24 APRIL 1971, Page 16

Youth of Telemachus

It is a land he knows. White sunlight Specifies each shrub and stone— And as he moves his vacant sight Restores him to the ways he's grown:] He is enclosed in reveries No will can break, and where he goes A child's unfinished fantasies Dictate thepaths that he will choose.

He rises in the dawn: the sun Illuminates where he will pause And where proceed: at his return He sleeps and dreams his father's wars: Until one evening he delays

Past sunset, sunk in memory:,

He sees the moon rise and he stays All night he views the changing sea.

Dick Davies