Speccie Shorts May 9th
 

Bazza gets the fiver with a humdinger. Bill isn't far behind. Frank nearly makes it. A bronze for that man. The new compettion looks a goer though.I'm sure I did something similar before.


No. 2747: shorts
You are invited to encapsulate a well-known poem in four lines (maximum three entries each and please specify). Please email entries, wherever possible, to lucy@spectator.co.uk by midday on 9 May.

John,

Another winner this week is Brian Allgar.

Brian is one of us!

Congratulations, Bazza, Bill and Brian. (I'm changing my name to Belinda, Bernadette or summat like that ;))

And well done Frank, too.

Jayne

Sorry, Brian. You win a lot, don't you?

A lot? No, nothing like enough! But I'm working on it ... Actually, in repect of the ubiquitous Basil Ransome-Davies and Bill Greenwell, I'm thinking of complaining to the Monopolies Commission.

(Joking apart, congratulations to both of them.)

Has lucy really changed her email, or is toucy some kind of a misprision?

I'm sure you can't be deliberately misdirecting competing entries to the competition. That sort of thing never happens on the Sphere.

;-)

Perhaps there is an 'H' missing - I've heard that she can be a bit touc(h)y at times.

Is it cheating to write a limerick in four lines, combining the short lines?

Sounds like a legitimate four-line poem to me, Roger.

I suspect Lucy will be swamped with entries for this one. Here is the result of fifteen minutes thought by me -- this could become compulsive!

A gnarled old sailor bores us stiff
with tall seafaring tales. As if
he thought the world would give a toss
about his bloody albatross.

Lords Cardigan and Raglan too
proved what damage two can do
when chains of military command
do not always work as planned.

The tale is told of old Shalott
and one who loves when she should not,
but learns good men are hard to get
and tapestry's a safer bet.

This reminds me of the Bumbershoot Fractured Verse feature. I must see if I have any leftovers, since I'm presuming that it's not permitted to enter anything that actually appeared in Bumbershoot -- right?