P5+Robert+Hass

Robert Hass was a poet and a translator of Japanese haiku. He was a very realistic poet who wrote about real life and real experiences. His most commonly known work is a poem about his brother after he had died. He wrote this poem to tell the world what was going through his mind. Also, he wrote these poems so that people that were like him, middle class and his age at the time, could relate to his works. I his poem August Notebook: A Death, he wrote:

“And I would say, "She was not a happy person.

She was panicky, crippled by guilt at her drinking,

and she was evasive to herself about herself,

and so she couldn't actually connect with anybody,

and her only defense was to be chronically cheerful" (Npr 4).

In this poem he talks about how his mother used to hide her true feelings and how she was actually miserable inside. People who have done this themselves or know people who have can relate to this and possibly see the futility in try to do it in the future. His works did not have much of an impact on the world as they were few in number and the experiences in theme were very specific. Only people who went through the same exact thing could relate to them. Many people will not remember him for his own works but the Japanese haiku he translated has stayed in the minds of those who study literature.

Poems