Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five morae and typically treating the theme of human foibles with an ironic or satirical tone.
  • noun A verse form in another language modeled on the Japanese senryu, typically counting syllables instead of morae.
  • noun A poem written in such a form.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a haiku-like poem of up to 17 syllables, usually humorous or satirical.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After Senryū, pen name of Karai Hachiemon (1718–1790), Japanese poet and critic who popularized the form (literally meaning river willow : Japanese sen, river + ryū, willow).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Japanese 川柳 (senryū).

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Examples

  • - poems known as senryu have received little scholarly attention because most were written by anonymous amateur poets and were therefore considered popular literature unworthy of serious study.

    AvaxHome RSS: 2009

  • For the "senryu" poem, for example, he was able to construct a month old cheese sandwich using only paper fibers of various orange, yellow, green bleck!

    Archive 2006-04-01 fusenumber8 2006

  • And exhausted; I slept on the way to Mark's house last night, and slept for much of the day, rousing myself to Twitter a senryu: sprawled, limbs akimbo his bed emits sleepions recovery is.

    I live! Really. 2009

  • Maggie, what we are writing here are mostly senryu. same syllable counts 5-7-5.

    Southern Haiku Contest! ____Maggie 2008

  • Haiku and senryu are similar in form, but haiku are about the natural world.

    Ride to Work, Work to Ride: Living the Dream BikeSnobNYC 2010

  • Loved the poem, Snob, but technically it's not haiku--it's a senryu.

    Ride to Work, Work to Ride: Living the Dream BikeSnobNYC 2010

  • And the other good news is I had a set of four SF/SFF haiku printed in Hahaku a collection of senryu-scifaiku with a smile, edited by Teri Santitoro and published by Sam's Dot Publishing, and best of all I got paid for them!

    Archive 2007-08-01 Bob Lock 2007

  • And the other good news is I had a set of four SF/SFF haiku printed in Hahaku a collection of senryu-scifaiku with a smile, edited by Teri Santitoro and published by Sam's Dot Publishing, and best of all I got paid for them!

    Some more stuff published Bob Lock 2007

  • The haiku and senryu section has some lovely offerings.

    To Read: Modern Haiku, Summer 2006 Mirtika 2006

  • This book may have some of the big names and fun poems in it, but THAT book actually knows the difference between a sonnet and a senryu.

    Archive 2006-12-01 fusenumber8 2006

Comments

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  • Five-seven-five but

    not about nature; in fact,

    often satiric.

    December 29, 2006

  • an ironic haiku

    March 20, 2012