Concordance

This concordance provides an index to every word in the poems, excluding a list of common "stopwords". It may be useful in finding a half-remembered poem, and perhaps in looking at the usage of words in the poems as a whole. It will be readable only on a large screen.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

A

Betrayals / “From each according to

ability , / / to each according to need.” A noble cry, / / and “What

rm as our love, and perhaps we shall be

[White foam sweeps]

y-seeming thing; / / you know not even

abortive love can be / / called the first cause, however sharp its st

dy in the old good quarter. / / He was

abreast now, nearly, of the cape / / and drew in closer. Huge cliffs

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ve / / but must imply at least / / an

absence of unrest) / / not so much fear… rather distress / / knowing

our sides / / sits the empty place of

absent love. / / And at all our backs / / (our comfortable backs) th

Back Room, 1944

t hour, / / at the still moment of the

absent sun / / cease, be gone. / / And saw begin / / out of the sam

Winter Solstice

how I believe / / without doubt in the

absolute being of / / good, beauty, love, / / and that beyond the ir

and eagerly / / we strive towards that

absolute , beyond / / our reach, Freedom, a star. / / Equality. / /

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

ne, the things we’ve not / / are in an

absolute cold light / / to sink or save us… / / Or / / to be sent b

ll are (should be) born free? / / Give

absolute freedom to a newborn baby, / / it dies. / / And so, mutatis

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

r happens now / / our love is pure, is

absolute , is ours, / / a grace, a blessing we can never lose. / /

[Our lives are in other hands]

turns water into wine. / / Here is the

absolute . / / Neglect the planned return / / from logical pursuit. /

he fear of dying or of being dead / / (

absolute nothingness / / is what we can’t conceive / / but must impl

rue; / / each takes its own home by an

absolute right. / / Here I must leave you. I have given you / / the

ently like a flower / / they touch the

absolute value of each hour / / where lightly, thinly lie / / the ve

The Lilies of the Field

see / / how fighting wind and fire can

absolutely / / destroy themselves and all. / / Sparks? A martyr’s bl

Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville

ly absorbing love, earth. / / Observe,

absorb her faces of night and day / / before the more than sleep. /

[Now of threescore and ten]

eep of the road. / / The exposed trees

absorb the fumes / / which seep into our smoky rooms. / / Yet houses

r heart a wealth of good / / observed,

absorbed , lies ready. Give it power. / / “Consider those whose lives

sill sighs, but the inmate thumbs / /

absorbed the book of his own dreams. / / And, once met, one or both m

haze of pearl. / / A girl’s gaze / /

absorbing life, considering life, behind / / a smooth forehead, clear

t felt whatever way / / this endlessly

absorbing love, earth. / / Observe, absorb her faces of night and day

[Now of threescore and ten]

than is common / / but reared in rigid

abstinence , / / children’s light voices and cool hands / / were all

John Ruskin’s Wedding Night

ostitutes along the pavement stand / /

abstracted , still, like trees. / /

Country and Town

ers Pilate. / / Could anything be more

absurd ? / / And yet, we need a sense of sin / / to put force in our

y / / he took, feeling both wicked and

absurd , / / to stalking gulls slow-pecking on the sand, / / getting

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

amused? / / They hurl at you unmerited

abuse / / because you met his mistresses with strife / / but those w

nd love, / / in ashes of self-pity and

abuse . / / Just now, sunk in the dark, I could not move / / spirit o

te / / most human of the gods and most

abused / / was it not natural that you should hate / / the girls who

Renewal / Racked bones of the

acacia stand / / leafless, lifeless, deep into spring, / / and every

ast Coast college, / / the girls young

academics , / / one as it happens Greek, / / the other one Italian. /

s, his life constrained / / him too to

accept , extend. / / That’s not to remember him by. / / Remember (rem

ut loneliness / / itself’s not hard to

accept . / / I found I could adapt, / / not only practically / / but

[Living alone is lonely]

/ there to Him of the sea. / / He will

accept it, / / forget his anger. / / And much good may it do you. /

eve in / / any afterlife, so must / /

accept that in death / / all failures, like all losses / / are irrec

heron’s wings, lifts it a little. / /

Accept the omen, heart. / / Rejoice in beauty, rejoice in happiness,

/ / And why should we mourn? / / Why

accept the pattern / / for these, question ours? / / It matters and

moment shows as whole and healed. / /

Accept the vision. Let it give / / a form on which to mould and build

e in beauty, rejoice in happiness, / /

accept their transience / / and never mourn their passing until they’

/ lightly sings / / “Beauty is. / /

Accept this. / / God is not / / any other / / —not the Father / /

ear puddles of gold. / / Two truths to

accept / / with a crooked neighbour’s love / / before Struwwelpeter

not / / a guide? At least an omen. ‘I

accept .’ / / A day, a night—two, three days and their nights / / the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Death / Death is

acceptable . I belong to earth / / not any heaven. Do I now sometimes

ut humanness can only be itself / / by

acceptance of a bond. / / Yet, inevitably and eagerly / / we strive

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

hose story? And why, how / / this deep

acceptance of a story’s pain? / / How know the spot’s ahead there, wa

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ious earth. / / Accepting life entails

acceptance / / of death to balance birth, / / of depressing age as w

Climacteric by the Sea

ring of his life / / had been made and

accepted long ago. / / A better might dare now go free, rejoice / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

guilts, the resentments, / / is easier

accepted than a living trouble. / / I don’t know how to help you, but

[White foam sweeps]

