Learn English – What does “not quite a Haiku” mean? Is it a popular English idiom

idioms

I found the article written by Mark Halperin under the title not quite a Haiku in July 13 Time magazine followed by the lines:

From a White House pool report about the President’s stop in Virginia
Beach: He worked the rope line. Lots of teenagers. There was more
screaming.

As I was quite unfamiliar with the phrase, I tried to find out its meaning on Google. I wasn’t able to find any definition as I used to find in Google Search, but found a couple of examples of the text headed with the caption, not quite a Haiku:

  • Not quite a haiku: They would never suspect they always have it coming And I'm famous but someone has to do it Clean this world of the
    rot. ‒ amcon. net

  • Not quite Friday anymore, and not quite a haiku. A little while ago, I was looking for sentences for my RTK2 deck, and while attempting to find something for the character I stumbled across something that is, I suppose, near … ‒ andorien.wordpress.com

From these examples, and in association with Haiku, which is the shortest form of poem in the world as I understand and easy for everyone to try and work up, I assume not quite a Haiku means "It’s not a so easy work (as you work up a Haiku)" or "It’s not a so easy-going day (as you're indulging in Haiku)" but I’m not sure.

What does not quite a haiku mean? Is it popular English phrase? Since when did it come into use?

We have鼻歌 (hanauta) in Japanese literally meaning “sing a song with nose,” which means doing one’s work humming a tune (nonchalantly). Does 'not quite a haiku' imply the same thing?

Best Answer

'Not quite a Haiku' is referring to the three short sentences:

He worked the rope line.

Lots of teenagers.

There was more screaming.

It comes close to the rules for Haiku (in English of course) of 5-7-5 syllables and pithy poetic meaning. I think it is obvious that it doesn't match the syllables and also it is not particularly poetic.

I haven't heard the phrase before but it could easily be a common trope. It's not an idiom though: it means what it says, it's just that what it says may not be obvious. It has nothing to do with 'work' or 'hanuatu', just to the form of some description (simple, few points, possible poetic).

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