A tribute to an American poet from Chalmie.
I don’t think there’s any significance in today’s date (edit: in comment 2 below, the setter points out that it is the poet’s centenary year), but Chalmie has presented us with a crossword which includes the name of a poet and refers to at least five of his poetry books. I love prose literature, but not poetry, so Lowell was unknown to me. Wikipedia was therefore a necessary resource for me, and the bibliography on Lowell’s page mentions the following, LAND of UNLIKENESS, LORD WEARY’s CASTLE, LIFE STUDIES, IMITATIONS and The OLD GLORY (all of the upper-case words appear in today’s puzzle).
Well done, Chalmie, for fitting these in.
| Across | ||
| 1 | See 16 | |
| 4 | PROPOSED | Sat around finally after work suggested (8) |
| POSED (sat) “around” (afte)R + OP (work), so P(R-OP)OSED | ||
| 10 | MALINGERS | Feigns sickness finding fish drug in chocolate bar (9) |
| LING (fish) + E (drug, ie “ecstasy”) “in” MARS (bar), so MA(LING-E)RS | ||
| 11 | WEARY | European cautious about getting tired (5) |
| WARY (cautious) “about” E(uropean) | ||
| 12 | LIFE | Existence of metals (4) |
| Li + Fe (the chemical symbols of two metals, lithium and iron) | ||
| 13 | UNLIKENESS | Weaving silk unseen makes a difference (10) |
| *(silk unseen) | ||
| 15 | STUDIES | Examines the way university shuts down (7) |
| St. (street, so “way”) + U(niversity) + DIES (shuts down) | ||
| 16, 1 | ROBERT LOWELL | Dress right to speak about mean poet (6,6) |
| ROBE (dress) + R(ight) + TELL (speak) “about” LOW (mean)
Robert Lowell (1917-1977) was a New England poet (have to admit that I’m not into poetry, so he was a new one to me). |
||
| 19 | ODENSE | Poetry about new eastern city (6) |
| ODES (poetry) “about” N(ew) + E(astern), so ODE(N)S-E | ||
| 21 | LAUNDER | Clean city out (7) |
| L.A. (city) + UNDER (out – as in “under anaesthetic) | ||
| 23 | IMITATIONS | Restrictions left out copies (10) |
| (l)IMITATIONS (restrictions, minus L(eft)) | ||
| 25 | LORD | Knowledge finally lost by deceased ruler (4) |
| LOR(e) (knowledge) + D(eceased) | ||
| 27 | ALLOA | Capital loans maintain Scottish town (5) |
| Hidden in “capitAL LOAns” | ||
| 28 | THEN AGAIN | Articles about shrew get popular, on the other hand (4,5) |
| THE + A (articles) “about” NAG (shrew) “get” IN, so THE(NAG)A-IN | ||
| 29 | OLD GLORY | Familiar parrot swallows German flag (3,5) |
| OLD (familiar) + LORY (parrot) “swallows” G(erman)
The American flag is sometimes called “Old Glory” |
||
| 30 | CASTLE | Building legal action to restrain Returning Officer (6) |
| CASE (legal action) “to restrain” <=Lt. (“returning” officer, ie lieutenant) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LIMBLESS | Lacking branches, trees round British Libray start to sway (8) |
| LIMES (trees) “round” B(ritish) L(ibrary) + S(way), so LIM(BL)ES-S | ||
| 2 | WELL-FOUND | Healthy finance keeps Oscar adequately provided for (4-5) |
| WELL (healthy) + FUND (finance) “keeping” O(scar) | ||
| 3 | LAND | Finally deal with German state? (4) |
| (dea)L + AND (with)
I originally had this in as a double definition, but Chalmie has corrected me. In Germany, “land” is the name given to a federal region, such as Bayern. |
||
| 5 | RISKIER | Standing up Irish athlete is more dangerous (7) |
| <+Ir.(ish) + SKIER (athlete) | ||
| 6 | POWDER BLUE | Pale-coloured mutant deer blow up (6,4) |
| *(deer blow up) | ||
| 7 | SPARE | Extra thin (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | DRYISH | Ramsay’s gutted – recipe comes out scarcely sweet (6) |
| R(amsa)Y, indicated by “gutted”, with DISH (recipe) outside | ||
| 9 | BEINGS | Life-forms are aeroplanes, nothing less (6) |
| B(o)EINGS, (aeroplanes, with 0 “less”) | ||
| 14 | FIANNA FAIL | Party supporter is ingenuous standing up to be sick (6,4) |
| <=FAN NAIF (supporter + ingenious) + AIL (to be sick)
Fianna Fail is a right-wing Irish party. |
||
| 17 | RADIO MAST | Matador is eccentric broadcaster (5,4) |
| *(matador is) | ||
