3 MARCH 2007, Page 24

The wrong metre

From George Simmers

Sir: Auden’s ‘Letter to Lord Byron’ is not written in ‘the stanza form of Byron’s Don Juan’ as Grey Gowrie believes (Books, 24 February). Byron used ottava rima (rhyming abababcc), whereas Auden chose the sevenline rime royal stanza (ababbcc), which avoids the difficulty of finding two triple rhymes. As Auden says in stanza 21 of the poem:

Ottava Rima would I know be proper, The proper instrument on which to pay My compliments, but I should come a cropper; Rhyme-royal’s difficult enough to play.

But if no classics as in Chaucer’s day, At least my modern pieces shall be cheery, Like English bishops on the quantum theory.

George Simmers

Brackley, Northamptonshire