thinkALONG! 20 July

host: Muskaan Ahuja

guest editor: Gauri Dixit

Love has been a subject for many a poem, classic or contemporary. Free verse or haikai … love changes form or expression, but it still dominates the poetry scene.

How do you think that treatment of love in haikai is different from that in free verse?

How has the expression changed over the years? Who is your favourite romantic poet?

Share your favourite love poem.

Below are a few examples / excerpts from love poems ( free verse / haikai ). If these inspire you, write a love tanka / haiku …

Haiku by Kobayashi Issa

Under the cherry blossoms strangers are not really strangers

(translation: Zoria P. K.)

Haiku by Matsuo Basho

Easing in her slender forearm for his pillow

(translation: Jeff Robbins & Sakata Shoko)

"She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies

Tanka by Ono No Komachi

Was it that I fell asleep Longing for him That he appeared? Had I known it was a dream I should not have awakened