The haiku poetics of Tomas Tranströmer, Bo Setterlind, Dag Hammarskjöld, and the Japanese influences in their non-haiku production.

In this thesis five outlined traits in the haiku poetry of the “three pioneers” of Swedish haiku, Bo Setterlind, Tomas Tranströmer, and Dag Hammarskjöld, are examined. In addition to exploring their haiku productions, this thesis also investigates points of interest (dubbed P.O.I) in their non-haiku production indicating influences from both Japanese poetics and aesthetics. The author finds that each poet approaches haiku in his own idiosyncratic way. On one end lies Tranströmer who adheres to a 5-7-5 syllable scheme and on the other lies Setterlind who writes his haiku in a type of free verse form. Hammarskjöld's poetry is situated in an aurea mediocritas between these two extremes. His poems, although seldom following a 5-7-5 structure, almost always consist of seventeen syllables. Despite being generally avoided in traditional Japanese haiku, Sandangire (multiple use of a kire, i.e., a form of caesura) and kigasanari (a repeated seasonal allusion), are identified as being prominent characteristics in Swedish language haiku poetics. In addition, multiple P.O.I evincing that the non-haiku production of all three poets was latently influenced, both structurally and thematically, by Japanese poetics and aesthetics have been identified. However, in Hammarskjöld’s case, since his oeuvre consists solely of Vägmärken, non-haiku production in his case refers to his photography; a connection between his sense of visual aesthetics, and his poetical aesthetics is examined in the later part of the thesis.