Strugnell's Haiku Strugnell's Haiku Strugnell's Haiku is a collection of three songs for voice and piano by the composer Colin Matthews, set to haiku poems by Jason Strugnell, an alter ego of the poet Wendy Cope. The texts cover the angst of living in South London, the abode of the fictional Strugnell, who lived in Tulse Hill and worked at Norwood library, and whose work shows the influence of a number of poets, including Ted Hughes, Craig Raine and James Elroy Flecker. The poems were originally published in Cope's collection "Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis." The haiku touch on various experiences in
Kay Ryan Wendy Cope, and Amy Clampitt have been noted by some critics. Thus Katha Pollitt wrote that Ryan's fourth collection, "Elephant Rocks" (1997), is "Stevie Smith rewritten by William Blake" but that "Say Uncle" (2000) "is like a poetical offspring of George Herbert and the British comic poet Wendy Cope." Another reviewer of "Say Uncle" (2000) wrote of Ryan, "Her casual manner and nods to the wisdom tradition might endear her to fans of A. R. Ammons or link her distantly to Emily Dickinson. But her tight structures, odd rhymes and ethical judgments place her more firmly in the tradition of