A haiku in English is an

English-language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

poem written in a form or style inspired by Japanese

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

. Like their Japanese counterpart, haiku in English are typically short poems and often reference the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

s, but the degree to which haiku in English implement specific elements of Japanese haiku, such as the arranging of 17 phonetic units (either

syllables A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

or the Japanese ) in a 5–7–5 pattern, varies greatly.

Typical characteristics

In Japanese, a traditional haiku is a one-line poem that describes two things. However, in English, a traditional haiku usually has three lines arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern. The Haiku Society of America has two definitions of a haiku. The first defines the Japanese haiku as an unrhymed poem "recording the essence of a moment keenly perceived, in which Nature is linked to human nature" consisting of 17 . The second definition applies to English-language haiku: "A foreign adaptation of he Japanese form usually written in three lines totaling fewer than 17 syllables." In a book chapter discussing haiku form, Sato emphasizes that the definition does not say how many syllables each line ought to have. Haiku are normally associated with a focus on nature or the seasons and a division into two asymmetrical sections that juxtaposes two subjects (e.g. something natural and something human-made, two unexpectedly similar things, etc.). This juxtaposition has been an important technique for haiku in English in both the 20th and 21st centuries. There is usually a contemplative or wistful tone and an impressionistic brevity that lends the form to an emphasis on imagery, especially sensory imagery. Haiku can contain occasional simile and metaphor. Some haiku experts, like Robert Speiss and Jane Reichold, have said that a haiku should be expressed in a single breath.

Length and structure

Many Japanese haiku are structured around the number of phonetic units known as , with a three-phrase format in which 17 are distributed in a 5–7–5 pattern (5 in the first phrase, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third). This has prompted an idea that English-language haiku should adopt a similar structure in which

syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

s are arranged across three lines in a 5–7–5 structure. Linguists, however, note two often form a single syllable and that a 17- phrase is, on average, about 12 syllables. Consequently, many contemporary English-language haiku poets work in forms of 10 to 14 syllables. Modern haiku can be greater or fewer than the expected seventeen syllables. When translators of Japanese haiku split poems into three lines, it created a perception that a haiku in English ought to have three lines, even though Japanese haiku were commonly written in a single vertical line. The most common variation from the three-line standard is one line, sometimes called a ''monoku''. It emerged from being more than an occasional exception during the late 1970s. Van den Heuvel, Cor. ''The Haiku Anthology'' 2nd edition. Simon & Schuster 1986. p10 One branch of modern haiku dispenses with syllable counts and prefers to define a haiku as two to four short phrases that are unrestricted, according to the poet Natsuishi Ban'ya. Poets with this looser definition sometimes use more than three lines in their poems.

History

First appearances

According to Charles Trumbull, the first haiku printed in English were three translations included in the second edition of

William George Aston William George Aston (9 April 1841 – 22 November 1911) was an Anglo-Irish diplomat, author, and scholar of the languages and histories of Korea and Japan. Early life Aston was born near Derry, Ireland.Ricorso Aston, bio notes/ref> He disti ...

's ''A Grammar of the Japanese Written Language'' (1877). Aston's ''A History of Japanese Literature'', first published in 1899 and a major reference source for early 20th-century poets, also described the "haikai" poetic form.

Britain and Australia

The first haiku composed in English, at least in form, were written in response to haiku contests. In Britain, the editors of ''

The Academy An academy is an institution of secondary education or higher learning, research, or honorary membership. Academy may also refer to: Education * Academy (English school), formerly known as city academy, type of publicly financed but independently ...

