Battle lines
Judge Meg Marsden highlights the winning poems from our Bayeux Tapestry Poetry Competition
Meg Marsden
Poetry WINNERS
Well it‘s nearly 950 years old, but still draws countless visitors to Normandy to check out this historic tapestry. I was, several years ago, one of those many trippers and was astounded by the proportions but thrilled by the feeling that emits from this embroidered memorial. And strictly speaking that is what it is – embroidered and not a tapestry as such. It is only twenty inches in depth but 230 feet long and is rich in silk threads on a plain cloth background. To this day I still use, on a daily basis, a keyring embossed in silver, showing a detail of the tapestry, my memento recalling the visit to the museum,
But even considering the above, the poems received from Writing Magazine subscribers on this subject have brought forth such vivid descriptions that it‘s possible to feel as though you are standing before the work itself.
The Bayeux Tapestry, which it is believed was sewn in the 1070s and worked by the English, was apparently commissioned by William the Conqueror‘s halfbrother, the Bishop Odo.