奥尔弗斯的美国化身——论爱默生《诗人》中“诗人”的三重身份

The American Orpheus:On the Poet's Triple Identities in Emerson's “The Poet”

爱默生在散文《诗人》中深入探讨了诗人的本质和作用,塑造了一个理想的诗人形象。这一形象可以追溯到希腊神话中的奥尔弗斯。本文结合19世纪美国的社会文化背景,以《诗人》为主要研究文本,辅以爱默生的诗歌和日记等资料,探究了爱默生的诗人观与奥尔弗斯诗人形象的关系,进而指出爱默生以传统意象奥尔弗斯为蓝本,构建了一个具有三重身份的"诗人":代表人物——奥尔弗斯整体力量的化身;见者和预言家——奥尔弗斯灵感与智慧的化身;言者和语言创造者——奥尔弗斯语言和艺术创造力的化身。奥尔弗斯化身的美国诗人表达了爱默生对美国民族诗人以及美国文学独立的渴望,同时推动了19世纪美国文学的发展。

"The Poet"is an essential essay on Emerson's viewpoint of poet,in which Emerson creates an image of an ideal poet and explores its essence and function.This image derives from the Greek mythological figure,a model of poet and musician,Orpheus.For a further understanding of Emerson's concept of poet,the relationship between the poet model Orpheus and Emerson's view of poet is discussed in this paper by taking the social and cultural conditions of America in the 19th century into consideration.Based on close reading of the major essays and with support from the other works of Emerson,the paper points out that Emerson depicts a poet with triple identities modeled after the traditional image of Orpheus and born in the social context of America:a representative man-the transformation of Orpheus'comprehensive power;a seer and prophet-the transformation of Orpheus'wisdom and inspiration;a sayer and language creator-the transformation of Orpheus'creativity of language and art.The poet figure designed by Emerson,which is an American version of Orpheus,reflects Emerson's calling for an American national poet and the independence of American literature,as well as promotes the development of the 19th century American literature.