18 DECEMBER 1953, Page 17

Rococo Statuesque

Conquistador and consul, and the great Astronomers and humanists are dead ; Their pose persists, and pastries emulate That famous set of thigh and tossing head.

Where Tycho had his hand upon a globe, The calipers and lancet have become First cousins to the pincers and the probe, And bragging gaolers jerk a callous thumb.

The emblems and the attitudes annul In blowsy curves the dignities they claim ; And tritest of the travesties, a skull Says everybody's dying is the same.

But dying turnkeys call the engineer To make contraptions complicate the light ; While for the great it cannot be too clear When architects articulate the night.

DONALD DAVIB