Answering back to poetry of the past: SLN Poetry Competition 2026
A conversation in one of our libraries sparked this year’s SLN Poetry Competition. In this reflective piece SLN Manager Dora Allen invites pupils to rediscover classic poems, consider whether they still speak to us today and create their own responses to the voices of the past.
The idea for this year’s poetry competition arose from a simple but memorable act of communication that took place between myself and one of our library customers on a drizzly autumn day. The customer is a regular visitor to one of our libraries; he comes every day for company, to read, to enjoy a hot cup of tea, and hopes for conversation.
On this day, I happened to be working at a desk close to him. He overheard that I was working on poetry and sheepishly came over to say he loved it too, especially “as a young boy in Mrs Pickering’s class.” “She taught me all the best ones.”
Then, slowly, he creaked into life, gathering momentum like the steam train of the poem itself, and recited the whole of From a Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson with perfect rhythm and recall. Suddenly, we were both on a railway platform many years ago, transported back to a boyhood classroom filled with wonder and delight in poetry.
This interaction reminded me of one of my favourite poems, Miracle on St David’s Day by Gillian Clarke. If you haven’t read it, you really must. It also reminded me how I still, ever since being a nine‑year‑old primary student myself (a pupil of that teacher who loved poetry and read it whenever they could), spontaneously break into the first two lines of Sea Fever by John Masefield. Whenever I see the sea again and feel its restorative pull, I can’t help but announce:
“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky…”
I could continue the whole poem, although my family would not thank me; there is already eye‑rolling at just these two lines, because it has stayed with me in its entirety since childhood.
It is this power of poetry that forms the basis of this year’s competition. Poetry becomes a portable piece of magical communication that you can carry with you for life, spanning time, place, and generations. For me, there is no other medium quite like it. Perhaps song comes close, although that is really poetry set to music, so it still supports my point.
In our stimulus resource, you will find poems by some of the Victorian greats, including of course the original spark for this idea, From a Railway Carriage. You are invited to work with your pupils to memorise these poems by heart, and once they are coursing through your veins, to analyse what they say. Do they still speak to us today?
Finally, to kickstart the children’s own creative writing, you are invited to “answer back” to these poems of the past. They might question, agree, disagree, reply, retort, mirror, extend, deny, or confirm. Suggested approaches are included, but the best response will always be the personal one, because the way the poem made the individual reader feel will always hold the most truth.
If you have read this far, thank you for indulging me. If you saw the large chunk of text and skipped to the end, here is the short version:
