23 APRIL 1954, Page 19

News of the Other World

It is not merely the stirring of a windless veil, The jumpy table, the keys leaping from their locks, The dragging footstep on the vanished stair ; Nor yet the rain of clothes-pegs, cotton-reels, the pail Kicked round the empty yard, and the domestic shocks Of crockery, stones and fenders flying through the air.

For these are merely the last distracted signals Of one grown desperate with our obtuseness, One who must, to greet us, hit us with a chair Because our fumbling wits are gross denials Of the spirit : and we, who are so subtle, only guess Blankly at the meaning of our lifted hair.

JAMES KIRKUP