Are Fire taking us into ‘Shakespearean pun’ territory or the stationery cupboard – that is the question…
(‘Are’, because Fire is a composite of four setters…)
The preamble states that:
“The unclued lights (two of two words) can be arranged to form the first line of a poem and the name of the poet.”
I found this one of the more gentle Spectator puzzles of recent weeks, but no less enjoyable for that. The grid filled up steadily, and the unclued lights had plenty of crossers, with only two of them crossing each other.
The dénouement, however, involved some rather specific Eng. Lit. General Knowledge, which I would hazard a guess was only known to a small proportion of solvers, and certainly not this bear of little literary brain!
Some (educated?) guesswork/pattern scanning had 12A as INEXORABLE, 29D as SADNESS and 11D involving PENCILS, and from there a quick bit of e-research threw up this quirky poem:
‘Dolor‘ by Theodore Roethke
which begins…
‘I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils…’
The poem, according to one reviewer, ‘reflects contemporary (mid 20th Century) anxieties about dehumanization in post-war administrative culture, aligning with works by Babel or Kafka in theme, though with a quieter, more restrained delivery’…
[Roethke died in 1963, so in theory the poem shouldn’t be copyrighted, but I read somewhere that the rights are owned by Faber and Faber, so I haven’t reproduced it in full here.]
As mentioned above, maybe at the gentler end of the Speccy spectrum, with a quirky and educational theme, and overall an enjoyable solve. My four-fold thanks to F-i-r-e, and I trust all is clear below…
[Next time I am in the office, I must remember to pop into the stationery cupboard and check out the mood of the pencils in 2026…and nick a few Post-It notes (;+>)]
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 1 | ISOLATED | One reprimanded over nothing is kept apart (8)
I (one) + S_LATED (reprimanded) around O (zero, nothing) |
||
| 6 | TAOISM | Chinese way of brewing clear tea with miso (6)
anag, i.e. brewing, of T( |
||
| 13 | TIFFS | Rows hard cycling (5)
STIFF (hard) cycling first to last = TIFFS, rows, arguments |
||
| 14 | MILLDAM | Medic’s misfortune in morning – a blockage (7)
M_D (Latin, Medicinae Doctor, Doctor of Medicine) around (owning, possessive ‘s) ILL (misfortune), plus AM (ante meridiem, in morning) |
||
| 15 | BRIDGEABLE | Potentially crossed in game; Jenga club will crumble at last! (10)
BRIDGE (card game) + ABLE (last letters of ‘jengA cluB wilL crumblE’) |
||
| 16 | FIERIER | Extra spicy fajitas for starter? That is right, twice (7)
F (starter of Fajitas) + IE (id est, that is) + R (right) + IER (twice!) |
||
| 20 | NAAN | Occasionally, Enya had no bread (4)
occasional letters of ‘eNyA hAd No’ |
||
| 22 | INHERIT | Take over and ruin her Italian sandwiches (7)
hidden word in, i.e. sandwiched by, ‘ruIN HER ITalian’ |
||
| 23 | EACH | Every home spa ultimately comes with taps (4)
EA (ultimate letters of ‘homE spA’) + CH (Cold and Hot, taps!) |
||
| 24 | DADAIST | A little revolutionary seizes platform as member of protest movement (7)
DA_T (tad, a little, revolving) around (seizing) DAIS (platform) |
||
| 26 | RICOTTA | Bad actor isn’t disheartened in cheesy Italian production (7)
anag, i.e. bad, of ACTOR + IT (isnT, disheartened) |
||
| 30 | BOHR | Great Dane in tub to wash fur at last (4)
last letters of ‘tuB tO wasH fuR’ [Niels Bohr, Danish Nobel Laureate, certainly qualifies as a ‘great Dane’!] |
||
| 31 | SELFISH | Small mischievous fairy, somewhat disregarding others (7)
S (small, clothes sizing) + ELF (mischievous fairy) + ISH (suffix indicating ‘somewhat’) |
||
| 34 | AEON | Element – one for nuclear age (4)
( |
||
| 36 | EDITION | Volume of water rising and falling receded a tiny bit (7)
EDIT (tide, water rising and falling, receded) + ION (a tiny particle) |
||
| 38 | INSOUCIANT | Careless fidgeting in auctions (10)
anag, i.e. fidgeting, of IN AUCTIONS |
||
| 40 | KOTOS | Took unusually small instruments (5)
KOTO (anag, i.e. unusually, of TOOK) + S (small) [koto being a Japanese musical instrument, a long box with thirteen silk strings] |
||
| 41 | WHEELBASES | Weak, nasty person with stands for bus measurements (10)
W (weak, physics) + HEEL (nasty person) + BASES (stands) |
||
| 42 | SNARLY | Aggressive syntax occasionally found on the internet? Really? (6)
SNA (occasional letters of SyNtAx) + RLY (txt spk fr really!) |
||
| 43 | OYSTERED | In unusual story Dee went in search of shellfish (8)
anag, i.e. unusual, of STORY DEE |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 2 | SCIMITAR | Sun covers Conservative writer’s number one weapon (8)
S_TAR (sun) around (covering) IM (the writer’s, contracted is, so I’m, contracted am, from their perspective) + I (number 1) |
||
| 3 | LIFER | Prisoner’s coinage mostly contains iron (5)
LI_R( |
||
| 4 | TERRENE | Worldly renter renovated annexe at last (7)
TERREN (anag, i.e. renovated, of RENTER) + E (last letter of annexE) |
||
| 5 | EXPIRED | Ran out after old flame injured pride (7)
EX (old flame) + PIRED (anag, i.e. injured, of PRIDE) |
||
| 6 | TRIGON | Shape shifting into exhausted grandfather (6)
anag, i.e. shifting, of INTO + GR (GrandfatheR, exhausted of its inner letters) |
||
| 7 | OBLATE | Former pupil, endlessly slated, gets roundly squashed? (6)
OB (old boy, former pupil) + ( |
||
| 8 | SEALS | Closes – horse also inside (5)
hidden word in, i.e. inside, ‘horSE ALSo’ |
||
| 9 | MOMENTARINESS | Near miss met with no changes, being only fleeting (13)
anag, i.e. changes, of NEAR MISS MET + NO |
||
| 10 | STUFFED SHIRTS | Pompous fools, having eaten too much, start to sweat after polo? (7,6)
STUFFED (having eaten too much) + SHIRT (polo, type of shirt) + S (start to Sweat) |
||
| 17 | VIA | A4 retraced road (3)
A + IV (four, Roman numerals), all reversed, or retraced = VIA (Roman road!) |
||
| 19 | ARSONISTS | Boy is captivated by methods of criminals (9)
AR_TS (methods0 around (captivating) SON (boy) + IS |
||
| 21 | AVOID | Steer clear of rejected singer, holding onto love (5)
AV_ID (diva, singer, rejected) around (holding on to) O (zero, love in some sports scoring) |
||
| 28 | ATE AWAY | Wore down jacket for activity after a hot drink on Whernside’s summit (3,4)
A + TE_A (hot drink) + W (summit, or top letter, for a Down clue, of Whernside) + AY (outer letters, or jacket, of ActivitY) |
||
| 32 | FOOTER | Casual reference to soccer in subtext? (6)
double defn. – a FOOTER in a document/article can be subtext; and FOOTER can be casually used to refer to football, although ‘footie’ is probably more prevalent?) |
||
| 33 | SICKLY | So Kelly oddly gets ill (6)
SIC (so, thus) + KLY (odd letters of KeLlY) |
||
| 37 | THOSE | It indicates named folk of strange ethos (5)
anag, i.e. strange, of ETHOS |
||