Enigmatic Variations No. 1535: Painful Poems by Chalicea

An Eng. Lit. test this week (not my strongest subject at skool), with Chalicea asking us to find two PAINFUL POEMS…probably not limericks then?…

The preamble states that:

“Three iconic phrases from two PAINFUL POEMS circle the perimeter. In clue order, single extra letters (not entered in the grid) produced by wordplay in each across clue spell out a message showing where to find an instruction concerning 18 cells. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

First impressions were that the grid was ‘only’ 12×12, with an unclued perimeter (fewer clues to parse for your blogger!) and the longest entry seemed to be 7 letters. And the extra letter device was only in Across clues, so Downs must be normal.

Not a lot more to ponder, so I pressed on with solving, to see if anything jumped out of the perimeter, and/or the extra letters.

Quite a few new/obscure (to me) words ensued – RUTIN, ILLUPI, ELSHIN, LURRIES, SALTATO, BEAUFIN – although all were gettable/guessable from wordplay/crossers, and just needed a check in the BRB to make sure they were words. Also two ‘non-standard’ animals made an appearance – MEERCAT instead of the more usual MEERKAT, and RACOON with one C, rather than the usual RACCOON. Again, both are in Chambers, so no complaints!

I’m not sure which PDM came first – my solving notes are a little sparse – but some perimeter-staring (and a guess that things might start from top-left) eventually yielded ‘CRUELLEST MONTH’ as possibly the first snippet – which would fit with the current month, as per TS Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland‘; and the extra letters in Across clues gradually came to suggest ‘DOWN CLUES TENTH LETTER’

This is where my brain shrivels up and goes and hides in a corner – I’ve seen this device used occasionally before, but it must be hard enough to set these puzzles, and come up with the devices and clues, etc. – to then manipulate the clues so that they all have something significant in their nth letter just boggles me! Obviously it was easy enough to go and find the instruction – SHADE PLANT AND POETS – but I had to take a moment to appreciate the skill and hard work that must have taken.

Anyway, my poetry knowledge had been exhausted in just remembering that ‘April is the cruellest month…’, and I had to do a bit of e-research to find the next line: ‘… breeding lilacs out of THE DEAD LAND…’. So the PLANT from the instruction must be a LILAC, and TS ELIOT must be in there somewhere to shade.

Now, anyone familiar with Chalicea’s work should also be familiar with her trademark ‘stripes’ – often presenting a whole quotation ‘striped’ across a grid at regular intervals. I don’t think I’ve seen them for a while, but it didn’t take too much effort to find LILACS and ELIOT – and there in between them was (Walt) WHITMAN – a poet whose name I know, but not his works.

But again, it wasn’t too hard to find his lilac-related piece – ‘When Lilacs Last IN THE DOORYARD BLOOM’D‘ – which helped to finish off the perimeter:

 

And there you have it – both fairly ‘painful’ poems, full of doom and gloom, drooping and mourning…and that was just in the first couple of verses of each that I scanned.

I thought this was relatively tough for a Chalicea, as opposed to her relatively more challenging Curmudgeon alias, and educational with it!

“There once was a crossword setter called Chalicea,
Whose puzzles solvers (and bloggers) would generally cheer,
Her cryptic device
Was often quite nice,
And her clueing was usually concise and clear!”

(Apologies, that was probably quite PAINFUL as well – and in my inner ear it is probably Cha-liss-ay-a…rather than ee-a…but it’s the best I could do…)

My thanks to Chalicea, and kudos again for the tenth-letter thing… Out of interest, why TENTH? THIRD, FIFTH and SIXTH would have fitted in the 20-letter phrase as well… Maybe it was easier to get extra Across letters from TENTH rather than e.g. SIXTH? Or is it actually easier to ‘hide’ those letters in the second or third word of the Down clues, rather than the first or second, which third and fifth would probably have been? I’ll just go an have a lie down and think about it!…

