Spectator competition winners: New Year’s resolutions in verse

The first challenge of 2018 was to provide a New Year’s resolution (or more than one) in verse. Woody Guthrie’s 1943 ‘new years rulin’s’ have considerable charm: ‘Dont get lonesome; stay glad; dream good; shine shoes; wash teeth if any…’ But perhaps it was Friedrich Nietzsche who inspired Basil Ransome-Davies’s entry. In 1882, he resolved to become a yes-man: ‘I do not want to wage war with the ugly. I do not want to accuse, I do not want even to accuse the accusers… I wish to be at any time hereafter only a yea-sayer!’ David Silverman’s spin on Thomas Hood’s ‘No!’ was nice. Alanna Blake, George Simmers and Nicholas Stone also impressed in a strong field. The winners below earn £25 each. Happy New Year!

Basil Ransome-Davies Winter breathes hope, and not of spring alone. Ergo, my resolution is to be A newborn optimist — no more for me Recrimination, fear or that sour tone Envious lefties put on to disown And scorn our heritage so viciously.