Poem，MusicandUtterance

陆曼+汤漫江

【Abstract】the article， based on the illustration of the relationship between poetry， music and colloquial utterance both in Chinese and in English， is aimed to make aware of the importance of poem reading to cultivation of language sense.

【Key words】utterance； rhythm； accentual-syllabic

I. Poetry， Music and Utterance

A fact goes unnoticed that the earliest literature form all over the world is poetry， which identify itself as Hesiods Theogony in Ancient Greece， Enurma Elish in ancient Babylon， Rig Veda in ancient India， and the Collection of poetry in ancient China. As it comes to English literature， Beowulf， the earliest literature piece， is also in the form of a kind of poetry， epic. “Music is a kind of language while language is a variation of music. Thus， it is hard to distinguish their sources”. “Poetry and dancing are closely related to music”. Iliad and Odyssey， the widespread great oral works of an age were a combination of music and poetry since poetry shares some features with music， such as rhythm and beat. Music finds its expression mainly through the continual change of pitches in a certain rhythmic form. We may have noticed that the pitches of our voices may change from C to G， or even C to the C of an octave higher when we feel exciting， surprising or furious. That is， “the meanings that rhythm （and pitches）， when attached to speech sounds can express includes the declarative， interrogative， imperative and emphatic meanings of mood， emotion and stress on the referring object， concept or relationship…”. And as it is generally accepted that there is no border or territory for music that may be the obstacle for us to enjoy it， music， in this sense， contains something universal. Poetry， as the bridge over music and utterance， is more typical in the form of music to express the whole range of emotions and concepts that are in or beyond our intellectual. And what is more important， we may come to the point that the form of poetry， to be exact， the sound pattern of poetry is a generalization of oral utterances. On the reverse， sound pattern of utterance， once perfected to its utmost， turns out to be in the pattern of poetry. The logic order of a sentence may be ignored in the process of perfecting （poem making）. That is， a poetic stanza and an utterance， which expresses the same idea are different in appearance—they are different in the sense of PAROLE， but they share something in common—they are the same in the sense of LANGUE. However， they are accepted as well by native speakers. Here are two examples， one in Chinese and the other English.endprint

关关雎鸠

在河之洲

窈窕淑女

君子好逑

adopted from 《诗经》周南 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines，

And often is his gold complexion dimmd；

And every fair from fair sometime declines，

By chance or natures changing course untrimmd

Adopted from W. Shakespeares Sonnet 18

if the two stanzas are converted into utterances， the order of the words should be as following：

雎鸠在河之洲关关，君子好逑窈窕淑女 Sometime the eye of heaven shines too hot， And his gold complexion is often dimmd； And sometime every fair to fair declines by chance or natures changing course untrimd.

Many scholars have noticed that there are some relationship between poetry and music. Leechs methodology of poetry analysis and that of Hopkins applied musical terms and signals， among which the most significant are ΟΧ standing for trochee，ΟΧΧ for dactyl and the concept of rest（休止符） .

Therefore， in the sense of language acquisition， poem reading should be emphasized.

II. A Comparison of Poetic and Colloquial Rhythm of Chinese and English

A. Chinese Rhythm

Before the 5.4 Movement， a Chinese could not be literate without the basic training of rhythm since there was no punctuation in Chinese. One could not understand a sentence of an essay without recitation and loud reading of poetic verses， although there existed a group of words which functioned as punctuations③. And language text books at the elementary level such as the 3-character Scripture（三字经） and the Thousand-word Composition（千字文） were essential materials for the training of basic Chinese rhythm patterns，which refer to two-syllable and three-syllable words 7. Apart from the two mentioned above， evidences can be found in all Chinese verse forms（4言诗，骈文，5言诗，7言诗，诗，古体诗[新乐府]，词）. Since the first 4 forms are too regular in form， we will choose the later 3 forms， which are more close to colloquial utterance because the poems of the Collection of Music（乐府） were popular folk songs， as examples to demonstrate the basic Chinese rhythm patterns.

