagination
as well.
Foreign influences added incentive to the
growth of romanticism in America.
 The Romantic movement which had flourished
earlier in the century both in England and
Europe proved to be a decisive influence
without which the upsurge of American
romanticism would hardly have been possible.


Sir Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
William Wordsworth, Byron, Robert Burns and
many other English and European masters of
poetry and prose all made a stimulating impact
on the different departments of the country’s
literature.
The influence of Sir Walter Scott was powerful
and enduring. Scott’s Waverly novels were
models for American historical romance, and
his The Lady of the Lake, together with Byron’s
Oriental romances, helped toward the
development of American Indian romance.
 The Gothic tradition, and the cult of solitude and
of gloom came through interest in the works of
writers like Mrs. Radcliffe, James Thomson and
the “graveyard” poets.

Byron and Robert Burns both inspired and
spurred the American imagination for lyrics
of love and passion and despair.
 The impact of Lyrical Ballads of
Wordsworth and Coleridge added to some
extent, to the nation’s singing strength.
Thus American romanticism was in a way
derivative: American romantic writing was
some of them modeled on English and
European works.

4. Features
1. American Puritanism as a cultural
heritage
 2. “The newness” of the American as a
nation


American Romanticism was both
imitative and independent.
Imitative
Independent
English and European
Romanticists
Emerson and Whitman
5. Themes:

Imitative

Independent
major
home,
family,
nature, children
and idealized love,
etc.
problems of
American life, like the
westward expansion and
democracy and equality, etc.
1. Washington Irving
(1783--1859)
of American Imaginative
literature”
 “Father of the American short
story”
 “Father
1) Works
a)
A History of New York from the
Beginning of the World to the
End of the Dutch Dynasty
written by Diedrich
Knickerbocker
《纽约外史》
b) The Sketch Book of
Geoffrey Crayon, Gent
Van Winkle”
 “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
 “Rip
《瑞
普·凡·温克
尔》
《睡谷的
传说》
《见
闻札
记》
《布雷斯
布里奇庄
园》
c) Bracebridge Hall 1822
d) Life of Goldsmith 1840
e) Life of Washington
18551859
《哥尔德
斯密斯》
《华盛顿传》
2）Life
 Irving
was born into a wealthy
New York merchant family. From
a very early age, he began to
read widely and write juvenile
poems, essays and plays.
Later, he studied law.
first book A History of New
York, written under the name of
Diedrich Knickerbocker, was a
great success and won him wide
popularity.
 In 1815, he went to England to
take care of his family business
there, and when it failed, had to
write to support himself.
 His
the publication of The Sketch
Book, he won a measure of international
recognition.
 With
Knickerbocker
Rip Van Winkle
In
1826, as an American
diplomatic attaché, he was
sent to Spain, where he
gathered material for his
writing.
From 1829 to 1832, he was
secretary of the U.S
Legation in London.
 Then
when he was fifty, he returned
to America and bought “Sunnyside”,
his famous home. There he spent
the rest of his life, living a life of
leisure and comfort, except for a
period of four years (1842--1846),
when he was Minister to Spain.
View of Sunnyside
3）Evaluation
 Washington
Irving was the first
American writer of imaginative
literature to gain international
fame.
 The short story as a genre in
American literature began with
Irving’s The Sketch Book.
 The Sketch Book also marked the
beginning of American Romanticism.
2. James Fenimore Cooper
(1789-1851)

He was a prolific
writer, wrote more
than thirty novels.
His Major Works.


