Poetry Unit Part 3 – Haiku
1 If you can count syllables, you can write a haiku. This is one of the easiest types of
poetry to learn to write. It doesn't rhyme, and it isn't supposed to have a title. The hard
part is deciding which words to use!
2 The modern haiku was fashioned by a Japanese poet named Masaoka Shiki in the
late 1800's. He created this new form of poetry to present realistic portrayals of nature
and life. Tradition insists that a clue to the season be included. This poem is made up of
three lines only. There are only 17 syllables altogether. The pattern of syllables goes like
this:
five syllables
seven syllables
five syllables
3 The tricky part is to find a way to express yourself using few words. Seventeen
syllables don't allow room for lots of details or unnecessary words.
Yesterday I ate (5) - Yes/ter/day/I/ate
breakfast and grabbed my backpack (7) - break/fast/and/grabbed/my/back/pack
to hurry to school (5) - To/hur/ry/to/school
From the syllable illustration on the right you can see that I used the five-seven-five
pattern. I wrote a complete sentence. You can also see that I didn't have anything
interesting to share. The "haiku rules" call for a mention of the season too, but I ran out of
syllables! I'll have to try a little harder this time.
Pancakes with syrup (5) - Pan/cakes/with/sy/rup
Winter's chill delayed awhile (7) - Win/ter's/chill/de/layed/a/while
The bus driver honks (5) - The/bus/dri/ver/honks
4 If the poet has done her work, you can probably imagine yourself enjoying a
steaming plate of pancakes, when you are interrupted by a honk that calls you out into the
cold weather. By using a few concrete details and leaving out unimportant words, we can
create a word-picture and a related feeling!
What emotion did the haiku evoke in you? ________________________________
5 Let's attempt to write a haiku together. We'll describe a dark mountain
and the stream that flows down it. For the first line, you will need to provide
two syllables, and I'll provide three. You may choose two one-syllable words or
one two-syllable word.
___________________________ dark mountain
6 For the second line, I'll supply the first four syllables, leaving you to
supply three more. Be sure to include a verb and an adverb, and don't go over
three syllables!
Rushing waters _____________________________(verb + adverb)
Over muscled rocks.
7 Look at the last line. Rocks don't have muscles; however, when teaming
those two words together, I imagine big, strong, powerful rocks that the water's
great force cannot move.
8
Rewrite the completed haiku here:
9
Now you are ready to write a haiku on your own. Choose either your most
favorite or least favorite season. Then choose an object that represents that like or dislike.
Include both the season and related object in your haiku. Try to evoke the same emotional
response in your reader that those things make you feel. Remember to use the 5-7-5
pattern of syllables!
10
Write one more haiku on a clean piece of paper. Share it with a friend and discuss
why you wrote it.
Two Haiku poems are required for Part 3 of the Poetry Portfolio. One
Haiku must be accompanied by a brief explanation of how the words
were chosen to convey the meaning.