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标题: [诗评]Dylan Thomas: The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower [打印本页]

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-6-20 05:24
标题: [诗评]Dylan Thomas: The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower
My comment on The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower

The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower

by: Dylan Thomas

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

这几天在看Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren的<<Understanding Poetry>>, 里面谈到一首诗的结构(structure)是一首诗的骨架, 语气(tone)是它的血脉, 意旨(attention)是它的灵魂; 形成一种近乎”三位一体”的关系. 的确如此,这种观点揭示了诗歌各要素之间的内在联系,也展示了诗歌主体的复杂性. 这就带出一个问题-----究竟应该怎样评论一首诗? 我想既然这种联系是必然的, 那我们最重要的应该是把这种内在的联系外化, 把隐藏(遮蔽?)的东西表面化, 让真理之镜闪光.
既然structure是骨架, 那我们就先看看这首诗的骨架, 先看第一个stanza:

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

   第一句: The force that through the green fuse drives the flower, 开篇气势非凡, 北岛把它译成:”通过绿色导火索催开花朵的力量”. 译得很漂亮, 但是我总觉得也只能如此. 英语语法中的that句型很自然的把The force放在了前面, 给人一种扑面而来的感觉, 是中文无法翻译的. 此句中另一个”亮点”当然就是” the green fuse”, 紧接着” The force”之后给人强烈的视觉震撼. 而这个” drive” 就给人一种水到渠成的感觉, 虽然这个”水”更像是大瀑布.

   第二和第三句: Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees/ Is my destroyer. “blast” 表面上是承接的前面的” The force” , 实际上承接的是” the green fuse”, 其实这个”that blasts the roots of trees”意象有点牵强. 但是由于我们前面已经在不知不觉中接受了那个貌似metaphor的” the green fuse”, 这里的牵强反成了对前面metaphor意象的加强.

   后两句: And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose/ My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. 树根已被炸毁, rose也只能是crooked的了. “And I am dumb to tell” 这个没有多少语病的矛盾句型既清楚地表达出诗人无言的绝望(dumb), 又给出communication的诱惑与渴望(to tell). “the same wintry fever” 又是一个强加的意象, “the same” 点出rose与人共同的命运, 而” wintry fever”这一矛盾修辞使意象更加加强.

   通过上面的”colse reading” 我们可以看到诗人通过长句, 矛盾修辞, 惊人的意象和强烈的对比几乎是胁迫着我们走进这首诗.
刚才是逐句分析, 现在来看整体, 它的structure. 这个stanza可分成两部分, 1到3句是前半部分, 后两句是后半部分. 前半部分是所谓的image. 两个截然相反的image由三个句子来完成, 而这三个句子又极不对称----不管是内容上还是结构上. 结构上三句由长到短, 内容上由 ”生” 到 ”死”. 而两个”果”的”因”都是那个既是句首又是篇首的” The force”. 催开花朵和催开我绿色年华的是同一种力, 炸毁树根和毁灭我的也是同一种力. 这种不对称就像一个梯子带领诗句也带领我们由上而下地体验由生到死.
   后半部分可以说是saying, 矛盾修辞就不说了, 仍然看结构. 经过前面三句垂直下降的image, 后面的两句saying显的平行而工整. 是对上面momentum的缓冲. 而tell和后面的陈述(My youth is bent by the same wintry fever) 构成一种诉求与言说的姿态, 从image到saying的紧张过度保证了诗节足够的张力与平衡.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

   表面上看第二节跟第一节没有什么区别; 句式, 语气甚至用词都没有多大改动, 仿佛只是把the flower变成the water. 但是如果细心比较就会发现前面的” to tell” 变成了这里的” to mouth”, 前面的”the crooked rose”变成了这里的” my veins”. 在英语中”tell”和”mouth”的区别太重要, ”mouth”做动词有两种意思: “不出声地说”和“装腔作势地说;言不由衷地重复”。两种意思里都暗藏着感情的张力，比tell更有色彩。而后面叙说对象由“the crooked rose”变成” my veins”更耐人寻味。”the crooked rose”是它者，是nature的一部分。给“tell”以一种“romantic”的感觉。而“my veins”则是自己，对诉说(tell)对象(“the crooked rose”)的扬弃势必带来诉说的无力感(mouth). 这一小小的细节实际上蕴涵着巨大的能量. 诗人在与rose的communication失败后转向了自己。而诗人面对自己只能“言不由衷”，只能“mouth”。

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.

