Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26444017-20190622004216/@comment-35711173-20190623072423

Wizard, I thought a Tanka was 31 syllables that are written in a single unbroken entity, with the 5 7 5 7 7 style. I don't see a single unbroken entity or sentence. Some I see have four entities, four sentences.

Take the last one for an example.

Now, I sit and write

Alone with her in this glen

Long into the night

Thinking of my angel friend

And if e’er our lives will end

There is one person, pretty well one entity. Compare it with the following:

He took time for thought

“I have just one last request.”

I knew what he sought

“With her breath from falling chest

“Her last word, in life, was ‘Rest’.

That moves back and forth and is four entities.


 * Entity 1 - Not Dialogue
 * Entity 2 - Quoted Dialogue
 * Entity 3 - Not Dialogue
 * Entity 4 - Quoted Dialogue