Ode to Code: Poems inspired by the story of Bletchley Park

Introduction from Bletchley Park During World War Two, Bletchley Park was the centre for Allied codebreaking efforts. The secret intelligence produced there directly influenced the outcome of the War. Today, the Bletchley Park story still inspires visitors, and we wanted to hear how young people responded to the story 80 years after World War Two began.

In particular, we wanted to ask young poets. People often think that most of the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park were maths specialists. Whilst it’s true that maths was vital to some parts of the job, many of the staff excelled in other areas.

Interestingly, of the staff who had links with Oxford University, 46% studied languages, 13% specialised in English and 12% were mathematicians.

The ability to understand and play with language was as vital to the workers at Bletchley Park as it is to anyone writing poetry. After all, as one expert writes, “Whether it’s a simple cipher, or something as complex as the codes of the Enigma machine which the Bletchley codebreakers were working on, the trick is making links between letters and words.” (Michael Smith, author of Station X: The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park).

Many of the staff at Bletchley Park wrote songs and poetry as a creative outlet, whether for fun or for public performance.

Chief Cryptographer Dilly Knox invented a new verse form 8