Joseph Bekar- Poetry Assignment
Going through the Tang poetry many of them interested me , but one written by Li Bo titled Drinking along with the moon caught my eye. This poem had a deep message and one that everyone can learn from. It seems in the poem The author is Lonely, depressed and in need of a friend. Instead of going out to reach out to his real friends he reaches out to the devil Alcohol. the person in the poet drinks to the point where he is talking to himself as well as believing that the moon and stars are his friends.
After reading this poem a couple of songs came to my mind but one that such out was Habits by Tove Lo. In the song the artist turns to drugs and alcohol to get over a recent breakup or fight between her friends. She is feeling lonely and turning to that same devil to get over the pain. one line in the song that i see are connected is, “cant go home alone again, need something to numb the pain” obviously when she says she need something to numb the pain she is talking about something to make her feel better. Same thing in the poem the person in the poem it states “I raise mt cup to invite the moon, he and my shadow and i make three”. The author in the poet is alone as well and turning to alcohol to make him feel better.
There is a recurring theme of alcohol and loneliness in the poem and the song. Today there is a major problem with alcohol especially as you move up the social ladder. People with more money are usually the ones that result to alcohol to make them feel better as we see this famous song writer and producer talks about her addiction with drugs and alcohol.
Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/tovelo/habits.html
Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh2LWWORoiM
One response so far
Hi, I’m glad you brought up the interpretation of them being Lonely and showing signs of alcoholism. If you read my post I thought that they weren’t sad but content with being lonely. You make good points but I think that the alcohol makes it worse in Li Bo’s poem. He states, “Still sober, we exchange our joys./Drunk–and we’ll go our seperate ways”. in that statement he shows that he has fun sober but once he gets drunk he fades away.