St Martin-in-the-Fields High School For Girls - a Church of England School in South London

St Martin’s will take part in National Poetry Day which is on Thursday 1 October 2020. National Poetry Day is a UK-wide celebration of poetry taking place every October. Each year there is a different theme. The theme for National Poetry Day 2020 is Vision, and the motto is ‘see like a poet’ We look forward to seeing our students' creativity linked to this theme.

The annual National Poetry Day has been taking place since 1994 when it was founded by William Sieghart and the Forward Arts Foundation. The main aim of the day is to increase the audience for poetry and celebrate all things poetic by promoting discovery, enjoyment and sharing of poetry. Since 1999 each national poetry day has had a theme which is said to be inspirational rather than prescriptive. The day is supported by Arts Council England, the BBC, Royal Mail and many literary organisations and businesses from bookstores to libraries and schools.

Visit National Poetry Day - Enjoy, Discover, Share and National Poetry Day resources

OCTOBER- National Poetry Day meets Black History Month!

We celebrate both of these events with a poem written by Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes was an African American writer whose poems, columns, novels and plays made him a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

I DREAM A WORLD

I dream a world where man

No other man will scorn,

Where love will bless the earth

And peace its paths adorn

I dream a world where all

Will know sweet freedom's way,

Where greed no longer saps the soul

Nor avarice blights our day.

A world I dream where black or white,

Whatever race you be,

Will share the bounties of the earth

And every man is free,

Where wretchedness will hang its head

And joy, like a pearl,

Attends the needs of all mankind-

Of such, I dream, my world!