Spectator competition winners: Speeches as sonnets

Your latest challenge was to recast a famous political speech as a sonnet. Lots of you opted for Elizabeth I’s address to the troops at Tilbury, but James Aske got there first in 1588, the year she gave it, with a verse reworking that appeared in Elizabetha Triumphans, his celebration of the Armada victory.

You were on mischievous form this week and clearly gave careful thought to your choice of speech. The winners, who each pocket £20, are printed below. First up is Ann Drysdale’s version of Cromwell’s dissolution of the rump parliament.

Ann Drysdale/Cromwell’s speech to the Commons, 1653
Its time to close the curtain on this farce,
Your petty squabblings and your rotten cores.
You call yourselves a Parliament? My arse!
You’re just a gathering of thieves and whores.
You sell your country for your private gain,
Betray your God for profit, which is worse.
You mercenary wretches can’t remain;
You have no more religion than my horse!
The nation hates you; you were voted here
To ease the people’s grievances.