Award
Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize , more commonly theNewdigate Prize , is awarded by theUniversity of Oxford for the Best Composition inEnglish verse by an undergraduate student.[ 1] It was founded in 1806 as a memorial toSir Roger Newdigate (1719–1806).[ 2] The winning poem is announced atEncaenia .[ 3] Instructions are published as follows: "The length of the poem is not to exceed 300 lines.[ 3] The metre is not restricted toheroic couplets , but dramatic form of composition is not allowed."
The first winner wasJohn Wilson ("Christopher North"). Notable winners have includedRobert Stephen Hawker ,John Ruskin ,Matthew Arnold ,Laurence Binyon ,Oscar Wilde ,John Buchan ,John Addington Symonds ,James Laver ,Donald Hall ,James Fenton ,P. M. Hubbard , andAlan Hollinghurst .
The parallel award given at the University of Cambridge is theChancellor's Gold Medal .
Past titles and winners [ edit ] 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 [ edit ] 1813:Francis Hawkins 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',Joseph Henry Dart 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 1886: 'Savonarola',R. L. Gales 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 1895: 'Montezuma',J. S. Arkwright 1900: 'Robespierre',Arthur Carré 1901: 'Galileo',William Garrod 1902: 'Minos',Ernest Wodehouse 1903: not awarded 1904: 'Delphi',George Bell 1905: 'Garibaldi',Arthur R. Reade 1906: 'The Death of Shelley',Geoffrey Scott 1907: 'Camoens',Robert Cruttwell 1908: 'Holyrood',Julian Huxley 1909: 'Michelangelo',Frank Ashton-Gwatkin 1910: 'Atlantis',Charles Bewley 1911: 'Achilles',Roger Heath 1912: 'Richard I Before Jerusalem',William Chase Greene 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',James Reid 1923: 'London',Christopher Scaife 1924: 'Michelangelo',Franklin McDuffee 1925: 'Byron',Edgar McInnis 1926: not awarded 1927: 'Julia, Daughter of Claudius',Gertrude Trevelyan 1928: 'The Mermaid Tavern',Angela Cave 1929: 'The Sands of Egypt',Phyllis Hartnoll 1930: 'Daedalus',Josephine Fielding 1931: 'Vanity Fair',Michael Balkwill 1932: 'Sir Walter Scott',Richard Hennings 1933: 'Ovid among the Goths',Philip Maitland Hubbard [ 9] 1934: 'Fire',Edward Lowbury 1935: 'Canterbury',Allan Plowman 1936: 'Rain',David Winser 1937: 'The Man in the Moon',Margaret Stanley-Wrench 1938: 'Milton Blind',Michael Thwaites 1939: 'Dr Newman Revisits Oxford',Kenneth Kitchin 1940–1946: suspended due to war 1947: 'Nemesis',Merton Atkins 1948: 'Caesarion', Peter Way 1949: 'The Black Death',Peter Weitzman 1950: 'Eldorado',John Bayley 1951: 'The Queen of Sheba',Michael Hornyansky 1952: 'Exile',Donald Hall (published inOP 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',Robert James Maxwell 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',Peter Jay 1966: not awarded 1967: not awarded 1968: 'The Opening of Japan',James Fenton [ 12] 1969: not awarded 1970: 'Instructions to a Painter',Charles Radice 1971: not awarded 1972: 'The Ancestral Face',Neil Rhodes 1973: 'The Wife's Tale',Christopher Mann 1974: 'Death of a Poet',Alan Hollinghurst 1975: 'Inland',Andrew Motion 1976: 'Hostages',David Winzar 1977: 'The Fool', Michael King 1978: not awarded 1979: not awarded 1980: 'Inflation',Simon Higginson 1981: not awarded 1982: 'Souvenirs',Gordon Wattles 1983: 'Triumphs',Peter McDonald (published inOP I.2) 1984: 'Fear',James Leader 1985: 'Magic',Robert Twigger [ 13] 1986: 'An Epithalamion',William Morris 1987: 'Memoirs of Tiresias', Bruce Gibson andMichael Suarez (joint winners) 1988: 'Elegy',Mark Wormald 1989: 'The House',Jane Griffiths 1990: 'Mapping',Roderick Clayton 1991: not awarded 1992: 'Green Thought',Fiona Sampson 1993: 'The Landing',Caron Röhsler 1994: 'Making Sense',James Merino 1995: 'Judith with the Head of Holofernes',Antony Dunn (published inOP IX.1) 1996: not awarded 1997: not awarded 1998: not awarded 1999: not awarded 2000: 'A Book of Hours'. 2005: 'Lyons',Arina Patrikova 2006: 'BEE-POEMS',Paul Thomas Abbott 2007:Meirion Jordan 2008: 'Returning, 1945',Rachel Piercey 2009: 'Allotments',Arabella Currie 2010: 'The Mapmaker's Daughter',Lavinia Singer 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',Dominic Hand (published inOxford Poetry XVII.i)[ 17] [ 18] 2018: not awarded[ 19] 2019: not awarded[ 20] 2020: 'the summer critter speaks not of frost' (夏蟲不可語冰),Rachel Ka Yin Leung [ 21] [ 22] 2021: 'Koinobionts', Annabelle Fuller[ 23] 2022: 'pecking orders', Maggie Wang[ 24] 2023: 'The girl I saw through the James Webb Telescope', Nicholas Stone[ 25] [ 26] 2024: ‘At the Papal Palace’ and ‘After “Horses, Peacefully Farting & Snoring” ’, Shaw Worth[ 27] 2025: 'Jongleurs',Austin Spendlowe [ 28] Notes
