诗歌是人类社会最古老的文艺形式，英语诗歌作为世界诗歌艺术实践的最积极参与者，在近1500年的实践中，为世界诗歌艺术的百花园贡献了无数的红花绿草。《英诗鉴赏入门》选用了英美文学各个时期有代表性的名作以及能够反映英诗技巧的特殊诗作，主要注重从微观上解读诗人在创作诗歌时所使用的具体的诗歌手法。全书共分六个部分，每部分以概念的介绍开始，通过对例诗的分析，逐渐深入到诗歌的结构、表达诗歌主题的手法如格律、选词、修辞等各个方面。每部分在例诗后，都选编有部分的诗篇和思考题供学习者进一步研读。

      诗歌是人类社会最古老的文艺形式，它几乎是随着人类社会的产生而产生，随着人类社会的发展而发展的。可以毫不夸张地说，诗歌已经渗透到人类生活的方方面面，在人类社会发展的任何阶段和各个关键时期，诗歌都起到了不可替代的作用，因为诗歌是人类心灵的最后防线。
　　英语诗歌作为世界诗歌艺术实践的最积极参与者，在近1500年的实践中，为世界诗歌艺术的百花园贡献了无数的红花绿草。从《贝尔武甫》、《失乐园》到《荒原》，从《西风》、《看见彩虹我心怦然跳动》到《落叶》，无不记录了英语文化的发展史，无不表现了历代英语诗人的喜怒哀乐和忧国忧民的感伤情怀。
　　中国人读英语诗歌已经很久了。在上世纪末，中国再次向世界敞开大门后，英语教育作为全民教育体系中的重要组成部分，为社会培养了越来越多懂英语、用英语的人才。英语的普及对专门从事英语学习、英语教育和英语研究的人员提出了更高的要求。近年来，不少老教授都发出了英语专业要回归人文的呼声，而阅读英语诗歌就是对他们的号召的积极回应。
　　多年来，以中国人为对象而作的解读英诗的作品已有很多，其中也不乏优秀的著作。但大多数此类作品主要以宏观的解释为多，而对诗人表达宏观思想时所采用的微观手法的讨论甚少。与以往的著述不同的是，本书更注重的是解读诗人在创作诗歌时所使用的具体的诗歌手法，以帮助英诗学习者做到不仅知其然，更知其所以然。
　　《英诗鉴赏入门》选用了英美文学各个时期有代表性的名作以及能够反映英诗技巧的特殊诗作，可作为英语专业本科英语诗歌选修课教材，也可作为英语文学爱好者的自学读本。全书共有六个部分，涉及理解英语诗歌的六个重要方面。每部分又以概念的介绍开始，继以例诗的解读，通过对例诗的分析，逐渐深入到诗歌的结构、表达诗歌主题的诗歌手法和表现手段，如英诗格律、选词、修辞、象征等。每部分在例诗后，都选编有部分的诗篇和思考题供学习者进一步研读。

1 What Is Poetry and How Do We Read It？


2 TypesofPoetry
Narrative Poetry / 18
Lyric Poetry / 26
Close Form and Open Form / 37


3 Diction， Tone and Theme
Diction / 50
Tone / 66
Theme / 79


4 Structure


5 Rhythm and Rhyme
Rhythm / 93
Meter / 99
Onomatopoeia / 116
Alliteration and Assonance / 121
Rhyme / 123


6 Allusion and Figures of Speech
Allusion / 148
Symbol / 153
Simile and Metaphor/165
Personification / 177
Apostrophe / 179
Pun / 181
Understatement and Overstatement / 184
Metonymy and Synecdoche / 189
Irony and Satire / 191
Appendix： A List of Poetic Terms
Index of the First Lines
Bibliography

This poem is almost, but not quite, a painting in words. Putting aside for the moment the provocative beginning "so much depends upon... "We are stuck by the almost exclusive visual nature of the images that follow. Williams has carefully excluded a number of sensory experiences that might have given the images qualities less like those of painting and more like those of most poems. He uses no words that evoke the sounds of the chickens as they go clucking about their business （ perhaps they are making no sounds） or the sound of the rain as it drums upon the wheelbarrow and drips from its edges （perhaps it has stopped raining）. He evokes no smell of the barnyard or of the ozone that accompanies the rain. The limitations of the imagery suggest an impressionistic painting: the emphasis is on bright color and the arrangement of forms. In the arrangement of the lines, we can see a vague similarity in the triangular shapes of a wheelbarrow and a pecking chicken, thus providing us with an aesthetic experience.
　　Obviously, Williams declares that "human life" depends so much on these things. A wheelbarrow is a basic farm implement associated with the most primitive stage of human tool-making, only one step advanced beyond the use of sledges or unwheeled barrows for dragging heavy loads. Rain water is obviously an essential for farming as for all life, and chickens provide two common foodstuffs in their flesh and in their eggs. Thus, the objects can be seen as among the most basic in providing physical sustenance, and much therefore "depends upon" them.