19 APRIL 1957, Page 19

Request to the Sovereign Muse

Ten bloody years with this quill lying Almost idle on my table, I have sourly watched The narrow summers go, the winters ride over, Awaiting always, seized in a cold silence, The genetic word, the arrogant vaticinal line. And each spring, unmoving by an open window, The room ringing with'emptiness like an unswung . bell, My notebook, open,'filled with abstract questions, The bare trees outside expectant, I saw the crocus tell The indolent fall of the autumn' leaVes, another year's Bitter burning and the ice again forming.

Lie with me how, therefore, these wording days, The ever-questing tragic-gesturing. mind this spring exulting, Lady I have icily waited for, whom I have known By these aboding mountains, this lovely glen.

VALENTIN IREMONGER