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Sedoka

East Asian Verse Forms

A minor Japanese verse form of two three-line units, each in a 5-7-7 syllable pattern, traditionally understood as a paired call-and-response form, sometimes voicing two different speakers, that appears alongside the choka and tanka in the Man'yoshu but never became a mainstream classical form.

Facts
Place of Origin
Japan, Nara period (8th century). 1
Structure
Two three-line units of 5-7-7 syllables each, six lines and thirty-eight syllables in total. 1
Notable Example
Sedoka preserved in the Man'yoshu anthology, several attributed to anonymous folk poets. 1
Connections

Form Of Genre

Lyric Poetry, Genres
Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Sources
1. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Princeton University Press

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