“When I didn’t get up/with my eyes closed/heard the chirping of birds/heard the rumble of cars/heard the whistle of the whistle/I knew/you were knocking on the door of the day again. ..."
"Dawn", written by the poet on the morning of May 23, 1937, began in peace. Then, he writes about "my" nostalgia for the dawn, "my" expectation for the dawn, and "my" excitement toward the dawn...
The poet uses "I" to write about the relationship between "I" and the dawn. , praising the dawn with "my" feelings for the dawn. The whole poem is written brightly, elegantly, and melodiously, reflecting the people who were in darkness at that time, a desire for dawn and light...
Ai Qing put forward this idea in "On Poetry" The issue of "prose beauty" occupies an important position in "On Poetry". He said:
"The purpose of emphasizing 'prose beauty' is to get rid of poetry from the pretentious and flashy atmosphere, and advocate using vivid spoken language used in modern daily life to express the era in which we live - —Gives poetry new vitality. ”
The rigorous metrical verse style in Chinese classical poetry has achieved brilliant achievements, and many great poets have fully mastered the metrical verse style. of great masters. But with the passage of time, this metrical poetry style has become increasingly unsuitable for the development of society and the needs of poets to express their emotions. In the early twentieth century, a vernacular movement brought the new free verse style to the sacred poetry scene and became mainstream, while the traditional rigorous metrical verse style declined.
This is a historical necessity. The new era has brought about new social changes, new life scenes, new life rhythms, and new mentality. People's appreciation habits have also undergone tremendous changes. This naturally prompts people to call for new poetry styles and fall in love with new poetry styles. And the market for old poetry is getting smaller and smaller. The orientation of this poetic style is not determined by individuals, but by historical mentality and historical aesthetics.
Ai Qing once clearly talked about this historical change and historical choice:
“Since we discovered the hypocrisy of rhyme, discovered the artificiality of rhyme, and discovered the We are hostile to prose when we are familiar with its unembellished beauty, its true nature that does not need to be painted, and its health full of life. ”
< p>The reason why the new free verse style is accepted by people is that Ai Qing puts forward an important quality of the new free verse style: the new free verse style has the "unembellished beauty of prose and does not need to be painted with makeup" *, full of life and health. "This is in line with the aesthetic requirements of the new era and is therefore full of vitality.Ai Qing further said:
“The freedom of prose* facilitates the expression of literary images; and the kind of refined prose, noble prose, healthy or Soft prose is used by poets because it is the most perfect tool for the expression of images."
Ai Qing fully understood and mastered this new poetry in his creative practice. The "beauty of prose" requires. Therefore, in many of his poems, this "prose beauty" overflows vividly. The poem "Dawn" is outstanding in its overflow of "prose beauty".
Let’s give an example to illustrate. There is this passage in the poem:
“I miss that: / Carrying a basket with my companions / Going to the bean shed on the field embankment / to pick pods What a beautiful moment -/I often go into the densest grass,/let the dew soak my straw shoes,/the mud also splashes all over my trouser legs,/this is the comfort given to me by nature/I will revel in it Jumping..."
Here, the poet naturally and without any elaboration depicts such a life scene: In childhood, when dawn came, "I" went to pick pods with my friends, "The dew soaked my straw sandals, / the mud also splashed all over my trouser legs,..." This affectionate and life-filled picture is so moving, a kind of "prose beauty", isn't it fascinating?
But the "prose beauty" in poetry is very difficult to master. If you don't do it well, you will end up with "prose culture". Just one word apart, thousands of miles apart, Ai Qing firmly opposed the "prose culture" of poetry. He said: "Some poems are too protracted, lengthy, wordy, overly exaggerated, and boundless." How can we avoid "prose culture"? The key is to distinguish what is prose and what is poetry. You must be very particular about the choice of subject matter, the thinking of meaning, and the use of sentences. After all, there is a big difference between poetry and prose in terms of creation.
The poem "Dawn" is outstanding in its grasp of "prose beauty". Let’s cite another paragraph:
“And when I saw you/clothed with flames/coming from the horizon to the dark window——/I felt like I had been crying for hunger and thirst for a long time. The tired baby, / sees his mother untiing the skirt that wraps his breasts / tears burst out into smiles, / and my heart is grateful, / I will run into your warm arms with a call / and a song. ""
When "I" saw the dawn coming, I was extremely excited. When the poet expressed this mood, he did not describe it straightforwardly, nor was he overly exaggerated. Instead, he used an extremely touching metaphor, which suddenly became poetic.
"I am like a tired baby who has been crying for hunger and thirst for a long time, / seeing his mother undressing his breasts..." This metaphor is so brilliant, and it describes "my" longing for the dawn in a shocking way. Heart and lungs.
In the creation of new poems, "prose beauty", if mastered well, will have extraordinary effects. This "unembellished beauty of prose, the true nature* that does not require the application of makeup, the health full of the breath of life..." will "tempt us physically." We can't help but be fascinated by it.