Bei Dao’s Poem ‘An End or a Beginning’ Essay

Bei Daos meter An End or a Beginning depicts the sempiternal protestors murdered by the cruelty of the Cultural Revolution and the continuity of life in search of expect after many lives taken away. The loss of hope looked for In every dream after every day, reinforces the everlastingly hunt of freedom and end of the Cultural Revolution even though it feels just surface of grasp and the sacrifice to get there is unavoidable.The setting of the verse in nature where the trees, clouds and stars are, connotes the freedom of the bulge outdoors with no restrictions contrasting with the people living beneath the unnatural aggression of the Cultural Revolution. The destruction of the peoples freedom is shown in stanza one where someone protests desire the sun rises and A heavy shadow, like a road Sh on the whole run across the basis will destroy the pureness of ones courage. The sun is like a persons boldness to stand against the Cultural Revolution like the nature of the sun rising and the heavy shadow looming over the sun darkens the atmosphere covering all hope and demolishes it like how nature is corrupted by roads built for the selfishness of man.The repeated anticipation of hope can be seen even after the heinousness of oppression by the revolution. The personas personal response can be seen in stanza five to mark the search for the hope of new beginning. The repeating of I look for portray the things dreamed for all of which are beautiful images of nature which connote freedom and places of no boundaries. Contrasting this ideal illustration, the actual background with A heavy shadow, A sorrowing mist covered with wretched cigarette stubs all convey negative images of a worn area.The organise of the poem follows similar lines in each stanza except stanza 4 where the word towmen is on its own near the middle of the paragraph. The diction towmen used all solely in one line emphasizes how people are pulled and manipulated by the communists who control the Cultural Revolution. The Yellow River mentioned before the towmen shows how much impact the communists has had as the Yellow River is a very important river in China. By asking if even the ropes of the Yellow River can be controlled is like questioning how the manipulators could be so powerful. As the Poem comes to the end, the stanzas very slightly diminishes to allow the reader feel a less abrupt ending which relates to the sadness of a dying end.Death throughout the poem is constantly mentioned to illustrate its recurrence. Diction such as murdered, gone, forever all convey the permanent lost of lives which cannot be stopped only when only replaced and repeated due to the unforgiving violence of the Revolution. The hope of renewing the land can be seen in stanza six where Dao explains how fresh blood require to be shed in order to help rebuild the land and create new life and hope on tomorrows branches. Branches, relating to trees display an image of life and growth which p rovide The ripened fruit which would mean the country being able to feed and look after itself because of the lives killed to make the land fertile and grow.Repetition is used a lot in the poem. The repetition of Here I stand Replacing another, who has been murdered represent all the protestors who stood up against the Revolution, died and then replaced and killed again. This is used to exemplify the problem which gives people no other choice but to keep doing it because there is no other way out and hope which is only Stars which glimmer in the wind. Wind being a powerful source contrasts with the small glimmering stars which connote hope emphasize how there is little chance of survival.An End or a Beginning uses the strong image of nature to represent the freedom of which is natural with the dark spicy illustrations of clouds, mists and wind to convey the dark disasters of the Cultural revolution causing devastation and growing forests of gravestones ending lives where hope is al ready slim increasing loss.