Li Sen

0515010072

Faculty of Foreign Languages

Class 5

A Comparative Study of

I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud and Gu Feng

Although William Wordsworth and Li Bai are always considered as specimens of contrast (esp. of their writing styles and political attitudes), we can still find out some common features shared by these two literary giants. For example: they both had indulged themselves into the pleasure of travel (and nature); once became the poet of court (e.g. Poet Laureate); and employed the theme of nature in vast majority of their poems; etc. According to their similar life experiences and writing preferences, researchers may raise a question: Why these two poets wrote quite different from each other? This thesis would provide readers a brief comparative study of the two romanticists (from Britain and China) through a pair of poems: I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud written by William Wordsworth, and Gu Feng（《古风其二十六》）written by Li Bai.

Known as poems dedicated to flowers, these two lyrical works present us a vivid pattern of the relationship (similarities and differences) between Wordsworth and Li Bai, especially, in the field of literature. The comparative study would be carried out in the following two aspects:

1. Theme of the Poem:

Both of the two poets sang great admiration of the flowers through their artistic finish of language: In I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, Wordsworth portrayed the tranquil scenery of the Lake District through his eulogy of the daffodils. Here readers could easily identify the theme of the poem: i.e. the great pleasure of human beings’ return to the nature, and the happiness of enjoying the natural beauty (this theme became more prominence in the last two stanzas of the poem). While, in Li Bai’s Gu Feng, although eulogized the beauty of nature through his depiction of the lotus, the poet contrarily focused on the separation of nature and human beings (more precisely, other people who lived in the earthly life). The lotus in Li Bai’s poem could easily be recognized as a hermit who enjoys the beauty and pleasure of his own life (often self-exiled from the society). It would be an interesting imagination that if the two poets came to the same lake, Wordsworth would sing the beauty along the lake (which could be easily touched and enjoyed by human beings. e.g. the daffodils), while Li Bai would praise the beauty lying in the lake (which could hardly be touched or enjoyed by common people. e.g. the lotus).

Both known as travelers once enjoyed the great nature through their travels, the two poets had composed a lot of poems with the theme of nature. But, why did they hold such different themes (ideas about nature)? We may find out the answer from their different attitudes toward the earthly life and mortals: Through the Prelude (which is regarded as the autobiographical work of the author) written by Wordsworth, we can easily find out the poet’s praise of the harmonic, joyful relation between the nature and human beings (e.g. the pre-existence of soul; the philosophical view of nature, which might inspired Emerson’s Transcendentalism; his joyful experience of nature; his quit from Cambridge to travel; etc.). But Li Bai held a quite different view of the nature from that of Wordsworth: he was praised by many literary giants of his time and was sometimes regarded as the celestial being or a celestial being to be (诗仙，谪仙), so, the possibility of his recognition of nature as himself (or part of him: according to Chinese view of nature and pantheism, which sounds much the same to the Deism) seems to be waxing. When we plus his unfortunate political struggles and difficult living conditions of late years to his view of nature, Li Bai’s different theme (the beautiful nature is separated from human beings) is now certainly explainable.

2. Writing Techniques:

A. The Style: Both two poems followed regular patterns of line arrangements and rhyme schemes. It may also be regarded as the common feature of romantic works through out the world literature. The most critical part of their writing style could be the choices of rhyming feet. Both of the two poets used many vowels (the monophthong [i], diphthong [ei]) or syllables containing vowels ([an], [ain], [il]) as the feet of the poem, and consequently advanced the lyrical effect of the poems.

B. The Way of Portrayal: We can also find out the interesting coincidence that: the two poets both personified the flowers: Wordsworth’s daffodils are dancing and tossing their heads, while Li Bai’s lotus is described as a beauty sitting in the lake(坐看，红颜). Readers would have greater impression on their themes through their artistic depictions: Wordsworth’s human beings return to nature and Li Bai’s nature separated as himself. We can then identify this similarity between the two poets.

According to the arguments listed above, we many draw the conclusion as: William Wordsworth and Li Bai shared several common features in their literary works. But their different view (defined by their cultural and historical background) of the world, nature and God; their different personalities (Wordsworth was horrified by the massacre during the French Revolution and then became conservative in politics while Li Bai kept on struggling for political achievement but suffered constantly the bad luck) made many differences between their writings and themes.

Bibliography

[1]  Chen Jia. A History of English Literature Volume 3 [M]. The Commercial Press, 2006.

[2]  郁贤皓. 李白生平研究综述[J]. 中国李白研究（1995-1996年集）, 1995: 367-380.

Appendix

《古风 其二十六》

碧荷生幽泉，朝日艳且鲜。

秋花冒绿水，密叶罗青烟。

秀色粉绝世，馨香谁为传？

坐看飞霜满，凋此红芳年。

结根未得所, 愿托华池边。