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The Blossom
Love spies a blossom stirred by the wind, the lover envies the air that touches it, and he pleads that breaking his sworn vow for her should not be counted a sin.
The Funeral
Instructing whoever will shroud his body not to disturb the wreath of hair on his arm, the speaker weighs two readings of the token and finally orders it buried with him so that some of her goes into the grave.
The Grasshopper
The poem addresses a grasshopper swinging on an oat-beard, drunk nightly on dew, owner of earth and air by turns, who retires to a carved acorn-bed and wakes to greet the sun and make men merry.
WHERE the bee sucks, there suck I
A spirit names where it feeds, lies and couches among flowers, rides on a bat's back after summer, and promises itself a merry life under the blossom.
Silvia
A song asks who Silvia is, answers by praising her holiness, beauty, wisdom and kindness, and ends by calling on the company to sing to her and bring her garlands.
Remember
A request to be remembered turns into permission to forget, placing the survivor’s freedom from grief above the speaker’s own memorial claim.
Stanzas
In a December night the tree and the brook are called happy because they cannot remember their green summer, while human beings, who writhe at past joy, must know and feel the change with nothing to heal it—a state the poem says was never said in rhyme.
Lines
Starting from a shattered lamp, a scattered cloud and a broken lute, the poem argues that when hearts have once mingled love leaves first and the weaker one is left to endure alone, and asks why Love makes the frailest thing its cradle, home and bier.
Red Cliff
A broken halberd sunk in sand, its iron not yet eaten away; I take it up myself, grind and wash it, and identify an earlier dynasty. Had the east wind not favored young Zhou, deep spring in the Bronze Sparrow Tower would have shut away the two Qiao.
赤壁
OVER hill, over dale
A fairy servant tells of wandering everywhere swifter than the moon's sphere in the fairy queen's service, and departs to seek dew-drops to hang on the cowslips.
Passing Away
Three voices in turn—the World, the speaker's Soul, and God—declare that all things are passing away, and to each the speaker answers 'Yea', the last voice turning the refrain from decay toward winter's end, new fruit and a coming that must be waited for.
THE Star that bids the Shepherd fold
As the evening star rises and the sun sinks westward, the speaker declares severity asleep and calls for feasting, tipsy dance and midnight revelry, ending with a summons to knit hands in a round.
The Robe of Gold Thread
I urge you not to prize the robe of gold thread; I urge you to prize instead the years of youth. When a flower opens and can be picked, pick it at once; do not wait until, with no flowers left, you break a bare branch.
金缕衣
A Question for Liu the Nineteenth
New unstrained wine, its froth green as ants; a small stove of red clay. Evening comes, the sky is about to snow— can you drink a cup?
问刘十九
Quiet Night Thoughts
Moonlight before my bed— I take it for frost upon the ground. I lift my head and gaze at the bright moon; I lower it, thinking of home.
静夜思
Music, when Soft Voices die
Music, scent, and rose leaves outlast their immediate forms; the final address imagines love resting upon the thoughts left by someone who is gone.
The Noble Balm
Writing to a friend whose wound is already healing under better care, the speaker sends instead a moral medicine folded in the letter: having won honour in one full action, the friend should now rein in his hand and hold his fame reverently.
Deer Enclosure
On the empty mountain no one is seen, yet the sound of human voices carries. Returning light enters the deep wood and shines once more on the green moss.
鹿柴
The Little Black Boy
A black child repeats his mother's teaching that bodies are only clouds shading the soul while it learns to bear the beams of God's love, and imagines shading an English boy in heaven until that boy loves him.