What is Haiku?

Haiku and Stress | What is Haiku? | Haiku's History

In traditional Japanese Poetry, Haiku plays an important part, along within the related terms Hokku and Haikai. Nowadays, Haiku is generally considered a 17-syllabled verse, with, alternately 5,7,and 5 syllables. In Japanese, it is considerd a must, in three units, but in english, that can prove to be difficult. Therefore, it is usually considered a must only in japanese.

In japanese, hokku means"starting verse". It is generally considerd the mst important part of a poem and it was uncommon for many poets to only write the hokku and leave the rest unfinished.Haikai consisted of a beginning triplet called a hokku. The hokku was considered the most important part of the poem. It had two principal requirements: a seasonal word (kireji) and a "cutting word" or exclamation.