Using poetry quote..is this infringing copywriter??

[Mammajay]

I have written a piece I want to send in for a competition. I have used a line from Jenny Joseph's poem Warning. Jenny is now dead, but would I be infringing her heirs' copywriter, if that makes sense. Thanks

Sorry copyright!

Copyright in the UK lasts for 70 years after the death of the author, so the poem is still copyrighted. You are allowed "fair use" which covers quotation for the purposes of criticism, analysis and review but I don't know what the rules are about using a line within a new work. It might also be worth checking the competition rules, as many specify any work submitted must be 100% original.

If the piece is published, you would need permission from the literary estate (and to make a payment) to use the line (which should be credited in any appendix). For an unpublished story, I wouldn't sweat the copyright issue.

Surely if you are entering a competition, it has to be your own original work?

But quoting a single line from a poem doesn't undermine that, surely? By way of example, I just read Maggie O'Farrell's I Am, I Am, I Am" which is, I think, a line from The Bell Jar^ but the title in no way meant the book had been plagiarised.

Thanks everyone. I decided to change the sentence completely.