The Modern American Version Of Chinese Gui-yuan Poems

Carolyn Kizer (1925-), famous for Knock upon Silence published in1965, is aPulitzer Prize-winning American poet, a title given by her another well-known workYin in1985. What’s more, some of Kizer’s poems with Chinese classical poetryelements in it, have also made great achievements. However, studies concerning theaspect are not further enough. The name of Knock upon Silence was from a sentencein the Wen-Fu by Lu Ji, translated by Kizer as "we wrestle with non-being to force itto yield up being; we knock upon silence for an answering music…". The Chineseclassical poetry elements using in her works concern several kinds, such as Yue-Fupoems, and the works by Xiao Yan, the famous emperor in Liang Dynasty, as well aspoems by Du Fu. The key point concerned by this thesis is the Gui-Yuan elementsusing in Kizer’s poems. We can find from the study that Kizer’s Imitations are theharmonious combination of the feelings of the modern western women, the delicaterelationship between lovers in modern society and Gui-Yuan elements, expressing herown feelings while conveying the deep-meaning of Chinese Classical poetry.Altogether this thesis formed by five parts mainly concerns about therelationship between Kizer’s Imitations and Chinese Gui-Yuan poems. Theintroduction begins with introducing Kizer, her important works, her love of Chinesepoetry and studies concerning her works.The first chapter introduces the background information of the English poemcircle in1960s and1970s, and the combination between Kizer’s Imitations andChinese Gui-Yuan poems. The second chapter mainly discusses Feminism in Kizer’spoems through the way of comparing Chinese Gui-Yuan poems with them. The thirdchapter is the comparison among Kizer’s Imitations, Arthur Waley’s translation, andChinese Gui-Yuan poems. Besides it, this chapter tends to analyze the artisticcharateristics of Kizer’s Imitations.Some poems may be used more than once in the thesis, but the points about themwill not be the same, through which the thesis became an organic whole, discussingKizer’s imitation about Chinese Gui-Yuan poems.