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上週四傍晚，我們的【浪漫詩讀書會】就在唸 Wordsworth! 雖然有兩隻大卡司沒來，Debby, Ivy, Cindy 和 Felix 讀五首詩，都貢獻了非常insightful 的討論。例如，我有機會重新用年輕人的眼睛讀 "We Are Seven." 得到 Wordsworth 特有的清新，回家的路上邊走邊跳，幾乎和 Diaz 在電影 In Her Shoes 裡解讀了 Bishop 的詩 "One Art" 之後跳得一樣高! 詩中的小女孩不知生死，可是大人硬要強加「理性計算的知識」，小孩一派天真、不為所動、堅持到底。很讓人傷感、但是也覺得欣喜。

 

We Are Seven

 

--------A SIMPLE Child,
          That lightly draws its breath,
          And feels its life in every limb,
          What should it know of death?

          I met a little cottage Girl:
          She was eight years old, she said;
          Her hair was thick with many a curl
          That clustered round her head.

          She had a rustic, woodland air,
          And she was wildly clad:                                    10
          Her eyes were fair, and very fair;
          --Her beauty made me glad.

          "Sisters and brothers, little Maid,
          How many may you be?"
          "How many? Seven in all," she said
          And wondering looked at me.

          "And where are they? I pray you tell."
          She answered, "Seven are we;
          And two of us at Conway dwell,
          And two are gone to sea.                                    20

          "Two of us in the church-yard lie,
          My sister and my brother;
          And, in the church-yard cottage, I
          Dwell near them with my mother."

          "You say that two at Conway dwell,
          And two are gone to sea,
          Yet ye are seven!--I pray you tell,
          Sweet Maid, how this may be."

          Then did the little Maid reply,
          "Seven boys and girls are we;                               30
          Two of us in the church-yard lie,
          Beneath the church-yard tree."

          "You run about, my little Maid,
          Your limbs they are alive;
          If two are in the church-yard laid,
          Then ye are only five."

          "Their graves are green, they may be seen,"
          The little Maid replied,
          "Twelve steps or more from my mother's door,
          And they are side by side.                                  40

          "My stockings there I often knit,
          My kerchief there I hem;
          And there upon the ground I sit,
          And sing a song to them.

          "And often after sunset, Sir,
          When it is light and fair,
          I take my little porringer,
          And eat my supper there.

          "The first that died was sister Jane;
          In bed she moaning lay,                                     50
          Till God released her of her pain;
          And then she went away.

          "So in the church-yard she was laid;
          And, when the grass was dry,
          Together round her grave we played,
          My brother John and I.

          "And when the ground was white with snow,
          And I could run and slide,
          My brother John was forced to go,
          And he lies by her side."                                   60

          "How many are you, then," said I,
          "If they two are in heaven?"
          Quick was the little Maid's reply,
          "O Master! we are seven."

          "But they are dead; those two are dead!
          Their spirits are in heaven!"
          'Twas throwing words away; for still
          The little Maid would have her will,
          And said, "Nay, we are seven!"
                                                              1798.

明天就要教 Wordsworth 了! 太興奮！在大學同學的格裡寫了以下這一則，乾脆貼過來。 還沒有讀 The Western Canon 的人可以考慮買這套中譯本。雖然 Bloom 實在是一隻大沙文動物，不過用「排除法」之後再讀他的批評，還是很欣喜的啦！畢竟，這年頭這麼博學的人已經不多了。

 

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超大卡文評家 Harold Bloom 在他的《西方正典》（The Western Canon） 裡評點 William Wordsworth 的三首正典詩（ “The Old Cumberland Beggar,” “The Ruined Cottage” & “Michael”），和 Jane Austen 的 Persuasion 並置，講述英國浪漫文學對現代作品的深遠影響。

 

William Wordsworth 的詩是那種任何人也拒絕不了的精神糧食。我們都多少記得幾行華滋華斯經典佳句，最起碼也有 “My heart leaps up when I behold”。但是讀完 Harold Bloom 的解析，發現 《坎柏嵐的老乞兒》竟是 Wordsworth 二十三歲的作品，真是驚訝得無以復加！(我二十三歲的時候在做什麼呀？！報告寫不出來，天天在編中國結、殺時間！)

 

《坎柏嵐的老乞兒》印證 Wordsworth 領導現代思想的開端。當時法律要強迫窮苦病老人住進收容所，讓「社區」供養，但是 Wordsworth 認為這種機制不人道。乞兒餐風露宿、爬過一個又一個牆頭，散播的是基督徒的愛。路上施食、施財、讓路的各種未受教育的人都可以因為行善而望向天堂。強制乞丐住進收容所、強迫鄰人捐錢之後，乞丐也就失去的尊嚴和自由。詩的最後，Wordsworth 希望大家看得到乞丐在自然的注視下生存、死亡。( Bloom 要我們注意這個結尾有多麼令人顫慄。)

 

