Haiku Lesson

In the four haiku all the images come from —

• natural events

• the poet’s own actions

• the wonders of city life

• water and mountains

The speaker of the haiku by Miura Chora attempts to —

• jump like a toad

• catch a toad

• plant crops

• harvest crops

What is surprising about the toad in the haiku by Miura Chora?

• It eats bamboo plants.

• This toad knows the farmer well.

• Toads aren’t usually found along roads.

• It is being formally addressed by a human.

In the haiku by Chiyo, the speaker asks a neighbor for water because the —

• speaker is too lazy to fetch his own water with a bucket

• speaker’s bucket is tangled in morning glories

• neighbor has planted morning glories in the speaker’s bucket

• speaker’s bucket is already full of water

The poem by Chiyo is most likely set in —

• an apartment house in a city

• the countryside

• an office in a skyscraper

• a desert with no rivers or lakes

The haiku by Matsuo Basho¯ takes place —

• on a pond

• in a kitchen

• in the forest

• in a farmer’s field

What inner experience does the speaker describe in the haiku by Matsuo Basho¯ ?

• Frogs are a man’s best friend.

• Expect little from old things.

• Old things can seem new and lively.

• There’s no reason to fear water.

In the haiku by Kobayashi Issa, in order to see distant hills, the speaker —

• travels beyond his farm fields

• gazes out of his window

• looks at a reflection on a full moon

• looks into the eyes of a dragonfly

The haiku by Kobayashi Issa is set

• on a mountaintop, where the speaker follows a dragonfly’s flight

• in a dark container in which the speaker has trapped a dragonfly

• outdoors in nature, where the speaker comes upon a dragonfly

• in a lake, where the speaker swims as a dragonfly flies overhead

In all of these haiku, the speakers learn —

• how animals and insects get in man’s way

• something about nature as well as themselves

• how to better care for their land

• about their favorite pastimes