[John Whitworth]

Congratulations Spherians! Again you have filled all the winning berths but one. And again Bazza waltzed off with the winning fiver. And I'll bet he's read 'Paradise Lost' all through too!

The new comp looks good though furriners may need to google Paul the Octopus.


Competition Number 2674 A Farewell to Arms

You are invited to submit an elegy on the death of Paul the Octopus, who successfully predicted the outcome of eight World Cup matches (16 lines maximum). Please email entries, wherever possible, to lucy@spectator.co.uk by midday on 17 November.

[basil ransome-davies]

You're dead right about Paradise Lost, John. It was on the first-year syllabus at Sussex, so I read it. Not only that, I enjoyed it. But a big factor in understanding it and enjoying it was Empson's superb Milton's God, which treats it as an SF epic. I also admire Milton's principled support of regicide, which is why you won't find him with the respectables in Poets' Corner.

[George Simmers]

Presumably she's looking for verse written in eight-footed lines?

[John Whitworth]

Yes, Bazza, I admire Milton for the same reason and I too read Milton's God and Paradise Lost right through, a bloody sight better read than The Faerie Queene or The Prelude in my opinion. I wanted to go to Sheffield because Empson was there but they wouldn't be having my Scotch qualifications. Anyway, by then Empson was too lofty (and too drunk) to have anything to do with undergraduates.

[basil ransome-davies]

And presumably (if not too pissed) enjoying his wild, unusual sex life.

[Jayne Osborn]

George said:

Presumably she's looking for verse written in eight-footed lines?

What a pity Paul the Octopus died towards the end of last month; it would have made a better comp for OCT-ober than November.

[Gail White]

I am dismayed to learn of the death of Paul the Octopus. I hope he'll get the obituary in the next issue of the Economist.

[Roger Slater]

I read Paradise Lost straight through as well. The secret was that someone gave me a beautifully printed edition without any footnotes to distract me or cause me to interrupt the flow. It was one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I have ever had, at least until a few minutes ago when I read back what I had just jotted down:

Elegy for Paul

Eight matches in a row he kept
his streak of picks alive,
but had he been a pentopus
it would have stopped at five,

and had he been a heptopus
it would have stopped at seven.
I'm glad he was an octopus.
God rest his soul in heaven.

[Orwn Acra]

Roger, that's great.

[John Whitworth]

PS. Of course a decapus
Does better than he did.
But had he been a decapus
He would have been a squid.