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常有學生拿他們要參賽的詩來找我讀。老實說，雖然覺得他們很會編織意象、實驗聲音效果，實在不喜歡裡頭的蒼白影子。儘管看來他們也不是為賦新詩強說愁，聽著他們的成長故事，也總是大湖扁舟滿載幾多愁。只是，常常討論完畢到了最後就要問：「你為什麼不寫敘事詩？」（我真是出乎至誠，但是他們也許覺得老師力有未逮，隨便敷衍幾個建議了事！）

 

我認為這種讀著讀著就會主動站起來朗誦的詩才叫做詩。想想看：一個老乞丐在風中吃著婦人贈送的食物，旁邊的小鳥已經準備好要過來撿拾殘餘，可是暫時還不敢動。詩人想像老乞兒雖然神情萎頓、體力不濟，但是精神無拘、堅定：老乞丐所經過的地方都有人佈施，手邊忙著的村婦也一定起身幫他開院子門栓方便他抄捷徑.....

 

這裡頭有一種 affection, 高於 love 的精神力量可以主宰全詩。

 

 

THE OLD CUMBERLAND BEGGAR

 

By William Wordsworth

 

Observed, and with great benefit to my own heart, when I was a child: written at Racedown and Alfoxden in my twenty-third year. The political economists were about that time beginning their war upon mendicity in all its forms, and by implication, if not directly, on alms-giving also. This heartless process has been carried as far as it can go by the AMENDED poor-law bill, though the inhumanity that prevails in this measure is somewhat disguised by the profession that one of its objects is to throw the poor upon the voluntary donations of their neighbours; that is, if rightly interpreted, to force them into a condition between relief in the Union poorhouse, and alms robbed of their Christian grace and spirit, as being "forced" rather from the benevolent than given by them; while the avaricious and selfish, and all in fact but the humane and charitable, are at liberty to keep all they possess from their distressed brethren. The class of Beggars, to which the Old Man here described belongs, will probably soon be extinct. It consisted of poor, and, mostly, old and infirm persons, who confined themselves to a stated round in their neighbourhood, and had certain fixed days, on which, at different houses, they regularly received alms, sometimes in money, but mostly in provisions.

 

I SAW an aged Beggar in my walk;

      And he was seated, by the highway side,

      On a low structure of rude masonry

      Built at the foot of a huge hill, that they

      Who lead their horses down the steep rough road

      May thence remount at ease. The aged Man

      Had placed his staff across the broad smooth stone

      That overlays the pile; and, from a bag

      All white with flour, the dole of village dames,

      He drew his scraps and fragments, one by one;                   

      And scanned them with a fixed and serious look

      Of idle computation. In the sun,

      Upon the second step of that small pile,

      Surrounded by those wild unpeopled hills,

      He sat, and ate his food in solitude:

      And ever, scattered from his palsied hand,

      That, still attempting to prevent the waste,

      Was baffled still, the crumbs in little showers

      Fell on the ground; and the small mountain birds,

      Not venturing yet to peck their destined meal,                  

      Approached within the length of half his staff.

        Him from my childhood have I known; and then

      He was so old, he seems not older now;

      He travels on, a solitary Man,

      So helpless in appearance, that for him

      The sauntering Horseman throws not with a slack

      And careless hand his alms upon the ground,

      But stops,--that he may safely lodge the coin

      Within the old Man's hat; nor quits him so,

      But still, when he has given his horse the rein,                

      Watches the aged Beggar with a look

      Sidelong, and half-reverted. She who tends

      The toll-gate, when in summer at her door

      She turns her wheel, if on the road she sees

      The aged beggar coming, quits her work,

      And lifts the latch for him that he may pass.

      The post-boy, when his rattling wheels o'ertake

      The aged Beggar in the woody lane, 

      Shouts to him from behind; and if, thus warned,

      The old man does not change his course, the boy                 

      Turns with less noisy wheels to the roadside,

      And passes gently by, without a curse

      Upon his lips, or anger at his heart.

        He travels on, a solitary Man;

      His age has no companion. On the ground

      His eyes are turned, and, as he moves along

      'They' move along the ground; and, evermore,

      Instead of common and habitual sight

      Of fields with rural works, of hill and dale,

      And the blue sky, one little span of earth                      

      Is all his prospect. Thus, from day to day,

      Bow-bent, his eyes for ever on the ground,

      He plies his weary journey; seeing still,

      And seldom knowing that he sees, some straw,

      Some scattered leaf, or marks which, in one track,

      The nails of cart or chariot-wheel have left

      Impressed on the white road,--in the same line,

      At distance still the same. Poor Traveller!

      His staff trails with him; scarcely do his feet

      Disturb the summer dust; he is so still                         

      In look and motion, that the cottage curs,

      Ere he has passed the door, will turn away,

      Weary of barking at him. Boys and girls,

      The vacant and the busy, maids and youths,

      And urchins newly breeched--all pass him by:

      Him even the slow-paced waggon leaves behind.

