Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 26, 2020

Where is this skill when it comes to his schoolwork?

Calvin is so smart but he uses his brain after, and when he goes to school his brain shuts down

Excellent, Calvin. Thou sure art quite the poet. Much to Hobbes’ chagrin.

Show off.

This strip is from 1990. I’m trying to recall whether Haikus were part of the cultural norm back then; or was Calvin simply ahead of his time?

Haiku? Where’s the season word?

Calvin should probably take Hobbes to school, whaddya say?

You don’t often see an embarrassed Tiger.

That explains the poem “Tiger, tiger burning bright”, with embarrassment

Good tongue twister Calvin.

(applause) Bravo, Calvin! Way to go! (-:

Highly Haiku of you, Cal!

Comely, crafty child. -—Quite the creative cherub -——His name is Calvin.

Garth would say yes (“Does this seem weird to anybody else? I mean, we’re looking down on Wayne’s basement, only that’s not Wayne’s basement. Isn’t that weird?”).

You should feel flattered, Hobbes!

Even a good haiku is bothersome if it wakes you up.

Son of a gun. He made a Haiku way better than anything I did in High School. I still can’t figure out how to put the words together to be identifiable as a Haiku. Maybe I need a tiger?

Easily composed

Just count your syllables and

Arrange them like so

In the southern US, “tired” only has one syllable, so this wouldn’t be a true haiku.

and yet he does so poorly on tests.lots of smart people like that though

Constructing a verse.

Bad, corny puns I eschew.

Gesundheit. (Wipe, wipe.)

“Soft kitty

Warm Kitty

Little ball of fur

Happy kitty

Sleepy kitty

Purr, purr, purr"

Calvin is incredibly creative. He is sure to grow up to be a writer.

“An Alliterative Haiku by Calvin” ranks right up there with “A Poem by Henry Gibson” on Laugh-In. Only not as funny.

“Tired” is only one syllable… so “A tired tiger” would only be 4. Sorry, Calvin.

Watterson the Genius. Wonder if you can hear me throwing the pencils in the trash …

Nicely done, Calvin. Nicely done…

Twitchy Timothy Templeton’s Termagant Twerps of Terpitude.

Haikus are supposed to have 17 syllables – 5 then 7 then 5 in 3 lines. It appears the last line only has 4 syllables, unless tired is pronounced “tir – red”.

In Japanese it is very clear what is and what isn’t a syllable. No so in English. Try “comfortable”. Do you say “Com -fort-ab-le” or “comft’bl” ? I use both, depending on how fast I am speaking. The first version has four syllables, the second has two. Or maybe three, if you count the t’ and the bl as distinct syllables.

This is why I think the whole idea of haiku in English is daft.

“A haiku is like a regular poem except that it doesn’t rhyme and it’s totally stupid!”—Mr. Garrison

Actually, that one was pretty good; my hat off to you, Watterson. Of course, Hobbes proves everyone is a critic.

Impressive haiku

by Calvin in today’s strip.

He should write more—stat!

“Tired” is a 1-syllable word. I count only 5-7-4 in his haiku format