Together with Ou-Yang Hsiu, Su Tung-p‘o ranks as the foremost poet of his age. His whole career is curiously similar to that of the older poet. Both were statesmen, and both suffered on account of their uprightness and independence at a time when morality in public life counted for little. Su Tung-p‘o, after holding high office, was ultimately banished to the island of Hainan, where he held the obscure post of sub-prefect. Here many of his best poems were written in lonely exile.
The stranger merchants faring from the east
Muffled in cotton robes, have met to feast.
They drink, they revel, and they part at will,
While moonlight floods the towers of Golden Hill.
The third watch comes, the tide begins to flow;
A fair wind follows, and in dreams I blow
The reed-pipes, and have sailed to far Yangchow.