3 MAY 1963, Page 24

The Half-Full Glass

I told you I was drained of happiness.

The wine was only half-way down our glasses• You said to me, 'Are you not happy now?' Searching my heart, I had to own I. was. How should I not be, drinking wine with `Whatever dies was not mixed equally,' Donne said. If so, love is without death, For half the happiness of meeting you Is pain at knowing we must separate; And therefore love can never be complete. A glass untasted and an empty glass, Are nothing but mere hope and memory. The glass in which I drink your health contains Now and always half wine, half emptiness.

you?

JAMES REEVES