[转载]关于The Solitary Reaper一诗的格律分析

你的问题提得很好,已有几位网友曾经问到这个问题了，可见这样的问题很有普遍性，现作如下公开回答，仅供参考，也供切磋。

英诗中并非每首格律诗的格律和韵律都是自始自终统一无变的。格律诗中的破格是常见的现象，但一首格律诗必须有一个基本的格律，在确定了这首诗的基本格律以后可以允许有破格，如果能进一步指出那些破格的地方，如果你发现这些破格与内容有联系，你可以进一步说明诗人破格的目的，这样，你就完全达到了格律分析的目的。

你提到的那文学选读( 不知是谁主编的) 注释中说的是对的,不过要更准确一点应该说:"这首诗的基本格律是四步抑扬格，尾韵是ababccdd"。你的分析发现也是对的。这首诗的韵律、格律都有破格之处：第一节第三行和第四节第一行明显就不是四步抑扬格，而基本是四步扬抑格；第一节和第四节不仅是一、二、三诗节的第四行而且第四节的第四行也都是三音步；还有，第一节和第四节的开始四行的韵律都是abcb，而不是基本格律的 abab。以上这些都是全诗基本格律之外的破格，在肯定这首诗的基本格律以后最好能作这样进一步的细致分析，并引导学生思考这些破格是否是诗人有意为之？它与内容表达有无联系？。

（我于2011-07-13在本博客中曾上传过《关于英诗格律的分析》一文，请查阅）

附原诗:

The Solitary Reaper

   William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Behold her, single in the field，

Yon solitary Highland Lass!

Reaping and singing by herself；

Stop here or gently pass!

Alone she cuts and binds the grain，

And sings a melancholy strain；

O Listen! for the Vale profound

ls overflowing with the sound.

 

No Nightingale did ever chant

More welcome notes to weary bands

Of travellers in some shady haunt

Among Arabian sands;

A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard

In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird，

Breaking the silence of the seas

Among the farthest Hebrides1.

 

Will no one tell me what she sings?—

Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow

For old, unhappy, far-off things，

And battles long ago；

Or is it some more humble lay，

Familiar matter of to-day?

Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain，

That has been, and may be again?

 

What'er the theme, the maiden sang

As if her song could have no ending；

I saw her singing at her work，

And o'er the sickle bending；

I listen 'd, motionless and still，

And as I mounted up the hill,

The music in my heart l bore,

Long after it was heard no more.

In form, this lyric is composed of four stanzas, each of which consists of eight lines with a basic rhyme pattern of ababccdd, with exceptions of the first four lines in the first and the last stanzas which is not abab but abcb. The general metrical scheme is iambic tetrameter, but we have to note there are irregular meters, such as the third line of the first stanza which is basically trochaic tetrameter (“Reaping and singing by herself”), and all the fourth lines in all the four stanzas (“Stop here, or gentally pass!” “Among Arabian sands”, “And battles long ago”, “And o’er the sickle bending”), which are all iambic trimeters.

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1 the farthest Hebrides：赫布里底群岛是在苏格兰西北的大西洋中，远离英国本土。