How to better appreciate modern poetry

I. Interpreting images through imagination

Imagination is one of the main means of expression in literature. Liu Xie, a literary theorist in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties in China, clearly put forward the proposition of "imagination" in Wen Xin Diao Shen Long Si. In fact, whether writing poetry or writing literary works with other themes, it is inseparable from imagination. For poetry, imagination is undoubtedly one of the characteristics of poetry, and it is also one of the most important props for poets to write poetry. Teacher Xie Mian said: "Literature appreciation is carried out with ubiquitous language symbols, which is a re-creation from symbols to rich world. Poetry appreciation is a kind of re-creation in the exact sense. The main way to re-create is to imagine activities. " In fact, it is to grasp the image of poetry through imagination and richly reproduce the image created by the poet.

Such as Ai Qing's I Love This Land.

"If I were a bird,/I should also sing with a hoarse throat:/This land was attacked by storms,/This river of sadness and indignation is always surging,/This angry wind is blowing endlessly,/There is an incomparable gentle dawn from the forest .../-Then I died,/Even my feathers rotted in the ground. //Why do I often have tears in my eyes? /Because I love this land deeply ... "

To read this poem, we should start with these questions: what images are written in the poem and what are their meanings? What is the theme of poetry? Why use "hoarseness" to describe the singing of birds? The solution of these problems can not be separated from imagination and poetic language environment.

"I Love This Land" wrote images such as birds, land, rivers, wind and dawn. The core is the bird, which expresses the theme that the author loves the suffering motherland and people. From the poem "This was attacked by the storm", "The earth" and "This is always surging with our grief and indignation", "This irritating wind is blowing endlessly, and there is an incomparable gentle dawn from the forest ..." From the modifiers, we can see that the earth is suffering, the people's grief and indignation, and their yearning and hope for light are all drawn through imagination.

Second, through lyrical interpretation of emotions

The essence of poetry lies in lyricism. The poet used his unique personality characteristics and his concise creative techniques, and did not hesitate to revise them many times in order to achieve a strong resonance with readers. This is also the great artistic charm of poetry! Unlike novels, they are good at setting ups and downs and portraying lifelike characters. Therefore, to interpret poetry is not to learn more through poetry, but to get emotional singing.

For example, Han Han wrote Zhang Zhixin martyr's poem "Weight": "She put her bloody head/on the balance of life,/made all the survivors/lose/-weight."

The poet exerts his unique imagination and carefully constructs an artistic image center with virtual reality, which is the "balance of life". "Life" in the abstract sense is invisible, so it doesn't matter. With the help of the concrete and sensible image of "balance", the poet endows the intangible with materiality and measures the lightness and heaviness of different lives. At one end of the "life balance", the poet puts the martyr's "bloody head", while at the other end, he is "all beggars", so that readers can get a sense of visual imbalance from this image, and at the same time, they can appreciate the poet's infinite reverence for martyrs, denial and criticism of others and self, and how can readers' souls not be shocked! Will inevitably produce * * * sound in the reader's mind.

Third, interpret the theme by guessing.

Poetry is concentrated wisdom, with the most limited verse, expanding the most infinite space; In the shortest form, it carries the widest connotation. So sometimes we have to "guess", that is, make a comprehensive thinking about the content, author and background of the poem.

For example, Gu Cheng's generation: "The night gave me black eyes/but I found light with them."

When reading this poem, we should grasp three main points: the first section is "night" and "black", and the second section is "light". "Night" symbolizes an unprecedented catastrophe. This kind of "black" is the result of strangling the light, and the night is the tomb of light, which is a suffocating symbol of a specific era. "Black eyes" has a double meaning here: on the one hand, it means that these eyes are deceived and influenced by the "dark night", on the other hand, they are deeply suspicious after being deceived. In the darkness, they gradually cultivate a kind of consciousness, adaptability and penetration, which has a brand-new quality and eventually becomes a rebellion of "the night" and a symbol of the will to find light.

With this sense of language, you will get an image, because "the night gave me black eyes": the sky is black, the night is black, the eyes are black, everything is black, and there is nothing in this world except black. But "I use it to find light" shows a bright spot in this darkness. Although this bright spot is also black, it is a shining black eye, looking for light in the dark. It vividly shows how tenacious human nature is in pursuit of light. Even in the darkest environment, even if it is destroyed by the most vicious, the human nature of pursuing light will not be erased. In this way, the greatness of darkness and the tenacity of kindness are highlighted in the contrast.

Two short poems, with a wide range of topics, reveal a huge theme. A generation was condensed into two lines by Gu Cheng, and endless words were condensed into 18 words by Gu Cheng. A generation is not only a self-explanation of a generation, but also a portrayal of a generation's indomitable spirit.

Fourth, interpret the connotation through chewing.

Implication is a way to express artistic beauty. Implication is the characteristic of poetic language, which is the biggest difference from prose, novels and other languages. In Song Dynasty, Mei said that writing poetry should be "full of meaning and visible beyond the words", which can be said to express the implicit true meaning, so it has always been praised by people. Si Kongtu's words are romantic, Su Dongpo's words have substance, Shen Deqian's implication and Shi Buhua's "Don't be straight but expensive" all express the same view as Mei, because poetry is expensive and implicit, and only implicit poetry can be poetic and lasting. Poetry is difficult to appreciate because it is not straightforward. Only by chewing the taste implicitly can we understand the content of poetry more deeply.

For example, Bian's broken chapter reads: "You stand on the bridge and watch the scenery/people watch you on the bridge/the bright moon decorates your window/you decorate other people's dreams."

This poem is about a beautiful woman. The poet is very stingy. There is not a word "beauty" in the whole poem, and even the beauty's appearance, posture, manners and clothing are not described at all. Her "beauty" is hidden in the eyes of "people who look at the scenery" and is more attractive than "scenery". Bright beauty occupies the night when other people's thoughts are flying, hides in other people's dreams and lives in readers' hearts.

In a word, there are many ways to interpret modern poetry, not limited to the ones listed above by the author. Besides, we have to master some other methods to interpret poetry, such as sentence pattern, structure, composition, beautiful rhythm, jumping and so on. But no matter what method you use, reading a poem can produce * * * and get pleasure, which is success!