We are delighted to announce that Somerville doctoral student Corinne Clark has been awarded this year’s Lord Alfred Douglas Memorial Prize for their poem ‘1929-’.
The Lord Alfred Douglas Memorial Prize is awarded each year by the English Faculty for the best sonnet or other poem written by a member of the university in English and in strict rhyming metre.
The judges praised Corinne’s work, commenting: “We admired all three sonnets of Corinne Clark, by turns inventive, jazzy, and moving. Of these, ‘1929-’ stood out for its directness in the face of grief, and the strength of its quiet conclusion.”
Corinne commented: “I’ve always enjoyed the creative side of literature alongside my academic research. Both can offer so much to the other, often in surprising ways. I think a sonnet asks you to unpick emotions or meaning very delicately. It turns out it’s an equal act of delicacy to write them, and I hope I managed it! Credit must go to a dear friend, herself an undergraduate here at Somerville a few years ago, who patiently helped me scan each line and coax them into iambic pentameter.
“I didn’t necessarily set out to write about what it’s been like to grieve for my wonderful grandma, Evelyn, who died just before I started my PhD here, but that was the poem that seemed to want to be written. She loved poetry very much, so in a way it feels fitting that she was the subject – and so very lovely for the poem to be acknowledged.”
Professor Annie Sutherland, Somerville’s Tutorial Fellow in Middle English and Corinne’s supervisor added, “I’m very proud of Corinne’s achievement in winning this prize. The careful and sensitive work that went into her crafting of this very beautiful sonnet reflects the care and sensitivity which is evident in her DPhil work. It is wonderful when the creativity of Somerville’s brilliant doctoral students is celebrated in ways like this.”
Corinne Clark and her sonnet ‘1929-‘