{"id":417,"date":"2022-01-30T07:54:24","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T07:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/?page_id=417"},"modified":"2022-05-28T06:28:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-28T06:28:41","slug":"haiku","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/?page_id=417","title":{"rendered":"Haiku"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/a>. 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>
\n

Matsuo Basho<\/a> 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:<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>
\n
An old pond...\nA frog jumps into the pond,\nsplash! Silence again.<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, I had to think of a story or a thing that I like. I chose books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here goes:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
Books with many pages\nValue is greater than pages\nPages not equal to value<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
6\n7\n8<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, I replaced the first line with<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
Books \"have\" pages <\/pre>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
5<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n
Large books, small books\nValue greater than pages\nRead for the value<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do you think?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Resources:<\/span> The first two images are by the great Hokusai (The Great Wave – one of my favorite paintings). The last is by Kitagawa Utamaro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":833,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-417","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":841,"href":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/417\/revisions\/841"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shruti.karandikar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}