Section Two: Imagery and Musicality in Modern Poetry

1. Imagery in Modern Poetry

(1) Seeking image through meaning; expressing meaning through image

Imagery in modern poetry refers to the concrete images and abstract emotions conveyed by symbolic vocabulary chosen and arranged through the poet’s ingenuity. In short, it expresses abstract feeling through concrete objects.

From the poet’s perspective, one begins with meaning, seeks images accordingly, and uses images to express meaning. From the reader’s perspective, one starts with the image and interprets the meaning. Since modern poetry is free from formal and linguistic constraints, its imagery can encompass the entire span of time—past and present—as long as it is written through a modern lens. If it employs ancient language and classical metrics, it becomes imitation rather than innovation and cannot be considered modern poetry. However, if one uses modern vocabulary within classical metrical forms—such as including words like “loser,” “shut-in,” “dried fish girl,” or “space shuttle” in a regulated verse—it may still be classified as “metrical modern poetry.”

(2) Formal design and methods of expressing meaning through imagery

Looking at how language is recorded, Chinese characters lean toward ideographic methods, while alphabetic languages favor phonetic transcription. In the “Six Methods” of Chinese character formation: pictographs, indicative characters, and associative compounds are ideographic; phonetic loan characters are phonetic; and phono-semantic compounds combine both.

Rhetoric is the study of how to adjust expressive methods in language and design aesthetically pleasing forms of expression. It aims to convey the poet’s imagery with precision and vividness, resonating with readers. Tropes such as metaphor, irony, and hyperbole emphasize narrative or explanatory functions, whereas techniques like parallelism, repetition, and gradation emphasize expressive form.

When representing emotions or moods through imagery, we must consider both form and content. The poet employs external formal patterns to build an atmospheric context for the imagery (what we might call “formal method” or “form design”), while the emotional or thematic content relies on rhetorical techniques to express its essence (the “expressive method”).

(3) Types of imagery

1. Author’s Classification
   Imagery in modern poetry can be categorized into two major types: concrete (real) imagery and abstract (conceptual) imagery.

• Concrete (Real) Imagery:
  Tangible and perceptible through the senses.

  • General imagery: Collective or plural entities like “Taipei City,” “Alishan,” “women,” “war,” “aesthetics,” “forest,” “stars,” “seeds.”

  • Specific imagery: Distinct, identifiable objects such as “Taipei MRT,” “Alishan Forest Railway,” “ring,” “giraffe,” “azalea,” “moon,” “Venus,” “peanut,” “shadow,” “Mt. Dabajian.”

• Abstract (Conceptual) Imagery:
  Intangible but sensorially or emotionally perceived.

  • Action imagery: Usually verbs, e.g., “shoot,” “beat,” “run wild,” “flood,” “spy.”

  • Emotional imagery: Often adverbs or adjectives conveying emotion.

    • Adverb + verb: “work diligently,” “sneer disdainfully.”

    • Verb + reaction: “stunned (by what one sees),” “dizzy (from thoughts).”

    • Adjective + noun: “melancholy Juliet,” “adorable Little Red Riding Hood.”

  • Descriptive imagery: Typically sensory adjectives, such as “seductive woman,” “fragrant flower,” “eerie house.”

    • Some use adverbs or emotional adverbs: “heroically sacrifice,” “bravely charge,” “wild (thoughts),” “passionately argue,” “turn away sadly,” “leave gracefully.”

