Summary

Haiku is a highly structured form of poetry that is, however, extremely powerful and evocative.  The structure and constraints of the form impose strict limitations but also allow a good deal of creativity and freedom.  Haiku typically captures a unique moment that is conveyed through sensory images.  It does not attempt to explain or provide commentary on these moments.

Haiku originated in Japan in the Edo period and was formalized as a poetic form in the late nineteenth century.  Japanese haiku has a metrical pattern consisting of three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables each.  In Japanese, this convention is a requirement but translations and original poems written in other languages sometimes deviate from this scheme.  Typically, the poems consist of two independent sections separated thematically by a certain degree of imaginative distance, although each part also enriches the understanding of the other.  In addition, many haiku have a seasonal theme and take the natural world or ordinary events from daily life as their subject.