14 January 2022
Ms Amanda Owen, Librarian
A poetry competition held as part of Woldingham’s National Poetry Day celebrations last term enthused many students to put pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard – on the theme of ‘Choice’, with wonderful results. Entrants may also have been inspired by performances from poet Emma McGordon who visited on National Poetry Day and ran workshops with Year 8 students.
Poetry enthusiast Dr Whitehead had the pleasure of judging around 40 entries and, after much deliberation, awarded five well-deserved prizes at Woldingham’s Awards Assembly, just before Christmas:
Marden Winner Choices by Alice S, Year 8
Main House Winner Tones by Manon D-C, Year 9
Sixth Form Winner Unstoppable Forces by Tilda G, Lower Sixth
Highly Commended Choosing…. what a word by Temidore D, Year 8 and His Choice by Christina H, Year 8
Dr James Whitehead, Head
The Poetry Competition this year once again highlighted the talent we have at Woldingham, with poets tackling a range of approaches on the subject of ‘Choice’, opting for subject matter that ranged from strident political protest to quiet, reflective, nature observation.
Poetry is a craft and the best poems showed awareness of the way in which form can complement meaning, while using language inventively to provide rhythm, subtlety of meaning and impactful imagery.
The winning poems were Choices have Wings by Alice S (Year 8), a tightly rhymed poem written largely in triplets but with a concluding quatrain, on the subject of the impact that our individual choices have; Tones by Manon D-C (Year 9), a free-verse piece of nature observation that culminates in an epiphanic moment; and Unstoppable Forces by Tilda G (Lower Sixth), an effervescent piece of free-verse astrological anthropomorphism, as the sun and moon perform a cosmic breakaway. All showed real imaginative engagement and true poetic sensitivity in the use of literary language.
To read the five poems click here.