Language
Fact-checked

At LanguageHumanities, we're committed to delivering accurate, trustworthy information. Our expert-authored content is rigorously fact-checked and sourced from credible authorities. Discover how we uphold the highest standards in providing you with reliable knowledge.

Learn more...

What Is a Love Haiku?

Mark Wollacott
Mark Wollacott

A love haiku is a short poem that expresses feelings and emotions for someone else. Such poems can be found on cards, magnets and other gifts. They are associated with St. Valentine’s Day in the West, but can be used or written at any time. Composing a love haiku is one of many ways a person can use poetry to express inner feelings to someone he or she loves.

The haiku is one of many forms of Japanese poetry. A witty retort of two sets of 17-syllable lines known as a Katauta developed into longer poems such as choka and tanka. These, in turn, led to the team-created renga. The haiku is a succinct form of the tanka and can be combined with prose text to form a haibun.

A love haiku can be used to express one's romantic feelings for someone else.
A love haiku can be used to express one's romantic feelings for someone else.

Traditional Japanese haiku consist of 17 letters when rendered into its native hiragana or katakana alphabets. Both alphabets represent the same list of 52 sounds. Additional syllables can be created using two letters or kana. One example is kyu, however, such letters require two letters — ki + yu — to form and, therefore, count as two syllables out of the 17. This means that Japanese haiku contain little information.

Some love haikus are written to mark a wedding anniversary or other special day.
Some love haikus are written to mark a wedding anniversary or other special day.

English haiku are able to convey greater meaning because English is blessed with more one- and two-syllable words. While a Japanese haiku is written in one line, an English haiku is divided into three lines with five syllables in the first and third lines and seven in the second to give a 5-7-5 pattern. This means a love haiku must be spoken in one breath.

Love haikus may be written as a sign of affection or desire.
Love haikus may be written as a sign of affection or desire.

A Japanese haiku must contain a kigo or seasonal word and a juxtaposition. One kind of juxtaposition commonly used in haiku is a movement and a stillness. These can be translated into a love haiku by having a love kigo instead of a seasonal one and some kind of juxtaposition. It is possible to have a seasonal kigo while keeping a romantic theme too: “A cherry blossoms’/ beauty is only fleeting, / yours is forever.”

Haiku purists may argue that a love haiku is not a true haiku. Haiku are supposed to be nature-orientated, while senryu are more focused on human foibles. A senryu has the same form as a haiku, but does not require a kigo or juxtaposition. English haiku, however, are more flexible than their Japanese counterparts, and the term is used for any poem, even love haiku, that conforms to the basic 5-7-5 syllabic structure.

Discussion Comments

truman12

Does anyone have any good examples of haiku that are about love? I have not read a lot of haiku in my life but I have always connected with good love poetry. I guess I am kind of sentimental like that. If someone can point me towards some really good love haiku I would appreciate it.

tigers88

I have a collection of ancient Japanese love haiku and they are extraordinarily moving. You would not believe how much people can say in just three lines.

But what I love about these romantic haiku is how much they make the love people felt hundreds and hundreds of years ago seem so much like our own. The ups and downs are the same, the complications are the same, the urgency is the same. It bridges the history because love is universal. You can see that in the love haiku.

summing

I think that love haiku can be some of the most beautiful love poetry out there. The haiku format forces you to be simple and direct. Love haiku poems tend to express a single strong sentiment or feeling. They do not blather on like so much love poetry but get right to whatever point they have chosen to make.

I got into the habit of writing my wife a love haiku every year for our anniversary. It is only three lines, I don't have to agonize over it trying to get it right. But it comes from the heart and it is personal and I think the gesture means a lot to her.

Post your comments
Login:
Forgot password?
Register:
    • A love haiku can be used to express one's romantic feelings for someone else.
      By: zoomyimages
      A love haiku can be used to express one's romantic feelings for someone else.
    • Some love haikus are written to mark a wedding anniversary or other special day.
      By: and.one
      Some love haikus are written to mark a wedding anniversary or other special day.
    • Love haikus may be written as a sign of affection or desire.
      By: micromonkey
      Love haikus may be written as a sign of affection or desire.