'' announced the first known English-language

haikai ''Haikai'' ( Japanese 俳諧 ''comic, unorthodox'') may refer in both Japanese and English to ''haikai no renga'' ( renku), a popular genre of Japanese linked verse, which developed in the sixteenth century out of the earlier aristocratic renga. ...

contest on April 8, 1899, shortly after the publication of

's ''History of Japanese Literature''. The ''Academy'' contest inspired other experimentation with the format. Bertram Dobell published more than a dozen haikai in a 1901 verse collection, and in 1903 a group of Cambridge poets, citing Dobell as precedent, published their haikai series, "The Water Party." The ''Academy'''s influence was felt as far away as Australia, where editor

Alfred Stephens Alfred George Stephens (28 August 1865 – 15 April 1933), commonly referred to as A. G. Stephens, was an Australian writer and literary critic, notably for '' The Bulletin''. He was appointed to that position by its owner, J. F. Archibald in 1 ...

was inspired to conduct a similar contest in the pages of ''The Bulletin''. The prize for this (possibly first Australian) haiku contest went to Robert Crawford.

American writers

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

's influential haiku-influenced poem, "

In a Station of the Metro "In a Station of the Metro" is an Imagist poem by Ezra Pound published in April 1913 in the literary magazine ''Poetry''. In the poem, Pound describes a moment in the underground metro station in Paris in 1912; he suggested that the faces of the in ...

", published in 1913, was the "first fully realized haiku in English," according to the editors of ''Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years''. In his essay "Vorticism," Pound acknowledged that Japanese poetry, especially ''

hokku is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, '' renga'', or of its later derivative, '' renku'' (''haikai no renga''). From the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the ''hokku'' began to appear as an independent poem, ...

'' (the linked verse poem that haiku is derived from), was a significant influence on his poetry. It is likely that he first encountered Japanese poetry in the

Poets' Club The Poets' Club was a group devoted to the discussion of poetry. It met in London in the early years of the twentieth century. It was founded by Henry Simpson, a banker. T. E. Hulme helped set up the group in 1908, and was its first secretary. ...

with

T. E. Hulme Thomas Ernest Hulme (; 16 September 1883 – 28 September 1917) was an English critic and poet who, through his writings on art, literature and politics, had a notable influence upon modernism. He was an aesthetic philosopher and the Imagism ...

and

F. S. Flint Frank Stuart Flint (19 December 1885 – 28 February 1960) was an English poet and translator who was a prominent member of the Imagist group. Ford Madox Ford called him "one of the greatest men and one of the beautiful spirits of the country". L ...

around 1912. In the essay, Pound described how he wrote a 30-line poem about the experience of exiting a metro train and seeing many beautiful faces. Two years later, he had reduced it to a single sentence in the poem

: Pound wrote that representing his experience as an image made it "a thing inward and subjective". In the United States,

Yone Noguchi was an influential Japanese writer of poetry, fiction, essays and literary criticism in both English and Japanese. He is known in the west as Yone Noguchi. He was the father of noted sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Biography Early life in Japan Nog ...

published "A Proposal to American Poets," in ''The Reader Magazine'' in February 1904, giving a brief outline of his own English

efforts and ending with the exhortation, "Pray, you try Japanese Hokku, my American poets! You say far too much, I should say." Noguchi was a bilingual poet writing in Japanese and English who was acquainted with Pound. He published an essay called "What Is a Hokku Poem" (1913) where he wrote that a hokku was an expression of longing toward nature that is "never mystified by any cloud or mist like Truth or Beauty". He encouraged an objective standpoint by referring to Zen philosophy, which sees good and evil as human inventions. Noguchi published his own volume of English-language ''Japanese Hokkus'' in 1920 and dedicated it to

Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

. During the

Imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has bee ...

period, a number of mainstream poets, including

Richard Aldington Richard Aldington (born Edward Godfree Aldington; 8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962) was an English writer and poet. He was an early associate of the Imagist movement. His 50-year writing career covered poetry, novels, criticism and biography. He ed ...

, and

published what were generally called ''hokku'', although critic Yoshinobu Hakutani wrote that compared to Pound and Noguchi, these were "labored, superficial imitators."