   The force终于变成了The hand，在与未知之力(The force) 纠缠两节(stanza)之后这个神秘的力终于渐渐清晰起来,但是前面的my green age和my red blood变成了the quicksand, 仿佛这个The hand已经无法像上面的The force一样”催开我绿色年华” 和 ”驱动我的鲜血”, 而只能 ”搅动流沙”. 平衡已经悄悄被打破.这里的rope更加牵强, 而”Hauls my shroud sail”才是真正的题中之意. 如果说前面的 ”destroyer” 和 ”Turns mine to wax” 还只是literal的表述，那么这里的my shroud sail已经再形象不过了。这里死亡的image逐渐清晰而具体起来。
   虽然第三stanza的后半部分动词又变成了tell，似乎表面上的紧张有所缓和。但是对象又发生转变，由my veins变成the hanging man，北岛和其他的几位译者都把它翻译成“那绞死的人”，这是一个很模糊的翻译。按照常理来说，这里应该是“那被绞死的人”(the hanged man)，但是原词是hanging，如果诗人没有刻意模糊词句, 这里诗人tell的对象应该就是刽子手(the hangman), 而the hanged man应该就是诗人自己. 但是因为后面诗句的关系, 这里的歧异是一种断裂, 诗人诉求的对象已经变得模糊不清, the saying已经很难维持原来的平衡. 而最后一句(How of my clay is made the hangman's lime) 对圣经情节的隐喻也更加重了melancholic的色彩.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

   The lips of time终于告诉我们the force是什么. “leech”这个词比前面的my shroud sail更加形象更加让人惊悚. 这句也打破了前面三节承接的句式. 结尾出现了分号, 仿佛时间之唇是如此地不容置疑.
   Love drips and gathers, 能够对抗死亡, 能够对抗时间之唇的恐怕只有爱情. 而爱情却也是滴散聚合(drips and gathers), 并无永恒. 而诗人接着安慰: but the fallen blood/ Shall calm her sores. 这里的her有人理解为love有人理解为time. 不管做何理解都是时间中的sores. 而能够安慰的只是the fallen blood. 跟Bishop的The art of losing 有点像. 丧失的艺术并不难掌握, 因为我们并不做什么只是接受. 等血沉落下来时间的伤就会平复.
   And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind/ How time has ticked a heaven round the stars. 那个模糊的the hanging man又变成了a weather's wind, 诗人诉说的对象已经完全失落. 本来他可以说And I am dumb to tell my lover. 但是他没有, 因为爱情已滴散聚合.
   How time has ticked a heaven round the stars. 这句恐怕是全诗的最亮点. 轻盈的动作(ticked), 美好的希望(a heaven), 和如梦的aura(round the stars). 仿佛时间之唇在滴散聚合的爱情滋润下已变成天堂滴答的钟声.

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

   但是精心营造的structure已经被打破, 天堂里的时间之钟滴答出的却是the lover's tomb, 而我床单上蠕动着同样的蛆虫(at my sheet goes the same crooked worm), 那个how已经不需要, 因为爱人已死, 再已无法滴散聚合了.

这样一节一节地评论下来就像讲故事, 但是故事讲完了我们还可以回味一下这座structure的大厦是怎样一点一点坍塌的.
前面四节结构大体相同, 最后一节是截段. 先看每节的第一句: drive/ drive/whirl/ leech 动词的力度和节奏逐渐变弱和减慢. 第二句: blast/ dries/ ropes/ fallen. 跟每段的第一句一样, 更甚的是最后一个变成了被动. 后面的几句也是一样的. 可以看出整首诗的节奏都在逐渐趋于缓慢, 诗人对于死亡的追问也越来越绝望和清晰.
   在这种绝望和清晰中诗人也达到了他的结句, 他要的revelation.

