In the history of poetry, a thousand long poems can be buried in the relentless historical precipitation with the passage of time, while some exquisite short poems can shine alone in the long river of history. This short poem with two paragraphs and ten lines should be regarded as a wonderful flower in the modern poetry gallery.
In the process of Xu Zhimo's pursuit of poetic beauty, this accidental poem also has a unique "turning point" significance. According to the famous poet Ka Zhi Lin, a student of Xu Zhimo, "This poem is the most perfect in the author's poetry." (Poems of Xu Zhimo, edited by Ka, p. 94) Chen Ye, a crescent poet, said: "A few poems, such as accidental and pure heart, opened the gap in his previous two issues. He erased his previous anger and wrote the secret of that exquisite soul with neat, soft and refreshing poems." (In memory of Xu Zhimo). Indeed, this poem can quite see Xu Zhimo's skill in meter. The whole poem has two sections, which are symmetrical up and down. The first sentence, the second sentence and the fifth sentence of each section are all composed of three steps. For example, the third and fourth sentences of each paragraph are composed of two steps, such as "You don't have to be surprised" and "You'd better remember/forget." Obviously, there is no lack of free and easy steps in the arrangement and handling. Longer steps alternate with shorter steps, which makes it easy, euphemistic and catchy to read.
What I want to emphasize here is the various "tension" structures that are full of this poem and are not easy to be noticed. These tension structures exist between muscle and frame, between image and image, and between intention. The unique tension structure should be said to be a mystery of the artistic charm of this poem.
The so-called "tension" is a critical term advocated and practiced by British and American New Criticism. Generally speaking, it can be regarded as an organism of the whole poem, but it contains the contradiction and dialectical relationship of * *. A poem, on the whole, must be organic and holistic, but all kinds of contradictions and tensions are allowed and should be filled in. Poetry full of tension can be profound, chewy and memorable. Because only such poems are not static, but "moving in silence". For example, although the full bow is still, it is full of energy and strength that can erupt at any time.
About this poem, first of all, there is a certain tension between the title and the text. "Accidental" is a completely abstract adverb of time, and what to write under this heading should be said to be free and arbitrary. But under this abstract title, the author wrote two more practical things, one is that clouds in the sky occasionally project into the heart of waves in the water, and the other is that "you" and "I" (both symbolic images) meet at sea. If you use "you and me" and "meeting" as the title, it is no problem, but the poetry is far from it. If we use quite practical words such as "you and me" and "meeting" as the title, the tension between abstraction and concreteness will naturally disappear.
Thirdly, there are more tension structures in poetry texts. "You/I" is a pair of "binary opposites", or "occasionally projected in the heart of the wave" or "met at sea", both of which are passers-by in a hurry in the journey of life; "You don't need to be surprised/you need to be happy more" and "Do you remember/you'd better forget" both show full tension with the emotional attitude of binary opposition and semantic contradiction rhetoric. Especially the poem "You have yours, I have mine, my direction", I think it is not too much to praise it as the classic poem most suitable for "tension" analysis praised by "New Criticism". "You" and "I" met by chance in the vast sea of people because of their respective directions, but they passed by and went their separate ways. Two completely different and diametrically opposite intentions-"You have yours" and "I have mine" are exactly contained in the same sentence and boil down to the same word-"direction".
As a "romantic poet", the symbolic meaning of Xu Zhimo's poem-both a general symbol and a local image symbol-may be particularly noteworthy. The overall symbol of this poem is consistent with the tension structure between the title of the poem and the text we analyzed earlier. Under the title of "chance", many images can be born. Images such as "cloud-water", "you-me", "sea of night" and "mutual light" and the relationship between them can be understood or constructed differently because of the differences and depth of readers' personal emotional experience. This is the wonderful use of the "symbol" of "its name is also small, and its categories are also large" (easy to connect), with more to less, more to small, and more to individual. Or the world is frustrated, or the mood is wrong, or it is too late to regret, the pain is aggravated, or the helpless smile is lost ... Life is destined to have such an "accident", "encounter" and "encounter". And this "shining light when meeting" will surely become an unforgettable memory, accompanied by the question of life: Did you appreciate it? What kind of feelings should I carry?