求济慈On the Grasshopper and cricket的赏析

莫笑殇

求济慈On the Grasshopper and cricket的赏析！！！最好英文的，805254052@qq.com

Lovecraft

On the Grasshopper and cricket

The poetry of earth is never dead:

When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,

And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run

From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;

That is the Grasshopper's--he takes the lead

In summer luxury,--he has never done

With his delights; for when tired out with fun

He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.

The poetry of earth is ceasing never:

On a lone winter evening, when the frost

Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills

The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,

And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,

The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.



This is an analysis I did for my poetry workshop class:

The speaker of this poem is someone who appreciates the nature of poetry in its finest detail – from the voice of the grasshopper to the song of the cricket. The speaker is speaking directly to those that perhaps do not take the time to admire the poetry that nature has to offer. The reader is likely to feel favorably towards the speaker considering his or her (for the sake of the paper, I’ll use “his”) tone of admiration and the softness the poem seems to emanate. The poem itself uses lots of “soft” consonant sounds such as “poetry,” “earth,” “birds,” “voice,” “hedge,” “luxury,” and other words that force a person to kind of murmur the poem carefully when spoken aloud. The speaker continues his argument of the continuing expression of poetry by presenting the reader with a winter example and a summer example as if to say, “Rain or shine, cold or hot, poetry persists.”
The title itself forces the reader to acknowledge the roles that the Grasshopper and the Cricket play in this expression of poetry. Without the title, the reader could consider the poetry itself as the star of the poem without considering the Grasshopper or the Cricket as real contributors, but merely as examples of this poetry. Keats further confirms the authority of the Grasshopper and the Cricket by capitalizing the first letter of their “names,” giving them titles and more power within the poem.
There are two dominating themes of heat or warmth presented in the poem. The first is the summer itself which is captained by the Grasshopper and the second is the song of the Cricket during the cold season. The Grasshopper is presented as an appreciator of the “summer luxury” and relishes in the gift of warmth with its continuous “voice” that “run[s] from hedge to hedge.” In this case, the Grasshopper himself is capable of having his “delights” and “fun” with minimal effort and is able to rest if it feels tired. This example follows the line “The poetry of earth is never dead,” demonstrating for us the liveliness of poetry that present and easy to recognize. The Cricket is presented as an appreciator of this warmth and poetry, but his appreciation is “never ceasing” which becomes the sonnets Volta. The cricket amidst the cold air, frost, and silence works to create a song that all can appreciate and simultaneous to give itself warmth.
The remaining couplet is more difficult to decipher:
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost
The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
The “one” that the speaker is referring to is quite possibly himself. In “drowsiness half lost” he may be speaking about being half asleep or half enchanted by the sounds of the Cricket’s song. Here he seems to be comparing the Cricket to the Grasshopper as potentially some lost cousin who has adapted itself to appreciate the winter just as much as his distant relative appreciates the summer. Neither “character” is superior to the other, but what the speaker may be trying to state is that even when pushed into an environment that seems impossible to enjoy, one can still have poetry even by making it yourself. This poetry will be just as good as the poetry that came so easily to you in better times. I believe this is the reason why the first line “The poetry of earth is never dead” is repeated, yet altered in the Volta- “The poetry of earth is ceasing never.” Even when these poetic energies appear to be dead, they are not.
Assonance is occasionally used and it does help create the mood of relaxation and contemplation. “Earth,” “birds,” and other “r” sounds are dribbled throughout the poem along with the small alliteration of “new-mown mead.” These words feel like soft murmers. In the line, “He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed,” all of these “ee” sounds seem to stretch and make the reader relaxed as if he was also slowing down and enjoying a rest beneath a blade of grass. When the speaker turns and begins to describe winter time the assonance delves into long “o” sounds such as “lone,” “stove,” “song,” and “drowsiness.” These sounds accentuate a feeling of loneliness and also create focus on the word “lone” itself. “Frost” and “wrought” are emphasized when together creating a chilling sensation.
The rhyming scheme is a little bizarre: a, b, b, a, a, b, b, a, c, d, e, c, d, e. After some page flipping, I’ve found that it is a caudated sonnet developed by Milton. As to why Keats decided to write in this particular format is lost to me. I do appreciate the form eliminating it’s “sing-songy” feel which might detract from the subject of the poem. Strangly, the first two quatrains are more “sing-songy” and are used to describe the Grasshopper who “reads” his poetry by voice. The Cricket who actually performs a type of music has the least musical form of the sonnet. Intentional? Probably not. Keats also does not perfectly rhyme the words “dead” and “mead.” This takes away emphasis from the word “dead,” but when the line is repeated the reader is forced to look back at the differences. “Dead” become highlighted by the Volta instead of its rhyming word. This forces the reader to acknowledge the comparison of the Cricket to the Grasshopper (if that wasn’t already established enough) and also of summer to winter.
Meter is virtually nonexistent at times. “Hot sun” feels like a spondee and the reader is forced to endure its heat just a little longer than a regular iambic foot would have allowed. “New-mown mead” feels sluggish as well, but the reader pauses her more to enjoy the sounds of the “m’s”. Perhaps, this is a mechanism for the reader to feel a sense of enjoyment with words the way that the Grasshopper feels about newly mown grass. “That is the Grasshopper’s” stands alone and independent, followed by a dash and his title for the summer, “he takes the lead in summer luxury.” Lines 5 and 6 in total seems to completely ignore iambic meter and force us to acknowledge it’s words as something that can exist outside of the poem as it continues: “he has never done with his delights…” In the Volta, “the poetry of earth is ceasing never,” there is an additional syllable. Once again we are forced to look at this sentence and are reminded to look at its relative, the first line. “On a lone …” starts out with muddled iambic meter. Keats is continuing to drag the reader into the winter scenario until he finally picks up the meter again in the line, “winter evening when the frost / has wroght a silence, from the stove there shrills…” Keats continues this back and forth use of meter all the way to right before the couplet.

莫笑殇

Thank you very much