May’s Genius setter was Pasquale, donnish as ever …
but the crossword was poorly administered: posted in the afternoon of May 1st, with the wrong grid on the PDF page and a submission form which would not take the required name of the poet. These faults were corrected by the following day.
The crossword itself, though, was an excellent literary exercise in which ten clues led to solutions each of which was a word in a famous poem. Each of these contained a letter not to be entered in the grid and these letters, numbered in order, gave the name of the poet. Having established that the words Cromwell and tyrant were theme words, I spent much wasted time researching Horatian Odes by Milton, Marvell and many obscurer poets who celebrated or excoriated the Lord Protector. Finally realised the poem must be Elegy in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray.
All the solutions appear but they are strewn throughout the long poem and, as most editions aren’t lineated I won’t indicate where they can be found; location is possible by using the find button, usually reached through the three dots at the top right of the screen on which you find the poem. Kudos and thanks to the Don for a fun solve.
Definitions are underlined.
Across
1 Diminished ace was at the crease, half-heartedly (6)
ABATED: A (ace) + BATED (BATTED – was at the crease, with only half its heart)
5 Hood and gangster coming into money (6)
CALASH: (another form of caleche, which, as well as being a kind of carriage, is a woman’s hood). AL (gangster Capone) inside CASH (money)
9 Stuffy broadcast? No (7)
UNAIRED: double definition – not aired (so stuffy) and not broadcast
10 Show not a delight (5)
REVEL – REVEAL (show) without (not) A
11 Quiet fashion house included something very small (6)
PHOTON: P (quiet) + TON (fashion) around (included) HO (house). A photon is a minute piece of electro-magnetic radiation
12 Loathe West Country flower box (8)
EXECRATE: EXE (river – flower – in the West Country + CRATE (box)
[3] Name of loch containing rocky isle (8)
NISELESS. (No definition.) NESS (name of loch) around (containing) anagram (rocky) of ISLE. With the O (third letter of Thomas Gray) becomes NOISELESS
15 US city walled by neat stone (4)
ONYX. NY (abbreviation for New York) inside (walled by) OX (neat)
17 Old country lass keeping superior (4)
GAUL. GAL (lass) around (keeping) U (superior – according to Nancy Mitford)
19 Someone who is uncertain is acting so strangely (8)
AGNOSTIC: Anagram (strangely) of ACTING SO
23 Time for an out-of-this-world experience? (5,3)
SPACE AGE: Double definition: first, the period we live in, then a time that is out of this world – in space
24 Prepares grand accommodation (6)
GROOMS: prepares (as in gets ready for. G (grand) + ROOMS accommodation)
26 [2] Meant to reform (5)
ANTEM: Anagram (to reform) of MEANT. With H (second letter of the poet) becomes ANTHEM – no definition
27 [4] Sea monster somersaulting? Fancy that! (7)
CROWELL (no definition). ORC (sea monster) backwards (somersaulting) + WELL (!) – fancy that! With the M (4th letter of poet) becomes CROMWELL
28 Woman’s suffering setback, becoming a different woman (6)
SHARON. NORAH’S (woman’s) backwards (suffering setback)
29 A number in sheltered accommodation who must pay rent? (6)
TENANT: A + N (number) inside TENT (sheltered accommodation)
Down
2 [7] Hurry into wine store (7)
BRUSHIN (No definition). RUSH (hurry) inside BIN (wine store). With the 7th letter (G) of the poet, becomes BRUSHING
3 [10] Managed to keep dry? The opposite (5)
TRANT. (No definition). RAN (managed) inside TT (dry) – the opposite of dry keeping managed. With the 10th letter (Y) of the poet becomes TYRANT
4 Cleaner? Phone for one, taking a risk (8)
DARINGLY. DAILY (cleaner) with RING (phone) replacing (for) I (one)
5 [1] Dog followed by kids, one of them peeling off (6)
CURREN. (No definition). CUR (dog) followed by REN – CHILDREN (kids) – without (peeling off) CHILD (one of them). With the first letter (T) of the poet, becomes CURRENT. I spent ages trying to get CURFEW (the second word of the poem) to parse here …
6 Plant not good growing up, right? Value not entirely apparent (9)
LIVERWORT. EVIL (not good) reversed (growing up) + R (right) + WORTH (value minus the H – not entirely apparent)
7 [5] Attempt to follow instruction for one or more players (7)
SOLITRY. (No definition.) TRY (attempt) following SOLI (a musical instruction for player(s) to play alone). With the 5th letter (A) of the poet, becomes SOLITARY
8 Non-workers relished being awkward but not explosive (6)
IDLERS. Anagram (being awkward) of RELISHED without HE (high explosive)
14 Note old company getting eminence on account of lawyer (9)
SOLICITOR. SOL (note) + ICI (Imperial Chemicals Industries – old company) + TOR (eminence). The on account of seems there for the surface sense …
16 Greatly desire to have lots restored from a bygone era? (4-4)
LONG-LOST. LONG (greatly desire) + anagram (restored) of LOTS
18 [8] Native Americans cut down crossing river (7)
APPOACH. (No definition). APACHE (native Americans) without the E (cut down) around (crossing) PO (river). With the 8th letter (R) of the poet, becomes APPROACH
20 Not entirely eco-friendly church in the country (6)
GREECE. GREEN (eco-friendly) without the last letter (not entirely) + CE (church)
21 [9] Late service (shorter version) (7)
COMPLIN. (No definition). COMPLINE (late service) without the E (shorter version). With the 9th letter (A) of the poet, becomes COMPLAIN
22 Pub employee to prevent member getting access (6)
BARMAN. BAN (to prevent) with ARM (member) inside (getting access)
25 [6] Working round moon buggy (5)
OLEMN. (No definition). ON (working) round LEM (moon buggy). With the 6th letter (S) of the poet, becomes SOLEMN
)
Thanks prospero and Pasquale.
