Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê's 180th anniversary haiku poem competition
22 May 2006
More than 300 haikus were submitted by staff and students to a competition celebrating the 180th anniversary of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê's founding.
First prize (£200) - Bob Barber (Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Physics & Astronomy)
Housman you must weep
The tree that you loved is gone
And we the poorer
Second prizeÌý (£150) - Professor John Klier (Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Hebrew & Jewish Studies)
New nano-tech joint -
Should we not have expected
Something much smaller?
Third prize (£100) - Hannah Hudson (Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê English Language & Literature)
How to make your name
Mr Bentham taught us well -
Sit still and get stuffed
The haiku poems were judged by a panel comprising Professor John Sutherland, Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê's Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature, Alan Gardner, Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Union's Sabbatical Officer for Media & Communications, and Professor John Martin, Director of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê's Centre for Cardiovascular Biology & Medicine and author of a book of poems and short stories, 'The Origin of Loneliness'.
On behalf of the judges, Alan said: "We felt that the standard of the entries was very high, with sparkling wit and subtle poetry characterising the best examples. For my own part, I felt our winner was blessed with a haunting profundity, befitting its evocation of our own great poet, A E Housman, whilst our pick for second was perhaps one of the funniest and most succinct of all the haikus. Third place goes to a study of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê's great benefactor, Mr JB, and his own special recipe for success. Our task of picking the winners became remarkably difficult, only countered by being equally enjoyable!"
Professor
Martin added: "The winner is a recognition of the inevitable sadness at
the passage of time linked with change in the physical world. With
poignancy it links us to Housman. It carries a regret for the past that
the College must address in its advance to the future. I hope that
non-humanities students may ask who was Housman, discovering his place
in the College and his eminence as a poet. The haiku is centrally
oriented: on the Quad, the trees in it and the renewal of the Slade.
Most of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê may not have noticed the removal of the Indian bean tree.
The staff and students in the biomedical institutes should perhaps,
through this haiku, be encouraged to come and look."
- Links:
- Highly commended haikus