30 OCTOBER 1964, Page 15

Sit,—The whole horror of the minor literary racket oozes out

of Mr. Edward Lucie-Smith's rude evading of the serious statement made by Mr. Douglas Hill. if poets are no longer allowed to use language figuratively, many ideas will be con- fined to a prison. If a maverick is merely a cow, the title of Sean O'Casey's great play, The Plough and the Stars, should have been 'The Tool and the Satellites.' Mr. Lucie-Smith',s rudeness doesn't prove his point, because if a maverick is merely a cow, then the herd it is keeping clear of is not com- posed of angels, but just as surely of cows . . .

127 Hartley Road, Nottingham PAUL POITS