22 NOVEMBER 1924, Page 15

POETRY

NIGHT-FLOW El ING CAlIPION

Close on the bat-crossed hour

I waited for a flower By light grown visible Burning the vivid hill.

Pimpernel in night-bud Showed like small drops of blood ; It was no common flower I kept late vigil for.

I watched by falling light Till I saw how with white And patient petals shone Night-flowering eampion.

So white those petals showed And such a rich scent flowed, I said, " Are we not one, I and this tampion ? "

Seeing how for us both Sweetness followed on sloth I felt my own song's power In that night-flowering flower.

But when I came that way In the clear light of day I noticed a mean plant Sticky and small and scant.

A. J. YOUNG.