Poetic Forms: Tanka

Originating in ancient Japan, a tanka (ton'- kə;) consisted of a haiku sent by mail or messenger and a two-line reply added to it for the returned message. Now tanka are composed in their final, familiar five-line format.

You may recall that haiku does not rhyme and consists of 17 syllables in three lines in a 5-7-5 format (five syllables in line one, seven in line two, then five again). A tanka adds two unrhymed lines of seven syllables each, for a total of 31 syllables. It can be in the 5-7-5-7-7 or in the two stanza 5-7-5 .. 7-7 format. There is no rule as to subject matter, so a senryu can be used as the first three lines.

Since they are short, titles of tanka may be taken from the poem's first line, or a key line, or are simply numbered, though naming poems is completely up to the author without specific rules.

Examples:

A Summer Sail

A cool, windswept sea
and unassuming sunshine
reveal in silence
my lust for a summer sail,
emplacing my true bearing.

Weather Vanes

On a lonely road
I spy odd metal sculptures.
It's obvious now-

Old farmers pass and become
weather vanes on rolling plains.

Copyright © 2008 by Jack Huber-
All rights reserved.