context: poetry > form

Elements of Poetry

Rhyme and rhythm are central to poetry in most languages, but not so much in Japanese. They have no real interest in rhyme: all Japanese syllables end in one of five vowels (well, arguably excluding the syllable 'n' at the end of words, but even that has a swallowed 'uh' sound), each of which have two sounds (short and long), so rhyming is easy, all but unavoidable, and uninteresting. As for rhythm, all syllables have equal value, so there is no sense of a rhythm beyond the basic counting of syllables.

There is, however, that syllable count: almost all traditional forms have an odd number of lines, with an odd number of syllables in each, generally five or seven, often alternating. Note that this was true before Zen reached Japan, so the claims that Zen is the root of the love of asymmetrical composition is doubtful.

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