Poetry Contest

An extract from the book 40 Humourous British Traditions

The whole world knows about the Limerick, a five-line poem with a rhyming scheme of a,a,b,b,a. Fewer people have heard about the Strathpeffer, which is an eleven line poem with the rhyming scheme a, b, c, d, a, b, e, e, c, d, e. The Strathpeffer Poetry contest was founded in 1897 to make this poetry form known to a wider audience.

In this contest two schoolchildren are both asked to think of a number between one and 78. These two numbers are multiplied together and then a local Shakespeare historian, Dr Campbell Snoddy MacKenzie, finds that line number in MacBeth, who was born in the town. This line is then used as the first line of the Strathpfeffer. For example Dr Snoddy MacKenzie might select the line