ABSTRACT
Poetry has its unique form and elements. These elements include rhyme, tone, image and theme. And in essence, image is the soul of poetry, so it plays an important role in understanding the poetry. The images in English Romantic poetry perform a very rich forms, the most common image is the “Nightingale” image.
This paper first introduces the definition and classification and the importance of image in poetry. Second comes up with three types of nightingale images after analyzes some major Romantic poets’ poems. Third combines the background and their life experience of poets with their nightingale images, comes to summarize the similarities and differences of nightingale images in poems. Last, points out the causes and significance of nightingale image under that historical background.
Contents
1．Introduction 1
2. The image in poetry 2
2.1 The definition and classification of Image 2
2.2 The function of poetic Image 3
3. Three types of Nightingale image 5
3.1 Nightingale of myth-based 6
3.2 Description on nightingale’s life habits 7
3.3 Expression of inner feelings 8
4. The Nightingale and Romantic poets 10
4.1 William Wordsworth’s To a Skylark--the sad and disparaging nightingale 10
4.2 John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale--the happy and sad nightingale 11
5．The historical reasons of Nightingale image 14
6．Conclusion 15
Acknowledgements 16
References 17
