Poetic Form
Tanka
From Japanese: short song. The tanka (also called waka) was the prestige form of the Heian court; the haiku evolved from its opening 5-7-5 unit (hokku).
Definition
A Japanese lyric of 31 syllables in five lines (5-7-5-7-7) — the dominant Japanese court poetry form for over a millennium.
Example
Lady Ise (c.877–940): 'Even in the morning mist / the path through the mountain fields / remains unclear to me…'