Writing a Haiku with Imagery
A Haiku is a type a poem that is unique. Even though Haikus are extremely short they still tend to carry a lot of meaning behind them. The way a Haiku is normally written is “it’s always five, seven, and five- like math” (received forms, 218). Believe it or not this is a very popular form of poetry and typically the easiest to write. In specific a poem written by Gary Snyder is talking about his one night while driving a truck down a very dark road. He does this by using one of the literary devices, called imagery.
Poet Snyder does start out his haiku with describing what the truck looked like and does compare it to a town. “A great freight truck lit like a town” (received forms, 222). Poet Snyder wants his readers to be able to picture what he is talking about. So, that being said he does have most of his haiku explain the scene of his poem. The question is, why is this important and why is he telling us this in his haiku. He is doing this because he is wanting to tell us how he is feeling using the use of imagery. He mentions, dark, that means he’s mad or frustrated. It seems like Snyder does do a good job expressing his feelings through the use of poetry. More specifically writing a Haiku.
An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art, Edited by Anne Finch and Kathrine Varnes, U. of Michigan Press, 2002, pp. 217–222.