Haiku

Haiku is a type of Japanese poem created by Matsuo Basho that is very much based on form and pattern. It consists 3 lines that form a syllabic pattern. Lines 1 and 3 each have 5 syllables and line 2 has 7 syllables. While these poems may just seem like a pattern, the way haikus were written and said gave the poems different meanings. An example of when Haikus are affected by how they are said is when, Richard Wright’s daughter says, “[my father’s poems] were self-developed antidotes against illness, and that breaking down words into syllables matched the shortness of his breath.” (Wright, 217). In other words, when her father read his poems, he said it sparingly/with a lot of pauses because he is ill. Even if the poem wasn’t about death or illness, it made his daughter believe so because he of how he said it.

An example of when a haiku was affected by the way it was written is in Lawson Fusao Inada’s Poem Just as I Thought. The poem was written as follows (219):

Just as I thought:

Acorns

Fall

What

Did

They

Call

This is a perfect example of how the way a haiku is formatted/written can affect or add to it’s meaning. This is because the poem is literally written as if it was falling, hence the subject of the poem being a falling acorn. I feel like writing the poem this way really made the subject of the poem even clearer than it already was. This shows that format of a haiku is key to the message and subject of the poem.

Wright, Richard. “Haiku.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes. U of Michigan P, 2002, pp. 217.

Fusao Inada, Lawson. “Just as I thought.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes. U of Michigan P, 2002, pp. 219.