Page:Japanese Literature (Keene).pdf/33

Rh by the modern poets than the formless free verse. Certainly no modern poet has managed to suggest more with so few words than did Issa (1763–1828) after the death of his only surviving child. We may imagine that his friends attempted to console him with the usual remarks on the evanescence of the things of this world, and the meaninglessness of this existence as compared to the eternal life in Buddha’s Western Paradise. Issa wrote: