Poetry Research Articles

Analysis of Three Beauties Theory in Xu Yuanchong’s English Translation of Classical Chinese Love Poems

This study explores Xu Yuanchong’s Three Beauties Theory and its manifestation in translating Classical Chinese love poems into English. The Three Beauties Theory emphasizes achieving beauty in meaning, sound, and form to preserve the original’s aesthetic and emotional depth. Using a qualitative approach, the study examines five of Xu’s translated poems selected to represent these three facets. Data were drawn from Xu’s published translations, and thematic analysis was applied to evaluate how well his work maintains the nuanced, poetic qualities of the source material. The results of the analysis reveal both the strengths and limitations of the Three Beauties Theory in capturing the original poems’ cultural resonance and artistic integrity. The findings of this study highlight Xu Yuanchong's Three Beauties theory as a significant method in cross-cultural literary communication and a valuable framework for future translators to bridge linguistic and cultural gaps while retaining the artistic integrity of classical poetry.

Love poetry as social practice: On the function of medieval Sicilian love lyric in Arabic and Italian

AbstractThis article problematizes the traditional narrative of Le Origini, according to which the beginnings of Italian literature were based on Provençal examples. I contend that this narrative is incomplete, as it overlooks entirely the rich heritage of Sicilian Arabic poetry that predates the Sicilian romance lyric by only a few decades. Based on a comparative analysis, I aim to demonstrate how the Sicilian romance lyric is also rooted in Sicily’s Islamic past. In support of my argument, I analyze excerpts from three Arabic poems from Islamic and Norman Sicily and then read them alongside Pier della Vigna’s canzone ‘Amor da cui move tuttora e vene’ (Love, from which always come). With my comparison, I call attention to how the poets of the Scuola Siciliana, like their Arabic predecessors at the Kalbid court of Palermo, used verse to craft a code of social competence shaped by the lore and language of the love poem. My comparison opens up a re-examination of Le Origini: can the Sicilian-Arabic poems penned in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries cast new light on the rhymes of the Scuola Siciliana?

Reverse the Curse: Genesis, Defamiliarization, and the Song of Songs

This paper assesses the relationship between the so-called “curses” on the Woman in Gen 3:16 in terms of themes (garden, tree, creation, marriage, procreation, and so on) and concludes that the late poetic text of the Song aims at a deliberate corrective to the negative view of gender relations in Genesis. The use of mashal, “to rule over” in Gen 3 is reassessed from the perspective of its use of the native genre designation of mashal in Wisdom Literature. There, it refers to similarities between two compared items. The direct reversal of God’s speech to the humans in Gen 3, where the woman will be ruled over by her man but still desire him, appears in the Song in the speeches of the Beloved: there she states categorically that the man is her beloved and belongs to her, while she belongs to him. The tactic of defamiliarization (a Russian literary concept) is used to juxtapose radically different views and destabilizes the notion of only one meaning for the words under consideration. In effect, reading two opposing themes together forges a new, more inclusive understanding of both. This paper concludes with a dramatic new rendering of the Song, “The Song I Sing Complete” with speech and motifs reassigned to the woman’s voice, foregrounding her remarks within the genre of love poetry, drawing on tropes found in lyrical poetry and the myth of Israel’s neighbors in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

A Stylistic Study of "The Windhover" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) is the greatest religious poet and Jesuit priest of the Victorian age who was born in London in the rapidly changing time, fundamentals, visions and sights. He wrote many poems such as “The Windhover”, “The Wreck of the Deutschland”, “God’s Grandeur”, “Spelt from Sibyl’s Leaves”, “I Wake and feel the fell of dark, not day”, “Carrion Comfort”, “Pied Beauty”, “Felix Randal”, “Binsey Poplars” and “Thou art indeed just, Lord” but none of them was published in his life. when he decided to become a Jesuit, he burned all his literary works as he felt that they were against the principles of his Catholic religion. His friend, Robert Bridge kept a copy of his poems and published them in 1918. As a Jesuit priest, Hopkins infused his personal religious devotion into his poetry. The Windhover reflects his intense spiritual connection. For him The Windhover is “the best thing I ever wrote”. The Windhover is not the love poem which is addressed to any person, (even though “To Christ our Lord”), but to the life itself. The Windhover is the masterpiece of Hopkins style, imagery, in which he fuses the beauty of nature with the divine and religious believes. In order to reach his goal, Hopkins used figures of speech, sprung rhythm and different forms of sound patterning. This study is a stylistic analysis of The Windhover from the graphological, phonological, lexical, structural and semantic points of view. The Windhover stands out for its innovative style, vivid imagery, and seamless integration of nature and faith, a combination that distinguishes it from other religious poems. Keywords: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Victorian poet, The Windhover, Stylistic Study.

