[Brian Allgar]

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[Jerome Betts]

Roger, the W.P. site actually says 'a line from any well-known poem'. How closely does S.I. interpret their rubrics? 'To be or not to be' and 'too too solid flesh' are not strictly speaking lines from well known poems but lines from well known dramatic speeches in blank verse.

[Brian Allgar]

Well, there are two questions here.

1) Does blank verse constitute poetry? Yes.

2) Can dramatic poetry be considered to be a poem? Your guess is as good as mine, or possibly better.

[Roger Slater]

I would have thought that lines from plays would be okay in this contest, but Pat (the editor and judge) has said on Facebook that they aren't. I just posted to argue the point with her, and I'll let you know if she relents.

[Jerome Betts]

Thanks, Roger. Her wording did seem to narrow it down a bit.

[Roger Slater]

Remember, though, that you get to submit up to 25 couplets, so if you are not over your limit, it can't hurt to throw in a few that you think are funny but which arguably don't conform exactly to the rules as she laid them down. If you make her laugh, there's always a good chance that she'll overlook technicalities. She's not going to read these as a lawyer. Funny is what counts.

As one who is familiar with the Invitation, I offer this general advice. They are playing to a broad, general audience, and I'm guessing they'll want jokes that appeal not just to poetry fans, but everyone. So don't make poetry jokes that poetry fans in particular would like, or jokes that require the reader to know something about the poem from which you take your line. Make jokes that would be funny even if the reader had never heard the first line before. It's okay to be suggestive, but not outright dirty. You can't use curse words, except an occasional "damn." If a joke is good but too dirty to win, it may get printed in the weekly blog column, The Conversational, which the editor runs each week.

[Roger Slater]

Catherine, I had:

To be, or not to be, that is the question.
Life is the primary cause of indigestion.

Though neither of our may be eligible, since they're not from poems.

[Jayne Osborn]

Roger,

Twent five couplets per entrant is a very generous allowance; that's great.

As the current Spectator comp asks for only three each (albeit 4-liners), and you've done more than ten times that many, I'm wondering if you're going to do *hundreds* of these! They're so addictive, that's the trouble!

The Oldie did this one in May 2006 (I've just freaked myself out; I'd have sworn it was only a couple of years ago!) I got this one in the magazine:

What is this life, if full of care?
Too short to watch What Not To Wear

My favourite (not one of mine) was:

'Tell me, where is Fancy bred?'
'Aisle No. 3 on the left,' he said.

Jayne

[Brian Allgar]

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[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by Gail White

Where the bee sucks, there suck I.
I'm not a very macho guy.

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