What is the contest?

The Poetry Contest is an event that takes place on the Bar's RMB every weekend. It begins at 12:01 AM on Saturday and ends at 12:01 PM on Monday (Eastern Standard Time / UTC-5). During the event, all nations are welcome to post their original poetry on the Bar's RMB. There is no limit to the number of entries one may submit. At the end of the event, a judge will read all the poetry posted within the contest time frame and decide which is the best.

How does the judging work?

The judge's job is simply to read through all the poetry (only poetry written in accordance with the week's poetry form will be considered valid entries) posted within the contest time frame and determine which of them is the best, with the meaning of "the best" being based wholly on the judge's subjective opinion. Upon choosing a winner, the judge will post the result of the contest on the RMB. Obviously, the judge is not allowed to be corrupt: the winning poetry cannot be authored by the judge and the winning poetry must not be chosen on the basis of friendships, pity, whose turn it is, etc. The winning poetry must be the best poetry in the judge's opinion.

Due to the strictness of some poetry forms, some entries may not entirely conform to the established rules for writing a specific type of poem. People put a lot of effort into their poems and may not catch their mistakes. As such, the judge is allowed to choose which mistakes are excusable and which are not. It is the judge's decision as to whether a syllable over or a syllable under is acceptable or not. The judge can choose to be very strict or allow for a bit of leeway. This only applies to more complex forms of poetry, like sonnets. With simpler forms like haiku, a syllable over or under is not acceptable.

How is the judge chosen?

There is only one judge per week. Every week, the judge will almost always be different. The winner of any given week will be offered to be the judge of the following week. If the winner accepts, he or she will be the judge for the following week. If the first-place winner declines to be the judge, then the player who received second-place will be asked. If the person in second-place declines, then the person who won third-place is offered to be the judge. If there are no people left to ask, one of the backup judges will be the judge for the following week. The backup judges are Kissinger-Monroe and Lord protector of the land. In each instance that a backup judge is called for, the judge who was not the used in the last instance shall be the judge for the following week. In other words, the backup judges will alternate each time they are needed.

What does the writer of the winning poetry receive?

The winner of the Poetry Contest will receive a bottle of the Bar's finest alcoholic drink with their name on it. Also, the winner will get the opportunity to be the judge of the following week's contest. The judge chooses the poetry form for the contest. Poetry forms include cinquian, haiku, sonnet, limerick, shape poetry, slam poetry, acrostic, villanelle, ode, obituary poetry/elegy, conceit, nursery rhyme, poetic epigram, tanka, quatrain, and free verse. These are merely examples and the judge may choose a poetry form that is not included here. The judge may even choose to have no required poetry form at all.

Was the contest always like this?

No. For Weeks 1–27, all entries had to be in haiku form. The judge only had the ability to choose the winner, but couldn't choose a form for the week. The winners received bottles of Japanese sake, or other Asian alcoholic drinks if sake was not available.

Are there any guides for writing these poems?

Yes. All of these guides except for one were written by Kissinger-Monroe:

The Sonnet
The Limerick
The Villanelle
The Cinquain
The Quatrain à la The Cat in the Hat
The Ballad by Schiltzberg