Reflection

The Misty poets include people such as Shu Ting, Bei Dao and Gu Cheng. Shu Ting has written "In Missing You", "Motherland My Dear Motherland", "Assembly Line", and the "Love Earth Poem". Bei Dao wrote "June", "Post", and "Spending The Night". Cheng did "Sleeping Soundly In Daytime", and "Summer Outside The Pane".

With Shu Ting there are solid objects that explore the feelings of people. "In Missing You" Ting talks about a colored chart with no boundary to talk about something important missing. Every object in the first stanza has an object that you can both feel and see. But like the chart, there is something crucial missing. This left out part attempts to describe the a feeling that people can experience and yet not be able to describe exactly. While in "Motherland, My Dear Motherland" she talks about items which are found in or are vital to the particular place she views as her home. This is apparent in the old battered mill which has been used for a long time to provide for her country. "Love Poem Earth" tells the reader right away what it want to tell the reader with the words "I love earth" in the first line of two stanzas. A simile is used to compare the earth to her father and then to her mother in the second. Latter it has an extended metaphor that attributes what the earth and what it gets compared to both made possible. "Assembly Line" adds some gloom to the earth that she loves. "Little trees" could stand for people and they are numb standing in one place and doing the same thing over and over. Then the trees are choking on smog and other pollution from the factories that China is famous for. (Ting)

The same can be said for Bei Dao who talks about apparently simple items and occurrences that have another meaning. In "June" he talks about the wind telling him it is June. To most people this month may have no real meaning other than that summer is here. Yet Dao talks about a blacklist and this hints at his exile from China and the killings at the square in China over a supposedly peaceful demonstration. Yet the talk about flowers for the dead makes it clear exactly what happened. While in "Post" he talks about an "elk heading for a pit-trap". This vivid imagery makes it apparent that the animal is heading towards death or danger. Yet on the next line it has the word power with a comma and then the word struggle after another comma. This almost parallel structure leads to a comparison. With power there can be struggle and though he is old the drum beats so he still has to fight. "Spending The Night" starts out with everything going great with objects working perfectly. The river has provided a fish and alcohol has made the narrator sleepy. Yet a look at the "registration form" of the hotel and the piano goes "out of tune". Simple events show that things were going well but then everything went out of control. (Dao)

Meanwhile Gu Cheng in "The Return" does not capitalize any of the first letters of the of all the lines in the stanzas except one. "Dear" is the only one capitalized and it appears that this person is important. The use of a period is ignored though there are a few commas to separate meaning. The word don't is used four times in the first stanza and they give the impression of advice when considering what comes after them. A natural phenomenon of waves flowing up the shore and back tell that something came and retreated. The poem "Sleeping Soundly In Daytime" by Cheng begins with known concepts such as night and day. Yet it has people sleeping better in the day than at night. This might be the case in today's society where there are jobs with shifts and some people sleep during the day. Unlike in "The Return" this poems has no periods or commas. Almost like in sleep everything can come together and be connected. "Summer Outside The Pane" starts with crying and ends with crying creating parallel construction. The line "it all is so distant" gets repeated at different parts of the poem. Rain on glass that the narrator does not wipe away sets the tone with the rain drops first in one stanza and then in another. All the things of summer such as cicadas and swimsuits all come out and yet like the crying in the background that ends with waiting it all is distant. (Cheng)

The poems show that small things can take on other meanings with placement. Depending on what they are compared to the meaning of an object becomes clear. With one month having a significant meaning of both pain and sorrow that can be transmitted to the reader. While the use of capitals and punctuation or there being none can be interpreted in different ways. Solid images or structure in a poem provides the reader with information and a puzzle which the Misty poets used to their advantage.