In his life Cooper wrote over thirty novels which can
be divided into frontier novels, detective novels and
reference novels. He considered The Pathfinder
(1840) and The Deerslayer (1841) his best works.
The unifying thread of the five novels collectively
known as the Leather-Stocking Tales is the life of
Natty Bumppo. Cooper’s finest achievement, they
constitute4 a vast prose epic with the North
American continent as setting. Indian tribes as
Characters, and great wars and westward migration
as social background. The novels bring to life frontier
America from 1740 to 1804.
His Major Works

1) The Pioneers(1823): Natty Bumppo first
appears as a seasoned scout in advancing
years, with the dying Chingachgook, the old
Indian chief and his faithful comrade, as the
eastern forest frontier begins to disappear and
Chingachgook dies. Leatherstocking
Tales

2) The Last of the Mohicans(1826): An
adventure of the French and Indian Wars
in the Lake George county.
His Major Works
3) The Prairie(1827): Set in the new
frontier where the Leatherstocking
dies.
4) The Pathfinder(1840): Continuing the
same border warfare in the St.
Lawrence and Lake Ontario county.
5) The Deerslayer(1841): Early
adventures with the hostile Hurons
on Lake Otsego, NY.
Contributions of Cooper
 The creation of the famous Leatherstocking saga has
cemented his position as our first great national novelist
and his influence pervades American literature. In his
thirty-two years (1820-1851) of authorship, Cooper
produced twenty-nine other long works of fiction and fifteen
books - enough to fill forty-eight volumes in the new
definitive edition of his Works. Among his achievements:
1) The first successful American historical romance in the
vein of Sir Walter Scott (The Spy, 1821).
2) The first sea novel (The Pilot, 1824).
3) The first attempt at a fully researched historical novel
(Lionel Lincoln, 1825).
Contributions of Cooper
4) The first full-scale History of the Navy of
the United States of America (1839).
5) The first American international novel of
manners (Homeward Bound and Home as
Found, 1838).
6) The first trilogy in American fiction
(Satanstoe, 1845; The Chainbearer, 1845;
and The Redskins, 1846).
7) The first and only five-volume epic
romance to carry its mythic hero - Natty
Bumppo - from youth to old age.
His Skills
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
He is good at making plots.
All his novels are full of myths.
He had never been to the frontier and among the Indians
and yet could write five huge epic books about them is an
eloquent proof of the richness of his imagination.
He created the first Indians to appear in American fiction
and probably the first group of noble savages.
He hit upon the native subject of frontier and wilderness,
and helped to introduce the “Western” tradition into
American literature.
Evaluation
 Leatherstocking Tales is a
series of five novels about the
frontier of American settlers.
 The Pioneers was probably
the first true romance of the
frontier in American literature.
 Anyhow, Cooper did help to
introduce the “western
tradition” into American
literature.
3. William Cullen Bryant
(1794-1878)
 the first
American lyric
poet of
distinction
1) Works
a) Poems
1821
b) The Fountain
《泉》
《诗选》
1842
《白蹄鹿》
His Major Works
c) The White-Footed Deer 1844
d) A Forest Hymn 1860
《似水流年》
e) The Flood of Years 1878
《森林赋
》
《致水鸟》
His Major Works
f) “To a Waterfowl” 1815
g) “Thanatopsis”
1817
h) “The Yellow Violet” 1814
《黄色堇香花》
《死亡随想》
4. New England
Transcendentalism
-------the summit of American Romanticism
Transcendentalism
 It is a 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New
England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an
idealistic system of thought.
 The overall movement shared similar philosophies. These philosophies
rested on the Lockian concept of Idealism and Kant's belief in intuition.
 Emerson defined it as “idealism” simply. In reality it was far more
complex collection of beliefs: that the spark of divinity lies within man;
that everything in the world is a microcosm of existence; that the
individual soul is identical to the world soul, or Over-Soul. By
meditation, by communing with nature, through work and art, man
could transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty and
goodness and truth.
Transcendentalism
 In application, American transcendentalism urged a reform in society,
and that such a reform may be reached if individuals resist customs
and social codes, and rely rather on reason to learn what is right.
Ultimately, transcendentalists believed that one should transcend
society's code of ethics and rely on personal intuition in order to reach
absolute goodness, or Absolute Truth.
 It was indebted to the dual heritage of American Puritanism. That is to
say, it was in actuality romanticism on the puritan soil.
 Transcendentalism dominated the thinking of the American
Renaissance, and its resonance reverberated through American life
well into the 20th century. In one way or another American most
creative minds were drawn into its thrall, attracted not only to its
practicable messages of confident self-identity, spiritual progress and
social justice, but also by its aesthetics, which celebrated, in landscape
and mindscape, the immense grandeur of the American soul
Representative Writers
I. The Essayists
1) Ralph Waldo Emerson
2) Henry David Thoreau
Representative Writers
II. The Poets
The Boston Brahmins refer to the patrician,
Harvard-educated class, including Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell
Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Walt Whitman
Emily Dickinson
The Concept
1)
2)
3)
It also called New England Renaissance period from
the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War
in which American literature, in the wake of the Romantic
movement, came of age as an expression of a national
spirit.
The literary scene of the period was dominated by a
group of New England writers, the “Brahmins”. They
were aristocrats, steeped in foreign culture, active as
