“Bright Star maid”. Alcohol became another common theme of Li Po’s poetry. “Scholar Tan-ch’iu! Bring the wine and no delay! For you I’ll sing a song- be pleased to bend your ears and hear; bells and drums, foods rare as jade- these aren’t worth prizing; all I ask is to be drunk forever, never to sober up!” This excerpt from the poem “Bring the Wine”, is only one of the many hundreds of poems that portrays Li Po’s love of wine and its affects. “I take my wine jug out among the flowers to drink alone, without friends. I raise my cup to entice the moon. That, and my shadow, makes us three”, is an excerpt from his “Drinking Alone” poem. It displays his love of wine and the enjoyment of the beauty of the moon. Tu Fu’s poetry illustrates more serious topics and contains more serious themes. It contains more creation, tu-tsao, and his writing styles have a modern twist to them. He also brought the chin-t’i form to popularity, making it a poetic statement. One characteristic of Tu Fu poems is that he incorporates and parallels two totally different topics together. For example, in his poem “River Stop” Tu Fu parallels the river and clouds to his heart and his mind. “Rivers flow- my heart doesn’t try to keep up; clouds remain- slow as my imagination.” Tu Fu also condenses and distorts his poetry, which leaves his poetry ambiguous and open to suggestion. However, this may be one of the reasons why Tu Fu’s poetry is harder to interpret or to understand. “Freeing the Boat” exemplifies this aspect. “Green- I hate to see the hilltops passing; yellow- I know that citrons are on the way.” The colors represent his emotions towards the problem, or perhaps the colors are the colors he sees. Yet, this poem can be opened to interpretations of the reader.Li Po expresses Taoist beliefs, while Tu Fu...
