In Competition No. 3250, you were invited to submit a sonnet to Mammon.
It was ‘Epigram for Wall Street’, attributed to the oft-impoverished Edgar Allan Poe, that prompted me to set this moolah-themed challenge. In a large, thoughtful and winningly varied entry, there were echoes ranging from Keats, Milton and Barrett Browning to Gordon Gekko.
Katie Mallett, Janine Beacham, George Simmers, David Silverman, Bob Trewin and Ralph Bateman earn honourable mentions. The winners, printed below, pocket £20 each.
Mammon, I love you. Let me count the ways, Although that’s strictly my accountant’s chore. I live delights and scorn laborious days Thanks to my wealth, while hungering for more. I build portfolios, by love possessed. Such words as ‘leverage’ are holy writ. Lucre is never filthy. Greed is blessed. The rapture, the divine romance of it! I love you as an oligarch loves yachts, Or Texans love a gushing oil well. I love you as I love those ritzy spots That cater to a upscale clientele Swimming in loot, dinero, wonga, dosh.
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