professors at Harvard College, and interested in creating
a genteel American literature based on foreign models.
One of the most important influences in the period was
that of the Transcendentalists, including Emerson,
Thoreau and so on.
The Concept
4)
5)
The Transcendentalists contributed to the founding of a new national
culture based on native elements. They advocated reforms in
church, state, and society, contributing to the rise of free religion and
the abolition movement and to the formation of various utopian
communities, such as Brook Farm. The abolition movement was also
bolstered by other New England writers, including the Quaker poet
Whittier and the novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose Uncle Tom's
Cabin (1852) dramatized the plight of the black slave.
Apart from the Transcendentalists, there emerged during this period
great imaginative writers—Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville,
and Walt Whitman—whose novels and poetry left a permanent
imprint on American literature. Contemporary with these writers but
outside the New England circle was the Southern genius Edgar Allan
Poe, who later in the century had a strong impact on European
literature
Leading writers
 Ralph Waldo
Emerson
 Henry David
Thoreau
Manifesto
 In 1836 the publication of Nature by Emerson
pushed American Romanticism into a new
phase, the phase of New England
Transcendentalism.
 Nature is regarded as the Bible of New
England Transcendentalism.
 It says in the book:
• “The Universe is composed of Nature and
the Soul.”
• “Spirit is present everywhere.”
About Transcendentalism
 Club:
Transcendentalist
Club
 Transcendentalist
journal: The Dial
 Sources:
---German Idealism,
---German
Transcendentalism
---American
Puritanism.
Definition by Emerson
 “What is probably called Transcendentalism
among us is idealism; idealism as appears
in 1842.”
 Transcendental:
 Whatever belongs to the class of intuitive (直
觉的) thought
Main Ideas (Features) of N.E.T.
• 1. placing emphasis on spirit, or the
Oversoul, as the most important thing in the
universe --- a new way of looking at the world
• 2. stressing the importance of the individual.
--- a new way of looking at man
• 3. offering a fresh perception of nature as
symbolic of Spirit or God
• New England Transcendentalism was, in
actuality, Romanticism in Puritan soil.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The American
Scholar--Intellectual
Declaration of
Independence
Nature ---the Bible
of New England
Transcendentalis
m
• Emerson’s aesthetics brought about a
revolution in American literature in general
and in American poetry in particular.
• It marked the birth of true American poetry
and true American poets such as Walt
Whitman and Emily Dickinson.
• He embodied a new nation’s desire and
struggle to assert its own identity in its
formative period.
Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862)
• A Week on the
Concord and
Merrimack Rivers
• Walden---a prophet
of individualism in
American literature
• He was one of the three great American
authors of the last century who had no
contemporary readers and yet became
great in this century.
• Herman Melville
• Emily Dickinson.
Questions
• 1. What, in Emerson’s view, are the main
influence upon the mind of the scholar?
(P297)
• 2. What is your understanding of the part
dealing with the value and use of books in
“The American Scholar”?
Assignment
• Read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Minister’s
Black Veil” and be ready to answer the
questions afterwards.
Herman Melville
(1819-1891)
His life represents:
one of the greatest
tragedies in the North
American literary history,
one of the greatest
losses to American
literature,
one of the most
disgraceful episodes of
critical stupidity in the
United States
Works
1. Redburn
2. Typee
3. Omoo
4. Moby Dick
5. Mardi
6. White Jacket
7. Pierre
8. Billy Budd
1849
1846
1874
1851
1849
1850
1852
1924
Themes of Moby Dick
• 1. Search for truth
The story deals with the human
pursuit of truth and the meaning of
existence.
2. Conflict between Good and Evil.
3. Conflict between Man and
Nature.
4. Isolation between man and man;
man and nature; man and society.
5. Solipsism.
Symbols
• 1) The Pequod
The Pequod is a symbol of doom.
It is painted a gloomy black and
covered in whale teeth and bones,
literally bristling with the
mementos of violent death. It is,
in fact, marked for death. Adorned
like a primitive coffin, the Pequod
becomes one. )
2) Moby Dick
Moby Dick possesses various symbolic
meanings for various individuals.
1) Symbol of nature for human beings,
because it is mysterious, powerful,
unknown.
2) Symbol of evil for the Captain Ahab.
3) Symbol of good and purity because of
its whiteness.
3) Voyage of the Pequod
Symbol of the pursuit of ideals,
adventure, and the hunt in the vast
wilderness.
4) Ahab
Symbol of solipsism, revenge and then
evil.
5) Sea
Symbol of vastness, loneliness, and
isolation.
Evaluation
• Moby Dick is, critics have agreed, one
of the world’s greatest masterpieces.
To get to know the 19th century
American mind and America itself,
one has to read this book.
• One of the classics of American
Literature and even world literature.
• Moby Dick is an
encyclopedia of
everything, history,
philosophy, religion,
etc. in addition to a
detailed account of
the operations of the
whaling industry.
6. Nathaniel Hawthorne
(1804-1864)
Collections
of short
stories
a)
b)
c)
Works
《故事
重述》
Twice-Told Tales 1837
Mosses from an Old Manse 1843
The Scarlet Letter 1850 《古宅青苔》
《红字
》
d)
The House of the Seven Gables
1851
《七个尖角阁的房子》
e)
The Blithedale Romance
d)
The Marble Faun 1860
《大理石雕像》
1852
《福谷传奇》
g)
“Young Goodman Brown”
h)
“The Minister’s Black Veil”
g)
“Dr. Rappacini’s Daughter”
《教长的
黑面纱》
《好小伙
儿布朗》
《拉普齐
尼博士的
女儿》
Life
Hawthorne was born in Salem
Massachusetts.
 Some of his ancestors were men of
prominence (突出)in the Puritan theocracy
of seventeenth-century New England. One
of them was a colonial magistrate, notorious
for his part in the persecution of the
Quakers, and another was a judge at the
Salem Witchcraft Trial in 1692.


