Bouts rimés

In Competition No. 2381 you were invited to supply a poem using a given rhyme-scheme and rhyme-words.

The rhymes were taken from Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate, that splendid narrative poem which uses Pushkin’s tricky Onegin metre with seemingly effortless skill. This was a testing challenge, the regulars and irregulars were out in force, but the seasoned veterans carried the day. Noel Petty, G. McIlraith and Godfrey Bullard can count themselves unlucky not to be among the honoured band. Keith Norman gets £30 for his editor’s lament and the other winners, printed below, have £35 each.

He claims he laboured through the long night watches,
And yet it falls to me to trim and prune,
Ameliorate the rubs, disguise the botches,
And have it finished earlier than soon.
His glib incontinence must seem facility,
His crass contrivance pass for ripe fertility;
Declaimed in tones both orotund and loud,
His leaden lines must make our scribbler proud.
Ballooning self-regard should not ’scape popping.
Since