Newdigate Prize

Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize, more commonly the Newdigate Prize, is awarded to students of the University of Oxford for the Best Composition in English verse by an undergraduate who has been admitted to Oxford within the previous four years. It was founded in 1806 as a memorial to Sir Roger Newdigate (1719–1806).^[1] The winning poem is announced at Encaenia.^[2] Instructions are published as follows: "The length of the poem is not to exceed 300 lines.^[2] The metre is not restricted to heroic couplets, but dramatic form of composition is not allowed." It is one of the many prizes awarded by this university to students and graduate students.^[3]

The first winner was John Wilson ("Christopher North"). Notable winners have included Robert Stephen Hawker, John Ruskin, Matthew Arnold, Laurence Binyon, Oscar Wilde, John Buchan, John Addington Symonds, James Fenton, James Laver, P. M. Hubbard, and Alan Hollinghurst.

The parallel award given at the University of Cambridge is the Chancellor's Gold Medal.

Past titles and winners[]

Where known, the title of the winning poem is given, followed by the name of the author, each year links to its corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

Notable 19th-century winners[]

1827: Pompeii. Robert Stephen Hawker
1829: Voyages of Discovery to the Polar Regions. Thomas Legh Claughton
1830: The African Desert. George Kettilby Rickards
1834: The Hospice of St. Bernard. Joseph Arnould^[4]
1837: The Gypsies. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
1838: The Exile of St. Helena.
1839: Salsette and Elephanta. John Ruskin^[5]
1843: Cromwell. Matthew Arnold^[6]^[7]
1844: Battle of the Nile. Joseph Lloyd Brereton
1845: Petra. John William Burgon
1852: The Feast of Belshazzar. Sir Edwin Arnold
1853: The Ruins of Egyptian Thebes. Samuel Harvey Reynolds
1857: The Temple of Janus. Philip Stanhope Worsley^[8]
1860: The Escorial. John Addington Symonds
1868: The Catacombs. John Alexander Stewart
1875: David Livingstone. George Earle Buckle
1877: John Brooks
1878: Ravenna. Oscar Wilde^[7]
1880: Raleigh. Rennell Rodd
1883: John Bowyer Buchanan Nichols
1887: Sakya-Muni: The Story of Buddha. Sidney A. Alexander
1888: Gordon in Africa. Arthur Waugh
1898: The Pilgrim Fathers. John Buchan
1890: Persephone. Laurence Binyon
1900: Robespierre.

20th century[]

