Forms of Poetry with examples

[RR]

Haiku

Probably one of the simplest (in looks), but most misunderstood, forms.

Haiku is an objective, Japanese short poem based on a nature theme, with three lines consisting of the following number of syllables per line-- five, then seven, then five.

One should not confuse haiku with senryu, another three-line, 5-7-5 style that is NOT nature-based, but is much more open in both subject matter (including the human side of existence) and subjective viewpoint, incorporating at times, even humor and political content.

(5-7-5 or 7-5-7 is not a strict criterion anymore.)

And here, right here, is where new poets go wrong. Haiku and senyru are NOT easy to write. With these forms, you are creating a snapshot of life, and the shutter speed is FAST. Every word not only counts, every word carries the weight of 12 million pounds, while the message, if done right, carries no weight at all. The one overwhelmingly vital thing about the nature-based haiku and its humanity-based cousin, senryu, is that you must think whole poem, not line by line. If you think by line, you will write absolute crap. (In fact, all poets should be thinking whole poem with EVERY poem they write-- but haiku's inherent brevity sort of forces you to do that, if you're serious about writing anything approaching a good example of the form.) A concept must be there first-- then, you return to it, having already mined the diamond, to polish off any imperfection. And here's that promised expansion of the basic definition -- the imperfection I mean has NOTHING to do with the syllables-- nothing to do with the aforementioned 5-7-5.

(I didn't write the above, just cut & paste from net )


An example quoted by Sujatha:


þÃí¸ø Üð¼ò¾¢ø
þ¨¼Å¢¼¡Áø ´Ä¢ì¸¢ÈÐ
¦ºø§À¡ý!


One by 'Kavikko' Abdul Rahman:


°÷ì §¸¡Å¢ø Á½¢Â¢ø
º¢Äó¾¢ Å¨Ä


Over to you now.