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9. 学生论文最后装订材料包括：
1）题目审批表 2）开题报告 3）教师评阅表（含指导教师和评阅教师）
4）答辩成绩表 5）正文
填写范版如下：
封面填写范式：
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兰 州 商 学 院
本 科 生 毕 业 论 文
论 文 题 目：学 院、 系： 外语学院 商务英语系 专 业 (方 向)： 英语（国际商务） 年 级、 班： 2004级 （1） 班 学 生 姓 名： 指 导 教 师：
年月日
英文摘要填写范式：(英文论文为例)
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On Skills of Writing a Business Letter
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ABSTRACT
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With the development of our economy, the connection with foreign countries in China has become more and more wide and deep. In the international business transactions which are based on English, business correspondence has been regarded as a necessary tool for
[Key Words] business letters; writing skills; 6C principle （与摘要不空行）
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中文摘要填写范式：
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摘要（字体为宋体；字号为三号，加粗，居中）
（此处不再加论文题目）
本文以格赖斯的合作原则为理论依据，试对商务英语写作中的读者意识实现方式进行分析。首先，对于合作原则及其理论发展给出简介。内容（字体为宋体；字号为五号）
（与摘要不空行）
[关键词]（字体为宋体，字号为五号，加粗，各词之间不加分号，空格即可）
目录范式：
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Contents
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1. An Introduction ??????????????????????????? （1）
1.1 Statement of the problem ???????????????????????（2）
1.2 Past views on this topic（字体：Times New Roman小4号，不加粗，换行时对齐英文
首字母） ?????????????????????????????.（6） ……
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References…………………………………………………………………………… …(17) Acknowledgements
正文范式：
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History of English（论文题目）
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1．The Emergence of New Varieties of English（一级标题：Times New Roman，3号加粗）
1.1 The Expected Dissolution（二级标题：Times New Roman，小3号加粗）
1.1.1 Why Has English Become the Global Language（三级标题：Times New Roman，4号加粗）
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Arthur Lloyd James is absolutely right when he has it, “A language is never in a state of fixation, but is always changing. We are not looking at a lantern slide but at a moving ….
参考文献范式：
References
[1] Forman, J., K, Kelly. The Random House Guide to Business Writing NewYork: Random House,1990
115--130
[2] Jones L, Alexander R. International Business English [M] 北京: 华夏出版社,1998.
[3]付美榕.现代商务英语写作[M] 北京:北京理工大学出版社,2000.10:10-48
致谢范式
Acknowledgements
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, …., without her valuable guidance and friendly encouragement during the whole composition period, it…
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兰州商学院本科生毕业论文（设计）规范样式
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论文题目
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[关键词] 宋体四号字加粗（3到5个）
ABSTRACT
（字体为Time New Roman；字号为三号，居中）
“内容”（字体为Time New Roman；字号为五号）
[Key Words]（字体为Time New Roman；字号为五号，用分号隔开。加粗）
目录
一、 ····················································································································· （1）
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1、 ····················································································································· （ ） 参考文献 ············································································································· （ ） 致谢
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正文部分
“论文题目”
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一级标题（宋体三号字、加粗，右缩进两个汉字）
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②
参考文献（宋体四号字、加粗、居中）
专著: [序号]作者.书名[M].版次.出版地: 出版者, 出版年.文献数量(选择项)
期刊: [序号]作者.篇名[J]. 出版地: 刊名, 出版年份, 卷(期): 在原文献中的位置 报纸: [序号]作者.篇名[N].报名, 年—月—日(版次)
电子类: [序号]作者.著作名[DB/EL].出处, 发表或更新的年—月—日
论文集: [序号]作者.篇名[A].见: 原论文集编者. 原论文集名[C]. 出版地: 出版者, 出版年份, 在原文献中的位置
例如：
[1] 何龄修. 读顾城《南明史》[J]. 中国史研究，1998，（3）：167-173
[3] 刘国钧，陈绍业，王凤翥. 图书馆目录[M]. 北京：高等教育出版社，1957. 15-18 （宋体五号字，右缩进两个汉字）
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第二篇：英语本科毕业论文范文[1]
Analysis of the Images of Nightingale in English
Poems and Cuckoo in Chinese Poems
A Thesis Submitted to
the Department of Foreign Languages of 。。。。。。。 College
。。。Province
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
in English Language and Literature
by
Number:
Supervised by: 。。。。。。。。。
March 2011
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have helped me during the writing of this thesis. I gratefully acknowledge the help of 。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。 .
