In American popular culture, a haiku is a short poem of 17 syllables, written in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. From this point of view, the 5-7-5 syllable pattern is sufficient to make a poem a haiku, just as the characteristic sound pattern and rhyme scheme of a limerick are sufficient to make a poem a limerick. Unlike limericks, however, haiku have a place in serious world literature. Some of the greatest Japanese poets have been haiku (or hokku) poets, and the best haiku poets are revered in Japan today.
In world literature, a haiku is a poem that usually follows a number of conventions of haiku form and content. From this point of view, the 5-7-5 sound pattern is not sufficient to make a poem a haiku. There are other conventions of form and content that are just as important, perhaps more imoprtant. For example, traditional Japanese haiku include a “season word,” and they often try to convey a connection between Nature and human nature. They are often divided into 2 asymmetrical parts that do not make a complete sentence. They typically use simple language and present images with little or no commentary.
Haiku conventions have become more complex since the early years of the 20th century, when many poets in Japan and elsewhere deemphasized the strict 5-7-5 pattern in order to focus on other elements of haiku form and tradition. Other poets, such as the gendai haiku poets of Japan, have broken with tradition in order to seek new possibilities in haiku.
The origin of haiku is a matter of some debate. Matsuo Basho, a 17th century Japanese poet, is often credited with developing haiku into a vehicle for serious artistic expression. In Basho's time, hokku was the name of the first stanza in a linked verse form called renga. Basho infused his hokku with a depth and clarity that was not typical of the form up to that time. Some of his hokku capture a moment of heightened awareness in which the boundary between subject and object seems to disappear. This heightened awareness—and the role of Nature in inspiring it—are two of the most discussed and elusive characteristics of literary haiku.
William J. Higginson observed that as the first verse in a renga, the hokku had three characteristics that are typical of many haiku being written today (1):
alternating lines of 5 and 7 sound-symbols, which have been a feature of Japanese poetry for over a thousand years;
a seasonal reference, which originated from the convention of having the first verse identify when the renga was composed;
grammatical incompleteness, which occurred because the thought in the hokku was to be completed in the next verse of the renga.
A traditional Japanese haiku includes a seasonal reference and has a total of 17 sound-symbols arranged in units of 5 sounds, 7 sounds, and 5 sounds. Hiroaki Sato and others have noted that while most Japanese poets write their haiku in a single line, the single line is often broken into three lines when the poems are translated (2). Perhaps as a result, the three-line haiku may be the most popular form for haiku written in languages other than Japanese.
Many haiku poets writing in English use a form that was inspired by the traditional Japanese haiku: three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Here are two 5-7-5 haiku by Lenard D. Moore:
| Moonless winter night— |
| sputtering engines of the lobster boats at noon . . . gulls flutter away |
If you look carefully at the poems above, you may notice another feature of haiku: they are often divided into 2 asymmetrical parts, such as "Moonless winter night" and "a billow of rising fog / hides the distant pines." Jane Reichhold calls the short part "the fragment" and the longer part "the phrase" (3). The fragment and phrase structure can sharpen a contrast, make a comparison more striking, or otherwise heighten the poetic tension in these little poems.
Higginson and others have noted that since the early twentieth century, some Japanese poets have championed haiku which break with the 5-7-5 pattern and which take on a broader range of subjects than a conservative interpretation of haiku tradition would allow. Likewise, in the 1960's and 1970's, many haiku poets in the United States and Canada began to urge similar approach to haiku in English (4).
Today, the majority of poems that are published in mainstream haiku magazines such as Frogpond and Modern Haiku do not follow the 5-7-5 pattern. Among poets who regularly publish literary haiku in English, many would say that the familiar definition of haiku—"a short poem of 17 syllables, written in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables"—describes only a part of the tradition, and it ignores the innovations that have developed in Japan and in other countries since the early years of the 20th century.
On the other hand, some commentators say that the 5-7-5 pattern is an essential part of the tradition—even in English, and that failure to follow this convention leads to inferior haiku and perhaps to the decline of haiku in English. Other commentators praise the unique experience of writing 5-7-5 haiku, such as the pleasure of working with a strict form, of being liberated by form rather than confined by it.
Almost all commentators would agree that there are other elements of the haiku tradition that are just as important as the 5-7-5 sound pattern, such as a seasonal reference; a two-part structure that typically does not form a complete sentence; the juxtaposition of images with little or no commentary; and the use of simple language.
—Dave Russo
See our list of links under Haiku Definitions, the topics under About Haiku, Haiku Sites for Self-Study, and Haiku Sites for Students & Teachers.
(1) William J. Higginson, with Penny Harter, The Haiku Handbook (Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., 1985), 90; 97-102. Update September 2, 2008: The idea that the hokku is grammatically incomplete appears to be controversial. Barnhill writes: "A hokku must be a complete statement, not dependent on the succeeding stanza." (Basho's Haiku, translated by David Landis Barnhill, State University of New York Press: 2004, page 4.)
(2) Hiroaki Sato, "Haiku and the Agonies of Translation," Frogpond, Supplement XXII (1999), 55-66.
(3) Jane Reichhold, "Fragment and Phrase Theory," Frogpond, XXI:2 (1999). Also available from the haiku area of the AHA! Poetry site: see Fragment and Phrase Theory.
Jane's article is somewhat informal. For a more formal discussion of this technique, see Robert Spiess's article, "A Certain Open Secret About Haiku," (Modern Haiku, XXXII. No. 1, 2001, Winter Spring, p57). In his article, Bob quoted a passage about "cutting" from the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan (Kodansha. Ltd. Tokyo, Japan, 1983, Volume 3, page 81.)