On the Fundamental Differences between Chinese and English Free Verse

At the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th century There was the outburst of revolution in socio-political area as well as in literary genres, during which period there arose a world-wide emancipation in poetic style, Free Verse and revolution in Free Verse springing up in countries ranging from Britain, France, Germany to China. The Imagist Movement in English verse and the Neo-poetry Revolution in China were characteristic of such Free Verse Revolution in the west and east, from which Free Verse came into being in both the English and Chinese languages with wide differences in literary features, though. Conceptually, there exist fundamental differences in Chinese and English free verse. The English Free Verse, laying special emphasis on formal rhythm, required some minimal poetic styles, qualifying themselves to be rated as quasi-fixed style verse. By contrast, the Chinese Free Verse, while going to the extreme of smashing the tenet of No Rhythm, No Verse, failed to set up some relatively fixed poetic style. Thus, there is an urgent need to change the way the term English Free Verse has been translated in China during the past century, which literally means verse with no fixed poetic style in Chinese. And the name may well be given to their Chinese counterpart. This change is essential to the construction of poetic style of the Neo-Poetry, especially to the current Reconstruction of poetic style.