Judging from the sound language, this poem adopts "free verse". In terms of sound characteristics, we don't pay attention to the rules of old-style poems such as antithesis, leveling and rhyming. However, its voice is not completely without rhythm. For example, the word "wave" in the first sentence of the first section can be regarded as "rhyme". Like "at the end of the second sentence of the second section", the length of the poem is relatively free, but the longest sentence "every wave is at its feet" is only nine words, and the shortest sentence "a wave, a wave" is six words. The rest of the sentences feel that the number of words is in the middle and relatively neat, which embodies what Mr. Wen Yiduo called "the architectural beauty of poetry." This kind of branched and relatively neat sentence pattern enables us to see the difference between it and prose and novel sentence patterns at a glance, which is not only the established practice of poetry, but also the most superficial form that distinguishes poetry from other styles.
Judging from the artistic conception of this poem, the short eight sentences give us two main pictures: first, countless waves are broken into bubbles by rocks; The second is that the reef stands tall and faces the vast ocean. These two pictures are actually the same picture. The difference is that the first picture focuses on broken waves, and the second picture focuses on standing rocks. The visual center has changed, which makes readers pay different attention to it. In other words, the "dominant intention" is different. The dominant intention of the first picture is to reveal the repeated attacks of "waves", and the dominant intention of the second picture is to highlight towering rocks. Moreover, the picture constructed by poetic language is different from the real painting. In poetry, the picture is dynamic, just like in film and television, the perspective is moving and the scenery is unchanged, while in painting, the author can only take a fixed perspective, and although his picture tries to write "dynamic" in a special pen and ink language, it is always static. Poetry is more flexible than painting when creating such a picture. But another difference between painting in poetry is that painting in poetry is "indirect", which indirectly describes the image with the help of language, while painting directly describes the image.
In terms of writing techniques, this poem adopts comparable techniques, such as the first and second sentences:
"Wave after wave, endless."
Using "flapping" to describe waves is undoubtedly a way to compare waves to "people". Originally, the lifeless waves seem to have subjective will and can attack the rocks on their own initiative. Follow-up: writing about the reef "breaking the waves" also personifies the reef, and objective things conflict with each other, as if it were a struggle between people. There are metaphors and personification here, and at the same time, it has the function of "empathy" at a deeper level. Objective things originally have no will and purpose, but in the author's view, they seem to have will and purpose. In fact, the author "projects" his thoughts and feelings on external things and gives life to inanimate things. Just like Du Fu's sentence "Where petals flow like tears, lonely birds sing sad songs", do flowers cry? Are birds so shocking? But the author "feels the time" and "hates parting" and is sad. He looks at foreign objects with emotional colored glasses and feels that foreign objects seem to be sad. The second section of this poem further describes the "face", "body" and "smile" of the reef, which is more vividly personified, and the aesthetic psychological activity of "empathy" still permeates it. This way of writing humanizes the objective world, endows heaven and earth with life, and makes the vitality of life surge in the universe. It's really a touching poem.
This short poem injects the author's feelings through metaphor and personification. But it didn't tell the whole story, just sketched two pictures, grasped the characteristics of things, and at the same time adopted the way of "omitting" its connotation without any explanation, which increased the space for readers to guess and imagine. In art, "the image is greater than the thought", and the thought is often clearly expounded. There is not much room for imagination, and there is no room for readers to fill in the blanks and speak, so it can't arouse readers' interest, let alone "comprehend" and "relax". On the contrary, the language of this poem is concise, using the technique of "suggestion", only outlining the image, not expounding the meaning, leaving the meaning and rhyme to the readers to experience, which increases the aesthetic feeling of the poem.
The meaning of this poem has unlimited room for interpretation. This can generally be regarded as a struggle between the two forces, and it can also be regarded as a specific and targeted contest between the enemy and ourselves. You can also regard the reef as a representative of indomitable spirit, and so on.
In a word, this poem is an excellent one. The only regret is that the "implied" sentence is still relatively simple and lacks the appeal of meteorological chaos.