[John Whitworth]

Chris O'Carroll kept up the honour of the Sphere with a couple of winning proverbs. I particularly liked 'An Apple a day keeps Microsoft away'. The new Competition doesn't look too promising at first glance but I think a ten line poem might be managed, perhaps in couplets. Anyway, here it is. I think Lucy means six words per person. So a poem of sixty words. Why not? By the way, anybody know what Hemingway's mini-fable was?


No. 2585: In brief
Ernest Hemingway once said that his best work was a story he wrote in just six words. You are invited to submit the memoirs of ten famous figures from history or well-known fictional characters, using only six words. Entries to ‘Competition 2585’ by 26 February or email lucy@spectator.co.uk.

[Catherine Chandler]

John:

Here is Hemingway's mini-fable:

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

[Shaun J. Russell]

Vonnegut:

"Died old. So it goes."

[John Whitworth]

There are two ways this might disqualify itself. The tenth Henry doesn't exist and one or two are in onlyfive words. On the plus side I mugged up all sorts of stuff about Henry One and Henry Three that I didn't know, a bit of self-education which, after all, never comes amiss.

Ten Henries

Henry One was swift to act.
Henry Two had Beckett whacked.

Henry Three preferred the Arts.
Henry Four was in two parts.

Henry Five was early dead.
Henry Six was off his head.

Henry Seven was mean and horrid.
Henry Eight was fat and florid.

Henry Nine could be our King.
Henry Ten – there’s no such thing.