3 JULY 1947, Page 15

SPARROWS ON TELEGRAPH WIRES

SPARROWS alight on these taut wires

Silver in the evening sun, their eager speech A tangle of insignificant desires.

And caught in the long shadow of a tree My thoughts migrate along invisible wires Looped into a rainbow of eternity.

These never hum with the world's fever, Nor glint in sunlight, nor string pearls of rain, Yet they transmit the language of men and of angels.

Perched on a live prayer the sparrows sing, Their bead eyes turned away from the hongry earth: And where one falls my sombre heart takes wing.

WILFRED H. BARTLETL