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Closely examine the well-known Chinese poem Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again by the famous Chinese poet Xu Zhimo written in 1928.

In a Personal Response to the poem, describe how the poem is a good example of Pathetic Fallacy, noting literary devices where they appear. Use quotations from the poem and conclude your response with a summary of the theme.

This is a translation of the poem 再別康橋 (Zài Bié Kāngqiáo), “Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again”, by the Chinese poet 徐志摩 (Xú Zhìmó) who had studied at King’s College, Cambridge England and wrote the poem on a return visit in November 1928.

Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again 
(translation modified by Phil Desjardins)
 
Lightly I leave                        							                                                 
as lightly I came;									                                                            
I lightly wave goodbye,							                                                                  
to the sunlit clouds in the western sky.						                                          
The golden willows at the riverside						                                                 
are brides in the setting sun;								                                                
their glimmering reflections in the water,                                                                                  
ripple in the depth of my heart.
The waterlilies in the soft mud,					                                                                
sway splendidly under the water.					                                                                   
In the gentle waves of the pond,					                                                                    
I would be a water plant!
That pond in the shade of the elm trees,							                                   
is not the water of spring, but a heavenly rainbow				                                        
that bridges the floating grasses;					                                                                    
a rainbow that will soon seem like a dream.
Looking for dreams? Push a punt upstream						                                 
to where the grass is greener still,					                                                            
it becomes a boat laden with starlight,							                                        
singing freely in the glorious light of constellations.
But I cannot sing freely,								                                                  
silence signals and serenades my departure,						                            
even the summer insects are quiet for me.					                                                
Tonight's Cambridge is silent!
Quietly I leave,							                                                                         
as quietly I came;								                                                            
reaching out my sleeves a little,								                                         
but not taking even a strand of cloud away.