07

October
2007

WriMo update and university work

category: Academic, Reading, Writing
by Soph,

Day Four:

a sudden burst of cackles -
magpies at my window

Day Five:

a hungry magpie
pecks the ground;
why do you answer, worm?

Day Six:

a pair of ducks
keep company
under the bridge

Day Seven:

crunchy autumn leaves:
pedestrian’s delight

The HaikuWriMo is still going well; many of my ideas have been based on magpies as there seems to be an abundance of them here. I’m constantly seeing them turn up outside my window and they’ve inspired a couple of the above haiku in the last few days. About the day five haiku: I found this out today, apparently the reason birds peck the ground to find worms is that the worms think the sound is rain, so they come to the surface to avoid drowning. Sadly they then usually get eaten, as was the fate of the worm that inspired my fifth haiku this month. It’s quite clever, though. E:

Most of my university seminars and workshops begin this week, so I’ll be much busier from now on. So far I feel like I’m keeping on top of my work quite well; I’ve read the first section of ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ and I’ve completed my translation of the seventy or so lines the lecturer told us to translate. This was actually easier than I thought it was going to be - tricky words can be looked up in a glossary and the rest is common sense really. I think Middle English is quite similar to French in some ways, particularly with the separate use of ‘thee’ and ‘ye’, which is just like ‘tu’ and ‘vous’. I’ve also completed the reading I had to do for my French literature module, and I’m working on a Yeats Selected Poems book for another English module.

I’ll try to keep up to date with my HaikuWriMo-ing, blogging and commenting this week, although I might be a bit lax in those departments because of the increasing workload. I’m sure I’ll manage; I have about half the lecture hours compared to most of those first years doing sciencey courses, anyway!


<< HaikuWriMo Day Three
A quick haiku update >>


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6 Comments so far

  1. Absolute Vanilla (and Atyllah) | 07 October 2007, 18:46

    Ooh, good for you, I hated wading through Middle English! If I recall correctly I managed to winkle my way out Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and opted for a different course entirely! :-)

    I love the wit of your magpie and worm haiku! Keep ‘em coming!

    Good luck with the coming week!

  2. Rob | 07 October 2007, 21:58

    I love your fifth haiku. Keep it up!

    Good luck with your classes. Seems you have much better study habits than I ever had.

  3. John | 07 October 2007, 23:12

    Eehe. Crunchy leaves! Glad you’re managing to keep up with the works, I’m sure you’ll stay on top of it all through the year.

  4. strugglingwriter | 08 October 2007, 14:09

    I loved the one for day 5. He he :lol:

    Good luck with your studies :)

  5. SzélsőFa | 09 October 2007, 10:21

    I like these fall-inspired, natural haiku. Is there a special name for the two-line type? (as for days 4 and 7)

  6. Soph | 09 October 2007, 10:23

    SzélsőFa: Nope, there is no special name for haiku in two lines (except ‘haiku in two lines’!) E:

    Everyone else: thanks for the nice comments!