Poetry has no definite method, and the beauty of operation is single-minded. This has brought great difficulties to the appreciation of poetry. Some poetry friends often say: commenting on poetry is a very emotional thing, and there is no reason to talk about it. This statement is both reasonable and not entirely reasonable. The fatal mistake of this view lies in exaggerating the aesthetic differences between different subjects and obliterating the relative independence of the beauty of the poetry object itself. The direct consequence of this view is superstition of "authority" and "majority", and its harm is self-evident. In my opinion, a good poem can always say one, two, three, four. This paper attempts to talk about the evaluation criteria of poetry from the theoretical level. Because we know little about new poems, all the poems mentioned here refer to old poems.
What is a good poem and what is a bad poem? This is a very complicated problem. Personally, I think the standard to distinguish good poetry from bad poetry lies in beauty. Beauty here refers to beauty in a broad sense, that is, boldness is beauty, depression is beauty, boldness is beauty, depression is beauty, openness is beauty, and sadness is beauty. This paper does not intend to analyze the essence of beauty from a philosophical point of view, but only intends to put forward some viewpoints on the operability of poetry aesthetics on the basis of analyzing some poems.
First, the source of poetic beauty:
The beauty of poetry is the beauty of the whole, and it is difficult to separate the various sources. But concrete analysis, the beauty of poetry is mostly due to the following parts:
1, the beauty of image. Expressing feelings and meanings with images is a common technique in poetry. Throughout the ages, many excellent poems have shown us complicated and endless images. There is a magnificent "river of no return, which will never return, Huang Yun will drive a hundred miles with the wind, and the snow peaks will swirl around nine streams"; Some are deep and open, "the leaves are falling like waterfall foam, but I think the long river is always rolling forward", some win by moving, "the waves between the rivers rise with the sky, and the clouds are grounded in the shade", some win by quietness, "the moonlight in the pine forest, the green spring flowing", and some images are rich and colorful, such as "Kunshan is full of jade, the phoenix cries, the hibiscus cries and the dew is fragrant. The cold light melts in front of the twelve gates, and the twenty-three silk moves the purple emperor. Nu Wa tempered the stone to make up the sky, and the stone broke the ground to stir the autumn rain "; There is a deep ambiguity, "Mermaids cry pearl-like tears in the green sea of the moon, and blue fields breathe their jade in the sun"; Some are gloomy, "the spring dream often rains, and the spirit wind is dissatisfied with the flag all day", some are miserable, "the bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no cock crow in a thousand miles", "the wine and meat in Zhumen stink, and the road has frozen bones"; There is a grotesque beauty, "the fist of the buckle bucket is upside down, and the phoenix flies with a tiger thorn"; There is a distinct theme, "Laugh and watch the sky go out, is our generation Artemisia?"; There is bitterness and bitterness, "yellow flowers are piled all over the ground. Haggard, who can pick it now "; There is a slender and weak "curtain rolls west wind, and people are thinner than yellow flowers." . . . . There are so many kinds of images that it is difficult to make comprehensive statistics. The most important and vivid way to create an image is that the writing object can grasp its key features and vividly convey the spirit, and the writing character can grasp its most typical demeanor and go straight into its spiritual world, so that the character can become what it is now. For example, write the pig "Tomorrow's steel knife is still moving, but today's dream is not contrary", write the monkey "Brown tail hides two strands, and red buttocks have leapt in front of people", write the girl Chen Jiao "Chen Qiao suddenly draws water from the wind, thunder suddenly leans against people" and write herself "Laughing at the sky and going out"; The second is profound, that is, profound and broad, or broad in artistic conception, or thought-provoking, or reflecting the author's deep feelings. The ancients had many sentences in this regard, so I won't give examples; The third is nature, even if the image is complex, it should be relaxed. There are several commandments in writing images. One is to write images for the sake of writing images. For example, Li He, taking Ya as an example, writes music. Like Lotte's Pipa, he uses more images. But Li He's is full of empty thoughts, so it is far from Lotte. The predecessors laughed at it as Shi Gui and covered it up with nonsense. Similarly, there is Han Yu. Therefore, poetry is almost humble when it comes to Han He. Second, avoid perfunctory and weak talents. There is no room for many images in a poem, so we can write less, rather than just cope with it, such as "the fish jumps to practice the wave and throw a jade ruler, and the warbler wears a willow and weaves a golden shuttle". The image of the third ring is thin, such as "a small bottle is reddish in the moonlight", which has sinister meaning. Other than that, there is nothing. Some people call it aura, pushing it to the top. I don't know that poet. The first article in Seduction thinks that the image is unnatural, such as several poems about rain in Shutang. No matter how boring people are, they will not use the mirror to shine on the rain. Another example is "I accidentally remembered my midgut and my hand was crooked when I held the cup", which is not typical.
