SOURCE: "Yone Noguchi's Poetry: From Whitman to Zen," in Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1, Spring, 1985, pp. 67-79.

In the following essay, Hakutani examines critical influences, both eastern and western, on Noguchi's poetry.

I

Despite recent interest in American ethnic poetry, particularly that of black poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes, very little has been said about Yone Noguchi, perhaps the most gifted Japanese American poet. It is not difficult to find some of the reasons for this neglect. He was not a native American writer; born in Japan in 1875, he came to America as a young immigrant. With little money in his pocket he struggled to live among the early Japanese immigrants in California for two years, but with some prior knowledge of English he swiftly learned the language. Already an aspiring poet, the young Noguchi paid homage to the Western poet Joaquin Miller by...