        But deem not this Man useless.--Statesmen! ye

      Who are so restless in your wisdom, ye

      Who have a broom still ready in your hands

      To rid the world of nuisances; ye proud,                        

      Heart-swoln, while in your pride ye contemplate

      Your talents, power, or wisdom, deem him not

      A burthen of the earth! 'Tis Nature's law

      That none, the meanest of created things,

      Or forms created the most vile and brute,

      The dullest or most noxious, should exist

      Divorced from good--a spirit and pulse of good,

      A life and soul, to every mode of being

      Inseparably linked. Then be assured

      That least of all can aught--that ever owned                    

      The heaven-regarding eye and front sublime

      Which man is born to--sink, howe'er depressed,

      So low as to be scorned without a sin;

      Without offence to God cast out of view;

      Like the dry remnant of a garden-flower

      Whose seeds are shed, or as an implement

      Worn out and worthless. While from door to door,

      This old Man creeps, the villagers in him

      Behold a record which together binds

      Past deeds and offices of charity,                              

      Else unremembered, and so keeps alive

      The kindly mood in hearts which lapse of years,

      And that half-wisdom half-experience gives,

      Make slow to feel, and by sure steps resign

      To selfishness and cold oblivious cares.

      Among the farms and solitary huts,

      Hamlets and thinly-scattered villages,

      Where'er the aged Beggar takes his rounds,

      The mild necessity of use compels

      To acts of love; and habit does the work                       

      Of reason; yet prepares that after-joy

      Which reason cherishes. And thus the soul,

      By that sweet taste of pleasure unpursued,

      Doth find herself insensibly disposed

      To virtue and true goodness.

                                    Some there are,

      By their good works exalted, lofty minds

      And meditative, authors of delight

      And happiness, which to the end of time

      Will live, and spread, and kindle: even such minds

      In childhood, from this solitary Being,                        

      Or from like wanderer, haply have received

      (A thing more precious far than all that books

      Or the solicitudes of love can do!)

      That first mild touch of sympathy and thought,

      In which they found their kindred with a world

      Where want and sorrow were. The easy man

      Who sits at his own door,--and, like the pear

      That overhangs his head from the green wall,

      Feeds in the sunshine; the robust and young,

      The prosperous and unthinking, they who live                   

      Sheltered, and flourish in a little grove

      Of their own kindred;--all behold in him

      A silent monitor, which on their minds

      Must needs impress a transitory thought

      Of self-congratulation, to the heart

      Of each recalling his peculiar boons,

      His charters and exemptions; and, perchance,

      Though he to no one give the fortitude

      And circumspection needful to preserve

      His present blessings, and to husband up                       

      The respite of the season, he, at least,

      And 'tis no vulgar service, makes them felt.

        Yet further.----Many, I believe, there are

      Who live a life of virtuous decency,

      Men who can hear the Decalogue and feel

      No self-reproach; who of the moral law

      Established in the land where they abide

      Are strict observers; and not negligent

      In acts of love to those with whom they dwell,

      Their kindred, and the children of their blood.                

      Praise be to such, and to their slumbers peace!

      --But of the poor man ask, the abject poor;

      Go, and demand of him, if there be here

      In this cold abstinence from evil deeds,

      And these inevitable charities,

      Wherewith to satisfy the human soul?

      No--man is dear to man; the poorest poor

      Long for some moments in a weary life

      When they can know and feel that they have been,

      Themselves, the fathers and the dealers-out                    

      Of some small blessings; have been kind to such

      As needed kindness, for this single cause,

      That we have all of us one human heart.

      --Such pleasure is to one kind Being known,

      My neighbour, when with punctual care, each week

      Duly as Friday comes, though pressed herself

      By her own wants, she from her store of meal

      Takes one unsparing handful for the scrip

      Of this old Mendicant, and, from her door

      Returning with exhilarated heart,                              

      Sits by her fire, and builds her hope in heaven.

        Then let him pass, a blessing on his head!

      And while in that vast solitude to which

      The tide of things has borne him, he appears

      To breathe and live but for himself alone,

      Unblamed, uninjured, let him bear about

      The good which the benignant law of Heaven

      Has hung around him: and, while life is his,

      Still let him prompt the unlettered villagers

      To tender offices and pensive thoughts.                        

      --Then let him pass, a blessing on his head!

      And, long as he can wander, let him breathe

      The freshness of the valleys; let his blood

      Struggle with frosty air and winter snows;

      And let the chartered wind that sweeps the heath

      Beat his grey locks against his withered face.

      Reverence the hope whose vital anxiousness

      Gives the last human interest to his heart.

      May never HOUSE, misnamed of INDUSTRY,

      Make him a captive!--for that pent-up din,                     

      Those life-consuming sounds that clog the air,

      Be his the natural silence of old age!

      Let him be free of mountain solitudes;

      And have around him, whether heard or not,

      The pleasant melody of woodland birds.

      Few are his pleasures: if his eyes have now

      Been doomed so long to settle upon earth

      That not without some effort they behold

      The countenance of the horizontal sun,

      Rising or setting, let the light at least                      

      Find a free entrance to their languid orbs.

      And let him, 'where' and 'when' he will, sit down

      Beneath the trees, or on a grassy bank

      Of highway side, and with the little birds

      Share his chance-gathered meal; and, finally,

      As in the eye of Nature he has lived,

      So in the eye of Nature let him die!