A haiku in English is an

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the i ...

poem written in the Japanese poetry style known as

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a '' kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a '' kigo'', or ...

, which correlates the two languages. The degree to which haiku in English resemble classic Japanese haiku varies, but many of these poems draw on short, concise wording and a reference to the seasons. The first haiku written in English date from the late 19th century, influenced by English translations of traditional Japanese haiku. Many well-known English-language poets have written what they called "haiku", although definitions of the genre have remained disputable. Haiku has also proven popular in English-language schools as a way to encourage the appreciation and writing of poetry.

Typical characteristics

"Haiku" in English is a term sometimes loosely applied to any short, impressionistic poem, but there are certain characteristics that are commonly associated with the genre: * a focus on nature or the seasonsDefinition of haiku
by 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 dedicat ...

* a division into two asymmetrical sections that juxtaposes two subjects (e.g. something natural and something human-made, two unexpectedly similar things, etc.) * a contemplative or wistful tone and an impressionistic brevity * no superfluous words, but avoiding a "

telegram style Telegram style, telegraph style, telegraphic style, or telegraphese is a clipped way of writing which abbreviates words and packs information into the smallest possible number of words or characters. It originated in the telegraph age when telecom ...

" syntax * an emphasis on imagery over exposition * avoidance of metaphor and similes * non-rhyming lines Some additional traits are especially associated with English-language haiku (as opposed to Japanese-language haiku): * a three-line format with 17 syllables arranged in a 5–7–5 pattern. However, many contemporary haiku poets work in poems containing 10 to 14 syllables, which more nearly approximates the duration of a Japanese haiku. Usually, the second line is the longest. Some poets want their haiku to be expressed in one breath. * little or no punctuation or capitalization, except that cuts are sometimes marked with dashes or ellipses and proper nouns are usually capitalized.

History

Britain and Australia

In Britain, the editors of '' The Academy'' 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

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

's ''History of Japanese Literature''. The contest, number 27 of the magazine's ongoing series, drew dozens of entries, and the prize was awarded to R. M. Hansard: The ''Academy'' contest inspired other experimentation with the format.

Bertram Dobell Bertram Dobell (9 January 1842 – 14 December 1914) was an English bookseller, literary scholar, editor, poet, essayist and publisher. Biography Dobell was born in January 1842 in Battle, East Sussex to Edward, a tailor and his wife Elizabet ...

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 ''Academys 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 ...

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

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

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, ...

efforts and ending with the exhortation, "Pray, you try Japanese Hokku, my American poets! You say far too much, I should say."

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

'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, has been widely regarded as a watershed moment in the establishment of English-language haiku as a literary form. During the

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

period, a number of mainstream poets, including

Amy Lowell Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. Life Amy Lowell was born on Febr ...

Richard Aldington Richard Aldington (8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962), born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet, and an early associate of the Imagist movement. He was married to the poet Hilda Doolittle (H. D.) from 1911 to 1938. His 50-year w ...

, and

Lewis Grandison Alexander Lewis Grandison Alexander (July 4, 1898 – November 25, 1945) was an American poet, actor, playwright, and costume designer who lived in Washington, D.C. and had strong ties to the Harlem Renaissance period in New York. Alexander focused most of h ...

, published what were generally called ''hokku''. Their efforts were actively encouraged by Noguchi, who published his own volume of English-language ''Japanese Hokkus'' in 1920.

Postwar revival

In the Beat period, original haiku were composed by

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 of ...

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 an ...

Richard Wright Richard Wright may refer to: Arts * Richard Wright (author) (1908–1960), African-American novelist * Richard B. Wright (1937–2017), Canadian novelist * Richard Wright (painter) (1735–1775), marine painter * Richard Wright (artist) (born 19 ...

and James W. Hackett. Wright composed some 4,000 haiku (mostly with 5-7-5 syllabic structure). The first English-language haiku group in America, founded in 1956, was the Writers' Roundtable of

Los Altos, California Los Altos (; 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 census. Most of the city's growth occurred between 1950 and 1980. Originally ...

, under the direction of Helen Stiles Chenoweth. The

was founded in 1968 and began publishing its journal ''Frogpond'' in 1978. In 1963 the journal ''American Haiku'' was founded in Platteville, Wisconsin, edited by the European-Americans James Bull and

Donald Eulert Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

. Among contributors to the first issue were poets James W. Hackett,

O Mabson Southard O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...

, and Nick Virgilio. 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 that would take hold in subsequent decades. ''American Haiku'' ended publication in 1968 and was succeeded by '' Modern Haiku'' in 1969. Other early publications include Chenoweth's 1966 anthology ''Borrowed Water'', featuring the work by the Los Altos Writers' Roundtable, and journals ''

Haiku Highlights is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...

'', founded 1965 by European-American writer Jean Calkins and later taken over by Lorraine Ellis Harr; Eric Amann's ''Haiku'', founded 1967; and Leroy Kanterman's '' Haiku West'' founded 1967. 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 Li ...

Livermore, California Livermore (formerly Livermorès, Livermore Ranch, and Nottingham) is a city in Alameda County, California. With a 2020 population of 87,955, Livermore is the most populous city in the Tri-Valley. It is located on the eastern edge of Californi ...

, 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 ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

, and includes the official archives of the

. Significant contributors to American haiku have included

Lee Gurga Lee Gurga (born July 28, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American haiku poet. In 1997, he served as president of the Haiku Society of America. He was the editor of ''Modern Haiku'' magazine from 2002 to 2006, and is the current editor of the Mode ...

