Analysis of Tanka 08

Masaoki Shiki 1867 (Matsuyama, Ehime) – 1902 (Tokyo)



to every needle
of the needled pine it clings—
the pearl white dew,
forming but to scatter,
scattering but to form


Scheme ABCDE
Poetic Form Tanka 
Metre 110010 1010111 0111 101110 100111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 120
Words 23
Sentences 1
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 5
Lines Amount 5
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 91
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

6 sec read
34

Masaoki Shiki

Masaoka Shiki, pen-name of Masaoka Noboru was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. more…

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