Lately I have been exploring the many forms of poetry, both new and old, because sometimes I find it easier to write with a blueprint. Ultimately I intend to try my hand at every form I come across, for the sake of expanding my horizons, though undoubtedly I will use some of them only once. My main resource for this study is a website called Shadow Poetry: A Poet’s Writing Resource. Someone has asked me to share what I am learning, and I’m very happy to do so. So here is my first article about poetry, and I’ve created a new tab in the menu, “About Poetry,” for the express purpose of sharing what I’ve learned.
This first installment is about Japanese poetic forms. There are six that I have come across, and all of them are quite short. Evidently, the Japanese are fond of brevity.
Some characteristics are true of all the forms.
- Often these poems are untitled, but I don’t suppose it’s a crime to put a title on them. I title mine but have left the titles off of the examples below.
- Punctuation generally is not used.
- Initial capitals are optional as well.
Here are the 6 Japanese forms in summary, but read below for more information on each one.
Name    Stanzas    Lines      Syllables    Theme
Haiku       1         3          5-7-5       nature
Senryu      1         3          5-7-5       human nature
Katauta     1         3      5-7-5 or 5-7-7   love (“half” poem)
Sedoka      2       3 each    5-7-7, 5-7-7     love (“whole” poem)
Tanka       1         5        5-7-5-7-7     anything
Lanturne    1         5        1-2-3-4-1     anything (shape poem)
Haiku
This is by far the most easily recognized of all Japanese forms. True Haiku is made up of 3 lines, with 5-7-5 kana (Japanese scripts), respectively. They cannot truly be compared to English syllables, but that is as close as we can get in the English language. So the rule for an English Haiku calls for 17 syllables divided in 5-7-5 over 3 lines. A master at this form may use fewer than 17 syllables, but never more. Haiku is generally not written in one long sentence. Instead, either the first or last line will be a phrase, and the other two will support that phrase. To be a true Haiku, the subject should be nature, and it should capture a single moment in time.
Sample:
Fragile yellow bloom
stretches toward the sunlight
nothing else matters
Senryu (pronounced, sen-RYE-you)
Many poems you see labeled as Haiku are actually Senryu. A Senryu looks like a Haiku, but the subject of the poem is human nature, as opposed to nature itself.
Sample:
Privileged hands these
Which utter things
My tongue may not tell
Perhaps an improvement on the above example would be:
Privileged hands these
Boldly they utter things
My tongue may not tell
It is still within the 17-syllable limit, but now the center line has more syllables than the top and bottom, and it is divided into a phrase and a sentence, rather than being one long sentence.
Katauta
Katauta may also look like a haiku, although it is equally acceptable to have two “extra” syllables in line 3. The subject of the Katauta is love, and the poem itself is written from a lover to his or her beloved. A Katauta is considered to be only half a poem.
Sample:
Darling, I love you
more than I did yesterday
less than I will tomorrow
Sedoka
Two Katauta poems written together form a Sedoka. In the sample below, the first half is the lover addressing the beloved, and the second half is the beloved’s response. I don’t know that it has to be this way, but this is how I chose to apply the form.
Sample:
Will you still love me
when youthful vigor has gone
and golden hair waxed silver?
I will love you till
the sun forgets how to shine
and the moon falls from the sky
Tanka
Tanka is one of the longer Japanese forms, if you can call it long. It has 5 lines as opposed to the usual 3. The syllables are distributed as follows: 5-7-5-7-7. Although the Tanka is written as one stanza, it generally has two parts, with the second part either contrasting or elaborating on the first. The nice thing about Tanka is that the poem may be written on any subject.
Sample:
Without is sunshine
new green, a warm gentle breeze—
Dark clouds rage within
choking out life, threatening
to destroy all that is good
Lanturne
Also 5 lines long, the Lanturne is a shape poem, intended to resemble the shape of the Japanese lantern. To achieve this effect, the line lengths are 1-2-3-4-1 syllables respectively, and the lines are centered on the page. Like the Tanka, the Lanturne may also be written on any subject.
Sample 1:
O
lanturne
shine your light
illuminate
me
In this example, I was originally going to use the word lantern, but I liked the way the longer word looked on the page, for it provided a better balance to illuminate. Not only that, but it gave a double meaning to the poem.
Not all Lanturnes will look as tidy as this one, however. Here’s another example:
Sample 2:
Night
beckons
to lovers
of all ages,
Come.
As you see, the shape will vary with the words chosen, even though the syllable count is the same.
To learn more about these forms, I recommend you begin with this article from Shadow Poetry, and then dig deeper at your local library or other online resources. And have fun mastering these six Japanese poetic forms.
All poems above © 2017 Abigail Gronway – All Rights Reserved
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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Oh Linda, Thank you so much for this very thoughful and thought provoking post! Now I will know what everyone else is doing here on WP. LOL!! Thanks again for being so generous with your time and what went into this post.
Chuck
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I admire your ambition! I’ve tried out quite a few forms–some of them only once 🙂 We must be on the same page, as last night I was looking at my clipboard, where I keep the basic “rules” for many forms, and I thought–“I really need to do some of ‘these'” 🙂 And then I was sick all day, so I was blessed to just get my WP Daily Prompt poem (Limerick) up!
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Thank you for sharing your research and hard work on Japanese Poetry forms. Reblogging.
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You’re welcome. And thanks for the reblog.
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Reblogged this on BrewNSpew and commented:
Sharing information on Japanese Poetry forms
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Reblogged this on richwrapper and commented:
Indebtedness to Lindaluna583 Dark Side of the Moon the part of me most people never see for the following informative posting.
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I’m glad you found it helpful. Thank you for sharing.
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If I may assist in infecting just one more…
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Great post! Thanks for sharing… 🙂
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My pleasure. 🙂
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Love this post on forms of poetry. Thanks for sharing.
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You’re quite welcome. Thank you for visiting my blog.
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My pleasure. ^__^
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet and commented:
Linda Luna offers a brief but thoughtful look at the different forms of Japanese poetry. Come take a look at this informative piece and share it with your friends. Thanks for this post, Linda!
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You’re welcome. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
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Thank You Linda for taking the extra time to prepare this for all of us!!! So glad to see everyone is sharing it with reblogs!! Happy for You!!!
Getting ready for the road trip.
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Have a safe and enjoyable trip! And thanks for sharing.
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Reblogged this on Brave and Reckless and commented:
I am not a big fan of rules in poetry but occasionally enjoy playing with the brevity of traditional Japanese poetry. Linda Luna of
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON provides a great introduction to these classic formats
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