In Chinese history, poetry writing reached its zenith during the period of Emperor Xuan Zong (r. 712-756). During his reign, poets were honored with high positions in the Imperial Academy and higher seats in the court as well. Along with the five classics, poem writing was part of the civil service examinations during that period. Li Bai, Bai Juyi and Du Fu were among the most famous poets (Cooper and Du 23). Li Bai was the most respected romantic poet of those times. Li Bai was inspired by Taoism and good wines. He exhibited wild and free imaginations in his poems especially in the context of nature. Du Fu, a good friend of Li Bai, belonged to a different style – one of realism. Du Fu’s poems revolved around social issues and were basically full of compassion for the poor and downtrodden. Du Fu condemned the rich who, he felt, enjoyed feasts while the poor starved to death on the roads. He also bled for the families of the soldiers who were fighting in the borders. Li Bai and Du Fu took romanticism and realism to great heights. Li Bai, alias Taibai alias Li Po was a famous poet of the High Tang period. He wrote more than a thousand poems in his life and has been acclaimed as the Deity of Poetry. Li Bai loved drinking, swordplay and travel. Li Po as he was commonly known wrote many poems on the theme of drinking and being drunk. Li Po enjoyed his wine and also used it as a poetic metaphor for the good things in life. Life at its best, according to the verses of Li Po, is a kind of intoxication, an elevation; he felt that poetry like good wine should be able to promote self awareness and also be uplifting. Even nature, as Li Po likes to present it, has a kind of intoxicated quality, especially in spring. The poet’s presentation of himself as drunkenly enjoying some natural setting is thus a cleverly unpretentious way of presenting transcendent states of mind and being. Li Po may be called a ‘romantic’ poet in that almost all his poems are to some extent dream-poems; many of his longer ones were like spirit-journeys related to the trances of mediums in early Chinese religious dances (Cooper and Du 35). To a highly tradition-bound poetry, Li Po brought a sense of freedom and adventure. Li Po’s poems are simple and unpretentious. “High in the Mountains, I Fail to Find the Wise Man,” is a distinctive poem of Li Po. It begins abruptly, moves forward more unpredictably, and ends more astonishingly. The constant shift in visual imagery and sensation is charged with magic and beauty – ‘the sight of the deer’, ‘the sudden sky overhead’ and ‘the breathtakingly beautiful sight of the waterfall’. The Chinese valued Li Po for his spontaneity and freedom. There is a story that Li Po died when he drunkenly tried to embrace the reflection of the moon in the river. Li Po had the gift of talking through the voices of other people. In the poem, “The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter.” Li Po spoke with the sensitivity and sensibility of a mature woman. He loved to handle themes of friendship and especially separation among friends. He felt a genuine distress when parting from friends. Poems of friendship and leave were handled in a very unique manner by Li Po. Most of