[Jayne Osborn]

This is a first (I believe). It doesn't have to rhyme or scan, something that the LitRev, historically, has always insisted upon!

Jayne

Literary Review Competition

For next month, please write a pastiche of a poet of your choice, on the subject of ‘public transport’. Entries – uniquely for this competition – need not rhyme and scan, but should still be twenty-four lines or fewer. Send them to reach 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW by 28 February.

(Non-UK entrants are permitted to email their entries to: editorial@literaryreview.co.uk)

[John Whitworth]

Jayne (and anyone else who might know), what is the difference between a pastiche and a parody?

[George Simmers]

A pastiche, I think, is an imitation that doesn't necessarily have the satirical intent of a parody. More likely to be an hommage than a skewering.

[John Whitworth]

Thank you, George. here's something I bring up and refurbish from time to time.


Trainspotting Celebrated by Sir Walter Scott

British Railways Goods Train c. 1960

Trucks, Trucks, Potterton, Potterton,
Ollershaw, Openshaw, Skelmersdale, Parkin,
Vans, Vans, Wigglesworth, Totterton,
Partridge, McAllister, Battersby, Larkin,
Willoughby, Walderslade,
Robertson’s Marmalade,
Bannister, Harbottle, Harbottle, Harker,
Hutton & Havisham,
Pickering, Faversham,
Fowler, Fitzackerley, Betjeman, Farquar,

Queen, Pope & Cardinal, Churchman & Vicarage,
Barrington Brothers, O’Kelly & Son,
Longfellow, Longfellow, Mason & Tickeridge
Sattherswaite, Shufflewick, Spenser & Donne,
Spillsbury-Nicholls, U
Pritchard & Donoghue,
Peabody, Peabody, Peabody, Small,
Henderson-Hyde, Bott &
Mallison, Sidebottom,
Beeching & Beeching and …. nothing at all.

[Jayne Osborn]

John, to expand on what George said, a pastiche is essentially a poem that is written in the style of a famous poet, wheras a parody is a comical 'copy' (ie a 'piss-take') of a well-known poem.

I must go down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky.
I left my vest and pants there;
I wonder if they're dry.

That's a parody.

Jayne

PS. LOVE your poem, above. You're so good at that kind of thing!

[Chris O'Carroll]

In the U.S., the pronunciation of "route" is subject to regional variations. It rhymes with "suit" in some places, with "shout" in others. What's the word's British pronunciation? (I realize that we don't have to rhyme for this competition, but I assume we're not prohibited from doing so.)