Download Haiku - forword

Key Stage 3 Poetry: Year 7 - Haiku
1
The History of Haiku

Haiku poems were first written in Japan but by today they
are seen in many languages, including English.
 Modern Haiku comes from an old poetic form called tanka
written in the seventh century. Tanka means ‘short poem’.
 Later, in the twelfth century, tankas were linked to make
renga. This is a form of poetry where poets worked
together on different stanzas.
 The first stanza of renga was called the hokku.

A tan-renga is a short renga. One poet would write the
first three lines of the poetic chain (5-7-5), and then a
different poet would complete the chain by writing a 7-7
section.

Longer rengas could be up to one hundred verses
long! These are called chō-renga.

Traditionally, haiku poets had to use kigo - this is a word referring to season - in the first
verse of renga. This is why, in today’s haiku, haiku poets often write about the seasons.
They also had to try and show the setting or situation.

In Japanese, haiku are traditionally written on one vertical line.
Matsuo
Basho (1644-94) is one of the most famous Haiku and
Renga poets. He was a bit of a rebel and the first to develop a new
form of renga called renku. Instead of keeping the poem very serious,
Basho’s poems were funnier and wittier.

Haiku was given its current name by another Japanese writer called
Masaoka Shiki (1867 -1902).
Copyright © 2009 www.englishteaching.co.uk / www.english-teaching.co.uk
Key Stage 3 Poetry: Year 7 - Haiku
2
Haiku’s Journey
短歌
短連歌
長連歌
連歌
連句
発句
俳句
tanka
tan-renga
chō-renga
renga
renku
hokku
Copyright © 2009 www.englishteaching.co.uk / www.english-teaching.co.uk
haiku
Key Stage 3 Poetry: Year 7 - Haiku
3
The Features of
Poem in three lines:
Five syllables, then seven,
Five again; no rhyme.
Normally, haiku poems do not rhyme.
 Generally, haiku work with the ordinary facts of daily life.
 A haiku poem usually focuses on one theme and focuses our attention on one
single moment.
 One of the greatest surprises of this form of poetry is that in the ordinary, or simple,
one can find the amazing.
Haiku usually contains a pivot word that turns the movement of the poem in some
way.
Copyright © 2009 www.englishteaching.co.uk / www.english-teaching.co.uk
Key Stage 3 Poetry: Year 7 - Haiku
4
You moths must leave now;
I am turning out the light
and going to sleep.
Richard Wright
Read Richard Wright’s haiku poem above and answer the following questions.
HINT:
A syllable is a unit of sound (a beat or a chunk) in a word. All words have at
least one syllable. How many syllables are there in your name?
1. How many lines are there in a haiku in English?
___________________________________________________________________
2. How many syllables are there in the first line?
___________________________________________________________________
3. How many syllables are there in the second line?
___________________________________________________________________
4. How many syllables are there in line three?
___________________________________________________________________
Awake at night - the sound of the water jar cracking in the cold.
Matsuo Basho
What is ‘wrong’ with Basho’s haiku? Can you think of two reasons to explain why?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2009 www.englishteaching.co.uk / www.english-teaching.co.uk
Key Stage 3 Poetry: Year 7 - Haiku
5
TASK
- Give each haiku a title.
- Explain your choice.
- Note the mood of the haiku and how it makes you feel.
- Try and explain the poet’s viewpoint.
Title:______________________________
The first one has been done for you.
A giant firefly:
that way, this way, that way, this and it passes by.
Title: Haikus Easy? Ha!
Reason:______________________________
To convey one’s mood
_____________________________________
in seventeen syllables
_____________________________________
is very difficult.
__
Reason: The poet uses humour to
comment on how difficult it is to write a
perfect haiku. The haiku is even funnier as
s/he actually succeeds.
Title:______________________________
Everywhere it drips.
Webs beaded with jewellery.
Title:______________________________
I thought of myself
under cemetery mud
and put flowers there.
Morning is still new.
Reason:______________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
__
Reason:______________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
__
Copyright © 2009 www.englishteaching.co.uk / www.english-teaching.co.uk
Key Stage 3 Poetry: Year 7 - Haiku
6
Title:______________________________
Mushroom in the sky.
Eighty thousand people die
without knowing why.
Reason:______________________________
Title:______________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
__
Mysterious bug,
in scarlet cape with black dots,
creeps upon a leaf.
Title:______________________________
Reason:______________________________
_____________________________________
Come, Mister Jack Frost,
sprinkle all your icy dust.
_____________________________________
__
Freeze the world again.
Reason:______________________________
_____________________________________
Title:______________________________
_____________________________________
__
All done without thought.
Dogs taste blood. A fox is caught.
Title:______________________________
They call it sport.
A class in silence
Reason:______________________________
works through an English lesson.
_____________________________________
All of them asleep.
_____________________________________
__
Reason:______________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
__
Copyright © 2009 www.englishteaching.co.uk / www.english-teaching.co.uk
Key Stage 3 Poetry: Year 7 - Haiku
7
TASK
Write five haiku poems.
1) Read the words below to give you some ideas for writing a poem on one of the
seasons.
2) Write a haiku poem about haikus.
3) Choose another topic - something personal to you and your life.
4) Choose another topic. This time, link it to a character or theme in a play or
novel you are studying or have studied.
5) Choose another topic. This time, write about an issue to express a particular
viewpoint. (Re-read the haiku about fox hunting to remind yourself of the type of
haiku you will need to write to complete this task successfully.)
Remember:
"The primary purpose of reading and writing haiku is sharing moments of our lives that have moved us,
pieces of experience and perception that we offer or receive as gifts. At the deepest level, this is one of
the great purposes of all art, and especially of literature."
William J. Higginson
Summer: sun, hot, twilight, ladybirds, scorching sun, ice-cream, beaches, sand,
warmth, blue sky
Autumn: falling leaves, red, gold, brown, rain, braches, starry nights, wind,
crackling leaves
Spring: daffodils, yellow, green, grass, lambs, buds, blossom, sky, sunrise,
chicks, spring rain, birth, nature, new life
Winter: snow, snowflakes, cold, dark, long nights, icicles, gloomy, fires,
Christmas, New Year, sledging, snowballs
Copyright © 2009 www.englishteaching.co.uk / www.english-teaching.co.uk
Key Stage 3 Poetry: Year 7 - Haiku
Acknowledgements and thanks
IMAGES
Illustrations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renga
Graffiti Haiku: http://popularityculture.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/webassets/haiku.jpg
Japanese Flag: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/graphics/flags/large/ja-lgflag.gif
Bamboo: http://www.cranberrydesigns.com/poetry/graphics/bamboo.gif
Matsuo Basho: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Basho_by_Hokusai.jpg
Copyright © 2009 www.englishteaching.co.uk / www.english-teaching.co.uk
8