Analysis of "After Reading Kobayashi Issa's The Spring of My Life On My 49th Birthday" by Dobby Gibson
Poem Found Here: "After Reading Kobayashi Issa's The Spring of My Life On My 49th Birthday" by Dobby Gibson I've read Kobayashi Issa's The Spring of My Life a couple of times. Issa is one of my favorite poets as his verse is humorous but having poignant imagery. Issa's poems places him as part of the outside world, and there's humor and absurdity in his observations. When reading this poem, there's this sense of Issa's verse running through. For example the first tercet, "On a dull December day it's never noon more briefly, / though what a relief to look around and realize our lies, / in the long run won't last long." Yes, there's the reference to the season and the view -- a "never noon" of constant shadow and dullness. Yet in this vision, there is comfort in nothing lasting -- like lies. The sun will come out eventually. As the poem continues, this perspective changes to the smallness of things. Somethi...