What is poetry? "Poetry is like music ... but don't read it. Don't think of it as a single thing, but as a set of tools to create things with words. Just as music is a tool to create things with sounds (beats, rhythms, harmony, structural forms, musical instruments). "

Just like music, we actually listen to Beethoven and Beyonce. Cooking is spaghetti or dry fried beef river. In sports, we play basketball or skate. Reading poetry is essentially an interpretation and understanding of poets who create poetry.

How to understand it? Feel first, then role, then skill.

The first poem that I can't forget for a long time is Twilight by Xi Murong.

The biggest feeling is to feel moved and then bring it into the role. I hope that through this book, I can have a new understanding of this poem.

The next day 10.27

Before reading the first chapter, I want to introduce the development history of poetry (mainly English) through my own preliminary understanding.

Several poems in the development of English poetry-/kloc-Renaissance poetry in the late 6th century, Romantic poetry in the early 9th century and Modernist poetry in the first half of 20th century-have become colorful movements in the world poetry symphony. A group of outstanding English poets, represented by Shakespeare, can stand in the forefront of the world's poetic genius without a doubt.

The first stage: ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon (from the 40th century to the 5th century).

Second-order branch: ancient Greece and Rome (8th century to 5th century).

The third stage: the Middle Ages (5th century to15th century), which can also be called the biblical poetry period.

The fourth stage: Renaissance (14 ~16th century). The great poets are Satubia in Britain and Peterak in Italy.

The fifth stage: the classical period (17 to 18 century), with famous historical figures such as Milton and Voltaire.

The sixth stage: Romanticism (18 to 19 century), the poem is full of stars and handsome romance. Germany has Goethe; There are Blake and Burns in England, and Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Shelley, Byron and Keats are lake poets. France has Hugo; Russia has Pushkin; Whitman, USA; Hungarian has petofi, and so on.

The seventh stage: Aestheticism, symbolism, imagist surrealism, avant-garde poetry of various styles emerge one after another. East and west have collided, communicated and merged for nearly a hundred years, and the wind has arrived, even today.

The first chapter, feelings

The author tells us that the first layer of poetry is to express feelings. But some lyric poems contain feelings that are difficult to express and share, and we need to feel them with our hearts. Lyrics, not by stories, can tell stories around a specific moment, but there will be some moments that will touch us.

Lyrics, the author here mainly said two kinds, love lyrics and elegy, they are essentially the same. Lyric poetry is a poet's imagination, which is realized by finding words for someone's passion, so as to get rid of difficulties, physical constraints and life restrictions. ...

If you want to impress someone through lyric poetry, it is impossible (the book is called "Numb Lady"). The real purpose of lyric poetry is to express. It tells the poet himself and tells us what it is like. I don't want to convince anything or even escape my sadness ... but in the end, these words of expressing myself moved everyone and caused a * * * sound. Even these words still reverberate in our memory.

There are also many examples in the book, such as Begging by Laura Kasichek, Flowers by Herbert, Something More Beautiful than Beyonce by Morgan Parker, homans's youth in West Lop County, Sanctification by Dunn, and The Highest Mathematics by Bates. And some opinions and interpretations of the author of this book. You can look carefully for yourself.

Day 3 10.28

Chapter II Roles

Poetry has a way of description, which is expressed through the description of a role. Sometimes it is yourself, sometimes it is someone else, sometimes it is an anthropomorphic role (commonly known as IP), and sometimes it even compares itself to an animal or something else. For example, elizabeth bishop's The Big Toad mentioned in the author's article compares himself to a giant toad.

The author of this book said, "Sometimes, a character or an anthropomorphic personality will drive the whole poem and express the whole character through an extended metaphor."

In this kind of poems, in addition to conveying some characters, it gives people a three-dimensional vivid feeling, and also conveys the emotional pull between some characters, such as bad, excellent, injured, lonely and happy, which makes readers feel more substituted. For example, the small thoughts of secret love, such as loneliness, and even some simple emotions that are difficult to describe in one word (sense of instability, diverse feelings in people's hearts, etc.). ), such as a "confession poem" describing pain. The author gives a detailed description of the confession poem through various examples, which you can read in the original text.

So far, the author has explained to us two reasons for reading poetry-sharing feelings and discovering people-and also showed the types of poetry that readers have long been familiar with.

Among these types, there are desperate cries or invitations, funeral elegies or celebrations of a new life, pure meditation and lyricism or monologues. They are either real or imaginary, or obscure or plain.

These authors think it's all fancy skills (like figure skaters). First of all, we should understand the essence of skating, and then look at the skills. Appreciate the skills, forms and different modes in skills. Only by recognizing these skills can we appreciate poetry better. Just as we appreciate figure skating or ball control or painting.

