Text C Reasons for Attendance

Philip Larkin

The trumpet’s voice, loud and authoritative,

Draws me a moment to the lighted glass

To watch the dancers—all under twenty-five—

Shifting intently, face to flushed face,

Solemnly on the beat of happiness.

—Or so I fancy, sensing the smoke and sweat,

The wonderful feel of girls.Why be out there?

But then, why be in there? Sex, yes, but what

Is sex? Surely to think the lion’s share

Of happiness is found by couples—sheer

Inaccuracy, as far as I’m concerned.

What calls me is that lifted, rough-tongued bell

(Art, if you like) whose individual sound

Insists I too am individual.

It speaks; I hear; others may hear as well,

But not for me, nor I for them; and so

With happiness.Therefore I stay outside,

Believing this; and they maul to and fro,

Believing that; and both are satisfied,

If no one has misjudged himself.Or lied.

1.Answer the following questions about the poem.

1)What is the setting of the poem?

2)What attracted the speaker in the poem to a dancing hall? Did he enter it?

3)Did the speaker like the music played in the dancing hall? Why or why not?

4)Did the speaker feel sad and lonely compared with the happy young couples?

5)Does the poem reflect the era that the poet lived in?

2.Pair work: Read and recite the poem.Then translate the poem into Chinese and compare your version with your partners’.

Notes

1. Charlotte Bront? (1816-1855):She was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Bront? sisters, whose novels are English literature standards.She wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell.

2. Jane Eyre:It is the favorite romantic tale of an orphan who makes a journey to adulthood accompanied by the unkindness of relatives, the horrors of boarding school, and destructive discoveries in love.The novel is a rags-to-riches story, where a Cinderella-type character must find her place. Jane Eyre is the rare book that manages to be good by virtue of ineffable charm alone, despite not having very much going for it in terms of overall plot.

3. W.Somerset Maugham (1874-1965):He was a well-known English playwright, novelist and short story writer.He was educated at King’s School in Canterbury, studied painting in Paris, went to Heidelberg University in Germany and studied to be a doctor at St.Thomas Hospital in England.Due to different activities he experienced, S.Maugham was critical of the morals, the narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy of bourgeois society.Such novels as Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, The Theatre and others came under his pen.S.Maugham was among the most popular writers of his era, and reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.

4. Carmen:It is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet.The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, translated into French in 1852.The story is set in Seville, Spain, around 1820, and concerns the eponymous Carmen, a beautiful gypsy with a fiery temper.Free with her love, she woos the corporal Don José, an inexperienced soldier.Their relationship leads to his rejection of his former love, mutiny against his superior, and joining a gang of smugglers.His jealousy when she turns from him to the bullfighter Escamillo leads him to murder Carmen.

5. SEILENOS (or Silenus):He was the old rustic god of the dance of the wine-press, his name being derived from the words sei?, “to move to and fro”, and lênos, “the wine-trough”.He was also the god of drunkenness who rode in the train of Dionysos seated on the back of a donkey.The old satyr was the foster-father of the god Dionysos.The divine child was delivered into his care after his birth from the thigh of Zeus, and raised by Seilenos and the Nysiades in a cave on the mythical mountain of Nysa.

6. Philip Larkin (1922-1985):As an eminent writer in postwar Great Britain, he was commonly referred to as “England’s other Poet Laureate”until his death in 1985.Indeed, when the position of laureate became vacant in 1984, many poets and critics favored Larkin’s appointment, but the shy, provincial author preferred to avoid the limelight.An “artist of the first rank”in the words of Southern Review contributor John Press, Larkin achieved acclaim on the strength of an extremely small body of work—just over one hundred pages of poetry in four slender volumes that appeared at almost decade-long intervals.These collections, especially The Less Deceived, The Whitsun Weddings, and High Windows, present “a poetry from which even people who distrust poetry, most people, can take comfort and delight”, according to X.J.Kennedy in the New Criterion.Larkin employed the traditional tools of poetry—rhyme, stanza, and meter—to explore the often uncomfortable or terrifying experiences thrust upon common people in the modern age.

For Fun

Works to Read

1. The Moon and Sixpence(1919):It is a novel by W.Somerset Maugham, told in episodic form by the first-person narrator as a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character, Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire to become an artist.The story is said to be loosely based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin.

2. The Paradox of Choice—Why More Is Less (2004):It is a book by American psychologist Barry Schwartz.In the book, Schwartz argues that eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers.This same issue was first proposed by José Ortega y Gasset in Chapter 4 of his book The Revolt of the Masses.Schwartz assembles his argument from a variety of fields of modern psychology that study how happiness is affected by success or failure of goal achievement.

3. The Choice (2007):It is a novel written by acclaimed author Nicholas Sparks.Travis Parker and Gabby Holland set off into an interesting journey of life as neighbours and then lovers.Many conflicts are overcome.It is a story about overcoming barriers to be with loved ones.It is about love, trust, strength, and the choices we can make to show them.

Movies to See

1. Hobson’s Choice (1954):It is a film directed by David Lean.It is based on the play of the same name by Harold Brighouse.It stars Charles Laughton in the title role of Victorian bootmaker Henry Hobson, Brenda De Banzie as his eldest daughter Maggie and John Mills as a timid employee.The film also features Prunella Scales, in one of her first roles, as daughter Vicky Hobson. Hobson’s Choice won the British Academy Film Award for Best British Film 1954.

2. Sophie’s Choice (1982):This is an American romantic drama film that tells the story of a Polish immigrant, Sophie, and her tempestuous lover who share a boarding house with a young writer in Brooklyn.It won Meryl Streep her first Academy Award for best actress and was also nominated for its cinematography, adapted screenplay, original score, and costume design.It appeared in many Critic Top 10 Lists for 1982 and it’s No.91 on the American Film Institute’s most recent list of the 100 greatest movies ever made.

Song to Enjoy

Song of Choice

by Solas

Early every year the seeds are growing

Unseen, unheard, they lie beneath the ground

Would you know before the leaves are showing

That with weeds all your garden will abound?

If you close your eyes, stop your ears

Hold your mouth, how can you know?

The seeds you cannot see may not be there

The seeds you cannot hear may never grow

In January you’ve still got the choice

You can cut the weeds before they start to bud

If you leave them to grow higher, they’ll silence your voice

And in December you may pay with your blood

Close your eyes, stop your ears

Close your mouth and take it slow

Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear

And later you can say you didn’t know

Everyday another vulture takes flight

There’s another danger born every morning

In the darkness of your blindness the beast will learn to bite

How can you fight if you can’t recognize a warning?

Close your eyes, stop your ears

Close your mouth and then you know

Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear

And later you can say you didn’t know

Today you may earn a living wage

Tomorrow you may be on the dole

Though there’s millions going hungry, you needn’t disengage

For it’s them not you that’s fallen in the hole

It’s all right for you if you run with the pack

It’s all right if you agree with all they do

If the fascist’s party slowly climbing back

It’s not here yet, so what’s it got to do with you?

The weeds are all around us and they’re growing

It will soon be too late for the knife

If you leave them on the wind that around the world is blowing

You may pay for your silence with your life

Close your eyes, stop your ears

Close your mouth, they’re never there

And if it happens here, they’ll never come for you

Because they’ll know you really didn’t care