Emoji Poetry Contest,Caught in the Act: Promiscuous Sex Life of My D-Cup Mother in law Part 2

“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful,” said Rita Dove, though we’d like to argue that it could be distilled even further, into Emojis. Yes, it’s time for another round of our translations of celebrated poems into pictograms. Can you guess the following famous verses? The first ten people to name all three poems correctly will win a copy of our Summer issue (no. 221)—you can submit your answers here. We’ve included the answers to the first round below.

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Answers to our last Emoji poetry contest:

1. “The Tyger” by William Blake

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

2. “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

3. “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

Nadja Spiegelman is the author ofI’m Supposed To Protect You from All This, and coeditor ofResist!, a feminist publication of comics and graphics.

Rosa Rankin-Gee is the author ofThe Last Kings of Sark. She is finishing her second novel,Dreamland.

*Poem #1 was created by Zai Divecha.