閱讀勃朗寧夫人 Elizabeth Barret Browning在诗海的作品!!! | |||
勃朗宁夫人她本來是一個殘廢的病人，生命，衹剩下一長串沒有歡樂的日子；青春，在生與死的邊緣上黯然消逝。如今，在遲暮的歲月裏趕上了早年的愛情。然而，她衹能流着淚，用無情的沉默來回答一聲聲愛情的呼喚。但是，愛情戰勝了死亡，從死亡的陰影裏救出了一個已經放棄了生命的人。就象神話中的英雄在懸崖邊救出了被供奉給海怪的公主，替公主打開了裹在她周身的鐵鏈；她那不知疲倦的情人也幫着她擺脫了她的驚慌、她的疑慮、她的哀怨，扶着她一步步來到了陽光底下。她動蕩不安的感情逐漸變得穩定了；她對於人生開始有了信心，産生了眷戀。未來的幸福，不再是一團強烈的幻光，叫她不敢逼視，不敢伸出手去碰一下了。她敢於拿愛情來報答愛情了。
這份愛情使她奇跡班地重新站了起來。在病室中被禁錮了24年之後，她終於可以憑自己的雙腳重新走到陽光下了。
白朗寧夫婦一起度過了１５年幸福的生活，在這１５年中，從不知道有一天的分離。1861年６月２９日，白朗寧夫人永別了她的Robert。臨終之前，她並沒多大病疼，也沒有預感，衹是覺得倦；那是一個晚上，她正和白朗寧商量消夏的計劃。她和他談心說笑，用最溫存的話表示她的愛情；後來她感到倦，就偎依在白朗寧的胸前睡去了。她這樣地睡了幾分鐘，頭突然垂了下來；他以為她是一時昏暈，但是她去了，再不回來了。她在他的懷抱中瞑了目。她的容貌，象少女一般，微笑，快樂。
這部感人的詩集就是他們愛情生活的真實寫照。它是英國文學史上的珍品之一。其美麗動人，甚至超過莎士比亞的十四行詩集。有多人譯過這本詩集，如聞一多，查良錚（金庸）等。白朗寧夫人最初開始寫這十四行組詩大概是在她答應了白朗寧的求婚以後那一段時期。直到他們婚後住到了比薩，白朗寧纔讀到這本詩集。他不敢把這文學上的無價之寶留給他一個人
享受。1850年白朗寧夫人出版了一捲詩集，把這組十四行詩也收進在內，共四十四首，還取了一個總名，叫做《葡萄牙人十四行詩集》，用以掩飾作者身份。
她主要的作品有《天使及其它詩歌》(The Serap hair and Other Poems, 1838), 《詩集》(Poems, 1844), 《葡萄牙十四行詩集》(Sonnets from Portugue, 1850), 《大會前的詩歌》(Poems Before Congress, 1860), 《奧羅拉•利》(Auror a Leigh, 1857)《逃跑的奴隸》(The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Poiny, 1846)等。
她詩歌創作的主題可以分為兩個主要方面。一是抒發生活之情;二是爭取婦女解放,反對奴隸製,暴露社會的弊端,表現了進步的理想。她的詩具有熾熱充沛的感情和扣人心弦之力量,語句精煉,才氣橫溢,大都是帶有較濃的感傷性質。
主要作品有《葡萄牙人十四行詩集》和長詩《奧羅拉·莉》。
Elizabeth spent her youth at Hope End in Ledbury near Great Malvern, England. The Barrett family had amassed a considerable fortune from the Jamaican sugar plantations inherited by her father, Edward Moulton Barrett, who was born there. The Barretts had been associated with Jamaica for generations. As a boy he emigrated to England with his brother and sister (she is the subject of the painting "Pinkie" in the Huntington Museum). He and his wife, Mary Graham-Clarke, were parents of twelve children (Elizabeth was the eldest). Elizabeth was educated at home and attended lessons with her brother's tutor and was thus well-educated for a girl of that time. When in her early teens, Barrett contracted a lung complaint, possibly tuberculosis, although the exact nature of her illness has been the subject of speculation. She was subsequently regarded as an invalid by her family. The first poem we have a record of is from the age of six or eight (the manuscript is in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library; the date is in question because the 2 in the date 1812 is written over something else that is scratched out). A long Homeric poem titled "The Battle of Marathon" was published when she was fourteen, her father underwriting its cost. In 1826 she published her first collection of poems, "An Essay on Mind and Other Poems." Its publication drew the attention of a blind scholar of the Greek language, Hugh Stuart Boyd, and another Greek scholar, Uvedale Price, with both of whom she maintained a scholarly correspondence. At Boyd's suggestion, she translated Aeschylus's "Prometheus Bound" (published in 1833; retranslated in 1850).
