Tuesday, November 9, 2021

What is a haiku?

Haiku is an unrhymed poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. The haiku first emerged in Japanese literature during the 17th century, as a terse reaction to elaborate poetic traditions, though it did not become known by the name haiku until the 19th century.

Originally, the haiku form was restricted in subject matter to an objective description of nature.

See an example below:

“The Old Pond” by Matsuo Bashō

An old silent pond

A frog jumps into the pond—

Splash! Silence again.




2 comments:

  1. Haikus are near to the Pure Poetry looked for by Juan Ramón in the XXth century.
    Juan Ramón had a clear example of this search: "Rosa".

    It is imposible being more concise.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didn't know that. BTW, in English you write 20th century. No Roman numerals here.

    ReplyDelete

See you around

Dear all, I wish I could have said bye in person, but unfortunately I'll be on sick leave till 27th May at least. I'm sorry I wasn&#...