‘This Be The Prequel’ (and other poetic prequels)

In Competition No. 3175 you were invited to submit a prequel to a well-known poem.

C. Paul Evans’s opening to a prequel to the nation’s favourite poem caught my eye:

My publishers had telephoned to askFor something inspirational and spiffy:I told them I would think about the task,But mentioned I was feeling somewhat iffy…

As did Bill Greenwell’s Stevie Smith:

Nobody saw him, the dry man, But there he lay frowning: Life was much much harder than he thought, Not-bathing but browning.