Chapter 15: A Discussion of Striking Lines and Memorable Quotations in Poetry
I. Why Should a Poem Contain Striking Lines or Memorable Quotations?
Whether in traditional Chinese poetry or modern poetry, any poem that has endured through time and become widely cherished almost invariably contains striking lines that "resound with force," or even memorable quotations that linger in the heart. Such striking lines and memorable quotations possess not only the magical ability to "turn stone into gold" or "transform the ordinary into the extraordinary" within a poem, but, more importantly, they often become permanently engraved in the reader's memory. Even if readers no longer remember the overall structure of the poem, they will at least remember these brilliant, shining lines.
Readers may ask, "What happens if a poem contains no such luminous lines?" Drawing upon both theoretical knowledge and creative experience, I can answer honestly: "Such a work is, at best, merely prose arranged in lines; it does not even qualify as prose poetry." Almost every poem praised by readers as an outstanding work must be supported by at least one or two striking lines or memorable quotations. For poets, arranging striking lines or memorable quotations throughout a poem is not merely a creative strategy—it has virtually become a basic necessity. The more striking lines and memorable quotations a poem contains, the higher its artistic quality and readability.
How should one distinguish between a striking line and a memorable quotation?
According to my experience in both reading and writing poetry, a striking line refers to "a line possessing aesthetic value, whose meaning is elegant, enduring, and worthy of contemplation." A memorable quotation, on the other hand, refers to "a luminous line whose meaning is incisive and thought-provoking." A memorable quotation is therefore a striking line of an even higher order—one richer in implication and deeper in meaning. In other words, it is the refined essence of a striking line.
The following examples are merely striking lines:
From Zheng Chou-yu's Letter Beyond the Mountains:
I am a man who came from the sea.
The mountains are waves turned solid.
(I no longer believe the messages of the sea.)
My longing to return home
No longer surges.
"The mountains are waves turned solid" is the striking line of this stanza. Its brilliance comes from a visual metaphor, which links mountains and solidified waves through associative resemblance, thereby creating aesthetic beauty.
Another example is Guan Guan's "Cicadas":
He took out
The cicada songs he had recorded
On the mountain opposite this year
And let the children
Warm themselves by the fire.
This short poem possesses remarkable brilliance. Its meaning is deeply evocative, and its aesthetic beauty arises from two aspects.
First, through synesthesia, the auditory experience of cicada songs is transformed into the visual and tactile experience of warming oneself by a fire.
Second, through energy transformation, sound waves are converted into heat energy. This has already entered the realm of fantastical montage, creating a surreal artistic effect.
Another example is Lo Fu's "Jinlong Chan Temple":
The evening bell
Is the mountain path down which visitors descend.
Ferns
Along the white stone steps
Have chewed their way downward.
If snow should fall here...
Then only
A startled gray cicada
Would light
One by one
The lamps in the mountains.
In this celebrated poem by Lo Fu, there are at least three striking lines. Can you identify them? Allow me to explain them one by one.
(1)
The evening bell
Is the mountain path down which visitors descend.
These two lines were originally one sentence, deliberately divided into separate lines in order to emphasize "the evening bell." The brilliance of the sentence comes from synesthesia, transforming the auditory image of the lingering evening bell into the visual image of the descending mountain path.
If one does not understand the rhetorical device of synesthesia, one may be misled by the word "is" and mistakenly regard the sentence as nothing more than an ordinary implicit metaphor.
(2)
Ferns
Along the white stone steps
Have chewed their way downward.
These three lines first employ personification through object-to-object transformation, turning ferns into sheep, which then naturally leads to the continuing action of "chewing their way downward."
If the verb "chewed" were replaced with "spread," the lines would become nothing more than an ordinary visual description. The delightful image of sheep grazing would disappear along with the figurative transformation. This demonstrates how the striking expression "the ferns... have chewed their way downward" refreshes the reader's imagination and invigorates the entire passage.
(3)
A startled gray cicada
Lights
One by one
The lamps in the mountains.
A gray cicada, startled into flight, somehow lights every lamp in the mountains. The image is highly fantastical, representing Lo Fu's distinctive surreal and magical style.
