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Senryu (川柳) is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 or fewer syllables in total. However, senryu tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature. Senryu do not need to include a kigo, or season word, like haiku. Much modern haiku is more similar to senryu than to traditional Japanese haiku. Most English haiku and senryu poets no longer adhere to the 5-7-5 syllable form, which is suitable for the Japanese language, but which may lead English poets to produce over-long and sometimes stilted poems. Many modern haijin (haiku/senryu poets) use the "one deep breath" rule: take a deep breath and you should be able to read the poem aloud.
Senryu are short poems with few rules. Authors must be careful to avoid writing senryu that are merely slogans, mottos, statements of the obvious, or wordplay.
See The Black Ships for a well-known senryu written in response to the arrival of American warships in Japan.
1 Resources
- Makoto Ueda, Light Verse from the Floating World: An Anthology of Premodern Japanese Senryu, Columbia University Press © 1999 BooksEnthsiast.com cloth BooksEnthsiast.com pbk [273 pp. 400 senryu]
2 External links
Poetic form
