26 JANUARY 1951, Page 12

Ex Tenebris Lux

MY fire grows dim and sullen. The hour is late.

Hardly a sign of life in the smouldering grate. But sudden uprises a leaping, dancing dart- " I am here and alive," it says, " Take heart, take heart! For untold years in the hidden coal it has slept, And deep in the earth its glowing secret kept. So from grain deprived of light for a thousand springs The quickening sun a bountiful harvest brings. And in weary hearts the dreams long stifled and stilled May yet by some life-giving touch be at last fidfilled.

ROSE FYL.EMAN.