[ 本帖最后由怀抱花朵的孩子于 2006-6-20 17:17 编辑 ]

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-6-29 21:11
非常精彩的品评. Upon reading the poem, I'm deeply impressed by its vitality from the very first line. This vitality and force, however, declines as the poem carries on. And I think the turning point is in the fourth stanza when time is introduced into. Time has always been the greatest enemy in the human history.

我觉得美中不足在于主题探讨得不够，有些意犹未尽。如果你能结合诗人的其他作品或生平时代深入地挖掘一下就更好了。

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-6-29 23:39

原帖由 duessa 于 2006-6-29 21:11 发表
非常精彩的品评. Upon reading the poem, I'm deeply impressed by its vitality from the very first line. This vitality and force, however, declines as the poem carries on. And I think the turning poin ...

这篇诗评是一个晚上写出来的, 从12点写到6点半. 主要是忽然觉得这首诗的结构特别好,值得一评.就随兴写来. 写完也觉得后面有点单薄.也不好再改,就再没管他.

你很敏锐, 但我觉得你说"Time has always been the greatest enemy in the human history", 仿佛有点简单化, 如果时间仅仅是敌人就不会有那么多人写关于时间的诗了, 北岛还写过<<时间的玫瑰>>呢! 我觉得应该说时间是人类史上一个不变的哲学命题.甚至爱因斯坦的相对论探讨的也是时间空间问题. 诗人一写起时间就格外有种伤感的情绪,这倒是真的.

我觉得美中不足在于主题探讨得不够，有些意犹未尽。如果你能结合诗人的其他作品或生平时代深入地挖掘一下就更好了。

你说的很对, 主题探讨是有些不够.我们在德里奥斯大学 -> 没/文化研究：A/Cultural Studies里讨论的正是这个问题, 你可以看一下他们给我回的帖子,我们在那里已经探讨得很成熟了. 总的结论是这首诗在语言,结构等技术层面上应该是大师级的, 像里面一个人说的北岛他们一代人都没有写出这样值得推敲的诗. 但是主题却有些模糊和青春化. 他有点用语言来推动诗歌发展的倾向. 还是你自己去看吧!

我觉得这里面有关于诗歌语言很关键性的问题: 就是语言在诗歌写作中究竟占据什么样的位置, 我们的写作应该在多大程度上依赖与语言本身. 而这个问题不是只读Dylan一个人的作品能解决的, 我觉得这个问题太complicated, 当然写一般的主题评论我也能写, 但是我一直在思考它们后面的东西, 但愿很多年后我能找到些答案.

也许我会在写其他诗人的诗评时跟Dylan做些对比, 我刚才说的问题我已经在不只一个诗人的作品里遇见到. 但是这个问题写起来确实不容易.

[ 本帖最后由怀抱花朵的孩子于 2006-6-29 23:58 编辑 ]

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-7-1 20:55
时间确实是一个非常复杂的命题，我简单地提一句也正是为了避免使之复杂化。不过我把时间置于敌对的位置倒不是没有经过考虑的。时间一直是人类无法逾越的一道魔障，因为它意味着改变、腐朽、永恒的丧失，这在很多诗歌中都可以体会到。而诗人们只有凭借艺术的永恒或哲学的超越来对抗这一力量。

关于主题，其实你自己在一开始就点出了它在作品中“灵魂”的地位。如果我们对一首诗作只分析它的语言结构等形式方面的东西而完全忽略其主题那就彻底地成了一名解剖师了。当然，我也反对那种先入为主的、程式化的主题分析。主题应是在对诗歌进行了详尽的分析之后自然而然得出的结论，并能够指导分析，使之更为深入贴切。另外，对主题的讨论也不宜一味求全或面面俱到。有句话叫做“偏激而深刻”，还是很有道理的。对于这首诗，我觉得从青春、叛逆、绝望等等方面探讨都是不错的。

