A Comparative Study of Longing, Desire and Loss in 19th-century English and Japanese Love Poetry

Longing, Desire, Loss, Love Poetry, Japanese Poetry, English Poetry, and Nineteenth Century Poetry

The language of love transcends national boundaries. Although love and emotional conflict are universal human experiences, they are expressed differently across cultures and literary traditions. Different poets articulate longing, desire and loss with varying intensity, mood, imagery, and cultural identity. However, despite these differences in expression, the underlying emotions remain fundamentally the same, reflecting a shared human experience beyond geographical and linguistic boundaries. This paper offers a comparative study of nineteenth-century Japanese and English love poetry, investigating how emotions such as longing, desire and loss transcended national boundaries while being shaped by distinct cultural and historical contexts. Set against the backdrop of Meiji modernization in Japan and the industrial, moral, and social transformations of nineteenth-century England, the study examines how poets articulated similar emotional experiences through different moods, intensities, and cultural identities. The study argues that while the expression of emotion varies across literary traditions, the fundamental human experience of love and emotional conflict remains universal. Through close reading and cultural-historical analysis, the paper examines select poems by Masaoka Shiki, Yosano Akiko, and Ochiai Naobumi, alongside poems by Christina Rossetti, A. E. Housman, and Rupert Brooke.