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What is the Poetry Archive?

The Poetry Archive is the only charity wholly dedicated to the production, acquisition and preservation of recordings of significant poets reading their work aloud.

We care for and preserve these uniquely valuable voices, which might otherwise be lost, so that future generations can continue to enjoy them. We make our own recordings of poets who write in the English language, and poets also donate copies of their own archives to us so we can look after them in the long term. Hearing how a poet speaks their own poems brings us a deeper level of understanding and enjoyment of the work and provides a rich resource for poetry lovers, explorers, teachers and students of all ages. We have a fundamental belief that poetry is for everyone so, as a charity, the funds we raise are used to record new poets and keep sharing these wonderful collections free-of-charge with you.

Latest Poet

Poet

13 poems available

Paul Groves is a poet, critic and Creative Writing Lecturer, a staple of British literary periodicals over a five-decade career. He has won many accolades, including an Eric Gregory Award (1976) and The Times Literary Supplement prize twice (1986, 2007), and has…

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Collection

From the glossary

H

Haiku

A haiku is a brief Japanese form that has been adapted into English in various ways. Its usual definition is that it is a three-line poem, consisting of seventeen syllables split 5 - 7 - 5. Other criteria (such as a 'zen mood', a reference to a season, or the poem being divided by a word that implies some form of cutting) may be demanded, and may even replace the strict syllable count. John Stallworthy considers Ezra Pound's 'In a Station of the Metro' a haiku, as, although it has only two lines and considerably more than 17 syllables, it has the brief and direct presentation of an image that many haiku have.

Peter Goldsworthy's 'Razor' is arguably a haiku, despite its syllables breaking 5-6-6; it has the direct presentation of an image in seventeen syllables and three lines, with a light caesura. 'Strugnell's Haiku', a comic take on the form by Wendy Cope, sets up the humour by "combin[ing] the feeling of Japanese Haiku with the banality of poor old Strugnell"; it's worth noticing that the syllable count, the reference to a season, and (in two out of three cases) a caesura to cut the haiku in two are present. 'Strugnell' may not have any profound insights, but he knows his formal rules.

A haiku is small in the way that a spyhole is.

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