copyright 1995 by Gene Doty
Like haiku, tanka originated in Japan. Tanka have five lines, with a syllable pattern (in Japanese) of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables in the respective lines. Like other Japanese poetry, tanka do not rhyme. They are personal and often romantic in content and feeling. In feudal Japan, the ability to compose tanka was a prerequisite for a courtier.
Poets writing in English are in the process of defining what a tanka is for us. While English tanka with which I'm familiar adhere to five lines, few poets try to replicate the Japanese syllable count in English.
A tanka usually breaks into two units, the first three lines forming one unit and the last two lines forming another. (Sometimes the first two are one unit and the last three the other). The middle line can be a "pivot;" that is, the middle line can be read with either the first two or last two lines.
As an example, here is another of my tanka:
yellow day-lily
rising above uncut grass
I read Ovid
as my granddaughter
plays in a cardboard box
The poem's pivot may be seen by printing the lines separately:
yellow day-lily
rising above uncut grass
I read Ovid
I read Ovid
as my granddaughter
plays in a cardboard box
The "pivot" provides a hinge, a link, between the pairs of lines before and after it.