The abolition of slavery, a cause which she supported (see her work The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point (1849)), considerably reduced Mr. Barrett's means. He moved with his family first to Sidmouth and afterwards to London. After the move to London, she continued to write, contributing to various periodicals "The Romaunt of Margaret", "The Romaunt of the Page", "The Poet's Vow", and other pieces, and corresponded with literary figures of the time, including Mary Russell Mitford. In 1838 appeared The Seraphim and Other Poems.
The death of her brother, Edward, who drowned in a sailing accident at Torquay in 1840, had a serious effect on her already fragile health; and for a few years she rarely left her bedroom. Eventually, however, she regained strength, and meanwhile her fame was growing. The publication in 1843 of "The Cry of the Children" gave it a great impulse, and about the same time she contributed some critical papers in prose to Richard Henry Horne's A New Spirit of the Age. In 1844 she published two volumes of Poems, which included "A Drama of Exile", "A Vision of Poets", and "Lady Geraldine's Courtship".
In 1845 she met her future husband, Robert Browning, who had written to her after the publication of her Poems. Their courtship and marriage, owing to her delicate health and the extraordinary objections made by Mr. Barrett to the marriage of any of his children, were carried out secretly. After a private marriage at St Marylebone Parish Church, she accompanied her husband to the Italian Peninsula, which became her home almost continuously until her death.
The union proved a happy one. In her new circumstances Elizabeth's strength greatly increased. At the age of 43 she gave birth to a son, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, called "Pen". The Brownings settled in Florence, and there she wrote Casa Guidi Windows (1851) under the inspiration of the Tuscan struggle for liberty, with which she and her husband were in sympathy. In Florence she became close friend of British-born poets Isabella Blagden and Theodosia Garrow Trollope.
The verse-novel Aurora Leigh, her most ambitious, and perhaps the most popular of her longer poems, appeared in 1856. It is the story of a woman writer making her way in life, balancing work and love.
Among Barrett Browning's best known lyrics is Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) - the 'Portuguese' being her husband's petname for her. The title also refers to the series of sonnets of the 16th-century Portuguese poet Luis de Camões; in all these poems she used rhyme schemes typical of the Portuguese sonnets. In 1860 she issued a small volume of political poems titled Poems before Congress. Her health underwent a change for the worse; she gradually lost strength, and died on June 29, 1861. She is buried in the English Cemetery, Florence.
Mrs. Browning was a woman of singular nobility and charm. Mary Russell Mitford described her as a young woman: "A slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls falling on each side of a most expressive face; large, tender eyes, richly fringed by dark eyelashes, and a smile like a sunbeam." Anne Thackeray Ritchie described her as: "Very small and brown" with big, exotic eyes and an overgenerous mouth.
[edit] Literary significance
Barrett Browning is generally considered one of the great English poets. Her works address a wide range of issues and ideas, including slavery in America, Greek and Italian nationalism, women's rights, and the role of art in society. She was learned and thoughtful, influencing many of her contemporaries, including Robert Browning. Her life's experiences, combined with her moral and intellectual strength, made her the champion of the suffering and oppressed. Her gift was both narrative and lyrical, ranging from sonnets to a verse-novel intentionally 2000 lines longer than Milton's Paradise Lost. Her weak points include a lack of compression; some would add that her work tends to be overly sentimental, and others have criticized her experimentation with meter and rhyme.
