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爱德蒙特 斯宾塞(1552~1599)是英国文艺复兴时期用非戏剧体创作诗歌的最伟大的诗人。生于伦敦,曾在剑桥大学作研究。一生多担任政治职务。代表作有:田园诗 The Shepheardes Calender 《牧羊人日历》,长诗 The Faerie Queene 《仙后》,十四行组诗Amoretti《爱情小诗》,以及两首婚礼曲 Epithalamion 和 Prothalamion.斯宾塞逝世后葬于 威斯敏斯特大教堂 的“诗人角”,紧挨他所敬仰的诗人乔叟的墓地。他被称为“诗人的诗人”。
他的诗才斑斓多姿。他在诗中歌颂人的肉体之美,但也表现出深沉的道德意识。他实际上宣扬一种独特的人生态度,而这种态度是基于对正确行为与人们努力实现这些正确行为时所爱到的诱惑的题解之上的。作为一个笃信基督教的人文主义者,他的思想深刻影响了后来的弥尔顿。
下面是他的一首诗。
From Amoretti
Sonnet 75
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away;
Agayne I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray.
"vayne man," sayd she, " that does in vain assay.
A mortal thing so to immortalize,
For I my selve sahll lyke to this decay,
And eek my name bee wyped out lykewize,"
"Not I," quod I , "let baser things devize,
To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens wryte your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,
Our love shall live, and later life renew. |
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