Anyway, I hope all is clear above and below…

Across
Clue No	Extra letters	Solution	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing (extra letters in brackets and bold)
8	D	ILLUPI	Australian idiot up one mahwa tree (6) (D)ILL (Australian fool, or idiot) + UP + I (one)
9	O	AHENT	Cashier from time to time not in the rear locally in Glamis (5) AHE (occasional letters, i.e. from time to time, in cAsHiEr) + N(O)T [AHENT being a Northern England/Scottish, hence Glamis, version of AHINT, or behind)]
10	W	MEWS	Confused newswomen, none sadly quitting retreats (4) subtractive anag, i.e. confusedly, of (N)EWS(W)(O)M(EN) without the mixed letters of NONE (none, sadly, quitting) [a MEW can be a retreat, or hideaway]
11	N	ALL-RED	Once on British territory only without limit to tear away (6) ALL (without limit) + RE(N)D (tear off, or tear away) [ALL-RED refers to maps where British territory was marked in red]
12	C	SHRI	Title of great respect, thus describing Her Royal Highness mostly (4) S_I(C) (thus, Latin) around (describing) HR(H) (Her Royal Highness, mostly)
13	L	TAROT	Sailor to separate into portions a set of cards (5) TAR (sailor) + (L)OT (allot, separate into portions)
14	U	OSSI	Is very small coin making a comeback for old Leipziger? (4) IS + SO(U) (very small coin) – all making a comeback, to give OSSI
16	E	DOLCE	Dish out unwrapped ices as sweet (5) DOL(E) (dish out) + CE (iCEs, unwrapped of outer letters)
19	S	NETT	Lowest of assembled tents (4) anag, i.e. assembled, of TENT(S)
20	T	BLASÉ	Not bothered having tables turned (5) anag, i.e. turned, of (T)ABLES
21	E	BEADS	Small balls of water locally in channels of rivers (5) BE_DS (channels of rivers) around (E)A (dialect, i.e. local, for running water)
23	N	OMER	Israel’s measure of expert involving music for a start (4) O(N)_ER (expert) around (involving) M (starting letter of Music)
26	T	SLEEP	Rest of mixture of rain and snow on foremost of peaks (5) SLEE(T) (mixture of rain and snow) + P (first, or foremost, letter of Peaks)
28	H	EPEE	Casually in the know, sees unsheathed sharp sword (4) (H)EP (casually in the know) + EE (sEEs, unsheathed – i.e. uncovered of outer letters)
29	L	RUTIN	Drug’s curiously instructional if dubious actions ignored (5) subtractive anagram, i.e. curiously, of IN(S)TRU(CTIONA)(L) less the mixed (dubious) letters of ACTIONS
31	E	AUNE	Water in France, once not an obsolete measure there (4) (E)AU (water, in France) + NE (obsolete, i.e. once, for not) [AUNE being an obsolete measure of length in France, i.e. ‘there’]
33	T	RACOON	Skill reflected by company concerning US mammal’s fur (6) (T)RA (art, or skill, reflected) + CO (company) + ON (concerning) [Chambers gives both spellings, RACOON and RACCOON, equal billing]
34	T	VOID	Ineffectual repaired divot (4) anag, i.e. repaired, of DIVO(T)
35	E	YATES	Eye sat awkwardly in poet’s passages (5) anag, i.e. awkwardly, of EY(E) SAT [YATE being a Spenserian word for gate, or passage]
36	R	TRIOSE	Retrograde holiday haunt introducing primarily icky sweetener (6) TR_OSE(R) (RESORT, holiday haunt, reversed, or retrograde) around (introducing) I (primary letter of Icky)
Down
Clue No	Tenth Letters	Solution	Clue (definition underlined, tenth letter in bold) Logic/Parsing
1	S	RIEM	In Johannesburg thong regularly braided on loom ultimately (4) RIE (regular letters of ‘bRaIdEd’) + M (ultimate letter of looM)
2	H	ELSHIN	Awl in Perth centrally develops section of limb (6) EL (central letters of ‘devELops’) + SHIN (section of limb)
3	A	LURRIES	Formulae gabbled according to poet in swirling masses lacking force (7) (F)LURRIES – swirling masses, lacking F – force
4	D	EILD	Deli stupidly not providing milk in Edinburgh (4) anag, i.e. stupidly, of DELI
5	E	SALTO	Altos differently perform a daring leap (5) anag, i.e. differently, of ALTOS
6	P	THRALL	State of captivity if leader of inmates is acting in excitement (6) THR(I)LL (excitement) with I (leader of Inmates) replaced by A (acting) = THRALL
7	L	MEERCAT	A mongoose-like creature, nothing more, we’re told, oddly crafty (7) MEER (homophone, i.e. we’re told, of MERE) + CAT (odd letters of ‘CrAfTy’) [Again, Chambers gives MEERKAT and MEERCAT equal billing]
11	A	AIRT	Terrestrial upset obscures quarter of Scotland (4) hidden, reversed, word, i.e. upset and obscures, in ‘terresTRIAl’
15	N	SEES	Views oceans on BBC programme (4) homophone, i.e. on BBC programme – SEES can sound like SEAS, or oceans
17	T	ESSE	Some licentiousness ends Rome’s existence (4) hidden word in, i.e. some of, ‘licentiousnESS Ends’
18	A	SALTATO	Stroke creating staccato sound’s sadly alas, OTT (7) anag, i.e. sadly, of ALAS OTT
20	N	BEAUFIN	For the French, beautiful and fine variety of fruit (7) BEAU (beautiful, in French) + FIN (fine, in French)
22	D	DEICED	Took considerable risks involving engine finally treated to prevent freezing (6) D_ICED (took considerable risk) around (involving) E (final letter of enginE)
24	P	MEAN	Abject purpose (4) double defn. – MEAN can mean base, or abject; and to MEAN can be to purpose
25	O	RENVOI	Return of foreigner to his origin, upset over cases new and initially intolerable (6) RE_VO (anag, i.e. upset, of OVER) around (casing) N (new), plus I (initial letter of Intolerable) [the ‘foreigner’ being across the Channel, from a UK perspective!]
27	E	E-NOSE	Sniffing device essentially scents roses without limits (5) EN (essence, or centre, of ‘scENts’) plus OSE (‘rOSEs’ without limits, or outer letters) [My PC version of Chambers doesn’t seem to have E-NOSE, but it is in the Android app version – and in Collins…]
30	T	LOTH	Husband with great deal ahead is reluctant (4) LOT (great deal) + H (husband)
32	S	LIEN	Right of possession of name after story (4) LIE (story) + N (name)