The theme of 2024’s Young Romantics Poetry Prize is “Exile”. This has been chosen to mark the 200th anniversary of Lord Byron’s death in Greece.
What exile from himself can flee?
To zones, though more and more remote,
Still, still pursues, where’er I be,
The blight of life—the demon Thought.
Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Entry is free.
Poets can interpret “Exile” freely. Poems can be serious or comic, experimental or traditional, but the Judges advise that works drifting too far from the theme will not be considered.
Poems must:
Entries must be original and contemporary in style. Plagiarism will not be accepted - including AI-generated work. The poem must not have been published previously, either in print or online or in any other media, nor previously submitted to us.
Poetry judge Deryn Rees-Jones writes: ‘For me good poems adhere to no rules…except the one necessary to their own creation. Often a poem will stand out because of its precision and its ability to harness and also liberate a particular kind of energy. The poem will be able to say something that only it can say.’