Learn to write poetry: THE HAIKU

Today we will look at the haiku, which is a Japanese poetry style made up of three short lines. Because haikus are short and often use simple vocabulary, they are great for learners of English to read and write. I will teach you about the history of the haiku and how it is constructed. Some haikus have a very deep philosophical meaning despite being so short, which is why they are so interesting. By the end of the lesson, I hope you’ll be inspired to write a haiku of your own and post it in the EngVid comments section! Next, watch my video about learning English from another type of poem: TRANSCRIPT “Furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto.“ Okay, so don’t adjust your set, this is an English lesson, but we’re looking today at haiku, which is a Japanese form of poetry, but lots of English poems have been written in the haiku form. So, first of all, I’d like to thank my students, Kuni and Negu, for their help in training me to recite this haiku in Japanese. I hope it was okay. So, this is a poem about a frog jumping into a pond and making a splash. So, it’s a very simple, straightforward scene, just a description of something in nature, and haiku is often describing something in nature. And you might think: “Well, why...? How is haiku going to help me learn English?“ Okay? So, the... It’s a very, very short kind of poem. You can see it’s three lines, not many words, so it’s a manageable, short thing to read every now and then, if you find some on the internet or whatever. And to find if there is a word in there that you don’t know, you can look it up and then you’ve learnt a new word. And also, with haiku there is often a philosophical aspect. It’s a description of something in nature, but there’s also something there for you to think about. So, okay, let me just summarize. So, the haiku comes from Japan originally. It started in the 9th century, so that’s a long time ago. Basho, who wrote this poem, lived in the 17th century, and he’s very famous as a writer of haiku and as a poet generally. Okay. One of the things about haiku is it’s always... It’s usually in three lines, and the number of syllables is five, seven, five. Some poets, some haiku I’ve read in English don’t always follow that number of syllables, but basically they’re usually three lines, very short, so they’re very quick and easy to read, and it doesn’t take a lot of time to read a haiku and think about it a little bit, and maybe learn a new word or two. So, let’s count the syllables, shall we? Just to be clear what syllables are. So: “Fu-ru i-ke ya“-that’s five-“ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu“-that’s seven-“mi-zu no o-to“, five. So that’s the number of syllables, because rhythm is very important in poetry. Okay. So, now we get on to an English version, and because of copyright rules and all that sort of thing, I decided I would write one of my own so that I can give myself permission to use it in this lesson. Okay, so here it is, and I’ve drawn a tree because that is relevant to the poem, so... And you might like to count the syllables just to check that I got it right. So: “What do I do now? I’m the last leaf on the tree Waving in the breeze.“ Okay? So “waving“ is this sort of thing, the breeze is the wind. The breeze... A breeze is a very small wind; not a very strong wind, just a gentle, little wind. Okay. So, here’s the tree with one leaf left on it. So, it’s a scene from nature, if you’ve ever seen a tree with just one leaf left, and you’re looking and thinking: “Is that going to be blown off soon or will it stay all winter?“ But a part from being a scene from nature, you might think: “Well, that’s quite philosophical as well“, because if you relate it to a human person who is feeling alone like the last leaf on the tree... Maybe the last person in their family. “What do I do now? I’m the last leaf on the tree, waving in the breeze.“ So it has a kind of philosophical element as well if you start thinking about the deeper meaning of it. Okay. So, I’m not really a poet, so that just proves that you don’t have to be a poet to write a haiku. So I’m going to encourage you to try to write one of your own and just follow the number of syllables, write one in English, and post it in the comments on the engVid website. But before we finish this lesson, I just have one more haiku to show you written by a friend of mine who has given her permission for us to use her poem, and it’s actually quite a funny one, so you can have humour in haiku as well, so let’s have a look at that. Okay, so here is an example of a modern haiku written by my friend Sarah Lawson who has given us her permission to use her poem. That’s the copyright symbol there to show that it’s her copyright, her property. […]