The poem expresses the poet's view on life in the tone of a young man (avoiding the suspicion of direct preaching by the poet), and expounds the philosophy of life against negative nihilism with a healthy and enterprising optimism. The language of the whole poem is solemn, serious and popular, and the poet reveals the positive connotation of life from many angles. The whole poem has ***9 sections, which are well-structured, well-organized and very particular about reasoning and discussion.
From the overall structure, the whole poem is progressive and interlocking, which is very natural and reflects the poet's extraordinary skills and thoughts.
The whole poem has four distinct levels. The poem 1~3 can be regarded as the first level, which shows the poet's fundamental view of life, that is, what life is. In section 1, the poet first wrote a negative argument, deliberately setting the "singer" of a pessimistic life theory as the object of criticism, and expounding the reason against the mortal nature of the body as fantasy, so as to restore the spiritual dimension of life and safeguard the practical significance of life. The second part is about negative argument. The poet showed the materialistic life theory that "life is real". Life is not a false alarm, but a sincere enthusiasm. The end of life is not the grave. "You are dust, and you will return to dust" is only for the body, not for the human spirit. Therefore, the third section makes it clear that the road and goal of life is neither enjoyment nor lamentation, but action. Every tomorrow will go further than today and make progress every day. Based on this, it is wrong to lament the wait and see. Only by grasping the time tightly and giving full play to one's intelligence is the correct attitude.
The second level (section 4-6) expounds how to spend one's life based on how to spend one's life. This paper begins to explain the theme of the whole poem, pointing out that the goal and road of life lies in action and continuous self-transcendence. The metaphor contained in the sentence "Art is long and time flies" in the fourth section is that time is a ship, so we should cherish it and strive hard. People can't help but think that "time flies, the sun and the moon fly." In addition, there are three conceptual metaphors in this poem, that is, the heart is a person, life is a journey, and the heart is a musical instrument, which shows that only a positive attitude and enterprising spirit can truly enrich and improve life. In the fifth section, the poet compares the world to a battlefield, metaphorically speaking, the world is a venue; Comparing life to a campsite, where passengers can rest temporarily, is a metaphor. Life is a place to rest, which aims to remind people to cherish life, be proactive and work hard. Since life is real, we should act "while we are alive" and be a "mighty hero" who dares to face all the realities, because time flies and life is short. The sixth section compares time to people, making people feel that time is the people around them, which can be seen and touched, thus enhancing people's sense of urgency. In life, you can't be a lazy coward or a visionary. Take action-make the most of the present. Fate is different for everyone, but without exception, all you can do is to bear it.
The third level (7~8) turns to the interpretation of the value of life and answers the value and significance of a correct life. In the seventh section "Parting, leaving us behind", the word "Parting" can mean leaving or death, which makes simple poetry have richer meanings and causes readers to think. The poet compares life to the ocean, and people will have awe of the ocean, so they will also have awe of life. The poet believes that the fundamental meaning of life lies in making one's own life lofty and magnificent, and making the mark of life stay in history (that is, human history) forever for people to admire and enlighten.
The fourth floor (9 sections) consists of one section. In just four poems, the poet issued the strongest voice of the times, which can be regarded as the poet's strong appeal and warm call, calling on people to cheer up, put into action and bravely face any challenge of fate. "Keep forging ahead, keep pursuing/be good at working and waiting" is the conclusion of this mystery poem.
Longfellow's poems are easy to understand, lively and infectious. Moreover, its upward life spirit is very consistent with the spirit of the times in the 1940 s in the United States from 65438 to 09, making it widely circulated in the United States.
rhythm
From the artistic point of view, the poetic style is beautiful and full of rhythm.
In the poem The Singer, the poet points out that the poet has three tasks: entertainment, inspiration and teaching. In order to achieve this goal, Longfellow's poems often choose the most common traditional English formats and common words, and the words are colloquial and catchy, which is convenient for ordinary readers to read and arouse their songs. Ode to Life adopts the most commonly used four-line stanza form in traditional metrical poems, and its lines mainly adopt iambic four-tone steps (some of which are three-tone steps), and the light and heavy syllables appear four times in one line. The rhyme of this poem is neat, with alternating rhymes of A, a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, and the foot rhyme is also interspersed with changes of single rhyme and double rhyme, with odd lines using double rhyme and even lines using single rhyme, such as "number" and "strike" in the first and third lines of 1 section. The double rhyme is quiet and lively, and the single rhyme is strong and powerful. The lack of the two undoubtedly further enhances the cadence of the poem. In addition, some poems also adopt the rhetorical form of alliteration, such as soul and sleeping, grave and goal, spoken language and soul, broadness and fighting in the third, sixth, eighth and seventeenth lines of the poem. The use of all these rhymes, foot rhymes and alliterations has formed a neat and harmonious rhythm of this poem as a whole, which makes it lively and smooth in tone, vigorous and beautiful to read, and coincides with the ideological connotation of the poem, giving people the feeling of striving for progress and having a strong appeal. Mr. Qian Zhongshu, a modern writer and literary researcher in China, called Ode to Life "the first English Chinese poem".
John green Green Leaf Whittie, an American Democratic poet, commented: "I don't know who the author is, but he or she is by no means an idle generation. These nine simple poems are more valuable than all the dreams of Shelley, Keats and Wordsworth put together. This poem is breathing and full of the spirit of our times today-this is the spirit of a promising century' steam engine'. "