21 MAY 1937, Page 13

A PARTING

Comm the loss and gains And the last dead flower removed : In all this wintry room remains Nothing I knew and loved.

Only the tongue lets fall A name I shall not miss, Hands will recall—I never shall— The shape of that or this..

The plant withers for rain And lips sigh for a lover, Eyes seek an absent face in vain— I care not since all's over.

The play is out of fashion Which hands, eyes, lips rehearse : Nothing so cold as a dead passion, Yet as I shape the verse My foot stirs the last ember Deep in the shadows set :— Ah love, if bodies thus remember When shall the soul forget ?

HELEN FOLEY.