Schoolgirl Ellanya Sivasubramaniam’s Poem "The Girls Who Grow Antlers" Stands as Winner in 2025 Foyle Young Poets Competition

Walking home from school, fifteen-year-old Ellanya Sivasubramaniam received the voice of joy as she was crowned young poet of the year onOctober 15, after she entered the Foyle Young Poets Competition, which is organised by The Poetry Society. And of course, with the submission of her poem, “The Girls Who Grow Antlers”, which explores a range of dual subjects such as politics and painting, language and loss, as well as the connection between identity and belonging. But what about the lines that lay out these striking themes?

Sawing Them Off

Standing as a top 15 winner, the young poet’s palette seems to crimson in the fourth stanza by showcasing blood-curdling, descriptive imagery. The stanza begins with the imagery of a girl attempting to saw off her antlers, at which point she left the character with blood seeping through her fringe—described to be “blooming” like an otherworldly signal.

Arguably a metaphor for frustration, the blood seems to reflect the girl’s desire to leave maths early; paradoxically, it could be compressing a sort of expression through feelings of liberation or an act of teenage rebellion. Either way, it seems that Sivasubramaniam uses an observant nature to represent the complexities of school or schoolwork, in this case. Her childlike approach allows for the blood to bleed with creativity.

There seems to be no speaker in the verse, due to the poem’s highly descriptive nature, which is why we can say the poet is an observant figure who is writing from a quiet end. But what is so striking is the conflicting exploration of identity throughout. The young writer’s verse seems to allude to the nuances of structure and feeling, that school can be a difficult time for young girls, with the pressures to delete personality traits in order to fit in.

Adding a playful layer to the antlers, it could be that the antlers are a metaphor for individuality; Sivasubramaniam, however, describes them to be not a metaphor but bone. It seems she has done this to emphasise a rawness—adding an extra-imagistic layer to her lines. Maybe: the different approaches to the antlers are to show that everyone is to be different, to not be placed into a box. Why is one sawing hers off, but another, in stanza five, is looping hers with fairy lights?

To Paint with the Help of Others

The antlers—for which nobody asked—seem to compress a knowing of rules, to which some can adapt, and some cannot. It seems the girl with the fairy lights adapts to the school and its systems well, whereas the other seems to be going through a crisis from being possibly frustrated. The poet playfully incorporates a bread knife, with which the girl attempts to saw her antlers off; as a result, the blood is like a red card for punishment or consequence.

Ellanya Sivasubramaniam’s poem, “The Girls Who Grow Antlers”, is inevitably a testament against the commonplace and aims for its audience to question. Comfortingly, it aims for a broader audience: all girls within her youthful age bracket, however niche the poetics may be. Although the antlers seem to be an erosion of identity, the poet infers that this journey is needed in order to build another one, as we are constantly evolving.

From the seemingly suffering to the subtle freedom pipeline in the young girl’s work is what seems to draw everyone in, like a magical touch. On that same Wednesday, Ellanya Sivasubramaniam, from Reading, received an honour at The British Library. She told Radio Berkshire that winning the Foyle Young Poets Competition felt ‘surreal and affirming’, poetically connecting her growth as a young girl to her exceptional verse. Sivasubramaniam, for sure, last week, grew a pair of antlers!

About Foyles Young Poets Competition

The competition is for any young poet—between the ages of 11 and 17—to submit from anywhere in the world. Founded in 1998, and with entries of 6,600 youngsters last year, its competitive nature remains at the top, and its importance is widely attested.
There are one hundred winners each year, eighty-five of whom are commendations, leaving the other fifteen at the top of the scale—the winners, to be exact.
It is funded by the Foyle Foundation.
The top fifteen are said to attend a weeklong residential Arvon course during which young writers develop their writerly talents alongside other poets.
The competition allows winners to have their poems published in the anthology, which allows for distribution to schools, students, poets, libraries and teachers.
For more information about the competition and to find out how to enter, please visit their official website.
For more overall information, visit: poetrysociety.org.uk and foylefoundation.org.uk