Free Tanka Generator
Generate a five-line tanka in 5-7-5-7-7, with an image in the first half and a turn inward in the last two lines.
Tanka · Reflective
A blank page, for now
Choose a form on the left, tell it what the poem is about, and it will write. You can edit every line afterwards.
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What is a tanka?
A tanka is a haiku that keeps going. Five lines instead of three, and the extra two turn the image into a feeling. Where a haiku observes, a tanka admits something.
The rules, exactly
- Exactly five lines with 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables.
- No rhyme.
- The first three lines set an image; the final two turn inward toward feeling or reflection.
- The pivot between the two halves is the point of the form.
- Lines
- 5
- Syllables
- 5-7-5-7-7
- Rhyme
- No Rhyme
Where it comes from
Older than the haiku by around a thousand years, the tanka was the dominant form of Japanese court poetry and the standard medium for love letters in the Heian period.
The dew on the leaf lingers only until dawn and yet I, somehow, have outlasted every one of the mornings I feared most.