Her most famous work is Sonnets from the Portuguese, a collection of love sonnets. By far the best-known poem from this collection, with one of the most famous opening lines in the English language, is number 43:
Elizabeth Barrett BrowningHow do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
While her Petrarchan Sonnets from the Portuguese are exquisite, she was also a prophetic, indeed epic, poet, writing Casa Guidi Windows in support of Italy's Risorgimento, a reflection of Byron's advocacy of Greece's liberation from Turkey. Her verse-novel, Aurora Leigh, in nine books is set in Florence, England and Paris, using in it her knowledge from childhood of the Bible in Hebrew, Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Apuleius, Dante, Langland, Madame de Stael, and George Sand.
The government of Italy and the Commune of Florence celebrated her poetry with commemorative plaques on Casa Guidi, where the Brownings had lived during their 15 year marriage. Lord Leighton designed her tomb in the English Cemetery, its sculpting in Carrara marble being carried out, not faithfully, by Francesco Giovannozzo. In 2006 the Comune of Florence laid a laurel wreath on this tomb to mark 200 years since her birth.
[edit] In popular culture
On the April 17, 2008 episode of As the World Turns, Elizabeth Barrett Browning is mentioned by character Henry Coleman preceding a wedding.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's father is mentioned in Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie as "Mr. Barrett of Wimpole Street".
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was mentioned in an episode of Life with Derek when Casey and Kendra were working on a poetry project together.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was also the name of Diane's cat who passed away in an episode of Cheers.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was mentioned in an episode of Three's Company in which Janet is seduced by a jock who attended high school with her.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was metioned in an episode of Gilmore Girls.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was also mentioned several times in 10 Things I Hate About You.
In Jasper Fforde's novel The Eyre Affair, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning is one of the authors whose name is popular for legal name changes; Thursday befriends a Liz Barrett-Browning at the hotel in Swindon.
In the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Roger Rabbit writes a letter to his wife that says, "How do I love thee, let me count the ways: 1,2,3,4..."
In the 1970 Arthur Hiller movie, "Love Story[1]," which starred Ryan O'Neal as Oliver Barrett and Ali McGraw as Jennifer Cavalleri, the character of Jennifer recites Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 43rd Portuguese Sonnet as her wedding vows when she marries Oliver.
In 1981, The Cambridge Footlights Revue did a scene with Stephen Fry as Robert Browning and Emma Thompson as Elizabeth Barrett.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was mentioned in the Peanuts animated series by Linus Van Pelt.
[edit] Further reading
Avery, Simon, and Rebecca Stott. "Elizabeth Barrett Browning." (Longmans, 2005) (Critical study of the poet's life and works.)
Barrett, R.A. "The Barretts of Jamaica: The Family of Elizabeth Barrett Browning." (Wedgestone, 2000). (Account of the lives of the descendants of Hercie Barrett, from 1655; with extensive genealogy.)
Donaldson, Sandra. "Critical Essays on Elizabeth Barrett Browning." (G.K. Hall, 1999)
_____. "Elizabeth Barrett Browning: An Annotated Bibliography of the Commentary and Criticism from 1826 to 1990." (G.K. Hall, 1993).
Karlin, Daniel. The courtship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. (Oxford, 1985) (Critical biography focused on the courtship correspondence.)
Kelley, Philip et al. (Eds.) The Brownings' correspondence. 15 vols. to date. (Wedgestone, 1984-) (Complete letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, so far to 1849.)
Garrett, Martin (Ed.) Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning: Interviews and Recollections (Basingstoke and London, 2000). (Accounts of both poets by themselves and others.)
Woolf, Virginia. Flush: A Biography (Biographical novella written from the perspective of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's dog, principally of curiosity value.)
Forster, Margaret. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (1988)