Report on the Last Competition
IF we had not suspected beforehand that English seaside resorts all look and sound very much alike at midday on August Bank Holiday, the result of the competition for the best description in verse of one of them would have _con- vinced us of their similarity. Fifty per cent. of the entries, for example, contain references to the practical impossibility of reaching the sea except over the prostrate forms of fellow- excursionists ; the same words occur over and over again, often with the same rhymes, while only about a tenth of the competitors neglect to mention charabanes. This does not so much mean that our readers lack ingenuity as that the English seaside resort lacks variety, but it must be admitted that the task of judging has not been an inspiring one.
We like the simplicity of the verses beginning : A light brown sea, fringed by a cheerful horde Of artless roysterers freed from wheels or loom ; Rent on extracting from the crowded hours The right to say with zest : " Alf m glad. Ah've coom," as a description of a Blackpool holiday, but the poem does not quite fulfil its initial promise. There are one or two aloof or bitter verses which are also " good in parts " If ghosts at midday chance to walk, Those knights without reproche or peur, Methinks they'd sigh, and softly quote- " Well, autres temps, then autres moeurs."
but it must be remembered that we asked for a description of the seaside resort, not a condemnation of it. We quote two entries in told, the first of which, by Canon Swain, seems to capture the spirit of a popular seaside holiday in the first line—those " large hilarious bands " ; who does not know them ?—and to hold it throughout, good-humouredly and in unexceptionable verse ; to him therefore we award the prize.
Transported here by rail and road, in large hilarious bands, The holiday-excursionists are strewn about the sands ; And one may now detect a growing consciousness of hunger In the way they eye their handbags, more especially the younger. The stroke of noon gives, none too soon, the signal for refection, And viands, in a twinkling, are in process of dissection. Their usual sequence goes for nought ; order submits to haste ; The precious hours of holiday are far too few to waste
Though " Dad " makes hollows in the sand, preparing for a snooze, " Mam," even here the labourer, takes off the children's shoes.
Those who have reached the higher 'teens seek the amusement park Their notion of enjoyment having passed the paddling-mark. How good it is to see so many, shaking off their cares, Enjoying one another's ways, in bunches or in pairs ! If here and there it jars, yet one beholds with admiration Such spirit and such industry bestowed on relaxation.
The Precincts, Peterborough. A. SwArtr.
Mr. Smith's contribution is an excellent snapshot : Yellow sand and blue skies, All the city's trippers, Rattling roundabouts and shies, Democratic dippers ; Swarms of kids in sandy holes, Others donkey straddling, Peepers under parasols, Prudent elders paddling • Pierrota on the promenade, Hawkers out to hocus, Nymphs in latest fashion fad, Cameras in focus ; Thus high holiday they hold, Till noon cuts the capers ; Up in the blue, and over the gold. Sweep the sandwich papers !
Barry Schoolhouse, Carnoustie, Angus,
J. M. SMITH.
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