How do you appreciate poetry through imagery?First of all, it is necessary to understand what the imagery of the poem is, secondly, to understand what the symbolic meaning of these images represent, and finally to combine the meaning of the imagery and the background of the poem's writing to achieve the purpose of appreciating the whole poem.
Let's take a step-by-step look at how to do it.
Imagery is the figurative or abstract thing that is used throughout the poem to express the poet's emotions and thoughts, usually created through vivid depictions and rich imagination. To put it simply, imagery is the "image" of "meaning", that is, lyricism through objects.
Imagery plays a role in creating atmosphere, shaping the background, setting off the character's temperament and so on in the whole poem, which can be one image at a time, or there can be several images, which is the key to the poem. Generally speaking, the image can be a physical object in the natural world that is seen in front of the eyes, or an abstract thing imagined by the artist.
Therefore, when appreciating poetry, we must first know what imagery is and whether the author uses imagery throughout the poem. This first step is very crucial.
The range of imagery is very wide, and it is necessary to have a clear understanding of what they represent.
For example, the "moon" commonly used in ancient poems represents homesickness. Li Bai's "Silent Night Thoughts" wrote: Raise your head to look at the bright moon, bow your head and think of your hometown. Du Fu wrote in "Remembering My Brother on a Moonlit Night": The dew is white tonight, and the moon is the hometown of Ming. The "moon" of these poems expresses the author's feelings of missing his hometown.
There are also often used "flowing water" and "falling flowers", which are often used to express the passage of time, the most famous of which is the poet Li Yu's: Flowing water and falling flowers go in spring, heaven and earth. The sunset, snow, willows, cicadas, wild geese, long pavilions, herbs, plantains, sycamores, etc., are all commonly used images in poetry, and the meanings they represent also need us to understand and memorize more in the actual learning process.
When appreciating poetry, we should also pay attention to the imagery used by the poet and analyze its meaning and expression, so as to deeply understand the theme and emotion of the poem.
Poets usually organize imagery according to a certain logic or order to express a particular theme or emotion. By analyzing the organization and arrangement of these images, we can gain a deeper understanding of the poet's creative ideas and expressions.
Combined with the environment in which the author created the poem, we put ourselves in the poet's emotional world by repeatedly reading and tasting the imagery in the poem, as well as our own imagination and association, so as to better feel the profound meaning conveyed by the poem and appreciate the beauty of the poem.
For example, Su Shi wrote a poem "Fortune Operator".
The lack of moon hangs dredging paulownia, and the initial tranquility of people is missing. Who sees a lonely person coming and going, ethereal and lonely.The imagery of the word ** appears is Wutong and Lone Hong, of which Lone Hong is the most important image in the word. We must first understand that the image "Lone Hong" represents loneliness and excellence. The time when the word was written was when Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou. Through these two points, combined with the meaning of the word, I learned that this was written by Su Shi who was demoted to Huangzhou because of the "Wutai Poetry Case", and Su Shi was far away from the imperial court at that time, and his mood was lonely. But he also believes that this crime is "unwarranted", and he will not be complicit in the fouling of those who framed him. In such a combination, it is not difficult to understand the whole poem: Su Shi uses the image of a lonely hung on a moonlit night to convey his nostalgia, expressing the lyricist's state of mind of being lonely and self-promising, and despising the vulgar.Shocked but turned back, there was hatred and no one to think. Pick up all the cold branches and refuse to perch, and the lonely sandbar is cold.
In conclusion, appreciating poetry through imagery requires us to pay attention to the meaning, symbolism, organization, and arrangement of imagery, as well as to appreciate the beauty of poetry through repeated reading and tasting. Only in this way can we truly understand the poet's emotions and thoughts, and experience the infinite charm that poetry brings.