另：德里奥斯大学的讨论我看过了。感觉s老师还是有水平的，尽管他的话我也是似懂非懂的。毕竟那些名词术语不是人人都能随口而出的。

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-7-1 22:43

时间确实是一个非常复杂的命题，我简单地提一句也正是为了避免使之复杂化。不过我把时间置于敌对的位置倒不是没有经过考虑的。时间一直是人类无法逾越的一道魔障，因为它意味着改变、腐朽、永恒的丧失，这在很多诗歌中都可以体会到。而诗人们只有凭借艺术的永恒或哲学的超越来对抗这一力量。

时间问题确实很哲学化,好象我觉得不应该说是人类无法逾越的一道魔障, 因为好象说逾越时间是物理学家或者小孩子才有的想法吧? 我是说好象几千年来人们的文学感受应该没有什么差别, 至于这首诗我觉得它对时间的发掘也没有什么开创性的东西,只是比喻比较好而已,我很怀疑在文学上能够对时间这个概念做什么, 做得最好的恐怕还是马尔克斯,他的<<百年孤独>>确实写出那么点味道.

关于主题，其实你自己在一开始就点出了它在作品中“灵魂”的地位。如果我们对一首诗作只分析它的语言结构等形式方面的东西而完全忽略其主题那就彻底地成了一名解剖师了。当然，我也反对那种先入为主的、程式化的主题分析。主题应是在对诗歌进行了详尽的分析之后自然而然得出的结论，并能够指导分析，使之更为深入贴切。另外，对主题的讨论也不宜一味求全或面面俱到。有句话叫做“偏激而深刻”，还是很有道理的。对于这首诗，我觉得从青春、叛逆、绝望等等方面探讨都是不错的。

我不知道能怎样分析它的主题,觉得有些东西真的是无法言说的.有时候我宁愿做一个解剖师.我想如果你Dylan本人他写这首诗的主题是什么, 恐怕他也答不上来.我想当我们自己写诗的时候恐怕也不会想自己应该用什么主题.
我这样说并不是说对主题的探讨没有意义,我只是说很多时候觉得有些事很绝望,只能用诗的语言来表达或者说言说. 再在这种无法言说的诗歌中寻找主题有时会陷入更深的绝望.
或许你可以给点提示或者作些探讨,如果能敷衍成章我会很高兴去看去跟你讨论.我是不是有点犬儒主义?

另：德里奥斯大学的讨论我看过了。感觉s老师还是有水平的，尽管他的话我也是似懂非懂的。毕竟那些名词术语不是人人都能随口而出的。

这个S老师应该是北京某高校的博导,因为他发过一个帖子说是北师大的博导请他去讲座.里面的"野草莓"是芝加哥大学文学和神学博士倪湛舸. 好象那里是北大集中营,还有个刚考上中央美术学院的硕士"寒月芙蕖"等牛人.
看一下这个:http://deliios.org/bbs/read.php?fid=7&tid=396&fpage=1

[ 本帖最后由怀抱花朵的孩子于 2006-7-2 10:19 编辑 ]

作者: duessa 时间: 2006-7-3 22:17
关于时间，Dylan Thomas确实没有写出什么新意，而只不过有意无意重复了西方自古以来的一个时间母题而已。对一篇文学作品的分析，很大程度上是可以抛弃其作者的。我们不必在意作者是怎么想的，或是有什么创作意图，只要把自己感悟到的那一点有理有据地说出来就行了。

对于这首诗我倒不想多评了，因为对诗人本人和他的其他作品不是太熟悉。你那板块有首Andrew Marvell的The Garden,有空我将评论两句。

作者: 怀抱花朵的孩子 时间: 2006-11-21 02:58
我把这篇文章发到天涯上,今天去看了一下,发现一个网友介绍一个网页,里面是对这首诗的逐句评论,比我的更细致,觉得很有意思,贴出来给大家瞧瞧.

