24 APRIL 1947, Page 11

SEASCAPE AN old man and his dog half-blind

Watch the sea's ebb. They seem one mind

And bodytin single mood resigned.

So the drained rock accepts the sea As going, and the night to be, Hovering on twilight's vacancy, As phases of unchanging change In what is constant. Strange, more strange The children's cries, the colour-range Deepens and lessens ; while sculptural These deaf-mutes, man and animal, Brood on and on, till eyelids fall And outer dark and inner blend Long-loving master, long-loving friend In one oblivion of their end.

GEOFFREY JOHNSON.