returning home
from the Autumn landscape
I felt I was alone
yet the very soil
of the woodland clings to me
as if not wanting to part
Andrew Hide
10~11~2005
Author notes
The sedoka is rarely seen today.
You need to go back to a time before most poetic forms were even considered, no one knows when the sedoka first came into being, its style is Chinese based yet was popular as the common poetic form in Japan at the dawn of Japanese litreture by the time the sedoka was going out of fashion the first Japanese poems where being written down (though still using Chinese characters) and the waka / tanka was starting to become the foremost form / style used. These evolved from the sedoka, the sedoka's lines 3 & 4 blended into one to become the kakekotobe (pivot/bridge) to smooth out the juxtaposition of the two images. That was over 1300 years ago, ( Euroupe's population was halfed by plagues and Beowulf was written for the first time ) that long ago.
The structure is made up of two Katauta ( 5-7-7 onji) the first will show a scene the second will usually show the same scene but from a different angle/ perspective or in later versions it would show a responce to the first or a reaction, much like the tanka which replaced it.
As the sedoka ( and its sister form the Mondo) were a spoken form very few classical piece remain today other than the few collected in the Man'yoshu .
Written November 10th, 2005
In a list
A contest entry
- Japanese Form-Poetry by teen-poetess.
300 points, ended November 13, 2005, 7 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
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This is very beautiful. I enjoyed learning about a new form. Earlier tonight I was working on, what I planned to be. a haiku but I haven't been able say everything I want to in three lines and I’ve ended up with 2 not quite haiku, or 6 lines with too many syllables. It’s actually very close (in form) to what you've described. I’m thinking with a little work I could turn it into a sedoka. Thank you for sharing this. Good luck in the contest. Patti
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the notes are always helpful ... the piece is lovely ... one cant comment on the form but i like the different levels here of observation and emotion ... makes me think how fabulous it would be to do a 'year in the life' - writing these forms (haiku, tanka, sedoka and the others one knows) a couple a week over a year - it would make a very beautiful collection of the weather, landscape, flora, fauna and how you feel .... a real sense of place and yours within it .... (i ramble) .... >>> GINA
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Thanks Andrew quite instructive and ofcourse a beauty of a poem. Seasonal beauty does often call the poets. I am glad you are gifted to answer that call.
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