A haiku is a short Japanese poetic form traditionally composed in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on (sound units roughly analogous to syllables). In English, the form is conventionally rendered as three lines, though the syllable count is debated — Japanese on are shorter than English syllables, and many English-language haiku poets prefer brevity over strict 5-7-5 adherence.
The haiku descends from the hokku, the opening verse of a collaborative linked-verse sequence (renga). Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa elevated the hokku into an independent form in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The term haiku was popularized by Masaoka Shiki in the late nineteenth century.
A haiku traditionally includes a kigo (seasonal reference) and a kireji (cutting word) that divides the poem into two parts, creating a juxtaposition. The effect depends on compression and the gap between the two images or perceptions — the reader supplies the connection. This juxtaposition is the haiku’s structural principle, analogous to the volta in a sonnet but operating through image rather than argument.
Related terms
- volta — the turn that the haiku’s juxtaposition resembles
- stanza — the haiku’s three lines function as a single compressed unit
- free verse — modern English haiku often abandons strict syllable counts