Haiku: A Sequence of Syllables
Within the realm of poetry, authors like to utilize different forms and structures of writing to convey certain messages or emotions to readers. Many poets like to incorporate the use of natural images within their pieces which helps establish a time, place, and mood for the reader. Haiku, created by Matsuo Bashō, is a specific form of writing used by poets that utilizes syllabic patterns and natural scenery to instill emotion and meaning.
In “An Exaltation of Forms” by Anne Finch and Kathrine Varnes, a chapter written on the haiku form, written by Jean Hyung Yul Chu, describes the origins of the creation of haiku poetry and how Bashō’s poems contained seasonal references that grounded the poem in a specific time and place (Chu 217). The form was adapted from a game of call and response called renga which was created in sixteenth-century Japan. The earlier term for haiku, Hokku, literally meant “starting verse”, and “after its role in the renga, functioned as a kind of shorthand that marked the time and place of the renga’s composition by referring to traditional seasonal themes” (Chu 217). These seasonal themes contribute to the overall tone of the haiku and its structure which is organized by a syllabic pattern of 5–7–5 in which the first and last lines of the poem are five syllables long while the middle line is seven. Authors will then take this format and construct a unique pattern of words for the syllabic pattern to contribute to the tone of the piece.
There is also a religious association with haiku poetry in which there are specific distinctions between poems written with Buddhist and Christian conceptions. Haiku’s written in the New England Protestant tradition typically reference a higher power that control’s the poem’s sense of “falling” whereas those written in a Buddhist tradition do not identify a higher power and typically do display any sense of “falling”. For example, in Yosa Buson’s haiku, the author writes:
The petals fall
and the river takes them —
plum tree on the bank (Chu 218).
As shown above, the author simply sets the scene of petals flowing down a river while a plum tree is perched on the bank. Using the vivid imagery of this river scene, Buson can set a calming mood as there is a smooth transition of syllables between each line which is meant to reflect the feeling of tranquility and peace described by the petals flowing down the river. The sense of “falling” is applied to the flower petals, yet the reasoning for their falling is not associated with a controlling force, rather the falling occurs naturally. There is no reference to a higher power in the poem as the author designates that natural scenes are phenomena of their own rather than belonging to a god-like entity. The effect that nature has on us as humans can be reflected within the haiku style of poetry as we all have some emotional attachment to weather patterns. Nature brings out emotion in humans, and the depiction of different natural scenes can instill different emotions within us.
Chu, Jean Hyung Yul. “Haiku.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Anne Finch and Kathrine Varnes, U of Michigan P, 2002, pp. 217–222.
