Comment on“Farewell to Cambridge”

郭恩潼

【Abstract】The poem “Farewell to Cambridge” written by Xu Zhimo gains great popularity and attracts a great number of readers. He described a beautiful and graceful scene with extremely artistic techniques， expressing his feelings of attachment to Cambridge. However， it still exists plenty of disputes in terms of the theme of this poem， mainly including chant， love and politics. This paper interprets and analyzes the theme of the poem from the three aspects.

【Key words】Xu Zhimo； Farewell to Cambridge； artistic conception

I. Introduction

Xu Zhimos poem “Farewell to Cambridge” has been loved by readers generation by generation since it was written. This poem associated traditional and classic culture with modern writing techniques， showing artistic and poetic beauty and covering abundant and complex emotions. In the poem， Xu Zhimo regarded Cambridge in University of Cambridge as the focus of feelings， fully expressing his attachment to Cambridge and the distressed emotions at parting. From 1920 to 1922， he studied at University of Cambridge and lived a happy and comfortable life. Later， his world and artistic view initially formed and Cambridge became his rare bosom friend （Si， 2013）. The poem was written by the author in 1928 when he came England and visited Cambridge secondly. At the time， the scene of Cambridge was still unchangeable and beautiful， while his mood has changed from happiness to distress because of the relationship with Lin Huiyin and Lu Xiaoman. This thesis analyzes the theme of poem and attachment to Cambridge from three aspects， including chant， love and politics.

II. Devotion to Cambridge

According to relevant information， Xu Zhimo studied at University of Cambridge from 1920 to 1922. During this time， he had a relationship with Lin Huiyin and lived a joyful life. In 1923， he came back China and published a lyric poem “So Long Cambridge”. In 1926， he published a famous powder “ The Cambridge As I Know by Farewell Cambridge”. In 1928， he came to Britain for the second time and wrote “Farewell to Cambridge” （Yan & Lu， 2015）. In spite of short time for staying Cambridge， he never leaved here in his soul. “Farewell to Cambridge” is written on the basis of these articles “So Long Cambridge”， “Evening Scene of Cambridge” and “The Cambridge As I Know by Farewell Cambridge”. In the poem， Cambridge is considered to be his soul companion and dream pearl （Jia， 2014）. In these poems， he considered Cambridge as theme of poems and used a variety of gorgeous words to describe the natural and humanistic scenes of Cambridge， showing endless love and miss to his mother school.endprint