e / / on this multifarious earth. / /

Accepting life entails acceptance / / of death to balance birth, / /

Climacteric by the Sea

sea-shells, the beach, that empty / /

accepts their cries into its crystal silence. / / You, though, reader

Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell /

Accidie / Brunetto Latini under the Fire-Rain / “Joy we denied,” / /

Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell

Betrayals / “From each

according to ability, / / to each according to need.” A noble cry, /

each according to ability, / / to each

according to need.” A noble cry, / / and “What have you got to lose b

sh was beautiful / / but we read omens

according to our mood / / and mine was sad today. / / I turned away

by year. Love / / lies in the current

account . We spend it piecemeal. / / We love more easily (mostly) than

/ and soon our feet are travelling / /

accustomed streets. / / But at the second and the third return / / o

That Way Madness Lies

ulf-water to the blue / / mountains of

Achaea , and through / / the eye of the Corinth canal. Another grows /

ils too much / / —twist induced by the

ache / / attendant on the lack / / of loving, mutual touch. / /

edge grows black, / / an unbalance, an

ache , / / breeds nightmares and throws dark veils on the day. / /

s sang? / / “Once the delicious sexual

ache / / bursts in its paradisal pang / / you cannot have your eaten

/ a resharpening, reshining / / of an

ache into the pang / / which is so much more than pain. / / Sea, sto

Five Poems for Roni

/ / work I owe to love / / and might

achieve . / / Not much, not enough, / / but make a start with these /

long a story of it, dear Moon, / / we

achieved it all, came both to our desire. / / Till the other day he’d

Spells and Love

tongue, / / all craft or thought / /

achieves with heart; / / a little known, / / world on world gone. /

ntry, Croesus count out his money, / /

Achilles outrace the winds, since those are their fancies. Me, / / I’

Shepherd’s Song

/ sluiced her own dried blood from the

aching place, / / put the wet dress back on. She hid the sword, / /

Pelopia and Thyestes

/ darkness mastered him, every muscle

aching , / / where the cleeve widened to the junction of / / two larg

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ected or even made less perfect by / /

acknowledgement of our guilt, / / apprehension of grief. / / Our gra

own) forsake. / / Does it matter? / /

Aconite , snowdrop, give place to primrose, / / bluebell to buttercup,

were given to thought), but his thought

acquiesced / / too easily in Fate for her to take. / / Her higher sp

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ in distant corners of the wide / /

acreage that is ours. Surely we / / in the end / / shall find oursel

[The grass in the next field]

to do waits to begin; / / or lost, an

acreage to our hands is laid / / heavier if not so wide. / / Those w

Prayer to Truth

[Fall rainbows the forest-

acred mountains] / Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains, / / unbe

[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]

d mountains] / Fall rainbows the forest-

acred mountains, / / unbelievable ranges / / of daily changing colou

[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]

e’d start a family”. / / After grassed

acres , / / here you chose stone to raise / / your lovely garden roun

himself to possess / / of his cramped

acres more than a squatter’s tenure? / / where the harsh landlord may

The West of Ireland

(only with the mind’s eyes) / / those

acres of heath and wook, free and wild, / / under a bright, a grey, a

Two Poems for G

re below him lay the great forest. / /

Acres of leafage unbelievably stretched / / almost past sight—only a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

brilliant dragon-flies, / / swallows’

acrobatic flawless flight. / / A fish jumps at the corner of my eye,

Water in a Wood

Acropolis / Gone are the ivory and gold, / / the colours and the sing

tented at his feet / / on the midnight

Acropolis / / listening / / among marble and moonlight. / /

ll and a pine-green hill, / / from the

Acropolis , the Parthenon / / burns back stilly at the setting sun. /

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

sun’s light / / until kindled / / by

act of sight. / / Sight is silence / / without feeling mind. / / We

Music is Landscape

/ / the seedy role, laudator temporis

acti ? / / No. Bad trouble, but even our sick polutions / / of earth

shore, the wide horizon round it: / /

action and dream were centred on the sea. / / His nurse would carry h

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ife, that should fill / / my days with

action , chokes them with excuse. / / Find me the path missed on the c

ralysed yearning. All fell / / away in

action , hopes, fears / / for you. Eternal bliss nears / / for you, f

Virgil’s Farewell to Dante

A Window / Shown through the shadow of

action , word and look, / / seen through our shifting mood, / / a dou

s question / / “Should not my life, my

actions , all be God’s?” / / by this gets answered “No. Not wholly God

remembered, warms and sings. / / Man’s

acts and sufferings seem / / equally dreadful, yet / / I love man an

n force: / / chastity and desire, / /

acts of childhood, parents, affection, age; / / necessary and unneces

I can’t envisage death / / or life as

acts of god. / / And yet I can’t envisage life either / / (or death)

friendship and love, / / but when some

actual company’s offered, move / / heaven and earth to keep out of it

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

And for a moment I’m / / sure of your

actual presence, and the peace / / floods me that’s always in that ha

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

ain / / that transposed vision / / of

actuality . / / What is real? / / Nature is blind / / —blank blackne

Music is Landscape

/ in chalk R.H. On the Roman vault / /

Adam is made man in one image, Eve / / in another woman, for love. /

rtemis, Moon, you can move / / Death’s

adamant door, and anything else as stubborn… / / —Thestylis, listen!

Spells and Love

ess or grasp, / / unravel muddle, / /

adapt chance, / / determine beauty, / / explore truth… / / Sheared

ot hard to accept. / / I found I could

adapt , / / not only practically / / but in myself, more easily / /

[Living alone is lonely]

the still driven poor, / / who yearly

add to what they would forget, / / feel in stale blood renewed a pric

sily out of your natural load” / / and

added gentler: “Come.” We passed across / / under Queen Anne, and Nor

long days / / walking, scrambling, he

added mountain-ways / / to his wood-knowledge. The forest-plain below

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

some longings in a form of prayer / /

addressed to something which may not be there / / and surely cannot h

or twelve / / I fell in love—the only

adequate phrase: / / Love in the Valley, Phoebus with Admetus, / / c

ess, unrecognition, / / I feel my eyes

adjusting , / / frozen memory / / melting back to the beauty / / I n

: / / Love in the Valley, Phoebus with

Admetus , / / colour luminous through sun-drenched days, / / cold dew

endióu / / —here, where now welcomed I

admire / / the lovely Cyprus hills, raised that sacrificial fire. /

erfection / / grates. I move away / /

admiring perhaps, certainly disliking. / / But today / / meeting you

Hermes of Olympia

ins. God’s / / terms, His best friends

admit , are long-term—Plato / / no less than Paul, Buddha no less than

rong. / / Then, all the dirt out, / /

admit me to the furnace. / / After that, nothing. / /

A Hot Bath at Bedtime

ing Byron’s journal—yet in the end / /

admit that he destroyed it as Byron’s friend: / / my loss, not Byron’

