Haiku
From W100Wiki
Kyla Fields Kyla25 HAIKU
A form of Japanese LYRIC verse that encapsulates a single impression of a natural object or scene, within a particular season, in seventeen syllables arranged in three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Arising in the 16th century, it flourished in the hands of Basho (1644-94) and Buson (1715-83). At first an opening STANZA of a longer sequence (haikai), it became a separate form in the modern period under the influence of Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902). The haiku CONVENTION whereby feelings are suggested by natural images rather than directly stated has appealed to many Western imitators since c. 1905, notably the IMAGISTS. See also TANKA.
--from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Baldick, Chris
An example:
--1
1 The table aches with
2 Emptiness. What is missing?
3 Ach! The typewriter.
2
1 The mills are silent,
2 The looms no longer click. Nor
3 Does my typewriter.
3
1 My typewriter? Why
2 Not? I was the only ba-
3 Stard to get near it.
4
1 What sod, what hairy
2 Barbarian from the foothills
3 Raped the typewriter?
5
1 I dreamed I heard a
2 Metallic scream. I turned over.
3 I am bowed in shame.
6
1 I will get Sandle
2 For this, for this foul outrage.
3 I will scrag Sandle.
7
1 Whitbread, Lord, hear my
2 Not undeserving plea. Get
3 Back my typewriter.
8
1 No handmaid with green
2 Eyelashes and nails can boast
3 Typewriter's beauty.
[Page 190 ]
9
1 I mourn. I cover
2 My head with ashes, hear me,
3 Typewriter come home.
10
1 Like Orpheus I go
2 Lamenting into every
3 Office. Heartbroken.
11
1 'Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! 2 'Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! 3 'Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! (Dies).
--from Bell, Martin, 1918-1978.: Hutchinson's Collected Haiku [from Complete Poems: Edited By Peter Porter (1988), Bloodaxe Books]
