An analysis of He Qifang's prophetic poems

This is He Qifang's famous work, written in Peking University in the autumn of 193 1. It is the first book in the collection of poems "Prophecy". Through symbolic image description, the poem creates a brave image of a "young god" who dares to make bold progress in the dark and sinister old world, which is in sharp contrast with the timid lyric hero "I" and infects the lyric hero to follow him, thus revealing the poet's inner contradiction in facing the dark reality and pursuing life goals, and expressing a strong curse on the old world and sincere praise for the brave and enterprising spirit that is not afraid of the sinister darkness. In fact, the poem's "predicting the young god" and the lyric hero "I" are two aspects of the poet's inner contradiction, and the poem has made a profound and touching side through objectification.

The artistic attainments of this poem are extremely high: the poet skillfully endows his contradictory mentality with interdependent and interrelated "characters" and makes a vivid and touching outline, which not only reveals the opposition struggle between the two ideological realms of the poet, but also shows its dominant emotional tendency, and also vividly outlines the social environment, life experience and emotional changes of the characters' activities, and shows it in the way of the second person's affectionate talk. It presents a fine and seamless rigorous structure and smooth melody. Rich imagination, colorful contrast, rich symbols, delicate description, and harmonious and smooth rendering like flowing water make the true inner contradictions and euphemistic and implicit thoughts and feelings expressed incisively and vividly, which deeply touches, inspires and inspires people! No matter the artistic height achieved in the perfect combination of romanticism and symbolism, or the exquisite conception, the rich and complex feelings, the interweaving of contradictions, the poetic leap and the beautiful melody, it has become one of the most beautiful and moving poems in the history of China's new poetry, and it is the swan song in the creation of new poetry.

The maturity of this poem in poetic art, coupled with positive and healthy ideological implications, is unmatched by rare poems in the history of China's new poetry. It is no exaggeration to say that it is easy to understand, pleasing to the eye and gripping.

Professor Zhang Zizhong of Wuhan University interprets He Qifang's prediction as the poet's confusion and loss in the pursuit of love, which is obviously superficial and incorrect, obliterates the critical significance and positive spirit of the work, and greatly reduces the cognitive value and aesthetic value of the work.

The title of the poetry collection is "Prophecy", which shows the profound meaning of "opening the book with clear meaning": the footsteps of bravely breaking through the personal world sounded by prophecy vividly summarize the spirit of the whole poetry collection and lay a positive tone for the whole poetry collection. The fact that the poet later ran to Yan 'an shows that it is indeed a "prophecy" of the poet's revolutionary ideal.