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There once was a student on Bitesize
Who wanted a poem the right size.
It can’t be too long,
Because that would be wrong,
So they learnt about short form on Bitesize!

Shorter forms of poetry like limericks and haiku are not only fun to write, but they also have a long history.

Key learning points

• The history of haiku and limericks
• Rhyme scheme of limericks
• Rhythm of limericks
• Syllables in haiku

Short form poetry is the name used for poetry which is very short.

Short form poetry has lots of benefits:

• short poems are easy to remember and to recite
• they get straight to the point of the topic
• they allow a precise word choice
• short form poetry is quick and easy to write
• different forms have clear and simple rules

When poets don’t have many words, they have to think carefully about their choice of language, so they can convey their meaning really precisely.

This makes short form poetry really interesting to read, as you can think carefully about the reasons behind the poet’s choice of words.

This also makes it fun to write short form poetry, as you can use some thoughtful vocabulary to express exactly what you mean.

Limericks are a popular and fun short form with just one stanza of five lines. Like most short form poetry, there are rules they should follow.

• Limericks use an AABBA rhyme scheme:
  • The first, second and fifth lines should rhyme with each other
  • The third and fourth lines should rhyme with each other
• Limericks have a regular rhythm:
  • Lines one, two and five should be longer than lines three and four
  • Lines one, two and five should have three sets of ‘dah dah DUM’ rhythms
  • Lines three and four should have two sets of this ‘dah dah DUM’ rhythms

Limericks were first written in the 18th century in England. There is a town called Limerick in Ireland, but there’s no evidence to suggest limerick poetry comes from Limerick.

The most famous poet to write limericks was Edward Lear in the 19th century. He wrote lots of funny limericks in a collection called A Book of Nonsense. Watch the film again to hear an example of a famous limerick by Lear:

There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, “It is just as I feared!—
Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard”.

Edward Lear was an artist as well as a poet, and he also illustrated his own poems.

Complete the limerick below

Haiku is another popular type of short form poetry, which comes from Japan. Like a limerick, a Haiku also follows strict rules:

• A haiku is three lines long.
  • There are five syllables in the first line
  • Seven syllables in the second line
  • And five syllables in the third line
• There is no rhyme scheme in haiku.
• Traditionally, haiku are about nature, and often refer to a season.

Usually, the poem has a moment of change - it may focus first on one thing, then on another, something may happen or suddenly be understood.

Here is an example of a haiku by Lewis Grandison Alexander about rain:

Listen to the rain
Falling broken on the ground:
Pity the sky once.

Haiku began in Japan as ‘hokku’ which were the opening stanzas to a longer poem called renku (or rengu). Around the 17th century, Japanese poets had begun to write hokku as independent poems, and in the late 19th century these were renamed ‘haiku’.

One of the most famous haiku poets is Bashō.

• He was born Matsuo Kinsaku in 1644, near the city of Iga in Japan.
• He started using the name Bashō after he was given some Japanese banana trees, known as bashō trees, by his students.
• He wrote around 1000 haikus in his lifetime and died in 1694.

Watch the film again to hear an example of a famous haiku by Bashō (translated into English):

An old silent pond…
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.