Jim Kacian James Michael Kacian (born July 26, 1953) is an American haiku poet, editor, publisher, and public speaker. He has lived in London, Nashville, Bridgton (Maine) and now resides in Winchester, Virginia. Life and brief chronology Kacian was born i ...

, Elizabeth Searle Lamb, Raymond Roseliep,

Marlene Mountain Marlene Mountain (née Morelock; December 11, 1939 – March 15, 2018), also known as Marlene Morelock Wills, was an American poet, artist, and activist. She wrote many English-language haiku and concrete poems. She was the 2014-2015 honorary cu ...

Alan Pizzarelli Alan Pizzarelli (born 1950) is an American poet, songwriter, and musician. He was born of an Italian-American family in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in the first ward’s Little Italy. He is a major figure in English-language haiku and Senryū ...

, Alexis Rotella,

George Swede George Swede ( lv, Juris Švēde), (born as ''Juris Puriņš'', November 20, 1940 in Riga, Latvia) is a Latvian Canadian psychologist, poet and children's writer who lives in Toronto, Ontario. He is a major figure in English-language haiku, know ...

, and Michael Dylan Welch.

Variant forms

Although the majority of haiku published in English are three lines long, variants also occur.

One 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 The one-line form, based on an analogy with the one-line vertical column in which Japanese haiku are often printed, was lent legitimacy principally by three people: * Marlene Mountain was one of the first English-language haiku poets to write haiku regularly in a single horizontal line. *

Hiroaki Sato Hiroaki Sato may refer to: *, Japanese fighter and wrestler with ring name Hikaru Sato *, Japanese figure skater *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese poet and translator * Hiroaki Sato (animation director) (born 1959) {{hndis, Sato, Hiroaki ...

translated Japanese haiku into one line in English. * Matsuo Allard wrote essays in its favor and published several magazines and chapbooks devoted to the form, in addition to practicing it. The single-line haiku usually contains fewer than seventeen syllables. A

caesura 300px, An example of a caesura in modern western music notation A caesura (, . caesuras or caesurae; Latin for " cutting"), also written cæsura and cesura, is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phrase begin ...

(pause) may be appropriate, dictated by sense or speech rhythm (following the Japanese tradition of a break, marked by the

Kireji are a special category of words used in certain types of Japanese traditional poetry. It is regarded as a requirement in traditional haiku, as well as in the hokku, or opening verse, of both classical renga and its derivative renku (haikai no ren ...

), and usually little or no punctuation. This form was used by John Wills and, more recently, has been practiced by poets such as M. Kettner, Janice Bostok,

, Chris Gordon, Eve Luckring, Scott Metz, Stuart Quine, John Barlow, and many others. The one-line form can create a variety of ambiguities allowing for multiple readings of the same haiku. A variation of the format breaks the line at the ''

'' or pause.

One word

A single word may occasionally be claimed to be a haiku:

Four or more lines

Haiku of four lines (sometimes known as ''haiqua'')Gill, Stephen Henry et al., editors. ''Seasons of the Gods'' Hailstone Haiku Circle, Kansai, 2007. p.2 or longer have been written, some of them "vertical haiku" with only a word or two per line, mimicking the vertical printed form of Japanese haiku.

Circle

Haiku have also appeared in circular form (sometimes known as ''cirku'') whereby the poem has no fixed start or end point.

Fixed form

In the "zip" form developed by John Carley, a haiku of 15 syllables is presented over two lines, each of which contains one internal

represented by a double space. A fixed-form 5-3-5 syllable (or 3-5-3 word) haiku is sometimes known as a ''lune''.''The Lune: The English Language Haiku'' by Holly Bliss
at GoArticles.comLipson, Greta B. ''Poetry Writing Handbook: Definitions, Examples, Lessons''. Lorenz Educational Press, 1998. p53

Publications in North America

The leading 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), and ''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'', ''Wisteria'', and ''Moonset'' (edited from 2005 to 2009 by an'ya (Andja Petrović)). The largest publisher of haiku books in North America is Jim Kacian's Red Moon Press. Other notable American publishers of haiku books include Press Here, Bottle Rockets Press, Brooks Books, and Turtle Light Press.

Publications in other English-speaking countries

In the United Kingdom, leading publications 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 cl ...

. In

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, 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 ...

, has been publishing international haiku in English since 2007. In

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, twenty issues of ''Yellow Moon'', a literary magazine for writers of haiku and other verse, were published between 1997 and 2006 (issues 1-8 were edited by Patricia Kelsall; issues 9-20 by Beverley George). Nowadays ''Paper Wasp'' is published in

, ''Kokako'' in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

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 notable UK-based publisher of haiku books. The World Haiku Club publishes ''The World Haiku Review''. International websites have developed for the publication of haiku in English including: ''The Living Haiku Anthology''; ''The Living Senryu Anthology'', ''Under the Basho'', ''Failed Haiku'', and ''Wales Haiku Journal''. In addition, personal websites such as Michael Dylan Welch's ''Graceguts''https://www.graceguts.com provide extensive haiku resources with essays, reviews, and poems.

Notable English-language haiku poets

Typical characteristics

History

Britain and Australia

American writers

Postwar revival

Variant forms

One line

One word

Four or more lines

Circle

Fixed form

Publications in North America

Publications in other English-speaking countries

Notable English-language haiku poets

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

Anthologies

Periodicals

Archives

Techniques and papers