Friday, October 6, 2023

Poetic Musings: Taste Haiku by Jane Reichhold

home-grown lettuce
the taste of well-water
green

Frogpond, 23:3, Autumn, 2000

Jane Reichhold

Commentary: The rhetorical device, synaesthesia ("transference of the senses"), a familiar element in Japanese poetry, is multi-sensorily effectively employed in this haiku. It speaks to one sensory/gustatory  aspect of a thing (the "taste" of "well-water" in L2),  and then changes its focus on another sensory aspect/visual ("green" in L3). In doing so, L3, "green"," provides a visually and emotionally effective link-and-shift relationship with L1, [green] "home-grown lettuce," obviously "tasty" because of the time and energy, i.e. "love," spent on growing it.

Note: The "technique of sense-switching," i.e.  synaesthesiais employed in the haiku. For more, see "Dark Wings of the Night: Jane Reichhold's Haiku Techniques."

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