20 NOVEMBER 1959, Page 31

By the Road

Sneaked about here The abandoned ghost of an old affair.

'By these trees and this gate,' It remarked, `Much as now you were parked.

She said she never had heard That tub-thumping classical bird.

You said—it was June—

I f we wait, we shall hear her Quite soon,

And hereabouts in the dark

From that most disobliging throat— You remember'?—

There came not a note.

God, in those nights What a state you were in, And it wasn't so long ago.

And you were more thin And there was more brown in your hair, And today—' `Go away,'I said, 'Go away.'

GEOFFREY GRIOSON