[I find it difficult to forgive Tom Moore]

recording, all you know, / / and then

admit that to an honest view / / it seems (as surely it must seem to

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

w wood, / / the one communication they

admit , / / to time their exit and their entrance so / / they may not

t to bed. What is it / / that makes an

adolescent dream all day / / of warm companionship, friendship and lo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ save me”. / / Twelve-year-old Louise

adored / / wicked little Carly Gancher, / / and did just that. / /

/ / each on his silent thoughts alone,

adrift . / / Told and retold the story, botched, refined, / / was wit

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the quarry. God hardly half freed, / /

adumbrated in the block. He does not heed / / precise feature, uprigh

September Cruise

s / Röslein auf der Heiden / “Soldiers,

advance against the enemy. / / Shoot when you see the white of a man’

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

t even chance / / left unspoiled. / /

Advance / / is good, surely (as well / / as being inevitable). / /

hat all smooth ways are ways for hate’s

advance . / / The road’s gone now. Rejoice with us then, who / / but

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

ce. The beach is empty, / / and water,

advancing , renews it for tomorrow. / /

Advent / Up through the opaque water another year / / is nosing its w

with a task to do, / / a stake in the

adventure as it were). / / Dark through the woods, he reached the for

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Holes in Space / Galaxies, galleon-bold

adventurers , pass / / out through uncharted night, / / extending bei

‘he’. / / I use them in this instance

advisedly , / / hoping faintly that mankind’s temperament / / might n

Greenham Common

Problem / “Dear

Adviser , can you help me to cope / / with an intransigeant heart? /

de it out. / / Six months ago above an

Aegean harbour / / Jupiter occulted. And above the huge Pacific / /

tember Cruise / (for Tom, Les, Cecil) /

Aegean / Kea Lion / Leaving Kea / Syros to Naxos / Occultation of Jupi

September Cruise

Aeschylus’ Epitaph /

Aeschylus , Euphorion’s son / / of Athens, lies under this stone / /

Aeschylus’ Epitaph

p from the mass: / / Catullus, Villon,

Aeschylus , The Song of Roland, / / Leopardi, Theocritus, Palamas, /

Aeschylus ’ Epitaph / Aeschylus, Euphorion’s son / / of Athens, lies u

Aeschylus’ Epitaph

ed, / / but got no extra kick from the

affair / / having no notion who these people were. / /

rom them a view of history: / / public

affairs drift by with public men, / / self-seeking or at sea, one-tra

the worldly-wise can manage God’s / /

affairs . Go down into the cave with Plato. / / Make friends with Mamm

esire, / / acts of childhood, parents,

affection , age; / / necessary and unnecessary death; / / recurring t

but grateful I feel, / / not only for

affection —for natural beauty. / / Here it’s light colours on fields /

love of Zeus / / should scarce expect

affection from his wife. / /

ys, / / two nights, when our / / long

affection opened its cactus-flower, / / we noticed Time / / choosing

Two Poems from a New Life

/ the word I want, the feeling is / /

affection , which need not arise / / from beauty, charm or cleverness,

rty old brutal bear, / / decencies and

affections hanging / / rags on his rotting age, / / yet he could sti

ning her dead son. / / And found in an

affirmative answer / / her grief not lessened / / but pride to help

edge, / / meaningless life; and love’s

affirming faith. / /

. Spiritual blindness / / is fault not

affliction . What have I laid up? Where? / /

from / / effort. This still / / place

affords me room / / to think as well as feel, / / to study what I ow

e / / of deeper skill. He almost lived

afloat . / / Gurgle and clop and slap and hiss, water / / moving alon

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the next worst / / thing in his life.

Afraid , afraid went back, / / a dreadful journey, sick and almost mad

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

nly felt alone and lost, / / homesick,

afraid ; but turned back, pressed on up. / / And there below him lay t

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

er meat off anyone’s plate. / / I’d be

afraid if I married her / / my children would be like the bitch’s lit

on the same track, / / not hopeful or

afraid or sick, but sad. / / “ ‘But one day’ and he smiled ‘the princ

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ering it in part / / moved, hesitated,

afraid to break the charm. / / Pausing to quell his heart again, to b

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

t worst / / thing in his life. Afraid,

afraid went back, / / a dreadful journey, sick and almost mad, / / a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

water are splashing. Their mother, I’m

afraid / / won’t be amused. But a good time’s being had. / / I walk

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

flowers in the garden, / / draw green

afresh out of the creaking wood. / / Yet not, deaf Time, before your

ctive. / / I don’t believe in / / any

afterlife , so must / / accept that in death / / all failures, like a

hot sun. / / Open my eyes now on what

afternoon ? / /

/ / Next day she slept late, but late

afternoon / / dry and still drew her down a forest-track. / / The tr

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

afternoon lying in the long grass / / sun on my face, eyes shut, reme

Two Summer Songs /

Afternoon / Morning / Summer recurs. / / Green fields of childhood gr

Two Summer Songs

bent truly to his goal, / / and on the

afternoon of the fifth day / / he looked down a broad valley from a c

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

this flawless morning / / for noon or

afternoon . Take what may / / come—bright or broken day / / or dull.

d on. / / High on the col, late in the

afternoon , / / the rocks to left and right climbed steep and bare /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

one / / in the long siesta of summer’s

afternoon . / / With that ahead, might I be content to sink, / / lett

Sixtieth Summer

off simply to stir some heat. / / Some

afternoons he slept, utterly done, / / but grudged all such delays, t

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d the mountain hide-out / / of Gregory

