Power of boys’ verse praised by professor: the Staveley Poetry Prize 

Award-winning poet and distinguished literary critic Professor Peter Robinson was this year’s judge for the School’s Staveley Poetry Prize.

He selected winners in three age categories – Novi, Intermediate and Senior – and awarded the prizes at a ceremony in Skinners’ Library last Friday (13 May).

The competition celebrates the importance of creativity and original thought in writing, and is named after the highly regarded poet and English teacher Tom Staveley, who taught the Second World War poet Sidney Keyes. It has been running for more than half a century.

Professor Robinson, who teaches modern and contemporary poetry and creative writing at the University of Reading, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, commended all the entries he received.

Overall winners were George Pearson (SH1) for the Novi Prize, Ben Adams (OH2) for the Intermediate Prize, and Matt Smith (JH4) in the Senior category.

Commenting on George’s ‘Racket’, Professor Robinson noted how the poem created a ‘magic’ out of the simplest of objects, enabling the reader to see a familiar thing in new and vivid ways.

With Ben’s ‘If only you had seen under the folds’, he admired the tight and efficient form of the poem, noting how this intensified the emotional impact of an accomplished poem.

He found Matt’s ‘Tunbridge Wells’ brilliantly inventive, creating powerful contrasts with wit to achieve a profound final piece.

Professor Robinson also commented on how important creative thought was, especially after the many challenges of lockdown, and he praised the boys, and the School’s English Department, for championing imaginative writing in all its forms.

Tonbridge has a strong poetic tradition, fostered by an active creative writing society, annual residential writing weeks and ‘in house’ workshops given by published poets.

The following boys were shortlisted.
Novi Prize:
George Pearson (SH1)
Theo Bourgeay (WW1)
Ben Rainsford (CH1)

Intermediate Prize:
Ben Adams (OH2)
Nathaniel Chan (HS3)
Jean Van der Spuy (FH3)

Senior Prize:
Matt Smith (JH4)
Jamie Lambert (Sc5)
George Thomas (WH4)

Above, Professor Robinson is pictured with Tonbridge’s winning poets.