LINGUISTIC EXPLORATION OF IMAGERY CONSTRUCTION IN LI BAI’S ROMANTIC POETRY

Abstrak

As the preeminent romantic poet of the High Tang Dynasty, Li Bai is revered by posterity as the “Poet Immortal”, distinguished by his unparalleled poetic imagery and idiosyncratic linguistic style. This paper adopts an integrated research framework that combines imagery studies and linguistic criticism to dissect Li Bai’s canonical verses. It first categorizes the dual aesthetic modes of Li Bai’s poetic imagery—grand magnificent imagery and delicate lyrical imagery—and elaborates on his core imagistic crafting techniques including hyperbole, metaphor, personification, contrast and parallelism. Further linguistic analysis is carried out on phonological rhyme rules, lexical preference and flexible syntactic devices embodied in his works. This study reveals that Li Bai’s unrestrained romantic temperament is fully materialized through vivid imagery creation and plain, musical, flexible poetic language. His poems integrate natural description, lyrical narration and profound historical allusions, forming a unique romantic aesthetic system that occupies an irreplaceable position in classical Chinese literature and exerts lasting influence on global literary creation.