Explanation: "The Force that through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower"
Line 1
"The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower" is a complicated poem. On the first reading, it may seem almost too difficult for a beginning reader to understand. However, careful analysis will make much of the imagery clearer. As a survey of critics reveals, there is no one right explanation for the more complicated ideas in the poem. Even critics interpret lines in different, and often contradictory, ways. Since the poem is about contrast, change, and paradox, this may prove part of the poem's meaning. The first stanza in the poem is the easiest to understand. It is important to be aware of the pattern that Thomas develops in this stanza, in order to look for variations that appear later. The first three lines contrast the creative and destructive forces that surround humans. Thomas's imagery emphasizes the explosive nature of this power. The green fuse is obviously the flower's stem, yet the word "fuse" gives the connotation of explosive growth, rather than gentle development. In this line, Thomas introduces the creative force in nature. The rhyme scheme in this stanza is ababa.
[Back to Poem]

Line 2

In the first four words of this line, the power that causes growth in nature is revealed as the same force that causes the speaker to grow. Like the flower, the speaker is still in the process of growing. Green age implies youth since the word green has connotations of spring and renewal. Although green is often used in poetry to convey youth, this phrase also contains a sense of opposites; green conveys youth, while age often had the connotation of being old. Throughout the poem, Thomas will combine many seemingly opposite words.After the caesura — the pause or break in the rhythm — the destructive power is unleashed. Grammatically, the phrase refers back to the force in the first line. However, now it is a destructive power, obliterating trees by their very roots. Thomas makes it clear that the fuse which blasted the flower into existence is also the blast which destroys it.
[Back to Poem]

Line 3

Like nature, the speaker is also subject to the same fate. The change in length helps to emphasize the line's power. With three words, the speaker tells us his ultimate fate.
[Back to Poem]

Line 4

The fourth line in each stanza begins with the same six words indicating that the speaker is unable to convey his insight. Dumb has several meanings which could be applicable. While the speaker may be unable to "tell," for physical reasons, it is more likely for emotional ones, a sense of inadequacy to express the idea.Once again, Thomas combines words with opposite connotations. The rose is a symbol of beauty, of the growth described in the first line; using the adjective crooked to describe it changes our impression of the flower. Like much of Thomas's imagery, this phrase is not precise. It relies on the reader's feeling or impressions. The entire stanza leaves the reader with the impression that the crooked rose is blighted.
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Line 5

The speaker shares the same fate as the flower. he verb bent furthers the connection between the speaker and the rose as the reader understands the vigorous youth will become stooped and crooked with age, like the rose. In wintry fever, Thomas includes still another paradox as the cold of winter is blended with a fever's heat.
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Line 6

The pattern in this stanza is the same as the first, both grammatically and in the organization of ideas. However, the focus now changes from relationship between man and the biological world to man and the geological world. The force that was introduced in the first stanza pushes the water from under the earth's surface through the rocks to give birth to the mountain stream.
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Line 7

Once again, Thomas compares the speaker to nature in the first four words; the line opens with "drives" just as line 2 did, emphasizing the similarity. Blood is pushed through man's veins just as the water coursed through the rocks. Thomas frequently uses color in his poems; the red blood in this line is a counterpart to green age in the previous stanza. The contrasting element following the caesura describes these same streams dying. The alliterative half-rhyme of drives and dries reinforces this contrast.Thomas is noted for his ability to combine words to create arresting images, such as mouthing streams, which are open to a variety of interpretations. A stream's mouth is the place where it enters another body of water. Rather than being destroyed at the source like the trees in line 2, the stream dries before it reaches its destination; it is thwarted from completing its route. The word mouth will appear in two different contexts later in the stanza.
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Line 8

"Mine" in this line refers to the speaker's blood. It is turned to wax by the embalmer; it will flow no longer to sustain life, but become as solid as wax.
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Line 9

In the last stanza, the speaker was unable to communicate with the rose. In this line, his inability to express his feelings is even more poignant, since he cannot communicate with his own body. The word mouth again is used, and while to mouth in this line literally means to speak, the phrase takes on extra significance because of the repetition and variation in the use of this word.
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Line 10

Again the speaker shares nature's fate. Mouth in this line takes on an almost vampirish quality, as it sucks life away, the water from the stream, the blood from the speaker's veins.
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Line 11

The first two stanzas were extremely similar. The rhyme pattern was the same. Each image in the first found a parallel in the second. The third stanza, however, varies the pattern in several ways. The rhyme scheme will shift to a,b,a,b,c, leaving the last line unconnected to this stanza and to the previous ones.Force is replaced by hand. Force, as an abstract and general term, is easier to understand as a controller of human destiny than the very specific word, hand. In the previous stanzas, the contrasts were clear. The first line in both previous stanzas described growth and creation; the images Thomas uses here are not as clear. Water may be life-giving, but as the hand whirls it in the pool, the words join to convey a sense of danger, of the whirlpool.
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Line 12

