介绍： Aurora Leigh
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

With quiet indignation I broke in.
"You misconceive the question like a man,
Who sees a woman as the complement
Of his sex merely. You forget too much
That every creature, female as the male,
Stands single in responsible act and thought
As also in birth and d...

介绍： Aurora Leigh
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

With quiet indignation I broke in.
"You misconceive the question like a man,
Who sees a woman as the complement
Of his sex merely. You forget too much
That every creature, female as the male,
Stands single in responsible act and thought
As also in birth and death. Whoever says
To a loyal woman, 'Love and work with me,'
Will get fair answers if the work and love,
Being good themselves, are good for her the best
She was born for. Women of a softer mood,
Surprised by men when scarcely awake to life,
Will sometimes only hear the first word, love,
And catch up with it any kind of work,
Indifferent, so that dear love go with it.
I do not blame such women, though, for love,
They pick much oakum; earth's fanatics make
Too frequently heaven's saints. But me your work
Is not the best for, nor your love the best,
Nor able to commend the kind of work
For love's sake merely. Ah, you force me, sir,
To be overbold in speaking of myself:
I too have my vocation, work to do,
The heavens and earth have set me since I changed
My father's face for theirs, and, though your world
Were twice as wretched as you represent,
Most serious work, most necessary work
As any of the economists'. Reform,
Make trade a Christian possibility,
And individual right no general wrong;
Wipe out earth's furrows of the Thine and Mine,
And leave one green for men to play at bowls,
With innings for them all! . . . What then, indeed,
If mortals are not greater by the head
Than any of their prosperities? what then,
Unless the artist keep up open roads
Betwixt the seen and unseen, bursting through
The best of your conventions with his best,
The speakable, imaginable best
God bids him speak, to prove what lies beyond
Both speech and imagination? A starved man
Exceeds a fat beast: we'll not barter, sir,
The beautiful for barley. And, even so,
I hold you will not compass your poor ends
Of barley-feeding and material ease,
Without a poet's individualism
To work your universal. It takes a soul,
To move a body: it takes a high-souled man,
To move the masses, even to a cleaner stye:
It takes the ideal, to blow a hair's-breadth off
The dust of the actual. Ah, your Fouriers failed,
Because not poets enough to understand
That life develops from within. For me,
Perhaps I am not worthy, as you say,
Of work like this: perhaps a woman's soul
Aspires, and not creates: yet we aspire,
And yet I'll try out your perhapses, sir,
And if I fail . . . why, burn me up my straw
Like other false works I'll not ask for grace;
Your scorn is better, cousin Romney. I
Who love my art, would never wish it lower
To suit my stature. I may love my art.
You'll grant that even a woman may love art,
Seeing that to waste true love on anything
Is womanly, past question."

1.About Aurora Leigh
- published in 1856
- blank verse: regular metrical but unrhymed lines
- nine books
- John Ruskin: ”the greatest poem of the century”
《奥罗拉·李》是伊丽莎白·勃朗宁于1856年出版的诗体小说，共9卷，被当时著名艺评家John Ruskin称赞为本世纪最优秀的诗作。勃朗宁也认为是自己最成熟的一部作品。虽然我刚接触勃朗宁时也一直觉得她是个只会给丈夫写情诗的少妇，读了这首诗后真的打开了新世界的大门（当时还很震惊地发了个票圈说“这再也不是我认识的EBB了”hhh）

2.Novel in verse
- As its name suggests, Aurora Leigh is the story of Aurora Leigh, or Elizabeth Browning, as a poet and as a woman.
- The poem touches upon Aurora Leigh’s idea of poetry, of work, of social issues, of the female question. Also, it deals with her romantic relationship with Romney Leigh.
- The excerpt describes the moment when Aurora Leigh turns down the proposal of Romney because she wants to follow her aspiration as a poet.
- *The profile photo is “Aurora Leigh's Dismissal of Romney” (1860) , by Arthur Hughes.
全诗讲述了女主角奥罗拉·李（可看作伊丽莎白·勃朗宁本人）作为一位诗人和一个女人的成长历程，探讨的话题有：诗歌在社会变革中的作用，女性的角色，工作的意义，性别关系等。选段是奥罗拉在拒绝男主角Romney求婚时的一段独白。这次的封面来自同时期拉斐尔前派画家Arthur Hughes，画的正是这一求婚被拒的场景。

3.Idea of poetry
- Poets are the only truth-tellers.
- Poetry deals with the inner life (soul).
- John Stuart Mill: It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
在诗歌第一卷，勃朗宁提到诗人是唯一说真话的人，选段中“Your Fouriers failed,/ Because not poets enough to understand/ That life develops from within”体现了诗歌在当时社会中扮演的重要角色。只有解决了精神层面（灵魂层面）的问题，才能解决物质层面的问题。总之，勃朗宁认为灵魂是最重要的，而只有诗歌才能触及到这一层面。

4.Idea of work and gender relations
- Poets can change the society just like economists do, but in different ways.
- What is marriage for? What is female’s role in a marriage? A mere helper and complement?
选段中关于工作的意义（work/vocation）和性别关系也有很多可以探讨的空间。从It takes a soul/ To move a body/ it takes a high-souled man,/ To move the masses可以看出诗人也能像经济学家那样对社会问题作出回应，只是方式和方向不同。另外，就女主本身拒绝求婚这一情节也可以探讨关于婚姻的意义，女性在婚姻中的角色等问题。