About Xu Zhimo's Farewell to Cambridge

On the "Three Beauties" in Farewell to Cambridge

Author: Yin Wenquan Ji Chuanqin from Xichang Middle School, Hai 'an County, Jiangsu Province

In the middle and late 192s, Wen Yiduo and his colleagues from the Crescent Poetry School devoted themselves to the construction of new poetry forms, which was the first conscious and theoretical exploration in the history of China's new poetry, among which Wen Yiduo was the most programmatic.

Wen Yiduo, with his profound China classical literature accomplishment and extensive artistic accomplishment, put forward the theoretical proposition of establishing a new metrical poetic style on the basis of in-depth study of new poetry. In his Metric Poetry, he emphasized that poetry should be "beautiful in form and quality" and "harmonious in spirit and form", and specifically expounded the specific requirements of the new metrical poetic style as follows: "beauty in music" and "beauty in painting".

Xu Zhimo is the main organizer and host of "Crescent Poetry Society" and a representative poet of "Crescent Poetry Society". In his further practice of the "three beauties" metrical poetic style proposed by Mr Wen Yiduo, he mainly emphasized the musical beauty of poetry and created various poetic styles, which made a unique contribution to the development of modern poetry in China.

Formally speaking, Farewell to Cambridge is a representative poem that embodies and develops the characteristics of "three beauties" metrical poetics advocated by Wen Yiduo.

first, the beauty of painting.

The so-called beauty of painting refers to the choice and use of "words" that appeal to visual images, which can fully reflect the colorful characteristics of hieroglyphics in China and is full of color sense.

In the language application of A Farewell to Cambridge, attention is paid to the sense of color of words, and words with bright colors are often used, such as "Golden Willow" reflected by the sunset, "Yanying" rippling in the waves, "Green Grass" on the soft mud at the bottom of the water, "Rainbow" reflected in the pool, and "Clouds", "Sunset" and "The grass is greener".

At the same time, through a series of words with strong actions, such as "waving", "rippling", "flaunting", "crushing", "wandering back" and "waving", the poet turned every static picture into a dynamic one, such as waving goodbye to the clouds in the west, the golden willows on the riverside swaying in the Kanghe River, and the aquatic plants at the bottom of the Kanghe River.

In this way, the whole poem is full of vivid artistic conception and flowing picture beauty. Brilliant colors and beautiful composition make people pleasing to the eye, intoxicated and lingering, and it seems that they want to enter the realm of poetic beauty of sunset on the Kanghe River and boating at dusk with the poet.

second, the beauty of music.

The so-called beauty of music means that the syllables of poetry are catchy and patchy, with the beauty of syllables and melodies appealing to auditory images.

As a representative of the Crescent Society, Xu Zhimo agrees with Wen Yiduo's idea of "three beauties" of new poetry, and he has his own originality in the musical beauty of poetry. In addition to regular rhythm and harmonious rhyme, he also emphasized the fluctuation of syllables and paid attention to the complete musical melody.

A Farewell to Cambridge is a poem with harmonious rhythm, fluency and slight bounce. The beauty of music mainly comes from rhythm, which is formed by the regular repetition of sound groups. Each line of Farewell to Cambridge is basically composed of three sound groups, one of which is composed of two or three syllables. The syllables are cadenced and the tone is repeated, which is both rigorous and eclectic, with a strong sense of rhythm and flexible changes in poetic flow, forming a complete piece of music.

The rhyme of this poem is natural and harmonious, and the rhyme form strictly adheres to the rhyme of two or four, with one rhyme for every two lines and a new rhyme for each verse (rhyme feet are: come, color; Niang, hey; Shake, grass; Rainbow, dream; Back, song; Xiao, bridge; Come, Cai) pursues the fluctuation of syllables and the sense of melody, and it is cadence and catchy to read. Seven verses are arranged in a patchwork manner, and the rhythm slowly spreads in them, resulting in the artistic realm of musical beauty.

In addition, the repetition of tones is also an important aspect of the poem's musical beauty. The beginning and end of the poem are overlapped and repeated, with similar meanings and the same rhythm, forming a structural form of echo, which strengthens the sense of rhythm and melody, enhances the musicality of the poem and gives people a dreamlike feeling. In addition, the repeated use of reduplicated words such as "gently" and "quietly" also enhances the light rhythm of poetry.

third, the beauty of architecture.

"architectural beauty" also belongs to visual image, which mainly refers to the physical structure of poetry, emphasizing "the symmetry of nodes and the uniformity of sentences", resulting in regular uniformity or unevenness.

"Farewell to Cambridge" is even and varied in terms of section, composition and syntax. The whole poem has seven sections, each with four lines, and the number of words in each sentence is basically 6 or 7 words (with eight sentences in between), which is neat in the uneven changes; Single-line and double-line are staggered by one grid and arranged in a regular uneven level sequence, which keeps the balance, symmetry and diversity of the poetic form, but avoids the shortcomings of rigidity and monotony caused by the too square poetic form, giving people a fresh feeling; At the same time, the first and last loops echo, giving people a sense of beauty.

It can be said that the architectural beauty with neat and consistent lines, the colorful painting beauty, and the musical beauty with harmonious rhythm and repeated tones make Farewell to Cambridge a poem that can best show the talent and personality of the poet Xu Zhimo. It is precisely because of this that Farewell to Cambridge has become the best farewell poem in China in the 2th century.