A to P | 23 March 2017

In Competition No. 2990 you were invited to submit a poem of 16 lines in which the lines begin with the letters of the alphabet from A to P.
 
This one proved to be a real crowd-pleaser, attracting not only the regulars but many welcome new faces too. You were at your witty and inventive best, and I offer commiserations to a long list of unlucky losers: Sylvia Fairley, Paul Evans, A.K. Colam, Martin Eayrs, Nigel Stuart, Ralph Rochester and Brian Allgar. Class swot Bill Greenwell, who gave himself an additional challenge by ending each line of his poem with the letters K to Z, earns a gold star.
 
The prizewinners, printed below, are rewarded with £25 each. Basil Ransome-Davies scoops the extra fiver.
 

All poets lie, Pascal implied;
But that’s their very game.
Chaucer was one who lied and lied,
Dryden much the same.
 
Eliot wouldn’t know the truth
From Ezra Pound’s backside.
Gray went to Eton in his youth;
He eloquently lied.