Afxendióu / / —here, where now welcomed I admire / / the lovely Cypr

. / / Also inevitable? / / Well, that

again’s a thing we can hardly tell. / / But now that we watch ourselv

What goes up must come down

be my ivory tower. / / I enter middle

/ / so gather the roses of ripe middle

age .” / /

[The municipal building stood square in my dream]

Age / Age takes everything we hate to give / / not everything we have

Other World / A golden

age , an Eden / / before the growth of wrong / / has haunted human fa

vast and from a vast / / difference of

age and distance spun / / out of the chasm of depth and past— / / bu

woman sitting on it, elderly, / / (my

age ) and the man again “Would you like to see / / the planet Mercury

th to balance birth, / / of depressing

age as well as youth’s depressions. / / Sorrow I have known, / / unh

Climacteric by the Sea

ly ivory tower / / to build for middle

age . / / Being no fortress, neither is it a prison. / / Patience is

/ from one who knew him in his exiled

age , / / but now we take a new hero—or say / / him rebegotten by the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

in Middle Age.” / / Troubled in Middle

Age —Did you really hope / / to find an answer to that one on this pag

Age / Frontiers break to barbary. / / Hunger burns the palace-wall, /

not sense the boundaries / / of sex or

age -group, class or race— / / the single greatest human good, / / si

/ / (a Syrian princeling of the Roman

age / / honoured by rich Athenians of that age / / with this rather

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

fe, / / for worse, for better, to this

age , / / how do I deserve / / this total, this untroubled love? / /

[I have you always in my mind]

/ of childhood, but herself set out of

age ; / / “in my heart and in yours slumbered a seed / / of great and

ing to bed. / / My mother—she was your

age , just about—” / / (he must, he thought, then have been eight or n

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

acts of childhood, parents, affection,

age ; / / necessary and unnecessary death; / / recurring terror of th

flooded with unreasoning joy. / / The

age of time between, life and death, died / / into a handsgrasp for t

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Chrysalis / The chrysalis

age of waiting is not wasted. / / The prisoner has time to think, and

a steady balance; some / / smoulder an

age ; some flare smokily up; / / some by a chance blow are untimely ov

be coming on / / her ripe, her bearing

age . / / Still in his cloud of rage / / he came to Sicyon. / / He h

Pelopia and Thyestes

sing from ourselves how ruthlessly / /

Age takes everything we hate to give. / / Huddled in his barbed camp

traps us in self-despising misery, / /

Age takes everything we hate to give: / / knowledge and strength, to

/ once the golden bowl of memory. / /

Age takes everything we hate to give, / / leaves us our fee to Death,

Age takes everything we hate to give / / not everything we have—in mo

year. He could recall / / all his long

age the scene—clear as a dream / / and, like a dream, framed in obscu

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / but surely no less truthfully / /

age -traced patterns on a domed sky? / / A heavier darkness, dull as f

t heart? / / Yours, Troubled in Middle

Age .” / / Troubled in Middle Age—Did you really hope / / to find an

nd—the sense grew strong— / / empty an

age —‘When that old forester, / / who died before my birth, was weepin

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

of humanity. / / From the astonishing

age when we / / (in Nature’s cyclic sleep long curled) / / woke to o

/ / honoured by rich Athenians of that

age / / with this rather pretentious monument / / which time has tan

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

y / / by all ages of man / / in every

age works on. / / Vision and thought, seduced / / to serve that viol

ctions hanging / / rags on his rotting

age , / / yet he could still coax from the air, / / note painfully on

he beach or walk, / / young and middle-

aged / / and, a class of their own, in pairs / / or singly, greeting

Climacteric by the Sea

ick gauntlets on her hands. Most deeply

aged / / he could not doubt her, though he could not see / / anythin

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / in timeless youth, love on through

ageing time / / till with your hundredth year your life is done, / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

fawn, / / Wanton brutality / / by all

ages of man / / in every age works on. / / Vision and thought, seduc

Age’s bony knuckle] / Age’s bony knuckle / / (mean fighter) takes me

[Age’s bony knuckle]

[Age’s bony knuckle] /

Age’s bony knuckle / / (mean fighter) takes me in the mouth, / / and

[Age’s bony knuckle]

