1 APRIL 1989, Page 26

Once a poet .

Sir: In reference to Stephen Spender on Louis MacNeice (`Seal of approval', 4 March), I learned of MacNeice's death from a two-line obituary in a Chicago newspaper column headed, I believe, `Deaths Elsewhere'. The notice identified him as a writer for the BBC and concluded, 'He was formerly a poet.'

Robert Parrish

830 West Bradley Place, Chicago, Illinois 60613