2. Literal beauty. Poetry is a language art, and the beauty of words and forms is also a great source of aesthetic feeling. The beauty of words mainly includes:
(1) is elegant in writing. Words without words can't go far, especially poems. Limerick is also meaningful and rich in content, but if it is not elegant in the end, it is not elegant to write. It should be emphasized that there are several words to be avoided: first, mixed words, such as "Who will clean up your cold bones when you hit a wall" and "Take care of yourself first in Europe", are neither fish nor fowl. The second is to create words and combine them at will, such as "ancient cricket" and "fiber carp" that hit the wall; Third, it is obscure, such as Tang's "Luminous White Desire to Rot"; The fourth is to pretend to be disgusting, such as Xu Tang's "like dirty underwear"; The fifth category is straightforward, such as "The general went out with courage, with a sword at his waist", "Three mountains were shaken with an iron arm", "Wumeng walked in a mud pill with great dignity" and "Ye Fu saw injustice on the road and wore a sword in his chest". The sixth category is allusions for allusions. There are too many such classifications, so I won't give examples. The seventh category is that there are too many words refined or insufficient talents, which leads to the fact that individual words are very inconsistent with the context. For example, the word "once a lotus falls and the frost flies" looks like a nursery rhyme, the complete word "Who asked if you were full of love" looks strange, and the word "Bai Lianhua is better than the clouds" is faint. . . Too many. The language ability of hitting the wall is really poor. For poetry, babies are just beginners. Let's talk about the principle of word refining first. The refinement of words is not to find a prominent word to make it stand out in the whole poem or sentence, but to find a suitable word, which can fulfill its mission in the whole poem or sentence and is consistent with the context. If it is refined to make people see the difference of this word at a glance, it is failure. This is not the same as refining sentences.
Words are the foundation of poetry, and all other aesthetic feelings, contents, forms and meanings are first expressed in words. If what you say is unreasonable or has serious defects, then there is nothing else to say. These situations that should be avoided as much as possible are all obscure and creative, because the language of written and white is ridiculous, the funny language is disgusting, and the bold is not beautiful, but it does not conform to the basic language rules of people.
(2) the beauty of the form of words. Old-style poetry itself has formal beauty, especially metrical poetry, and neatness itself is a kind of beauty. What is emphasized here is the "cleverness" of poetry. First, the work is difficult. "The sound of Huangniuxia turns to a quiet beach, and the shadow of the cold trees in Baima River is sparse." Second, if you work, you won't know your job. You will know your job in detail. For example, "I will be tragic when I am old, and I will be happy today"; Third, the writing work is strange, but reasonable. "Bamboo leaves are nothing to people, and chrysanthemums don't have to bloom anymore." "Spring boat sitting in the sky, presbyopia watching the fog"; Fourth, special sentence patterns, including deliberately reversing the general grammatical order, deliberately breaking the general rhythm, and emphasizing words. "The top corner cries from sorrow, the moon is in the middle of the sky, but no one shares it with me", "Flowers are similar year after year, people are different year after year" and "Xianggu pecks at parrot grains, and Wu Bi perches on old phoenix branches". Here, I also put forward several commandments. When I quit my easy job, I shouldn't work, for example, "I know you are tired of looking at ugliness, but I'm ashamed to leave everything", so I don't work. The second precept is harmful to work, such as "flowers bloom in autumn, and bamboo shadows are sad on a moonlit night" written by the master of becoming an outlaw. In contrast to autumn, the meaning of the night sound is unclear (by the way, the master's seven laws are good, but the necklace is often too sour). The three precepts use special sentence patterns, and the momentum and meaning do not match. For example, Meng's "The disease has not reduced people's difficulties, why does poetry feel timely?"
3. Inner beauty. Here refers to the literal sense of beauty. Poems with different contents have different emphasis on inner beauty. Generally speaking, from the function of poetry, it is nothing more than lyricism, scenery writing, discussion and narration. Of course, these aspects are often combined and inseparable, but from a single sentence, they can basically be divided into one of the above categories. Let's talk about their priorities in different categories:
(1) Family ties are sincere, implicit or straightforward. For example, "a man who is not as loved one as she is" and "I know this day when I see the fallen flowers, and my hometown is a place with a bright moon" are implicit and meaningful. "Are we Artemisia people?" "Oh, how can I bow and scrape to those high-ranking and high-ranking people who will never show their sincere faces?" "There are wars and mountains to the north of this wall. How can I not cry next to this railing?" And so on. The two styles of lyricism have different requirements. Implicit style requires profound meaning, resonance and higher connotation beauty, while authentic style requires that phonology must match it and have momentum. Although the author's feelings may be true, his talents are not up to standard, and the phonological images are not well organized, which makes the feelings come suddenly, such as many poems by Tianwu. Second, avoid wordiness, for fear that the meaning is unclear. I love it very much. Just like most ancient poems are in jars. Three bogeys are too narrow, only concerned with expressing feelings, not paying attention to the coordination of composition and image rhyme, so they are too thin to get up, such as most of Meng's boudoir love poems. Four taboos are too sour, and lack of self-esteem and potential is called acid. Poetry, books, bricks, old people and temples are all sour without the momentum of words. This is too much, and almost all online "poets" who name names are like this. Why is this? Because I pretend to be old and I don't have enough talent. Five bogeys is too much. Push hard when you shouldn't, which seems inexplicable stupidity and stubbornness, such as "my heart is old, and the water can be disturbed by troubles" (contrast) and finally you want to go home, and now my heart is almost broken. Spring breeze, since I dare not know you, why did you enter Luowei? ), it looks disgusting. That's why the former Guangjiao Island was built. By the way, I think the overall level of poetry is not as good as that of suburban islanders, not to mention poetry. However, there are only a few people who are better than suburban islands in contemporary times.
