Competition | 29 May 2010

In Competition 2648 you were invited to recast Kipling’s ‘If’ addressed to women.

The nation’s favourite poem (rescued from a wastepaper basket, to which Kipling had consigned it in disgust, and reassembled by his formidable wife) was famously branded as ‘sententious’ by Orwell, but has illustrious champions none the less. Geoffrey Wheatcroft  argues that ‘it is only sententious if you have been taught to think so, if you see it as another admonition to play up, play up, and play the game, if you associate it with housemasters and scoutmasters and the sporting spirit. Not for the first time, it is easier to see what it really means if you aren’t English.’

It certainly brought out the best in you. A large entry, in which veterans and newcomers rubbed shoulders, displayed remarkable wit and inventiveness of approach which is, I hope, reflected in the cream of the crop, printed below. The winners get £25 each, and the bonus fiver goes to G.M.