When Nathaniel was four, his father died on a
voyage in Surinam, Dutch Guinea, but maternal
（母系的）relatives recognized his literary talent
and financed his education at Bowdoin College.
Among his classmates were many of the important
literary and political figures of the day: writer
Horatio Bridge, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and
future President Franklin Pierce. These prominent
friends supplied Hawthorne with government
employment in the lean times, allowing him time to
bloom as an author.


Like James Fenimore Cooper, Hawthorne was
extremely concerned with conventionality传统;
his first pseudonymously published short stories
imitated Sir Walter Scott, as did his 1828 selfpublished Fanshawe.
Hawthorne later formally withdrew most of this
early work, discounting it as the work of
inexperienced youth. From 1836 to 1844 the
Boston-centered Transcendentalist movement,
led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, was an important
force in New England intellectual circles.



Hawthorne's fiancée Sophia Peabody drew him
into "the newness," and in 1841 Hawthorne
invested $1500 in the Brook Farm Utopian
Community, leaving disillusioned within a year.
His later works show some Transcendentalist
influence, including a belief in individual choice
and consequence, and an emphasis on symbolism.
As America's first true psychological novel, The
Scarlet Letter would convey these ideals;
contrasting puritan morality with passion and
individualism.
Influences on Hawthorne
Salem - early childhood, later work at the
Custom House.
 Puritan family background - one of his
forefathers was Judge Hathorne, who
presided over the Salem witchcraft trials,
1692.
 Belief in the existence of the devil.
 Belief in determinism.

