Asian Poetry
Jennie Daiker & Alexander Allen
Sent to Li Po as a Gift | By Tu fu
Autumn comes,
We meet each other.
You still whirl about as a thistledown in the wind.
Your Elixir of Immortality is not yet perfected
And, remembering Ko Hung, you are ashamed.
You drink a great deal,
You sing wild songs,
Your days pass in emptiness.
Your nature is a spreading fire,
It is swift and strenuous.
But what does all this bravery amount to?
We chose this poem because it is very interesting. It is possible to draw multiple meanings from this poem. There is some happiness of the youthfulness of Li Po, there is some humor related to his copious drinking and singing but there is taunting from Tu Fu about the subject. Li Po and Tu Fu seem to be joking with each other repeatedly throughout lots of their poems. Their poems and taunts at each other don't seem hard-hearted, more playful.
This poem conveys the message that bravery and brazenness does not amount to anything if it has no purpose.
Tu Fu uses similes, comparing Li Po to thistledown, the fluffy fibres inside of a thistle, and metaphor, comparing his nature to a fire.
Alliteration appears in "swift and strenuous."
This painting by Hudson Mindell Kitchell as presented by the NC Museum of Art perfectly expresses the imagery that is shown in the beginning of the poem of autumn and thistles in the wind.
Van Morrison - Autumn Song
This song has a fairly obvious connection to the poem being a song focusing on the imagery of autumn, with a poem that focuses on imagery related to autumn.
Haiku | Yosa Buson
Spring rain:
Telling a tale as they go,
Straw cape, umbrella.
Spring rain:
In our sedan
Your soft whispers.
Spring rain:
A man lives here-
Smoke through the wall.
Spring rain:
Soaking on the road
A child's rag ball.
We chose this poem because it offers powerful imagery and is fascinating how it jumps from subject to subject but still manages to paint an image in the mind of the reader of a wet, spring day.
The poems shows how different parts of the environment the speaker is in become evident while it is raining. The spring rain makes the speaker notice things that would usually pass unnoticed, like the clothes people wear, the smoke from a fire, and a child's ball abandoned on the roof.
The poem uses repetition, stating "Spring Rain" at the beginning of every stanza.
There is a consistent meter as well, keeping with a repeated number of syllables.
This picture by Isoda Koryƫsai as shown by the NC Museum of Art is a great representation of this poem because it embodies the concept of a "spring rain" in Japan with the mother and child under an umbrella, which is also mentioned by the poem itself.
Eurythmics - Here Comes The Rain Again (Remastered)
This song represents this poem because, like the poem it recognizes the additional factors related to rain such as emotion, memory or imagery, much like the poem itself does.