28 OCTOBER 1955, Page 29

Poets from time immemorial have addressed their verses to ladies

but the replies have seldom been recorded. Com- petitors are invited (for a prize of £5, which may be divided) to supply answers, of not more than sixteen lines in the original metres, as from one of the following : Lucasta to Lovelace ('Tell me not, sweet, 1 am unkind'), Celia to Ben Jonson ('Drink to me only with thine eyes'), one of the Virgins to Herrick ('Gather ye rosebuds while ye may'), Anon to Hartley Coleridge (`She is not fair to outward view'), Lady Clara Vere de Vere to Tennyson.

Entries, addressed 'Spectator Competition No. 298,' 99 Gower Street, London, WO, must be received by November 8. Results in the Spectator of November 18.