HAIKU
An Anthology of Poems and Poets from BASHO to SHIKI
The brevity and apparent simplicity of the 17 syllable haiku contributes to its wide popularity in Japan, where great numbers are written each year, and to its growing influence on Western poetry.
In the hands of its great masters, as Mr. Henderson shows in this analytical anthology, the haiku is a very exacting form indeed, requiring compliance with the strictest aesthetic standards of concreteness, objectivity, and suggestiveness.
It is these qualities that attracted such Western writers as William Butler Yeats and Ezra Pound to the form and that accounts for its pervasive, if largely unproclaimed, influence on their poetry and that of their followers.
As this book demonstrates, a great haiku must be not only lucid but richly suggestive to the attentive reader. In this, haiku captures the essence of lyric poetry as it has been practiced throughout the ages.
In its variety and richness it also reflects the chief characteristics of Japanese painting and religion.
CONDITION:USED lightly, no writing within, light wear to cover.