Sorry to say, after #237 by Qaos that was based on a poem (which I completed but could not identify the poem/author), wasn’t thrilled to see another poem based puzzle.
Anyway, ploughed on. That the thematic clues were identified was helpful. Also, it was possible to work the wordplay and identify the missing letters.
Google helped when given a bunch of answers….Cromwell, tyrant, solemn etc. Author’s name ended with Y was useful, too.
So, done. Better than DNF.
Finished by the 7th of May, which is a record for me with a Guardian ‘Genius’. I’m usually a DNF. It helped that I had done battle with #237 without success but took heed of the way the solving blogger explained their solving technique. I got anthem and tyrant from the wordplay (knowing one letter was missing) then put ‘poem containing the words anthem and tyrant’ into google. Having the author’s name helped enormously with the rest.
The only solution I still don’t understand the parsing of is photon. I don’t get how ton is synonymous with fashion.
VfO @2
It’s in Chambers – definition 2:
1. Fashion
2. People of fashion
Originally French, I don’t know how to use it in a sentence though
Thanks for the blog. The combination of setter and than the poetic reference was originally daunting, but as others have found, it turned out to be one of the easiest recent Geniuses.
Initially, thinking of 10-letter poets, we thought of Longfellow and Wordsworth, but having got T(Y)RANT, making the last letter Y, a riffle through Bradford suggested Thomas Gray, in which case it just had to be the Elegy. Although this didn’t help a great deal – I hadn’t realised how long the poem is!
What did help though, was knowing what the missing letter was in the thematic clues. So, good fun, for a change!
The first bit of fun to be had with this puzzle was to discover how badly matched the clue numbers and enumerations were with the published grid. Rather than wait for a correction to be published I made my own grid on a spreadsheet and printed that off.
I found most of the thematic ‘cryptic indications’ tough to solve: TRANT was my first and CROWELL my second. From those letters it was not hard to guess the two corresponding words in the poem, and I got a lucky break on looking up CROMWELL in the ODQ. The poem and poet were thereby identified, the M in CROMWELL being indeed the 4th letter in the name Thomas Gray. The rest of the puzzle was a delight to solve, and as a bonus I got to read Gray’s Elegy in its entirety for the first time.
Thanks to Pasquale and prospero, and congratulations Viv from Oz (@2) on your success.
Poems shmoems. Oh well, at least for this one you had to get and read the poem to solve the puzzle. Also no need to enlist the help of AI as enough of the letters of Thomas Gray were available in time.
A few wasted minutes thinking 5d was curfew and there was some sort of error, but otherwise all clear, not too hard, not too easy.
Thanks to Pasquale and prospero
Loved this! I got the poem very early, but for completely the wrong reason. Like prospero, I was convinced that 4d (almost my first answer) would be CURFEW, and when lots of other things began to fit the Churchyard Elegy, I thought Bingo! But I gradually realized that CURFEW actually didn’t fit, which threw me for quite a while, until I searched the poem to find CURRENT. I wonder if this misdirection was intentional on Pasquale’s part?
Only the second time I have finished the Genius. I confess to resorting to Google to find the poem after getting three of the words the hard way.
I found knowing the missing letter in the remaining themed clues helpful, but not the poem itself due to its length. If I had printed it that might have made a difference.
Viv from Oz @2 I learned “ton” from watching Bridgerton. I would have defined “the ton” as fashionable society rather than fashion.