Jueju poems are always quatrains; or, more specifically, a matched pair of couplets, with each line consisting of five or seven syllables.
Many authors composing jueju poems at the time followed the concept of "seeing the big within the small" (Chinese: 小中見大; pinyin: Xiǎozhōng jiàndà), and thus wrote on topics of a grand scale; philosophy, religion, emotions, history, vast landscapes and more.
A poet writing a jueju or similar lüshi-style poem needs to alternate level and oblique tones both between and within lines.
This poem is called "Spring Lament" (Chinese: 春怨; pinyin: Chūn yuàn) and was written by Jin Changxu.
This poem concerns a standard figure in this type of poetry, a lonely woman who is despondent over the absence of a husband or lover, probably a soldier who has gone to Liaoxi in present-day Mongolia.