Paid for Poetry by Alessio O’Neill Trinity Catholic High School

Christopher Tower was an Essex born ; poet, diplomat, and scholar. He was Oxford educated and as a foreign diplomat was responsible for change in the world, much like how Tower influenced change through diplomacy. His fondness for poetry also cultivates further change, through influencing many young poets today to develop their craft and try to make a change to the world, despite his death in 1998.

A young litterateur within my own school has entered the competition and like others has entered not only for the prize money but also for the platform to evoke change. Poet and student, Will Anthony, has used the competition to draw light to and protest the misuse and mistreatment that as a society we do to the earth. Within his poem, “The playground on easy street”, Anthony draws contrast between the solitude and peacefulness of the other planets and compares them to the abundance of life on earth consisting of “Nature, humans, animals”. The poem elaborates on humans abandonment of consequences, “ “who cares it won’t affect us” ”. Finally Anthony’s poem concluded with the anthropomorphism of our planet with “While we weep and mourn its fate”.

Though currently the competition has reached its deadline for submitting poems, the winners have yet to be chosen. Although Christopher Tower can no longer directly influence the world, nationally his organisation can be a factor to change through the influence of poets of the future. During the last 22 years of the competition, Tower poetry has given a total of £100,000 to young poets who have entered. For each year of the competition the theme of the poems changes, the subjects vary from past years and include, floods, the news, trees, and passport. Through the subjects, poets can create a dialogue about aspects of the world that affect them and gives younger people a voice to express the need for change.

To conclude, the Christopher Tower competition is an influential factor as to why poetry across Britain  gains popularity among young writers. As well as promoting students to study poetry and literature, this competition offers a great opportunity to young people and aids in the expansion of literature across the country. Many students who participated have endorsed the competition due to the prizes to be won and the opportunity it presents to young people especially with their future studies in further education.