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Eugene Lee-Hamilton Poetry Competition

Annual Eugene Lee-Hamilton Poetry Competition

 

Eugene Lee-Hamilton was a poet and novelist who studied at Oriel (1864-66) who revived the use of Petrarchan Sonnets in his own work, and encouraged it in others. The poetry competition prize was founded by the late Mrs Eliza Ann Lee-Hamilton by bequest in 1943, in memory of Eugene James Lee-Hamilton who died in 1907, in order to encourage the composition of the Petrarchan sonnet in Oxford and Cambridge.

About the Competition

The Provost and Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford, offer an annual prize worth £60 for the best Petrarchan Sonnet in English submitted by an undergraduate from Oxford or Cambridge. The sonnet can be on any topic of the author’s choosing. Enjambment between the eighth and ninth lines is permitted.

Named in memory of a poet and novelist who studied at Oriel 1864–66, the Eugene Lee-Hamilton Prize has been awarded since 1943. Sylvia Plath came second for the prize in 1957, so entrants are in good company!

2025 Competition

To enter, please email your sonnet to Mrs Rebecca Bricklebank, Oriel College, at rebecca.bricklebank@oriel.ox.ac.uk by 12 noon on Friday 30 May 2025. Results will be announced by Saturday 21 June.

No candidate may submit more than one sonnet to the competition, and previous winners are not eligible to win again.

Each sonnet must be accompanied by an email from the Head or a Fellow of the entrant’s college confirming that the candidate is a current undergraduate student.

The winner will have been deemed to have given permission to have their sonnet published on the Oriel College website as well as in print publications.

past competitons
2024 Wining Poem – Jamie Chong, Selwyn College, Cambridge

The winner of the Eugene Lee-Hamilton Poetry Competition 2023 was Jamie Chong, Selwyn College, Cambridge , with their sonnet the oyster.

 

life is water: a grain of grit comes in —
through the unfaltering current — to me
and, in each breath i exchange with the sea,
fathoms a pearl of language in its spin.
the iridescence changes in lighting:
yu, yu, yu — fish, word, rain’s cacophony
thunders through my coral sanctuary,
dislodging me into the current’s din.
the foreign turbulence carries me south
through wild, whirling words straight into the rout
where divers shuck me off from where i’d clung.
the pearly vowel spinning in my mouth
cracks into charcoal. no words can come out:
i clam shut, concealing my bitten tongue.

2023 Wining Poem – Olivia Sandhu, Oriel College, Oxford

The winner of the Eugene Lee-Hamilton Poetry Competition 2023 was Olivia Sandhu, Oriel College, Oxford, with her sonnet Castle in the sky.

 

 

2022 Winning Poems – Siddiq Islam and Cameron Nicholls-Iggulden, Oriel College, Oxford

The first prize winner of the Eugene Lee-Hamilton Poetry Competition 2022 was Siddiq Islam, Oriel College, Oxford with his sonnet Colourblind.

The second prize winner of the Eugene Lee-Hamilton Poetry Competition 2022 was Cameron Nicholls-Iggulden, Oriel College, Oxford with his sonnet As I Looked Out Across a Raging Sea.

Read both sonnets here.

2021 Winning Poem – Tayiba Zeenat, St Hilda’s College, Oxford

The winner of the Eugene Lee-Hamilton Poetry Competition 2021 was Tayiba Sulaiman, St Hilda’s College, Oxford with her sonnet, Reading.

2020 Winning Poem – Jane Cooper, New College, Oxford

The winner of the Eugene Lee-Hamilton Poetry Competition 2020 was Jane Cooper, New College, Oxford with her sonnet, Upon James Sadler’s Ascent from Christ Church Meadow.

2019 Winning Poems

The First Prize winner of the Eugene Lee-Hamilton Poetry Competition 2019 was Katherine Knight, University College, Oxford with her sonnet, Croquet, Fellows’ Garden. The Second Prize winner was Bonnie Samuyiwa, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, with her sonnet, Michal’s Complaint. Read both poems here.

2018 Winning Poems

In 2018, the quality of entries was so high that the judges decided to award the Eugene Lee-Hamilton Prize to two winners: Dominic Leonard, Christ Church Oxford, with his sonnet The Fisher of Ham Common and Shimali de Silva, Peterhouse Cambridge, with her sonnet Stella to her Violent Lover. Read both poems here.

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