During the transition from classical to vernacular writing, there was much confusion on how to write Chinese poetry in the vernacular style. Many poems written in that era sound odd by today’s standard.

假如我是一只鸟，
我也应该用嘶哑的喉咙歌唱：
这被暴风雨所打击着的土地，
这永远汹涌着我们的悲愤的河流，
这无止息地吹刮着的激怒的风，
和那来自林间的无比温柔的黎明……
——然后我死了，
连羽毛也腐烂在土地里面。
为什么我的眼里常含泪水？
因为我对这土地爱得深沉……

This is a prose poetry, a piece of writing that looks like standard prose, but with metaphor, imagery and rhythm to convey the emotion.

朗诵

As a verse poetry, it sounds clunky. The words distort the everyday meaning of the words (what do you mean by 汹涌着?) and are long and winding, uncharacteristic of the concise topic-comment structure of the Chinese language. Most critically, it lacks the phrasing that creates musicality. When set to music, as was attempted, it sounds flat to an honest ear.

演唱

It has been about a century since then. Today, people simply write what they feel, relying on AI to compose music and adjust the phrasing. And to understand how AI does it, we will have to revisit the part of the music theory that touches on phrasing and prosody.

Tang Poetry as Harmonic Progressions

Classical poetry writing, as epitomized by the Tang poetry, maps cleanly onto standard harmonic progressions.

• Baseline (S0) → Set-off (S1) → Peak Tension (S2) → Resolution (S0)

Jueju - A 4-Phrase Verse

Each of the four phrases is in its own bar.

Bar 1-2 (Call): State initiation (S0 → S1)

Bar 3-4 (Response): Peak tension and reset (S2 → S0)

春眠不觉晓 Baseline (S0)
处处闻啼鸟 Set off (S1)
夜来风雨声 Peak Tension (S2)
花落知多少 Resolution (S0)

Lüshi - An Extended Two-Stanza Verse

An extended progression allows for longer build-up, sustained tension, and multi-stanza continuation. An unresolved intermediate state (S3) forces a continuation into the second stanza:

离离原上草 Baseline (S0)
一岁一枯荣 Set off (S1)
野火烧不尽 Peak Tension (S2)
春风吹又生 Suspend (S3)
远芳侵古道 Baseline (S0)
晴翠接荒城 Set off (S1)
又送王孙去 Peak Tension (S2)
萋萋满别情 Baseline (S0)

Rhythm

Rhythm establishes a piece’s mood, remaining consistent until the emotion shifts. Each pattern contains a fixed number of beats, where accents signal the musical phrasing.

Harmonic shifts (S0 → S1 → S2) must align with strong beats. Non-harmonic tones, such as passing notes, suspensions, and anticipations, land on weak beats to build forward momentum, ideal for light function words (的, 了, 着, 出, 中). Conversely, appoggiaturas (bangs) land on strong beats to deliver a deliberate emotional impact.

Poetry recitation follows this same rhythmic logic; reciting word-by-word results in a blocky, unnatural delivery. For example, the following naturally fits a standard 4/4 time (4 beats per bar, two subdivisions per beat):

春眠 | 不觉 | 晓 | —— Bar 1: initiate idea; neutral tension (S0)
处处 | 闻啼 | 鸟 | —— Bar 2: expand idea; forward momentum (S1)
夜来 | 风雨 | 声 | —— Bar 3: peak emotional tension (S2)
花落𝄐 | 知多 | 少 | —— Bar 4: response / cadence (S0)

Here, a pause mark 𝄐 has been added to the first word in the last phrase to create a brief moment of hesitation to build a dramatic high tension before its full release in the final line.

A Structural Rewrite of I Love This Land by Ai Qing

Here is a rewrite of the prose to a verse. I have used two characters per beat (and occasionally three characters per beat, and sometimes one character per beat), 4 beats per bar (and occasionally 5 beats per bar), explicit cadence, and a clear harmonic progression: S0 → S1 → S2 → S3 → S2 → S0.

Stanza 1: Initiation & Expansion (S0 → S1)

假若 | 我是 | 一只鸟， | ——
我必 | 嘶哑 | 歌唱： | ——
唱这 | 风雨 | 打击的 | 土地， | ——
唱这 | 汹涌 | 悲愤的 | 河流…… | ——

Stanza 2: Peak Tension & Suspension (S2 → S3)

吹刮着 | 激怒的 | 狂风， | ——
破晓出 | 温柔的 | 黎明。 | ——
——而后 | —— | 我死， | ——
羽毛 | 腐烂 | 泥土中。 | ——

Stanza 3: Call and Response (S2 → S0)

问我 | 眼中 | 何以 | 含泪？ | ——
因我𝄐 | 爱这𝄐 | 土地𝄐 | 深𝄐—— | 沉𝄐。——

AI歌曲