VERY NEW MOON

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29004, 19 September 1959, Page 12

VERY NEW MOON

I By

WHIM WHAM)

... 1 don't know exactly what the purpose is, but still it shows what can be done. —Mr Nash, on the Russian success in sending a j rocket to the moon. 1 don’t know what the Purpose is— I think I’m not the only One— Or what the Consequence may be. But still, it shows what can be done. And what, precisely. HAS been done? Walter, I know no more than You. They’ve hit the Moon. That’s ALL. And quite Sufficient for the Purpose, too! Queen Moon. Diana, Goddess bright, You’ve suffered a surprising Change. No heavenly Body now—a mere Dead Target for a Rocket Range. No Poet’s Moon, no Harvest Moon, No Moon of Anyone’s Delight. No Myth, no Mystery—all that stuff Has turned plain Moonshine, overnight. Ah, Moon, thou art not What thou wast! Now ancient Worship’s new Research. Ah. Moon, thou wast a Sitting Duck, One Shot has knocked Thee off thy Perch. A Can of Instruments, a Flag, First to the Moon! What next? What then? Dead Dogs? Live Monkeys? And, at last, That lifeless Landscape trod by Men? r.- - ? X ■ We, with our H-Bombs poised above— We, with our Rockets trained on Space— We, with our restless Heads and Hands— We, old Earth’s all-too-human Race— We have our Purpose, which may be ’ 1° Ourselves into the Suh, W' Earth 8t least! And why? Simply to show what can be done.