Major Themes in Hawthorne's Fiction
Alienation （疏远）- a character is in a
state of isolation because of self-cause, or
societal cause, or a combination of both.
 Initiation（创始） - involves the attempts
of an alienated character to get rid of his
isolated condition.
 Problem of Guilt -a character's sense of
guilt forced by the puritanical heritage or
by society; also guilt vs. innocence.

Pride - Hawthorne treats pride as evil. He
illustrates the following aspects of pride in
various characters: physical pride (Robin),
spiritual pride (Goodman Brown, Ethan
Brand), and intellectual pride (Rappaccini).
 Puritan New England - used as a background
and setting in many tales.
 Italian background - especially in The Marble
Faun.
 Allegory （寓言）- Hawthorne‘s writing is
allegorical, didactic（说教） and moralistic.
（道德说教的）


Other themes include：
individual vs. society,
self-fulfillment vs. frustration,
hypocrisy vs. integrity,
love vs. hate,
exploitation （利用，剥削）vs. hurting,
fate vs. free will.
Features of his works





setting
themes
Idea
Feature
technique
Puritan New England
Evil & sin
“black vision” toward human beings
Ambiguity
symbolism
The Scarlet Letter




Hester
Chillingworth
Dimmesdale
Pearl
Sin
evil
Adultery
Ability
Angel

The Scarlet Letter represents the height of
Hawthorne‘s literary genius; dense with
terse （用词简练的）descriptions. It
remains relevant for its philosophical and
psychological depth, and continues to be
read as a classic tale on a universal theme
(secret sin).
The Minister’s Black Veil
Questions to answer:
1. What happened at the morning service?
What was the effect of the black veil upon
the villagers? What was the subject of the
sermon?
1. Key: Mr. Hooper wore a black veil.
The second Paragraph in P302.
The 16th line in Paragraph 3 in P302.
2. What happened in the afternoon? Do you
think Mr. Hooper had anything to do with the
young maiden’s death? Why or why not?
2. Key:
In Paragraph 1 in P304.
3. What happened on that night?
3. Key:
In the last Paragraph in P304 and 1st
Paragraph in P305.
4. What happened the next day?
4. Key:
In the second Paragraph in P305 and 1st
Paragraph in P306.
The villagers were talking about the black
veil.
They sent deputation to talk with Mr.
Hooper.
5. What cause did Mr. Hooper give Elizabeth
not to take off the black veil?
5. Key:
In the second Paragraph from the bottom in
P307 and 2nd Paragraph in P308.
6. What happened at the death-bed of Mr.
Hooper?
6. Key:
In the 1st Paragraph in P311 and the sixth
Paragraph in P312
7. Why did Mr. Hooper persist in wearing the
black veil until his death?
7. Key:
In the last Paragraph in P312.
Technique
Symbolism
Psychological insight
Hawthorne as a Literary Artist
First professional writer - college educated,
familiar with the great European writers,
and influenced by puritan writers like
Cotton Mather.
 Hawthorne displayed a love for allegory
and symbol. He dealt with tensions
involving: light versus dark; warmth versus
cold; faith versus doubt; heart versus mind;
internal versus external worlds.

Reasons for Hawthorne's Current Popularity

Hawthorne's use of psychological analysis (preFreudian) is of interest today.

