English hexameters. (Competition).

Publication: Spectator

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COPYRIGHT 2002 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

Jaspistos

IN COMPETITION NO. 2266 you were invited to provide a poem in English hexameters in the form of a `Letter from Abroad' from one friend to another.

`Down in a deep, dark hole sat an old cow chewing a beanstalk,' we used to chant in the fourth form, then follow the hexameter with a naughty pentameter: `Out of her mouth came forth yesterday's dinner and tea.' Several poets, Longfellow and Day Lewis among them, have tried their hand at this verse form, but Clough's `Anglo-savage hexameters', as he modestly called them, are the most successful. With these sprawling lines, I have room for only four prizewinners--very deserving ones, too--who get 35 [pounds sterling] each. A warm commendation to Frank McDonald....

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