要喜歡英文當然要了解英國的歷史，英國不是原本就很強大的國家，十世紀以前，英國是蠻荒的邊陲國家，沒人想佔領它，它最主要的歷史故事是貝爾伍夫(Beowulf)，英雄對抗巨大的龍，從古英文就已經有這樣的主題了。
回顧多年來學習英語學習的歷程，84年重回大學從英文系開始，輔仁大學主要以英國文學為訓練的learning program，英國文學對很多學子是困難的，尤其以英文為第二外語者，當時要分析文學理論，第一篇作品王爾德的"快樂小王子"
小王子在生前是快樂無比的，在宮廷裡自由自在的成長；死後的小王子被做成雕像紀念，站在城裡的廣場，看著人來人往，雖然有許多過往甜美的回憶，但是看著日漸貧脊的城市，內心百感交加。
這樣的故事讓我雖然英文字彙能力沒有很厲害的時候，我也不禁潸然淚下。文學的魅力就在此。當有機會但英國旅遊時，對照過往的文學故事，很驚訝樸實的建物，許多紅色瓦牆，文字的魅力躍然眼前。
古典文學有其時代的氛圍，維多利亞時期的風格，簡約也充滿觀察室間的冷暖，很適合孩子的品德教養，快樂小王子，美其名快樂，去蘊藏無限悲苦的情景，真的父母們一定要拜讀。
參觀莎士比亞的故居，心裡已經浮現出許多十四行詩:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the
darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold
complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By
chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall
not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall
Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time
thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long
lives this, and this gives life to thee.
 |
Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red,
than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If
hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red
and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is
there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love
to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing
sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks,
treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any
she belied with false compare.
曾經有父母問我可不可以教孩子英文詩，我當然要說十四行詩是英文詩的基礎，雖然是風花雪月的故事，但是愛情造就了無限文學的價值，當然許多簡單的英文詩也搭配著音樂，讓孩子更容易朗朗上口。
莎翁的羅密歐與茱麗葉其實也是詩集，Michael Rosen ( We are going on a bear hunt 的作者)編輯了繪本賞析古詩Romeo and Juliet 該作者為英國為學教授也寫了許多詩集，詩人功力不斐，由他編輯增加了可讀性。
英國非常重視兒童文學常常可以看到詩詞分享的聚會在書店舉行，簡單的結構從小就是父母與孩子的文學創作時間，簡單的英文寫作也可由英文詩創作開始。
例如
egg
leg
I took an egg.
I broke his leg.
