Influence Of Chinese Poetry On James Wright’s The Branch Will Not Break

The third poetry collection of James Wright (1927-1980), The Branch Will Not Break, is one of the most influential poetry of the1960s. In terms of skills and style, this collection of poems is the turning point of his creative career.Wright lived in an age which poets felt confused by and wanted to escape from. It was also an open era which actively absorbed foreign cultures. Wright as well as his contemporaries learned and loved classical Chinese poem. He made use of the structure, mood, and mode of the classical Chinese poems into his own creation. This thesis will analyze those poems influenced by classical Chinese poetry, state the fact that he absorbed Chinese philosophy and poetics in the creation of The Branch Will Not Break, in order to clear his confusion about the era, and seek to escape from mainstream American culture.The thesis is divided into four chapters. To show the origin of Wright’s acceptance of the classical Chinese poetry, the first chapter briefly introduces the creative background of The Branch Will Not Break; to illustrate impact of classical Chinese poetry on Wright’s creation mode. Chapter One classifies this collection of poems by terms of themes as well. At the beginning of the20th century, a large number of Chinese poetry and classics were translated and introduced to the United States. Such works as Tao Te Ching, and poetry of Hanshan, Li Po, Tu Fu, Po Chu-i, and Wang Wei were widely circulated and discussed. The Branches will not break, which consists of forty-three poems, can be divided into four categories:autobiographical poems, politic poems, hermit poems and academic poems. Hermit poems and academic poems will be analyzed and discussed more often than the other two types of poems in this thesis.Chapter Two discusses the indirect effects of Chinese poetry. To a certain extent, Wright’s politic poems, hermit poems and academic poems are, in the matter of poetics, succession of works of the American Transcendentalism pioneers Emerson, Thoreau and imagism master Pound respectively, who are Wright’s predecessors affected by Chinese poetry and the Chinese poets. Emerson, Thoreau read and accepted Confucian and Taoist classics. Both Confucianism’s emphasis on the integrity, harmony of human and nature, and human’s intuitivism, and Taoism’s ideas about nature, are modified into Transcendentalism with the characteristics of the United States, thus affecting many American poets including Wright. Imagism is rooted in classical Chinese poetry. Pound had great interests in and studied classical Chinese poetry, especially the poetry of such Tang Dynasty poets as Li Po, then launched the imagism movement. Pound’s imagism was the imitation and deformation of Chinese poetry, and later developed to a certain degree, but was no longer able to convey poets’feeling. Wright, along with his friend Bly, developed "image" into "deep image", and applied it to poetry.Chapter Three discusses the direct impact of classical Chinese poetry on Wright’s creation, trying to find eremitic and responsorial mode in Wright poetry. Responsory poetry between Friends is a common way for ancient Chinese poets to convey their emotions. They do not focus on the relationship between poets or their yearning each other, but rather focus on the scenes of being together or separate, situation bringing emotions. In English poetry, responsory poetry between poets is mostly unilateral elegy or lament. Wright put the two modes of ancient Chinese poetry into his dialogue with other poets. In classical Chinese hermit poems, poets, far from the madding crowd, always focused on landscapes and self-discovery in the landscape. Wright and many classical Chinese poets are common in pursuit of another world beyond the earthly language. Wright likes Po Chu-i’s style of concise and lively language, and he uses imagery similar Po’s.Chapter Four analyzes Wright’s poetic thoughts reflected in The Branches will not break, and states that Wright’s poetry, in terms of poetic sense and philosophic reflection, displays a juxtaposition of classical Chinese poetry’s indirect and direct impact on his creation and forms his own unique style. Wright’s poetics sense is distinctively expressed in his academic poems and hermit poems. He is a stickler for mood, structure and form, and often takes very long titles for his poem, as many classical Chinese poets did. Wright’s philosophic reflection is close to Taoist "doing nothing" and "speaking nothing". Bly regards his poems as models for the principle of "poetry via Taoism for balance of Yin and Yang."By analyzing transcendentalism, which leads the effect of classical Chinese culture and poetry to Wright’s hermit poems, and imagism, which develops in Wright’s creation into "deep images", and by exploring the application of responsory mode and hermit mode in Wright, conclusion is made:Wright’s The Branches-will not break is influenced by classical Chinese poetry indirectly and directly, forming his own unique style.