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The Lamentation Love Unforgettable:
A Comparative Study between Jiangchengzi and On His Deceased Wife

I. Introduction
In the history of Western literature, there are a lot of lyric poems to express sorrow; however, the poems for lamentation specially written to deplore the loss of one’s wife are few. In Chinese literature, it is just contrary. SuShi and John Milton, the two great poets, born in different times and countries, happened to have a lamentation poem left behind in memory of their lost wives. Both of the 本英语毕业论文由英语论文网 www.51lunwen.org整理提供two poems are full of lamentation love.
As an all-round literary man in the Northern Song dynasty of our country, SuShi (1037-1101) had got the very high attainments in the aspect of prose, poem, calligraphy and art. Although his poems are not very large in numbers, they are various in forms. We can see a straightforward and carefree man from the poem named <<念奴娇•大江东去>>. We also can learn his lamentation love by reading the poem called <<江城子>> which was composed in memory of his lost wife named Wangfu:
“十年生死两茫茫，不思量，自难忘。千里孤坟，无处话凄凉。纵使相逢应不识，尘满面，鬓如霜。
夜来幽梦忽还乡，小轩窗，正梳妆。相顾无言，惟有泪千行。料得年年肠断处，明月夜，短松冈。”
This is the translation of this poem by Guzhengkun:
“A Dream of My Deceased Wife: To the tune of Riverside Town
Your death ten years ago yawns like an abyss over my life.
All the time, your image constantly comes to my mind.
Alas, in no way can I bare my heart to you, my wife,
Since your tomb is one thousand miles away left behind.
We recognize each other not, even if we meet one day,
For my face is dust-laden, and my hair grouse grey.
Last night in dream I came back to our hometown,
By the small window, you make up and dress your gown.
Wordless, we face each other with tears streaming down.
Oh, thinking of your pine-covered grave the moon shines upon,
I know, each year my heart-broken sorrows shall never be gone.” (唐正秋, 2006:130)

John Milton (1608-1674) was political in both his life and his art. He was the greatest English revolutionary poet of the 17th century. Most of his works showed the revolutionary enthusiasm of the bourgeois revolution and the bitter hatred for the despotic ruler. As we all know, his most famous works were Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. Yet how many people know that they were finished by old Milton whose blindness forced him to depend on his daughters for assistance to write down his dictation. Besides these works, he also left behind some sonnets. One of these, a love poem, On His Deceased Wife (1658), was written for his second wife Catherine Woodcock who died in child birth.
“On His Deceased Wife
Methought I saw my late espoused Saint
Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave.
Whom Jove’s great son to her glad husband gave
Rescued from death by force though pale and taint
Mine as whom wash from spot of child-bed taint
Purification in the old Law did save
And such, as yet once more I trust to have
Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint
Came vested all in white, pure as her mind
Her face was veil’d, yet to my fancied sight
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shin’d
So clear, as in no face with more delight
But O, as to embrance me she inclin’d
I wak’d, she fled, and day brought back my night” (John Milton, 1658)
II. Analysis on the similarities between these two works
1.