Anthropomorphism. That's quite a word. The first time I saw it, I wondered if it was contagious. When I realized it was a magazine editor who used the word referring to some of my haiku, I quickly looked it up in the dictionary. The definition read: an interpretation of what is not human or personal in terms of human or personal characteristics: Humanization.
Since the magazine accepted none of my haiku, I quickly realized anthropomorphism was not good in haiku. While anthropomorphism (big brother to personification) can be interesting and artistic in some poetry and prose, most haiku editors avoid it.
rain heavy on leaves
already bent boughs strain more
and trees cry their pain
The trees didn't cry, and watching them, try as I might, I never heard them cry. They can't cry: they are trees! As poetic as the thought of crying trees may be, my job as a haiku student is to impart an observation without applying my own emotion or judgement to the haiku. Perhaps a better way to write the haiku would be:
heavy rains
boughs bend in the wet
trees lean
Yeah, not a particularly good haiku, but the rains, the boughs and trees are basically doing what they do, they fall heavily, they bend and lean. In this haiku, I have observed the events, allowing you, the reader to experience the event and then impart your own meaning to it.
