20 OCTOBER 1944, Page 11

SUMMER, 1944

A erre of rain, in shafts With high and sharp-lined edges, Is ghosting, tower-high, To hide, then show, the hedges That, stubby, knotted, run Above the blackening soil, Scratch-marked for hopeful seed, Manured with drugging toil.

The lurching crab-tree leans Across the growth-green gate : The earth is cracked too deep, The rain has come too late.

JOHN ARLOTT.