What is it about?

The English poet John Keats and the Japanese poet Matsuo Basho were separated by huge differences of time and culture, and yet their sensibilities were strikingly similar. This essay compares them as travellers, both in the literal and the metaphorical sense, focusing particularly on their qualities of openness and transparency (or 'annihilation') of self.

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Why is it important?

Openness and transparency of self are in short supply in our culture today, which seems to be losing the capacity to stop and think in its preoccupation with instant, strident and often vacuous forms of self-expression. As Basho would say, we should be more prepared to 'go to the pine to learn about the pine' or, as Keats would say, 'Man should not dispute or assert but whisper results to his neighbour'.

Perspectives

Although published in a specialist journal, this essay is not written for a specialist readership and would appeal, I believe, to anyone curious to know what these two poets might tell us about ourselves. Constructive comment/criticism would be much appreciated (correspondence address is included in the online and print editions of the essay).

Mr Geoffrey M. Wilkinson
Independent author

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: The Narrow Road to the Western Isles— If Keats had journeyed with Bashō, Keats-Shelley Review, April 2014, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1179/0952414214z.00000000043.
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