Haiku

As you might know, in a haiku, the first line must contain exactly five syllables, the second line must contain seven, and the third five. While filling out the syllable count in a haiku is pretty easy, writing a complete poem in such a short span is difficult. A good haiku is like a bell strike: quick, but deeply resonant. As you'll see in the poems below, a haiku can be beautiful (Buson), "deep" (Basho) or even kind of funny (Issa). Those below don't accede to the syllable count because they're translated from the Japanese.

This sort of poetry, in which a certain number of syllables is required per line, is called syllabic verse. The American poet Marianne Moore wrote in syllabic verse, but gave herself far more challenging (and somewhat arbitrary) constraints. Each stanza of a Moore poem might call for the following number of syllables per line: 17, 11, 8, 4, 6, 19, 7. Why would you bother? Most poets will tell you that they write more effectively with some constraints (formal or topical). Syllabic verse has no other constraints and does not need to rhyme. In my experience, it tends to have a mechanical or artificial feel to it. I'm not sure why--it may be that the poet's forced awareness of the form during composition somehow imprints itself on the poem.


Here are haiku from three Japanese masters, translated by the American poet Robert Hass. If you like these, I'd recommend picking up Hass' anthology, which you can buy here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0880013516/002-3753269-4904069?v=glance&n=283155



A field of mustard,
no whale in sight,
the sea, darkening.
--Buson


Even in Kyoto--
hearing the cuckoo's cry--
I long for Kyoto.
--Basho


New Year's Day--
everything is in Blossom!
I feel about average.
--Issa