1 MARCH 1968, Page 29

No. 490: Octet

COMPETITION

Competitors are invited to compose an eight- line poem or stanza of a poem on any one of the subjects given below, using four of the fol- lowing five pairs of words as end-rhymes. The rhymes are taken from a well-known poem. The rhyme-scheme is optional.

The words: lyres, fires; outleant, death-lament; overhead, illimited; plume, gloom; air, unaware.

The subjects: elegy for a phoenix; an arsonist's song; Shrove Tuesday.

In addition to the usual prizes, a special prize of one guinea will be awarded to the first entry opened that correctly identifies the poem from which the rhymes were chosen. Entries, marked 'Competition No. 490,' must be in by I I March.