Cambridge English essay competition

Will Maclean (Year 12, Lower Eighth) has been awarded first prize in the Thomas Campion English Essay Prize, organised and run by Peterhouse, Cambridge.
From the choice offered (pdf), Will chose to tackle this question:

‘The fascination of what’s difficult/Has dried the sap out of my veins’ (W.B. Yeats). Attempt a defence of literary difficulty.

Will wrote on Milton’s Lycidas, Emily Dickinson and Samuel Beckett, drawing upon some of George Steiner’s definitions of difficulty. The standard of entries was high, but the judges felt his essay stood out for its clarity of argument, stylish prose, level of research and originality of thought.

Find out more about English at St Paul’s.