Haikus
Haikus are syllabic poems, their rules are strictly based on the amount of syllables in each line. Haiku means starting verse. The starting verse in the poem sets the patterns. These poems are based off of the smallest segment in speech. Haikus consist of repeated stanza patterns of varied line lengths. The earliest Haiku can be found in Milton’s Prosody by Robert Bridges, he compares the syllabic tendencies to his Italian background. The most commonly known Haiku pattern is the 5–7–5 pattern. To find if a poem is a Haiku, all you need to do is count the syllables in each line, this can also help you find which words are intended to be stressed by the author. Understanding which words are stressed, helps understand the poem on a better level.
In poem, ‘№31’ the author follows the basic 5–7–5 pattern. In this haiku the pattern allows you to see the words being stressed are “falling”, “laughing”, “holds out”, “until”, “white”. The poems suggest that it’s a boy waiting for something important to happen, and by stating “Until they are white.” (219) it suggests that he would wait there until he couldn’t anymore, that he would wait in the snow until her hands went numb. The stressed words allowed you to focus on what was more important which is important especially in a short poem like this one, it allows you to understand what the author is trying to convey.
