Today we are going to look at three short poetry forms – Haiku, Tanka and Limericks, and have a go at writing one of each!

All of these poetry forms have historical origins and a distinct structure and form. Each has a set number of syllables per line. By syllables we mean the number of beats to the line –  so the word Haiku has two syllables, the word limerick has three, for example.

Let’s look at each in turn.

What is Haiku?

Haiku is an ancient Japanese poetry form with three lines structured like this:

• Line 1: five syllables
• Line 2: seven syllables
• Line 3: five syllables

Traditionally, Haiku were themed around the physical world, providing a different way of looking at the nature of existence.

Here’s a couple of examples.

Falling to the ground
I watch a leaf settle down
In a bed of brown
We bleat about heat
But when the summer’s over
We’ll mourn its retreat

Exercise 1

So here’s an exercise for writing a Haiku, broken down into stages to make it easier.

1. Pick a topic eg something in nature, a season or an abstract idea like hope.
2. Think for a moment on your chosen theme, observing any images, words or feelings that come up
3. Set a timer and do a five-minute free-write around your chosen topic. Don’t worry about structure or syllables at this stage, just write freely, letting your thoughts flow
4. Go through your free-write, underlining words or phrases you like the sound of.
5. Write a Haiku – or several Haikus, drawing on some of those words and phrases.

What is Tanka?

Tanka is also Japanese, but five lines long. The structure is:

• Line 1: 5 syllables
• Line 2:7 syllables
• Line 3:5 syllables
• Line 4: 7 syllables
• Line 5: 5 syllables

Here’s an example:

A cool wind blows in
With a blanket of silence
Straining to listen
For those first few drops of rain
The storm begins in earnest.

One of the people who came to our group at Maggie’s Nottingham, wrote a Tanka for Mr MacMillan, consultant breast surgeon at Nottingham City Hospital, and had it printed on a mug which she presented him with!

Exercise 2

Follow a similar process to the one you used in Exercise 1, and write a Tanka

What is a limerick?

Limericks date from the middle ages – their origins are French, but they became very popular in 19th century England. They are five-line poems which are usually humorous – nonsense poems.

They are structured like this:

• Line 1: 8 syllables
• Line 2: 8 syllables
• Line 3: 5 syllables
• Line 4: 5 syllables
• Line 5: 8 syllables

The rhyme scheme is AABBA (so the first, second and last line rhyme with each other, third and fourth line rhyme with each other)

The first line usually introduces the subject (the person the poem is about), the second line tells you something about the subject, and the rest of the poem lets the story unfold to a ridiculous conclusion in the final line!

Here’s an example by Edward Lear:

There was an old man with a beard
Who said ‘it is just as I feared’
Two owls and a hen
Four larks and a wren
Have all built their nests in my beard!’

Exercise 3 

Write a limerick – if you want some ideas you can complete some of the following –  or write your own.

There was an old lady of Norwich
who lived entirely on porridge
An Arab a Turk and a Dane
went hitchhiking all over Spain
A foolish young fellow of Surrey
went to work in a bit of a hurry
A flighty young woman of Hull
found life to be dreadfully dull

Over to You

If you’ve had a go at this exercise, I’d love to hear how you got on! Leave a comment below and let me know – you can share your poems if you like!