For Competition 3454 you were invited to encapsulate a well-known poem in four lines. I found this entertaining parlour game in E.O. Parrott’s splendid How to be Well Versed in Poetry, which includes this cracker from Ron Rubin, one-time veteran of these pages: Regarding Slough, Berks., This poet remarks: ‘This town makes me vomit –
20 Jun 2026
issue 20 June 2026
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For Competition 3454 you were invited to encapsulate a well-known poem in four lines. I found this entertaining parlour game in E.O. Parrott’s splendid How to be Well Versed in Poetry, which includes this cracker from Ron Rubin, one-time veteran of these pages:
Regarding Slough, Berks.,
For Competition 3451 you were invited to supply an acrostic poem praising or dispraising a public figure in which the word/s…
An emblem of medieval pilgrimage gains fresh resonance in a more recent time of plague
Competition 3453 invited you to describe a new, infallible personal regime that promised to make one healthy, rich and…
The unclued lights (two of two words) can be arranged to form the first line of a poem and the name of the poet. Across 1 One…
The poet on running across a minefield, being bewitched at a bus stop, and his 88th birthday celebrations
Our critic A.O. Scott feels the heat of a wintry lyric by the Nobel laureate Louise Glück.
