诗学是一种关于诗人表现其美学观点的独特样式。它不同于文学理论强调连贯性和辩论性,诗学却常常表现出随意性和片面性,而诗学的优势恰恰在于即兴性、偶然性和对文本的依赖性。诗学传达的是一种伦理的(和对话体的)哲学而不是道德的(和独白体的)哲学,同样,诗学也为诗歌教学和文学研究提供了一种有用的模式。本文中部分内容在20世纪美国诗歌国际学术研讨会(武汉,2007年7月)上宣读。 Poetics is a unique style about poets expressing their aesthetics. It differs from literary theory in its emphasis on coherence and debates. Poetics often shows randomness and one-sidedness. The advantages of poetics lie precisely in improvisation, contingency, and dependence on text. Poetics conveys an ethical (and conversational) philosophy rather than a moral (and monologue) philosophy. Similarly, poetics provides a useful model for teaching poetry and literature. Part of this article was read at the International Symposium on American Poetry in the Twentieth Century (Wuhan, July 2007).