Wednesday 14 July 2010

GIVEAWAY: Shipwrecked with a poem

Imagine: you've been shipwrecked on a desert island, and although you've found food, fresh water and shelter, you have to keep your mind sharp. You decide to recite a poem, to stay sane - which poem is it?

Comment here by Monday 19 July and you could win a copy of Fremantle Poets 1: New Poets. Edited by Tracy Ryan, this collection brings together work from emerging poets Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Emma Rooksby and J.P. Quinton.

10 comments:

  1. I think I'd have to go with Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner - Coleridge.
    It's long enough that I wouldn't bore.
    It's appropriate to my condition; I've never liked albatross either.
    And it'd be fun to palm off as my own story upon my rescue.
    All that and it is actually very beautiful...

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  3. You'd need something epic with a strong oral structure which would make it easy to recall. I was going to say Homer's Odyssey as it features shipwrecks and it's about trying to get home but on second thoughts I think I'll go with Green Eggs and Ham by Seuss

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  4. Jabberwocky! by Lewis Carroll

    I would be a slithy tove who gyres and gimbles on the deserted beach. (I have a great chance to improve my gyre!) Then I would stalk some wild jabberwock (native fauna) with my vorpal blade (bamboo stick). After I have caught and cooked it I would feel very beamish indeed.

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  5. I'd recite Edmund Spenser's 'The Faerie Queene'! All of it!

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  6. TS Eliot's The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
    - dealing with spiritually exhausted people who exist in the impersonal modern city. - Maybe I would think how lucky I was to be alone with my thoughts and away from city life!!!
    "I grow old … I grow old …
    I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
    Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
    I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
    I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
    I do not think that they will sing to me."

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  7. Hi Chaps

    These are great choices. We're not sure about what's out of copyright but any quoting of the living or dead needs to be approached with caution.

    Many thanks! Claire

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  8. I've thought about this and if I was marooned or my ship sunk, perhaps I would like to see the abbott of Aberthock put a bell to warn me of dangers, so I would recite Robert Southey's Inchcape Rock

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  9. I'd recite a villanelle for the mental exercise and facial work out. Even better, I'd write one myself and enter in the villanelle competition starting soon.

    Let's see:
    Do not go mental writing that villanelle
    or tear your hair or loudly beat your breast;
    think of it as a pleasure out of hell...

    Hmmmnow... now what rhymes wuith breast?

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  10. The names went into the hat, and this week's winner is Jeremy Balius! Congrats!

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