I also owe a special debt of gratitude to all the professors in Foreign Languages Department, from whose devoted teaching and enlightening lectures I have benefited a lot and academically prepared for the thesis.
I should finally like to express my gratitude to my beloved parents who have always been helping me out of difficulties and supporting me without a word of complaint.
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Abstract
For English poems or Chinese poems, an image is one of the basic elements which form the poetic arts. It is the soul of a poem. In nature, nightingale and cuckoo are two kinds of the most common bird images in English and Chinese poems. There are similarities and differences between them. The cuckoo in Chinese poems and the nightingale in English poems usually appear as grievous images. Both of them originate in their sad legends and, they symbolize mournful emotion in poems. And differences between them can be described from two sides. First, the nightingale sometimes also represents happiness while the cuckoo shows grief all the time. Second, they have different relationship with poetic schools. By reading and comparing, readers can deeply understand cuckoo and nightingale’s symbolized meaning and emotional tone.
Key words: poetic image; nightingale; cuckoo, differences and similarities
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摘要
无论是对英诗，还是对汉诗来说，意象是构成诗的艺术的基本条件之一。它是诗歌的灵魂。在自然界中，夜莺和杜鹃分别是英诗和汉诗中最常见的两种鸟类意象。然而它们之间既包含了相似性，又具有差别性。英诗中的夜莺和汉诗中的杜鹃通常都以悲伤凄凉的意象出现。一方面它们都来源于忧伤的传说；另一方面它们在诗中都象征一种忧伤的情感。而它们之间的差异性也可以从两个方面阐述。一是夜莺有时也象征一种快乐，而杜鹃则一直是忧伤的代表；二是它们与诗歌流派之间的关系是不同的。通过研究比较，读者能够更加深刻了解夜莺与杜鹃的象征意义和情感基调。
关键词： 诗歌意象；夜莺；杜鹃；异同
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Contents
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………..ii Abstract (English)…………………………………………………………...iii Abstract (Chinese)…………………………………………………………..iv
1. Introduction……………………………………………………………...1
2. Significance of Using Images in Poems………………………………....2
3. Similarities and Differences of the Images of Nightingale in English
Poems and Cuckoo in Chinese Poems………..........................................4
3.1 Similarities Between the Images of Nightingale
and Cuckoo……………………………………………………………...4
3.1.1 Coming from Grievous Legends……………………………………5
3.1.2 Symbolizing the Sad Feelings………………………………………7
3.2 Differences Between the Images of Nightingale
and Cuckoo………………………………………………………………9
3.2.1 The Happy Image of Nightingale…………………………………..10
3.2.2 The Different Relationship Between the Images and
the Schools……………………………………………...................11
4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………….13
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………..14
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1. Introduction
In all ages, poetry is an important part of literature both in China and the western world, and is one of the most ancient literary forms. In poems, an image is an essential and creative device to express poets’ feelings. Every poet must be cautious about choosing the image, because it maybe influences the result that whether a poem is successful or not.
In the history of global culture, the image is a vital concept for poetry. Therefore, a large number of scholars have researched poetic images. Most of them study poetic image as a whole, such as what is a poetic image, what is origin of images, how to apply to images, what is the theory of the poetic images, and so on. They can research poetic images from the point view of aesthetics, and analyze the connection between poetic images and culture. And then they also compare the similarities and differences between Chinese poems and English poems when poets choose poetic images. In general, scholars discuss poetic images from a wide scope.
