“The lyric form is characterized by irregular structures, line fluidity, and it appeared to flow smoothly for listeners and lyricists” (Owen, page 559). The focus of the lyric poem was to create a mood for personal feelings and emotions towards life’s sweet pleasures of love and longing. The intricacies of nature parallel the state of mind; this is conveyed through Liu Yong’s lyric to “Joy at Midnight” and Li Qing-zhao’s lyric to “note after note”. Both poets use the imagery of nature as symbols, diction, and literary techniques to describe the emotions that are being expressed in the lyric. Liu Yong’s lyric is characterized by an allure of vivid descriptions, and an elegant portrayal of the atmosphere. By contrast, Li Qing-Zhao’s lyric strays …show more content…
They both share a feeling of sorrow, because they seem to be “wandering aimlessly” and suffered some form of loss. This is supported by the abundant use of a variety of literary techniques to facilitate their lonely outlook on life. An interesting similarity between the lyrics is the mention of a “wild goose”. In Liu Yong’s lyric, he mentions the “wild goose” in the last stanza; “far off the voice of a wild goose”. In Li Qing-Zhao’s lyric, she writes; “the wild geese pass by”. The wild goose can symbolize communication, thus both poets may have lost some form of communication to whomever they were longing for. Lastly, another similarity is the diction used in Li Qing-Zhao’s lyric “two or three cups of weak wine” and Liu Yong’s lyric “by the bank in twos and threes”. This asserts abstractness or creating a sense of abundance and a never ending feeling of sadness. Both poets share aspects of religion, Buddhism, which was the dominant religion and already had integrated into all aspects of social, cultural and political life during the Song era. This is supported by the use of plants associated to Buddhism to describe the state of mind. The common theme during this time in China “was on the separation of those who were already lovers” (Owen, 571). This is evident in Li Qing-Zhao and Liu Yong’s work because they are both lonely and longing to reunite to the ones they love. Although, “it was Liu Yong who began writing lyrics about male longing”; It is noteworthy to see some of the differences and similarities towards how each poet expresses their
...he imagery of the more intensely-felt passages in the middle of the poem. Perhaps the poet is like someone at their journey's end, `all passion spent', recollecting in tranquillity some intimations of mortality?
First of alll, the poem is divided into nine stanzas, where each one has four lines. In addition to that, one can spot a few enjambements for instance (l.9-10). This stylistic device has the function to support the flow of the poem. Furthermore, it is crucial to take a look at the choice of words, when analysing the language.
“I Beg of You, Chung Tzu” and “Thick Grow the Rush Leaves” share many similarities. For example, both poems include refrains, a typical element of Chinese poetry in which word phrases are repeated at regular intervals. The refrain, “Chung Tzu I dearly love,” from “I Beg of You, Chung Tzu” and the refrain, “He whom I love,” from “Thick Grow the Rush Leaves” both emphasize the emotions each speaker feel for her beloved. In addition, the poems share the Chinese poetic
The poet begins by describing the scene to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and elaborates on how the sky and the ground work in harmony. This is almost a story like layout with a beginning a complication and an ending. Thus the poem has a story like feel to it. At first it may not be clear why the poem is broken up into three- five line stanzas. The poet deliberately used this line stanzas as the most appropriate way to separate scenes and emotions to create a story like format.
Figurative Language in used throughout poems so the reader can develop a further understanding of the text. In “The Journey” the author uses rhythm and metaphors throughout the poem. “...as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of the clouds..”(25-27). The author compares the star burning to finding your voice. Rhythm also develops the theme of the poem because throughout the story rhythm is presented as happy showing growing up and changing for the better is necessary and cheerful. In “The Laughing Heart” the author uses imagery and metaphors to develop the theme throughout the book. “There is a light somewhere. It may not be much light but it beats the darkness”(5-7). Always find the good out of everything, even it
For many people, the early hours of the morning can hold numerous possibilities from time for quiet reflections to beginning of the day observations to waking up and taking in the fresh air. In the instance of the poems “Five A.M.” and “Five Flights Up,” respective poets William Stafford and Elizabeth Bishop write of experiences similar to these. However, what lies different in their styles is the state of mind of the speakers. While Stafford’s speaker silently reflects on his walk at dawn from a philosophical view of facing the troubles that lie ahead in his day, Bishop’s speaker observes nature’s creations and their blissful well-being after the bad day had before and the impact these negative thoughts have on her psychological state in terms
Literature shows us the changes of our society from time to time. It also gives us an idea about people, culture, politics, gender traditions, as well as an overall view of previous civilizations. As a part of literature, poetry introduces us to different cultures with different perspectives. Ancient Egypt and ancient China may differ in terms of culture, politics, economic stability, tradition, or even in religious belief. However, in poetry, especially in love lyrics both Egyptian and Chinese poems portray common area of describing women, social attitudes toward love, sexuality and the existence of romance or selfishness in relationships. . If we look at the Egyptian poem “My god, my Lotus” and the Chinese poem “Fishhawk”, we will see both poems have similarities in describing relationships. Also, they have the similarity of imagining the lovers and their expression of love toward each other. However, both poems have some significant differences in terms of representing female sexuality, gender disparity and the display of love.
