Famous Yang Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Yang poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous yang poems. These examples illustrate what a famous yang poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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Wei City Song

by Wang Wei
 Wei City morning rain 
dampens the light dust. 

By this inn, green, 
newly green willows. 

I urge you to drink 
another cup of wine; 

west of Yang Pass 
are no old friends....Read more of this...

Yin Yang

by Belinda Subraman
 At the edge of winter
in crisp early March
a dull thud of numbness
delays joy and sadness
that will make us weep.

In the flow of life
every aspect bears its opposite.
Between extremes
there’s the balance of peace
or peace
in the realization of balance.

With the warm blanket of knowledge
is the freezing cold of truth.
We are greeted with tears
as we come into this world
and tears as we...Read more of this...

Night in the Pavilion

by Du Fu
 Year dusk yin yang hurry short light Heaven end frost snow clear cold night Fifth watch drum horn sound mournful mighty Third gorge star river shadow move tremor Country cry thousand homes hear fighting Foreign songs several places rise fisher woodcutter Sleeping dragon leaping horse end yellow earth Human affairs hear letter in vain melancholy At...Read more of this...

Ghana Calls

by W. E. B. Du Bois
I was a little boy, at home with strangers.   
I liked my playmates, and knew well,   
Whence all their parents came; 
From England, Scotland, royal France   
From Germany and oft by chance 
The humble Emerald Isle. 

But my brown skin and close-curled hair 
Was alien, and how it grew, none knew; 
Few tried to...Read more of this...

Farewell to Meng Hao-jan

by Li Po
 I took leave of you, old friend, at the 
Yellow Crane Pavilion; 
In the mist and bloom of March, you went 
down to Yang-chou: 
A lonely sail, distant shades, extinguished by blue-- 
There, at the horizon, where river meets sky....Read more of this...

Seeing Off Yuan the Second on a Mission to Anxi

by Wang Wei
 Weicheng morning rain moisten light dust 
Visitor house green green willow colour new 
Urge gentleman further finish one cup alcohol 
West outside Yang Pass no friend person 


At Weicheng morning rain has dampened light dust, 
By the hostel, the willows are all fresh and green. 
I urge my friend to drink a last cup of wine, 
West of Yang...Read more of this...

To His Two Children

by Li Po
 In the land of Wu the mulberry leaves are green,
And thrice the silkworms have gone to sleep.
In East Luh where my family stay,
I wonder who is sowing those fields of ours.
I cannot be back in time for the spring doings,
Yet I can help nothing, traveling on the river.
The south wind blowing wafts my homesick spirit
And carries it up to...Read more of this...

Yellow Crane Terrace

by Li Bai
Here he is, my good old friend!
He's at Yellow Crane Terrace on a western departure.
And--we're saying goodbye, goodbye.
He's in a cloud of third-month blossoms.
He's off downstream to Yang-chou.
That shadow there is his lonely sail.
Now there's nothing left of it.
All the blue is empty now.
All you can see is that long, long river.
It flows to the edge of the sky. ...Read more of this...

Light Hearted Author

by William Carlos (WCW) Williams
 The birches are mad with green points 
the wood's edge is burning with their green, 
burning, seething—No, no, no. 
The birches are opening their leaves one 
by one. Their delicate leaves unfold cold 
and separate, one by one. Slender tassels 
hang swaying from the delicate branch tips— 
Oh, I cannot say it. There is no word. 
Black is split...Read more of this...

Spring Night in Lo-yang Hearing a Flute

by Li Po
 In what house, the jade flute that sends these dark notes drifting,
scattering on the spring wind that fills Lo-yang?
Tonight if we should hear the willow-breaking song,
who could help but long for the gardens of home?...Read more of this...

As I Step Over A Puddle At The End Of Winter I Think Of An Ancient Chinese Governor

by James Wright
 And how can I, born in evil days
And fresh from failure, ask a kindness of Fate?

 -- Written A.D. 819


Po Chu-i, balding old politician,
What's the use?
I think of you,
Uneasily entering the gorges of the Yang-Tze,
When you were being towed up the rapids
Toward some political job or other
In the city of Chungshou.
You made it, I guess,
By dark.

But it is 1960,...Read more of this...

A Song at Weicheng

by Wang Wei
 A morning-rain has settled the dust in Weicheng; 
Willows are green again in the tavern dooryard.... 
Wait till we empty one more cup -- 
West of Yang Gate there'll be no old friends....Read more of this...

Spring Night in Lo-yang Hearing a Flute

by Li Bai
 In what house, the jade flute that sends these dark notes drifting,
scattering on the spring wind that fills Lo-yang?
Tonight if we should hear the willow-breaking song,
who could help but long for the gardens of home?...Read more of this...

Travels With John Hunter

by Les Murray
 We who travel between worlds 
lose our muscle and bone. 
I was wheeling a barrow of earth 
when agony bayoneted me. 

I could not sit, or lie down, 
or stand, in Casualty. 
Stomach-calming clay caked my lips, 
I turned yellow as the moon 

and slid inside a CAT-scan wheel 
in a hospital where I met no one 
so much...Read more of this...

On A Picture Screen

by Li Po
 Whence these twelve peaks of Wu-shan!
Have they flown into the gorgeous screen
From heaven's one corner?
Ah, those lonely pines murmuring in the wind!
Those palaces of Yang-tai, hovering yonder—
Oh, the melancholy of it!—
Where the jeweled couch of the king
With brocade covers is desolate,—
His elfin maid voluptuously fair
Still haunting them in vain!

Here a few feet
Seem a thousand miles.
The craggy walls glisten blue...Read more of this...

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