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Rush Leaves Figurative Language

Decent Essays

There are many poems in The Book of Songs. However, the poems “I Beg of You Chung Tzu” and “Thick Grow the Rush Leaves” focus more on love and courtship. This is different from traditional Chinese poetry which focuses on daily life. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the figurative language and elements of Chinese poetry in “I Beg of You Chung Tzu” and “Thick Grow the Rush Leaves.” To begin with, the poems “I Beg of You Chung Tzu” and “Thick Grow the Rush Leaves” have similar elements of Chinese poetry because they have refrains and incremental variation. In these quotes, “I beg of you Chung Tzu” and “He whom I love” are both refrains because they are repeated in the stanzas. Likewise, incremental variation is prevalent in both poems too. In this quote from “I Beg of You Chung Tzu” includes incremental variation “Do not climb into our homestead”, “Do not climb over our wall” and “Do not climb into our garden.” In this quote from “Thick Grow the Rush Leaves” also has incremental variation, “Thick grow the rush leaves”, “Close grow the rush leaves” and “Fresh grow the rush leaves.” Since the words are varied in successive stanzas this is incremental variation. …show more content…

In the poem “Thick Grow the Rush Leaves” there is a romantic yearning and celebratory tone. Using the adjectives “thick”, “close” and “very fresh” symbolize the speaker’s vibrant and growing love. However, in “I Beg of You Chung Tzu” the tone is more anxious because of fear and disapproval from her parents for her beloved, Chung Tzu. In this quote “Indeed I am afraid”, she is explaining about how nervous and anxious if Chung Tzu comes to see her not only because of her parents but also her communities

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