Spectator competition winners: spring triolets

In Competition No. 3241, you were invited to submit a spring triolet.

Banjo Paterson, the bard of the bush, had this to say about the triolet in 1894:

Of all the sickly forms of verse, Commend me to the triolet.It makes bad writers somewhat worse: Of all the sickly forms of verse…

But this challenge produced a funny, poignant and thoroughly robust entry full of unforced artistry. The winners take £12.

Now is the time to glorify What will not break the human heart. As Flora’s ethos lights the sky, Now is the time to glorify What’s truthful, suffocate the lie. All wars and tragedies apart, Now is the time to glorify What will not break the human heart. Basil Ransome-Davies

One needs a heart as hard as stone to stand up to the hand of fate. To face the future all alone, one needs a heart as hard as stone. He died in March; I softly moan that his new epithet is ‘late’. One needs a heart as hard as stone to stand up to the hand of fate. Dorothy