Tanka Poetry — A Brief Introduction
A beginner's guide to writing a tanka poem.
Tanka is a form of poetry that originated in seventh-century Japan.
It is similar to Haiku, another popular form of Japanese poetry. Like haiku, tanka poems have a defined syllable structure. A tanka poem has 31 syllables.
While haiku has a 5–7–5 syllable structure, Tanka has the structure 5–7–5–7–7.
So, a tanka poem is like a haiku with two extra lines added. Sometimes, this extra length can offer a little more scope to tell your story. And, unlike haiku, tanka allows metaphors, similes, and personification.
Traditionally, Tanka poems were written as one continuous line. But modern versions written in English are usually formatted over five lines.
Tanka poems typically have a turn or pivot in the third line. An article about Tanka on poets.org notes:
Like the sonnet, the tanka employs a turn, known as a pivotal image, which marks the transition from the examination of an image to the examination of the personal response. This turn is located within the third line, connecting the kami-no-ku, or upper poem, with the shimo-no-ku, or lower poem.
Modern English tanka tends to be more flexible than traditional forms. Because consonant…