古体诗： 噫吁唏∥危乎∥高哉∥蜀道∥之难∥难于∥上青天（李白，蜀道难）

乐府诗：盎中∥无斗米储∥环视∥架上∥无悬衣∥拔剑∥东门去∥舍中∥儿母∥牵衣啼（出东门）

词：大江∥东去∥浪淘尽∥千古∥风流人物∥——（苏轼，念奴娇-赤壁怀古）。

The colloquial rhythm of modern Chinese remain the same pattern as the ones mentioned above. And no more discussion will be made about it since our concern mainly focuses on English learns.

B. English Rhythm

The most common rhythm forms of English verse are iamb， trochee， anapest and dactyl. Of the four forms， iambic is the most adapted. Cases in point are heroic couplet， Spenserian stanza， rima royal， sterza rima， sonnet， blank verse and free verse as well. And the most important factor that determines the rhythm of English verse is the shift of accentual-syllable. The rhythm pattern of poetry can be classified in to four categories， A. Quantitative （Greek and Latin） B. Accentual （ ancient English） C. syllable-rhythm （Latin and eastern poetry） D. Accentual-syllable （modern English）. And it is more than a coincidence that English metrical verse came into being at the time which is regarded as the beginning of modern English—the age of Jeffery Chaucer， late 14th century. The interaction between colloquial utterance of the time and the poems of the era turned out to be the establishment of the foundation of modern English utterance. As concluded by Liu Bingshan in his A Short History of English Literature， Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the foundation for modern English speech. Further evidences of the fact can also be traced in the developing process of all literature forms. As we have mentioned in part I， the earliest literature form all around the world is poetry （it is even hold that the appearance of poetry was earlier than written words）. In fact， the appearance of different literature forms went the same way in the literature history of all nations， from verse to essay to drama then to novel and to movie. As Hopkins（1970：45） illustrated that the meter of English poetry could be simplified into 2 forms， trochee and dactyl； and跳韻 is， in fact， A. the natural rhythm pattern of both written and spoken language， B. the rhythm pattern of music…（1970：48-9）. Now that the rhythm pattern of English poetry can be taken as the shift of accentual syllables， non-accentual syllables and rest， what will be the rhythm of English speech？ The following examples with rhythm illustrated applied by Guo Yong（2003：15）may show us the answer to the question.endprint

Examples：

1. Four score and seven years ago， our fathers…（Abraham Lincoln）

- - U - U - U – U – U

2. Women have to pretend to feel a great deal that they dont feel. （George Bernard Shaw）

3. Shop_ ，shop_ ，till you drop（an advertisement in Copenhagen）.

As a matter of fact， the rhythm pattern of English speech is the same as that of English verse， accentual syllables， non-accentual syllables and rest.

III. Conclusion

Before we come to the conclusion of the article， it is necessary to adopt parts of the statistic data of a survey on English learners in China.

7. Main obstacles to listening comprehension

A. Nervousness 4%

B. unfamiliarity of the accent and intonation 52%

C. Fast speed of utterance 26%

D. Too much unknown words. 18%

8. The difficulties of oral expression lie in

A. Lack of words and phrases 23%

B. Afraid of making mistakes 4%

C. Lack of frequent exercises and trainings 72%

D. Lack of fluentness 1%

One thing should be mentioned is that the subjects of the survey are postgraduates. We may conclude that rhythm pattern training is of great importance to the acquisition of English since the importance of rhythm pattern in oral utterance grows as the phonetic structure changes； and English verses， poem as well as speeches by those significant figures in the history of English literature， is obviously an effective means to the training.

References：

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[3]梁守涛.英诗格律浅说[M].商务印书馆，1979.

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[5]郭勇.英语口语表达的诗体学节奏分析及其意义[J].外语与外语教学，2003（7）.endprint