The judges said, "Like all three of the other major prizewinning entries, 'The Bewick's Wren' is a wholly engaging poem that works well on multiple levels. In this quite remarkable composition, the author brilliantly combines three genres: nature poem, domestic escapade, playful conceit. Imagine a wren building her nest in a doll's house! Perhaps this actually happened. Certainly Judith Goldhaber makes the incident ring true—and that is part and parcel of her work's intrinsic charm. This picture of an enchantingly topsy-turvy Lewis Carroll world is then ratified by the cunning use of rhyming verse, which in turn imparts a delightfully mock-heroic aura to this unique yet spellbinding event."

The judges said, "In '10 p.m. by the Singapore River', Samuel Tan has created a cityscape that stays in the memory, thanks to his use of evocative language and his careful selection of typical but inherently fascinating incidents. The poem grips the attention right from its opening lines in which Singapore is energetically presented as a 'thinking' city. This intriguing notion is then cleverly reinforced in subsequent stanzas through adroitly observed reflections that are dexterously translated into disarmingly picturesque tableaux."

The judges said, "Unlike the other three major winners, 'Miss Worthington' is a straightforward character study—a reminiscence rather than an ingenious conceit, a countryside or cityscape. Altough extremely popular with contestants, this genre is usually not handled with sufficient adroitness to merit praise. Most writers start slowly, reverently, and then gradually work up to the expected climax of death or retirement, achievement or recognition. In 'Miss Worthington', the poet neatly avoids these traps by writing in the first person rather than the impersonal third and by summing up the climax in the very first heart-stirring line: 'I saw her one last time.'"

The judges said, "An alluringly descriptive poem, 'Coming Home in a Haibun', manages the hard task of gripping a weary judge's interest right from its arresting title. Not only does Ellaraine Lockie present her rugged rural scenery most imaginatively in striking images that catch the mind's eye, but even the form of the poem—unusual but highly effective—cries out for the reader's immediate involvement."