Tang and Song Poetry :)

              Tang poetry and Song poetry have very different structures and are based upon different topics, but are also similar in many ways. Tang poetry is definitely more focused on simplicity and consisting of poems that not necessarily have a crucial moral or meaning, but that revolve around a simple topic, like being drunk while gazing at the moon, as Li Bai describes in his poem. I dislike this kind of poetry because, quite frankly, I find it sort of pointless. Most of the poems are focused on ideas like love, friendship, and nature, oh yah….and alcohol. These poems seem like something someone would memorize or just read in monotone, not what poetry should really be like, in my opinion. I love poetry and I just did not think that these poets did a good job at doing poems justice, which is wrong to say because, technically, poetry is about expressing oneself freely, however one may wish.. so basically, I'm a hypocrite.

                The Song poetry, on the other hand, definitely incorporates more emotion throughout their poetry. It had more of a sing-song feel to it with more rhymes and, at points, seemed more energetic than the Tang poetry. I really loved the poem, “Song by the River, “by Su Shi because it was a very romantic poem that would definitely be relatable to many young lovers or hopeless romantics out there. It almost reminded me of lyrics from Taylor Swift songs (MY FAVORITE), except more ancient and less clever and catchy. (But I don’t blame them because it’s hard to live up to her J). Both the Tang and Song poetry portray alcohol as an obvious factor in their poetry and both use nature, like the moon especially, a lot within their writings. I definitely preferred Song poetry because I thought that it had more meaning and substance than that of the Tang and I thought that both of these societies were well reflected by the Poets of their civilizations.