12 APRIL 1957, Page 17

ANGLO-SAXON PLATITUDES

SIR,—! have written Mr•. Kingsley Amis's comments on long poems in English out on a slip of paper (for ready reference) thus : - The Faerie Queene, Paradise Lost: remote and frigid.

Troilus and Cri'seyde: footling rigmarole. Sir Gawain, Havelock, etc.: nobody in full possession of his faculties could enjoy them. Beowttlf: a star turn of the Oxford English

• School.

Should I ever in the future feel uncertain about Mr. Amis's Wife and judgement, I shall be able to turn to this slip of paper and banish any doubts. I am sorry that he did not have speed to deal with The Dunciad, The Prelude and The Ring and the Book; indeed, the only criticism I would make of his in- valuable article is that he devoted the larger portion of it to the book he was reviewing.—Yours faith- fully,

King's College, University of Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1 PETER URE