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According to Lin Yutang,

both Po Chuyi and Su Tungpo

"desperately admired" Tao Yuanming,

a poet of nature who wrote a single love poem,

a poem thought by Chinese dilettantes to be

the one "blemish in a white jade."

Can a poet be faulted for calling a woman

carelessly perfect in beauty?

He chose to long for her by envying

the candle that glowed upon her

beautiful face, the shadow

that followed in her every move.

Yet the nature poet Tao Yuanming, at home

with the sudden turning of seasons,

now feared the shadow in darkness,

a discarded fan that once stirred her hair,

feared the candle at dawn. At last believed

that for beauty he had lived in vain.

Source: Poetry (August 1999).

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MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

This poem originally appeared in the August 1999 issue of Poetry magazine

• Sotto Voce
  by John Brehm
• Keeping Track of My Genius
  by Jack Stewart
• Dog Music
  by Paul Zimmer

• August 1999 Table of Contents
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More about this poem

Biography

An influential editor and publishing executive, Daniel Halpern is also a poet of considerable acclaim, writing poems that treat daily life—household tasks, nature, friends, pets—in fresh, accessible language. He is the author of nine books of poetry, including Tango (1987) and Something Shining: Poems (1999). Both Tango and Something Shining: Poems were praised for their formal ambition and control, as well as their revelation . . .

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Poems by Daniel Halpern

• Pandemania

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Poem Categorization

SUBJECT Relationships, Arts & Sciences, Love, Poetry & Poets, Realistic & Complicated

POET’S REGION U.S., Mid-Atlantic

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