Appreciation of Modern Poetry Nostalgia

Yu Guangzhong (1928~20 17) was born in Yongchun, Fujian. 1947 studied in the Foreign Languages Department of Jinling University and transferred to Xiamen University the following year. In the same year, my parents and I went to Hongkong, and the next year I went to Taiwan Province Province. 1952 graduated from the Foreign Languages Department of Taiwan Province Provincial University. 1957 editor-in-chief of Blue Star Weekly. Master of Arts, University of Iowa, USA, 1959. Editor-in-chief of modern literature and satellites. 1974 to 1985 Professor, Chinese Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. 1985 returned to Taiwan Province to teach. His published poems include Cold War Years, White Jade and Bitter Melon, Sirius, Ode to Bauhinia and Night Watch.

In childhood

Homesickness is a small stamp.

I'm at this end

Mom is over there.

When I grow up

Homesickness is a narrow ticket.

I'm at this end

The bride is over there.

We'll talk about it later.

Homesickness is a low grave.

I am outside

Mom's inside.

But now

Homesickness is a shallow strait.

I'm at this end

The mainland is over there

In chronological order, this poem gradually rose from "young son's Oedipus" to "juvenile lovesickness", to "the turn of life and death" in adulthood, and then to the feelings for the motherland and the mainland, which condensed the vicissitudes of the poet's life from childhood to old age. Nostalgia is at different stages, and the two ends of the connection are: I-mother; I-the bride; I (life)-mother (death); I (a wanderer)-the mainland (the motherland). The object of homesickness ranges from concrete "hometown" to abstract national "hometown", from regional hometown to historical hometown and cultural hometown. Make "homesickness" gradually precipitate rich connotation and expressive force.

Poetically, the four paragraphs are basically the same in words and sentence patterns: "... (adverbial of time), homesickness is ... (as the carrier of image metaphor homesickness), I am here, and ... (the specific object of homesickness) is there". In one go, back and forth, as if it were a feeling, lingering sound, lasting forever.

Poetry is pure and light in language, simple, frank and meaningful. Use adjectives such as "small", "narrow", "short" and "shallow" to decorate the central image and enhance the vividness of the language.

In terms of artistic style, this poem turns to pursue a calm and harmonious aesthetic style instead of the characteristics of the poet's early "modern period", such as deliberately hammering words and refining sentences, painstakingly managing images and contradictory grammar, pursuing bizarre effects and creating amazing words, and seeking abstinence from obscurity. Replacing complexity with simplicity and winning with lightness are also extremely gorgeous and belong to blandness.