14 SEPTEMBER 1944, Page 10

SONG

For M.

AT the sea's kerb, at the wide

Turn of the dune The burnet rose Grows in its green Ravel of leaves like seaweed, White as bare flesh When the bright June sun Flows in on the flush of the tide.

There my hopes Bloom like a harebell, Of laughter along the shingle, Bare arms on the sand, A cranesbill in a girl's hair, Of the one kiss found Whorled like a shell In the tangle of the sea's frayed ropes.

And now frost closes On the blown bloom, And the frozen foam Lies like salt on the mosses, And the windy sand Flings its dry rain On the dune where my dream Is rooted deep as the roses.