10 pages • 20 minutes read
BashoOld Pond
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1686A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is a literary device where a word’s sound defines the word itself. It derives from two Greek words, onoma (name) and poiein (to make). As mentioned in the Analysis section, words like bang and swoosh are examples of onomatopoeia, as well as rustle and slap.
In “Old Pond,” Bashō uses onomatopoeia in the last line to signify cause and effect. The last line, “mizu no oto” (Line 3), translates as splash. The frog’s body splashes into the water, and the sudden sound causes Bashō to see the world with new eyes.
Kireji
The kireji is the cutting word, also known as spoken punctuation, which pivots the haiku toward a shift in subject matter or toward a resolution. In “Old Pond,” ya (at the end of the first line) is the cutting word shifting the poem from contemplation of an old pond to contemplation of a jumping, splashing frog. The kireji operates like the volta in a sonnet.
Kigo
The kigo is a reference to the seasons. If a poet mentions bare trees, they might be referencing fall or winter, whereas flowers in bloom might reference the height of summer (there are usually other images to better identify what season the poet is referencing). In “Old Pond,” the splashing, jumping frog indicates the energy and newness of springtime.
Syllabic Pattern
Classic haiku implement a five-seven-five syllabic pattern, where the first and third lines contain five syllables and the second line contains seven syllables. Moreover, Japanese haiku are technically one continuous vertical line (not three independent lines): Older, untranslated haiku might therefore look like lines of prose because poets vertically write (and publish) them, whereas English-language haiku appear as three broken lines because they’re written (and printed) based on the original’s metrical (syllabic) breaks. For example, “Old Pond” would appear as: “Furuike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto” in a manuscript or a newspaper, but the English translation breaks it into the following:
Another important note: Contemporary haiku—often called “American haiku” sometimes eschew the classic syllabic pattern altogether but regularly adhere to the three-line form and overarching minimalist approach.
