Lesson Topic 3: Say Hello to the Haiku

What is a Haiku?

The haiku is a traditional Japanese nature poem that only has three lines. The first line of a haiku has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line has five syllables. The purpose of a haiku is to present a complete snapshot of nature in three short lines.

Haiku Examples

Read the following Haiku poem and see if you can picture a complete image of the described scene in your mind.

Two illustrated frogs peer out of a pond. Lily pads and flowers are in the pond, and a dragonfly hovers above. An old silent pond...

A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! Silence again.

- Basho Matsuo

Then, count the syllables in each line and notice how the numbers match up with the structure of a Haiku.

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