I'M GETTING TOO MANY SUBSTANDARD ENTRIES. IF YOU CAN'T WRITE IN STANDARD ENGLISH, KNOW NOTHING ABOUT PUNCTUATION OR GRAMMAR, AND CAN'T SPELL, TAKE IT SOMEWHERE ELSE. I've dq'd more poems from this contest than from any other I've had.
It's the birthday of English poet Robert Browning, born in Camberwell,
south London (1812). Growing up, he had access to his father's enormous
library, which had more than 6,000 volumes and contained works in
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian. When he was 12, he was
given a book of Shelley poems, and he became such a fan that he asked
for the complete collection for his 13th birthday, and mimicked Shelly
by becoming an atheist and vegetarian. He read a collection of poems by
Elizabeth Barrett and began exchanging letters with her. The two met in
1845 and married the next year. Before they were married, Elizabeth
wrote 44 secret love poems for Robert, which were compiled in Sonnets
from the Portuguese. One of them is the poem that begins "How do I love
thee? Let me count the ways. "
A number of Browning Societies were established during his lifetime,
and he often made appearances at their meetings. Today, Browning
Societies still exist in several major cities, including London, where the
society aims "to widen the appreciation and understanding of the poetry of
the Brownings … and to collect items of literary and biographical
interest." The members arrange lectures and visits, and they publish a
Browning journal. The New York Browning Society also celebrates the work of
both Robert and Elizabeth and always follows its monthly meetings with
tea. It also supports a high school poetry contest.
(from Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac, May 7, '08)
All normal rules apply. No bashing of anybody over sex, religion, sexual orientation, or any of the other ignorant ways that people sometimes try to denigrate others. How those things would apply here is something that's quite beyond me, but knowing human nature, anything is possible.
POEMS MUST RHYME. I don't care about the meter, as long as the poem scans and can be read aloud, the meter is immaterial. Absolutely NO ARCHAIC PRONOUNS, period. Save them for some other contest. This is the Twenty-First Century. Write like you realize it.
No inverted lines to put a rhyme word at the end, as in Pennsylvania Dutch:
"Throw Momma from the train, a kiss, a kiss"
Be careful about grammar, spelling and punctuation. If you say "If I ....", it's a subjunctive. "If I were", not "If I was".
Have fun and treat each other well.
It's the birthday of English poet Robert Browning, born in Camberwell,
south London (1812). Growing up, he had access to his father's enormous
library, which had more than 6,000 volumes and contained works in
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian. When he was 12, he was
given a book of Shelley poems, and he became such a fan that he asked
for the complete collection for his 13th birthday, and mimicked Shelly
by becoming an atheist and vegetarian. He read a collection of poems by
Elizabeth Barrett and began exchanging letters with her. The two met in
1845 and married the next year. Before they were married, Elizabeth
wrote 44 secret love poems for Robert, which were compiled in Sonnets
from the Portuguese. One of them is the poem that begins "How do I love
thee? Let me count the ways. "
A number of Browning Societies were established during his lifetime,
and he often made appearances at their meetings. Today, Browning
Societies still exist in several major cities, including London, where the
society aims "to widen the appreciation and understanding of the poetry of
the Brownings … and to collect items of literary and biographical
interest." The members arrange lectures and visits, and they publish a
Browning journal. The New York Browning Society also celebrates the work of
both Robert and Elizabeth and always follows its monthly meetings with
tea. It also supports a high school poetry contest.
(from Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac, May 7, '08)
All normal rules apply. No bashing of anybody over sex, religion, sexual orientation, or any of the other ignorant ways that people sometimes try to denigrate others. How those things would apply here is something that's quite beyond me, but knowing human nature, anything is possible.
POEMS MUST RHYME. I don't care about the meter, as long as the poem scans and can be read aloud, the meter is immaterial. Absolutely NO ARCHAIC PRONOUNS, period. Save them for some other contest. This is the Twenty-First Century. Write like you realize it.
No inverted lines to put a rhyme word at the end, as in Pennsylvania Dutch:
"Throw Momma from the train, a kiss, a kiss"
Be careful about grammar, spelling and punctuation. If you say "If I ....", it's a subjunctive. "If I were", not "If I was".
Have fun and treat each other well.
Contest is Over
- Contest was judged on May 20
- Rewards: Gold: 300, Silver: 100, Bronze: 50, Honorable mention: 3 people
- Final notes: This has been the most difficult to judge of all the contests I've had on this site. The poems in the finalist list are all Gold-worthy in my opinion. Deciding between the Gold and the Silver gave me a terrible headache, and in other circumstances, any of these might have won a Gold. The HM's are in no particular order. I have to say that I am really gratified to receive such outstanding entries in a contest since I've had rather dismal results in some others.
I'm closing this a bit early as I'm not feeling well, and will be rather busy the next couple of days in any case, and won't have much time to deal with contests. Since I am suffering from insomnia just now, it seemed like a good time to wrap this contest up. I don't imagine I'd have received any entries better than these anyway. If I had, I might have had a far worse headache and that's not something I have any aspirations to achieve.
Thanks for entering and best of luck with your writing in the future.
Contest Winners
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The Duchess hangs upon the wall,
Silent but observing all.• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
He took Elizabeth to Italy And learned of life from viewing ancient Romeby cricketjeff 18 lines, 4 comments, on May 20 4:13 AM. In Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, tribute, sonnet
Silver trophy winner
• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
Rubber button lost on calculator
along with substantially large index,• Commented on by judge. [remove]
Gold trophy winner
Bronze trophy winner
Entries [10]
1 - 10 of 10
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• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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• Commented on by judge.
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by Vera Rich 11 lines, 20 comments, on Aug 25 3:56 PM 2007• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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• Commented on by judge.
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Comments
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Thanks for hosting...congratulations to the winners...now go get some sleep...hope it's only temporary...
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Thanks ...
and thanks for entering.
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Great contest and I'm more than happy with my silverwear! I love silver!
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