Asian Poetry Background Notes and Individual Selections
Types of Poetry • Narrative: tells a story (ballads, epics, and verse romances) • Lyric: expresses thoughts and feelings of a single speaker (odes, elegies, sonnets, and haiku) • Dramatic: uses techniques of drama to present speech of one or more characters
Elements of Poetry • Meter: a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in each poetic line • Iambic Pentameter: unstressed/stressed (again) repeated 5 times in one line: – That then I scorn to change my state with kings. ~ Shakespeare – I AM NOT going to make you identify meter, but you must know what it is!
Elements continued… • Free Verse: does not have a regular meter • Stanza: groups of lines – Couplet (2) – Quatrain (4) - tercet (3) - sestet (6) **Notice that there is not one for 5 – meter generally prevents stanzas of five lines.
Sound Devices • Rhyme: repetition of sounds at end of words (tide/side) • Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds (wild wind) • Consonance: repetition of final consonant sounds (stroke/luck) • Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds (blue/moon) • Onomatopoeia: words that represent sounds (buzz/bang)
Imagery and Figurative Language • Imagery: descriptive language that appeals to the senses • Simile: comparison using “like” or “as” • Metaphor: comparison not using “like” or “as” • Personification: giving human traits to something nonhuman • Oxymoron: combining two contradictory terms to create new meaning (fine mess)
Authors • The Book of Songs – a collection of poems chosen by Confucius, but with unknown authors • T’ao Ch’ien – left political office to live on a farm and write poetry about common matters (farming, family) • Li Po – considered a supreme master of Chinese poetry; focuses on being free-spirited and harmony with nature • Tu Fu – crafted Shih poetry; deals with social issues (nobility’s extravagance in face of extreme poverty) – Shih: even number of lines with an even number of words per line (can be any length)
Literary Terms • Songs: originally set to music and meant to be sung – Refrains: words or phrases that appear at regular intervals • Ballads: songs that tell stories • Tone: attitude of writer toward his/her subject and/or audience • Diction: word choice
I Beg of You, Chung Tzu • Speaker: young woman • Structure: 3 stanzas • Refrains: “I beg of you, Chung Tzu” and “I am afraid” • Content: Speaker torn between wanting to see her love (Chung Tzu) and the reputations of she and her family.
Thick Grow the Rush Leaves • • Speaker: woman Structure: 3 stanzas Refrain: none Content: The woman follows a man whom she loves through difficulties, though he is moving further away from her (mid-water → ledge → shoals) • Symbolism: Speaker’s descriptions of leaves (thick, close, fresh) symbolize her growing love for the man.
Form, Shadow, Spirit • Author: T’ao Ch’ien • Style : Shih – may not match in English because of translation concerns • Speaker: Conversation between entities; changes in each section – Form: Physical Body – Shadow: Physical Shadow – Spirit: Soul
Form’s Argument • The human body comes to an end. • People only live a short time, then they die and are rarely actually remembered. • Therefore, there is no reason to deny the physical body of worldly pleasures: drink, party, food.
Shadow’s Reply • You, the physical body may die, but the soul (representing light and love) is immortal. • As such, how can you spare any effort to leave good memories? • Wine and other pleasures may sate the physical body, but they are injurious to the soul.
Spirit’s Answer to both • If you, body and shadow, rank at all in the grand scheme of things, is it not because of me since all that matters is one’s place in the universe/afterlife? • Death is the great equalizer – all die the same regardless of physical health, wealth, good works, etc. • We are all connected – physical body, soul, and spirit – and therefore what happens to one impacts us all.
I Built My House Near Where Others Dwell • Speaker: author • Content: Though the author built his home near other people, he is in solitude in nature. He finds eternal truths in nature and is so in awe of it that he cannot express his emotions in words.
The River Merchant’s Wife • • Author: Li Po Speaker: young bride (16) Ballad of evolving love for spouse Nostalgia – fond memories of childhood; innocent games and friends • Married at 14; loved at 15; desperate at 16
Addressed Humorously to Tu Fu • Li Po and Tu Fu were best friends, though very different. • Speaker: Li Po • Audience: Tu Fu • Content: Makes fun of friend for taking poetry too seriously (pale and thin)
Sent to Li Po as a Gift • Speaker: Tu Fu • Audience: Li Po • Content: Accuses Li Po of not taking life seriously enough; asserts that Li Po will have nothing of value to leave behind because he hasn’t mastered immortality (published poetry)
Jade Flower Palace • • Speaker: poet Style: Shih Pathos: compassion or sorrow Content: The speaker visits a formerly beautiful palace that now lies in complete ruin. He ponders the passage of time and the inability to predict the future (would the prince have built the palace knowing what it would become? ).
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