Question

Write two to three sentences explaining the similarities and differences between the haiku by Bashō and the first stanza of Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." Consider each poem’s structure and use of motifs.

Answer 1

Answer:

Both poems try to capture a single moment, and they describe an experience in the natural world. Both poems use the motif of flowers. The poems have very different structures, however: the haiku is only three lines long, while Wordsworth's poem is longer and uses rhyme.

Explanation:

Answer 2

Both Basho and Wordsworth love nature and their love is reflected in their works. Basho focuses on making haiku while Wordsworth writes short lyrics, sonnets, and blank verse. 

In Wordsworth's "I wandered lonely as a cloud", the reader knows that it is the narrator who is doing the talking. While Basho's haiku mostly implies an observer. 

Wordsworth's rhythmic pattern is ABABCC, majority of these words are adjectives while Basho follows the haiku tradition of using words that indicates the time of year and most of the words used are nouns.