【正文】 strokes: sunset amp。 the evening star, the twilight and the evening bell, amp。 then the dark. The ship is ready to go out of the harbor. It will cross the bar amp。 reach the vast open sea for the long voyage that it is to make. The allegory of the poem is clear. Tennyson is in the evening of life, amp。 the clear call of death will e soon. But when he has crossed the border between life amp。 death to go on that voyage beyond the bound of Time amp。 Place, he hopes then to see his Pilot, God, face to face. From the moving imagery amp。 the pleasant sound of the poem, we can feel his fearlessness towards death, his faith in God amp。 an afterlife. 　(3) Ulysses(1)　　In Greek mythology, Ulysses is the king of the Ithaca Island. He is the hero in many literary classics. In Homer39。s Odessey (the Greek name for Ulysses), Ulysses eventually arrives home after the tenyear Trojan war amp。 another tenyear39。s adventures at sea. However, according to Dante, Ulysses never returns to his home place Ithaca, but urges his men to go on exploring westward. Tennyson bines these two versions. In this poem, Ulysses is now three years back in his homeland, reunited with his wife Penelope amp。 his son Telemachus, amp。 resumes his rule over the land. But he will not endure the peaceful monplace everyday life. Old as he is, he persuades his old followers to go with him amp。 to sail again to pursue a new world amp。 new knowledge. Written in the form of dramatic monologue, the poem not only expresses, through the mouth of the heroic Ulysses, Tennyson39。s own determination amp。 courage to brave the struggle of life but also reflects the restlessness amp。 aspiration of the age.IV. Robert Browning　 life amp。Literary Career　　Robert Browning (18121889) was born in a welloff family amp。 received his education mainly from his private tutor, amp。 from his father, who gave him the freedom to follow his own interest. In 1833, he published his first poetic work Pauline, which brought great embarrassment upon him. But in his second attempt Sordello (1840), he went too far in selfcorrection that the poem became so obscure as to be hardly readable. He even tried play writing but failed. All these frustrating experiences forced the poet to develop a literary form that suited him best amp。 actually give full swing to this genius, . the dramatic monologue.　　In 1846, Browning married Elizabeth Barrett, a famous poetess whose famous book of love poetry was Sonnets from the Portuguese. In 1869 Browing39。s masterpiece, The Ring amp。 the Book, came out. In 1889, Browning died amp。 was buried in the Poet39。s Corner, Westminster Abbey, beside Tennyson.　 major worksDramatic Lyrics (1842), Dramatic Romances amp。 Lyrics (1845), Bells amp。 Pomegranates (1846), Men amp。 Women (1855), Dramatic Personae (1864), The Ring amp。 the Book (18681869) amp。 Dramatic Idylls (1880)　 of The Ring amp。 the Book: Dramatic M　onologue　　In this poem, Browning chooses a dramatic moment or a crisis, in which his characters are made to talk about their lives, amp。 about their minds amp。 hearts. In listening to those onesided talks, readers can form their own opinions amp。 judgments about the speaker39。s personality amp。 about what has really happened. 　 Browning39。s artistic characteristics 　　(1) The name of Browning is often associated with the term dramatic monologue. Although it is not his invention, it is in his hands that this poetic form reaches its maturityamp。 perfection. 　　(2) Browning39。s poetry is not easy to read. His rhythms are often too fast, too rough amp。 unmusical 　　(3) The syntax is usually clipped amp。 highly pressed. The similes amp。 illustrations appear too profusely. The allusions amp。 implications are sometimes odd amp。 farfetched. All this makes up his obscurity. On the whole, Browning39。s style is very different from that of any other Victorian poets. He is like a weatherbeaten pioneer, bravely amp。 vigorously trying to beat a track through the jungle. His poetic style belongs to the 20thcentury rather than to the Victorian age.　5. 應(yīng)用 Selected Readings:　　1) My Last Duchess (1)　　My Last Duchess is Browning39。s bestknown dramatic monologue. The poem takes its sources from the life of Alfonso II, duke of Ferrara of the 16thcentury Italy, whose young wife died suspiciously after three years of marriage. Not long after her death, the duke managed to arrange a marriage with the niece of another noble man. This dramatic monologue is the duke39。s speech addressed to the agent who es to negotiate the marriage. In his talk about his last duchess, the duke reveals himself as a selfconceited, cruel amp。 tyrannical man. The poem is written in heroic couplets, but with no regular metrical system. In reading, it sounds like blank verse.　　2) Meeting at Night (1)　　Meeting at Night, together with Parting at Morning, appeared originally under the single title Night amp。 Morning. Browning made them separate poems in a late edition of his work. The speaker in both is a man. In this poem, the man, a lover, describes the whereabouts of their meeting place. The journey to love is dominated by moon, shadows, softness, amp。 sexual imagery.　　3) Parting at Morning (1)　　Here in the description of sunrise, the poet unconsciously expresses his helplessness in having to face up his duty as a man. The journey back is from the nighttime woman39。s world of love to the daytime world of reality.V. George Eliot　1. 一般識(shí)記 Her life amp。 Literary Career　　George Eliot (18191880), pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans, was born on Nov. 22, 1819 into an estate agent39。s family in Warwickshire, England. Though brought up under strict religious influences, she early abandoned religious beliefs, adopted agnostic opinions about Christian doctrine, amp。 showed a great interest in social amp。 philosophical problems.　　At the age of 39, she started he literary career. Being a woman of intelligence amp。 versatility, she quickly found herself ranking high among the great writers. In 1857, she wrote her first three stories which were later published in book form under the title of Scen