19 JANUARY 1934, Page 14

December Stillness

DECEMBER stillness, teach me through your trees That loom along the west, one with the land, The veiled evangel of your mysteries While nightfall, sad and spacious, on the down Deepens, and dusk imbues me, where I stand, With grave diminishings of green and brown, Speak, roofless Nature, your instinctive words ; And let me learn your secret from the sky Following a flock of steadfast journeying birds In lone remote migration beating by. December stillness, crossed by twilight roads, Teach me to travel far and bear my loads.

SIEGFRIED SASSOON.