In Competition No. 2427 you were invited to supply a poem or a piece of prose beginning ‘It began as a — but it turned out a —’, filling in the blanks as you pleased.
It was that forgettable and forgotten poet Austin Dobson who wrote a triolet beginning, ‘It began as an ode/ But it turned out a sonnet.’ Your variations were legion: ‘It began as a hedge but it turned out a casus belli’ (Alanna Blake); ‘It began as a treat but it turned out an error’ (V.M. Perrin, referring to the apple in the garden of Eden) and ‘It began as a total disaster/ But it turned out a lot worse than that’ (W.J. Webster of a stage production). The prizewinners, printed below, get £25 each, and the bonus fiver goes to Godfrey Bullard. It was with regret that I had to disqualify Noel Petty for a small verbal slip, but rules are rules.
It began as a lodge but it turned out a mansion
Because of Fiona’s extravagant schemes,
So the project resembled, through steady expansion,
Some megalomaniac’s feverish dreams.
I’d
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