4 JULY 1952, Page 18

Beyond my rose hedge walks the wild thing, Lithe and

beautiful, fierce and shy.

I long to follow it into the forest, But if I abandon my flowers, they will die.

I chose my garden and planted and carecYfor it.

The wild thing came to me all unbidden. I stand in the midst of ordered beauty, But I know where my beast lies waiting, hidden.

Out in the forest perches the phoenix ; The delicate unicorn clatters by ; Dragons glimmer in shadowed thickets, And the bright water-nymph leaps from on high.

Could I persuade it to live in my garden, To browse where the smooth green grass-walks cross, There it must die, so my way is only, If it elude me, to live with its loss.

MARY L. HACKER.