Thursday, February 26, 2015

In "Night Thoughts Afloat" by Tu Fu what is the mood of the first two stanzas?

We can define the mood of a work of literature as the
atmosphere or feeling that it invokes. Mood is related very closely to setting, as the
surroundings have a big impact on the atmosphere. The quiet, tranquil and peaceful
setting created in the first two stanzas of this excellent poem with the "gentle wind"
and the "hanging" stars and the poet being alone looking up at the moon seems to
therefore create a peaceful and reflective mood, which is of course suitable for the
meditations of the poet later on in the poem as he contemplates his position in life.
Consider how the first sanza helps to create this
mood:



By bent
grasses


In a gentle wind


Under straight
mast


I’m alone
tonight...



The wind could so
easily have been "strong" or "violent" which would have changed the mood greatly.
However, the first stanza creates an impression of a gentle breeze that softly bends the
grass as the poet is left alone with his thoughts by himself, looking at the beauty of
nature. This all helps to create the contemplative, peaceful mood that allows the poet
to find a link between his current state of "drifting" in the boat and his social
standing.

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