Different types of poems have specific structures eg. a sonnet has 3 quatrains followed by a couplet and a prescribed rhyming form, or a villanelle. Sometimes the format of a poem depends on the poet. A haiku has just three lines – can you imagine writing a poem in 3 lines? I mean you can, but try with 5, 7, and 5 syllables on each line.
Matsuo Basho is one of the greatest haiku poets. On reading his poems I feel like I am living inside the world that he creates. Although his description is bare the mind fills out the details. Consider:
An old pond... A frog jumps into the pond, splash! Silence again.
These lines transport me into a completely different world. The structure of this haiku is also quite interesting: the first line sets the scene, then ACTION! followed by the outcome.
I decided to write a haiku of my own, and trust me when I say it was so difficult to write that I was ready to pull my hair out.
First, I had to think of a story or a thing that I like. I chose books.
The message that I wanted to convey is that the size of the book is not correlated to the ideas contained in it. Some of the most insightful books I know are very small.
Here goes:
Books with many pages Value is greater than pages Pages not equal to value
6 7 8
I liked the story but the syllables on each line are not right. I am also repeating the same words again and again and it’s somehow not very “poetic”
Next, I replaced the first line with
Books "have" pages
5
This still doesn’t convey the variety in book sizes. Also, the last line seems to have the same message as the second one. Here’s a better version:
Large books, small books Value greater than pages Read for the value
Aha! The syllable count is correct and I like the structure: The first line sets the scene the second makes an observation and the last draws a conclusion.
What do you think?
Resources: The first two images are by the great Hokusai (The Great Wave – one of my favorite paintings). The last is by Kitagawa Utamaro.