Home > Literature and the Arts > Language, Linguistics, and Literary Terms > Literature: General

Research topic:haiku

Find more facts and information on our topic page about haiku

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-366428.html" title="Facts and informations about haiku">haiku</a>

Give this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon

haiku

From: Encyclopedia Britannica | Date: 2007 | Copyright information

Unrhymed Japanese poetic form. It consists of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, respectively. The form expresses much and suggests more in the fewest possible words. It gained distinction in the 17th century, when Bash elevated it to a highly refined art. Haiku remains Japan's most popular poetic form and is widely imitated in English and other languages.For more information on haiku, visit Britannica.com.

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

"haiku." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 6 Jan. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"haiku." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (January 6, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-366428.html

"haiku." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Retrieved January 06, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-366428.html

Learn more about citation styles

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

	The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Form.(Review) Magazine article from: Quadrant; 11/1/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Form, edited by Mark Strand and Eavan...content. Verse forms do not define poetic form: they simply express it write...in their introduction, and add poetic form is not abstract, but human... Read more
	Books: A toolbox for poets An innovative new anthology explores poetic form. Olivier Burckhardt sorts his villanelles from his sestinas Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 10/1/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...sections, each exploring a particular poetic form, delves into the forge of poetry...content. "Verse forms do not define poetic form: they simply express it," write the editors in their introduction; "poetic form is not abstract, but human." These... Read more
	Questions of Possibility: Contemporary Poetry and Poetic Form.(Book review) Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 4/1/2007; ; 622 words ; ...Possibility: Contemporary Poetry and Poetic Form. By DAVID CAPLAN. New York: Oxford University...irreconcilable set of positions regarding poetic form. Caplan may seem to be taking the side...formalists (especially the New Formalists) do poetic form a disservice similar to that ... Read more
	The birth of a form: elementary morality. (includes selected bibliography on Raymond Queneau and selected English translations of his works) Magazine article from: The Review of Contemporary Fiction; 9/22/1997; ; 700+ words ; @1 I shall begin by speaking of a poetic form which is called elementary morality...it is a matter of poetry here, of a poetic form, we shall keep the substantive at the...possible? By means of the list, the basic poetic form of poetry, its forma fondamentale, as... Read more
	Questions of Possibility: Contemporary Poetry and Poetic Form Magazine article from: The Virginia Quarterly Review; 7/1/2005; ; 438 words ; Questions of Possibility: Contemporary Poetry and Poetic Form, by David Caplan. Oxford, December 2004. $35 Poetic discourse...seeing what it is that poets are actually doing with poetic form. In Questions of Possibility he explores how poets, within... Read more
	IN CASE WE'RE SEPARATED BY ALICE MATTISON MORROW, 226 PP., $23.95 Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 10/30/2005; ; 588 words ; ...the repetitions of words, which imitate the repeated tropes of a complicated poetic form, the double sestina, and connect the stories with small details. The poetic form is introduced in "Brooklyn Sestina," which focuses on sisters Ruth and Lillian... Read more
	Joseph Brodsky and the Soviet Muse Magazine article from: Canadian Slavonic Papers; 6/1/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...Khrushchev followed by a discussion of poetic form. MacFadyen views the issues of politics and poetic form as related: in the early 1960s, being...statement. MacFadyen's discussion of poetic form leads to a discussion of the ways that... Read more
	(book reviews) Magazine article from: World Literature Today; 6/22/1997; ; 405 words ; While the Japanese haiku has become extremely popular as a poetic form in English, the longer tanka is less well known outside Japan...longer history, having been - when called waka - the dominant poetic form throughout 1,500 years of the Japanese literary tradition... Read more
	BOOK BAG, #485 Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 8/21/1988; 241 words ; ...writing of the Imagist poets. Webster's friend even developed a poetic form influenced by Japanese poetry. Unfortunately the poet died...Webster's collections of stories about college girls, and what poetic form did she invent? All entries (one per person) must be clearly... Read more
	National Living Treasure bids goodbye.(Society) Newspaper article from: Manila Bulletin; 7/1/2003; 204 words ; ...giving advice to farewell notes. In an extemporaneous way, this poetic form inspires lively chanted debates displaying wit and creative...call surat Mangyan. The dedication of Ginaw Bilog, to the poetic form of ambahan and his zeal in preserving the surat Mangyan or... Read more

For more facts and information, see all related premium articles

Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses

	haiku Book article from: A Dictionary of Buddhism haiku (Jap.). A Japanese poetic form consisting of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Although not originally connected...spontaneity were congenial to the zen spirit, and it became associated with Zen in some quarters. The most famous exponent of haiku as a vehicle for expressing direct realization ... Read more
	haiku Book article from: The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable haiku a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world. The form originated in the 16th century. Read more
	haiku Book article from: The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature haiku, a Japanese lyric form of 17 syllables in lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables. It emerged in the 16th cent. and flourished from the 17th to the 19th cent., and dealt traditionally with images of the natural world; in this century it has been much imitated in Western literature. Read more
	haiku Book article from: World Encyclopedia haiku In Japanese literature , a poetic form consisting of 17 syllables in five-seven-five pattern. Haikus originally evoked a moment in nature. Matsuo Basho (1644–94) is considered to be the finest exponent of the form. Read more
	haiku Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ...Japanese symbol-sounds). The term is also used for foreign adaptations of the haiku, notably the poems of the imagists . These poems are usually written in...Bibliography: See the anthology ed. by H. G. Henderson, Introduction to Haiku (1958). Read more