Tanka Form
57577
Tanka
tells brief story or express single thought or insightcommon topics- love and natureclear powerful imagery to evoke an emotional responsemore emphasis on imagery and emotion than structurehint or suggest existence of a higher reality
Caesura
pause indicated by punctuation in English translation
Choka
long poem
Haiku
evolved from collaborative poetry- renga- during medieval ageschains of interlocking verseshokku- opening verse of renganever have titlesdon’t have to rhymeseldom use metaphor or similesimple direct languageclear images that stimulate thought and evoke emotion
Kigo
seasonal word
Which form uses contrasting images?
Haiku
Contrasting Images
explicit or implicit comparison between two images, actions, or states of being
Haiku Form
575(sound syllables)
Basho
-zen buddhist -1st great haiku writer -lived in a (Basho) hut -hermit, left his samurai family to wander -natural beauty, dramatic, exaggerated humor or depression-makes reader conscious of greatness of nature’s power-aware of items- even death- and even wrote a poem about it-born near Kyoto – lived in Edo (now Tokyo) -father of haiku’s
Was it that I went to sleep thinking of him,that he came in my dreams? Had I known it a dream I should not have waited.
Ono Komachi
One cannot ask loneliness How or where it starts.
On the cypress-mountain, Autumn evening.
Priest Jakuren
When I went to visit The girl I love so much,That the winter nightThe river blew so cold That the plovers were crying
Ki Tsurayuki
The sun’s way:hollyhocks turn toward itthrough all the rain of May
Matsuo Basho
Clouds come from time to time-and bring to men a chance to restfrom looking at the moon.
Matsuo Basho
The cuckoo-Its call stretching Over the water.
Matsuo Basho
Seven sights were veiledIn mist- then I heardMii Temple’s bell.
Matsuo Basho
Summer grasses-All that remainsOf soldiers’ visions.
Matsuo Basho
Haiku that starts with “Spring Rain:”
Yosa Buson
Beautiful, seen through holesMade in a paper screen:The Milky Way.
Kobayashi Issa
Far-off mountain peaksReflected in its eyes:The dragonfly.
Kobayashi Issa
A world of dew:Yet within the dewdrops-Quarrels.
Kobayashi Issa
With bland serenityGazing at the far hills:A tiny frog.
Kobayashi Issa
-second greatest japanese haiku poet-lived in kyoto-also a fine painter-romantic view of japanese landscape capturing mystery of nature-frequently wrote more than one haiku on the same subject
Yosa Buson
talent only recognised after deathborn into poverty and struggled through it his entire lifeappreciation for hardships people face- common in his workpoetry examines daily life in Japan
Kobayashi Issa
