A basic element in Ai Qing's poems is melancholy, such as the dry river bottom, gloomy sky, gray loess layer and desert in the Handcart. From these images, they show gloomy colors and express "melancholy" from the physical level. On the spiritual level, the words "cold", "silence" and "sadness" are combined with gloomy images to form a melancholy poetic mood. For example, the images of "old woman", "snowy night", "small oil lamp" and "tattered awning boat" in Snow on the Land of China all show Ai Qing's melancholy.
Although the melancholy in Ai Qing's poems gives people a special aesthetic feeling, it is different from the extreme pursuit of melancholy beauty by western melancholy parties. The melancholy beauty in Ai Qing's poems is not deliberate, but naturally revealed.