Bromsgrove Pupil Honours Local Poetry Hero

24 Jan 2013

A pupil from Bromsgrove School has won a prestigious poetry competition honouring a local literary hero.

Sixteen-year-old Emily Collie from Bromsgrove won not only her category but also the overall competition in the finals of The Housman Society Schools’ Poetry Reading Competition in Bromsgrove. There were three categories; middle schools (which included Bromsgrove Preparatory School), senior schools and sixth form. Emily was in the senior category and read two poems: “The Laws of God, The Laws of Man” by A.E. Housman, a much-loved local hero in Bromsgrove, and the moving “Mid-Term Break” by renowned Irish poet Seamus Heaney.

Emily was delighted to be presented with the winners’ cup by the Mayor of Bromsgrove, Councillor Janice Boswell. She went on to perform her winning poems again in front of the School. Of this second performance, Deputy Headmaster Philip Bowen said: “There was such precision, feeling and understanding – every syllable richly spoken and interpreted – this must stand as one of the finest public readings ever delivered by a pupil at Bromsgrove School.”

Photo: Emily Collie(age 16 and her winning trophy with the School’s portrait of A. E. Housman.