POEM of the day

ANDREW Young, the Scots-born and educated cleric and naturalist, did not usually let belief intrude overtly in his quirky and closely observed verses about the countryside. Here the man of religion seems smitten by the visionary nature of the scene he describes.

AN EVENING WALK

I never saw a lovelier sky; The faces of the passers-by Shine with gold light as they step west As though by secret joy possessed, Some rapture that is not of earth But in that heavenly climate has its birth.

I know it is the sunlight paints The faces of these travelling saints, But shall I hold in cold misprision The calm and beauty of that vision Upturned a moment from the sorrow That makes today today, tomorrow tomorrow?