Sir, - I am grateful to Padraig O Snodaigh (June 26th) for suggesting a translation of the "pellmets" (although its meaning still eludes me) and agree entirely that the graceful and precise use of "contrails" in Gerard Fanning's poem may not belong in the discussion I chose to raise of just how aggressively poets can exercise the privilege and responsibility of restoring and expanding the word-hoard (Books, June 19th). Nonetheless, I remain in agreement with an observation of Brendan Kennelly's on poetic diction. He is persuaded, as I am so far, that the most memorable characteristic of Irish verse, and part of its genius, may lie in its "hard, simple, virile, rhetorical clarity". - Yours, etc., Katherine Washburn,
Brooklyn, New York, USA.