7 AUGUST 1993, Page 45

No. 1793: Prizes and praises - You are invited to

write a poem (maximum 16 lines), in any mood or on any subject, which follows the rhythm and rhyme- and half-rhyme-scheme of Auden's early 'Song' which begins with the quatrain: '0 where are you going?' said reader to rider. 'That valley is fatal when furnaces burn, Yonder's the midden whose odours will

madden, The gap is the grave where the tall return.'

Entries to 'Competition No. 1793' by 19 August.