Women in Selected Love Poems of William Butler Yeats

Women in Selected Love Poems of William Butler Yeats

XVIII CENTURY AZERBAIJAN HISTORICAL REALITY AND LITERATURE

Throughout the entire history of mankind, literature has been a fact of the time of its creation. When we look at the issue both in a universal context and in a local one, we see approximately the same picture. Just as Homer is a fact of ancient Greece, the work of the genius Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi of the 12th century is considered to be the fact of the mighty Seljuk Empire, the state of the Atabays of Azerbaijan. Khagani Shirvani's literary heritage, dominated by rebellious and grievous motives, was a literary phenomenon caused by the state of the Shirvanshahs, the Akhsitan dynasty. The invasion of the Mongols, the invasion of Emir Timur, the period-specific manifestations of discontent against oppression and slavery, the spread of philanthropy and the phenomenon of Imadaddin Nasimi.. The work of Alishir Navai, the Uzbek-Chagatai poet and statesman of the 15th century, the author of the first “Khamsa” in Turkic, and the great Turkic culture, which was called the Timurid renaissance, were echoes of Huseyn Baygara's rule which lasted 37 years, in culture, science and literature. The establishment of the Safavid state of Azerbaijan in the XVI century and the fact that Azerbaijan remained the “metropolis and central province of the state” (Efendiyev, 2007: 11) throughout the century, the domestic and foreign policy has had a direct impact on the change of the direction of literature. The biggest event was the stabilization of the tradition of writing in the Azerbaijani language, the preference for the folk language, and the rapid development of ashug poetry. If in the literature of three centuries ago there was a palace splendor, then in the poetry of this period there is already a roar of battlefields, heroic motives surpass love poems, ashug poetry, which is closer to the people, and therefore has a lot of influence and propaganda power. The 18th century Azerbaijani literature is also a “mirror that shows the straight and the crooked” of its time. The article examines the most important events in the history of Azerbaijan of the XVIII century, their influence on the development of literature and features of their reflection in artistic works.

From the Kalmuck Steppes to Heinrich Heine

The paper offers a survey of the Kalmuck and Mongol typography developed in St. Petersburg under supervision of Isaak Jakob Schmidt, Europe’s first expert on Kalmuck and translator of the Bible into this language. This work was practically, executed by Friedrich Gass, a designer, in St. Petersburg, probably advised by the engineer, Orientalist and printing expert Schilling von Canstadt. The actual printing was arranged by Nikolaj Grech, printer, bookseller, author, whose biography was translated by Maximilian Heine, brother of the poet Heinrich Heine. Two anonymous booklets on life in St. Petersburg were identified as M. Heine’s work by means of a dedication which led to Therese Heine — a cousin of the Heine brothers, to whom Heinrich addressed his probably best known love poem “You are like a flower”.

Integrative, Hierarchic, and Anarchic Oikos in Ancient Tamil Poetry: An Analysis of Ainkurunuru’s Translation by Martha Ann Selby

This paper explores the intricate depiction of oikos in the Sangam literary corpus, specifically through an analysis of the Ainkurunuru’s translation by Martha Ann Selby, namely, Tamil Love Poetry: One of the most influential collections of the Tamil literature is known as the Five Hundred Short Poems of the Ainkurunuru. Using tiNai poetics’ model by Nirmal Selvamony, the study digs into how the environment and society are depicted in the ancient Tamil poetry and it is manifested on integrative oikos which has “all-inclusive harmony”. This approach of harmony and unity of the universal Tamil culture, on the other hand, is the epitome of the close ecological bond transcended by the people, as they do not just merely live in the environment but also significantly contribute to the community’s cultural and daily lifestyle through the natural world. The paper further identifies and analyses two additional aspects of oikos depicted in the poetry: from the top-down decision making systems to the anarchist movements alike. The oikos of nature is highly hierarchical. It shows up in the social stratification and environmental stability, which mirrors the society’s respect to leaders with decision-making power. On the contrary, a sort of anarchy may show up in the oikos fragments that in turn encompass turmoil and subversion, the deviance away from ordinary principles in both nature and society, symbolizing the flow of life together with its upheavals that the man and nature relationship represents.