1. Simple, Composite, and Symbolic Imagery: Fu, Bi, Xing
   (Adapted from poet Bai Ling’s "The Birth of a Poem", p. 95)
   
   
   

   2. Simple, Composite, and Symbolic Imagery: Fu, Bi, and Xing

   (Excerpted from poet Bai Lings “The Birth of a Poem”, p. 95)

   Simple Imagery (Fu)

   Direct Transmission of Imagery

   • Direct representation of A (original image)

   • Arouses sensory perception and evokes mental images, without referring to another entity

   • Draws extensively from facts and develops in a set direction

   • Uses rhetorical techniques of magnification and minimization:

     • Magnification: indirection, accumulation, parallelism, gradation, intertwining, contrast

     • Minimization: change of word class, inversion

   Composite Imagery (Bi)

   Indirect Transmission of Imagery

   • A is indirectly expressed through B (derivative image)

   • Involves a juxtaposition or comparison between A and B:

     • Simile (explicit, implicit, elliptical metaphors)

     • Metaphor substitution

     • Synesthesia (sensory transference)

   • Frequently employs metaphor, highlighting the similarity or equivalence between A and B

   Symbolic Imagery (Xing)

   Sequential (Evocative) Transmission of Imagery

   • A is completely replaced by B, with B directly presented as if it were A (derivative image treated as original)

   • Uses concrete “images” to represent higher-level spiritual experiences or philosophical ideas

   • Selects tangible things (e.g., cross, eagle, lotus, torch…) to universally express human or personal spiritual ideals

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   II. Musicality in Modern Poetry

   (1) The Three Elements of Musicality: Melody, Rhythm, Harmony

   • Rhyme (phonetic harmony):
     Periodic repetition of vowel endings or syllables at line endings.

   • Tone/Melodic Line (intonation):
     Rise and fall of syllables and length of notes—akin to harmony in music.

   • Rhythm:
     The pace, strength, stress, and flow of syllables (or "tones") in succession.

   In music, percussion instruments like drums, cymbals, and xylophones, as well as plucked and bowed instruments like bass guitars and cellos, form the rhythmic structure. Brass and woodwinds, along with string instruments, perform and accompany the melody. The combination of rhythm and melody produces a complete musical structure—harmony.

   Children’s poetry scholar Professor Chen Cheng-chih stated:

   “The three essential elements of music are: melody, rhythm, and harmony. Melody refers to a sequence of musical sounds with varying pitch, duration, and intensity. Rhythm refers to the tempo and dynamics of sound. Harmony refers to several musical notes progressing vertically and simultaneously.”¹

   (2) Designing Musicality in Poetry

   To design the musicality of modern poetry, we can consider three aspects:

   1. Rhyme, homophony, and tonal modulation within stanzas

   2. The interplay of long and short lines

   3. Rhythm and formal design

   These topics will be further discussed in the dedicated chapter on musicality.

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   Section Three: Structure and Aesthetic of Modern Poetry

   1. The Structure of Modern Poetry

   The structure of modern poetry differs from that of prose and fiction. Though modern poems can be divided into stanzas, they do not follow the hierarchical and narrative structure typical of prose (e.g., introduction → development → turning point → conflict → climax → resolution). Instead, the structure is relatively free and stylistically diverse. A modern poem may be a momentary flash of inspiration, a grand epic, a paragraph-less prose poem, or a fable poem with a narrative structure.

   These various forms will be explained in more detail in the chapter on poetic structure.

   2. The Aesthetic of Modern Poetry

   Through the use of imagery and musicality, modern poetry primarily aims to express emotions and convey the poet’s aesthetic experience; narrative or argumentation is secondary or even optional. Imagery often appears in a series of continuous concrete scenes, one unfolding after another, while musicality functions like a film’s accompanying soundtrack.

   During the poetic performance, the poem generates multiple aesthetic experiences, including:

   • Imagery aesthetics: evoked through rhetorical devices such as metaphor, symbolism, surrealism, and gradation.

   • Musical aesthetics: achieved through harmonious rhyme, repetition, parallelism, and phonetic wordplay.

   Together, these two aspects—the beauty of imagery and the beauty of sound—form the aesthetic experience the poet wishes to convey, whether by reconfiguring past experiences or inventing entirely new expressions.

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   Note:
   ¹ Chen Cheng-chih, Research on Childrens Poetry Writing, Chapter 4 “The Language of Childrens Poetry,” Section 3 “The Language of Music.”