III. Critical Discourse on Modern Poetry
Chapter 1: The Emergence of a Poem

A modern poem, from initial conception, through structural organization, to revision and adjustment, generally undergoes these three procedures. For many beginners who have just entered the field, and writers with limited poetic experience, composing modern poetry seems to be a painstaking task that exhausts the mind. Drawing upon forty years of creative experience, the author has compiled this short essay to provide a reference for those who are interested in cultivating modern poetry.

Section 1: Conception and Ideation

1. Inspiration Is Not a Necessary Element

How does a modern poem take shape as a prototype in the mind? Some may propose the concept of “inspiration.” The author has never denied that, at the initial stage of ideation, inspiration—this sudden flash—can have an encouraging effect on the creator. In English, the word inspiration also carries the meaning of “encouragement.” My understanding of inspiration is that it is an idea with an enlightening quality; at times it plays the role of a magical key, opening the gate to a fantastical journey of imagination; at times it is a sudden spark that ignites the fuse of various associations. Although inspiration can indeed trigger the brain to engage in imaginative activity, it is not an infallible panacea. If you can make good use of various kinds of associations, you will find that the flexible application of these associations is more effective and reliable than inspiration.

2. Establishing the Theme

The primary function of a theme is to provide the author with a focus during subsequent associative processes. Centering on this focus, the author radiates outward, using various associations to find related images, and then carries out image selection and thematic focusing. The former eliminates peripheral images that are not closely related to the theme or that clearly do not add value, while the latter introduces the selected images into the paragraph structure and begins to form organic combinations of images.

During the ideation stage, the creator often has not yet decided on a theme. For example, on June 4, 1996, during the bloody suppression at Tiananmen Square, the author saw many scenes intertwined with blood and tears on the television screen and was deeply shocked. Thus he began to conceive and brew a poem to record this event. The poem’s title evolved from the earlier “Tiananmen” to, in the final section, the appearance of the line “please come and see the blood on the street,” which was ultimately chosen as the theme. However, coincidentally, the author later discovered that this line had appeared in the final section of a poem by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, “I Explain a Few Things.” This similarity was a remarkable experience. In other words, even if you have already established a theme, there is no need to rush—you can still change it in the subsequent writing stage.

According to the author’s creative experience, the conception of a poem often proceeds as follows:

(1) A novel or moving scene triggers the motivation to write a poem
In front of Taipei Main Station, a man missing one leg leaned against a low wall with a crutch. He held a guitar in his hand and had a harmonica at his mouth; he was a self-reliant street performer. At his feet was a wooden box containing his personal music CDs, and his young daughter sat quietly on a small stool, helping him collect money and hand the CDs to customers. This scene deeply moved me; I not only wrote a very short story about it but also an additional modern poem.

(2) A memorable sentence or a thought-provoking remark
“Some people you treat as friends, but they treat you as a stepping stone—once they step over you, they forget!” This prompted the author to reflect on many past events and friends, resulting in the modern poem “Some People.”

(3) Traveling to an unfamiliar town or countryside
The author’s understanding of travel is this: leaving the hometown you are familiar with and traveling to someone else’s familiar hometown.
Facing a scene of ice and snow: in front of Kakunodate Station in Akita Prefecture, huge piles of snow were stacked, and snowflakes were falling from the sky. Standing outdoors, one quickly turned into a snowman. Besides taking photographs, the author’s mind also stirred with faint ripples of poetic impulse. Although the intention to write a poem was later worn away by the fatigue of travel, this aesthetic experience has already been stored in my mind, waiting for the appropriate moment to be written into a poem.

3. Beginning Various Associations

This is the most central psychological activity in the stage of conception. You may, based on the theme or your current emotions, engage in simple associations—similarity, relation, contrast, causality, sensory associations—or directly challenge yourself with creative associations.