A Study of Donne's Poetry in Postcolonial Feminist Perspective: To His Mistress Going to Bed

To His Mistress Going to Bed is a love poem by John Donne, a British metaphysical poet. The poem describes the process in which the male protagonist seduces the female protagonist. Most critics focus on the mystical metaphor of Donne as a poet, but lack attention to the underlying significance of this poem. This article analyzes the female subject in poetry based on the theory of postcolonial feminism, revealing that the female subject in the poem is in a state of being banned by mainstream Western society, suppressed by patriarchal society, and colonized. It studies the issue of identity loss and identity construction of female subjects; This article also explores the social background and cultural colonization of the Elizabethan and James I eras in which the poet lived, and the subtle influence of colonial consciousness on the poet and his poetry. Ultimately, it is concluded that John Donne constructed a textual world of "others" through the poetic text in the process of creating this poem. This paper provides a new perspective for the study of postcolonial feminism and helps to drive people to engage in new reflections.

A Classification Essay on Islamic Poetry in New Turkish Literature

Objectives: The objectives of this study are to define Islamic poetry, explore its analytical methodology, and provide examples that illustrate its thematic concepts within modern Turkish poetry. Methods: To achieve these objectives, the study employs the document analysis method, which is a qualitative research approach. The analysis focuses on modern Turkish poetry, examining examples across eight distinct categories of Islamic poetry. Results: The analysis of Islamic poetry within modern Turkish literature reveals its diverse manifestations across various thematic categories. These include Islamist Poetry, Turkish-Islamic Poetry, Sufi Poetry, Islamic Mystical Poetry, Islamic Metaphysical Poetry, Islamic Cultural Poetry, Religious Poetry, and Islamic Romantic Love Poetry. Each category is exemplified with a poem, showcasing the rich tapestry of Islamic sensibility, motivation, and thematic concepts present in modern Turkish poetry. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study highlights the enduring influence of Islam on Turkish poetry, both historically and in contemporary times. Through the exploration of Islamic poetry across different thematic categories, the study illustrates the depth and breadth of Islamic sensibility within modern Turkish literature. The researchers' conclusions drawn from the analysis further contribute to our understanding of the role of Islamic poetry in shaping cultural and literary discourse in Turkey.

Zen Closets

This article explores John Cage's “62 Mesostics re Merce Cunningham,” a love poem dedicated to the poet's longtime partner. Though scholars of Cage's writing and music tend to ignore the queer context in which his work was created, this study attempts to reconcile the poet's art with his life. As a homosexual couple in the postwar period, Cage and Cunningham observed a closeted silence throughout their lives together, preferring to refer to one another as collaborators rather than romantic partners or lovers. While such strategies were not uncommon, the couple's use of Zen philosophy to imbue their silent relationship with an almost religious purpose distinguishes them from many others. Indeed, the poem embodies this situation well. Offering, at one moment, a glimpse into the couple's private life, at the next, the piece consistently subverts this gesture through various avant-garde techniques. In fact, in its unusual use of typography and its experimental performance history, Cage's mesostic reimagines the space and terms of traditional love poetry — much like his relationship with Cunningham reworked traditional gender roles. By bringing these aspects of Cage's life and work to light, this article aims to provide scholars with a fuller understanding of postwar queer poetics.

Four Contemporary Love Poems by Zhang Zhihao

Zhang Zhihao (张执浩), poet and novelist, was born in 1965 in Jingmen, Hubei. He graduated from the history department of the Central China Normal University in 1988. Author of nine poetry collections, several novels, and some influential essays, Zhang has won numerous poetry awards, including Poet of the Year (2014), the annual Chen Zi’ang Poetry Award (2016), and the Luxun Literary Prize for poetry (2017, Chinese equivalent to the Pulitzer). He is currently editor-in-chief of Chinese Poetry, a quarterly poetry magazine in Wuhan, China. The four poems translated here center on the theme of genuine love and the yearning for such love; they provide an opportunity to access the writings of a major poet in the contemporary Chinese poetic landscape.

