Letter to his two small
children by Li Po
Adeja Cicero
1B
3/19/14
Letter to his two small
children poem
Here in Wu land mulberry leaves are
green, Silkworms in Wu have now had
three sleeps;
My family, left in Eastern Lu,
Oh, to sow now Turtle-shaded fields,
5 Do the Spring things I can never join,
Sailing Yangtze always on my own---
Letter to his two small
children poem
Let the South Wind blow you back my
heart,
Fly and land it in the Tavern court
Where, to the East, there are sprays and
leaves
10 Of one peach tree, sweeping the blue
mist;
This is the tree I myself put in
When I left you, nearly three years past;
A peach tree now, level with the eaves
And I sailing cannot yet turn home!
Letter to his two small
children poem
15 Pretty daughter, P’ing-yang is your
name,
Breaking blossom, there beside my tree,
Breaking blossom, you cannot see me
And your tears flow like the running
stream;
And little son, Po-ch’in you are called,
20 Your big sister’s shoulder you must
reach
When you come there underneath my
peach,
Oh, to pat and pet you too, my child!
Letter to his two small
children poem
I dreamt like this till my wits went wild ,
By such yearning daily burned within;
25 So tore some silk, wrote this distant
pang
From me to you living at Wen Yang…
Li Po’s background
information
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701-762 A.D.
Born in Central Asia
Was a Chinese poet
Genius and romantic figure
Li Po and Du Fu were the two most
prominent figures in the flourishing of
Chinese poetry in the Golden Age of
China
Background information
on the poem
 Why: Letting his children know how he
feels
 It is an old Chinese poem, not a lot of
background information on it but I feel
like the Li Po wrote the poem to let his
children know how he feels about
being away from them
Interpretation
 Meaning: A father who loves his family
but he is away trying to help his family
 Author’s saying: He loves his children
and he would like them to know how
much he loves them
 Theme: Sacrificing yourself to help your
family demonstrates true love
Literary devices
 Simile: “Tears flow like a running
stream”
 Metaphor: “South Wind blowing back
my heart”
 Mood tone: Sad and calm
Song
 Theme: Having someone there for you
when nobody else was
 Title: Because you loved me
 Songwriters: Celine Dion
 “You were my strength when I was
weak, you were my voice when I
couldn’t speak, you were my eyes
when I couldn’t see, you saw the best
there was in me, lifted me up when I
couldn’t reach, you gave me faith cause
you believed, I’m everything I am
because you loved me.”
Explanation of the song
 The song is because you loved me by
Celine Dion and it is about having
someone there for you through all the
good and bad when no one else was
there to help
 In the poem letter to his two children
relates to the song because its about a
father who wants to be there for his
children through the good and bad, he
lets them know that he does love them
even though he can’t always be there,
he still tries and he lets them know
that.
Conclusion
 Li Po wrote the poem “Letter to his
two small children” because he wanted
to let his children know how he feels
about being away from them and
telling them how he still loves them
and cares about them.