In his poem “Field of Autumn”, Laurie Lee uses an extended metaphor in order to convey the tranquility of time, as it slowly puts an end to life. Through imagery and syntax, the first two stanzas contrast with the last two ones: The first ones describing the beginning of the end, while the final ones deal with the last moments of the existence of something. Moreover, the middle stanzas work together; creating juxtaposition between past and future whilst they expose the melancholy that attachment to something confers once it's time to move on. Lee’s objective in this poem was to demonstrate the importance of enjoying the present, for the plain reason that worrying about the past and future only brings distress.
In life all humanity faces a struggle or heartbreak that seems almost impossible to make it through. In the poem Everybody Has a Heartache the author Joy Harjo discusses and introduces the opinion that everyone faces a heartache or blues. The author goes into detail about the different kinds of heartbreak that goes on in a variety of peoples’ everyday life. This poem was very interesting to me because the author chose very diverse and out of the normal heartbreaks for her characters to face rather than the normal heartbreaks that everyone can see. The author used several literary devices to establish an emotional connection with the readers.
The speaker begins the poem an ethereal tone masking the violent nature of her subject matter. The poem is set in the Elysian Fields, a paradise where the souls of the heroic and virtuous were sent (cite). Through her use of the words “dreamed”, “sweet women”, “blossoms” and
Li-Young Lee’s poem, A Story, explores a complex relationship between a father and his five year old son. Although the poem’s purpose is to elaborate on the complexity of the relationship and the father’s fear of disappointing his son, the main conflict that the father is faced with is not uncommon among parents. Lee is able to successfully portray the father’s paranoia and son’s innocence through the use of alternating point of view, stanza structure, and Biblical symbolism. The use of third person omniscient point of view allows the reader to know the inner thoughts of both characters in the poem. By knowing the thoughts of the father and his son, the reader is able to see both the father’s concerned thoughts and his son’s desire for a
The poet writes these poems to express her strong feelings and tells a story of a beautiful garden. She has used many elements in her work to express her emotions and story in a very beautiful and imaginative way. The use of these elements do not bore the reader and emerge them into a story of creation, life and death, rebirth, and the recovering of innocence. These are the reasons why the poem collection is highly successful and why I enjoy reading these poems and highly recommend them to anyone who enjoy reading poems or any sort of
In his poem, “Notes from the City of the Sun”, Bei Dao utilizes obscure imagery consistent with the Misty Poets and veiled political references to illustrate the struggles in Chinese society during the Cultural Revolution. The poem is sectioned into fourteen short stanzas containing imagery that are symbolic of the cultural hegemony in China under the rule of Mao Zedong. Bei Dao, born Zhao Zhen-kai, is an anti-revolutionary poet and one of the founders of a group known as the Misty Poets. The Misty Poets wrote poems that protested the Cultural Revolution led by Mao Zedong. Therefore, a lot of Bei Dao’s poems speak out against the Cultural Revolution and the restrictions that it placed on any form of art. Bei Dao’s poetry is categorized as “misty” because of the ambiguity in its references to Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. An obscure imagery that occurs twice in “Notes” is the sun imagery. Another imagery that depicts the injustice of the Cultural Revolution is the description of freedom as scraps of paper. In the poem, Bei Dao also equates faith to sheep falling into a ditch; this is a depiction blind faith during the Cultural Revolution. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how Bei Dao’s use of the Misty Poet’s ambiguous imagery and implicit political context in the poem “Notes from the City of the Sun” to illustrate the cultural hegemony in China under Mao.
In this essay, I have chosen two poetry, which I am going to talk about. First poem is full moon” which is in form poem. Second poem is “The Horse who looked at me” which is a free verse poem. This both poetry sound motivating and entertain to me. The purpose of this essay is the contrast the rhyme, stanza and imagery of this both poetry.
This is an autobiographical type of poem in which the author, Walt Whitman, is also that persona, who in developing this type of poetic work, and surpasses the traditional limits of the “self.” The captivating and attention-grabbing aspect of the poem is the free verse technique or style, which significantly makes the development of the “self” a calming task while celebrating a personal life. The persona is described as a lover of nature, and incorporates three sections of the self-personality that include “I,” “me,” and the “soul”. Whitman’s use of sexual or bodily imagery and his use of grass as a central image and metaphor create a poem that is bold and uncommon for his era. A unique element of the poem is that the poet declines the basic conventions and rules of poetry. Whitman’s poem doesn’t follow any specific rhyme scheme, nor does it have a particular beat count or structure. Whitman still manages to successfully represent and replicate smooth flowing thoughts and ideas from the mind to the paperwork, making it a revolutionary form of poetry.