宝爸宝妈应该知道的英文诗歌常识
前段时间参加了“蜗牛英语”的线下分享会，被安利了一波绘本、自然拼读材料和儿童诗歌。
我最喜欢的一本是范针老师推荐的 A Child's Introduction to Poetry。绘图精美、语言活泼、内容系统，是本普及诗歌知识的好书。虽然这本书是写给 8-13 岁、Grade 4 以上英语为母语的孩子，不过也适合我们成人读，了解诗歌常识还能顺便学英文。
这本书主要由两部分。
Part One 是普及诗歌类型，在这一部分作者用简洁的语言介绍了诗歌知识，比如 stanza 是“The way lines are grouped together, like paragraphs, within a poem“；villanelle 就是“A nineteen-line poem with carefully arranged rhymes“；Shakespearean sonnet 是“A fourteen-line poem made up of three quatrains and a couplet"——如果你不知道什么是 quatrain 什么是 couplet，没关系，书里都有介绍。
每一部分都有简单概述、代表作品赏析、词汇学习（Words for the Wise 板块）。比如有：
Nursery Rhymes（童谣）：代表作有英国诗人 Jane Taylor 的 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star；Mother Goose（也就是带娃必备的《鹅妈妈》）。
Villanelle（维拉内拉诗）: 特点是 19 行，韵式为 aba，代表作是 Dylan Thomas 的 Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night。顺便说大紧老师还翻译过这首诗呢。
Limerick（打油诗）：特点是 5 行，韵式为 aabba。代表诗人是 Edward Lear，他喜欢以 There was a... 开头，比如：
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, “It is just as I feared! —
Two owls and a hen,
Four larks and a wren,
Have a ll built their nests in my beard.”
Haiku（俳句）: 来自日本，特点是用 3 行，17 个音节描述一个具体的画面：
来看个段子：
Part Two 是“Poetry's Greats“，主要介绍大师和他们的作品。这里有荷马、米尔顿、爱伦坡，也有吉卜林和 Maya Angelou。文字都很简单、准确，是平实英文的好例子，节选几句话感受一下：
John Milton was a spirited poet followed his own rules at a time when most people who hoped to be successful followed a strict path.
When it comes to spookiness, no other poet can match Edgar Allan Poe.
As poets go, Emily Dickinson was an oddball.
Christina Rossetti was destined for stardom.
Walt Whitman led the charge in America during the nineteenth century to write poetry that could be understood and enjoyed by everyone, poems of freedom that celebrated the common man. His voice was the voice of America.
篇幅短、插图精美，分分钟都能涨知识，比英语专业的文学课有趣多了，多希望我小时候就能读到这样一本书！
诗歌这种文学体裁确实比较难懂，我们可以先放低门槛，从常识入门。读读诗人的简介，听一听读一读他们的代表作节选，人人都能享受诗歌的乐趣。正如这本书的副标题：Listen while you learn about the magic words that have moved mountains, won battles and made us laugh and cry.
如果你是宝爸宝妈或者中小学英语老师，强烈推荐！
读英文原版书刊，
学立刻就能用的地道英文
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