Pen portrait

In Competition No. 2792 you were invited to submit a portrait, in verse, of one poet by another.

Gerard Benson wondered if I’d had in mind Richard Greene’s description of Chaucer when I set the challenge. In fact, it was Mallarmé’s pen portrait of his friend Manet — ‘a virile innocence in beige overcoat, beard and thin blond hair, greying with wit’— that sparked the idea.

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There was a huge entry with winners enough to fill several pages. After lengthy deliberation, I narrowed it down to the five below, who earn £25 each. Chris O’Carroll, Charles Curran, Anne du Croz and G.M. Davis were unlucky losers. The bonus fiver goes to Basil Ransome-Davies.

You’ll ’ear the British fightin’ man ain’t much
    inclined to think,
That when ’e’s finished fightin’ it’s the women
    and the drink,
But barrack time to me was meant for readin’
    poetry,
Not Tennyson, but Rimbaud, ’oo the Froggies
    dub ‘maudit’.