According to the text from Early Chinese Literature and Thought, class of poetry consist of three rhyming stanzas of four to six lines with four syllables each. In the next poetry, I will interpret what this poem actually means for me. However, we have to recognize that each poem has a history behind it and other person might perceive it different than me.
- Plums are Falling. (Pag1324)
In this poetry, I found out the meaning of being selective when the choices presented to you are in abundance. As the lines stated “Plums are falling, seven are the fruits”. There is a natural understanding of how fruits, after they mature, will fall from the trees and only those who are in a good condition will be chosen by us. In terms of who is making the selection, the lines clearly shows how the woman is the one who seems to choose which man she wants. But does she really sound secure about this choice? The quote “Many men want me” is repeated three times. In my opinion, it shows that she’s really confident to say that she doesn’t have problems when it comes to choosing which man she wants to be with. In line 10, page 1324, “Let me be bride of one”, it suggests that she doesn’t actually have the full authority to take the decision by herself. Otherwise, in my opinion, if the line says “I will be the bride of one” then this will make the voice of the woman more powerful. We can interpret that maybe in this time period, women were not allowed to make decisions without someone’s consent.
CXIII. Huge Rat . (Pag 1328)
This poetry is very interesting and emotional in terms of trusting someone else. It characterizes how we do good things for people we know and we get nothing as change. This poetry reveals the senses of taking advantage of someone for a long period of time. “You show no gratitude” (10) “Yet you pay me no need” are one of the main points where it shows how the author had helped this person for long time and he gets nothing in return. Even though the poetry says huge rat, it can be interpreted in different way, such as they utilized rat to represent how dirty or disgusting a person can be when they take advantage of someone. It can also represent how this action can happen when we provide help to a stranger and not knowing if they will just take advantage of that help. There are a total of six paragraphs represented in this poetry and each one of them has 4 lines. The repetitions “Huge rat, Huge Rat” can be seen in paragraph’s one, three and five. On the other hand, we can see how the theme changes in paragraph’s two, four and six with “Happy land, happy realm and happy meadows” found it in line 3.
In the poem “Plums Are Falling”, she has a choice between seven men which is shown in the line “Plums are falling, seven are the fruits”. She narrows her choice down to three as said in the line “Plums are falling, three are the fruits”, until she finally chooses one at the end of the poem. I agree that while she has the choice of what man she wants to marry, she does not have full authority, because the line “let me bride one” suggests that she eventually has to choose one.
In the poem “Huge Rat” the story is about someone who seems to be taken advantage of. The writer repeats the phrase “Huge rat, huge rat” as a metaphor to the person who takes the things he is given for granted, similar to a rat who likes to take food lying around in a house. In paragraphs two, four and six he says “I swear I will leave you and go to a happier realm” suggesting he will leave, but it seems he goes back to giving to the rat in the next paragraph since he continues to complain about the rat. Although at the end it seems that he has finally left since in the last paragraph it ends with him saying that he will leave and the poem does not continue.