No. 1292: The winners
Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a sense-making poem containing as many anagrams as possible of a nine-letter
word.
I am very sensible of the time and effort that must have gone into this exasperating competition. 'One could go mad doing this,' somebody scrawled in manic hand- writing under his effort. So I shall forgo
cheap jokes and schoolmasterly comments and confine myself to congratulatory salutes. First, a long roll-call of those who deserve a prize and don't get one: Hilary Patrinos, Nell L. Wregible, Stanley Shaw, I3.P. Hall, D.B. Jenkinson, F.A. Blan- chard, Gina Berkeley, John Cox, J.K.
Aronson and 0.Smith. Secondly, the win- ners below, who get £10 each and whose
key anagrams are respectively: Mastering,
Americans, Statehood, Relations, Palestine.
One of the nastier G.M. Hopkins rhymes Concerns a mastering God, whose garment is Defiled with streaming blood; who, loving his Children, rejects their love and oftentimes Does Make them emigrants from his demesne, Till they, defeated, cry; 'Arm! Arm! Get Ski Away! Evil it is!' Grant me to win
Thy pity, Lord, and peace, no longer mean Grist to Thy crushing mill. Oh, see me staring, Like the stern magi, on the blessed manger Its brave burden and bargain bearing, By whose terms gain I the name 'son', not 'stranger'.
Thy Name grits on my teeth, and yet I sing Tamer for this Thy rod, Thy praise, my King.
(Gerard Benson)
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