How Does a Haiku Work?
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What is a "Haiku?"
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A haiku is a type of lyric poem. It has seventeen syllables in all that are generally arranged in three to five line phonic sections. Each section makes up the overall number of syllables. This simply means that a traditional haiku will have three to five lines in it that all add up to 17 syllables. Haikus are similar to 18th century English Romantic poetry, as they are mostly about nature, love and emotion. Haikus came about around the 1600s. Poet Basho (his real name is thought to have been "Matsuo Munefusa.") was an affluent Japanese writer who lived near Tokyo around 1670. Influenced greatly by Zen teachings around 1678, he renounced his possessions and began traveling. It was at this time he began writing in a manner that reflected his nature-based, yet transient lifestyle.
How do Beats and Rhythm Work in a Haiku?
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Anyone who has even heard a haiku spoken aloud will notice that it seems to be without rhythm. This is because much of what is written may be essentially lost in translation. Much of the meter and rhythm generally experienced by English speakers are formulated differently with this Asian-based type of poetry. A lot like English verse, haikus work to generate emotional responses in people. The beats and rhythms of this type of verse function to do the same. Simply, the same way words are used to generate pictures in a listener's head, beats, lyric and rhymes (or "unrhymes") work to make people feel a certain way--sad, sublime, happy and so on.
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The Healing Power of a Haiku
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Current psychological research suggests there may be a health benefit to reading and writing haiku poetry. Haiku poetry often emphasizes the idea that there is a common link between all objects in nature. People, and their relationships with each other, can also be considered objects as well. The idea is that nothing and no one is separate from each other--no one is ever really alone. Some patients who manifested symptoms of clinical depression and learned how to read and write haiku poetry reported having an increased sense of purpose where there was none before. In some sense, haiku poetry may be cathartic.
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- Photo Credit Photo courtesy of Columbia University Arts and Humanities Department
