“White clouds have no ending time,” is the last line in Wang Wei’s poem “Farewell.” This line has enormous meaning within itself, because a white cloud exists without any roots. It is an “unrooted” phenomenon, grounded nowhere or grounded in the nowhere. But it still exists. The whole of existence is like a white cloud: without any roots, without any causality, without any ultimate cause, it exists. (Osho) It exists as a mystery, a mystery admired by many such as Tao Qian and Wang Wei. Clouds contribute to nature’s endless beauty. The beauty of nature is represented in several poems of Tao Qian and Wang Wei. Although both poets share the love of nature, both poets differ through their life experiences, ambitions and miscellaneous societies.
China has been prominently known for its poetry since ancient times and the Chinese classical poetry has gained a significant place in the poetry world by its “melodious rhythms, refined language, profound cultural backgrounds, and the pursuit of artistic conception (Chen Xi).” A remarkable area of Chinese classical poetry is the landscape poetry. Landscape poetry is characterized by its harmonious combination of emotional conditions and poetic imagery. Both Tao Qian and Wang Wei gain much inspiration and pleasure from the surrounding landscape and in turn create masterpieces in form of poetry. Tao Qian shows captivation in his farm along the countryside; therefore, he tends to write about domestic nature found in gardens, backyards and in the cultivated countryside. Tao Qian expresses the overwhelming feeling that nature gives him in several lines from his poem “The Return.” “Seeing the trees in the courtyard brings joy to my face” (line 22) and “Every day I stroll in the garden for pleasur...
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...oken paintings, his painted as silent poems.
Although both Tao Qian and Wang Wei are separated by time and space, and are influenced by their own environments and philosophical traditions, their poetic inspirations, however, seem originate from the same foundation: nature. Nature plays a major role in both the poets’ lives and exclusively their poetry. Tao Qian’s ideals gives him much respect as a man content with his inner self, material deficiency, and the difficulties of his farm life. His poems evolve around the pleasures he gain from working on his fields and his modest cottage. Wang Wei’s gained appreciation arises from his description of the landscape giving one that sense of beauty of a picture within a poem. Both poets’ process the ability to create poems that can that solely convey sweet emotions and in turn stirs the heart and mind of the reader.
Have you ever marveled at the powerful stories a poem can tell with just words? I will be analyzing the similarities and differences in figurative language and the elements of Chinese poetry in the Chinese poems “I Beg of You, Chung Tzu” and “Thick Grow the Rush Leaves.”
Although still adopting a traditional literary form, the poetry writing can be regarded as an example of the heterogeneity and border-crossing of cultural-scape in globalization period. Those poems were produced under the brunt of the international mobility that is propelled by the capitalist globalization, but precisely and paradoxically, in a suspending situation caused by national regulation, a “state of exception” of this mobility. The juxtaposition of the frustration on foreign life and the flare of nationalist emotion (with the rhetoric emulating ancient barbarian-expelling heroes), may imply a paradoxical consequence in globalization: the international mobility undergirding the national awareness instead of undermining it. Following this thread, the publication of this kind of poetry in 1930s, the oblivion of it after war, and the subsequent re-discovery, recognition, and research of it can be all taken as symptomatic traces of the localization, articulation, and transformation of national consciousness (both as “Chinese” and “American”) in the continuous globalization. Needless to say, those poems are deeply flawed in terms of aesthetics due to the rather poor literacy of their authors. It would be invoking to put these poems beside those “high art” works also produced in globalization context, such as the works on the Eiffel Tower and the London fog by Huang Zunxian (黄遵宪), a late Qin intellectual caught in between the East and the West, the
Nature and humanity are innately intertwined, and their differences only amplify their connection. Judith Wright’s poems ‘Brothers and Sisters’ and ‘Flame Tree in a Quarry’ unravel the wonder of nature and its correspondence with humanity’s attitudes at various stages of its interaction with the landscape. Meanwhile, the album cover of ‘River of Dreams’ by Billy Joel explores society and the landscape’s common origins, and powerful potential for action that morphs with time, into new values and behaviours. All texts acknowledge the embedded shared values susceptible to resculpting, which continually carve the framework for a closer, more interlinked relationship between humankind and the landscape.
A consistent imagery in “Notes” that has a political implication is the sun. Universally, the sun represents warmth and the energy that gives life; however in this poem, the sun represents Mao Zedong. According to McDougall, the sun was commonly used to “signify Mao Zedon...
During the Han dynasty, a particular style of poetry was formed, this was known as the ‘Han Poetry’. The Han poetry (Chinese literature) reflected great cultural achievement, many of these poems have survived until today, thanks to the creation of paper.
Although Tennyson’s use of landscape indeed creates a strong vivid impression, I feel that it also serves a higher purpose: namely, to express the psychological state and mood depicted in the protagonists of the poems.
