P e n ta s y l l a biC Sh i P oe t ry : t He “ni ne t e e n ol D P oe m s ” 115mistakably bring into the scene the speaker’s own sense of homesickness.4 With-
out them, these lines would reveal far less of the speaker’s inner world.
Conversely, when expressing their feelings and thoughts in the second part, the
authors of the “Nineteen Old Poems” often refer back to the initial natural scene,
purposely using metaphors that resonate with the natural images there. This de-
vice I tentatively term “metaphoric resonance.” While verse eyes often anticipate
the emotional expressions in the second part of a poem, metaphorical resonance
in the second part brings us back to the natural scene in the first part. Poem 7 pro-
vides a good example of the interplay of verse eyes and metaphoric resonance:
C 5. 7
No. 7, Bright Moon Shines in the Clear Night
Bright moon shines in the clear night, 明月皎夜光 (míng yuè jiăo yè guāng)
2 Crickets chirp near the eastern wall. 促織鳴東壁 (cù zhī míng dōng bì)
The jade handle points to early winter, 玉衡指孟冬 (yù héng zhĭ mèng dōng)
4 The myriad stars, how they crowd into one another! 衆星何歷歷 (zhòng xīng hé lì lì)
White dew gathers on wild grasses, 白露沾野草 (bái lù zhān yĕ căo)
6 The cycle of seasons suddenly changes again. 時節忽復易 (shí jié hū fù yì)
Cicadas buzz among the trees, 秋蟬鳴樹間 (qiū chán míng shù jiān)
8 Dark swallows, where have they gone? 玄鳥逝安適 (xuán niăo shì ān shì)
Once we were friends studying together, 昔我同門友 (xī wŏ tóng mén yŏu)
10 High you soared, strong, beating wings. 高擧振六翮 (gāo jŭ zhèn liù hé)
Our friendship you have not remembered, 不念攜手好 (bù niàn xié shŏu hăo)
12 And abandoned me like a footprint left behind. 棄我如遺跡 (qì wŏ rú yí jī)
Southern Winnow, Dipper in the North, 南箕有北斗 (nán jī yŏu bĕi dŏu)
14 Or Draught Ox that cannot carry a yoke. 牽牛不負軛 (qiān niú bú fù è)
Truly, without the firmness of a rock, 良無磐石固 (liáng wú pán shí gù)
16 What good can you gain from these empty names? 虛名復何益 (xū míng fù hé yì)
[WX 29.1346]
The image of “High you soared, strong, beating wings” in line 10 is intended as
a metaphor for unscrupulous self-advancement. The constellations Southern Win-
now (line 13) and Dipper in the North (line 13) and the star Draught Ox (line 14)
are used as metaphors for empty, false friendship. These three images metaphori-
cally convey emptiness and falsehood because they “falsely” use concrete things to
represent intangible or “insubstantial” stars. Meanwhile, the images recall what
we have seen in the first part. The beating wings (line 10) recall the flight images
of the cicadas (line 7) and dark swallows (line 8); the three stellar names bring to
mind the polestar, or “jade handle” (line 3), and the crowding stars (line 4) in the
first part. Through such imagistic resonance, the four metaphorical images endow
the opening autumnal scene with strong emotional overtones, intensifying the
interaction between the binary parts, but in the reverse direction of verse eyes.