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November 5, 2015

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Chaotic display runs counter to spirit of poetry

By Wang Yong | November 5, 2015, Thursday | Print Edition

A huge electronic screen greeted me with an eclectic collection of poems on Monday as I found my way out of the Xujingdong Metro Station in Qingpu district. The sight was at once a dream come true and a nightmare for me.

Highbrow poems posted on metro station walls or subway trains could help passengers foster a habit of meditation and save them from drowning in a sea of commercial ads.

I have already seen such poems on the handles of subway trains, and on the walls of subway stations, but this was the first time I had seen poems at the Xujingdong station, an often-crowded terminal station on Line 2.

My joy dissipated, however, as I paused and tried to read the poems on the screen. The blindingly bright screen flashed poems and pictures so fast that I could not recognize a single word. I took a few steps backward to see things more clearly, but it didn鈥檛 work. The screen was utterly unreadable.

I wondered why the poems could not be simply printed on the walls, where it would be easier for travelers to read them. What was the point of 鈥渦pgrading鈥 these poems with an unreadable electronic screen?

A calm so deep

I recall a poem by William Wordsworth, engraved on a bridge over River Thames. I leaned upon the stone rails of the bridge and read the poem with an ease quite compatible Wordsworth鈥檚 calming verse. (Never did sun more beautifully steep/ In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;/ Ne鈥檈r saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!)

Poems are meant to guide our hearts away from the hustle and bustle of mundane pursuits.

A poorly programed screen that flashes poems interspersed with commercial messages is antithetical to the spirit of poetry.

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