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.
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