1. The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter Li Po

2. Origin South East Asia/China

3. Li Po T’ang Dynasty Golden Age of Poetry Free spirited poetry Graceful and lyrical style Moved frequently Lived in exile Influenced by Taoist thought and Neo-Taost thought Poetry conveys his love for freedom

4. Persona The characters assumed by the speaker of the poem, novel, or short story. Not who the author actually is Often times in Chinese poetry, the author and the speaker are very different

5. Poem Persona (mask in Latin) think about the author putting on a mask of the character to reveal the story or message through the character’s point of view Song-like poem (ballad) Tells a story

6. The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter Persona- the speaker is a young woman waiting for the return of her husband Her husband has gone on a long and dangerous journey up the Yangtze River Li Po has put on the “mask” of the river- merchant’s wife to narrate this letter

7. What characters take on a different persona? Hannah Montana Superman Batman Spiderman