sehoods and fears. / / And though with

age’s oncoming you harden / / the channels of our thought as of our b

pact with the devil. / / Let us detest

aggression , pity pain, / / but recognise vengeance for a cardinal sin

Prayer to Truth

exchanged letters, friendship, with the

aging author / / of Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme. /

fe / / had been made and accepted long

ago . / / A better might dare now go free, rejoice / / in a new land

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

or: / / a face I was in love with long

ago , / / a dancer’s face. / / Why do you eye me so? / / All loves i

Vision Between Waking and Sleep

hreescore and ten. / / Half a lifetime

ago / / a thunder-flash put out a glow / / and then / / another lig

d him, and made it out. / / Six months

ago above an Aegean harbour / / Jupiter occulted. And above the huge

ed / / the nurse’s story told him long

ago . / / But sharper than the image of her old / / face as she drew

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

sors left a little gap / / filled long

ago by growth, and now / / the threads she wove in love and hope / /

/ / Where? When? Oh, far away and long

ago — / / farther than swallows in the autumn fly, / / I cannot count

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

nglish (not, heaven help us, many years

ago / / —five hundred years and more gone / / since we burned the ma

/ / such frozen gaze frighted him long

ago ? / / He dropped his eyes from hers to the gloved hands / / which

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

kept the flock sometimes a year or two

ago — / / how’s she?” “Just had a boy.” “Long life to him.” / / Thank

eyes shut, remembering / / sixty years

ago I suppose it was / / lying in long grass, eyes shut, sun on face,

rer, truer, / / when he knew / / long

ago / / in sun’s light, / / behind the night’s / / spangled tent, /

e, / / a dancer and a child, / / long

ago , long apart, / / each out of time and space / / ambered in my he

ing naked loins. / / But that was long

ago , / / long before naked Jews / / were herded into gas. / / And t

/ / there where they were buried long

ago : / / one from the garden at Jesmond Hill / / (not, as it sounds,

/ / Mercury last night. / / One long

ago summer midnight in the Thames valley / / I came on glow-worms. Ye

or any of ours I’d say.” / / “A month

ago … That’s what became of her. / / How’s your father?” “Old now. You

/ / old, old, infinitely old and long

ago . / / The wind blows in my face and shouts “Love”, / / the wild f

/ / Later again, but still a long time

ago , / / walking home, a long cold walk, past midnight, / / I found

id the flame force from the flesh? / /

Agony and greasy ash. / / What did the soul steal from the flame? /

pe. The exile’s scar / / now throbs to

agony . Now kiss and play / / couched where they can the lovers. This

t to be born is best’. / / No, I can’t

agree . / / In spite of the misery / / even the happiest / / life mu

ork (we are all human) / / but easy to

agree necessity of. / / All are born sib. / / Brothers and sisters q

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

/ would fail him—but the fairy’s curse?—

Ah , that. / / Off to his right the bank was flattened back, / / and

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

smile as warm as sunlight—“You.” / / “

Ah , you” his heart in answer glowed upon / / her glowing heart, his s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ts mirror-image / / against the clouds

ahead : / / a heaven to be happy / / again when wrong is dead. / / T

’t / / soon to go back, I saw a little

ahead / / a single dogrose bush by the river’s edge / / pushing its

lights / / fanning out, wheeling west,

ahead , as if / / meant for him, sent for him—omen, yes, and guide. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s, wheeled over the boat / / westward,

ahead , bright, dwindling. Were they not / / a guide? At least an omen

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

aid. / / (The seaman casts his thought

ahead , / / but sandbanks shift under the fog / / giving the lie to c

edient Alice. / / The goal still flies

ahead . / / Faster, faster, to keep up with the Joneses, / / with our

Curvature of Space

/ / Staring from it, not back but far

ahead , / / he glimpsed remote between blue-distanced downs / / a fai

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

a of summer’s afternoon. / / With that

ahead , might I be content to sink, / / letting it dull my ears agains

Sixtieth Summer

t. A little later on / / Lycidas draws

ahead of L’Allegro / / as The Ancient Mariner of Kubla Khan. / / Soo

usins were already travelling. / / Far

ahead still the south cape’s silhouette, / / darker and hard on the b

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ghten through / / your dark sea. Waits

ahead the help you need.” / / “Anabel,” I thought, and pressing forwa

story’s pain? / / How know the spot’s

ahead there, waiting now, / / where these cliffs, those cliffs, curb

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ss / / a scourge, to injured innocence

aid . And yet / / those kindly features now in her bad dreams / / mer

Change Places…

Here a pittance- / / pension gives the

ailing old / / a choice between hunger and cold. / / There a child /

w. A gull perched on the cliff. / / He

aimed and loosed, but the shaft passed above / / and shattered on the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ane / / classical stillness calmed the

aimless flow / / of gall. From such a still height I looked down / /

Voyage / We’ve fared so long on the

aimless ordered way, / / our planks are rotten, our sails are gossame

ng about a spark / / that dying traces

aimlessly an arc / / across the curving but uncentred dark. / / Beyo

me sad,” she said, “with flapping / /

aimlessly certain feet, as you have done / / always from that first p

olding dissipate like sea-spray to thin

The West of Ireland

d / / our eyes perception of a clearer

air / / a brighter day. / /

The Lilies of the Field

d / / with muted lights but a familiar

air / / a car. “Hullo; get in.” Familiar too / / the friendly voice,

ich suddenly moved, / / wheeled in the

air , a sun-caught cloud, and flew / / together up the westering fork.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

body dies. / / Then / / hangs in the

air , an interrupted song. / / There is no last rose. / / This year t

Five Poems for Roni

, she raised her face / / to the sweet

air / / and a voice came out of the wind / / for all to hear / / “T

The Shepherdess of Cahuzac

they said, to rest in woods and upland

air , / / and so… He went to bed under a spell / / and lay awake long

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

man, / / happily have remained / / an

air -and-water-wandering swan? / / Or did he gratefully recover / / m

/ And yet those silent weavings in the

air / / are beautiful— / / sad, an old tale, / / fable, romance… /

Heron and Gulls

home. I lived and died / / in the wide

air , behind a bolted door. / / From my lone way I could not turn asid

arp / / dorsal fin already cutting the

air , / / betraying a shark / / (yet dream still of a shapely / / in

one / / yields, is gone / / down into

air / / But foot is home / / and hand, firm / / on notched rock. /

he didn’t know how long. He sensed the

air , / / came to himself, and pulled himself together, / / saw with

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Glimpse / Beauty sleeps in the

air , / / colour and music. Shine / / of sun in a child’s hair / / t

send to you / / they dry in the papery

air / / colourless dull words again. / / But drop them in your heart

/ to the blinding blue of sky; diamond

air / / edge to knife-edge with the naked rock / / breaking down in

Air / Flying high / Flying low / (for L) / Far down past melting drift

, / / and through this warm / / clear

air / / gooseflesh me with fear. / /

/ / He shuffled on under the darkening

air / / hardly aware that he dared not lie down, / / stumbled, tumbl

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the air] / The clouds that pressed the

air / / heavily on my heart / / are quite away. / / I drink the bri

[The clouds that pressed the air]

k: “uncorrupted lover / / of earth and

air ,” I said, “the grime that palls / / this town must choke you more

/ Into thin air—into thinner far than

air , / / into a world where all the winds are fallen / / for want of

re are they gone, where? / / Into thin

air —into thinner far than air, / / into a world where all the winds a

Turn. TherE / / Now, look, under clear

aiR / / Is the wide world, waitinG / / Everything comes with timE /

[A long steep road to climb]

