Foggy memory ... red deer. Photograph:
Alamy
The poet Christian Ward has
said that he had "no intention of deliberately plagiarising" the work of another
writer after it was discovered that his prize-winning entry to a poetry competition was lifted
"almost word-for-word" from a poem by Helen Mort.
Ward's poem "The Deer at
Exmoor" won the Exmoor Society's Hope Bourne poetry prize, but organisers later
discovered that it was virtually identical to an earlier work by
Mort, "Deer". The similarities were
revealed by the Western Morning News last week, with Ward said
by the paper to have replaced "only a handful of words", switching "father"
for "mother" in the first line, the "river Exe" for Ullapool and transforming
Mort's description of "the kingfisher / that darned the river south of Rannoch
Moor" to a peregrine falcon on Bossington Beach.
On learning of the
similarities, Mort – whose collection Division Street will be published later
this year by Chatto & Windus – wrote on Twitter: "Thanks for the
backhanded compliment, Mr Ward, but I think you'll find thieving poetry is bad
karma. At the very least." She later wrote
on a blog about the issue: "Contrary to a few suggestions I've seen online
in comments that I should be 'flattered' by this somehow, I'm just bemused and
angry … This poem was quite a personal one and the idea that someone would
deliberately copy it for a competition is something I find really upsetting",
adding "I'd also like to tell the plagiarising poet that 'at the River Exe' and
the peregrine falcon line don't scan properly within the rhythm of the stanza,
in my humble opinion …!"
Ward has now issued
a statement to the Western Morning News about the "allegations of
plagiarism" in the competition. He said he was "working on a poem about my
childhood experiences in Exmoor and was careless", and that he "used Helen
Mort's poem as a model for my own but rushed and ended up submitting a draft
that wasn't entirely my own work".
"I had no intention of deliberately plagiarising her work. That is the truth," wrote Ward in his statement. "I am sorry this has happened and am making amends. This incident is all my fault and I fully accept the consequences of my actions. I apologise to the Exmoor Society, Helen Mort, the poetry community and to the readers of the WMN."
The poet, who described
himself as a 31-year-old London poet in a (currently deleted) Write
Out Loud profile, said he was now examining his published poems "to make
sure there are no similar mistakes".
"I want to be as honest as
I can with the poetry community and I know it will take some time to regain
their trust," he wrote. "Already I have discovered a
2009 poem called The Neighbouris very similar to Tim Dooley's After Neruda and admit
that a mistake has been made. I am still digging and want a fresh start. I am
deeply sorry and look forward to regaining your trust in me."
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