17 DECEMBER 1965, Page 16

On the Border

By the window-drizzling leaves, Underneath the rain's shadow, What is that land, you said, beyond • Where the strong river bends the meadow?

Is it Cornwall? Is it Devon?

Those promised fields, blue as the vine, Wavering under new-grown hills; Are they yours, or mine?

When day, like a crystal, broke We saw what we could see.

No Man's Land was no man's land. It was the sea.

CHARLES CAUSLEY .