The first four words of the second line previously connected the speaker's growth with nature's. In this line, the pronoun is left out. Instead, the hand stirs quicksand. Like the whirlpool, it is a destructive force. Both however, are limited in their ability to damage. All flowers will die; few individuals are caught in quicksand or a whirlpool. As the first half of the comparison is longer clear in its constructive nature, the destructive element is also less obvious. To rope the wind only implies control over nature.
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Line 13

Thomas includes the personal pronoun again, in the second half of the comparison. The destructive nature of the phrase is clear; the shroud means death. Indeed, the phrase conjures up visions of a type of Viking funeral as the corpse is sent to sea. Interestingly, a secondary meaning of shroud is a rope used to take pressure of the mast; this use ties the line to the ones before and after it.
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Lines 14-15

In each previous refrain, the speaker failed to communicate: to the rose, to his veins. Neither of those were new images; they followed from the first part of the stanza. The hanging man is introduced for the first time in the refrain. His connection with the details in the previous lines is vague, unless the image of a rope can be counted. Even the words hanging man are imprecise. The obvious conclusion is that he is the man who has been hung, but that is not specifically stated. He could be the hangman himself. Perhaps, it even refers to both. In the previous stanzas, the speaker looked ahead to his ultimate fate. Line 15 looks back from a future when the speaker is already clay, part of the lime-filled pit where the hangman disposes of his clients. The unattached rhyme in this line looks ahead to time in line 16.
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Line 16

This is the most difficult of the stanzas. The punctuation is different; the semi-colon isolates this line so that the first four syllables of the next line are no longer directly connected. Time is the creative and destructive force that has been operating in the previous stanzas, and now time itself becomes the focus of the poem, as time joins with the fountainhead or source. There are obvious sexual connotations in this line; the lips represent the vagina while the fountainhead is a phallic image. The use of leech as a verb here connects this line to the sucking mouth of stanza two.The rhyme scheme joins the first two lines, head and blood; lines 3 and 5 are also connected. Line 4 refers back to line 12 in the previous stanza.
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B>Lines 17-18

Thomas again combines positive and negative images in these lines, which are open to varied interpretations. The fallen blood may have sexual or birth connotations; it can be connected with Christ's blood and salvation, as well, in its calming power. These lines also foreshadow the final couplet, connecting love and death.
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Lines 19-20

Thomas has moved from a single flower to the cosmos. The speaker cannot tell the wind about the nature of time or of the heavens. The image of speaking to the wind is a powerful one. Much of this stanza is more easily felt than defined.
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Lines 21-22

The final couplet restates Thomas's theme of creativity aligned with destruction. Lover's tomb is an almost perfect symbol for love and death. The speaker, too, shares the same fate as the lovers. The last line may be interpreted in two different ways. The sheet may be viewed as a shroud, and the worm that which feeds on the corpse. The worm may also be seen as a phallic symbol and the sheet a bed sheet. Both images are integral parts of Thomas's theme. The crooked worm also returns the poem to the first stanza and the crooked rose. The poem, itself, becomes a cycle, combining conception, birth, growth, and death, all part of the same process.
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Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale, 1997.

From：http://www.gale.com/free_resources/poets/poems/force_ex.htm

作者: 情愿做只猫 时间: 2006-12-6 11:37

太好啦!!1顶一下

作者: 情愿做只猫 时间: 2006-12-6 11:50

好棒!!

作者: Crystal_zyy 时间: 2006-12-18 00:36
我所在的swansea是dylan thomas的故乡，有dylan thomas研究中心，博物馆，故居etc,每年都有dylan thomas festival,诗歌比赛，二手书大卖场云云。

没细看，不过粗略瞧瞧感觉写得不错的，有空好好琢磨一下。

欢迎光临芦笛外国文学论坛 (http://reeds.com.cn/)