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Candidates bidding to become the professor of poetry at the University of Oxford have made their pitches for election in a series of online statements. The contenders, including Oxford alumnus and prize-winning poet Geoffrey Hill, used a variety of methods to convince voters of their worth - including one statement compiled entirely in verse and another candidate's description of the discipline as a "gnostic heresy". Voting for the post opened last week and closes on 16 June. The contest is being held a year after the resignation of Ruth Padel, who stepped down after it emerged that she had briefed the press about allegations of sexual harassment against her rival for the post, Derek Walcott.