Besides, a few of scholars have already researched some kind of specific images. For example, what cultural meaning the image of snake reflects in English poems. And what conception the moon reveals in Chinese poems, etc. However, few scholars have compared one image in Chinese poems with another similar image in English poems. This situation implies that it is not all-sided for poetic image research nowadays. As birds in nature, the nightingale in English poems and the cuckoo in Chinese poems are great and important bird images. Many scholars have studied respectively the two images. Some analyze the similarities and differences of the cuckoo image in English culture and Chinese culture. And some just interpret the nightingale image in “Ode to a Nightingale”. However, few researchers compare the cuckoo in Chinese with the nightingale in English poems.
After studied, it can be seen that there are some similarities and differences between them. They are both grievous images and originate in mournful legends. But vi
the nightingale is sometimes regarded as a joyful image in English poems while the cuckoo always represents grief in Chinese poems. Second, they have different relationship with poetic scholars.
2. Significance of Using Images in Poems
The poetic image is a hot topic in Chinese and west poetic researchers, and it is a difficult point in poetry. The poets of imagism are skillful in using images to create poems and express their thoughts. In fact, they use Chinese approach to produce poems for their reference. As the origin of the theory of poetic imagery, China has a key position in producing poems via images. Poetry theorists devote themselves to exploring poetic imagery for a long time. They have accumulated a wealth of experience of the definition and function of images, and their efforts finally have an answer.
It is an important means for creating poetic art to form image, and is an essential part to create poetic artistic. But what is an image? An image refers to that “it is the language that produces picture in the minds of people reading or listening” (A. S. Hornby, 2004: 877). It is a basic way for poets to show passion, express thoughts and sublimate consciousness. In brief, an image is the aid for poets to express emotion. When a poet is in the outside world, at this time, an object in the outside world arouses a poet’s feelings, how does he change his feelings into lines? The existence of image is necessary. It is one way for a poet to express his feelings.
For the definition of image, some domestic scholars put forward their theories. Ai Qing thinks that an image is a kind of specific feeling (Yan Taotao, 2005: 43). Zhu Guangqian considers that an image is a shadow which an object that a poet is aware of reflecting in heart (Yan Taotao, 2005: 43). And then, Jiang Ying has quoted Ezra Pound, the poet of imagism in America, to explain his viewpoint: An image is that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in a certain and short period of time (Cong Zihang, 2007: 188). Therefore, the essence of image can be a thing in vii
poetic art which is in a stage of being stated. It is bestowed with a poetic meaning because of its merging into poetic art and being described.
Pound once said, an image has been divided into two kinds. When it appears in mind, at this movement, it is subjective…; next, it is objective…. (Ezra Pound, 1989:15) In these circumstances, an image is not just a concept. It is a series of thoughts which are mixed together. This theory shows the importance of poetic imagery. And it also indicates the close relationship between poetic image and poet’s feelings.
The function of image in poems is great. Usually it is regarded as a cell of a poem. Few researchers have deeply analyzed its function, so that people pay little attention to it, and they cannot appreciate poems precisely.
With the formation of images, poets can express their feelings in an implicit way, and make abstract feelings specific to increase the appeal of a poem. From common sense people have known that if a poet hasn’t found a suitable image, no matter how strong his sentiment is, how deep the thought is and even how rich the imagination is, his feelings belong nowhere, like the duckweed in water. It’s difficult to form a poem.
An image is the technique of a poem (Jiang Dengke, 1999: 36). In reality, it is another way to show a poet’s life and experience. Poet’s life and experience can be reflected via imagination in poems. In other word, an image reflects all of poet’s personality and will. Besides, it is a combination of poet’s sentiment, realization and expectation. The main role of image is to change poet’s subconsciousness into consciousness, in order to be more real and specific.
