Englishpoetry.doc

Reading poetry brings people from different places and different times together.More than any other form of literature，poetry plays with sounds，words and grammar.That makes poetry difficult to write，but very interesting to read.Poetry also calls up all the colors，feelings，experiences and curious images of a dream world.

Though it has a short history，there is a lot of good English poetry around.The seventeenth century was a great time for English poetry.Shakespeare is most famous for his plays.His sonnets，however，belong to the best English poetry.In the next generation of the English poets we meet John Donne.Chinese readers admire his works because of his use of surprising images that reminds them of the works of poets such as Su Dongpo.

Before the end of the century，there was another famous writer，John Milton.Once published，his works became famous for the absence rhyme at the end of each line.In the eighteenth century it was Alexander Pope who wrote the finest poetry in England.

The next period that produced a great number of fine poets was the nineteenth century.Greatly loved in China are the English Romantic poets.John Keats died at a very young age in 1821，while William Wordsworth，who spent much of his time in his English Lake District，lived to the age of the 80 and died in 1850.The nature poems by William Wordsworth，George Gordon Byron's Isles of Greece and the sonnets and long poems by John Keats have long been favorites.The style in their poems has often led to comparisons with poets such as Du Fu and Li Bai.

Finally，modern poets have their special attraction because they stand closest to us both in the language and images they use.Among them we find the American poet Robert Frost.

More and more people are interested to read modern poetry in English.Translation can be good，but being able to read English gives you much choice.Besides，no matter how well a poet is translated，something of the spirit of the original work is lost.Reading poetry in English also opens the door to finding new ways of expressing yourself in Chinese.