Day 4 10.29

Chapter III Form

The form of poetry is the skill of poetry.

The first skill of poetry is rhythm, also called rhyme. It is best to read the rhymes in the original English, which will make the translation less attractive. Some rhythms also use repetitive words, syntax and semantics This prosodic technique itself is a unique structure of language. This harmonious rhythm and parallel consonants hide a pleasant order. In other words, the form of rhythm itself will make people comfortable.

This technique is also common in China's ancient poems. But the author thinks that skill is just a form of expression, which helps us to understand nature and society in essence. The simplicity of poetry itself should not be concealed by skill, and it would be a pity if it became a trap carefully designed by people.

The second technique, catechism, is a particularly popular writing technique in the twentieth century. The author lists Dunn's will, which is also a branch of rhythm evolution.

The third technique is sonnets. This is the most recognizable and common form of ancient English poetry. Usually divided into eight, six or four, four and four, a line has ten iambic syllables. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. Almost all the rhymes are ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG and GG.

However, the techniques of sonnets are basically divided into two factions, one is attacking and resisting, and the other is defending. The author does not give his own opinion, but criticizes the exaggeration of contemporary sonnets to directly compare the comedy effect with the stunt.

The fourth skill is three lines. Dante's Divine Comedy uses three lines, which rhymes with "abb, acc, add, aeea" and finally returns to A. Three lines is a difficult move and a huge adjustment. The three-line form is not only challenging, but also shows the differences between languages: "Perceiving the pleasure brought by this form means noticing the charm of a specific language and finding pleasure from it."

The fifth skill is the evolution of some short phrases in modern English, such as rhyme, beginning and end. The representative is "Gazal" in Urdu, that is, two lines of verse jump from one theme to another. In the late 1990s, this method spread to the United States, and poets and readers wondered how scholars could appreciate, discover and surpass an ancient but still fresh form. Charming Split and Call Me Ismail Tonight are both excellent works, so you can read them carefully.

The fifth technique is the form of "missing words". The author will avoid using one or more letters, for example, in the chapter "E", the author will avoid using all vowels except E.

The sixth technique, called Wulibo Group, is still active in the French literary world, mainly focusing on the basic concept of "restriction", which breaks through the traditional questioning and is more like a crossword puzzle and a game.

Seventh, some other modern tricks, such as golden shovel poems, Hayes poems, Ewan poems, Moore poems, crossed-out poems and so on. The poet has been accepting some existing restrictions and then thinking about how to use them to experience games and how to have fun by updating old rules. There are also many people who innovate between irregular free poems.

Finally, in view of the presentation form of poetry, that is, skills, the author summed it up in his own words: "Restriction leads to creation, and creation can stimulate joy".

Day 5 1 1.2

Chapter IV Difficulties

After understanding the first feeling of reading poetry, as well as the function and skills. We can probably understand why poetry touches us, and even we are glad that we can find skills and enjoy the fun created by these skills. They may enliven our lives, and let us see the harmful assumptions and weak fantasies in impromptu speeches and daily news propaganda through simple poems.

Then poetry will bring us some difficulties. The author of this book first sorts out some classifications of poetry difficulty. Then, it discusses the causes of these difficulties and why to ask questions. This difficulty is manifested in difficulty, exaggeration, eccentricity and confusion, similar to strong jazz, avant-garde noise and some hip-hop punk.

The first difficulty is called "text cubism", which is actually as simple as our usual life narrative, but it is thinking itself. So it is also called "experimental writing" or "psychological experiment". Why do these poets choose to describe this thing in this language or form? What the hell is going on here? In fact, these questions are the answers themselves. A curious thing, once remembered, must be touched again and again. This is a curious mentality. This is a kind of difficulty in itself.

Some of these poems are closed and some are open. No matter how hard you rack your brains, you can't be sure what he really means.

The second difficulty is the difficult classification of literature by critic george steiner. 1 contingency (similar to a crossword puzzle with a fixed answer), 2 forms (we know the literal meaning of a sentence, but we don't know how to understand it), 3 strategic difficulties (what we want to express is difficult, but the poet takes the problem out and talks with a group of people in an innovative way), and 4 ontological difficulties (difficulties or problems encountered by the poet himself).

The author of this book refers to a special book, Nonsense on Blake's Calendar.

The third difficulty is expressive, and the author of this book has used many arguments. Friendly, attractive, aggressive, imaginative, pornographic, exciting and difficult. The characteristic of these is that they all have opposites, and they are all reactions to something. But for others (represented by Dunn), they used unfamiliar skills, time or geographical restrictions, and technical terms, which they used to shut us out.