Because of its magical nature, the image immediately captures the reader's attention. Sentences of this kind often leave readers feeling refreshed, astonished, or even speechless. Naturally, they are also striking lines.
The following examples, however, I classify as memorable quotations—they not only shine brilliantly but also provoke profound reflection.
Consider the concluding stanza of Lo Fu's "Entering the Mountains with the Sound of Rain, Yet Seeing No Rain":
Descending the mountain,
I still saw no rain.
Three bitter pine nuts
Rolled along the signpost until they reached my feet.
I bent down to pick them up—
They turned out to be a handful of birdsong.
"Three bitter pine nuts / Rolled along the signpost until they reached my feet / I bent down to pick them up / They turned out to be a handful of birdsong."
When picked up, the three bitter pine nuts unexpectedly become a handful of birdsong. This is not merely synesthesia, shifting from vision to hearing. Rather, it resembles a magician's illusion. Although it defies ordinary logic, it possesses an entirely fresh originality and delightful charm.
"I bent down to pick them up—they turned out to be a handful of birdsong." This is precisely the kind of memorable quotation that transforms stone into gold.
Another example comes from Zheng Chou-yu's "The Mistress":
In a little town built of blue stone lives my mistress.
I leave her nothing,
Except a bed of coreopsis flowers and a tall window.
Perhaps a little of the vast sky's loneliness
May drift in.
Or perhaps... for the coreopsis knows how to wait.
I think loneliness and waiting are good for a woman.
Therefore, whenever I go, I always wear a blue shirt.
I want her to feel
That it is the season, or
The arrival of migratory birds.
Because I am not the sort of man
Who comes home often.
This poem possesses the carefree spirit of a bohemian wanderer.
"I think loneliness and waiting are good for a woman." Spoken in the voice of a male chauvinist, this line would probably leave many female readers grinding their teeth in frustration.
The closing line—
"Because I am not the sort of man who comes home often."
—is the brightest line in the entire poem. It portrays, with extraordinary vividness, the image of a carefree and emotionally irresponsible wanderer, delivering a powerful emotional impact upon female readers.
In my opinion, this rather shameless confession by the wandering protagonist deserves to be called a true memorable quotation.
The mainland Chinese poet Yu Xiuhua is a poet who writes with blood and tears—a woman of genuine emotion. Her poems consistently reveal the warmth and coldness of the human heart, moving me profoundly whenever I read them.
〈If a Flower Were to Bloom〉
Although in the village, on a morning with no carts or horses passing
I still do not know what to do with it
Because I understand so well that process, the resolute act of lifting fire out of water
and the despair of opening all the way to the very end
We are all people who have been opened
swallowed by life and then spat back out, and also once captured by fate
It is always somewhat frail, seen by being peered at, and hidden by being concealed
those emotions choose the right moment, the right petals
At this moment, am I to chase after a train
or a rainstorm. We have deep faith in this world
I always cannot help persuading myself
just let a flower walk into the light, then retreat back into darkness
Reincarnating to here
we look at each other, each giving rise to a compassionate heart
“I think that ‘we are all people who have been opened / swallowed by life and then spat back out, and also once captured by fate’ is an examination of one’s past life experience; it reads with both bitterness and helplessness, and carries brightness in its meaning. ‘I always cannot help persuading myself / just let a flower walk into the light, then retreat back into darkness’—these two lines use a contrast of light and darkness, and their semantic brightness is quite high. The final line, ‘reincarnating to here / we look at each other, each giving rise to a compassionate heart,’ is an even more deeply reflective ‘golden line.’”
II. How do readers identify bright lines and golden lines in poetry?
When readers read poetic texts, how exactly do they discover and identify certain lines as having brightness? Most readers will say: “It is simply that when reading those lines, there is a feeling different from prose sentences.” When asked further, “What exactly is different about that feeling?” readers are often unable to answer concretely, because most of them have not received training in rhetoric. In other words, due to limited training, their reading comprehension is relatively weak and vague compared to poets and poetry critics; it is a knowing-the-effect-without-knowing-the-cause kind of understanding.
