Lyric Poetry:Germany and Japan

A short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker◦Ancient Greece: sung to

music (lyre)◦Today: musical quality of

language

Lyric Poem

The Romantics favored lyric poetry because they wrote about personal emotion◦Wordsworth: “London, 1802”

“The World Is Too Much with Us”◦Coleridge: “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

Romantic Lyric Poetry: England

Wordsworth Coleridge

Heinrich Heine

◦1797-1856

◦Brilliant love poet

◦“The Lorelei”

Romantic Lyric Poetry: Germany

I cannot explain the sadness That's fallen on my breast. An old, old fable haunts me, And will not let me rest. The air grows cool in the twilight, And softly the Rhine flows on; The peak of a mountain sparkles Beneath the setting sun. More lovely than a vision, A girl sits high up there; Her golden jewelry glistens, She combs her golden hair. With a comb of gold she combs it, And sings an evensong; The wonderful melody reaches A boat, as it sails along. The boatman hears, with an anguish More wild than was ever known; He's blind to the rocks around him; His eyes are for her alone. At last the waves devoured The boat, and the boatman's cry; And this did with her singing, The golden Lorelei.

“The Lorelei”

Many years before the Romantic Era, Japanese wrote poems discussing similar ideas/emotions

Haiku◦3 line poems◦1st line: 5 syllables

2nd line: 7 syllables3rd line: 5 syllables

◦Focus on nature andintense emotions

Anticipating the Romantics: Japan

The sun’s way:Hollyhocks turn toward itThrough all the rain of May.

Poverty’s child – He starts to grind the rice,And gazes at the moon

Clouds come from time to time –And bring to men a chance to restFrom looking at the moon

Matsuo Bashō

Scampering over saucers –The sound of a rat.Cold, cold.

Spring rain:In our sedanYour soft whispers.

Fuji aloneLeft unburiedBy young green leaves

Yosa Buson

Beautiful, seen through holesMade in a paper screen:The Milky Way.

Far-off mountain peaksReflected in its eyes:The dragonfly.

A world of dew:Yet within the dewdrops –Quarrels.

Kobayashi Issa

1. Main idea of Heinrich Heine’s “The Lorelei.”

2. Main idea behind the haiku of Matsuo Bashō.

3. Main idea behind the haiku of Yosa Buson.

4. Main idea behind the haiku of Kobayashi Issa.

5. Major difference between poets’ perception of nature

in the English Romantics’ poetry and Japanese haiku.

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