ars are veiled / / in black. The clean

air is thick / / suddenly with snow, / / blind in a whirl of shadow

d of church-bells / / was often in the

air . / / It was a Christian country, / / of that they were sure. /

The Green Children of Woolpit

/ Anne Frank lost her breath into that

air / / just when your innocent steps were starting there. / /

Two Poems for G

ith dandelion and buttercup. / / Light

air lifts the silted vapours away / / to deep heaven, which like the

ecil was still here, / / breathing the

air , / / looking across the light, / / planning, doing, aware. / /

k polutions / / of earth and water and

air may be contained, / / may yield a possible future. / / Open-ende

nd if the sea has oil-slicks, the upper

air / / mortal contaminations, today is lovely. / / Enjoy today’s be

, / / yet he could still coax from the

air , / / note painfully on the waiting page / / for the deaf world t

/ Sigh or high song of wind in rigging,

air / / on rope and wood, in canvas, clap, rattle. / / His arm along

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hard on the tether, / / the thaw—soft

air one night, and sound on waking / / of water dribbling, drifting m

and a sparkle of dew. / / Light as the

air our hair our feed. / / Love will be there and not need making, /

what some have gained / / informs this

air / / Peace is won, though, from / / effort. This still / / place

uge sound trembling / / through remote

air / / —pile the brooks with muck / / lest he find them clear. / /

, poet, any artist / / wrests from the

air , relays / / for those who will tune in / / a pattern partially a

/ and this first day of June / / warm

air , / / soft sun / / take over. And I come / / suddenly on a briar

us back to the precipice / / and empty

air sucks suddenly / / under our heels, / / the sharp shock is its o

That Way Madness Lies

ends his firman further: / / water and

air / / suffer his mandate too. / / He’ll find it doesn’t do. / / L

one mammal that / / took off into the

air , / / taught itself to fly, / / fly properly like a bird. / / Tw

[The clouds that pressed the

air ] / The clouds that pressed the air / / heavily on my heart / / a

[The clouds that pressed the air]

ng / / in the new sun / / in the soft

air . / / The delayed year / / is moving into spring / / with leaf-b

thins into smoke, thence into lightless

air ; / / the soul in the blackness of uncentred space, / / knowing n

That Way Madness Lies

Spring Morning / Across a cold bright

air the sun / / slants. The day and the year are young, / / and it d

nce upon / / the secret motions of the

air , / / there and here, up, down, / / settle at last back on the st

How not to listen to music

espair can blast / / and beauty in the

air till we are dead. / / The convent and the court have their own go

member / / beauty just so shining from

air to eye / / across brimming waters of misery, / / no less beautif

“Life is sweet, brother”

, / / the beam comes level through the

air . / / What summer noon struck blankly on, / / obliterated and dis

meaningless pebbles / / (which are not

air , which are not sea) / / a gull jerks its oil-bound strength about

n the mud, “out there / / in the sweet

air which takes delight in the sun, / / secreted smog within. / / No

Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell

Epitaph / Brothers, men who breathe the

air , / / who pass counting us where we swing, / / do not hate us for

Villon’s Epitaph

the vaulted dark, / / the still, stale

air . / / Would not God be in His world / / of living day? / / She l

The Shepherdess of Cahuzac

/ / with new delights. He breathed the

air’s brightness, / / watched light changing on broken rock, as day /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s run. / / A little shift in earth and

air’s / / metabolism. Bareness, / / water runs thin / / thin as gra

that all she had and was she gave. / /

Alas , honest and warm and brave / / she lost them both by one mistake

ther way’s a freedom fighter. / / And,

alas , / / once a freedom fighter always a terrorist. / / Not so diff

Albatross / Happy those who filled / / that ever-hungry beak. / / Ha

amount / / this course, next meal… The

alcohol / / I wash it down with warms the soul… / / Sugar and spice…

For Cecil / Tankas and haikus /

Aldeburgh / Cambridge / The North / They burned drowned Shelley / / o

of art or dream / / (the spirit’s two

alembics ) lies / / built out of frost and mist and level light / / b

/ / but the child’s straying fancy was

alerted / / suddenly by “a knocking at the door / / one dark night l

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

42–3 / Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, / /

Alex Morell, / / Christl Probst, Willi Graf / / —so many years lost

Die Weisse Rose

: / / Willi Graf, Christl Probst, / /

Alex Morell, Hans Scholl, / / Sophie Scholl. / /

Die Weisse Rose

Looking-Glass / Towards the hill would

Alice go / / it slipped away from her. / / At last she turned her ba

Through the Looking-Glass

e manic queen “faster” / / to obedient

Alice . / / The goal still flies ahead. / / Faster, faster, to keep u

Curvature of Space

unfamiliar / / configurations, star by

alien star. / / Meanwhile my body, through my feet / / while I look

of a winged power / / out of the wind

alighting — / / your smooth-polished lackadaisical perfection / / gra

Hermes of Olympia

borders / / where thieving and loving

alike are things of passion / / and every passion, or nearly, ends in

[The bare, beautiful borders]

e sweet princess. / / The old stories,

alike but different, / / told yet again and asked for yet again, / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ock-piled and the sandy promontory / /

alike in his foreshortened vision lost. / / Their sweep enclosed the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

he greeks gave temples fronts and backs

alike , / / just as to statues generally gave faces / / no more expre

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

ne from all, / / whose skin and breath

alike sing of the rose. / / Petals we know must fall, / / and not al

… no, for this that word won’t do, / /

alike too wide and too confined— / / the incandescent one in two, /

/ for some firm rock, rose circling and

alit / / on love—not the half-child’s romantic dream: / / some deep

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

nd vomited again, / / and knew himself

alive and safely beached / / out of the sea. He heaved up on his hand

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

me to me, / / doesn’t know even if I’m

alive or dead, / / no knock at my door… There’s someone else. Love’s

Spells and Love

this Martin Luther, dead and gone, / /

alive saw something he must do / / and left it very thoroughly done.