Poets and poetry critics—the former must be familiar with various expressive techniques, while the latter possess a broad academic literacy in rhetoric, syntax, and related theories of creative criticism. When these two types of readers read poetic texts, they can easily identify and confirm which lines possess brightness—that is, aesthetic texture and semantic “worth pondering.”
Therefore, if you want to be a smart reader who can read the true essence of poetry, you must possess certain interpretive abilities, such as distinguishing common rhetorical devices, understanding which expressive techniques the author uses, and grasping the aesthetic depth and meaning within the poem.
III. How are bright lines or golden lines created?
“Prosaicness” is an issue every poet must face when confronted with readers’ doubts. The solution to “prosaicness” is nothing more than appropriately using expressive techniques (formal design and semantic techniques) within poetic lines that enhance the texture of the poem, thereby creating one or more bright lines or golden lines to achieve an aesthetic bonus effect. If a poet is not familiar with or cannot apply these techniques, and only remains at the level of ordinary sensory description and metaphor, then the text produced will lack poetic texture and degenerate into narrative prose under plain description. Even if it is forced into line breaks and superficially appears as modern poetry, it will not be accepted by readers or recognized by poetry critics.
Almost without exception, any widely acclaimed modern poem must contain at least one or two lines with aesthetic value—that is, lines with higher brightness that evoke feeling upon reading. It is difficult to imagine a poem in which all lines are dull and even boring, yet still leaves a deep impression and is recognized as a masterpiece. Most readers, after first reading a modern poem, are able to recall in their minds those shining golden lines or thought-provoking bright lines.
From the perspective of expressive techniques, bright poetic lines invariably involve some use of rhetorical devices: primarily semantic techniques, secondarily formal design. Semantic techniques include elementary ones such as description, personification, and metaphor; intermediate ones such as lexical shift, enargeia (vivid presentation), punning, metonymy, irony, contrast, apposition chaining, counterpoint, intertextuality, rhetorical questioning, euphemism, and virtual-real complementarity; and advanced ones such as synesthesia, exaggeration, symbolism, and surrealism. From the semantic level, these bright lines are never simple, straight literal descriptions or shallow similes.
The aesthetic imagery and moving semantic force of bright lines and golden lines come precisely from these expressive techniques. The author, following the three levels of techniques mentioned above, provides examples and analyzes the brightness and “gold content” of these lines.
(I) Elementary expressive techniques: use of description, metaphor, or personification
- 〈〉Metaphor:
Mystery like night / Mystery is a demon / Mystery a black bat / entangling the black hole in our hearts
Song of Mystery – Yin Di
The poet consecutively uses three metaphors, each in a different form. “Mystery like night” is a simile, “Mystery is a demon” is a metaphor, “Mystery a black bat” is an elliptical metaphor; “entangling the black hole in our hearts” is the explanatory extension of the metaphor. The poet is proficient in different forms of metaphor, from the straightforward simile to the more obscure elliptical metaphor, gradually elevating the levels of imagery. In terms of semantic progression from shallow to deep, this passage also forms a kind of “climactic layering.” Because the metaphors are used in an orderly layered structure, the poem presents a sense of stratified texture.
- 〈〉Description:
(1) Visual: If beyond the two banks of the river there were a third bank / my outstretched arm would be
Water Jasmine of Yesterday – Luo Fu
“If beyond the two banks of the river there were a third bank / my outstretched arm would be,” although it is imaginative writing, the image of “my arm becoming the third bank” is quite interesting.
(2) Taste:
Only wine distilled by artillery fire / is especially sober / every drop makes your tongue / lick a bayonet / once swallowed, it becomes a shocking flame / burning into the stomach pouch of history / whose neck and ears / do not all rise up / the glory / and sorrow of Kinmen
〈Kinmen Kaoliang〉 – Bai Ling
Kinmen kaoliang is a strong, fiery liquor. “Every drop makes your tongue / lick a bayonet,” and “once swallowed, it becomes a shocking flame” are highly visualized taste descriptions. The tongue licking a bayonet describes the sharp spiciness of the liquor, while the throat burning like fire describes its intensity.
