Haiku in non-Japanese haiku or by modern writers of Japanese "free-form" haiku. The best-known Japanese haiku is Bashō's "old pond": This separates into "on" as: Translated: Another haiku by Bashō: This separates into "on" as: Translated: This haiku by Bashō illustrates that he was not always constrained to a 5-7-5 "on" pattern. It contains 18 "on" in the pattern 6-7-5 ("ō" or is treated as two "on".) This separates into "on" as: Translated: This haiku by Issa illustrates that 17 Japanese "on" do not always equate to 17 English syllables ("nan" counts as two "on" and "nonda" as three.) This separates
Haiku in English popular in English-language schools as a way to encourage the appreciation and writing of poetry. "Haiku" is a term sometimes loosely applied to any short, impressionistic poem, but there are certain characteristics that are commonly associated with the genre: Some additional traits are especially associated with English-language haiku (as opposed to Japanese-language haiku): Arguably, the first successful haiku in English was "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound, published in 1913. During the Imagist period, a number of mainstream poets, including Pound, wrote what they called "hokku", usually in a five-six-four syllable pattern. American poet Amy Lowell published