Ars Poetica
Sir: In the verse you kindly published the other day to celebrate the forthcoming election of a new Professor of Poetry at Oxford, I forgot to include mention of John Jones. As he won, this was a serious omission, though you will appreciate the apparent difficulty of rendering into Latin the name of Jones. May I suggest the following rearrangement from line 13? I have added in Donald Davie for good measure.
et cui deficiunt sectanti levia nervi atque animi [AP 26-7], notusque fuit qui nomine tantum [Sal. 1.9.31 quemque puella fovet pullum lasciva Catulli: non multum intererit Davusne creetur an illi [AP 114]. I should also like to insert an extra Hora tian allusion into line 16 (now line 18) by writing.
. . . nee leviter crassi [EP. 2.1.244] flant Aeres isti and to improve (perhaps) line 6 (in accor dance with AP 416) to read . nam mira poemata pangit.
Colin Haycraft Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd, The Old Piano Factory 43 Gloucester Crescent, London NW1 PS The four lines might be translated . . . 'He whose force and inspiration fail him as he aims at smoothness (levia), he who is known only by name (i.e. Jones), and the chick who was the pet of Catullus's lascivious girl (i.e. L,esbia's sparrow): it won't matter much whether they or Davus (proverbial for a low-born slave) are elected.'
Sir: How like the present 'University wits' to elect a candidate for the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry who isn't even a poet! Maybe the eligibles were put off by the warning-note of the late Lord Macaulay: 'Perhaps no person can be a poet, or even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.'
John O'Riordan 79 The Mall, Southgate, London N14
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