(2) The description of scenery is basically the creation of images mentioned above, so I won't go into details.
(3) It's strange, accurate, spicy and funny, such as "When the east wind doesn't follow, the bronze sparrow terrace locks Er Qiao in spring", "When the screen is full, there is no resentment, only poets gather", "Rogue is king", "CoCo Lee has been killed in battle many times, but he still hangs on" and "Jiangdong's children are brilliant and make a comeback". There is no point of view, no mood and no emotion in discussing mediocrity, such as most of the discussion poems in Romance of the Three Kingdoms and History of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Second, the precepts are too innovative and not refined enough, such as Gong Jing's "killing Mao Yanshou in vain" and so on. As far as discussion is concerned, the scholar overlord is outstanding.
(4) narrative. Without Bai Juyi's right, there would be no narrative, and Pipa hates Erqu, which is really an eternal pride. Qu Yuan's Li Sao can certainly be regarded as a narrative poem, but his language habits are quite different from now. Prince Du Li also has excellent narrative poems, but their profound meaning, popularity and charm are not as good as those of whites. Garden Song is also a narrative poem, but it is not as easy as a white poem. Narrative is important to relax and combine narrative with meaning, feeling with scenery, relaxation with epigrams. Several articles such as "Scholar Overlord Prostitution" have been narrated, but the wind has not yet arrived. The difference is not bad, but it is too thick. For the contemporary network "poets", the narrative should first be too plain and straightforward, without ups and downs, such as dead bodies and stagnant water, such as Su's nameless fables. These two commandments are too flat in grammar, so they are not literary. They think they are Gu Zhuo, but in fact they are boring, just like a narrative poem against the wall. You can't let go of yourself in the three precepts. You have too many concubines, which is detrimental to your poetic style and boring, like a narrative ancient poem hitting a wall.
4. External beauty. Refers to the aesthetic feeling produced by association and experience outside the words of poetry. This aesthetic feeling is too important for poetry. Unfortunately, most contemporary "poets" have little experience in this field. There are too many examples of the ancients, so I will take one of my own poems as an example. "The Mid-Autumn Festival is full of tears, and the road wears mulberries." Literal meaning is good enough, but what is literal meaning? Why is the full moon like tears? Actually, I'm crying in my heart. Why is the road near the mulberry tree? One is that you are old, and the other is that you are confused. Careful understanding, the feeling of bitter vicissitudes is endless. This is a hint between the lines. Another example is "I know this day when I see the fallen flowers, and there is a bright moon in my hometown." The latter sentence is known to most people, and the former sentence was not known until I saw the fallen flowers today. The literal meaning is already very good. Why did you know when I saw the fallen flowers today? Do you know what day it is today? Savor carefully, the aftertaste is far from bad, beyond words. People who think this sentence is not as good as the opposite one really don't understand poetry.
The beauty of connotation lies outside words, and it is important to use the least words to trigger the richest associations. But this requires the level of readers.
A really good poem does not use awkward and strange words to express simple meanings, but uses simple words to express rich meanings; Not to create images or feelings that others can't think of, but to express images or feelings that others can think of but can't write; Instead of covering everything, I am afraid that others will not think of it, but leaving readers with the greatest imagination with the least words; Don't deliberately highlight the subject, but let the subject image stand out in front of the reader, as if this is the first thing. Unfortunately, too few people can understand these truths now.
5. The beauty of sound and rhythm. No rhyme, no poetry. Writing a poem without rhythm is not a good poem. It should be pointed out that meter is not enough to form phonological beauty, nor is it a necessary condition for phonological beauty. The relationship between the two is that it is easier to achieve the beauty of rhyme when writing metrical poems, that's all. Some people mistakenly think that rhyme is fine as long as they write poems according to the rules, which is really a big mistake. Metrics can be learned in a week, and the beauty of phonology depends on years, decades or even decades of study and understanding. I've been online for a long time, and it seems that no one can deeply appreciate the beauty of melody except me.