17 JULY 1947, Page 14

SERBIA

[In memory of Mihailovitch, executed 17th July, 19461

HEARSE, priest, chant ; The slow tramp of armed men, The wind and the rain Shadow a journey ending then.

To the mosque on the hill Up the winding path, to the beat Of a sad strange march And a tramp of feet.

Bared heads round a point-dipped sword, As in vestments green and red A praying priest Passes the resurrection bread.

Symbols of love and hope, Of green shoots from earth again, And the body purified By the last day's rain.

Alive, a manacled man, deserted ; Now buried, now dead.

Never. For over his tomb Read the banner of triumph unfurled- " I and my works were lost in the gale of the world," DAVID HARDMAN.