24 DECEMBER 1921, Page 15

RUSTIC SUNDAY.

BY the roadside

The flowering plum-trees Are like village-girls Going to church on Sunday : And the flowering blackthorn-trees Are like white-headed pensioners, In twos and threes, With old black coats And crooked bodies.

But you, in stiff white muslin,

Are lovelier even Than a flowering apple-tree.

You are the curved New blossom

Of .a dog-rose,

Dewy-sweet,

On a Sunday morning.

CECIL HAN N.