1901: Galileo. William Garrod
1902: Minos.
1903: not awarded
1904: Delphi. George Bell
1905: Garibaldi.
1906: The Death of Shelley. Geoffrey Scott
1907: Camoens.
1908: Holyrood. Julian Huxley
1909: Michelangelo. Frank Ashton-Gwatkin
1910: Atlantis. Charles Bewley
1911: Achilles.
1912: Richard I Before Jerusalem.
1913: Oxford. Maurice Roy Ridley
1914: The Burial of Sophocles. Robert William Sterling
1915: not awarded
1916: Venice. Russell Green
1917: suspended due to war
1918: suspended due to war
1919: France. P. H. B. Lyon
1920: The Lake of Garda. George Johnstone
1921: Cervantes. James Laver
1922: Mount Everest.
1923: London.
1924: Michelangelo.
1925: Byron. Edgar McInnis
1926: not awarded
1927: Julia, Daughter of Claudius. Gertrude Trevelyan
1928: The Mermaid Tavern.
1929: The Sands of Egypt. Phyllis Hartnoll
1930: Daedalus.
1931: Vanity Fair.
1932: Sir Walter Scott.
1933: Ovid among the Goths. Philip Maitland Hubbard^[9]
1934: Fire. Edward Lowbury
1935: Canterbury.
1936: Rain.
1937: The Man in the Moon. Margaret Stanley-Wrench
1938: Milton Blind. Michael Thwaites
1939: Dr Newman Revisits Oxford.
1940–1946: suspended due to war
1947: Nemesis.
1948: Caesarion. Peter Way
1949: The Black Death.
1950: Eldorado. John Bayley
1951: The Queen of Sheba.
1952: Exile. Donald Hall (published in OP 1953)^[10]
1953: not awarded
1954: not awarded
1955: Elegy for a Dead Clown. (Edwin) Stuart Evans
1956: The Deserted Altar. David Posner
1957: Leviathan.
1958: The Earthly Paradise. Jon Stallworthy
1959: not awarded
1960: A Dialogue between Caliban and Ariel. John Fuller
1961: not awarded
1962: May Morning. Stanley Johnson^[7]
1963: not awarded
1964: Disease. James Hamilton-Paterson^[11]
1965: Fear.
1966: not awarded
1967: not awarded
1968: The Opening of Japan. James Fenton^[12]
1969: not awarded
1970: Instructions to a Painter.
1971: not awarded
1972: The Ancestral Face.
1973: The Wife's Tale. Christopher Mann
1974: Death of a Poet. Alan Hollinghurst
1975: The Tides. Andrew Motion
1976: Hostages.
1977: The Fool. Michael King
1978: not awarded
1979: not awarded
1980: Inflation.
1981: not awarded
1982: Souvenirs.
1983: Triumphs. Peter McDonald (published in OP I.2)
1984: Fear.
1985: Magic. Robert Twigger^[13]
1986: An Epithalamion.
1987: Memoirs of Tiresias. Bruce Gibson and (joint winners)
1988: Elegy.
1989: The House. Jane Griffiths
1990: Mapping.
1991: not awarded
1992: Green Thought. Fiona Sampson
1993: The Landing.
1994: Making Sense.
1995: Judith with the Head of Holofernes. Antony Dunn (published in OP IX.1)
1996: not awarded
1997: not awarded
1998: not awarded
1999: not awarded
2000: A Book of Hours.

21st century[]

2005: Lyons.
2006: BEE-POEMS.
2007:
2008: Returning, 1945.
2009: Allotments,
2010: The Mapmaker's Daughter,
2011: not awarded
2012: not awarded
2013: Edgelands, Daisy Syme-Taylor^[14]
2014: The Centrifuge, Andrew Wynn Owen^[15]
2015: not awarded
2016: Sinai, Mary Anne Clark^[16]
2017: Borderlines, (published in Oxford Poetry XVII.i) ^[17]^[18]
2018: not awarded ^[19]
2019: not awarded ^[20]
2020: the summer critter speaks not of frost., ^[21]^[22]
2021: Koinobionts, Annabelle Fuller^[23]

References[]

Notes

^ "Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize". Oxford Poetry. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012. Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize for English Verse was founded in 1806 as a memorial to Sir Roger, fifth baronet (1719–1806) and Oxford university politician.
^ ^a ^b "Newdigate Prize | British literary prize". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
^ "Prizes and Studentships". www.english.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
^ Boyd Litzinger, Donald Smalley (1995). Richard Browning: The Critical Heritage. Routledge. p. 93. ISBN 0-415-13451-X.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
^ "Ruskin, John (1819–1900), art critic and social critic". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24291. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
^ Cromwell: A Prize Poem, Recited in the Theatre, Oxford; June 28, 1843 at Google Books
^ ^a ^b ^c "Review: Stanley, I Presume by Stanley Johnson". the Guardian. 22 March 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
^ Abbott, Claude Colleer (1955). The Correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Richard Watson Dixon (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 5.
^ "Mr. P. M. Hubbard". The Times. 19 March 1980. p. 16.
^ Learning, Gale, Cengage. A Study Guide for Donald Hall's "Names of Horses". Gale, Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-4103-5358-0.
^ Thomson, Ian (5 June 2004). "Profile: James Hamilton-Paterson". the Guardian. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
^ "Professor James Fenton". British Council Literature. British Council. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
^ "Learning curve | The Guardian | guardian.co.uk". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
^ "Merton Student Wins Newdigate Prize". Merton College, Oxford. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
^ "Andrew Wynn Owen Wins the Newdigate Prize". Magdalen College, Oxford. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
^ "Prizes and Studentships". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 27 October 2016. In 2016 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was awarded to Mary Anne Clark for her entry 'Sinai'.
^ "Faculty Prizewinners Announced". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
^ "Oriel Undergraduate Dominic Hand Wins University's Newdigate Prize for Poetry". Retrieved 2 July 2017.
^ "Prizes and Studentships". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 4 March 2019. In 2018 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was not awarded.
^ "Prizes and Studentships". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 12 June 2019. In 2019 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was not awarded.
^ "Prizes and Studentships | Faculty of English". 2 June 2020. Archived from the original on 2 June 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
^ "Sir Roger Newdigate prize awarded to Leung Rachel Ka Yin". University of Oxford. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
^ "Prizes and Studentships". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 10 May 2021. In 2021 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was awarded to Annabelle Fuller for her entry 'Koinobionts'.