(1) Simple Associations

1. Association by Similarity
Definition: Based on certain similarities in nature or appearance between two things, the creator or speaker grasps their common points, using one to metaphorically represent the other, referring to this while implying that, and drawing analogies by extension. “Similarity association is based on the law of similarity, that is, associations formed according to similarities or resemblances in the nature, state, or content of things.”
Explanation: The perception or recollection of one thing gives rise to another that is close or similar in nature, which is called similarity association. For example, from chrysanthemums one thinks of Tao Yuanming, who resigned from office and returned to the southern mountains; from plum blossoms one thinks of Lin Bu’s “hidden fragrance and sparse shadows.” Similarity association reflects both the resemblance and commonality among things. General metaphors rely on similarity association, such as using “autumn wind and autumn rain” to metaphorically describe a revolutionary situation, or “pines and cypresses that wither late in the cold season” to describe strong will and noble integrity.

2. Association by Contiguity
Definition: Things that are close in space or time tend to form connections in experience, and thus one thing easily calls to mind another. “Contiguity association is based on the law of contiguity, that is, associations formed according to the proximity of things in time and space.”
Explanation: Because two things are close in time or space, the creator often links them together in experience, forming a stable conditioned reflex; upon sensing one, the other is recalled, often accompanied by a corresponding emotional response. For example, mentioning a mountain railway easily brings to mind Alishan; mentioning Qijiawan Creek brings to mind the cherry salmon, because the two are close in space. Mentioning the yellow plum brings to mind the plum rain season; mentioning blooming cherry blossoms brings to mind the chill of spring—these are cases of temporal proximity. Spatial proximity and temporal proximity are interconnected; things close in space are also close in time. When time is perceived as close, spatial distance is often also close.

3. Contrast Association
Definition: The perception or recollection of one thing gives rise to another with opposite characteristics; this is called contrast association. It is based on the contrastive relationship in nature or appearance between two things, emphasizing the understanding and feeling of their opposition. In other words, contrast association refers to the ability to associate one thing with its opposite, characterized by clearly opposing features.
Explanation: For example, from darkness one thinks of light; from winter, summer. Contrast association reflects both commonality and opposing individuality. Only with commonality can there be opposing individuality. For instance, darkness and light both pertain to “brightness” (a commonality), but the former has low brightness while the latter has high brightness. Summer and winter are both seasons, yet one is hot and the other cold. Contrast association enables people to perceive the opposites of things and plays an important role in understanding and analyzing them.

4. (Causal) Relational Association
Definition: When thinking of a certain thing, one associates its meaning and its relationships with other things, such as cause and effect, connotation and extension, whole and part, genus and species, and so on. Among these, causal association is particularly important. Causal association refers to associations based on causal relationships that exist objectively between things. This is a very common type of association.
Explanation: Associations formed due to various connections among things can be collectively called relational associations. For example, associations of part and whole or genus and species, such as thinking of a pen from stationery, or of stationery from a pen; causal associations, such as thinking of pines and cypresses that wither late from the cold season, or thinking of warmth from a bonfire. The connections among things are diverse, and relational associations that reflect these connections are likewise diverse.

5. Sensory Association
Definition: Refers to the responses produced by the five senses when receiving external stimuli. If sensations shift and different senses are used interchangeably, exchanging their domains of perception, a “crossing of sensations” occurs, which is called “synesthesia.”
Explanation: The various attributes of the same stimulus source can be received through different sensory organs (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch). Once these sensory images produce a “superimposition of sensations,” a “substitution effect” occurs—that is, an image originally perceived by one sense is replaced and expressed through another sensory image.

(2) Creative Imagination

Definition: “Without relying on others’ descriptions, but instead creatively synthesizing stored representations in memory and independently creating novel, unique, and extraordinary images as a mental activity, this is called creative imagination.” In creative imagination, the creator uses imagination to construct a clear image of something he wishes to realize, concentrates attention on that idea or image, and gives it affirmative energy until it eventually becomes objective reality.
Explanation: In rhetoric, “symbol” and “hyperbole” are typical forms of creative imagination. “Symbol” is a suggestive free association under the operation of the subconscious, while “hyperbole” is the partial deformation (expansion or reduction) of imagined objects as they pass through the subconscious mirror during free association. In addition, surreal fantasy, montage, and temporal–spatial dislocation also belong to creative imagination. For example:

1. Surreal Fantasy
“Afternoon of Water Hyacinths” / Luo Fu

Afternoon. In the pond water
Clusters of pregnant water hyacinths crowd together
This summer is very lonely
If we are to give birth, let us give birth to a pond full of frogs

Alas, the problem is
We are only falsely swollen

Pregnant water hyacinths actually giving birth to a pond of frogs—this absurd sequence of images is not a hyperbolic exaggeration of objects, but a surreal fantasy. Yet readers do not reject such bizarre ideas; instead, they find them novel and interesting.

