Devonshire Street W1

The heavy mahogany door with its wrought-iron screen

  Shuts. And the sound is rich, sympathetic, discreet.

The sun still shines on this eighteenth-century scene

  With Edwardian faience adornment — Devonshire Street.

No hope. And the X-ray photographs under his arm

  Confirm the message. His wife stands timidly by.

The opposite brick-built house looks lofty and calm

  Its chimneys steady against the mackerel sky.

No hope. And the iron knob of this palisade

  So cold to the touch, is luckier now than he

"Oh merciless, hurrying Londoners! Why was I made

  For the long and painful deathbed coming to me?"

She puts her fingers in his, as, loving and silly

  At long-past Kensington dances she used to do

"It's cheaper to take the tube to Piccadilly

  And then we can catch a nineteen or twenty-two".