Thoughts on the Lavatory

/ loves the whole lot. So long as he’s

alive / / this vision is the image of his good. / / Cold, and a kind

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

a Convent / Here must the longing blood

allay its heat, / / flesh cast its bloom and shapely hands grow sharp

Inscription for a Convent

m in the little shop / / in the narrow

alley . / / But he escaped from the alley, / / pursued by police and

row alley. / / But he escaped from the

alley , / / pursued by police and by the shopkeeper shouting / / a li

were mine, / / as hand on spade in the

alley -shop was mine, / / my feet struggling from my own pursuing voic

faded from you in / / a narrow walled

alley with no escape. / / Now, outside hope, / / the late sun breaks

[Most of us, somewhere along the road]

re. / / Under that free sky stand / /

alleys of huts. Crowded miseries / / fenced with high barbs, eyed fro

Two Poems for G

reary circus, / / pit where the sordid

alleys of the poor / / march with the sordid, ill-rich city, on / /

guide turned up the hill / / by narrow

alleys where the houses pile, / / and half my mind in Greece, among r

der the wrecked keep. / / At the white

alley’s end you look / / straight on sea. / / Stepping further on, l

September Cruise

send dearth and rain / / and playfully

allot our joy and pain. / / Life between earth below and sky above /

spells; / / Sickert we may in honesty

allow / / a measure; Stanley Spencer’s vision tells / / one need not

a hollow field? / / Dream-words do not

allow / / analysis, or yield / / meaning to the clever, / / but eve

Words from a Dream

/ “countless the hours trouble and loss

allow , / / harsh in its lasting though their pain must be, / / and w

/ of lengthening days. Be patient and

allow / / winter its weakening onsets in retreat; / / spring warmth

ays there’s another one / / —that plea

allowed could never fail / / to carry a built-in reprieve, / / a pas

setting Caesar / / over against God He

allowed the question / / to be reframed in terms of God and Caesar /

/ / taking them seriously / / but not

allowing them to be a bore. / / These make for me / / your special p

Two Poems for G

May you live free / / (as far as love

allows ) from jealousy, / / his meanest avatar. / / Love keep you kin

s now / / West and South and East / /

all’s not for the best. / / But that is far away. / / On our own doo

world, but sleep so long, so deep, / /

almost a kind of death. About the house / / shall spread and sprawl a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

atch / / these autumn flutterers? / /

Almost all elude your snatching / / though one may settle on you unaw

[Golden, red, brown]

ing, at least / / in its own moment by

almost anything? / /

. / / I’ve fallen before / / (my feet

almost as clumsy as my fingers) / / but always up almost before I was

e tends to seem: / / longed-for hours,

almost as soon / / as entered, gone; / / yet drags his feet / / dow

Two Poems from a New Life

Almost before I can remember / / the Schooner Hesperus carried me, /

lumsy as my fingers) / / but always up

almost before I was down, / / taking a pride in that. This time it to

festering pain burned up his arm. / /

Almost blindly he turned towards the hills, / / began the long drag.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

e here and out of the flame. / / I was

almost burnt up already. Surely Love / / builds a hotter fire than He

Spells and Love

than she could ever have said. / / He

almost felt he was the forester, / / had lived all this inside that h

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hem, sole and shaking, Love. / / Then,

almost fore-defeated, Love / / sensed at his shoulder something move…

unched. But soon / / spiralling on one

almost hears / / speeds gather as lives hurtle down / / the helter-s

re than Gordion-tied / / knots. It was

almost in his hand—a few / / strands now. He took it. / / A clotted

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

clear, utterly free / / from any mark,

almost like a child’s. / /

knew the pride / / of deeper skill. He

almost lived afloat. / / Gurgle and clop and slap and hiss, water /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

back, / / a dreadful journey, sick and

almost mad, / / across the dreadful mountains to his home / / and fo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

of leafage unbelievably stretched / /

almost past sight—only a faint blue rim, / / another range. Light, da

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

y father’s woods, your mother” / / she

almost said ‘and me’ but slipped another / / phrase in in time “and m

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

lot. / / Yet there are those / / who

almost seem immune from all, / / whose skin and breath alike sing of

… But the way on? / / The words seemed

almost spoken more than thought… / / ‘The prince’s bride’… That was a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

is left, a second / / and longer cape,

almost sunk in the blue, / / reached out from a remoter range, which

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ss not their own), / / seem the trees,

almost , / / that were before the ship, / /

d from the water, / / unaware as waves

almost , the sanded children / / dot like sea-birds, sea-shells, the b

ught of being loved— / / a new thought

almost ; though a smoother prince / / had praised her beauty, claimed

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ed, quite without change, until / / he

almost thought that it could have no end. / / Still through the hosti

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

in-ice / / and the harsh salt combined

almost to choke him. / / He struggled out. Soon, rested, cautiously /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

away, / / the other half hollowed back

almost to the bark / / and broken through in two places near the root

Five Poems for Roni

ersed / / while easy coolness / / lay

aloft against my skin. / / Why are we always thinking / / since bein

t’s vaulting / / is star-frosted. And,

alone , / / a god’s nail-paring, / / a silver sliver caught on / / w

rs go, / / each on his silent thoughts

alone , adrift. / / Told and retold the story, botched, refined, / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ain to her. / / She wept a little time

alone , / / alone much longer moved and sat. / / In time there came a

y / / the solid truth no longer stands

alone , / / and anyone may one day come / / to see the truth itself i

That Way Madness Lies

he east, / / the sea. He suddenly felt

alone and lost, / / homesick, afraid; but turned back, pressed on up.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s that half-seen enemy / / Love walked

alone , and presently / / found—not indeed Despair / / but, huge and

eless, bored, / / hunts the gamy hills

alone , / / and the tokens of his birth / / (the cap, the sandals, an

That boy loves me’ and she smiled / /

alone between the curtain and the moon, / / felt herself blush, laugh

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

nter as in teasing summer / / patience

alone can be my ivory tower. / / I enter middle age. / /

orking in time tides of experience / /

alone could grave those channels, from those strong / / contours erod

In the Audience

s work, as when / / ranged for delight

alone . Delight he could / / stumble on still (as dreamer still he was

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

y, from our feet laps to eternity. / /

Alone each listens, holding to an ear / / an empty shell which whispe

nd. / / I stand alone, shiver. But not

alone / / ever again. / / Apart we are, but you are with me / / con

[Wind is chilly on shoulders]

lady Moon. / / —“and when you see he’s

alone , give him a sign, / / then say ‘Simaetha’s waiting’, and bring

Spells and Love

years, / / the King and the male court

alone had come, / / with princely guests, from the late autumn on /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

clear of the heads, for sailing’s sake

alone , / / his mind content to mark the cliffs and beaches / / scann

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

you know who) to my house. / / Now I’m

alone . / / How did this love begin? / / Where shall I start? / / Eu

Spells and Love

as tombs. / / The night, she thought,

alone is beautiful. / / Out of the black a figure moved, strained fac

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ing alone is lonely] / Yes, / / living

alone is lonely, but loneliness / / itself’s not hard to accept. / /

[Living alone is lonely]

alone is lonely] / Yes, / / living alone is lonely, but loneliness /

[Living alone is lonely]

