Poetry Analysis of Third Eye by Bei Dao
Max Bonetti
Mrs. Onorato
English – World Classics 29th October 2012
Third Eye View “He Opens Wide a Third Eye…” by Bei Dao in his written work Old Snow, is a narrative of one mans life and his epiphany on society as life and death would influence it. Bei Dao shows a man looking through a “third eye” or “inner eye” view, a very mystical and spiritual way to look at life that only the most enlightened peoples have been able to observe.
The poem by Bei Dao starts off by a man opening wide his third eye, showing that finally this man has achieved enlightenment by spiritual guidance or by another catalyst of sorts and shows that he is now disconnected from the “world” and is in his own mind to see what the “world” has to tell him and really offer.
In the first lines of the poem Dao states a “star above his head” (Dao 325) as appeared and a man “opens wide a third eye” (Dao 325). The star above the mans head is his third eye, an untypical way to see the world in which he lives, and he sees this light or third eye due to the process in which he opened it. This star can be a warming feeling or it is due to a bright light that he sees in which his spiritual journey as begun.
Dao goes on to paint a vivid picture of “warm currents from both east and west” (Dao 325) that “have formed an archway” (Dao 325) these currents show that the man experiencing this spiritual enlightenment has a view of all premonitions of life and his ideals have formed this archway that has emerged. The archway is very symbolic it can be the mans morals to life and the currents from east to west, are morals of the outside world that don’t influence him but now have. Due to this vision the man is now debating on how to view the world there is a fire brewing inside the man, good or evil he cannot choose, he sits there in remorse and now sees a future that he cannot escape.
While he contemplates these new morals in which to live he can now see an alternate route an expressway that “passes
Mrs. Onorato
English – World Classics 29th October 2012
Third Eye View “He Opens Wide a Third Eye…” by Bei Dao in his written work Old Snow, is a narrative of one mans life and his epiphany on society as life and death would influence it. Bei Dao shows a man looking through a “third eye” or “inner eye” view, a very mystical and spiritual way to look at life that only the most enlightened peoples have been able to observe.
The poem by Bei Dao starts off by a man opening wide his third eye, showing that finally this man has achieved enlightenment by spiritual guidance or by another catalyst of sorts and shows that he is now disconnected from the “world” and is in his own mind to see what the “world” has to tell him and really offer.
In the first lines of the poem Dao states a “star above his head” (Dao 325) as appeared and a man “opens wide a third eye” (Dao 325). The star above the mans head is his third eye, an untypical way to see the world in which he lives, and he sees this light or third eye due to the process in which he opened it. This star can be a warming feeling or it is due to a bright light that he sees in which his spiritual journey as begun.
Dao goes on to paint a vivid picture of “warm currents from both east and west” (Dao 325) that “have formed an archway” (Dao 325) these currents show that the man experiencing this spiritual enlightenment has a view of all premonitions of life and his ideals have formed this archway that has emerged. The archway is very symbolic it can be the mans morals to life and the currents from east to west, are morals of the outside world that don’t influence him but now have. Due to this vision the man is now debating on how to view the world there is a fire brewing inside the man, good or evil he cannot choose, he sits there in remorse and now sees a future that he cannot escape.
While he contemplates these new morals in which to live he can now see an alternate route an expressway that “passes
Cited: Dao, Bei. “He Opens Wide a Third Eye...” The Longman Anthology: World Literature. Volume F: The Twentieth Century. Eds. David Damrosh and David Pike. New York: Pearson, Longman, 2009. 325-326. Print. Grey, Alex. Deities and Demons Drinking From the Milky Pool. 1987. Progress of the Soul, New York City. http://alexgrey.com/art/paintings/soul/deities-and-demons-drinking-from-the-milky-pool/. Web. Nov. 8th. #1 Grey, Alex. Theology. 1984. The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, New York City. http://iasos.com/artists/alexgrey/. Web. Nov. 8th. #2 Grey, Alex. Painting 3. http://bizarrenecessities.com/?p=1275. Web. Nov. 8th. Grey, Alex. Praying. 1984. The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, New York City. http://iasos.com/artists/alexgrey/. Web. Nov 8th. #4 Grey, Alex. Dying. 1990. Progress of the Soul, New York City. http://alexgrey.com/art/paintings/soul/dying/. Web. Nov. 8th. #5 *All Rights Reserved to Alex Grey for his Paintings*