In themes and style, Hawthorne's writings look
ahead to Henry James, William Faulkner, and
Robert Penn Warren
7. Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow (1807-1882)
 Longfellow was early fond of reading Washington Irving's Sketch-Book was his
favorite
 Among Longfellow's classmates at Bowdoin
College was Nathaniel Hawthorne, whom he
helped later reviewing warmly his Twice-Told
Tales.
 In 1836 Longfellow began teaching in Harvard
 Longfellow settled in Cambridge, where he
remained for the rest of his life
 Queen Victoria, who was his great admirer,
invited him to tea
 The poet's 70th birthday in 1877 was
celebrated around the country
 Longfellow died in Cambridge on March 24,
1882. In London his marble image is seen in
Westminster Abbey, in the Poet's Corner
Works of Longfellow
 Voices of the Night 1839 《夜籁集》
 Ballads and other Poems 1841《歌谣
及其他》
 The Belfry of Bruges and other
Poems《布鲁茨的钟楼及其他》
 Evangeline: a Tale of Acadie 1847
《伊凡吉林》
 The Song of Hiawatha《海华沙之歌》
 Tales of a Wayside Inn1863, 1872,
1873《路边酒肆的故事》
Poetic Features
 His reputation as a major American Poet
declined between the two wars for the
gentleness and sweetness, and the common
subjects
 He is lacking in passion and high imagination
 His style and subjects are conventional
compared with modern poets
 He made a great contribution to "the flowering
of New England
 Americans owe a great debt to Longfellow
because he was among the first of American
writers to use native themes
8. Edgar Allan Poe
(1809-1849)
father of
modern short story

father of
detective story

father of
psychoanalytic
criticism

1) Works
《奇异怪
诞故事集
》
a) Tales of the Grotesque and the
Arabesque
《瓶子里发
b) “MS. Found in a Bottle”
现的手稿》
C) “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
《毛格街杀人案
》
《厄舍古屋的
倒塌》
d) “The Fall of the House of Usher”
e) “The Masque of the Red Death”
f) “The Cask of Amontillado”
《一桶酒的
故事》
《红色死亡的
化妆舞会》
《乌鸦》
g)
h)
i)
j)
The Raven
Israfel
Annabel Lee
To Helen
《伊斯拉菲尔》
《致海伦
》
《安娜贝尔•
李》
《诗歌原理》
k) The Poetic Principle
l) The Philosophy of Composition
《创作
哲学》
2) Life
• Famous American Poet, short-story
writer and critic.
致海伦
海伦，你的美在我的眼里，
有如往日尼西亚的三桅船
船行在飘香的海上，悠悠地
把已倦于漂泊的困乏船员
送回他故乡的海岸。
早已习惯于在怒海上飘荡，
你典雅的脸庞，你的鬈发，
你水神般的风姿带我返航，
返回那往时的希腊和罗马，
返回那往时的壮丽和辉煌。
看哪！壁龛似的明亮窗户里，
我看见你站着，多像尊雕像，
一盏玛瑙的灯你拿在手上！
塞姬女神哪，神圣的土地
才是你家乡！
这首诗据坡自己说是为中学一位同学的年轻
母亲斯丹娜夫人而作，写的是“我的灵魂的
第一次纯洁、理想的爱”。从诗里提到的地
理、历史背景来看，对斯丹娜夫人的爱慕和
对古希腊史诗《伊利亚特》中的绝世美人海
伦的景仰合二为一。而在最后一节里，对不
可企及的美人的倾倒又升华为对艺术——甚
至是对真、善、美的无穷无尽的追求。因为
在西文人心中，古代的希腊和罗马已成为一
种理想的境界，那里的一切似乎都是至美与
至善的。
4) Evaluation
• Poe remained the most controversial and
most misunderstood literary figure in the
history of American literature.
• Emerson dismissed him in three words “the
jingle man” ，Mark Twain declared his
prose to be unreadable. And Whitman was
the only famous literary figure present at
the Poe Memorial Ceremony in 1875.
• Ironically, it was in Europe that Poe enjoyed
respect and welcome.
• Bernard Shaw said: “Poe was ‘the greatest
journalistic critic of his time; his poetry is
exquisitely refined; and his tales are
“complete works of art”.
• Poe’s reputation was first made in France.
Charles Baudelaire said that “Edgar Poe, who
isn’t much in America, must become a great
man in France.”
• Today, Poe’s particular power
has ensured his position among
the greatest writers of the
world. The majority of critics
today, in America as well as in
the world, have recognized the
real, unique importance of Poe
as a great writer of fiction, a
poet of the first rank, and a
critic of acumen and insight.
His works are read the world
over. His influence in worldwide in modern literature.