20 OCTOBER 1961, Page 28

Socialist Realism

Barren and burnished The air clangs angry Above the political city; Drums, statues: The organisation of Absence of love.

, Shops, full or empty,

Are owned by the queues.

The police belong To the frogmarched suspect.

The censors serve The poem's love.

Where the social words Are gnawed like carrion In a blank, blinding light, Poetry dies or defies With vision to prove, People to love.

ROBERT CONQUEST