Bright Spark

Sir

To lovers of good English, modern newspapers and magazines provide innumerable toe-curling examples of all that is bad in the usage of our incomparable tongue.

Misquotations by the uncultured are commonplace. How many lilies are gilded and not painted as the Bard wrote. What hordes seek fresh fields and pastures new when they should be visiting fresh woods which Milton had in mind?

The nadir has surely been plumbed by one of your July advertisers who have shot themselves in the foot in attempting to quote the poet, William Blake.

The Tyger (yes) was not shining, it was burning, as any schoolboy knows. Not only was it burning, it was doing so in the forests of the night.

L Wickham

Surrey