"To the Oak" sings passionately and frankly about the poet's personality ideals. The oak tree and the kapok, standing side by side and affectionately facing each other in independent attitudes, can be said to be a group of brand-new characters in Chinese love poetry. Symbolic image. The establishment of this set of images not only negates the old "green vines entwining trees" and "husband is noble and wife is honored" type of relationship based on personal attachment, but also goes beyond self-sacrifice and only focuses on The principle of mutual love that is given to each other perfectly embodies the modern sexual character rich in humanistic spirit: sincere and noble mutual love should be based on the premise of not giving up their independent positions and personalities. This is the personality of the new era in the concept of sexual love. A long-span transcendence of the predecessors. This kind of transcendence is even more valuable when it comes from women who have always been in a position of looking up and clinging to. The poem's singing and exaltation of the ideal of love is based on a very thoughtful and powerful negation. The whole poem ***Line 36. Lines 1 to 13 borrow a series of natural objects to make symbolic analogies, comparing clinging ("Longxiao Flower") and unilateral devotion ("Dangerous Peak"), two types of love that presuppose the suppression, atrophy and sacrifice of one party. The concept of love is profoundly negated, which is a profound and powerful contrast to the modern ideal of love with opposing values. Lines 14 to 31 express the ideal concept of love positively: both parties in love are completely equal in personality, while maintaining their respective They have independent personalities, but they support each other and go hand in hand. In lines 32 to 36, true love should not only love the character of both parties, but also love his ideal - loyalty to the motherland.
The image of "Oak" It symbolizes the tough male beauty, and kapok with its "red flowers" obviously embodies the female personality with new aesthetic temperament. She has abandoned the delicate and charming nature of old-style women, and is full of plump and strong. The breath of life is exactly the same as the ideal of women’s independent and self-respecting personality that the poet sings.
In terms of artistic expression, the poem adopts the lyrical method of inner monologue, which is convenient for expressing the poet’s feelings candidly and cheerfully. Spiritual world: At the same time, the image is constructed using the method of overall symbolism (the whole poem uses the overall image of oak and kapok to symbolize the independent personality and sincere love of both lovers), so that highly philosophical thoughts and ideas can be expressed in a warm and sensible way. The image is born and poetic, so this poem with a rich rational temperament does not make people feel any preaching meaning, but is just conquered by the rich and moving images.
The reason why the poem uses overall symbolism is that It is also because the poet's creative intention does not necessarily limit the theme of the work to the perspective of love. From the image composition of oak and kapok, we can also reasonably derive the idea of ??mutual sympathy, mutual understanding, and mutual trust between people, and at the same time, equality. The moral ideal of independent status.