As is known to all, I am not a person of a lot of artistic cells, which is probably the reason why I could not understand at all those brilliant masterpieces in the Singapore Art Museum. However, there are indeed some poems that even a person like me can find it beautiful and elegant, which in turn proves its beauty and elegance.
Here is a good example:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high over vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay;
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced,
But they out-did the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company!
I gazed-and gazed-but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
I am not a person against innovation or reform, which means that I do not dislike contemporary poems just because they are contemporary; but I do dislike most of the contemporary poems. I think the glamour of poetry comes from its beauty while its beauty comes from the writer’s wisdom. The rhyme and rhythm comes out as you read poems out; the well-organized sentences leave not difficulty behind for you to read through; the carefully-selected words depict vivid images in your mind. All these elements make the poem more likely to resonate with readers. But all these elements need conscientiousness. However, the writers of those contemporary poems seem to just pay attention to their feelings and opinions regardless of anything else, neither the language nor the rhyme and rhythm. The poem like like whatever, you know makes me feel sick when I just read its title.
Of course there are some good contemporary poems, but the general trend of contemporary poetry seems to tell people that writing poems is the easiest thing on earth and everybody at any time can write some poems. I believe even if you call these writings “poems”, they will not bring you the beauty that poetry is supposed to bring.
It is quite obvious that you are not a person of artistic cells, so I think I can understand why you use one of my favourite poems to take up half of your blog~ahaha,but that poem is really beautiful, it once appeared in my senior high school's textbook and I was immediately fascinated by it. I still remember on that class our English teacher asked us to translate it into Chinese, however, we all discovered that after translation, the poem lost its beauty and brevity. From that moment on, I began to understand each language has its own beauty~
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