The Telegraph published this video item, entitled “British actress Harriet Walter reads Telegraph poetry winner Rosamund Taylor’s ‘Why Whistlejacket?'” – below is their description.
It was a close race. Hundreds of Telegraph readers saddled up their similes and gave mixed metaphor a few strokes of the whip for our third annual poetry competition (this year’s theme being “animals”).
Many fell at the first hurdle. A few looked like champions right up until the final furlong. But now, after a steward’s inquiry with my fellow judge and poet Victoria Kennefick to ensure none of the racers had a chemical advantage (laudanum, absinthe, etc), we’re pleased to announce that we have a winner.
Rosamund Taylor, 33, saw off all rivals – by a nose – with her poem Why Whistlejacket?, inspired by George Stubbs’s famous painting of the Marquess of Rockingham’s racehorse. Taylor first saw the life-size portrait at the National Gallery as a teenager, visiting family in London, and was spellbound.
“It’s enormous,” she tells me, down the line from her home in Ireland. “It dominates the gallery that it’s in – it’s really hard to look at anything else because it almost feels like there’s an actual horse in there.” In her recent writing, she found her imagination returning to that painting. “I’m always trying to find new ways of looking at animals. What made the painting speak to me is that I want to resist personifying them – it’s hard not to because you do develop a bond with them quite quickly. But with Stubbs’s painting, I got the feeling that he was just standing back and letting the horse be itself.”
Continue reading the full article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/meet-winner-2023-telegraph-poetry-competition/
Subscribe to The Telegraph with our special offer: just £1 for 3 months. Start your free trial now:
Get the latest headlines: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Telegraph, the UK’s best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.
#telegraph #poetry #poetryvideo #british #winner #competition
The Telegraph YouTube Channel
Got a comment? Leave your thoughts in the comments section, below. Please note comments are moderated before publication.