This is a small poetry club that started as a poetry email exchange between two friends. Our goal is to read a poem everyday, and this blog is one way to help keep us accountable. There is only one valid rule in poetry club: there are no rules in poetry club. Read any poem, in any order, with any or no interactions. You decide. We only suggest you read poetry!
17 Feb: "No one travels..." by Matsuo Basho
No one travels Along this way but I, This autumn evening.
Definitely similar to Frost! The thing I like about this poem is that it is in the present tense where The Road Not Taken is in the past tense. I think the Basho allows the road to feel closer, inward versus viewing the road as a fork- outwardly.
Is it ironic that both poems were set in autumn? "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood"....and "autumn evening" or do they choose the autumn as the season of ChANGE on purpose? The transformative season....but then, so is spring....hmmm....
This poem is a lot more egotistical. No one else and only I. I can relate. There is something significant to having feelings of being the only or the first to something. I have wondered if I was the only human to ever watch the stars or eat a meal from the location I was. And the idea/odds that I might have been greatly enhanced my experience. Even though, now in hindsight, I probably wasn't. Why do we want to create these narratives of is being so unique and special?
Reminds me of "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely similar to Frost! The thing I like about this poem is that it is in the present tense where The Road Not Taken is in the past tense. I think the Basho allows the road to feel closer, inward versus viewing the road as a fork- outwardly.
ReplyDeleteIs it ironic that both poems were set in autumn? "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood"....and "autumn evening" or do they choose the autumn as the season of ChANGE on purpose? The transformative season....but then, so is spring....hmmm....
BUT of course, I love both poems terrifically!
This poem is a lot more egotistical. No one else and only I. I can relate. There is something significant to having feelings of being the only or the first to something. I have wondered if I was the only human to ever watch the stars or eat a meal from the location I was. And the idea/odds that I might have been greatly enhanced my experience. Even though, now in hindsight, I probably wasn't. Why do we want to create these narratives of is being so unique and special?
ReplyDelete