2. Montage
“Female Ghost (II)” / Luo Fu

She
Was lifted by a rope into
An अत्यsad and beautiful
Liaozhai

Following the sound of a flute in search
At every window there might sit
That heartless scholar of hers
Who went to the capital to take the examination
The wind comes without a sound
She flashes and leaps into
That thread-bound book just closed

The image of a woman hanging herself is extremely tragic, yet the next image cuts to “an अत्यsad and beautiful Liaozhai,” diluting the reader’s sorrow while shifting the focus to the poignant Liaozhai story. “The wind comes without a sound / she flashes and leaps into / that thread-bound book just closed”—this action resembles a 3D special effect shot; it can no longer be explained by hyperbole, but rather by montage editing.

3. Temporal–Spatial Dislocation
“Seven Grades of Summer Heat in the Mountains: ‘The Sleepless Dog’” / Yu Guangzhong

Often, after the last bus
The vastness of heaven and earth leaves only
A mile or half a mile away
The barking of dogs from distant houses, three or two sounds
Only the lamp can understand
At this moment, the white-haired man under the lamp
Is also a sleepless dog
But guarding another kind of night
Barking at another kind of shadow
As long as one listens from farther away
—say, a hundred years away—
One can hear clearly
And distinctly

In this passage, the poet first uses “spatial reduction hyperbole”: “the vastness of heaven and earth leaves only / a mile or half a mile away / the barking of dogs from distant houses, three or two sounds,” compressing the vast space into “sound.” This is also “transformational hyperbole.” Although the barking from distant houses can serve as a measure of distance, heaven and earth cannot literally be condensed into “three or two sounds” of barking, indicating elements similar to synesthesia and transformation of properties. Later, the poet again uses “transformational hyperbole”: “as long as one listens from farther away / —say, a hundred years away— / one can hear clearly,” using time (a hundred years) as a unit to measure distance. Here, time as the modifying “transformed image” and distance as the “base image” are clearly not of the same nature, thus constituting transformational hyperbole.

Section 2: Structure and Organization
Draft Text

Write down the images initially organized in the mind according to a preliminary order. The draft is a copy of the organized images in the mind, presenting the author’s original train of thought and aesthetic experience. If this draft is already quite close to the author’s expectations, it may be accepted as the “final draft.” However, this ideal state of “completion in one go” is not common, which is why a second round of processing is necessary.

The draft mainly involves writing out the paragraphs of a poem. In the past, discussions of composition often cited the four-part structure of “introduction–development–turn–conclusion.” Here, the author introduces narrative theory and proposes a six-part structure:
opening → development → turning point → conflict → climax → ending (suspense). For details, please refer to the author’s article “Chapter 9: The Narrativity of Modern Poetry.”

“Ancient Temple” / Bei Dao

The vanished bell sound
Forms a spider web, within the cracked pillars
Spreading into rings of annual growth
Without memory, the stones
That echo through the misty valley
Stones, without memory
When the path detours around here
Dragons and strange birds have also flown away
Taking away the mute bells from the eaves
Wild grass, year after year
Grows, so indifferently
Unconcerned whether those they submit to
Are the cloth shoes of monks, or the wind
The stone stele is broken, the inscriptions worn away
As if only within a great fire
Can they be recognized, perhaps
They will follow the gaze of the living
A turtle revives in the soil
Bearing heavy secrets, crawling out of the threshold

This landscape poem, rich in historical reflection and cultural significance, is observed by the author from a third-person omniscient perspective. It moves from on-site observation to historical exploration and inquiry into religious culture, gradually combing out an understanding of the value of the ancient site’s existence. The poem is not divided into paragraphs; although the narrative seems to flow in one continuous sweep, it can still be sequentially divided, based on the transitions of (imagistic) scenes, into: opening → development → turning point → conflict → climax → ending.

