Chinese Poetic Closure

In this comparative study of Chinese poetic closure, Yang Ye focuses on a scenic ending that presents an image rather than a statement of thought, as exemplified in the poetry of High T'ang poets like Tu Fu. Chinese Poetic Closure places the development of poetic structure in the Chinese tradition since the ancient anthology, The Book of Songs, and explores the underlying poetics of incompleteness and suggestiveness. In the light of the explication of Western texts (Du Bellay, Hoelderlin, and Shelley) and an examination of early reception of Chinese poetry in the West, Ye reflects on fundamental differences between Chinese and Western poetry and poetics.