Image is an important factor in poetry. In Chinese and Western poetry, all kinds of images appear one after another and beyond counting. But in those images, the connotations of some images in Chinese poems and in English poems are similar, such as the “rose” which always symbolizes love or enthusiasm because of its color. For example, in Robert Burns’s famous poem, “A Red Red Rose”, he had compared his lover to a red rose; and Yang Wanli in Song Dynasty had written a poem, “Red Rose”, to express romantic relationship. However, some images are completely different, such as the “west wind”. Because of different geographic position, people in viii
countries have different ideas about west wind. In western countries, west wind can bring warm and wet airstreams and abundant rainfall, so they usually compose odes to west wind. But for Chinese, west wind can cause dry air and a cloud of dust filled the whole sky, thus Chinese people are very evasive about this topic. This shows that the connotations of poetic images in Chinese and Western poetry are either equal or different. For example, Percy Shelley had praised the west wind in “Ode to West Wind”, but Yan Shu’s ideas in “Butterflies in Love with Flowers” had run directly counter to Shelley’s:
Last night the western breeze
Blew withered leaves off trees.
I mount the tower high.
（昨夜西风凋碧树，独上高楼，望尽天涯路。）（Xu Yuanchong, Xu Ming, 2009: 58）
3. Similarities and Differences of the Images of Nightingale in English Poems and Cuckoo in Chinese Poems
As birds in nature, the nightingale in English poems and the cuckoo in Chinese poems are great and important bird images. When we are talking about the bird images, necessarily, cuckoo and nightingale will be around people’s minds, because they occur frequently in Chinese and English poems. Following, we will compare their similarities and differences between them.
3.1 Similarities Between the Images of Nightingale and Cuckoo
Firstly, let’s appreciate several lines in two examples of poems in Chinese and English about cuckoo and nightingale.
One is Zheng Xie’s poem: “One Evening on a Bridge over the Brook”(《溪桥晚兴》):
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At sunset on the stream leisurely I stand alone(一川晚照人闲立),
To hear?mid willowdown cuckoo?s home-going song(满袖杨花听杜鹃).
(Cao Shunfa, 2007: 58)
Although this poem describes the scene in spring, it betrays the poet’s loneliness. The poem is written after the poet loses his country as a conquered minister. It shows the poet’s tormenting sadness and loneliness. In the last sentence, cuckoo’s sad singing causes the poet’s sentimental feeling after hearing it.
The other is an English poem: “The Nightingale” written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
And hark! The nightingale begins its song
?Most musical, most melancholy? bird!
……
But some night-wandering man whose heart was pierced
With the remembrance of a grievous wrong,
Or slow distemper, or neglected love, he, and such as he,
First named these notes a melancholy strain.
(Samuel, T. C, H. Nicholas, 2003: 83)
“The Nightingale” was created in April, 1798. It describes that the poet, his friend and friend’s sister sat together to have a rest. The poet heard nightingale’s song. It reminds him of nightingale’s being called “previous bird”.
If the reader has read a lot of Chinese and English poems, he can know that there are at least two similarities between the two images, both of them coming from grievous legends and both of them symbolizing the sad feelings.
3.1.1 Coming from Grievous Legends
The cuckoo, translated into Chinese, is called Dujuan. It has other names, such as Duyu, Zigui, Zijuan, etc. Its call always invokes literary men’s sorrow. In Chinese literature, there are several different versions of the legend of cuckoo. Among these versions, one folk version is as follows: it is said that once there were a couple of youngers who both loved each other very much. One day, the man died suddenly, and x
then the woman couldn’t accept this cruel fact. She had a tearful face every day. Eventually she could not dismiss the suffering from her mind and became a cuckoo. When spring arrived, she flew from east to west, south to north, without distinction between day and night. Her call was extremely sorrowful as if she was complaining tearfully for the man’s suffering.
There is another tale which is the most popular. Duyu, the king of Shu, was called Wang Emperor. Someone said there would be flood in Shu. One minister did a deed of merit in hewing Wu Mountain to regulate rivers and water courses. Wang Emperor thought he did little merits and virtues, therefore he abdicated the throne to that minister, but retired to West Mountain. Afterwards, he turned into a cuckoo. From the two tales above, it can be concluded that cuckoo is a sad and dreary image in Chinese.
