Asian literature Asian literature Asian literature is the literature produced in Asia. In Tang and Song dynasty China, famous poets such as Li Bai authored works of great importance. They wrote "shī" (Classical Chinese: 詩) poems, which have lines with equal numbers of characters, as well as "cí" (詞) poems with mixed line varieties. Early-Modern Japanese literature (17th–19th centuries) developed comparable innovations such as haiku, a form of Japanese poetry that evolved from the ancient "hokku" (Japanese language: 発句) mode. Haiku consists of three lines: the first and third lines each have five "morae" (the rough phonological equivalent of syllables), while the
Haiku in English and Paul Muldoon in Ireland and Britain) and others have tried their hand at haiku. In 1963 the journal "American Haiku" was founded in Platteville, Wisconsin, edited by the European-Americans James Bull and Donald Eulert. Among contributors to the first issue were poets James W. Hackett, O Mabson Southard (1911–2000), and Nick Virgilio. In the second issue of "American Haiku" Virgilio published his "lily" and "bass" haiku, which became models of brevity, breaking down the traditional 5-7-5 syllabic form, and pointing toward the leaner conception of haiku that would take hold in subsequent decades. "American Haiku" ended publication in 1968