The core of Renaissance spirit is humanism. Humanism advocates taking "man" as the center and opposes taking "god" as the center. This rational spirit is an important part of people's inheritance of ancient Greek cultural heritage during the Renaissance. There is an emphasis on people in ancient Greek dramas. Sophocles, a famous tragic writer, said: "There are many rare treasures in the world, but it is hard to find something as wonderful as people." Plodagora put forward that "man is the measure of all things". Shakespeare's Hamlet, the most outstanding representative of the English Renaissance, also expressed the same view. In Shakespeare's sonnets, this people-oriented rational thought is skillfully presented through the use of various images. In the sonnet 18, Shakespeare uses vivid images such as "flowers that wither easily" and "summer that withers easily" to describe the ruthlessness of time, but the beauty and youth of friends are immortal because of his poems. Here, the poet praised the greatness and innovative ability of "man". He believed in personal ability and thought that poetry could bring eternity to friends, which reflected the humanistic thought at that time. In the Middle Ages, oppressed by theocracy, people had no status and were born guilty, mainly living for the "afterlife". The "discovery of man" in the Renaissance believed that man could conquer nature, which reflected the value discovery of man's return to himself. In this poem, Shakespeare emphasized that literature can make people immortal, and literature is the result of people's creation, thus proclaiming the greatness of people, thus highlighting the central position of people and believing in their unique value and dignity. Spencer, another important Renaissance poet, also expressed a similar theme in his 75th poem Sonata for Love. The poem first uses images such as "names written on the beach" to explain that things in nature are always destroyed by time, and then expresses a new humanistic thought that only literature created by "people" can compete with time.
In addition to praising people themselves, people also read the poet's sincere appreciation of the beauty of nature in Renaissance poetry. In the early stage of human development, nature is mysterious and dangerous in people's minds, and people seem powerless in front of nature. By the Renaissance, people had a deeper understanding of nature and naturally became human partners. Poets regard nature as an important theme of art and create many poems praising the beauty of nature. For example, thomas nashe's "Spring": "Elms and hawthorn are all over Shan Ye, and the houses in every village are angry./The lambs are full of joy, the shepherd boy plays the flute all day,/The birds are always singing in their ears,/Cha-cha, giggle, chirp, my brother is harvesting grain!" The whole poem has three sections, which is the second section. The translator Mr. He has a good explanation for this poem: "The reason why this poem can give people a sense of beauty mainly depends on the poet's use of colorful images, such as visual images, auditory images, tactile images, olfactory images and so on. There are men, women, children, animals, flowers and trees in the poem. There are static scenes and dynamic ones. People can feel the' light cold' spring breeze and warm sunshine, people can hear the chirping of birds and the melodious sound of shepherds' flutes, and people can smell the fragrance in the fields-this is not just a happy spring scene painting! "
Second, praise for love and women.
Poets are intoxicated with the beauty of nature, but they also regard learning from nature as their own aesthetic standard. They created a large number of love poems with natural images as the carrier, and expressed their yearning for love and deep feelings for love without scruple. Through such self-release, they broke through the suppression of human desires and emotions by medieval religions, affirmed the richness and loveliness of real life through enthusiastic praise and profound thinking, praised love and personality liberation, and embodied the people-oriented spirit in the Renaissance. For example, christopher marlowe's Love Song of the Shepherd: "Come, live with me and be my lover./It will make us happy here./There are steep and beautiful mountains,/and beautiful valleys and pastoral areas. /Over there, we sat on the rocks,/watching the shepherds feed the lovely lambs; /By the shallow stream, birds sing love with the gurgling water. The whole poem is fresh and romantic, without preaching and vows. With many beautiful natural images such as mountains, villages, streams, rose beds, konoha skirts, coral buttons, etc., we outline a desirable pastoral lifestyle. How can this not touch the girl's heart? The foreshadowing of these images is gorgeous and full of charm, which embodies the poet's true yearning for beautiful love and his desire to enjoy a better life with his loved ones. Such a theme is precisely the best interpretation of humanism spread by the Renaissance, and this abstract theme is more vivid and touching because it is attached to specific natural images. Zhu Guangqian said in his "On Poetry": "The realm of every poem must have two elements:" emotion "and" image ". Interest is a real feeling that can be compared but cannot be directly described. If it is not attached to a specific image, there is no visible image at all. "
In the love poems of the Renaissance, people can also see the poet's praise for women and his deep love for his lover. In the Middle Ages, due to the influence of asceticism theology, women did not get due respect. The rise of Renaissance thought makes people pay more attention to real life. In ancient Greece, great philosophers such as Pythagoras, democritus and Epicurus all advocated: "Physical happiness and sensory happiness are the origin and foundation of all happiness; If the joy of love and the joy of sight and hearing are removed from one's life, then the concept of' goodness' is unimaginable. Women are often the embodiment of love and beauty, and they deserve love and respect. " Humanist writers in the Renaissance reaffirmed women's self-worth in the revival of ancient Greek and Roman culture and liberated them from religious imprisonment. While praising love, the poet described the beautiful face of women with poems: "She sat naked, singing,/the lucky pipa spread her legs,/I didn't expect someone to be shocked,/facing the sanctity of her perfume." (Chapman: Ovid's emotional feast) This is the scene after the poet Ovid's lover bathed in a clear spring. The image of this beautiful woman is "sweet" and "sacred", full of passionate feelings of Renaissance poets and sincere praise for women. The poet Thomas Campion praised in his Cherry Ripe: "There is a garden on her face,/full of lilies and roses; That place is a wonderful paradise; /There are all kinds of fresh fruits; No one can buy the cherries that grow there/unless they say,' The cherries are ripe!' . Poets praise women with the most beautiful images in nature, such as "garden", "lily" and "rose", implying their beauty and holiness.
