"Spectator" Competitions

RULES AND CONDITIONS

Entries must be typed or very clearly written on one side of the paper only. The name and address, or pseudonym, of the competitor must be on each entry and not on a separate sheet. When a word limit is set words must bo counted and the number given. No entries can be returned. Prizes may be divided at the discretion of the judge, or withheld if no entry reaches the required standard. The judge reserves the right, to print or quote from any entry. The judge'ri decision is final, and no correspondence can be entered into on the subject of the:award.. Entries must be addressed to :—The Editorrthe Spectator, 99 Gower Street, London, W.C. 1, and be marked on the envelope Competition No. (—).

Competition No. 55 (sET BY ‘` CARD.")

A PRIZE of £2 2s. is offered for the best reply,.in the form of a letter of not more than 250 words, to the following " Point from Letters," headed " Grave Charge," printed

on p. 593 of last week's Spectator.

" Could not a bettor subject be found for your competitors to exercise their wits on than the vulgarization of our finest English literature ? I refer particularly to the turning of Shakespeare's lovely Orpheus with his Lute' into American jazz, which lately disfigured your pages. . . . Surely this sort of thing is not worthy of the high standard which the Spectator has hitherto maintained."

Entries must be received not later than Monday, May 2nd, 1932. The result of this competition will appear in our issue of May 14th, 1932.

Competition No. 56 (SET BY " DUGLI.") • A Palm of £2 2s. is offered for a Gardener's Rhyming

Alphabet. Competitors are reminded that the best rhyming alphabets are the simplest : for example, " A

was an Archer who shot at a frog . . .

- Entries must be received not later than Monday, May 9th, 1932 The result of this competition will appear in our issue of May 31st.

1932. • The result of Competition No. 54 will appear in our next issue.

Limerick Competition No. 26

A PRIZE of £1 Is. is offered each week for a new and original English Limerick verse on some subject dealt with in the current number of the Spectator. The twenty-sixth of these competitions closes on Monday, May 9th, 1932. Entries should be marked " Limerick No. 26."

The result of the twenty-foUrth of these competitions will be announced in our next issue.

[It is requested that, to facilitate the work of the judges, entries should, when possible, be submitted on postcards.]

Result of Limerick Competition No. 23 Tom week a large number of subjects provided about the -same amount of stimulus to competitors : notably, Schools in the English: Countryside (Sir Michael Sadler), My Friend's Book (W. B. Yeats), Father Wainright (Evelyn Underhill), From Circus to Theatre (Padraic Coluin), Emily and Charlotte Bronte (E. F. Benson and E. E. Kellett), The Traveller (Evelyn Waugh), and Sport and Sportsmen (Bonarny Dobree),

The entries of W. Hodgson Burnet and " Halj " arc com- mended ; and the prize is awarded to W. A. Rathkey, 14 Oxford Road, N.W. 6.

(REPORT AND AWARD BY "CARD!) A PRIZE of £2 2s. was offered for the best sonnet beginnink " When I consider how my ddys were spent " attributed to either a bookmaker, a gossip-Writer; •a beauty specialist, or a jockey. -

W. A. RaTiumv.

Report of Competition No. 5 3

AN Isis E ACACauy (page 495). , G. B. S. wrote to Yeats : " P'rap,s it's mad of me, And I know that you folk will think bad -of me; But, may I remark, •

Before you embark,

That I am the Irish Academy " The sonnet is one of the more-elastic of formal verse forms. Its fourteen lines have thrOngliont its history had to bear the continuous imposition of variety. The queition • of its most effective form (the most notable rivalry is between the Petrarchan model of an octave f011Owed by a sestet and the Shakespearean of three quatrains of alternate rhymes suc- ceeded by a rhymed couplet) has always been the happy hunting ground of critics, commentators and experinsentallsts. In some respects, however, it has always shown a certain conservatism. It is the enemy of the upstart in rhyme. And though for the most part unflinchingly conservative as regards metre, many competitorg Were frankly' rei,olutioniirY in this latter respect. For instance, though we cannot dispate their possible social relationship, poetically we cannot btit regard J. R. T.'s union of " MalmaisOn ". and -" season " as a mesalliance. We could quote a number of iimildr audacities in the assignment of poetical 'consorts: "

NumericallY, as might have been expected, th and the beauty specialist came off best, with the jockey a bad third. The entries of C. E. Proctor, A. Mietionald Clarke, C. MacNaughten Simpson, M. Matthew,MarY Salt, " Steepkton,". W. A. RathkeY, UpWard;Mea Culpa,

are commended ; the prize is divided between T. E. Casson, Haydock Lodge, Nekton-le-Willows, inneashire, and Gerald Summers, Ferndown, Wiinticnne, Dorset.

THE WINNING ENTRIES.

SONNET 'ATTRIBUTED TO A JOCKEY.

When I consider how my days were spent In the excess of speed which is as light; - Ere the Wild-Htmtsman, who curvets through-Night, Should fill with blood the arched firmament, Portending death, then Is my spirit bent To attain the goal, and fame thereon to write More than Eclipse that darkened so the bright Chariots of Helios -Phoebe to prevent.

But what more golden Pinder of the West, Circling on eagle pinion o'er the sea And flame of sunsets, shall my steeds make fair In harmony mom liquid than the air, : _ And bring my soul, clothed on with liberty, To the felicitous islands of the blest ?

T E CASSO:4.

LINES ATTRIBUTED TO A DEAL-TY SPECI,WIST.

When I consider how my days were spent Locked in that shrine a stone's throw from the Scala, Where, mid-cosmetics, lipsticks, salves and-scent, - I ran, with some success, my Beauty Parlour ; When I assess my life's work's varied claims And all its pros and cone have duly sifted, Recalling all those sad and drooping dames

Who paid me pounds to have their faces lifted— And not the aging only, but fair youth,

Maids like the radiant Millicent, ah ! Milly ! 1Vho came to me for " beauty treatment "—'struth !

Fools, those young nymphs to want to paint the lily I

Then I admit the lipstick did its duty, A shaft that spoiled their charm, a bar to beauty.

. SUMMERS. UMMERS.

Commended:

- Lucas ATTRIBUTED TO A GOSSIP-WRITER.

When I consider how my days were spent, In my obscure; professional capacity,

CompoSing social paragraphs, more bent On what sounds well than on a strict' veracity, Suppose I had kept closely to the truth, '

Describing folk who featured at the Scales, And said that Countess C. had lost her youth,

That B. had been a round of beauty parlours 1 Or when Sir D. dined Lady D.-(in pink),

His daughter looking ravishing in yellow, What would my journal's morning public think Suppose I wrote that D. was somewhat mellow I may, perhaps, be pardoned for my lies,

Per truth; I-guess, would-give tooinucirsurprise.