Postwar revival

Significant poets

In the Beat period, original haiku were composed by Diane di Prima,

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...

, and

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

. Kerouac became interested in Buddhism from reading

Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in nat ...

, and he studied

Mahayana Buddhism Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main existing branches of Buddhism, the others being Thera ...

and

Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...

in conjunction with his work writing ''

The Dharma Bums ''The Dharma Bums'' is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The basis for the novel's semi-fictional accounts are events occurring years after the events of ''On the Road''. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based o ...

''. As part of these studies, Kerouac referenced R. H. Blyth's four-volume Haiku series, which included a volume on Eastern culture. Richard Wright's interest in haiku began in 1959 when he learned about the form from beat poet

Sinclair Beiles Sinclair Beiles (b. Kampala, Uganda, 1930–2000, Johannesburg) was a South African beat poet and editor for Maurice Girodias at the Olympia Press in Paris. He developed along with William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin the cut-up technique of ...

in South Africa. Wright studied the four-volume series by Blyth as well as other books on Zen Buddhism. He composed some 4,000 haiku between 1959 and 1960 during an illness and reduced them to 817 for a collection which was published posthumously. His haiku show an attention to the Zen qualities present in the haiku he read as models. James W. Hackett is another influential haiku poet from this time period who agreed with Blyth that Zen was an essential element of haiku. Charles Trumbell wrote that in the mid-1960s, "his haiku were unquestionably among the best being written outside Japan". Hackett corresponded with Blyth for advice and encouragement in composing haiku, and Blyth promoted Hackett's poetry in his own work. Subsequent haiku poets did not insist as strongly on the connection of Zen with haiku. The first English-language haiku group in America, founded in 1956, was the Writers' Roundtable of

Los Altos, California Los Altos (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Heights") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Most of the city's growth ...

, under the direction of Helen Stiles Chenoweth. They also studied the Blyth collection, as well as an anthology translated by Asatarou Miyamori, ''The Hollow Reed'' (1935) by Mary J.J. Wrinn, and ''Haikai and Haiku'' (1958) among others. The group published an anthology in 1966 called ''Borrowed Water''.

Publications

In 1963 the magazine ''American Haiku'' was founded in Platteville, Wisconsin, edited by James Bull and Donald Eulert. Among contributors to the magazine were poets James W. Hackett, O Mabson Southard,

Nick Virgilio Nicholas Anthony Virgilio (June 28, 1928 – January 3, 1989) was an internationally recognized haiku poet who is credited with helping to popularize the Japanese style of poetry in the United States. Early life Virgilio was born in Camden, New ...

, Helen Chenoweth, and Gustave Keyser. Other co-editors included Clement Hoyt (1964), Harold Henderson (1964), and Robert Spiess (1966). In the second issue of ''American Haiku'' Virgilio published his "lily" and "bass" haiku, which became models of brevity, breaking the conventional 5-7-5 syllabic form, and pointing toward the leaner conception of haiku.. The magazine established haiku as a form worthy of a new aesthetic sense in poetry. The

Haiku Society of America The Haiku Society of America is a non-profit organization composed of haiku poets, editors, critics, publishers and enthusiasts that promotes the composition and appreciation of haiku in English. Founded in 1968, it is the largest society dedicate ...

was founded in 1968 and began publishing its journal '' Frogpond'' in 1978. In 1972, Lorraine Ellis Harr founded the Western World Haiku Society. ''American Haiku'' ended publication in 1968; '' Modern Haiku'' published its first issue in 1969. '' Haiku Highlights'', was founded 1965 by European-American writer Jean Calkins and later taken over by Lorraine Ellis Harr and renamed ''Dragonfly: A Quarterly of Haiku'' (1972-1984). Eric Amann published ''Haiku'' (1967-1970) and ''Cicada'' (1977-1982) in Canada. ''Cicada'' included one-line haiku and tanka. Leroy Kanterman edited '' Haiku West'' (1967-1975). The first Haiku North America conference was held at

Las Positas College Las Positas College (LPC) is a public community college in Livermore, California. History Las Positas College began as an extension program of Chabot College in 1963, offering 24 classes and enrolling 810 students at three sites, including Liv ...

