200 chapter five
become progressively longer. Length adds to the text’s momentum,
and part 1 serves as a springboard for part 2: the phrases in this sen-
tence are longer than those in part 1, and the sentence as a whole is so
long as to leave the reader out of breath. In part 3, the speaker relieves
some of the pressure, reverting to shorter phrases and a shorter sen-
tence. This generates a jagged rhythm, coming to a halt in avalanche at
the end of the stanza.
Dividing the first stanza into three parts accords with its content.
Part 1 describes the monster as seen by the speaker; in part 2, the
speaker dwells on the monster’s character; and part 3 tells us what
the monster does and relates this to the natural world. The mutual
reinforcement of form and content doesn’t end here. The first, long
stanza is abruptly followed by a single-line stanza, which also heralds
a surprising jump in the poem’s content:
The crow seeks allies among scarecrows.Rhythm on the sentence level in «Salute» is hard to overlook. As for
rhythm on the stanza level, the above example—a long stanza fol-
lowed by a short—is typical of patterns that are discernible in the
greater part of the series. In each of its eight poems long (l) and short
(s) stanzas alternate. If long means having three or more lines in the
original, «Salute» can be charted like this:^17
1 l l s s l l s s l s s l s
2 l s s l s s l s s l s s
3 s s s l s s l s s s s s s
4 l s l s l s l s l s
5 s s s l s s s l s s s l s s s
6 l l s s l s s l s s
7 s s s s s s s s l s l s s s
8 l l l s s l l l s sThe short stanzas are interruptions of a veritable outpouring of words,
which builds up speed in the space provided by the long ones. The
first, second, fourth, fifth and eighth poems make effective use of this
(^17) The third short stanza in the fifth poem is part of the text printed in Wan Xia
& Xiaoxiao 1993 and among Xi Chuan’s corrections to the text printed in The Nine-
ties.