26 AUGUST 1949, Page 16

A Straggler

I have been asked for the origin of a quotation and give the passage here for the reason that the author has never, I think, received due acknowledgment for his charm in descriptive verse.

. . . yet more I love Than this the shrinking day that sometimes comes In winter's front, so fair 'mong its dark peers,

It seems a straggler from the files of lune

Which in its wanderings had lost its wits And half its beauty ; and when it returned, Finding its old companions gone away, It joined November's troop, then marching past.

The lines occur in "A Life Drama," by Alexander Smith. How well one knows that straggler!