Meanwhile, in English poems, about nightingale, there also is a tragic legend. Once upon a time, Pandion, the king of ancient Greece, had two beautiful daughters: Procne and Philomela. Because the king of Thrace, Tereus, had helped Pandion in a war, Procne fell in love with him and became his queen. Then they had a son, named Itys. However, when Philomela went to visit her sister, she was raped by Tereus. In order to disguise his scandalous behavior, Tereus severed Philomela’s tongue and imprisoned her into a castle in a forest. A poet in ancient Rome, Ovid continued this story in “Metamorphoses” like this: Philomela who was full of worries and indignation couldn’t say a word, so she just wove her misfortune into a piece of brocade, and then sent it to her sister via a servant. Angry Procne saved her in a night. For the purpose of being revenged on Tereus, Procne killed her and Tereus’s son Itys, so that Tereus lost the successor to his throne. Furthermore, Procne cooked Itys’s flesh as a dish to Tereus. When Tereus knew this fact, he flew into a rage from shame and drew his sword to hunt down the sisters. In Greek legend, Procne changed into a nightingale, uttering sad calls for her son everyday. Philimela changed into a swallow, intermittently narrated her sorrow.
The plaintive tone of this story infused a saddened emotional keynote into the image of nightingale. In English, “Philomela” is a name of princess of ancient Greece. xi
Besides, it also means “sweet tone”. In English poetry, there are plenty of poems according to this legend. For example, the poet, Matthew Arnold in 19th century, wrote his best lyric poem by means of using it for reference, “Philomela” (《夜莺》) which enjoys great popularity.
In brief, the nightingale in English poems and the cuckoo in Chinese poems can be a symbol of grief because they have rich and generous implication, but not by chance.
3.1.2 Symbolizing the Sad Feelings
At the beginning, still some extracts from two poems are selected to appreciate and compare.
One is Li Chongyuan’s “Recalls the Descendants of Princes”(《忆王孙》): Luxuriant grass reminds me of my roving mate.
In vain my heart breaks in willow-shad?d tower high.
“Better go home!” How could I bear the cuckoo?s cry!
（萋萋芳草忆王孙，柳外高楼空断魂，杜鹃声声不忍闻。）（Gu Zhengyang, 2006: 154）
This is a poem which describes a lady’s sentiment of departing with her lover. The poet uses the “cuckoo” to show intense sentiment. The lady extremely expects her lover’s return, but it cannot be done. This is a kind of deeply sad feeling.
The other is “Philomela” written by Matthew Arnold:
Hark! ah, the nightingale
The tawny-throated!
Hark, from that moonlit cedar what a burst!
What triumph! hark! -what pain!
……
(Palgrave, F. T, 1928: 425)
In this poem, Arnold combines English tradition and Greek legend. Although the nightingale’s song is beautiful and nice, it is desolate. This shows that its sadness never fades away, and the atmosphere usually is dreary.
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The cuckoo is seen as a mournful bird, and the symbol of grief. For hundreds of years, the image of cuckoo has been adopted by poets. Its calls remind poets of many things, such as homesickness. When travelers hear cuckoo’s calls, they naturally recall their hometown, which makes them be filled with the sorrows of parting. For example, In the poem “Lin Jiang Xian”（《临江仙》）of Zhu Dunru, the poet described the feeling that after his country was conquered and his family ruined, with strong homesickness, he had not returned his native place and reunited with families for 14 years.
Besides, there are still many poems reflecting the homesickness by using this image, such as “Thinking of the Native Place”（《忆故园》）of Gu Kuang, “Lines”（《杂诗》）of a poet in Tang Dynasty, etc.