Returning the King and the Women to the Beginning of the Song of Songs

Abstract The male lover portrayed in Song 1:2–4 was once ubiquitously considered to be a king. Recent interpreters, however, have understood the word “king” to be either a hypocorism (a nickname of affection) or an epithet for a “bridegroom.” Earlier interpretation also recognized a group of women in the opening scene, but this too is disappearing today. To address these exclusions, I present a close analysis of the grammar and offer an alternative perspective to what is identified as enallage (a substitution of one grammatical form for another) but which also inadvertently suppresses the women’s presence. Next, I investigate how the Song’s “king” became denuded of his royal meaning, including through a reliance on some dubious interpretations of Akkadian poetry. I also explore literary themes in the Hebrew Bible—women’s celebratory praise and a hitherto undiscovered case of subtle soundplay called “hidden paronomasia”—to show why the Song’s “king” should be understood as a royal personage. Finally, by comparing this scene in the Song to the Sumerian love poem Dumuzi-Inanna G, I show how the Song opens with a prominent ancient Near Eastern motif of love literature—the entrance or bringing of the royal consort into the palace, lauded by a group of rejoicing women.

A Typical Case of "Cross Time" Revision

Wang Jingzhi's The Winds of Cymbidium is the first true collection of love poems since the May 4th Movement, and it has had a tremendous impact on the new poetry scene. The poetry collection has changed in the 1922 version, the 1957 version, and the 1992 version. Among them, the texts from the 1922 version and the 1957 version have strong changes. Through reading the complicated variant texts in the original text and the auxiliary text of these two editions, this paper deeply analyzes the important influence of new literary contexts such as social ideology and literary policies and norms on the "cross-time" revision of poetry collections, and analyzes the poets' aesthetic mentality trajectories in different periods, the ways of coping with The Times, and their gains and losses.

“Una libidine di saggezza”: Amelia Rosselli’s Documento

This study of Amelia Rosselli’s third major collection follows the chronological order of the poems’ composition, clarifying the poet’s intentions to embark on a path that privileges internal objectivity and communication. Careful attention is paid to the derivation from Petrarch and medieval Italian love poetry. The love theme is tied to a spiritual problematic evident in the book’s extensive use of sacred and Christological imagery. This finds the subject in often ambiguous situations of tension and trial that nevertheless express her goal of freedom in defense of the dignity of the person. This religious-philosophical vein is likened to the current of personalism that emerged in France and Europe in the years of Rosselli’s formation.

Review of The Body in Arabic Love Poetry: The ʿUdhri Tradition


 
 
 The Body in Arabic Love Poetry: The ʿUdhri Tradition. By Jokha Alharthi. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021. Pp. xviii + 270. $29.95 (paper).
 
 

Love Poem for the Abandoned Child

Love Poem for the Abandoned Child

Just Another Epic Love Poem by Parisa Akhbari (review)

Just Another Epic Love Poem by Parisa Akhbari (review)

What is spiritual about sexuality?

Imaginative variations in hermeneutical approaches to Song of Songs show the interpreters’ struggle to understand the presence of this sexual text within the Holy Bible. Even the broad scholarly consensus, labelling the Song’s genre as “mere” love poetry signals the perception of an absence of theological meaning. The inability of interpreters to find theological meaning in an Israelite text about sexuality reflects a societal dualism where sexuality is viewed as secular and removed from the realm of spirituality.
 In this article, a frame of reference is constructed with typical wisdom characteristics and used as a lens with which to explore the meaning of Song of Songs. The frame of reference includes vocabulary, form, rhetoric, metaphors, anthropology, order, the threat of chaos, scepticism, critique, and knowledge of God.
 Using wisdom as a hermeneutical approach to reading Song of Songs uncovers a sexual theology that claims a Creator-conscious sexuality and a pleasure-affirming spirituality.

Gothic Mycology and Posthuman Ethics in Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"

ABSTRACT: In light of the recent popularity of fungi in ecohorror literature and film, this essay coins the term "Gothic mycology" to describe instances of human-fungal hybridity that suggest posthuman entanglement and symbiosis, using Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" as an early and exemplary illustration. Gothic mycology is frightening due to the very nature of fungi themselves: they resist categories, being more closely related to animals than plant life; they proliferate at seemingly unnatural rates; they grow in darkness; they are agents of decomposition; they are mysterious, chthonic, and Other. However, Gothic mycology is also inherently hopeful, offering a glimpse of how we might reimagine our entanglement with the nonhuman that goes beyond mere posthuman hybridity and embraces instead a novel becoming. Poe's tale undermines anthropocentric individualism and prioritizes human entanglement through the fungal colonization of both house and human. In doing so, Poe's tale transgresses the boundary of what defines the human and suggests the necessity, or, perhaps more accurately, the current reality of our hybrid, dependent, and symbiotic relationship with the more-than-human.