Response To Gu Cheng's Poetry

Launy Schweiger Response to Gu Cheng’s poems
Gu Cheng was part of the misty poets group, who rebelled against the Chinese Cultural Revolution mandate to form a “cultural army”, that was trying to instill revolutionary values and obedience in the communist party. The name misty came from the fact that the poetry was considered by the powers in charge to be obscure. This restriction was lifted after the death of Mao and the opening to the west. Gu Cheng’s poem “A generation” Is a short free verse poem. In it are themes of darkness and light, both of which contrast each other. Though this is a short poem it reveals a lot. Cheng uses the imagery of “black night”, which “gives” the narrator “black eyes”. This can be symbolic of something bestowing
While manure is seen as something bad, disgusting, vulgar; it is very important for life itself and no amount of whitewashing will change any of usefulness to life. It is the idea of not caring about the earthly. There is a sudden break in the flow as we find Bulin “standing stock still, ready to be robbed… at knifepoint.” The curiosity is that this dramatic change seems to come out of nowhere, and is never really explained. More so, he is not actually being robbed, but for some reason simply expects it. Instead, nothing happens and Bulin ends up crying before the poem drifts off into seeming insanity. This sobbing could be symbolic for regret or even depression, explaining this delving into the fantasy realm in the first place, a way to escape the reality of the world. Perhaps this poem could be an analogy of suicide through overdose, and how Bulin experiences this as he descends into “the deep marshes,” eventually walking into a “cluster of frogs.” It shows this final descent before the end, and we’re left with a final image of madness before an abrupt