Personification:
- 〈〉Words / are burned until screaming / ashes remain silent / it believes / that someday / that person will read it in the wind
Funeral of Poetry – Luo Fu
“Words / are burned until screaming” through personification gives the words on a love letter a scream when burned, creating a montage-like strange image, contrasting with the following line “ashes remain silent,” forming a dynamic-versus-static contrast.
A long-unused object / this armchair / still eagerly awaits / the former integrity and prestige – Ming Xiang, 〈Armchair〉
The “armchair” is endowed with human qualities and begins to recall its former glory. This is personification of an inanimate object, which transforms an originally cold and emotionless antique into something warm and human. Nostalgia for past glory is a common human weakness; when the armchair is “humanized,” it also acquires human nature and human weakness: nostalgia and immersion in the past.
(II) Intermediate expressive techniques: use of lexical shift, enargeia, irony, contrast, pun, intertextuality, and virtual-real complementarity
- 〈〉Lexical shift:
Gently descend the dragon spine of darkness / using touch-based perception / one can also walk through this medieval procession / Xiao Ye and Cong Cong / part the heavy night on your eyelashes / and discover myth is punctual / the starry sky, very “Greek”
Returning to Dadu Mountain – Yu Guangzhong
“the starry sky, very ‘Greek’” is a famous early line of Yu Guangzhong. “Greek” originally is a noun but here is converted into an adjective, meaning “romantic” and “classical.” If rewritten as “the starry sky is very romantic and classical,” it becomes dull.
- Enargeia (visionary presentation)
(1) Prophetic vision
The territory of autumn / the border lies under the same sunset / at the junction stand silent yellow chrysanthemums / and he arrives from afar, drinking in sobriety / outside the window is a foreign land / how one wishes to step out, one step becomes homesickness / that beautiful homesickness, within reach / or to become intoxicated is fine (he is a conscientious taxpayer) / or to release a song / then it would no longer merely stand like a chrysanthemum / only standing by the border
〈Border Hotel〉 – Zheng Chouyu
From “how one wishes to step out” onward, it becomes a prophetic enargeia, imagining the future: drinking, singing, dissolving hesitation and homesickness.
(2) Hallucination / conjecture
Tonight, if you lie on your side, your ears / will think they hear me / in another better or worse city / boiling tea, taking letters, walking steps / the sound of opening and closing doors. / When you sleep deeper, I have already walked onto / streets blown by cold wind like death / merging into countless disordered breaths / thousands of unfamiliar languages surge between us / you wake uneasily.
〈Tonight You Lie on Your Side〉 – Hong Hong
This passage fully employs spatially separated “hallucinatory enargeia,” describing people and events in different spaces through imagined projection. From “Tonight, if you lie on your side,” what follows is largely imagination. Only at “When you sleep deeper…” does it return to the present space of the author. This “hallucinatory enargeia” is a spatial shift, not involving temporal change.
- Metonymy
With brows raised in cold gaze toward the world—
for the sake of a single word “love,”
he is prepared to exhaust an entire lifetime of brush and ink—
to search for an accidental instant
〈Netting Illusion〉 – Zhang Cuo
“Brush and ink” here is a metonymy for the poet’s “poetry and writing,” a case of “using the tool to stand for the thing.” Qing dynasty poetry theorist Zhang Chao (Xinzhai), in Dream Shadows, once said: “The word ‘emotion’ is what sustains the world; the word ‘talent’ is what adorns heaven and earth.” Since ancient times, countless poets have used brush and ink to chant and depict human “love affairs.” The poet Zhang Cuo boldly states that he himself is also a “lover by nature.”
- Irony
My brows are furrowed for antiquity—
a serious kind of furrowing…
who told you to tear the lotus-colored garment, exposing nakedness
and distribute it among both beloved and un-beloved men
men in tight flannel trousers
men who play tennis, men who kiss and forget
men who are faithless. But Maria, you do not know
that I truly worry about to whom I should give my soul
〈Mad Woman〉 – Ya Xian
My impression of this poem is “laughter mixed with tears,” an emotionally complex state. The poet deliberately assumes the first-person voice of a “mad woman.” A mad woman, by nature, fluctuates between clarity and confusion; thus the tone sometimes must deliberately become “irrational,” and at other times “utterly serious.” The irrational speech is naturally humorous, but even when she says seriously: “My brows are furrowed for antiquity / a serious kind of furrowing,” or “I truly worry about to whom I should give my soul,” no reader would take her seriousness at face value.
