11 MARCH 1949, Page 15

PLANETARY

The pale moon hangs in its appointed place, Stereoscopic, lambent. Set among the stars The other planets dutifully trace Their orbits, Saturn, Venus, Mars.

So coldly gleaming, fall those silver rays

Untarnished, knowing neither death nor birth ?

Or carry they the terror and distress

Of sentient beings, who, one day, may gaze At a great ball of fire, to guess What ails the star called Earth ?

HILDA BODEN.