1. Opening: bell sound → spider web → cracks in pillars → growth rings
   “The vanished bell sound / forms a spider web, within the cracked pillars / spreading into rings of annual growth.” The opening employs synesthesia, transforming sound into form, shifting sensory perception to visual imagery, and then deepening into growth rings through similarity association.
2. Development: stones → valley → echoes
3. Turning Point: path detours → dragons and strange birds fly away → take away mute bells → wild grass → monks’ cloth shoes, wind → broken stele
4. Conflict: inscriptions on the stele → a great fire
5. Climax: inscriptions emerge → the gaze of the living
6. Ending: turtle revives in the soil → carries secrets → crawls out of the threshold

From this narrative axis, several key points can be observed: (1) the author responds emotionally to the scene; (2) emotions flow with the scenery and deepen toward history and culture; (3) the deepened emotions encounter conflict (an imagined great fire); (4) an outlet of insight is found, leading to the conclusion: the value of the ancient temple lies in the fact that it once existed and witnessed a period of history, rather than in whether its physical form endures eternally.

Section 3: Revision and Adjustment
Processed Text

Most drafts are like brittle pig iron, exhibiting deficiencies such as disordered imagery, rough wording, grammatical errors, and weak rhetoric. They must undergo a second round of “processing and forging” by the author in order to approach the author’s expected standard. During the processing stage, the author often needs to carry out the following activities:

(1) Addition, Deletion, and Replacement of Imagery

1. Delete the superfluous: Eliminate those redundant branches and leaves that lack expressive power, have weak expressive power, or may produce negative effects, so that the structure of the text becomes clearer and does not lose focus or become dispersed due to a profusion and disorder of imagery, which would otherwise make the meaning difficult to interpret.
2. Supplement what is insufficient: If there are cases between paragraphs where expression is unclear, wording fails to convey meaning, or the logical thread of the chain of meaning is broken, it is necessary to appropriately adjust, replace, and supplement imagery, so that the structure of the text is clear and all necessary clues are provided in meaning, avoiding contradictions, errors, or breaks in the chain of meaning.

(2) Revision and Adjustment of Grammar

1. Identify linguistic flaws: Find sentences with grammatical faults and passages where there are contradictions or errors in the chain of meaning, and handle them through vocabulary substitution, grammatical correction, and sentence restructuring. Experienced authors can detect such flaws through recitation; places with linguistic faults often feel awkward when read aloud and simultaneously exhibit problems such as ambiguity, deficiency, contradiction, and error in meaning.
2. Adjust sentences and paragraphs: If the author feels that a sentence or paragraph in the text has a logical thread in its chain of meaning that needs or could be adjusted, it is advisable to rearrange the order of sentences and paragraphs so as to express the author’s thoughts and emotions more appropriately.

(3) Enhancement and Deepening of Rhetorical Techniques

In this third stage, a review of the rhetorical techniques of the draft is conducted, including the external formal design and the methods of expression within the lines of the poem. Those rhetorical devices of a lower level are elevated to a higher level; for example, replacing less profound “similes” with “abbreviated metaphors” or “implicit metaphors”; gathering scattered sentences of the same nature and presenting them in a parallel structure, or elevating a plain parallel structure into a layered, progressive structure.

The two procedures in (2) and (3) may be interchanged or carried out simultaneously, depending on the author’s actual needs. At this point, the text is already a “revised draft after correction” that possesses the prototype of a final version.

(4) Invite Readers to Provide Feedback

After correction, many authors are still not at ease or satisfied. At this time, one might as well “let the plain bride meet the in-laws first” and allow readers to read the text and provide immediate feedback. Among this feedback, there will always be some useful opinions. The author should select the opinions that can be adopted and proceed with a final round of revision and processing.

The readers here may be friends and relatives nearby, literary peers online, or even editors of newspapers and magazines. The author must have the magnanimity to accept these readers’ opinions or judgments (including rejection), in order to find beneficial suggestions from flawed works and, based on these, improve creative techniques and enhance creative ability. If the text has the opportunity to receive feedback from readers with rich experience in reading modern poetry, or commentary from critics with theoretical grounding, the author’s gains will be even more substantial.

After undergoing the above procedures, a poem is generally completed. Next, it awaits submission or posting, allowing more readers to read it and appreciate this finalized text together with you. Of course, the feedback given by readers can be used as a reference, and you may once again revise and adjust the text—this has always been the author’s prerogative.