30 MAY 1992, Page 23

Good game

Sir: Your competition setter Jaspistos seems to be cracking up. Or has he been hitting the Aberlour sauce again? He wants us to write a poem (Competition, 23 May) beginning with the words of 'Rupert Brooke's famous sonnet', 'If only I should die...' Only? The addition of only to famil- iar verses suggests great possibilities. 'Land of only hope and glory'? 'God only save the Queen'?

Steve Race

Westcott, Martins End Lane, Great Missenden, Bucks