Standing Still, Eternal Being, and Ascendance: Three Relationships Between Sound and Imagery in Yang Mu’s Poetry
Vol. 44 No.4 12/2014
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Title |
Standing Still, Eternal Being, and Ascendance: Three Relationships Between Sound and Imagery in Yang Mu’s Poetry |
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Author |
Zhai, Yueqin |
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Genre |
Article |
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Pages |
661-688 |
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Download |
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Language |
Chinese |
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Key words |
Yang Mu, Sound, Imagery, Standing still, Eternal Being, Ascendance |
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Abstract |
Ever since the very beginning of his poetry writing in 1956, Yang Mu has been consistent in his pursuit of sonic beauty through verse (including the musicality of pronunciation, tones, textual structure and grammatical innovation), which imbues his poems with rich meanings and limitless interpretative possibilities. In researching the sonic qualities of poetry, focusing solely on linguistic features is insufficient to discern the ways sound functions in a poem. What is more important is to study the interaction between sound and meaning, for which analyses of imagery prove helpful. From Yang’s poetry, which spans half a century, three aesthetic relations between sound and meaning can be deduced: standing still and silent time; eternal being and circularity; ascendance and abstract spirality. It is argued here that Yang’s poems can be used as typical examples for analyzing the theoretical relations between sound and imagery. |