Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Me & Michael Drayton - thick as thieves

Last year, I was commissioned to write a poem for Polesworth, a village (or small town, technically) in North Warwickshire. The poem has now been written and presented to the local council, and is soon to be displayed on the Polesworth Poetry Trail. There's also a poetry competition in hand - see link below for details - for which I will be one of the judges.

Now for the amusing part of this story. After researching the history of Polesworth, I chose to write about their local river, the Anker, blissfully unaware that the other poem they had already chosen for the Trail was the Elizabethan poet Michael Drayton's poem on exactly the same theme - apparently one of his sonnets from the sequence, Idea's Mirror.

Great minds think alike, clearly.

Here's a link to a local newspaper report about the poem and the Polesworth Poetry Trail & Competition, with a nice photograph of me in my back garden - looking oddly presentable for once - available online.

6 comments:

David Lumsden said...

Coincidences abound ... a few days ago I posted a few lines from one of Drayton's sonnets from Idea.

Matt Merritt said...

Sounds excellent, Jane, and I'm always glad to see Drayton getting a bit of attention.

Bo said...

Didn't know Drayton's 'Clear Anker'? Shame on you!

Actually, neither did I - i've never read any Drayton at all!

Jane Holland said...

Tnaks for the comments, guys. Yes, I was a little abashed not to have known about the other Anker poem beforehand. But you can't read everything ... and there's plenty out there, let's face it.

But of course Matt here will know all about it for sure. His blog is named after Drayton's epic Polyolbion!

Jane Holland said...

Tnaks? Oh dear ...

Unknown said...

Great news indeedd, Jane and a happy accident for you as well.