24 APRIL 1953, Page 13

Lesbos

(Song from a play)

The Pleiades are sinking calm as paint, And earth's vast camber follows out, Twining in sleep, the oceanic curve, Reflected in the concave of the human eye, , Its check pressed warm upon the dark's cheek, Like dancers to a music they deserve.

This balcony, a moon-anointed shelf. Above a silent garden, holds my bed. I slept. But the dispiriting autumn moon. At her slow expurgation of the sky Needs company : is, brooding on the dead, And so am 1 now, so am I.

LAURENCE DURRELL.