The overall atmosphere of the poem is humorous, unfolding through the mad woman’s fragmented monologue. Yet behind the narrative, the poet’s intention is humane and compassionate. The poet understands that society has never treated “mad women” or “abandoned women” fairly or humanely. The poem asks readers to reflect “within laughter,” and to consider how we should help these humble and vulnerable people in society.
- Pun
(1) Dual-layer (semantic) pun
You are a copper coin
turning and shining between fingers
therefore you gradually
lose your face
〈The Politician〉 – Jian Zhengzhen
The term “pun” does not necessarily carry irony; it must be interpreted through contextual relations. In this short poem, through the title “Politician,” the metaphor of the “coin,” and the interpretive line “you gradually / lose your face,” readers can infer that the “coin” carries multiple meanings: such as “political ideals becoming blurred, no longer adhering to principles,” or “using any means necessary to achieve goals, becoming increasingly shameless.” Beneath this, there is also implicit criticism and mockery of politicians who “lose all face.”
(2) Title pun
Every time it blooms
it is covered beneath shrub leaves
unable to see sunlight
not belonging to the shrubs’ kind
its branches cannot grow anything beyond melancholy
cannot receive rain or dew
someone suggests
it might as well change its name and identity
and blend into the grass
so fireflies can add to its glory
wouldn’t that be killing two birds with one stone?
someone—someone is such a pitiful creature
then says: in sorrowful nights
a person always has a destiny star
shining in the sky
but a flower born in the shade
how could it have a destiny star?
〈Hidden Flora〉 – Chen Qianwu
The theme “hidden flora” carries two propositions: one is the biological attribute—plants that do not bloom; the other is the oppressed and humble people who never see the light of day. These two propositions share both “physical commonality” and “fate commonality,” naturally leading readers to infer the poet’s implicit intention. In this poem, “hidden flora” is not inherently non-flowering; rather, it gradually degenerates into a “non-blooming” state after long-term suppression and covering. From the first lines—“Every time it blooms / it is covered beneath shrub leaves / unable to see sunlight”—one can deduce this meaning.
- Contrast
The city
a new boundary appears
on one side, unarmed crowds
on the other, tear gas guns and gas grenades
from Minsheng Road to Minquan Road to Minzu Road
deadlock in the humid night
〈Martial Law Landscape〉 – Li Minyong
This passage presents a contrast between civilians and police forces: “unarmed” versus “tear gas guns and gas grenades.” In the late martial law era (around after 1980), street movements gradually emerged. This poem records that historical period of protest.
Today, Taiwan’s democratic politics has matured, and street demonstrations have become commonplace. The ruling parties no longer casually deploy military forces to suppress protesters, and police no longer act as instruments of violent repression, but rather maintain public order or prevent clashes between opposing groups.
- Virtual–Real Complementarity
Youth is a hastily written book
we read it again and again with tears
〈Youth〉 – Xi Murong
“Youth” is an abstract, intangible concept. By linking it through metaphor with the concrete object “book,” a semantic structure of “virtual–real complementarity” is formed, making the lines rich and thought-provoking.
(3) Advanced expressive techniques: synesthesia, exaggeration, symbolism, and surrealism
- Synesthesia
(1) Visual transfer
I cannot remember how you became thin
so thin, like a line of flute sound
I try to hold you with both hands
yet you slip and hide between seven orifices
〈Echo〉 – Luo Fu
“so thin, like a line of flute sound” transforms a visual image through metaphor into something auditory. This act of “shaping form into sound” is a synesthetic technique.
(2) Auditory transfer
A man chewing gum
turns the accordion
into such a long, deserted alley
〈Saigon Night Market〉 – Luo Fu
The accordion player walks along an empty alley, producing lingering sounds. In the poet’s perception, the sound is imagined as if the accordion itself were stretching into a long alley—turning sound into a concrete spatial image. This transformation of sound into form is a distinctive feature in Luo Fu’s poetry.
