William Blake
My spectre around me night and day
Like a wild beast guards my way.
My emanation far within
Weeps incessantly for my sin.
A fathomless and boundless deep,
There we wander, there we weep;
On the hungry craving wind
My spectre follows thee behind.
He scents thy footsteps in the snow,
Wheresoever thou dost go
Through the wintry hail and rain.
When wilt thou return again?
Dost thou not in pride and scorn
Fill with tempests all my morn,
And with jealousies and fears
Fill my pleasant nights with tears?
Seven of my sweet loves thy knife
Has bereaved of their life.
Their marble tombs I built with tears
And with cold and shuddering fears.
Seven more loves weep night and day
Round the tombs where my loves lay,
And seven more loves attend each night
Around my couch with torches bright.
And seven more loves in my bed
Crown with wine my mournful head,
Pitying and forgiving all
Thy transgressions, great and small.
1.Read the poem and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
____ 1)“Spectre”is used symbolically in the poem.
____ 2)The Spectre is one aspect of the fourfold nature of the human psyche along with Humanity, Emanation and Shadow that William Blake used to explore his spiritual mythology throughout his poetry and art.
____ 3)The poem is sweet and lively in nature.
____ 4)The spectre here probably refers to the conscience of human beings.
____ 5)The poem has a psychological and philosophical touch in it.
2.Pair work: Read the poem, find the rhetorical devices and share your understanding of the main idea with your partner.
Proper Names
Ingolstadt ( 地名) 英戈尔施塔特
Dante 但丁
Notes
1. Mary Shelley (1797-1851):She was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus(1818).She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley.Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.