| ASSISTANCE | Sonnet 78: So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse / And found such fair ___ in my verse, / As every alien pen hath got my use / And under thee their poesy disperse. |
| OFT | "So ___ have I invoked thee for my Muse": Shak. |
| ERE | "Oft have I seen, ___ Time had ploughed my cheek" (Wordsworth) |
| LEAPYEAR | Note in novel a player found, such as 1984 |
| YES | My verse regularly lacking, I agree |
| RHYME | Upsetting her, my verse (5) |
| ICTUS | Metrical or rhythmic stress in verse as contrasted with natural speech patterns; from Latin, 'a blow' (5) |
| JANE | Forename of a Pre-Raphaelite muse and Arts and Crafts embroiderer who was the wife of William Morris, immortalised in The Blue Silk Dress, Water Willow and other paintings by her lover, Dante Gabriel |
| DRINK | "No meat, no - will I give thee,/For Jesus Christ his sake" (5) |
| UMA | Actress whom Quentin described as "my muse" |
| SEETH | "Morgoth hath bewitched thee; for he that ___ through Morgoth's eyes..." J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion |
| REVENGE | Ship remembered in verse as example, at no stage given up |
| TERZARIMA | Form of iambic verse, as in Dante's "Divina Commedia" |
| ASSEVERATES | Solemnly declaims a verse as set in a different way (11) |
| RIMED | Clear about Middle English being in verse as formerly used |
| ALACK | "__! what poverty my Muse brings forth": Shak. |
| NERVES | Point to bad verse as indication of strain |
| ASSEVERATION | Change into verse as a solemn declaration (12) |
| POETRY | Verse, as opposed to... (6) |
| SEVERALLY | Verse as composed by a friend may be considered separately (9) |