^ "Prizes and Studentships" .www.english.ox.ac.uk . Retrieved28 April 2023 .The prize is open to current matriculated undergraduate students of the university. ^ "Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize" .Oxford Poetry . Archived fromthe original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved15 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 . Retrieved12 December 2020 .^ Boyd Litzinger; Donald Smalley (1995).Richard Browning: The Critical Heritage . Routledge. p. 93.ISBN 0-415-13451-X . ^ Hewison, Robert (2004)."Ruskin, John (1819–1900), art critic and social critic" .Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi :10.1093/ref:odnb/24291 .ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8 . Retrieved12 December 2020 . (Subscription,Wikipedia Library access orUK public library membership required.) ^ 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. Retrieved12 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 (2016).A Study Guide for Donald Hall's "Names of Horses" . Gale, Cengage Learning.ISBN 978-1-4103-5358-0 . {{cite book }}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link )^ Thomson, Ian (5 June 2004)."Profile: James Hamilton-Paterson" .the Guardian . Retrieved12 December 2020 . ^ "Professor James Fenton" .British Council Literature .British Council . Retrieved14 January 2016 .^ "Learning curve | The Guardian | guardian.co.uk" .www.theguardian.com . Retrieved12 December 2020 .^ "Merton Student Wins Newdigate Prize" . Merton College, Oxford. Retrieved27 May 2016 .^ "Andrew Wynn Owen Wins the Newdigate Prize" . Magdalen College, Oxford. Archived fromthe original on 24 April 2016. Retrieved27 May 2016 .^ "Prizes and Studentships" . University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved27 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. Retrieved1 June 2017 .^ "Oriel Undergraduate Dominic Hand Wins University's Newdigate Prize for Poetry" . Retrieved2 July 2017 .^ "Prizes and Studentships" . University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved4 March 2019 .In 2018 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was not awarded. ^ "Prizes and Studentships" . University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved12 June 2019 .In 2019 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was not awarded. ^ "Prizes and Studentships" .www.english.ox.ac.uk . 2 June 2020. Archived fromthe original on 2 June 2020.The winner for the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize in 2019-20 was Rachel Leung, for her entry 'the summer critter speaks not of frost.' ^ "Sir Roger Newdigate prize awarded to Leung Rachel Ka Yin" .University of Oxford . 10 June 2020. Retrieved11 November 2020 .^ "Prizes and Studentships" . University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved10 May 2021 .In 2021 the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize was awarded to Annabelle Fuller for her entry 'Koinobionts'. ^ "Maggie Wang wins the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize with her poem 'pecking orders' " .www.english.ox.ac.uk . Retrieved28 April 2023 .^ "HMC Law student wins Sir Roger Newdigate Prize" .www.hmc.ox.ac.uk . Retrieved26 May 2023 .^ "Sir Roger Newdigate Prize 2023: winner announced" .www.english.ox.ac.uk . Retrieved26 May 2023 .^ "Prizes and Studentships" .www.english.ox.ac.uk . Archived fromthe original on 1 June 2024.The winner for the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize in 2023-24 was Shaw Worth (Magdalen College), for their submissions: 'At the Papal Palace' and 'After 'Horses, Peacefully Farting & Snoring' '. ^ "Prizes and Studentships" .www.english.ox.ac.uk . Archived fromthe original on 21 June 2025.The winner for the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize in 2024-25 was Austin Spendlowe (Lincoln College), for their submissions: 'Jongleurs'. Sources
Richter, editor, Annie J. (1946).Literary Prizes and Their Winners . R. R. Bowker Co.