William Empson's poetry occupies a central place in 20th-century literature. Acclaimed as the brilliant author of Seven Types of Ambiguity, published when he was only 24, Empson has been applauded for the dazzling intelligence and emotional passion of his poems. T. S. Eliot praised the "brain power" and "intense feeling" of his poetry; F. R. Leavis hailed him as the first true successor to John Donne. Robert Lowell told Empson: "I think you are the most intelligent poet writing in our language and perhaps the best. I put you with Hardy and Graves and Auden and Philip Larkin".Empson's poems have a range of themes from metaphysics to melancholy, social climbing to political satire, love to loss. Above all, he was stimulated by the implications of modern science, which he called "the only fertile part of the contemporary mind".This volume brings together for the first time all the poems that Empson published in his lifetime and several more discovered since his death. Drawing on unpublished papers, interviews, readings, and broadcasts, John Haffenden's introduction and annotations identify manuscript sources, allusions, and intertexts. The volume also includes Empson's own notes, which he regarded as a vital complement to the poetry. Sir William Empson was educated at Winchester and Cambridge and taught at Tokyo University, Peking National University, and the University of Sheffield, where he was chair of English literature from 1952 until his retirement in 1971. He was knighted in 1979 and died in London in 1984.
Sir William Empson (27 September 1906 – 15 April 1984) was an English literary critic and poet.
He is sometimes praised as the greatest English literary critic after Samuel Johnson and William Hazlitt, and widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, fundamental to the New Critics. Jonathan Bate has claimed that the three greatest English Literary critics of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are, respectively, Johnson, Hazlitt and Empson, "not least because they are the funniest".
Empson has been styled a "critic of genius" by Sir Frank Kermode, who qualified his praise by identifying willfully perverse readings of certain authors; and Harold Bloom has stated that Empson is among a handful of critics who matter most to him, because of their force and eccentricity. Empson's bluntness led to controversy both during his life and after his death, and a reputation in part also as a "licensed buffoon" (Empson's own phrase).
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阅读威廉·恩普森的诗歌,就像是进入了一个精心搭建的、充满镜子的房间。你每走一步,看到的都是自己、是诗句、是诗句对自己的反驳,以及对反驳的反驳。这本书的挑战性在于,它强迫你质疑自己所有的预设。你以为你知道“爱”是什么,恩普森会给你一首诗,让你意识到你所知的“爱”只是这个概念的十万分之一的简化版。他的语言密度极高,信息量爆炸,初读时,我感觉我的大脑处理器过载了。我发现我必须反复阅读那些看似平淡的段落,因为“平淡”往往是他设置的最深陷阱——里面可能藏着全诗最尖锐的讽刺或最深刻的洞见。这本书不适合在心绪不宁时阅读,它需要你完全沉浸其中,像一个考古学家一样,小心翼翼地清理掉覆盖在文字表面的尘土,才能看到下面那个复杂而迷人的结构。这是一部需要被“研究”而非仅仅被“欣赏”的作品集,它会改变你对诗歌作为一种媒介的理解。
评分翻开这本厚厚的书脊,我感受到一种沉甸甸的,近乎于“反诗意”的严肃感。恩普森的诗歌有一种奇特的冷峻美学,它仿佛是故意将所有温暖的人性光辉都抽离出去,只留下骨骼和逻辑的框架。我印象最深的是他处理“误解”和“不确定性”的方式。他的诗句很少给你一个明确的答案,更多的是把问题抛给你,然后用一套近乎于数学公式般的精确性来描绘这种不确定性本身。这让我联想到某种早期的现代主义建筑,线条分明,结构暴露,毫不掩饰其内在的支撑系统。我发现自己经常会不自觉地停下来,不是因为词语太美,而是因为它们太“准确”了——这种准确性反而带来了一种疏离感。这与我之前读过的许多浪漫主义或象征主义的诗集形成了鲜明的对比,那些诗歌是关于感觉的溢出,而恩普森更像是关于感觉的冷静解剖。读完一首,我需要休息一下,让自己的心率恢复正常,才能继续下一篇的“技术分析”。它更像是一本关于如何思考的教材,而非情感的表达,这非常独特,但也非常考验读者的耐性与接受度。
评分说实话,我花了很长时间才真正“进入”恩普森的节奏,起初的阅读体验是相当挫败的。那些长句,那些绕来绕去的从句结构,简直像是在舌头上打结。我甚至一度怀疑,他是不是故意的,想把自己的诗歌变成一种只有少数精英才能破解的密码。但一旦你抓住了他句子内部的那个核心的、常常是反讽的枢纽点,整个世界观就会突然展开。那种感觉,就像你在盯着一团复杂的电线看了很久,突然,你找到了那个总开关。他对于双关语和歧义的运用达到了出神入化的地步,一句话可以同时指向两个完全对立的意义,而且两者都同样成立。这种“两面性”贯穿始终,让你无法轻易站队。我特别喜欢他探讨道德困境时那种近乎临床的冷静,他没有提供救赎,也没有陷入绝望,他只是清晰地描绘了困境本身的结构。这本书无疑是为那些不满足于表层意义的读者准备的“硬通货”,需要你投入精力去挖掘其深层逻辑,但回报是丰厚的——你会发现自己思考问题的方式都变得更加细致和多维了。
评分这本书的版式和印刷质量令人印象深刻,但内容本身,嗯,这是一场认知上的洗礼。我发现恩普森的诗歌有一种强烈的“学术气质”,仿佛每一行诗都是经过了严格的逻辑论证才被写下的。他很少使用自然意象来烘托情绪,如果他写到“树”或“水”,那这个意象背后一定隐藏着某种复杂的哲学隐喻,绝不是为了增添田园风光。我尝试着将他的一些诗句朗读出来,结果发现,那些句子在口中是拗口的,因为它们被设计出来就不是为了流畅地发音,而是为了在纸面上形成精确的视觉和意义结构。这让我联想到早期科学论文的写作风格,追求绝对的清晰和客观,即使主题是人类最内在的挣扎。对于习惯了音乐性强、节奏明快的诗歌的读者来说,这本集子可能显得过于“干燥”和“智力化”。它要求你像对待数学定理一样对待它,去解构,去验证,去理解其内在的必然性。这是一次对“诗歌应该是什么”的严肃挑战。
评分这本诗集简直是一次精神上的马拉松,读完之后感觉肺活量都增加了不少。我得说,威廉·恩普森这位老兄,他的文字密度简直可以跟中子星媲美。你以为你在读一首抒情的十四行诗,结果下一秒,你已经被卷入一个关于符号学、心理分析和晦涩历史典故的漩涡。我对着某几首诗,足足查阅了三四本参考书,才勉强摸到一点边际。尤其是他那标志性的“复杂性”(Complexity)——哦,我的天,那根本不是复杂,那是文字构建的迷宫,你得带着迷宫地图和一份哲学博士学位才能安全出来。但这正是它的魅力所在,它拒绝平庸的、唾手可得的情感表达。每一次解读,都像是在挖掘一件被层层包裹的古董,剥开一层,发现更精妙的雕工,让你不得不停下来,对着那精巧的结构惊叹不已。它不是那种可以在壁炉边轻松翻阅的消遣读物,它需要你全副武装,带着最好的注意力,准备好与一位极其聪明、但又有点爱捉弄人的思想家进行一场持久的智力搏斗。如果你想寻找那种直抒胸臆、让你瞬间泪奔的诗歌,那请移步别处;但如果你渴望被挑战、被启发,想要看看语言能被推到怎样一个极限,那么,恭喜你,你找对地方了。
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