9 DECEMBER 1978, Page 18

Ars Poetica

Sir: In the poem you kindly printed to celebrate the Professor of Poetry election at Oxford! omitted to include three candidates — Ronald Duncan and the two others (I forget their names) — who brought up the rear with a handful of votes. May I offer the following blanket coverage of these stragglers with a line in parody of Sat 1. 10. 85-7: simulque compluris alii quos non ego dicere possum This means dropping 'Catulli' at the end of line 13, but presumably the lascivious girl who loved a sparrow is sufficiently identified on her own. I do apologise for this entry, which by its very nature cannot but be the last.

Colin Hayc raft Gerald Duckworth and Co., The Old Piano Factory, 43 Gloucester Crescent, London NW