BD. Edmund Blunden

155. Written in the Women’s Christian College, Tokyo. In Eleven Poems. Cambridge: Golden Head, 1965.

The speaker sees three ‘Young girls of new Japan’ from his window as they talk, ‘Achieving . . . calm threefold grace together’, and speculates hopefully about the world they will inhabit in the future. A note identifies the place and date of composition as Reischauer House, on the campus of Tokyo Women’s Christian College, 13 August 1963. A version of the poem in 160 is identified in an editorial note there as the first draft.