Spectator competition winners: back-to-front sonnets

The latest competition asked for a sonnet in reverse, modelled on Rupert Brooke’s ‘Sonnet Reversed’, which turns upside-down both the form — it begins on the rhyming couplet — and the Petrarchan concept of idealised love, starting on a romantic high but ending in prosaic banality. This challenge produced a delightfully varied and engaging entry. Honourable mentions go to Basil Ransome-Davies, Jennifer Pearson, David Shields, George Simmers and Philip Roe. The winners, printed below, are rewarded with £20 each.

Max Ross Art soared to heights as high as man could go When David rose from Michelangelo. A fractured piece of marble, an idea, And genius fingers made the marble live. He caused a spark from heaven to appear Charging his work with all he had to give, And thus his Adam stretched a hand to God In Sistine pomp and splendour. Such was art. But nowadays whatever strikes as odd: Some dung, some flies, the fragrance of a fart, Whatever shocks is worth a Turder prize.