Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry Chinese Verse
Ci (pronounced tschi), sometimes referred to as "lyric songs" is a genre of Chinese lyrical verse originally set to music. It has over 800 verse forms of irregular line length, strict rhyme and tonal patterns which are known by song title for which the music itself has been lost. It has been defined as "a song without a tune" and the poetry is meant to be listened to rather than read. In other words, new lyrics were made up to fit the melody and rhythm of the lost songs, these lyrics make up Ci poetry.
The poems often appear simply as