1、 英国文学史及选读 刘丹翎Week 4: John Keats (1795-1821)I. Teaching Objective1. The students need to know the background information of Keats;2. the students are to learn about Keats works and peruse and recite his masterpiece Ode to the Nightingale.II. Teaching procedure:Family backgroundBorn in London, of lowl
2、y origin.His father was a hostler and stable keeper and then married his employers daughter.His father died when he was 8;and his mother died of tuberculosis when he was 14.His guardian forced him to leave school and apprenticed him to a surgeon.For 5years he served his apprenticeship and then worke
3、d as a surgeons helper for two more years.His writing careerIn 1817 he abandoned his profession and published his first collection of poemsIn 1818 he published his long allegorical poem Endymion, which was about the love between a Greek shepherd and the moon goddess. Both collection were severely at
4、tacked by conservative critics. It is said that the attack was the cause of his illness that took away his life.Most of his best poems were written in the short three years from 1817 to the time of his death.Ode to a NightingaleIn the spring of 1819 a nightingale had built her nest near my (Chares B
5、rowns )house. Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in her song, and one morning he took his chair from the breakfast table to the grass plot under a plum tree, where he sat for 2 or 3 hours.When he came into the house, I perceived he had some scraps of paper in his hand, and these he was quietly
6、thrusting behind the books.On inquiry, I found theses scraps contained his poetic feelings on the song of our nightingale.the theme in the poem Keats identifies the nightingale with his ideal beauty and hopes that the song of the nightingale will help him to escape from the world of actuality, where
7、 “to think is to be full of sorrow”, into the world of ideal beauty, a place of eternal happiness.The poem is remarkable for its imagery and its music.they appeal to the readers 英国文学史及选读 刘丹翎sense-tactile(触 ), gustatory（味觉）, olfactory（嗅觉）, as well as visual and auditory. III.Assignment1. What does Keats identify nightingale with?2. How does Keats appeal to the five senses(tactile(触）, gustatory（味觉）, olfactory（嗅觉）, as well as visual and auditory) to express his ideal beauty?
