- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
What is Haiku?
Haiku is one of the most important form of traditional japanese poetry. Haiku is, today, a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Since early days, there has been confusion between the three related terms Haiku, Hokku and Haikai. The term hokku literally means "starting verse", and was the first starting link of a much longer chain of verses known as haika. Because the hokku set the tone for the rest of the poetic chain, it enjoyed a privileged position in haikai poetry, and it was not uncommon for a poet to compose a hokku by itself without following up with the rest of the chain.
Pretty Simple, I'll do another...
I Had a Big Dog,
He Had a very loud bark,
I love my Big Dog.
[Edited on 7/1/2004 10:30:31 AM]