5 APRIL 1946, Page 12

IF LOVE WERE BURIED IN A GRAVE

If love were buried in a grave Below the level of the heart And nothing took the sunlight save Compassion, love's poor counterpart ; A thought, a breath, still unresigned To death and darkness, flying free, Would take a linnet's form and find The dying man beneath the tree ; Cry sweet foreknowledge, near, ah near!, Fly down in love's last overflow And sing the secret in an ear That knew it once, but long ago. L. A. G. STRONG.