Third, curiosity.
Renaissance humanists advocated learning and declared that knowledge is power. They explore nature, study science, develop their talents in an all-round way, pay attention to people's all-round development, and oppose those who are one-sided and stick to medieval knowledge. Marlowe wrote in "Big Mushroom": "The four elements used by nature to create people/compete for hegemony in us/teach us all to set up ambitions. /Our souls have the ability to know/the magnificent structure of the world,/the way to detect every planet,/the constant search for infinite knowledge,/endless actions, like endless stars,/drive us to torture ourselves and never stop,/until we get the most fruitful results. The images of "four elements" and "planet" here reflect the humanistic background of the Renaissance, and people in Elizabethan era are the same as those in Aristotle's era. People think that nature is composed of four elements: water, fire, air and earth. Astronomical images such as Planets show people's enthusiasm for astronomical research in the Renaissance, and Marlowe used these images to express people's infinite desire for knowledge and enthusiastic praise for themselves in the Renaissance. Marlowe also expressed the same idea in The Tragedy of Doctor Faust. Faust used soul exchange to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, but in the end he failed to go beyond the limit of his life and was taken away 24 years later. However, the impression left by his tragedy is not death and failure, but the spirit of people who dare to do things during the Renaissance. The heroic spirit of attaching importance to individuality, striving to surpass oneself and pursuing Excellence in poetry is the core of humanism. Marlowe, through the superman image of Faust, artistically reproduces the feelings and demands of the writer himself and the humanists of that era under the enlightenment of the light of humanism.
Fourth, pay attention to the humanistic thought of real life.
In addition to deepening the theme of love with natural images, the idea of "eating, drinking and having fun" in this period is also expressed through the images of poetry. Poetry with the theme of carpe diem emphasizes that life is short and time flies, thus warning people to enjoy real life. Before the Renaissance, Europe, under the rule of religious theology, preached that life was a kind of atonement and regarded people's inner desires as an evil, and its main weapon was "asceticism". Abstinence requires people to give up all human desires, obey God's arrangement and accept God's domination. Renaissance writers, under the banner of humanism, opposed the theological ruling thought advocated by the church and advocated individual liberation, which had a strong progressive significance of anti-feudalism, anti-church theocracy and anti-asceticism. Therefore, the theme of "eat, drink and be merry", which embodies the significance of secular life, has once again attracted attention after the long Middle Ages. Renaissance poets, such as Spencer, Marville and herrick, wrote many poems on this theme. In these poems, they used images as the medium, which embodied the humanistic thought of pursuing secular life and enjoying secular love. Herrick's "To a Young Girl: Don't Mistake Youth" is the representative work of this kind of theme. "Pick rose buds before it's too late; /Time The old man is always flying; /The same flower is still smiling today,/It will wither tomorrow. /The rising sun in Ran Ran, lanterns in the sky,/Always rising in Ran Ran,/Wan Li's trip is coming to an end,/The sun sets and dusk comes. This poem by herrick strongly expresses the idea of "eat, drink and be merry" and will never lose its wonderful moment. In the first two verses of this poem, the images of rose and sun are used to illustrate fleeting appearance and fleeting time. In particular, the image of the rose, as a symbol of beauty and love, is so short that the theme of the third and fourth sections is "Eat, drink and be merry", which shows the humanistic life belief and attitude. Herrick also described the shortness of life with the images of daffodils, summer rain and morning dew, and emphasized the significance of secular life. Other similar works, such as Song of Roses in Spencer's The Fairy Queen, also use the image of roses to express such themes.
Aware of the destructive power of time, Renaissance poets also created many time images. In his sonnets, Shakespeare compares time to the old man of time, the bloody devil, the ribbon that devours everything, the sickle, the axe and the scud. These images repeatedly show the ruthlessness of time and are intended to show the poet's determination to fight against time. In Marville's To a Shy Girl, the image of "the chariot of time gallops" is used to emphasize that time flies and time waits for no one. With the help of poetic images, poets naturally and frankly express their feelings and express their humanistic thoughts of attaching importance to reality and life.