These difficulties are thought-provoking, almost all of them are attacks, counterattacks, unsolved mysteries, expressions of things that are difficult to describe, asking questions and re-examining ourselves. This is the difficulty. Poetry itself is what the poet wants to resist, escape, avoid, break or break up, revolutionize or change.

"No matter how hard we are to solve the problem of the meaning of these poems. It will show us how obscure language can be clear and pleasant, and how some meaningless or anti-sense language in poetry can help us distinguish absurdity, hypocrisy or lies in the world outside poetry. "

Chapter V Wisdom

Wisdom or sacred and secular poems in many cultures can help us accept ourselves, calm down, step back and face the sometimes bitter truth of life.

Once the poet's suggestions and wisdom words become their genres (aphorisms, epigrams, poems, proverbs), later generations can interact with them and respond.

We call it "wisdom poem", just like the Hebrew poem in the Bible. Sometimes it is not so beautiful and elegant, but it tells some skills in a simple and secular way.

The wisdom that poetry shows people is not intended to help readers provide wisdom or answers directly, nor does it mean that exhortations or suggestions should not be passed on. It is presented at will.

However, from our readers' point of view, we can not only get suggestions about our own life and public life from poems, but also suggestions that are unknown in the great torrent of struggle. These suggestions usually suggest, encourage or ask you to think twice before you act.

Day 6 1 1.3

Chapter VI Homomorphism of * * *

So far, the first five chapters are actually thinking from a personal point of view. The feelings of single readers, such as how do I read poetry? Why do you like some poems? What do poets do with poetry? What do poets who write poems for themselves think? Even, how does poetry promote social change?

Then, this chapter, first of all, is a state of retreat. Let's think from another angle and see how readers, listeners, spectators and fans find groups through poetry. How to use poetry for the whole group? How do we know?

The main viewpoint expressed by the author is the purpose of poetry communication itself, which is aimed at groups. For example, the behavior of praising the group and encouraging the group to change has indeed played a lot of roles through historical verification.

The first poet-allen ginsberg. This poet is regarded as the father of the "Beat Generation". "The Beat Generation: a popular literary genre in the United States after World War II. The authors of this genre are bold and uninhibited young men and women. They live a simple life, are unkempt, like to wear strange clothes, hate work and study, refuse to undertake any social obligations, enjoy wandering around the world, despise social order, oppose all secular prejudices and monopoly capital rule, resist foreign aggression and apartheid, and hate machine civilization. They are always looking for new excitement, seeking absolute freedom and indulging in sex and drug abuse.

The second poet-a rude and savage anti-college poet with a big beard-allen ginsberg. His masterpiece is Howling. There is also a 90-minute biopic of the same name, Howl, which was shown at Berlin International Film Festival on February 10. This film tells the story of American rebel poet allen ginsberg when he was young. A publishing house was accused of spreading obscene literary works for publishing his poems. At the end of the trial, the conservative judge read a surprising and passionate verdict. Howling is a long poem, so I came here to find a part and attach a link. Interested parties can click to read:/item/%E5% 9a% 8e% E5% 8f% ab/5486520? Fr = Aladdin

The Third Poet-william blake. He is not only a poet, but also a watercolor painter and printmaker. /kloc-started writing poems at the age of 0/2, and published them with his own illustrations. 1925, when he was seriously ill, he decided to finish the illustration of Dante's Divine Comedy before he died. Until a few days before his death, he was still working, "inviting people to buy charcoal pens with the last few shillings", putting down the last painting and saying "I have tried my best". Until his death, he failed to finish this huge project. In this chapter, his poem "Naive Prophecy" is mentioned. In fact, this poem is more widely known for its first four sentences.

The fourth poet-langston hughes. He is known as the "Poet Laureate of Black People" and is a pivotal figure in American literature, especially in black literature. His poems draw lessons from black folk music and folk songs, and integrate the rhythm of jazz into free verse, with fresh and enthusiastic style, which is used to express protests against racial discrimination and praise for black progress, and has a positive and far-reaching impact on the development of black poetry in the United States and Africa.

The Fifth Poet-thomas gray. The representative work of the poet mentioned in this chapter is Elegy in the Cemetery, which was later called "Cemetery School" because he wrote many poems in this field with his friends.

The sixth poet-robert frost. There is a lot of information about this poet, so I won't expand it here. At the inauguration ceremony of 196 1 John F. Kennedy in his later years, the poet recited his poem "All-rounder" specially written for this occasion, which was very noticeable. In addition, The Road Not Taken is also famous and often quoted.