Livermore, California Livermore is a city in Alameda County, California. With a 2020 population of 87,955, Livermore is the most populous city in the Tri-Valley, giving its name to the Livermore Valley. It is located on the eastern edge of California's San Francisc ...

, in 1991, and has been held on alternating years since then. The American Haiku Archives, the largest public archive of haiku-related material outside Japan, was founded in 1996. It is housed at the

California State Library The California State Library is the state library of the State of California, founded in 1850 by the California State Legislature. The Library collects, preserves, generates and disseminates a wide array of information. Today, it is the central ...

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

, and includes the official archives of the

Publications in North America

English-language haiku journals published in the U.S. include '' Modern Haiku'', ''Frogpond'' (published by the Haiku Society of America), ''Mayfly'' (founded by Randy and Shirley Brooks in 1986), ''Acorn'' (founded by A. C. Missias in 1998), ''Bottle Rockets'' (founded by Stanford M. Forrester), ''The Heron's Nest'' (founded by Christopher Herold in 1999, published online with a print annual), ''Tinywords'' (founded by Dylan F. Tweney in 2001). Some significant defunct publications include ''Brussels Sprout'' (edited from 1988 to 1995 by Francine Porad), ''Woodnotes'' (edited from 1989 to 1997 by Michael Dylan Welch), Hal Roth's ''Wind Chimes'', and ''Wisteria''.

Publications in other English-speaking countries

In the United Kingdom, publications of Haiku include ''Presence'' (formerly ''Haiku Presence''), which was edited for many years by Martin Lucas and is now edited by Ian Storr, and ''Blithe Spirit'', published by the

British Haiku Society The British Haiku Society (BHS) was formed in 1990 and aims to promote haiku and to teach and publish Haiku in English. Activities The BHS holds an Annual Haiku Award. From the 1990s until 2004 the Society also offered a Sasakawa Prize. In 1992 ...

and named in honor of

Reginald Horace Blyth Reginald Horace Blyth (3 December 1898 – 28 October 1964) was an English writer and devotee of Japanese culture. He is most famous for his writings on Zen and on haiku poetry. Early life Blyth was born in Essex, England, the son of a railway ...

. In

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, twenty issues of ''Haiku Spirit'' edited by Jim Norton were published between 1995 and 2000, and ''Shamrock'', an online journal edited by

Anatoly Kudryavitsky Anatoly Kudryavitsky (Russian: Анатолий Исаевич Кудрявицкий; born 17 August 1954) is a Russian-Irish novelist, poet, editor and literary translator. Biography Kudryavitsky's father, Jerzy, was a Ukrainian-born Polish n ...

, published international haiku in English from 2007 to 2022. In

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, twenty issues of ''Yellow Moon'', a literary magazine for writers of haiku and other verse, were published between 1997 and 2006; ''Paper Wasp'' was published in Australia until 2016. ''Echidna Tracks'' is a biannual Australian haiku publication. ''Kokako'' is the journal of the

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Poetry Society and ''Chrysanthemum'' (bilingual German/English) in Germany and Austria. Two other online English-language haiku journals founded outside North America, ''A Hundred Gourds'' and ''Notes from the Gean'', are now defunct. John Barlow's Snapshot Press is a UK-based publisher of haiku books. The World Haiku Club publishes ''The World Haiku Review''.; ; ;

Typical characteristics

Length and structure

History

First appearances

Britain and Australia

American writers

Postwar revival

Significant poets

Publications

Publications in North America

Publications in other English-speaking countries

Notable English-language haiku poets

See also

Notes

References

Works cited

Further reading

Anthologies

External links

Archives

Other links