Appreciation of the classic poem "[British] Hume Autumn"
A hint of chill in the autumn night——
I walked in the fields,
< p> Looking at the red moon leaning over the fence in the distance
Like a red-faced farmer.
I didn’t stop to say hello, I just nodded,
The stars all around me were deep in thought,
My face was as pale as a child in the city.
(Translated by Qiu Xiaolong)
"Autumn" is a typical Imagist poem. The reason why it is considered "typical" is that it is closely related to the Imagist poems. There are some similarities in terms of qualitative determination.
This poem has three distinctive features. One is simplification. The poet walks in the fields on an autumn night, taking advantage of the moonlight, and there must be no shortage of landscapes for his pen and ink to drive around. But the poet abandoned these and focused on the bright spots: the moon and stars. For people's attention, movement is easier to notice than stillness, and brightness is easier to notice than darkness. Therefore, the stars and moon at night must become the poet's aesthetic attention. Therefore, the poet "ignores" many autumn night objects other than the stars and moon that can be imagined but are of a non-clear nature. This also reflects the efforts of the Imagist poets to simplify their thinking. The second is the clear characteristics. The moon in the poet's eyes is not a bright moon or a bright moon, but a red moon. The clarity, accuracy and specificity of the description enable the apparent characteristics of things to be fully and vividly presented; and the comparison between the "red moon" and the "red-faced farmer", the cold-glowing stars, and the sympathies of the sick children in the city. The comparisons and combinations also appear accurate and specific, thus strengthening the poetic credibility of the Imagist works. The third is the contrasting characteristics. This mainly exists in two superimposed contrasting forms: the red moon - the red-faced farmer; the pensive stars - the pale-faced city children. The superposition of images makes the poetic image thick and full of aesthetic meaning. In addition, there are some contrasting relationships implicit in the poem, such as country and city, cold colors and warm colors, the closeness of the moon and the distance of the stars. The closeness of the moon symbolizes the warm and warm colors, and the distance of the stars symbolizes the distant cold colors. This brings structural balance, solidity, and tranquility.
The author of "Autumn" is one of the leaders of the Imagist movement, and has devoted tenacious explorations to the practice of imagistic poetry. From the poem "Autumn", readers can smell the maturity of the Imagist poetry. The breath of period.
(Zhao Guotai)