上了些線上課程，也學着寫了一些英文詩，我卻不確定，我寫的詩在專業人士眼裏，是打油詩，還是真的有詩歌的樣子。歸根結底，我覺得我還缺些鑑賞英文詩歌的訓練。
說來也奇怪，網上要找英文詩歌寫作課，一抓一大把，但要找英文詩歌閱讀課，卻鳳毛麟角。找來找去，我終於在Udemy上找到個 Learning to Appreciate Poetry. 課程評分不算高，只有4.2。看了一下課程內容，卻似乎挺合適。這是個總共兩小時的課程，裏面介紹了九個詩人和九首詩。對於我這個沒上過英語文學課，連英語著名詩人都數不出一個手掌之數的人來說，這個看起來簡單的入門課正是我想要的。
雖然期待不高，但第一節課卻讓我有點恍然大悟。
第一節課是Introduction, 也就是介紹英文詩歌的一些基礎概念。已經上過英文詩寫作課的我，當然知道Meter, Rhyme, Verse這些基礎概念。但是誰說按格式寫出來的就是好詩了？中文的打油詩，還都押韻壓得挺好呢。
讓我覺得恍然大悟的，是和這些格式一起強調的Figurative Language（比喻），也就是 simile（明喻）和metaphor（暗喻），以及對應的詩歌的例子。
simile（明喻）
A Red, Red Rose, by ROBERT BURNS
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills.
Sonnet 18, by William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
metaphor（暗喻）
The Sun Rising, by JOHN DONNE
Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus, // addressing the sun as a person
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Do not go gentle into that good night, by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night, // metaphor of death
Old age should burn and rave at close of day; // fighting
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
本來比喻這種修辭手法可以說是司空見慣的，但被特別指出來以後，我才發現在詩歌裏這種手法真的用得特別多，有時候多得幾乎是每句都有。
聯想一下其他的文學形式，例如小說，要是把這麼密集的比喻放進去，保準這小說根本沒人能看懂。
我記得之前上的英文詩歌寫作課，有提到poem和prose的區別，大致是說：
Poem says a lot of things in very few words;
Prose says very few things in a lot of words.
那時候不太理解，但這時候想想，如果每句詩都是比喻，都隱含字面以外的意思，那確實是挺濃縮的。這大概就和中文詩的用典一樣。什麼“舊時王謝堂前燕，飛入尋常百姓家”，什麼“可憐夜半虛前席，不問蒼生問鬼神”，一句道盡萬千言。
把詩歌的比喻特色發揮得淋漓盡致的，是課上介紹的 Robert Frost 最著名的一首詩，The Road Not Taken.
The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
這整首詩就是一個比喻，以鄉間的分叉路，比喻人生的選擇。詞句簡單，適用性和啓發性卻極強，使這首詩成爲 Robert Frost 被引用最多的一首詩。
除了比喻，詩歌鑑賞課還提到了和讀音相關的用詞法，即alliteration（头韵）、assonance（半谐音）和 onomatopoeia （擬聲），也舉了些例子。
alliteration 头韵
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free:
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
assonance 半谐音
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by ROBERT FROST
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
onomatopoeia 擬聲
The Bells, by Edgar Allan Poe
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows:
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
我覺得這幾個讀音相關的手法是很有英語的語言特色的，可能也只適用於拉丁字母體系的那些語言。而要欣賞這些手法，光看是不夠的，需要把詩大聲讀出來。
中文詩歌當然也有讀音相關的手法，平仄就是，而且比英語的要求嚴格得多。但語言體系不同，硬要比較，就顯得不倫不類了。
總之，兩小時的課下來，我的感想是，讀英文詩，光理解詞語字面的意思是不夠的。尋找字面背後隱藏的意思，把詩大聲讀出來，才能真正欣賞詩歌。
然後我回頭翻翻自己之前寫的詩，果然是沒多少一語雙關。所以即便能嚴格遵循莎士比亞十四行詩的格式，也只是打油詩吧？好消息是，我看到了改進的方向。
最後引用一下 Wordsworth 對詩歌的定義作爲結尾吧：
What is a poem?
The outpouring of powerful emotions, recollected in tranquility.
Wordsworth
