While I enjoyed OSC's last column, I have to disagree with him that haiku is easy to teach and write. Telling a student to give you something in 5-7-5 is easy, but it isn't haiku.
Haiku stems from the Victorian tradition of not saying outright how you feel. It is one moment in time that made you feel strongly. You are now relaying it to someone else so they will also feel strongly about it, but you never tell them what you felt.
Haiku should contain a reference to a season which is often represented by one of the two images used. The images should not be anthropomorphized. The verbs used should only be verbs the nouns can literally do. No metaphors, no similies.
The hardest part of all is finding the Ah! Moment. Taking a nature scene you enjoyed, distilling it to its simplest essence, and presenting it to others is exceedingly difficult.
Writing haiku is one of the hardest things a poet can do.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I think you mean writing good haiku is one of the hardest things a poet can do. I also didn't know it was Victorian in extraction.
Posted by Will B (Member # 7931) on :
The most beautiful English haiku I've ever seen (sniff):
The 404 error on my site is a haiku. Posted by Liz B (Member # 8238) on :
Ack! Haiku comes from the Japanese tradition, not Victorian. In the Western world, Pound and other imagists admired, emulated, and popularized (inasmuch as poetry is popular!) the elliptical and highly visual nature of haiku and other Japanese poetry. That's why the 5-7-5; Japanese poetry is based on syllables, not meter.
(A lot of imagists also used Japanese and other east Asian cultures as subjects for their poetry, notably Amy Lowell. Since most of them knew little or nothing about that area of their world, some of their poems are hilarious. Like one guy refers to his Japanese love's blue eyes, for example. Others just rely on stereotypical images like chrysanthemums, kites, cherry blossoms, etc.)
Since Imagism as a poetic movement dates from around 1910 and Victoria died in 1901, even it isn't really a Victorian movement. Granted, culture doesn't make sweeping changes just because a queen dies, so the desire to say something without saying it may possibly have its roots in Victorian modesty. Haiku, though, is much much older.
Everything else I agree with. It's easy to show students how to write haiku, very hard for them to write a good one.
Posted by Hookt_Un_Fonix (Member # 10094) on :
Look Haiku might be a beautiful thing, but they are easy to teach. 5-7-5 and they don't have to rhyme. Thats easy, the art is making them make sense. So I am in agreement with OSC and Liz. I can teach a six year old to write a Haiku, but the art is in the beauty.
Posted by docmagik (Member # 1131) on :
This is my haiku. That line had five syllables. And so does this one.
Posted by Hookt_Un_Fonix (Member # 10094) on :
lol see its easy
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:Originally posted by docmagik: This is my haiku. That line had five syllables. And so does this one.
Posted by docmagik (Member # 1131) on :
Modified to meet season requirement:
This is spring's haiku. That's five springy syllables. Now here's five for fall.
Posted by Hookt_Un_Fonix (Member # 10094) on :
Dis is hookts Haiku. The grammar be all wrong to. but I can count five
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
A bad Haiku; here, A too-cold Autumn wind Blows away trousers.
Posted by vonk (Member # 9027) on :
A bird flies south, lands on a near dead tree branch and turns to fly home.
^is that a real haiku? I've always heard there was more to it than the syllable counting, but never knew what that was. So this is my first attempt at an actual haiku. Does it follow the rules correctly?
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I like kaoru he is spiffy plays guitar i want to kiss him
There. that was embarassing.
Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
Seattle winters. Once they were dark and rainy. Now we get snowed in.
Posted by RunningBear (Member # 8477) on :
bear that runs along, furry, brown, philanthropic, sage of the forest,
Hmmm...
I enjoy this.
Posted by RunningBear (Member # 8477) on :
brown hound snores away, doors rattle, windows jump, bump! newfoundland music,
I really do enjoy this.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I love Dir en grey Their music is so awesome I will see them soon
Posted by Hookt_Un_Fonix (Member # 10094) on :
Enders game was good Each story got much better thats why we are here
Posted by dantesparadigm (Member # 8756) on :
English teacher's love Things that go over kid's heads It makes them feel big.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Dew on the mountain snow on pine, leave on aspen Dude peek-a-boo
Aw crap, wrong thread.
Posted by Hookt_Un_Fonix (Member # 10094) on :
lol I love that one pooka
Posted by RunningBear (Member # 8477) on :
ode to mountain dew in the form of a haiku I applaud pooka
Posted by A Rat Named Dog (Member # 699) on :
A Dada Haiku. Doop de doop de doop de doo. SYLLABLES!
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
I tell you, these drugs Have no effect on my mind But smell those colors!
Posted by Hookt_Un_Fonix (Member # 10094) on :
Sam what ever you are having, pass it along and see if we can write a better version of "Were the Buffalo Roam". I think that would be much harder then learning to write a haiku. Trying to write a readable story while totally under the control of chemical substances meant to alter your mind and motor functions, now why don't they teach that in college? Or maybe they did, but I was to involved with the class to remember it.
Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
quote: Ack! Haiku comes from the Japanese tradition, not Victorian.
Right. It was discovered by people who spoke English at the tail end of the Victorian or beginning of the Edwardian period. It was probably described to us as having a Victorian sensibility to emphasis the repressed nature of the form.
Most Western poetry is about emotion and elaborate series of metaphors. Haiku isn't.
And for the record, it's only 5-7-5 in Japanese. English syllables are too long for that to work. It should be just as long as you need to tell us what you saw.
Posted by Tara (Member # 10030) on :
sometimes it's hard to figure out whether words are one syllable or two; for example, "smelled." one or two?
Posted by Will B (Member # 7931) on :
Often in the arctic night, so gelid, The fens that in summer evenings smelled Of the stray dead fish or crawly annelid... Seem pure and white, all scent dispelled.
Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
Smelled is one syllable.
Smellèd is two syllables.
Posted by Liz B (Member # 8238) on :
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
peek-a-boo