Sir, - Katharine Washburn's campaign for the attenuation of the poetic register (aphonia versus eloquence), in her "review" of Gerard Fanning's Working for the Government (Books, June 19th), should not go unopposed.
She strains at six words in the book as if they'd come from some arcane "technical lexicon", leaving the reader "befuddled". But three of those six are in common parlance here (whatever about America): "Callows", "Guillemot" and "thurible" - no Massserver of my generation ever swung a "censer". A fourth ("femerell) is obvious in its association with "louvre" in the same line of the poem where it is used. The fifth ("contrails") is apt and felicitous in its context and repays the extra effort (Fanning wasn't writing an editorial for the Daily Mail, after all).
That leaves but one gnat for her to strain at: "pellmet" - hardly a major barrier to comprehension, whether taken as a typo (they do occur, madam, and in this instance a felix culpa, perhaps) or as a gentle conflation of "pellmell" and "pelmet". In either case it carries an extra resonance now, permitted I'm sure under the licence issued (a bhui leis an mbe) by the aos dana rather than the aos critic.
"But, but," I hear. But me no butts, ma'am. Methinks your prejudice is showing. - Yours, etc., Padraig O Snodaigh,
Bothar Bhinn Eadair, Pairc na bhFianna, Binn Eadair, Baile Atha Cliath 13.