The Times has invited (£) everyone aged 16 and under to enter its Young Poet of the Year competition. The winning entry will be published in the newspaper. The Times also suggests (£) that competitors record YouTube videos of themselves declaiming their poems; selected entries will then be posted on the Times’ website.
Inspiration is always hard to find, so the Times’ literary team has chosen (£) 30 poems that ‘everyone should know’. It’s a thoroughly predictable list. Who, for instance, doesn’t know ‘If’, ‘Kubla Khan’, ‘Funeral Blues, ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ or ‘Jabberwocky’ (pictured)? But that’s a minor quibble about what is a very good cause. The list is drawn from the iF Poems app — Britain’s first poetry app for children, which allows users to read, listen to and record poems. The app’s creators hope to introduce children to the joys of poetry outside a classroom and encourage children to inspire enthusiasm for poetry and language among their peers. To that end, the app enables all content to be shared across social media. Further development will concentrate on making the programme more openly didactic; additional resources will include a poetry dictionary and short biographies of poets. The iF Poems app for iPad and iPhone is available to download at £1.99 for the iPhone and £2.99 for the iPad. 10 per cent of all proceeds will be donated to Save the Children.
Anyway, all of this serves as a reminder for the Spectator’s November poetry competition, and the prize of a bottle of Pol Roger just in time for Christmas.
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