29 NOVEMBER 1968, Page 31

No. 529: 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-knots n poem. The rhyme-scheme is optional.

The words: weighty, eighty: poor, before; merry, cherry; awry, dry; bereft, left.

The subjects: The financial crisis; a verse recipe for Christmas; a complaynt, on the occa- sion of failing to be elected to the Oxford Chair of Poetry.

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. 529,' must be in by 9 Decem- ber.