Studies on English verses have claimed that the position in which a pause is inserted has a great effect on determining their rhythm. The position in which a pause appears follows a certain rule for the verses to be 'rhythmic', however, it is not yet obvious whether Japanese Haiku also has such tendencies or preferences. In this paper, we analysed and compared the metrical structure of English verses with that of Haiku within the Optimality Theory framework. We claim that the constraints

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... d to account for English verses can also account for the preference of the patterning of Haiku.