Form Explorer

The haiku grew out of an older Japanese form called hokku — the opening verse of a longer linked poem called renga. Around the 1600s, poets like Matsuo Bashō began writing hokku as poems all by themselves. About 300 years later, another poet named Masaoka Shiki gave the new short poem its modern name: haiku.

A traditional Japanese haiku is built around two ideas: a kigo (a season word that grounds the poem in nature) and a kireji (a "cutting word" that creates a small surprise or pivot between two images). Japanese counts sound-units called on, not English syllables — so the 5/7/5 you'll practice here is the English translator's convention. It's a friendly starting point, but real haiku care more about noticing one small moment than counting perfectly.

Try reading Bashō's frog-pond haiku in a few different English translations — each translator makes a different choice.

The tanka is even older than the haiku. Japanese court poets were writing tanka (then called waka) more than 1,300 years ago. It has five lines instead of three, and uses a 5/7/5/7/7 sound pattern. The two extra lines at the end give the poet room to add a feeling or thought after the first three lines paint the scene.

Many famous tanka were written by women — Ono no Komachi and Murasaki Shikibu are two well-known names. Like the haiku, tanka often turns on a small, careful moment from nature or daily life, then opens out into something the writer feels about it.

If you like tanka, you can find old Japanese tanka anthologies translated into English at most library reference desks.

The American cinquain was invented in the early 1900s by a poet named Adelaide Crapsey. She had been studying Japanese haiku and tanka and wanted to make a short English form that worked the way they did — building from a small image to a quiet ending.

Her cinquain has five lines with a 2/4/6/8/2 syllable pattern. The lines get longer toward the middle and then snap shut at the end, like a folded paper fan. Adelaide Crapsey wrote her cinquains while she was very sick, and many of her best-known poems are about noticing small, fragile things — leaves, snow, birds — with great care.

Adelaide Crapsey's own collection, Verse, is in the public domain — you can read it free online.

The limerick is the funny cousin of the haiku family. It probably started as a drinking song or party rhyme — nobody is exactly sure where the name came from, though the Irish city of Limerick is often mentioned. The English writer Edward Lear made the form famous in his 1846 Book of Nonsense, packed with silly limericks about strange characters and impossible animals.

A limerick has five lines with an AABBA rhyme scheme. Lines 1, 2, and 5 share one rhyme and have a bouncy rhythm (usually 7-10 syllables). Lines 3 and 4 share a different rhyme and are shorter (usually 5-7 syllables). The last line often delivers a joke or twist — that's why limericks usually make you smile.

Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense is in the public domain — pick a few favorites and try writing one of your own.