(3) Olfactory and gustatory transfer
At this moment, the fragrance of hair winds over
like a clear stream flowing across the lips
suddenly turning back, one sees
in your eyes blooming
a pool of such moving water lilies
〈By the Waterside〉 – Luo Fu
“The fragrance of hair winds over / like a clear stream flowing across the lips” is an encounter between smell and taste in imagination. The olfactory sense shifts toward gustatory sensation and blends with it.
(4) Tactile transfer
A forty-year-old woman’s pair of breasts
soft as
a spring meadow
〈Softness and Hardness〉 – Yin Di
At first reading, this may seem like a simple visual simile. In fact, it is synesthesia: the tactile softness of the breasts is transformed into a visual image of a meadow. Yet “spring meadow” is multi-sensory: its greenness is visual, its fragrance olfactory, and its softness tactile. Thus, in interpreting this “touch-to-vision” synesthesia, one must not limit interpretation to the visual aspect alone.
- Synesthetic multi-sensory interaction
On days when sharing an umbrella
our laughter was never once soaked through
along the railway tracks of Qingtongkeng
we walked toward the mining district
peeling oranges as we went
while calculating
the speed from cold rain turning into sneezes – Luo Fu, 〈Sharing an Umbrella〉
This short poem is also an example of “synesthesia: sensory cross-perception.” “Our laughter was never once soaked through” combines an auditory image (laughter) with a tactile image (wetness), corresponding to the previous line “sharing an umbrella.” “The speed from cold rain turning into sneezes” reverses the process by combining a tactile image (cold rain) with an auditory image (sneezing sound), forming something like a reversible reaction in physics. This structural design is quite rare. It shows that the poet Luo Fu is not only skilled in exaggeration, but also highly proficient in synesthetic sensory crossing.
Until a cup of tea also becomes fully awake
the story is brewed from snow, forged from fire
spoken aloud: like smoke – Li Jinwen, 〈Like Smoke〉
“Story” is originally an auditory-oriented image, but the poet uses the taste-related modifier “brewed from snow” and the visual–tactile modifier “forged from fire” as metaphors, making the story not only have flavor and texture, but also become intensely hot and fiery. Here, sensory shift occurs from hearing toward taste, touch, and vision. The poet continues by adding the transformation “like smoke,” which combines visual and olfactory qualities. All senses involved in synesthesia are fully mobilized, forming multi-layered sensory transfer. In just three lines, the technique of synesthesia is fully deployed, showing how rich and thought-provoking the semantic structure is.
- Exaggeration
- Spatial expansion type exaggeration
A pine seed falls down
with no warning at all
who should be sent to catch it?
the pine needles on the ground? or pine roots?
the chaotic rocks on the slope? or moonlight?
or the passing wind?
just as the words are spoken
in that very instant
a pine seed falls down
and is caught by the entire empty mountain – Yu Guangzhong, 〈Seven Pieces of Summer Intuition in the Mountains: “Pine Seed in the Empty Mountain”〉
The first half of this passage feels like a storyteller’s deliberate suspense. The latter part—“just as the words are spoken / in that very instant / a pine seed falls down / and is caught by the entire empty mountain”—suddenly becomes a climactic turn. When the pine seed falls, the poet does not reach out in time to catch it; instead, after it has rolled down into the valley and produced faint echoes, he responds with a broader, more open-minded imagination. The poet uses spatial expansion exaggeration, claiming that the entire empty mountain opens its palm to catch a single falling pine seed. This imagination is both strange and grand, and strongly moving.
- 〈〉Transformational exaggeration
Often, after the last train has passed
the vastness of heaven and earth remains only
one or two li away
the distant dog barking from a far house, two or three sounds
only the lamp can understand
at this hour, the white-haired person under the lamp
is also a sleepless dog
but guarding another kind of night
barking at another kind of shadow
if heard from far enough
— for example, a hundred years away
it becomes perfectly clear – Yu Guangzhong, Seven Pieces of Summer Intuition in the Mountains: “Sleepless Dog”
In this passage, the poet first uses spatial reduction exaggeration: “the vastness of heaven and earth remains only / one or two li away / the distant dog barking, two or three sounds,” compressing the vastness of heaven and earth into auditory distance. This is also transformational exaggeration: although dog barking from a distant house is a measure of distance, heaven and earth cannot literally be compressed into “two or three sounds.” This shows a transformation of quality.