Sources

Richter, editor, Annie J. (1946). Literary Prizes and Their Winners. R. R. Bowker Co.

[1] "Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize". Oxford Poetry. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012. Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize for English Verse was founded in 1806 as a memorial to Sir Roger, fifth baronet (1719–1806) and Oxford university politician.

[:0-2] "Newdigate Prize | British literary prize". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 12 December 2020.

[3] "Prizes and Studentships". www.english.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2020.

[4] Boyd Litzinger, Donald Smalley (1995). Richard Browning: The Critical Heritage. Routledge. p. 93. ISBN 0-415-13451-X.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)

[5] "Ruskin, John (1819–1900), art critic and social critic". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24291. Retrieved 12 December 2020.

[6] Cromwell: A Prize Poem, Recited in the Theatre, Oxford; June 28, 1843 at Google Books

[:1-7] "Review: Stanley, I Presume by Stanley Johnson". the Guardian. 22 March 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2020.

[8] Abbott, Claude Colleer (1955). The Correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Richard Watson Dixon (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 5.

[Times-9] "Mr. P. M. Hubbard". The Times. 19 March 1980. p. 16.

[10] Learning, Gale, Cengage. A Study Guide for Donald Hall's "Names of Horses". Gale, Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-4103-5358-0.

[11] Thomson, Ian (5 June 2004). "Profile: James Hamilton-Paterson". the Guardian. Retrieved 12 December 2020.

[CW-12] "Professor James Fenton". British Council Literature. British Council. Retrieved 14 January 2016.

[13] "Learning curve | The Guardian | guardian.co.uk". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 12 December 2020.

[14] "Merton Student Wins Newdigate Prize". Merton College, Oxford. Retrieved 27 May 2016.

[15] "Andrew Wynn Owen Wins the Newdigate Prize". Magdalen College, Oxford. Retrieved 27 May 2016.

[16] "Prizes and Studentships". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 27 October 2016. In 2016 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was awarded to Mary Anne Clark for her entry 'Sinai'.

[17] "Faculty Prizewinners Announced". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 1 June 2017.

[18] "Oriel Undergraduate Dominic Hand Wins University's Newdigate Prize for Poetry". Retrieved 2 July 2017.

[19] "Prizes and Studentships". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 4 March 2019. In 2018 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was not awarded.

[20] "Prizes and Studentships". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 12 June 2019. In 2019 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was not awarded.

[21] "Prizes and Studentships | Faculty of English". 2 June 2020. Archived from the original on 2 June 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.

[22] "Sir Roger Newdigate prize awarded to Leung Rachel Ka Yin". University of Oxford. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.

[23] "Prizes and Studentships". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 10 May 2021. In 2021 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was awarded to Annabelle Fuller for her entry 'Koinobionts'.

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