NATURE POETRY
by: Tao Chien
I made my home a midst this human bustle,
Yet I hear no clamor from the carts and horses.
My friend, you ask me how this can be so?
A distant heart will tend towards like places.
From the eastern hedge, I pluck chrysanthemum flowers,
And idly look towards the southern hills.
The mountain air is beautiful day and night,
The birds fly back to roost with one another.
I know that this must have some deeper meaning,
I try to explain, but cannot find the answer
Tao Chien (Tao Yuan-Ming), Poet of Reclusion
Tao Yuan-ming (365-427), also known as Tao Chien or Tao Quin, represents both the old and new in an era of China that saw years of war and chaos. Tao Chien is well educated in the classics of Confucianism and Taoism, and later in life he may have befriended a local Buddhist figure long before Buddhism was significant in China. But Tao Chien is chiefly remembered not for his breadth of knowledge but for his unique voice as a poet of transition and reclusion.
Tao's career as a "scholar-gentleman" or government official, clashed with his propensity for solitude, and he became a recluse in the Chinese manner, in a rural area with his family. As a poet he projects warmth, humanity, and personal vulnerability. Unlike most of his contemporaries and predecessors, Tao Chien neither wrote in a lofty manner nor exaggerated the virtues of reclusion. He is at once loyal to friends and family, skeptical philosophically, a realist about daily life and its hardships, but also rueful and wistfully romantic in his struggle to be worthy of the hermits and sages of the past.
LINE BY LINE ANALYSIS:
1st line: he choose a place where he can live .
2nd line: no sounds or noise that can be heard even the horse or coach sound it is peaceful there.
3rd line: can someone know how this could happen.
4th line: he is learning to love the place and he's trying to protect it.
5th line: he planted chrysanthemum flowers to make more beautiful.
6th line: he's staring at the hills as he relaxes.
7th line: the breeze coming from the mountain is so fresh.
8th line: the flying birds two by two return.
9th line: those things have a deep meaning.
10th line: but when we express it words suddenly fail us.
RHYME SCHEME: METER:
=> A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J 11,12,10,11,13,10,11,10,12,13
FOCUS:
The poet simply means that we should be all thankful that we have a beautiful environment so we should treasure it.
SUMMARY:
HE IS THANKFUL TO LIVE IN A PLACE LIKE A PARADISE................
FIGURES OF SPEECH:
SYMBOLISM: southern hills, deeper meaning, idly look, distant heart...........................
