6 MARCH 1926, Page 21

POETRY

DEATH'S HERITAGE

ALL men are heirs to riches. They inherit A vast estate the day that they draw breath.

They by the right of Eve, and Adam's merit, Assume the feudal policies of death.

Their actions wear his livery. Their thought Is the tradition of his seigneurie.

Their dreams are heirlooms, and their love is naught But whispers and his fleeting memory.

But some refuse their heritage. These owe Dangerous fealty to life the lord That lights them home by ways death does not know

To Eden by the flashes of his sword—

The poets from the riches of the dead Magnificently disinherited. HUMBERT WOLFE.