The Comparison of Chinese and Western Love Poetry
...ay find many in the Book of Poetry, as A Deer-killer and A Mute Maiden etc. The love poems in the Book of Poetry are naive and frank. While up to the Warring States Period (403-221 B.C.), Chinese poetry entered into the second period, viz. the Songs of Chu period. The Songs of Chu are provided with full-bodied romantic features and some works describing merry love possess vague artistic conception such as Ode to Fairy by Song Yu. In Han Dynasty, young peoplefs love life got severe restrictions because Wu Emperor pushed the cultural absolutism policy put forward by Dong Zhongshu. Since then we can only find such tragic love poems filled with gloomy color instead of those comic merry love poems in the Book of Poetry. 2. Chinese love poetry in Tang and Song Dynasty Tang Dynasty enjoyed the highest development in Chinese poetry history while we can hardly find any merry love poems in that period. For during Tang Dynasty, China was the most advanced country in the world, so far as political system, economic development and artistic and literary culture are concerned, this inspires the poetsf lofty aspirations and great ideals to build up establishment and make contributions to the country rather than be immersed to love. However, some poets also learned from folk songs and wrote some good love poems such as Cui Haofs Songs on The River: Where are you coming from? / On the shore Ifve my home. / Will you rest on your oar? / Are we from the same shore? I dwell by riverside, / And sail on river wide. / we live on the same shore, / Not knowing it before. Although this poem draws out the process of a young man and young womanfs love and is filled with merry life, it is not the prototype of Tang poems. Till Song Dynasty, there appeared another outstanding literature form, Song verse. We may find many Song verses describing love while most of them just write grief of parting and yearning between lovers. As for merry love, the poets always made it vague or just hid it. In conclusion, Chinese love poems in different periods have their own characteristics: the Book of Poetry trueness, the Songs of Chu transience, folk songs pureness, Song verse elegance. Despite different features, they all write out the joyful happy side of young peoplefs love life. II. Western love poetry 1. Western love poetry in early period In west, the earliest love poem is Song of Solomon in the Old Testament. Song of Solomon is an important part of the Old Testament, a collect volume of love poems, in which we may find many poems describing merry love life. Moreover, the love poems in Song of Solomon are light but not tasteless, common but not harmful to elegance, implicit but not obscure, clear but not superficial, really good representatives of western love poetry. In Renaissance, humanism poets, holding the flag of fighting against feudalism and asceticism and seeking individual freedom, wrote quite many fine love poems. In Shakespearefs Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Julietfs conversation in Capuletfs Orchard pushes western love poetry to the height. Through their conversation, Shakespeare points out that love can never be blocked. When Juliet asked Romeo: g How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?h He answered: g With lovefs light wings did I oferperch these walls, / For stony limits cannot hold love out, / And what love can do, that dares love attempt; / Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.h Love is eternal. Love is overwhelming. 2. Western love poetry in modern period In western modern love poems, we may find those describing pure love as Burnsf A Red, Red Rose while we may also find those depicting peoplefs abnormal sexual lust as in T. S. Eliotfs the Waste Land: eYou gave me hyacinths first a year ago; eThey called me the hyacinth girl.f |Yet when we came back, late, from the hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. In it, we may find some descriptions of sexual life and emptiness of spirit. T. S. Eliot portrays an abnormal scene of modern young peoplefs love life from a stander-byfs point of view. That is an absolute tragedy if the happiest merry love of humans just reduces to animalfs mating. Humans crave for humanistic restoration and aspire to return to a pure and nice society. If gmerry loveh falls into insensateness, that can but cause peoplefs sigh and pity. III. The Comparison of Chinese and Western Love Poetry In general, Chinese and western love poetry share a lot in common, viz. they all represent joyful merry love life of people. But western modernism poets turn over to depict abnormal love life in reverse. This is really an exception in Chinese and western poetry history so we just omit it. What we compare in this paper are those mutual while discriminative features between Chinese and western poetry. To sum it up, the main differences are as following: 1. Chinese love poetry keeps to gjoy without wantonnessh principle constantly. When they describe merry love life, the poets will stop where it should stop according to that principle. They usually depict merry love life through connotation and making use of shape and scene to express emotions. For instance, Du Mufs At Parting: Not yet fourteen, shefs fair and slender / Like early budding flower tender. / Though Yangzhou Roadfs beyond compare, / Pearly screens uprolled, nonefs so fair. In the first sentence the poem portrays out the gentle, graceful and elegant style of the girl. And then it continues to points out that the girl is just in her maiden years. The last couplet expresses the poetfs feeling by describing the scene. gYangzhou Roadfs beyond compareh not only writes out the prosperity of Yangzhou city at that time but also contains the poetfs happy life there. gNonefs so fairh at the end shows his love appropriately, brief and pregnant with meaning. While western love poems always express feeling frankly, zealously and without reservation. Furthermore, weste...