A monostich is a poem which consists of a single line. [1]
A monostich has been as "a startling fragment that has its own integrity" [2] and "if a monostich has an argument, it is necessarily more subtle." [3]
A monostich could be also titled; due to the brevity of the form, the title is invariably as important a part of the poem as the verse itself: [4]
Some one line poems have "the characteristics of not exceeding one line of a normal page, to be read as one unbroken line without forced pauses or the poetics of caesura", and others have "a rhythm, (as with one-line haiku), dividing easily into three phrases". [5]
Modern monostich was started in Russia in 1894 [6] when Valery Bryusov published this apparently absurdist single line:
Perhaps the first to reintroduce one-line poems was Guillaume Apollinaire with his "Chantre" (1914) [7] in his collection Alcools (1913), mentioned by Leroy Breunig in 'Apollinaire and the monostich' followed by Bill Zavatsky with his 'Roy Rogers' article (1974) [8] in which he made clear that one line poems are not at all foreign to Western poetic tradition, also including therein some from Jerome Rothenberg's 'Technicians of the Sacred' (1969), [9] all of which are referenced in William Higginson's 'Characteristics of monostichs'. [10] Another French poet, Emmanuel Lochac, published one-line poems in 1920 under the title Monostiches. [11]
However, as Dmitry Kuzmin has pointed out in the first book-length study of one-line poetry (2016), Walt Whitman included a monostich (though a very long line) in an 1860 edition of his Leaves of Grass ; and in 1893 and 1894 Edith Thomas, possibly in collaboration with an amateur author Samuel R. Elliott (1836—1909), anonymously published several one-line poems intended as a joke in The Atlantic Monthly . [12] In the 1920s one-line poetry was rediscovered in the US by Yvor Winters, Edwin Ford Piper, Charles Reznikoff and others. Later, John Ashbery in '37 Haiku' (1984) and Allen Ginsberg in 'American Sentences' (1987-1995) demonstrated haiku in the monostich form. Ian McBryde's 2005 book Slivers consists entirely of one-line poems. [13]
Founded in 2021, “Whiptail: Journal of the Single Line Poem” is literary journal devoted solely to the monostich. [14]
Free verse is an open form of poetry which does not use a prescribed or regular meter or rhyme and tends to follow the rhythm of natural or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free verse and other forms is often ambiguous.
Haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan, and can be traced back from the influence of traditional Chinese poetry. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 phonetic units in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a kireji, or "cutting word"; and a kigo, or seasonal reference. However, haiku by classical Japanese poets, such as Matsuo Bashō, also deviate from the 17-on pattern and sometimes do not contain a kireji. Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified as senryū.
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form while otherwise deferring to poetic devices to make meaning.
A kigo is a word or phrase associated with a particular season, used in traditional forms of Japanese poetry. Kigo are used in the collaborative linked-verse forms renga and renku, as well as in haiku, to indicate the season referred to in the stanza. They are valuable in providing economy of expression.
Elizabeth Daryush was an English poet.
Arthur Yvor Winters was an American poet and literary critic.
David Lehman is an American poet, non-fiction writer, and literary critic, and the founder and series editor for The Best American Poetry. He was a writer and freelance journalist for fifteen years, writing for such publications as Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. In 2006, Lehman served as Editor for the new Oxford Book of American Poetry. He taught and was the Poetry Coordinator at The New School in New York City until May 2018.
Hokku is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, renga, or of its later derivative, renku. From the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the hokku began to appear as an independent poem, and was also incorporated in haibun. In the late 19th century, Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) renamed the standalone hokku as "haiku", and the latter term is now generally applied retrospectively to all hokku appearing independently of renku or renga, irrespective of when they were written. The term hokku continues to be used in its original sense, as the opening verse of a linked poem.
Ron Padgett is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School. Great Balls of Fire, Padgett's first full-length collection of poems, was published in 1969. He won a 2009 Shelley Memorial Award. In 2018, he won the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America.
Ian McBryde is an Australian poet. He was born in 1953 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada but has been a long time Australian resident. He has published ten books of poems and three audio CDs of spoken word poetry and original music A widely admired poet in Australia his most recent, and tenth book, a new and selected publication, was highly anticipated by his contemporaries. We the Mapless: new and selected poems was launched in Melbourne, Australia, at Collected Works Bookshop in February 2017 and at The Queensland Poetry Festival at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts in August, 2017.
A haiku in English is an English-language poem written in a form or style inspired by Japanese haiku. Like their Japanese counterpart, haiku in English are typically short poems and often reference the seasons, but the degree to which haiku in English implement specific elements of Japanese haiku, such as the arranging of 17 phonetic units in a 5–7–5 pattern, varies greatly.
William J. Higginson was an American poet, translator and author most notable for his work with haiku and renku, born in New York City. He was one of the charter members of the Haiku Society of America, and was present at its formation meeting in 1968.
A line is a unit of writing into which a poem or play is divided: literally, a single row of text. The use of a line operates on principles which are distinct from and not necessarily coincident with grammatical structures, such as the sentence or single clauses in sentences. Although the word for a single poetic line is verse, that term now tends to be used to signify poetic form more generally. A line break is the termination of the line of a poem and the beginning of a new line.
Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance, and patronage.
Alan Pizzarelli is an American poet, songwriter, and musician. He was born of an Italian-American family in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in the first ward’s Little Italy. He is a major figure in English-language haiku and Senryū.
Micropoetry is a genre of poetic verse including tweetku and captcha poetry, which is characterized by text generated through CAPTCHA anti-spamming software. The novelist W. G. Sebald may have been the first to use the term "micropoem", in reference to the poems of about 20 words in length that made up his 2004 work, Unrecounted. The more recent popularity of "micropoetry" to describe poems of 140 characters in length or shorter appears to stem from a separate coinage, as a portmanteau of "microblogging" and "poetry" in a notice on Identica on January 23, 2009, announcing the formation of a group for fans of poetry on that microblogging service. A subsequent notice linked to an example of micropoetry by another user, which was clearly lyrical but didn't appear to fit any preexistent form such as haiku or tanka.
In Defense of Reason is a three-volume work of literary criticisms by the American poet and literary critic Yvor Winters. First published in 1947, the book is known for its meticulous study of metrical verse and for its examples of Winters' system of ethical criticism.
A saijiki is a list of Japanese kigo used in haiku and related forms of poetry. An entry in a saijiki usually includes a description of the kigo itself, as well as a list of similar or related words, and some examples of haiku that include that kigo. A kiyose (季寄せ) is similar, but does not contain sample poems. Modern saijiki and kiyose are divided into the four seasons and New Year, with some containing a further section for seasonless topics. Each seasonal section is further divided into a standard set of categories, each containing a list of relevant kigo. The most common categories are the season, the heavens, the earth, humanity, observances, animals and plants.
Karl Gunnar Harding is a Swedish poet, novelist, essayist and translator, considered 'one of Sweden's foremost poets'. Among his other poetry collections is Starnberger See from 1977. Among his novels is Luffaren Svarta Hästen from 1977. He published the children's book Mannen och paraplyet in 1990. He was awarded the Dobloug Prize in 2011.
"The Skaters" is a 739-line long poem by American postmodern poet John Ashbery. Written from 1963 and in close to its final state in 1964, it was first published in Ashbery's fifth collection of poems, Rivers and Mountains published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Chantre Guillaume Apollinaire 1880 (Rome) – 1918 (Paris)