Unit 2 Poems Section Ⅰ Warming amp；Reading Pre-readingMeng Haoran (689 or 691－740, during the Tang Dynasty) was a major Tang Dynasty poet, and a somewhatolder contemporary of Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu.He had a rather short civil service career, passing the JinshiCivil Service Test, beginning at the late age of 39 and ending not much later. He received his first and last position three years before his death, but resigned after less than a year. He lived in the Xiangyang area almost all his life (although he traveled to the major city of Chang'an, where he was entertained by Wang Wei in 728). The landscape, history and legends of his home area were the subjects of many poems.Meng Haoran was a major influence on other contemporaryand following poets of the High Tang erabecause of his focus on nature as a main topic of poetry. Meng Haoran was also oneof the important poets in the Qing Dynasty poetry anthology(选集) the ThreeHundredTangPoems, having the fifth largest number of his poems included, for a total of fifteen, beaten only by Du Fu, Li Bai, Wang Wei, and Li Shangyin. The ThreeHundredTangPoems also has two poems by Li Bai addressed to Meng Haoran, one in his praise and one written in farewell (告别) on the occasion of their parting company. Meng Haoran was also influential in Japanese poetry.Section_ⅠWarming Up & Reading — PrereadingA FEW SIMPLE FORMS OF ENGLISH POEMSThere are various reasons why people write poetry①. Some poems tell a story or describe something in a way that will give the reader a strong impression②. Others try to convey③ certain emotions④. Poets use many different forms of poetry to express themselves. In this text, however, we will look at a few...