Meanwhile, cuckoo will display other sentimental mood. In a poem of Bai Juyi, “The Song of a Guitar”（《琵琶行》）, there are two sentences: “And what is to be heard here, morning and evening? -- The bleeding cry of cuckoos, the whimpering of apes”（其间旦暮闻何物，杜鹃啼血猿哀鸣。）（.Gu Zhengyang, 2006: 14）The author used the image of cuckoo to express his misery for demotion and sentiment for having unrecognized his talents. Then, in “The Ornamental Zither”（《锦瑟》）of Li Shangying’s, the poet described his mourning for his dead wife. And in “The Stories of Stone”（《红楼梦》）, when Lin Daiyu thinks of the passage of her youth and her situation, she chants the “Song of the Burial of Flower”（《葬花吟》）by using the cuckoo to indicate her desolate mood: “the cuckoo ceases its warbling at twilight，with my spade I return and shut the doors tight” (杜鹃无语正黄昏，荷锄归去掩重门)(Gu Zhengyang, 2007: 46).
In English poems, the nightingale has played the same role. It is recorded in Encyclopedia that nightingale lives in a thick bush. Its singing is the most beautiful among all birds. Whenever in the daytime or at night, people always hear its singing, especially at night with a bright moon. In thick bush, people hardly see the nightingale but just hear its singing. This makes it mysterious, like Philomela who was in prison. The nightingale’s call, “Tereu, Tereu” sounds sad. They think it is like that poor Philomela was telling Tereus’s atrocities. Richard Barnfield wrote in his poem “The xiii
Nightingale”:
Fie, fie, fie, now would she cry,
Teru, teru, by and by;
That to hear her so complain,
Scarce I could from tears refrain;
For her griefs so lively shown
Made me think upon mine own.
Ah, thought I, thou mourn'st in vain;
(Palgrave, F. T, 1928: 358)
Apparently, Barnfield seems to describe cuckoo’s sadness. However, in fact he displays his loneliness and grief by using the image of nightingale.
Besides its melancholic voice, that nightingale like singing at night puts more weight on its grievous meaning. That is because from ancient to modern times, night is always connecting with loneliness and silence. For example, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has a poem describing the night:
I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!
……
From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
My spirit drank repose;
The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,--
From those deep cisterns flows.
“Hymn to the Night”, ) (Longfellow.H.W,
In Chinese poems, night is sad: Loving people complain about the night being too long, thinking of each other throughout the night（情人怨遥夜，竟夕起相思）（Zhang Jiuling：”Looking at the Moon, Thinking of One Far Away”《望月怀远》）(Weng Xianliang, 1985: 97). Night is bleak, therefore, as a matter of a course, it is xiv
dreary that nightingale sings at night.
3.2 Differences Between the Images of Nightingale and Cuckoo
Although there are several similarities in the symbolized meaning of the image of cuckoo in Chinese poems and nightingale in English poems, they have their own meanings when they are applied. Two points will be mentioned in the following
context. First, the nightingale also symbols happiness and hope; second, the relationship between images and schools are different.
3.2.1 The Happy Image of Nightingale
In Chinese poems, the symbolized meaning of cuckoo is single. It is used only to set off the sad situations. Generally speaking, it has no other functions. For example, Qin Guan wrote in “Treading on Grass” (《踏莎行》)：
Shut up in lonely inn, Can I bear the cold spring.
I hear at lengthening sunset homebound cuckoos cry.
（可堪孤馆闭春寒，杜鹃声里斜阳暮。）(Gu Zhengyang, 2006: 171) However, the image of nightingale is different. Even though the nightingale represents a grievous keynote, in some specific situations, it also represents happiness. The situation is typically reflected in “Ode to a Nightingale”, John Keats’s poem. In this poem, there are two major images. One is the poet himself who is disappointed with life and extremely sentimental; the other is the nightingale which symbolizes joys and hope:
……
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call?d him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
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While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain-
To thy high requiem become a sod.
