Richard, Vianna:
I thought about several different replies, names such as Surikov, Menzel, were in my head. Please read Mao's "Swimming":
"Now I am swimming across the great Yangtze,
Looking after to the open sky of Chu.
Let the wind blow and waves beat,
Better far than idly strolling in a courtyard. Today I am at ease.
'It was by a stream that the Master said-Thus do things flow away!''
http://www.oa18.com/read/poem/mao/mao_e/swimming.htm
On Mao's poetry:
"Mao's poetry exhibits a spirit of boldness and power, weaving together history, reality and commitment, and going beyond the limitations of time and space. When writing about history, he kept his sights on reality and lets history encompass the sequence of events; writing about reality, he posited the possibility of a better world in the future; and when writing about ideology, he based it on facts and deployed myth and imagination within a framework of realism. Mao Zedong advocated a method of literary composition that combines revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism, and his poetry was a synthesis of his theory and practice.
Bold transformation of myth and literary quotations are a distinct feature of Mao's poetry. His poetry also radiates sweeping and colorful derivation, like in Spring in a Pleasure Garden (Snow), which described grand and beautiful imagery, and The Moon over the Qin Bower (the Loushan Pass), which was meant to portray a brutal battle scene. What people garner from the poem, however, is a fig with deep colors and elegant structure. The use of colors in poems not only made tangible the poet's feelings but also deepened the reader's grasp of the poem. Mao was good at using simile and "evocation" in his poetry, as when he compared a hawk's acumen and vigor to a revolutionary's keen insight and generosity, or, a plum blossom to the common people's nobility. "
Steven:
4 o'clock of morning is the best time for exercise, for it's the vulnerable time for human hearts.
Early stirrer will steal a march on the rest of us.