Later, the poet again uses transformational exaggeration: “if heard from far enough / — for example, a hundred years away / it becomes perfectly clear,” using time (a hundred years) as a unit of spatial measurement. Here time and spatial distance are different categories of imagery, thus forming surreal temporal–spatial transposition, which is also a form of transformational exaggeration.
- Surreal performance
- Transformational composition
“Transformational composition” refers to the deliberate combination of different types of imagery—such as time, space, distance, sound, light, etc.—to produce a strange and aesthetically novel transformed scene, conveying a sense of “illogical yet wonderful” artistic meaning.
Deep mountains, night endless
all sounds merge into a dream
what could be more listenable
than absolute silence?
even the longest, busiest history
must have such a moment
of no need for argument
but what about the wind—you ask
the wind? that is time passing through
leaving behind a faint, occasional
echo – 〈Listening to the Night in Deep Mountains〉 / Yu Guangzhong
“but what about the wind—you ask / the wind? that is time passing through / leaving behind a faint, occasional / echo” — from the sound of wind and its echo, the poet perceives that time is passing through the space. This is not simple sensory transfer or synesthesia that turns sound into form, because time has no concrete shape. It is clearly a transformed imagery produced after material conversion, a transformational combination of images.
- Montage editing
Montage editing breaks free from linear constraints of time and space, joining together images that cannot coexist simultaneously, thereby generating novel creativity. In modern poetry, montage techniques often produce unexpected visual structures. Among Taiwanese poets, Luo Fu is the most outstanding practitioner of this method.
She
was lifted by a rope
into an extremely mournful and beautiful
Liaozhai tale
following the sound of a flute searching
every window might contain
her faithless scholar
who went to the capital for examinations
wind arrives silently
she slips into
the just-closed thread-bound book – Luo Fu, 〈Female Ghost (II)〉
A woman who has hanged herself—this is a deeply tragic image. Yet the next cut connects it to “an extremely mournful and beautiful Liaozhai tale,” diluting the reader’s grief and shifting focus into the aesthetic world of strange tales.
“Wind arrives silently / she slips into / the just-closed thread-bound book” presents an action image like a 3D cinematic effect. This is no longer explainable by exaggeration alone; it is montage editing.
- Surreal (magical) performance
Surreal performance inherently carries absurdity that violates ordinary logic, resembling a magician’s tricks. Yet such absurd imagery is accepted by aesthetic experience because it offers imaginative implications and interesting subtext—though irrational, it is full of wonder.
Afternoon. In the pond water
crowds of pregnant water hyacinths
this summer is lonely
if you are to give birth, then give birth to a pond of frogs
ah, the problem is
we are merely bloated – Luo Fu, 〈Afternoon of Water Hyacinths〉
Pregnant water hyacinths giving birth to a pond full of frogs—this chain of absurd images is not exaggeration but surreal imagination. Readers do not reject it; instead they find it novel and interesting.
Long drought, no rain
this heart already cracked like earth
if you are a tear that does not fall
how I wish
to become a fish within your eyes – Luo Fu, 〈No Rain〉
“I am a fish swimming in your tears” is also surreal imagination, yet it produces a deeply emotional aesthetic effect that readers accept rather than reject.
From the examples above, readers may notice that the higher the level of poetic technique, the more rich, multi-layered, and thought-provoking the bright lines become, sometimes even turning into shining, powerful golden lines. For those engaged in poetry creation, studying different levels of expressive techniques allows one to understand how bright lines and golden lines are formed in the poet’s mind and refined through the pen. These lines are rarely the result of sudden inspiration alone, but rather the outcome of painstaking refinement, life experience, and aesthetic cultivation. As the saying goes: Rome was not built in a day.