(Gu Zheng kun, 2000: 168)
In this poem, “I” (the poet) and “thou” (the nightingale) are two completely opposite images. One is melancholy while the other is carefree. The poet is intoxicated by nightingale’s singing, whereas his ideas of death become stronger. He is eager to “cease upon the midnight with no pain”. (Gu Zhen gkun, 2000: 168) In reality, nightingale’s singing that stands for poet’s singing symbolizes the eternal enjoyment in fantasy.
Nightingale in this poem does not imply pure happiness. It just sets off poet’s melancholy and disappointment. This is a writing skill that expresses one’s sadness by describing a happy situation.
It proves the nightingale has a double symbolic meaning. But in general, it is for conveying desolate emotion. Compared with it, the cuckoo’s symbolic meaning in Chinese poems seems to be comparatively single.
3.2.2 The Different Relationship Between the Images and the Schools
In English poetry, the sad image not only appears in general English poem, but becomes a vital feature of romantic poetry. The former, Christina Rossetti’s poem, “When I Am Dead, My Dearest”, is an example. Its several well-known lines in it are:
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on as if in pain
(Palgrave. F. T, 1928: 450)
The poet describes the loneliness and peace coming from death via desolate circumstance. Nightingale in this poem has played an important role on constructing poetic atmosphere.
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In romantic literature, nightingale takes an important position. The romantic Movement in England sprung up in 1798. The Lyrical Ballads written by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a marker. As an image representing some kind of emotion, nightingale frequently appears in romantic poetry which emphasizes sincere emotion. Romantic poets, John Keats and Robert Southey have written poems that are entitled with “nightingale”. Among those, “Ode to a nightingale” has become a classic poem in romantic poetry. William Wordsworth also has mentioned the nightingale in “The Solitary Reaper”:
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
……
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
(Gu Zhengkun, 2000:95)
Hearing nightingale’s desolate and beautiful song, the reaper’s singing voice seems to be more beautiful and pleasant, and she seems to be weaker and lonelier.
In Chinese poetry, there is hardly connection between the image of cuckoo and some fixed schools. Some poets produce poems putting “cuckoo” into its title. For example, this poem, “The Cuckoo” written by Du Fu, is in this situation.
In most circumstances, almost all poets like using cuckoos to display melancholy conception. For example, “Shower by shower falls the rain while cuckoos sing(萧萧暮雨子规啼)（Gu Zhengyang, 2007: 167）”, this sentence describes the quiet feeling at dust from drizzle; that “And the cuckoo, weary of empty hills, Singing to the xvii
moon”(又闻子规啼月夜，愁空山（)Li Bai: “Difficult Roads in Shu”）(Gu Zhengyang, 2007: 167)expresses the difficulty on the road to Shu, etc. In modern times, poets like using “cuckoo” as an image. For example, Yu Guangzhong’s poem, “Seeking for Li Bai”, is the case. In reality, what he seeks is a kind of common emotion that our nation widely has. That is his deep affection for homeland. In this poem, the poet uses “cuckoo” to show his homesickness. Therefore, in Chinese poetry, the cuckoo is only one element in poet’s whole conception. No matter which schools they stand for, poets are skillful in using this image.
4. Conclusion
Poetry is one of the most excellent heritages in the world. And an image is the key concept in poetry, and is also the main way to express and exchange feelings for poets. The images of cuckoo and nightingale have appeared frequently in Chinese and English poems. By analysis and comparison, we can realize that the usage of images of cuckoo in Chinese poems and nightingale in English poems is similar in general. Although their legends are different, they are the same to show grief and sadness. With the influence of their grievous legends, their calls are inspired with melancholy. They have been frequently used by poets.
In spite of their similarities, when applied, the two images also have a few differences in the western world and China. The meaning that the nightingale symbolizes is double while that of the cuckoo is single: besides representing the meaning of desolation, the nightingale can be regarded as a happy image, but the cuckoo always appears in poems as a sad image. And there is a close relationship between the nightingale and romanticism school in the western literature while the cuckoo can be cited by every school in Chinese poems.
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