The Kipling Society’s John McGivering Literary Competition 2025

The Kipling Society’s John McGivering Literary Competition 2025

Who hath desired the Sea – the sight of salt water unbounded?

The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded?

The sleek-barrelled swell before storm – grey, foamless, enormous and growing?

Stark calm on the lap of the Line – or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing?

His Sea in no showing the same – his Sea and the same ’neath all showing?

                                                            The Sea and the Hills

What is a woman that you forsake her,

And the hearth-fire and the home-acre

To go with the old grey Widow-maker?

            Harp-Song of the Dane-women

Rudyard Kipling, fascinated by the sea, from his childhood in Southsea onwards,
often wrote about the ocean – its beauty, allure and danger,
and its challenge to human courage and discipline.
The Kipling Society’s John McGivering Literary Competition 2025 is open to poems
of up to 30 lines about any aspect of the sea, connected directly or obliquely
with the writings and/or life of Kipling.

There are separate competitions for adults and for younger poets aged 12 to 17
A first prize of £350 will be offered for the adult competition

and one of £75 for the younger poets’ competition

£5 entry fee for either competitionDeadline: 1 May at 23.59 BST
via the Kipling Society website: www.kiplingsociety.co.uk