13 DECEMBER 1963, Page 28

THE HILLS

Morning does not altogether surprise the greet/ hills— they are stiff-backed, unbending; do not seal° easily to the shaping dark; shadow is no sleep to then' From its own softness to the hills' uses disciplined, shadow construes for them

an essence, a defence.

At first light, the hills statY3

austere, linear—like walled city or island.

2 seen now as an arm perfunctory or cherishing or as the shoulder or arm on which it rests not in aspiration either by slope or curve to a determined sleep but in perception as rested valley to valley folded love's form out of love's stillness