Introduction
was not learned in the popular sense. Without realizing that he himself was a far better poet than Shiki who died comparatively young, he strove to reach the goal set by his master. Though unbending in what he held in his poetic tenets to be true, he was always so humble in mind that an unceasing growth kept him young in spirit, and whatever idea or experience he gleaned, he in due time elevated in a higher synthesis. Moreover, he took poetry seriously and held it in profound veneration. He wrote poems for dear life, and through that sublimation of himself to something so far beyond himself, he truly achieved a personal immortality.
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