Poetry Movements & Poetry History at World of Poets

The Misty Poets are a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution. They are so named because their work has been officially denounced as "obscure" or "misty" poetry (menglong shi). The movement was initially centered on the magazine Jintian, published from 1978 until 1980, when it was banned.

The four most important Misty Poets, Bei Dao, Gu Cheng, Duo Duo, and Yang Lian were exiled after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Other Misty Poets like Mang Ke and Shu Ting remain in China. Jintian was resurrected in Sweden in 1990 as a forum for expatriate Chinese writers.

The work of the Misty Poets has had a strong influence on the lyrics of China's first generation of rock musicians, particularly Cui Jian.

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About Poetry Movements & Poetry History at World of Poets

Poetry movements is the history of poetry, and of the world. If you study the movements of every poetry school, and you can because we have listed all the poets involved in those movements, then you are basically approaching history through poetry. There are many schools of poetry, from the Spasmodic Poets to World War 1 Poetry; from Dymock Poets to the New York School, they are all here for you to learn about poetry and history. The poets who shaped our world represent a large group of men and women, not just American Poets, British Poets, Black Poets, but poets of the New Formalism, the Cavalier Poets, and the poets of the Nuyorican Movement. You will be surprised which famous poets were allied with which other great poets. If you have never studied the rich heritage of the schools of poetry and their movements, you will love this section of our poetry site!