21 FEBRUARY 1964, Page 26

Diveclimb

Steepling for daylight in a sudden flashpoint: to Burst like a dolphin from the marble water where His cataract of effort knifelines up now through A' black depth-charge. Silvery pearls of air In continual airburst spendthrift above his head: Racing the swimmer's racing to break away From the glum blindfold of the sea bed To the lightfall, racy windsnap, of full day. —All liberations take the self-same shape, But by no means exact one constant fee.

Is a tall story the price of this escape?

Or, in the grasslands of the green mid-sea, Will the still unweathered swimmer, spentwise, bleed His last silver in the ironstalk, the mamba-weed?

JOHN HOLLOWAY