Page:The Spirit of Japanese Poetry (Noguchi).djvu/105

Rh He did not incline to solve Nature and Life as Tsuchii, but he made them a symbol of love and poetry, through which he looked for salvation. He was a dreamer, but he never speculated in thought. He was simple. He hated the world vulgar and material. He is a poet of unerring culture who built the house beautiful, which he peopled with his choicest images and longing, who put beauty and melody of language before everything else. He has been verily often criticised as a classicist. It is true that his taste was refined by virtue of his training, and he could be quite graceful even when he had nothing to say. On the other hand, his mind never rose high, he brought no particular message to our life. His chief merit must be valued through the channel of his language which gives us a delightful change from Shimazaki; indeed, he is the master of art, he had no competitor in its beauty. However, in his later work, there is plenty of reason to believe that he was trying to escape from his culture and classicism which benefited him at the beginning; it is almost tragic to see his struggle. His hands are too delicate after a long habit of wearing gloves; he is not accustomed so well to the open air. His views of life and beauty are far more advanced in his Nijugogen and Hakuyokyu than in his earlier books; but it seems that he could not leave his classicism entirely. If he were smaller or larger than himself, I should