Sorry, Janet. I don't know what you are talking about. The contest folk have their rules, based on their ideas about sonnets. I don't see any claim that you must trust the people, their ideas, or anything, unless it be the fairness of the contest. Do you think it won't be?


Puzzled,
Marcia

Marcia, I intended no slight or scorn in relation to the competition. I was just reporting the facts. You may have read scorn into my final “Let’s not get into an argument” comment, but that was more an aside — an acknowledgment of our tendency here to argue at length over such issues as “What are the essentials of a sonnet?”

Some of us would define a sonnet as “any 14-line poem” and some of us wouldn’t. As it happens, I wouldn’t, but I think it’s to the credit of this competition’s organisers that they’ve made their position clear, on that and other issues. I also like the fact that they’ve made it easy to enter online. By contrast, the Nemerov accepts postal entries only and US funds only; an entry from outside the US (by International Money Order in US$) would likely cost more than the £7 (US$13-odd) for this new competition.

Mark, you mean you don’t just amble down to the beach and catch your own fish?

Henry


[This message has been edited by Henry Quince (edited February 02, 2007).]

Returning to say, Mark, if you read the actual competition page rather than just my summary, you’ll see that a) there are three prizes (Second being 50% and Third 25% of First) and b) they do say this: If the number of entries allow us to increase the prize money, we will.

Henry


[This message has been edited by Henry Quince (edited February 02, 2007).]

Marcia,
It's as Henry says. When you announce a "sonnet contest" and then say you will decide what a sonnet is it asks the poet to put an awful lot of faith in the judgemental capacities of the judge, no matter how accomplished a poet he/she may be, and in this case, is.

One is left floundering. I am not arguing against experimentation or free form.

All contests are dubious in the end but they also serve an essential purpose.
Sorry if I lacked reverence. (joke)
Janet

To win $2,000,000 in the NSW state jackpot, Mark, you have to have the same ticket drawn twice. According to state lotteries the odds are 11,827,321:1. The odds for winning $100,000 on your $2 are 200,000:1.

Given your sonnet-writing prowess, I'd say the odds on the sonnet prize are much much better, even if entry costs more. How many entries will there be? 3000? You've got to be better than most of those, many of which will be vanity entries. I'll go you halves on the entry fee for 25% of the take. Or maybe we could get up a syndicate.

Paul, I know - the odds of winning a lottery are in the mathematical nanosphere. The truth is I don't bother gambling on the lotteries, either.

In fact, I seem to have missed out entirely on the gamble-gene which so many in my family suffer from. I have never even placed a bet on a horse-race (even the Melbourne Cup), which is very close to being considered "un-Australian".

The greatest risk to my "investment" in such a competition would be to pick a sonnet to send. I have absolutely terrible taste in choosing the right one. For instance, the one I sent to the sonnet "bake-off" we had here last year failed to reach the top 50!

So, for any chance of success I would need to send at least half a dozen - which would REALLY be out of my financial range.

Anyway, that is a very generous offer, Paul.

But as my mother would say, "you must have more money than sense!"

Henry, it was your er
The Nemerov has, er, competition from this new UK one:
that I read as a slight. Sorry if I read you wrong.

Marcia

On the plus side, it's supported by the Brit poetry establishment, and it's good to see them showing an interest in form. Also it's user-friendly, with clear and simple guidelines and email submission. Furthermore, they've come up with a good solution to the "no previous pubs" issue: they simply say, if you've been paid for it don't submit it, but everything else is OK. Cracking idea. Don Patterson is the best Brit judge I can think of.

On the minus side, it's supported by the Brit poetry establishment, who collectively don't have much of a clue what a sonnet (or any other formal poem) might be. Therefore I expect the top prizes will go to fashionable free versers who submit fourteen-liners rather than sonnets.

David

I'm a big Don Paterson fan (one t)--he's done a terrific anthology of 101 Sonnets with interesting/humorous/enlightening comments on each, writes fine sonnets himself, and is something of a sonnet fanatic, having recently completed a version of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus (yes, they rhyme and scan). I think its probably worth the entry fee if he reads your poem!

Paterson--damn--course that's how you spell it. It's all Henry's fault.
101 Sonnets is essential reading for anyone interested in the form, in my opinion.