U4 Exploring poetry
Reading
Poetry is a combination of "sound" and "sense". More than any other type of literature, it usually implies a deeper meaning beyond the words on the page. So, how to reveal this hidden dimension?
First, follow your ears. While you may ask "What does it mean?" as you begin reading a poem, it is better to ask "How does it sound?" Even if its true meaning appears to be beyond your grasp, you can always say something about how the poem sounds when you read it aloud. Do you detect a rhythm? Are there any repeated words, rhymes or other special effects? All of these are good qualities to notice, and they may lead you to a better understanding of the poem in the end. Read these lines to feel how they sound.
Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go,高中英语课文
Come from the dying moon, and blow,
Blow him again to me；
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.
(From "Sweet and Low" by Alfred Tennyson)
Second, approach the poem as if you were an explorer in an unfamiliar landscape. Ask some basic questions about the poem. Who is talking? Who is being talked to? What is being described? Is there a sense of place? Are there other people or objects there? As you explore the poem, you will begin to see images in your mind. What are those images, and what happens when they are put together? This combination is often complex or even contradictory. As you slowly explore your surroundings, you will start to dig up clues that give you a greater understanding of the poem. Read these lines, pay attention to the image of the caged bird and try to find out what it means.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
(From "Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou)
Third, if you are still struggling to interpret the meaning of a poem even with much painstaking effort, just have some patience. You cannot really understand a poem that you have only read once. Sometimes reading a poem can be a lifelong job. So if you do not get it, set the poem aside and come back to it later. As an explorer, you will not reach your goal immediately—you need to go on a j
ourney to a remote and unknown destination. This may seem difficult at first, but when you finally make your great discovery, your efforts will be rewarded. Poems that are easy to understand are often less interesting than those that constantly reveal deeper and previously unrecognized meanings. Read these lines and try to find out what they mean.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though；
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
(From "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”by Robert Frost)
Finally, remember that you do not have to fully understand a poem to appreciate it. You might need to abandon logical thinking to discover its true inner beauty. As long as the journey of poetry reading makes you feel something or lets you perceive another level of meaning, it will have been worth your effort.
Poetry's combination of "sound" and "sense" makes you see the world in a new way and allows you to go beyond normal reality for the everlasting beauty. Enjoy your journey in the world of poetry!
Extended reading
A hundred feet the temple towers；
I can reach out for the stars in the sky.
But I dare not speak in a voice loud,
For fear of scaring dwellers on high.
("A Night Stay at a Mountain Temple")
It is believed that this poem was written by Li Bai in his teenage years. With striking imagination in expressions like "scaring dwellers on high”, this early poem already displayed signs of a romantic style, which was later to characterize Li Bai's poetry.
Li Bai's love of reading and travelling from an early age contributed to his romantic style. He started s
tudying the classics when he was only five years old, and was reading ancient philosophers of different schools at the age of ten, including Confucianism and Taoism. By reading books of all kinds, from legends to historical stories, he familiarized himself with classical Chinese culture, and more importantly, he acquired the wisdom of previous generations.
Driven by a burning desire for adventure and travel, Li Bai left home and started to travel around in his early twenties. His footsteps covered almost the whole country. During his travels, he visited famous mountains and great rivers, encountering different customs and practices. These travelling experiences also nourished his love of nature and inspired him to write numerous poems in the romantic style.
Li Bai's romantic style was also deeply rooted in the social and historical context in which he lived. Li Bai grew up in the most glorious period of the Tang Dynasty, a time of economic boom and social stability. This open and tolerant atmosphere allowed Li Bai the liberty to develop a free and unconstrained personality, which, in turn, had a huge impact on his poetic production.
Given his personal experiences and the historical background, it is only natural to see that the majority of Li Bai's poems are characterized by the romantic style. Even the most uninformed reader
would not fail to be impressed by the poet's rich imagination. The moon and stars in the sky, the natural landscape and the figures in legends all become a vehicle for his imagination. Equally impressive is Li Bai's free expression of strong feelings, which breathes vitality into the lifeless objects he describes, and which distinguishes him from other landscape poets. These features are inseparable from Li Bai's wide use of exaggeration, metaphor and other artistic techniques. The poem below, written in his fifties, is representative of his romantic style:
My silver hair is three thousand feet long,
Because my sorrow is deep and strong.
How can the autumn frost white
Be cast into the mirror bright?
("Autumn Frost")
With his extraordinary imagination, free expression of strong feelings and mastery of language, Li Bai is widely recognized as the greatest romantic poet after Qu Yuan. Generations of poets, both in China and abroad, owe a debt to his inspirational poems. One such poet is Ezra Pound, a 20th-centu
ry American poet. He was fascinated by Li Bai's poems and translated some of them in his 1915 poetry collection entitled Cathay. Today Li Bai's poetry continues to be enjoyed by countless readers around the world.