30 SEPTEMBER 1966, Page 19

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

Being young and handsome once, we had the run Of Summer's broad estate; and fast and free We spent our time hobnobbing with the sun, And on Love's fashionable gadgetry.

Then Time ran out, quite suddenly, too soon; The sun was led away, remote and mild; Rough winds broke in and tore about at noon; They let the smooth lawn of the sea run wild.

Our home belongs to people who can pay— Time's nouveau riche. Ignore each raucous shout; Cover your flesh, which was as white as day, With evening clothes, and learn to do without. After we're dead, all that we used to be

My poems will tell. What's that to you or me?

JAMES SIMMONS