29 AUGUST 1931, Page 10

The Swallow

Tim= are three Greeks upon a piece of stone Who turn their heads and stare into the sky While a young lad, with right hand lifted high, Points to a bird which suddenly has flown Above them, and beyond them, and is grown Most small before the arm could range the eye Or the round mouth =shape its quickening cry : 'it is the swallow ; look, ere it be gone.'

Here, though the hands are dust, the sculptor's knife Still wounds the heart to give it utterance Naming a truth that each must make his own.

Ah ! look, it is the swallow ; and is life That ffies for ever from the dark mischance Unto which man must turn naked, alone.

tu SOVTAB.