Blake, Wordsworth, and Keats all represent the Romantic style of literature with their unorthodox themes of nature, art, and life; and how those three points can be tied together and used for creative purposes among humankind. Art and life are counterparts; one is lacking without the other. The Romantic period was about passion; finding inspiration and beauty in things people see every day. Wordsworth found childhood memories in a familiar landscape, Blake found himself captivated by the mysteries of how the majestic tiger was created, and Keats’ urn triggered him to put his inquiries of it into poetry. Each man expressed his individual view within their works; and like many of their Romantic contemporaries, their ideas ran against the flow of their time’s societal beliefs.
..., he acknowledges and reinterprets traditional Chinese art in his works. This is his mode of expression via shanshui tradition, and his ways of thinking, viewing and perceiving are infiltrated by the literati ethos. He works in the computer with his countless digital photographs, he creates virtual city landscape, combining the countless small format snapshots in a way that imitate the characteristic structure and composition of the classical shanshui. In his works, we can see that it always visualizes how China is developing and illustrates the consequences of modernization, globalization and the destruction of China’s ecological equilibrium caused by the speedy growth of its megacities over the past few decades. Yang said, “ The media… is not important, no matter what method you use to create, to maintain the creative spirit of the ancients is the most import.”1
Nature is often a focal point for many author’s works, whether it is expressed through lyrics, short stories, or poetry. Authors are given a cornucopia of pictures and descriptions of nature’s splendor that they can reproduce through words. It is because of this that more often than not a reader is faced with multiple approaches and descriptions to the way nature is portrayed. Some authors tend to look at nature from a deeper and personal observation as in William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, while other authors tend to focus on a more religious beauty within nature as show in Gerard Manley Hopkins “Pied Beauty”, suggesting to the reader that while to each their own there is always a beauty to be found in nature and nature’s beauty can be uplifting for the human spirit both on a visual and spiritual level.
Robert Frost is known for his poems about nature, he writes about trees, flowers, and animals. This is a common misconception, Robert Frost is more than someone who writes a happy poem about nature. The elements of nature he uses are symbolic of something more, something darker, and something that needs close attention to be discovered. Flowers might not always represent beauty in Robert Frost’s poetry. Symbolism is present in every line of the nature’s poet’s poems. The everyday objects present in his poems provide the reader an alternative perspective of the world. Robert Frost uses all the elements of poetry to describe the darker side of nature. After analyzing the Poem Mending Wall and After Apple Picking it is clear that nature plays a dark and destructive role for Robert Frost. This dark side of Frost’s poetry could have been inspired from the hard life he lived.
Included in this paper are some of William Blake’s fabulous art creations, I also have a personal interpretation of some of his poems. To view the poem just simply click on the title of the poem and you will have full access to the plate that the poem was printed on. When finished with this paper click on the hyperlinks found in my bibliography and you will have instant access to the world of William Blake.
Many poets are inspired by the impressive persona that exists in nature to influence their style of poetry. The awesome power of nature can bring about thought and provoke certain feelings the poet has towards the natural surroundings.
Through the ingenious works of poetry the role of nature has imprinted the 18th and 19th century with a mark of significance. The common terminology ‘nature’ has been reflected by our greatest poets in different meanings and understanding; Alexander Pope believed in reason and moderation, whereas Blake and Wordsworth embraced passion and imagination.
The poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is about the poet’s mental journey in nature where he remembers the daffodils that give him joy when he is lonely and bored. The poet is overwhelmed by nature’s beauty where he thought of it while lying alone on his couch. The poem shows the relationship between nature and the poet, and how nature’s motion and beauty influences the poet’s feelings and behaviors for the good. Moreover, the process that the speaker goes through is recollected that shows that he isolated from society, and is mentally in nature while he is physically lying on his couch. Therefore, William Wordsworth uses figurative language and syntax and form throughout the poem to express to the readers the peace and beauty of nature, and to symbolize the adventures that occurred in his mental journey.
In “Kubla Khan,” Coleridge expresses his desire to use the inspirations from nature to create his own “Paradise” of poetry (54, p.1634). In the first stanza, Coleridge creates an exotic oriental garden, where the trees, gardens, hills, and the “Alph” river, together present the beauty of Mother Nature (3, p.1633). Here, the poet carefully observes his surroundings, as the nature will serve as the source of inspiration for his poetry. The “pleasure dome” (2, p.1633) in line two has two functions, one representing the creation of human beings on earth, and the other being the foundation of Coleridge’s poetic paradise. As the clash between nature and humans takes place in the second stanza with a “woman wailing for her demon-lover” (16, p.1633) the poet calls upon nature for his inspiration, represented by the powerful activity of nature. The energy of nature is released in forms of “a might fountain” (19, p.1633), “rebounding hail” (21, p.1633), or “dancing rocks” (23, p.1633) and eventually the natural disasters will accompanied by man-made destruction as “Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war” (29-30, p.1634)! Coleridge on one hand reinforces that man and nature are inseparable and one the other uses the energy of nature to represent the spontaneous spurring of emotions in the poet’s mind.