The Spirit of Haiku and A. E. Housman

Abstract

If one may start with a short account of the characteristics of traditional Japanese verse, the following views of Anthony Thwaite are appropriate:

… its gentle melancholy;…. the sad lessons of transience which nature teaches us, the quiet pleasures of solitude…

(Japanese Verse: Penguin, p. xxxviii)

In addition to the above-mentioned characteristics, he also refers to its ‘tough stoicism’ and ‘humorous, deflationary, sharp-eyed little poems of senryu’, which is written in the same 17-syllable form as the haiku. Some of these characteristics may be shared by every nation loving poetry in all ages. I venture to say, however, that there are some similarities between the English and the Japanese in their liking for emotion in poetry, though I know that I consciously disregard great differences in poetical forms and traditions between the two peoples.