Sonnet competition as part of Stratford Shakespeare Trust market day

A sonnet to celebrate the opening of Stratford's Elizabethan clock tower was composed in 1996.

This Saturday, all things Shakespearean will be celebrated in Stratford when the Stratford Shakespeare Trust market day takes place in Prospero Place.

As part of the celebrations, people are invited to enter a sonnet competition with first place prizes on offer for primary, secondary and adult categories.

Entries are open now, with details on the Stratford Shakespeare Trust Facebook page, and entries can be submitted through the page or by email to shakespearestratford@gmail.com

The deadline for entries is midnight, Wednesday April 21. A Shakespearean sonnet is 14 lines long, and follows specific rhyme rules.

To help inspire your inner poet, we are sharing a sonnet composed by members of the Stratford Shakespeare Society in 1996. The sonnet was written in commemoration of the Clock Tower opening in Stratford.

Stratford's September son makes us compose
On such a day eight hundred years before
On Avon's banks the town of Stratford rose
On such a day in fifteen sixty four
The mother of the bard did him produce
To flood the stage with timeless lines and verse
And spread the fame of Stratford's fabled muse
To on-Patea where plays the streets rehearse
One hundred years ago the town acclaimed
On such a day to celebrate Will's works
To thee our chained Mayor we've now proclaimed
That posy once embraced forever lurks
On such a day we see persistence flower
Let all who gather here behold the Tower