Competition | 15 August 2009

In Competition No. 2608 you were invited to submit a poem in praise of adjectives. While the inspiration for last week’s challenge was a verb-hating French doctor of letters, this time around you can blame Ezra Pound. In The Spirit of Romance he states, ‘The true poet is most easily distinguished from the false, when he trusts himself to the simplest expression, and when he writes without adjectives.’

The entry was a spirited and magnificently unPoundian celebration of this oft-maligned part of speech. Commendations to Martin Parker and Melissa Balmain. They were narrowly squeezed out by the winners, below, who are rewarded with £30 apiece. The bonus fiver goes to Bill Greenwell.

No noun (or pronoun) would go down as great
If neglected by adjectives, stripped of their garnish:
If you can’t cadge an adj. to provide you some varnish,
Your prose will lack punch, and be plain as a plate.
 
Simenon claimed you should winkle them out,
But Maigret’s a dull dog, neither style nor panache:
Dour and powerless, under the lash,
Maigret needs adjectives — of that there’s no doubt.