Diocese of York / News & events / News

Caring for God’s Acre, the charity which promotes the conservation of burial sites, is supporting the Thomas Gray Anniversary Poetry Competition.

The Stoke Poges Society has held 3 poetry competitions in the run-up to the tercentenary of Gray’s birth. The theme this year is “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen”.

The entries to the Open Class will be judged by the poet, Daljit Nagra whose debut poetry collection “Look We Have Coming to Dover!” won the 2007 Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the South Bank Show Decibel Award. In October 2015, he was appointed the inaugural Poet in Residence for BBC Radio 4.

Daljit is looking forward to reading the entries. As he says, “Gray’s Elegy is fascinating for the way it opens portals for imaginative freedom. Entrants should feel inspired to see the modern world anew by the range of the many-angled quotation”.

School Class entries will be judged by Michael Meredith, formerly Head of English at Eton College where Thomas Gray was a pupil in the 18th century.

The closing date is Friday 24 June at midnight. For the full set of rules and more information, please visit the website: www.thomasgray2016.org/poetry-competition.

The Thomas Gray 2016 project was inaugurated by the Stoke Poges Society in 2011 with the specific aim of restoring Thomas Gray’s tomb and monument. The tomb in the churchyard of St Giles, Stoke Poges, where Thomas Gray was buried in 1771, was restored in 2013 as part of the anniversary project. The Society, founded in 2009, exists to nurture an interest in the history of the village and its surroundings and organises a programme of events, talks and visits, walks and members’ evenings.