| 18 | PRUDENCE | Change round, almost insulting woman (8) |
| PENCE (change) “round” RUD(e) (“almost” insulting) | ||
| 20 | EVICTOR | Online winner one to get rid of (7) |
| E-VICTOR (winner), withe the E indicated by “online”, (think E-MAIL, for example) | ||
| 21 | LONGER | Extended recliner without the third part (6) |
| LO(u)NGER (recliner “without the third part”) | ||
| 22 | VIRAGO | Fearsome female artist seen in European port (6) |
| R.A. (artist) “seen in” VIGO (port in Spain, so “European port”)
R.A. stands for Royal Academy of Arts, which is an institution set up by King George III in 1768 to promote art. In crosswordland, RA and “artist” are interchangeable terms. |
||
| 24 | IDLED | Chalmie had been first and did nothing (5) |
| I’D (Chalmonie had) + LED (been first) | ||
| 26 | SAGA | Holiday company’s American decline begins (4) |
| SAG (decline) + A(merica) | ||
*anagram
Never heard of Robert Lowell but the answers were fair and straightforward.
Good breakfast fare. Thanks for the blog and thanks Chalmie.
Thanks loonapick.
And well done for using the same resource that I did when compiling the puzzle. I missed his actual birthday, but this is his centenary year.
3a was meant as deaL + AND rather than a DD.
In 21a UNDER = out as in “unconscious”, such as when under general anaesthetic.
Thanks for reading the blog, Chalmie. I have edited the blog accordingly, including amending the typos in your name!
Nice (and not too hard) puzzle for which thanks to Chalmie.
I am not a very poetic person and had therefore never heard of the celebrated man.
I wondered why ‘out’ could be ‘under’ (or the other way round) but I see it now.
Not sure whether I’ve ever seen this in a crossword thus far.
(which is not that far)
I missed out on the party in 14d.
I initially thought of ‘Vienna ball’ – indeed, another kind of party but I couldn’t justify it – at all.
This clue made me somewhat raise my eyebrows.
Not only do we have ‘standing up’ for the second time as the reversal indicator, but what is ‘is’ doing in the clue?
Very enjoyable.
Thanks, Loonapick for the blog.
Sil van den Hoek @ 4
Well spotted – I didn’t notice that “standing up” had been used twice. Had I done so, I would certainly have commented.
And the “is” is indeed surplus to requirements, but in my haste to get the blog done, forgot to comment on it.
Sil/loonapick @4/5
Got me bang to rights on the duplicate indicator. I blame my test-solver ?, though I should have spotted it myself when annotating it for submission. (I dislike using “back” in a down clue, preferring to use something more directionally appropriate, which leaves me prone to repetition. Yes, this is episode 481 of Setters Make Feeble Excuses.)
That ? was meant to be a winking emoji.
I have known Robert Lowell’s name and have read some poems of his. It is a thing of time and age, I think.
For one, my father used to read poems from various books to me and my siblings when we were kids. And in those decades these poets would have found a sure place in the anthologies.
For another, a famous and much-used grammar book by Wren and Martin in India carried in its text and exercises many lines from poems and an interested pupil might have gone to the original and read poems in their entirety.
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
Solved most of this one on Thursday but was held up for a day with the travel company, SAGA, which I did not know and found it pretty hard to track down – eventually by guessing the word play first.
Was another who didn’t know ROBERT LOWELL or his works, so most of the ghost theme was wasted on me unfortunately – it had no impact on solving the clues though. It’s a bit of a pity when you miss a theme like this – having actually spotted one in a recent Gaff puzzle, it does add an extra dimension if seen either whilst solving the puzzle or indeed going back afterwards and unravelling it.
Enjoyable fun … and I didn’t spot the duplication of the ‘standing up’ device either.