14 AUGUST 1953, Page 26

The Owl Minerva

The art that makes pretensions to discourse, Not sage nor sybil but a piece of both, Astute in form, oracular in force, Can make a proposition sound an oath.

Rapid, abrupt and violent like a' blow, An exclamation or ecstatic howl, Still it asserts, and shows it is not so, Articulates the hooting of an owl.

Can spells or riddles be articulate? We take our stand, to make our music heard, And onlyspeech aspires to music's state ; The OW1 Minerva was no singing bird.

DONALD Dims.