Spectator competition: recast a nursery rhyme in the style of a well-known author (plus pets who perish in unusual ways)

I was prompted to ask for short odes on the death of a pet in unusual circumstances by Thomas Gray’s poem ‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes’. Gray wrote this charming and witty cautionary tale in 1747 in memory of Horace Walpole’s beloved tabby Selima, whose desire leads her to a watery demise. ‘She stretched in vain to reach the prize./ What female heart can gold despise?/ What cat’s averse to fish?’ D.A. Prince’s winning composition below has strong echoes of Gray and there was plenty of wit and charm on display elsewhere in the entry. Commendations to Poppy McLean, John-Paul Marney, Martin Parker and Anita Howard. The odes printed below earn their authors £25 each. The bonus fiver is Chris O’Carroll’s.

Chris O’Carroll The budgie on my mantelpiece, That gem of taxidermic art, Lived blithe until his sad decease. He pecks yet at my grieving heart.

I kept him in an unlocked cage, Intending that he might live free.