Friday, February 16, 2024

Haiku

Read the following poem by Basho:


It is deep autumn
My neighbor
How does he live, I wonder.



What is most likely the meaning of this poem?


a. The speaker worries about how his neighbor is going to make it through the cold nights
b. The speaker is approaching death and is now beginning to concern himself with the welfare of those around him
c. The speaker has just realized he knows nothing about his neighbor's life
d. The speaker cannot understand how the neighbor is still alive.




















Scroll down for the answer.










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Since this is a poem, a short one at that, we must look for clues to see if there is more to this than meets the eye.  The only clue we are given is that it is autumn.  Autumn is an archetype that means approaching old age and death.  With this in mind, the correct answer is b.

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