Stanza 1

"Spring-Watching Pavilion" starts with Ho's description of "A gentle spring evening," which is immediately contrasted with the idea of "worldly dust." Ho is referring to worldly dust in a metaphorical way. A metaphor is a technique where the poet gives an object a secondary meaning that does not normally belong to it. Ho does not literally mean that the spring evening is "unclouded" by dust; she means that the "dust" of humanity—the aspects of the human, material world—is not present in this spring evening out in nature. Although Ho does not state it in explicit terms, the fact that "worldly dust" is not present to cloud the evening points to the fact that the poet is out in nature, away from her village or city. This worldly dust is negative, because it, unlike the spring evening, is "clouded." Worldly dust could stand for many negative...