The Characteristics Of Poetics Of The East In W. S. Merwin’s Later Poetry

William Stanley Merwin is the 17 th Poet Laureate of America and has twice won the Pulitzer Prize of Poetry.Merwin’s poetic career spanned from modernism to postmodernism,with varied styles and distinct periods.In the early period(1952-1960),it followed the model of the New Criticism,with regular forms and gorgeous rhetoric.In the middle period(1963-1973),he began to abandon the use of punctuation marks and the syntax became more loose.His poetry showed more concern for practical issues such as war and ecology.The later period(1977-2019),which had the longest time span,was deeply influenced by poetics of the East and presenting a characteristic of returning to simplicity.Studying the characteristics of poetics of the East in Merwin’s poetry will helps us to comprehensively grasp its poetic connotation.Merwin’s interest in poetics of the East ran through most of his life,especially the translation and reading of Eastern classical poetry,mainly represented by China and Japan,and Eastern religion,represented by Zen.Starting with the middle period,the influence of poetics of the East on his poetry gradually emerged,and it was not until the later period that it was fully clear.Therefore,the best way to understand the impact of poetics of the East on Merwin’s poetry is to start from the later period.Merwin’s acceptance of poetics of the East was a process from shallow to deep.This thesis intends to approach from a cross-cultural perspective of comparative poetics and uses vertical analysis and horizontal comparison methods.Referring to the theories of Eastern and western poetics and based on a detailed textual reading of the 21 volumes of Merwin’s poetry collections,supplemented by documents,poet’s memoirs,translations etc.This thesis analyzes and demonstrates the characteristics of poetics of the East in Merwin’s later poetry from the perspectives of “poetic origin”,“poetic appearance” and “poetic idea”.The main body of this thesis contains three parts.The first chapter starts from the perspective of “poetic origin”,mainly using vertical analysis method and starting from the longitudinal poetic process of Merwin,supplemented by the theory of “anxiety of influence”,to trace the local and external causes of the characteristics of poetics of the East.This chapter analyzes the internal and external causes of the Eastern turn in Merwin’s later poetry.From an internal perspective,this transformation stems from its own difficulty in surpassing the pressure of strong poets who came first,as well as stems from expressing the poetic dilemma of the crisis-ridden real world.From an external perspective,this transformation is related to the influence of Eastern ideas such as Taoism and Buddhism in Pound and Eliot’s poetry,as well as another Eastern craze caused by Zen,which gradually spread from East to West in the United States in the1960 s.The second chapter starts from the perspective of “poetic appearance”,mainly using text reading and comparative analysis methods.Starting with the horizontal comparison between Merwin’s later poetry and Eastern classical poetry in terms of form and imagery,to analyze the similarities between the two.This chapter analyzes the reference and absorption of Eastern classical poetry in form and imagery in Merwin’s later poetry.From a formal perspective,the use of nouns in Merwin’s later poetry learned from the writing method of noun imagery groups in ancient Chinese poetry,and the innovation in form of no punctuation removed the sense of discontinuity in the words,resulting in an Eastern style implicit effect.The experiment of Triplet which inspired by haiku,after a long period of evolution,ultimately achieved the overall effect of haiku condensing in an instant.From the perspective of imagery,the images of birds and flowers with Eastern colors,such as crane and spring flowers,used in his later natural poetry,and the relationship between humans and nature depicted in them are closely related to the natural theme of Eastern classical poetry,while some poems related to cloud and river have the Eastern poetic qualities that reflect the aesthetic context of Eastern classical poetry.The third chapter starts from the perspective of “poetic idea”,mainly using analogical analysis method.Starting from Merwin’s later poetic ideas,it compares them with the ideas of Eastern poetry,infers the influence of Eastern poetic ideas on his poetic ideas.This chapter analyzes the Eastern philosophy,aesthetics,religion and other thoughts absorbed and displayed by Merwin’s later poetry.One of them is the sense of oneness of Zen,which is reflected in the symbiotic images of light and shadow in its poetry and the Confucian and Taoist ideology of consistency in knowledge and action.The other is the origin concept of Taoism and Zen.Merwin’s later language concepts is similar to the language and meaning perspective of Taoism and Zen philosophy,eager to return to the origin of life through closely connected words and objects.The concept of “Nothingness” in his later poetry has entered its origin under the theme of returning home and eternity,and this origin is like “Emptiness” in the context of Zen.This thesis aims to better grasp the connotation and characteristics of Merwin’s later poetry by analyzing the origin,form and imagery and ideas of poetics of the East in his later poetry.Then to demonstrate his comprehensive reference,absorption,and integration of poetics of the East,as well as some new changes of poetics of the East in English poetry.