Japanese Forms
Lanturne:
A Lanturne is a Japanese form of poetry with five lines. The form follows a syllabic pattern of one, two, three, four, one. They are generally centered and usually resemble a traditional Japanese lantern. I do not know why the name Lanturne appeared. There is little information and background on this form on the internet. It is said to be derived from the Haiku itself, but that is from the few resources I found.
The content of a Lanturne is not limited, but is said to be centered on nature, because of its Haiku origins. The first word is traditionally a noun with the following three lines describing the noun and the last word acting as a synonym to the first word. These are only for the traditional Lanturne. More modern versions have ignored these and used many different topics and utilized the idea of two describing words in the start and end of the poem.
Resources:
http://thewritechoice.wordpress.com/2007/12/02/what-is-a-lanturne/
http://www.magickalkingdom.com/smf/index.php?topic=11759.0;prev_next=next
http://www.mansfieldct.org/schools/goodwin/external/poetry/poetry.html
Tanka:
A tanka follows a syllabic pattern of 5/7/5/7/7. There is always a split somewhere in the poem, usually as 5/7/5 7/7. The tanka is traditionally written as a haiku, like the first part, then a bit of commentary, or reflection upon the haiku. A tanka gives the writer an easier chance of explaining their thoughts with the last two lines.
The tanks was said to be older then the haiku, being written in the "Man'yoshu,"(the Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves) which is the Japan's oldest anthology of poetry, compiled in the eighth century.
A tanka example:
Saying Goodbye
Carefully I walk
Trying so hard to be brave
They all see my fear
Dark glasses cover their eyes
As mine flow over with tears
Resources:
http://www.chinatownconnection.com/tanka-poems.htm
http://www.edu.pe.ca/threeoaks/english/eng421/grassroots/grass1/Terms4.htm
http://www.tankaonline.com/
Katauta and Mondo:
A katauta is written in either a question or an answer form. It is comprised of three lines, with the syllabic pattern of 5/7/7. The question and answer should leave the reader with some sort of a thought. To bring deeper meaning to the piece, some put together two katauta to form a mondo. Some consider a katauta to be half a cinquain, hence it’s name, which in English means “half-song’. A mondo starts with a katauta question, then ends with an answer to that question, also a katauta.
The content of the poem can be of any choosing, but the traditional topics usually center around nature and the like.
Example of a mondo:
Passing across
The new land of Tsukuba,
How many nights did we sleep?
Counting my fingers,
It has been nine times by night
And will be ten times by day.
Resources:
http://www.cyberoz.net/city/dhugal/tankaorigin.html
http://www.geocities.com/meister_z/HAIKUPo.htm
Onji:
Ok, so you’re probably asking by now…What is this onji I’ve heard so much about? This is what makes this style of writing so difficult. Onji is the Japanese version of a syllable. These figures in syllables are the same for onji, except the Japanese count onji differently then we count syllables. While one word we see and hear as 3 syllables to us can easily be close to eight onji to others.Because of this, it is hard for us to write such Japanese poetry in English. Generally, a traditional haiku is written with only about 9-11 words, while in English, we end up using up to 17 words. You just have to learn what is necessary and how to use the most of your syllables.
Resources:
http://www.ahapoetry.com/wildonji.htm
Covers basic japanese poetry forms including a small section on Onji and getting around the difficulties of it.
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