“JADE FLOWER PALACE”
By
Tu Fu
(712-770)
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
Most Significant Poetic Devices/
Literary Terms
•
•
•
•
Imagery
Diction
Tone
Theme
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“The stream swirls” (1)
• Stream
• Nature imagery
• Swirls
• Uncontrollable
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“The wind moans” (1)
• Wind
• Nature Imagery
• Moans
• Painful
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“Gray rats scurry over/ Broken tiles”
(2-3)
• Gray rats
• Dirty
• desertion
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“Gray rats scurry over/ Broken tiles”
(2-3)
•
•
•
•
Scurry
Quick
Isolation
Ownership
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“Gray rats scurry over/ Broken tiles”
(2-3)
• Broken tiles
• Destruction
• isolation
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“What prince, long ago,/ Built this
palace, standing in/ Ruins beside
the cliffs?” (3-5)
• What prince, long ago
• Nameless
• Victim of death
– Fame/memory is lost
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“What prince, long ago,/ Built this
palace, standing in/ Ruins beside
the cliffs?” (3-5)
• Palace
• Place of riches/power
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“What prince, long ago,/ Built this
palace, standing in/ Ruins beside
the cliffs?” (3-5)
•
•
•
•
Ruins
Destruction
Decay
Desertion
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“There are/ Green ghost fires in the
black rooms” (5-6)
•
•
•
•
Green ghost fires
Death
Memories
Haunting
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“There are/ Green ghost fires in the
black rooms” (5-6)
• Black rooms
• Darkness
• Emptiness
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“The shattered pavements are all/
Washed away” (7-8)
• Shattered pavements
• Destruction
• Ruins
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“The shattered pavements are all/
Washed away” (7-8)
• Washed away
• Destruction
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“Ten thousand organ/ Pipes whistle
and roar” (8-9)
• Ten thousand organ pipes
• Power
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“Ten thousand organ/ Pipes whistle
and roar” (8-9)
• Whistle and roar
• The pipes play, but we know the palace is
empty
• Played by the wind
– Eerie
– Haunted
– Emptiness
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“The storm/ Scatters the red
autumn leaves” (9-10)
• The storm
• Power of nature
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“The storm/ Scatters the red
autumn leaves” (9-10)
• Scatters
• Brushes away without much effort
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“The storm/ Scatters the red
autumn leaves” (9-10)
• Red autumn leaves
• Death imagery
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“His dancing girls are yellow dust”
(11)
• His dancing girls
• Suggests his position of power
• Yellow dust
• Death imagery
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“Their painted cheeks have
crumbled/ Away” (12-13)
• Painted cheeks
• Beauty
• Crumbled away
• Death imagery
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“His gold chariots/ And courtiers
are gone” (13-14)
• Possessions and admirers are gone
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“Only/ A stone horse is left of his/
Glory” (14-16)
• Only
• singularly
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“Only/ A stone horse is left of his/
Glory” (14-16)
• Stone horse
• Inanimate object functions as the symbol
of his reign
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
“Only/ A stone horse is left of his/
Glory” (14-16)
• His
• Ambiguous use of a personal pronoun
• Suggests absence of specific antecedent
– “Prince”
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
THEME
• “I sit on the grass and/ Start a poem, but
the pathos of/ It overcomes me” (16-18)
• Pathos
– Evoking pity, compassion or sorrow
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
THEME
• “The future/ Slips imperceptibly away”
(18-19)
• Imperceptibly
– Extremely subtle
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
Shakespeare: Sonnet 104
• To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion and mine eye may be deceived:
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred;
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
Shakespeare: Sonnet 104
• Subtle change in beauty
• We do not notice the change
• Yet it is always changing
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"
THEME
• “Who can say what the years will bring?”
(20)
– Lack of knowledge/certainty of what is to
come
– If this is the outcome of a powerful prince,
what lies ahead for us?
Geschke/English IV
"Jade Flower Palace"