MIT History Haiku

The haiku poetry form follows the 5/7/5 meter.

Here are some haikus created by staff of the MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections:

MIT Then and Now

The dome’s reflection
Harkens to earlier time
Back Bay to Cambridge

A technical school
William Barton Rogers felt
Yields innovation

Cleofan women
Established relationships
Found strength in union

Stroboscopic studies –
Frequent flashes formed freeze frames
Doc made applesauce

1861
To 2011
Anniversary

Bituminous coal
Whispered in a death rattle
His last words…perhaps

Ellen Swallow was the first woman graduate of the Institute	Building on campus Numbering does not make sense I will need a map
We’re an institute Not a university Crucial distinction	Boston and Cambridge Always building everywhere MIT growing
MIT’s first map Done digital in July 1969	PhD theses for pioneering research and discovery
Julius Stratton Leader beyond MIT Nation and the sea	James Killian think “threes”: “M-I-T” “P-B-S” and “Ike” in DC
My mind may be gone And my hands may grow weak but Mind and hand goes on	Thanks, Emma Rogers For saving William’s papers We’re still reading them
In Boston’s Back Bay Students studied principles In labs learned by hand	Winter wonderland Blizzard of seventy-eight Tim stands in the mud
One Alfred P. Sloan Namesake of the business school Course six graduate	In E52 Lever ran a soap business Now home to Sloanies

We’ll be adding more throughout the MIT150 celebration. If you have an MIT history haiku, please send it to mithistory@mit.edu, subject line “MIT History Haiku”. Happy 150th!