Ella Wheeler Wilcox
There was a fair garden sloping
From the southeast side of the mountain-ledge;
And the earliest tint of the dawn came groping
Down through its paths, from the day’s dim edge.
The bluest skies and the reddest roses
Arched and varied its velvet sod;
And the gladbirdssang, as the soul supposes
Theangelssing on the hills ofGod.
I wandered there when my veins seemed bursting
With life’s rare rapture, and keen delight;
And yet in my heart was a constant thirsting
For something over the mountain-height.
I wanted to stand in the blaze of glory
That turned to crimson the peaks ofsnow,
And the winds from the west all breathed a story
Of realms and regions I longed to know.
I saw on the garden’s south side growing
The brightest blossoms that breathe of June;
I saw in the east how the sun was glowing,
And the gold air shook with a wild bird’s tune;
I heard the drip of a silver fountain,
And the pulse of a young laugh throbbed with glee;
But still I looked out over themountain
Where unnamed wonders awaited me.
I came at last to the western gateway
That led to the path I longed to climb;
But a shadow fell on my spirit straightway,
For close at my side stood greybeardTime.
I paused, with feet that were fain to linger
Hard by that garden’s golden gate;
But Time spoke, pointing with one stern finger;
“Pass on,”he said, “for the day grows late.”
And now on the chill grey cliffs I wander;
The heights recede which I thought to find,
And the light seems dim on the mountain yonder,
When I think of the garden I left behind.
Should I stand at last on its summit’s splendor,
I know full well it would not repay
For the fair lost tints of the dawn so tender
That crept up over the edge o’day.
I would go back, but the ways are winding,
If ways there are to that land, in sooth;
For what man succeeds in ever finding
A path to the garden of his lostyouth?
But I think sometimes, when the June stars glisten,
That a rose-scent drifts from far away;
And I know, when I lean from the cliffs and listen,
That a young laugh breaks on the air like spray.
1.Discuss, with your group members, the poetical theme that we are always unconscious of the preciousness of our youth until it is gone.
2.Try to translate the first four lines of the poem into Chinese.Pay special attention to the metrical form and rhyme scheme of the poem.
Notes
1. Angry young men:The “angry young men”were a group of mostl yworkingandmiddle classBritishplaywrightsandnovelistswho became prominent in the 1950s.The group’s leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.The phrase was originally coined by theRoyal Court Theatre’s press officer to promote John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger.It is thought to be derived from the autobiography ofLeslie Paul, founder of theWoodcraft Folk, whose Angry Young Man was published in 1951.Following the success of the Osborne play, the label was later applied by British newspapers to describe young British writers who were characterized by disillusionment with traditional English society.The term, always imprecise, began to have less meaning over the years as the writers to whom it was originally applied became more divergent, and many of them dismissed the label as useless.
2. John Osborne:He was an Englishplaywright,screenwriter, actor and critic ofthe Establishment.The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre.In a productive life of more than 40 years, Osborne explored many themes and genres, writing for stage, film and TV.His personal life was extravagant and iconoclastic.He was notorious for the ornate violence of his language, not only on behalf of the political causes he supported but also against his own family, including his wives and children.
3. Look Back in Anger:Look Back in Anger (1956) is aJohn Osborneplay—made into films in1959,1980, and1989—about a love triangle involving an intelligent but disaffected young man (Jimmy Porter), his upper-middle-class, impassive wife (Alison), and her haughty best friend (Helena Charles).Cliff, an amiable Welsh lodger, attempts to keep the peace.The play was a success on the London stage, and spawned the term “angry young men”to describe Osborne and those of his generation who employed harshness and realism in the theatre in contrast to the moreescapistfare previously seen.
4. Lucky Jim:Itis a novel byKingsley Amis, published in1954byVictor Gollancz.It was Amis’s first novel, and won theSomerset Maugham Awardfor fiction.Set sometime around 1950, Lucky Jim follows the exploits of the eponymous James (Jim) Dixon, a reluctant medieval history lecturer at an unnamed provincialEnglishuniversity(based in part on theUniversity of Leicester).The tone is often truculent and plain-spoken, but diction and style are wide-ranging and finely modulated.The novel pioneers the characteristic subject-matter of the time: a young man making his way in a post-war world that combines new and moribund attitudes.While the treatment frequently rises to high comedy, the novel is also an absorbing love story, and never loses its grip on the painful and complex realities of human relationships.
For Fun
Works to Read
1. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:It is often known simply as Tom Jones , is acomic novelby the English playwright and novelistHenry Fielding.The novel is both a Bildungsromanand apicaresque novel.First published on 28 February 1749 in London, Tom Jonesis among the earliest Eng lish prose works describable as a novel, and is the earliest novel mentioned byW.Somerset Maughamin his 1948 book “Great Novelists and Their Novels”among the ten best novels of the world.
2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: It is a novel byMark Twain, first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885.Commonly named among theGreat American Novels, the work is among the first in majorAmerican literatureto be written throughout invernacularEnglish, characterized bylocal color regionalism.
Movies to See
1. Lucky Jim(1957):It is a 1957 British comedy film directed by John Boulting and starring Ian Carmichael, Terry-ThomasandHugh Griffith.It is an adaptation of the 1954 novel Lucky Jim byKingsley Amis.
2. Look Back in Anger(1959):It is a 1959 British film starring Richard Burton, Claire Bloom and Mary Ure and directed by Tony Richardson.It is based on John Osborne’s play of the same name about a love triangle involving an intelligent but disaffected young man (Jimmy Porter), his upper-middle-class, impassive wife (Alison), and her snooty best friend (Helena Charles).Cliff, an amiable Welsh lodger, attempts to keep the peace.
Song to Enjoy
Lucky Jim
by the Gun Club
the rain has arrived at last
for which we had waited
the hawkers have packed up their stands
nothing to be traded
the soviets beside the quay
run back to the freighter
the terrace of the Rex Hotel
is closed by the waiters
we need you, oh Lucky Jim
where have you gone, oh Lucky Jim
your mistress has left her home
gone back to the dances
the smoking dens are starting up
for life’s own enhancing
nobody goes to the war
since there’s none to go to
we just sit around the cafè bars
we sit waiting for you
we need you, oh Lucky Jim
where have you gone, oh Lucky Jim
why did you ever go up north
it is not for you
they’ll strip your little weak heart clean
then what will you do
the Australians in the Bunny Bar
are waiting your return
everyone wants a piece of you
a piece of you to burn
we need you, oh Lucky Jim
where have you gone, oh Lucky Jim
we miss you here, oh Lucky Jim