Eclipses
Eclipses
from A Field Guide to North American Haiku by Charles Trumbull
With such clamor over the 2024 solar eclipse in North America, we have decided to join the fun and dedicate this edition of the Field Guide to that rare phenomenon. This article was delivered to Frogpond Editor Jacob Salzer on April 7, the day before the eclipse, so it does not include any of our readers’ reactions to this specific event. I’m sure, however, that by the time you are reading these words there will have been a torrent of haiku written on or immediately after April 8. I hope all you poets will enjoy seeing the many ways the topic has been treated in the past.
Eclipses can be predicted long in advance, which generates excitement and anticipation among the public:
senjo ni tsuki no kakeru wo mekiki kana
boldly he forecasts
the moon’s
full eclipseIssa / David G. Lanoue2
The translator explains: “this haiku refers to the harvest moon eclipse of 1819. Issa’s ‘boldly’ (senjo ni) is ironic. Everyone is expecting the eclipse, but one self-important ‘expert’ feels the need to predict it loudly.”
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