/ coral, as when all seas were theirs

alone . / / Its temperate depth sustains / / the coelacanth unchanged

, / / but in the pale Circus stood one

alone / / just where the moon threw Eros’ shadow on her. / / She, st

oad flow / / beneath the nearer hills.

Alone long days / / walking, scrambling, he added mountain-ways / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

stone, / / or in the whispering of two

alone ; / / melting mist / / or tough to outlast / / their time, the

ck my world and left me / / broken and

alone .” / / Miranda to Ophelia: / / “Then you would forget? / / Had

/ / She wept a little time alone, / /

alone much longer moved and sat. / / In time there came another one /

ne, / / no gull’s sad cry for company,

alone . / / No game, no streams, hardly a rain-puddle; / / and worst

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ Patience is not concerned with self

alone / / nor only others, cares for self existing / / as one with o

Elizabeth / / each in her palace-cell

alone / / notching up which heads shall fall / / if she can once asc

rds of the past or morrow, / / at work

alone on a sand-castle, or calling / / another to see some trove dred

ok down / / where a church sits small,

alone / / on a small promontory / / and the sea-swell swings its sho

September Cruise

… voice failing in tears. / / And now,

alone on the fells, companioned only / / by the long sharp line divid

/ my sense of what might be. / / No,

alone one has to make / / (fumbling in the dark, / / measuring light

unger and cold / / —not real cold, let

alone / / real hunger—not want / / and the consequent / / stress an

Climacteric by the Sea

Why can’t the bastards leave each other

alone ? / / Ruined if I go—there’s only my pregnant wife—” / / “I hop

r, feud / / against wind. / / I stand

alone , shiver. But not alone / / ever again. / / Apart we are, but y

[Wind is chilly on shoulders]

, the Blarney Stone. / / Or the places

alone / / —Taj Mahal, Parthenon, / / Angkor Wat, Avila, / / Eiffel

ed on. / / This veiling is our earth’s

alone , / / The cloud is climbing on my sky. / / Star after loved sta

the ground-floor too, but he was still

alone … / / The fairy’s curse—a shocking fear possessed him / / that

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / Deep in a curtained window, quite

alone , / / the princess drank a moment’s peace from it. / / Half the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / and full quiver. But he was quite

alone . / / Then he remembered that his nurse was dead. / / He picked

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ the threat which burdens all but her

alone . / / They hoped to keep her hands from thorns and pins / / but

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ cannot endure to be / / other than

alone . / / They meet to mate, then share / / nurture of the young, /

/ His eyes closed, and he opened them

alone . / / ‘To be her prince and have her for my bride’ / / his hear

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / a medium? peculiar means by which

alone / / tridimensionality can realize / / a world? Mentally we can

—check and chill— / / knew himself not

alone upon this coast. / / She sat where the sand ceased against the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

re for you to tread / / but on my head

alone ? / / Wasn’t I a lad too once, / / as likely as they come? / /

nd with blind is better / / than going

alone . / / We are all blind / / and stumbling blindly fall / / some

/ but looked and looked; and then I was

alone / / with Emily. The noble mountain stood, / / St Paul’s, in pa

ey, / / and joined her by the pedestal

alone . / / “You came towards me sad,” she said, “with flapping / / a

/ shot from beneath the bridge and drew

along . / / A bright-haired girl laughing jumped out: “good-bye, / /

ladder down a stocking, like flame / /

along dry wood. But flame is beautiful / / —more like the ladder in t

Back Room, 1944

rm Road, / / turned with the tramlines

along Ferdinand Street, / / the Malden Road, and on until we trod, /

nd this time he bowed to her. / / Work

along for a gap. Left of the way / / bushes and scrub were knotted to

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

insidious tide. / / The darkness stirs

along its lifting spine / / in slight but bitter wind. / / Stir the

unnoticed in / / hearts holding memory

along life’s increase / / (and outsoars too these wars no one can win

Dulce et Decorum

Anniversary / “Half-way

along life’s road…” / / half threescore and ten. / / Half a lifetime

e cliffs, this promontory. / / And all

along that flat edge of flat land / / a young man journeying. A sense

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

t the past so rosy? Wrack / / and doom

along that same roadway would blow. / / Wheatfields fired, a pleasant

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

/ through which they dreamed their way

along that stream, / / learning to know each other and their love. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ng a river he knew well. / / He turned

along the bank, and certainly / / knew this was not his way. Turned f

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

—ran like another though / / barefoot

along the bare / / ripple-ridged beach / / through the frothing wate

Climacteric by the Sea

[White foam sweeps] / White foam sweeps

along the grey-brown shore / / from grey-green sea under a grey-blue

[White foam sweeps]

owrie beach— / / looks out to Lundy or

along the long sands which reach / / with their spread of softer-sand

op and slap and hiss, water / / moving

along the moving hollow shell. / / Sigh or high song of wind in riggi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Two Cultures? / (for Tom) / Planted

along the old line of the railway / / a formal row, filament-flowers,

dance on the jutting stump, dance. / /

Along the paved and parapeted track / / forgetful of the tamed wildne

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

reduced to peace. / / The prostitutes

along the pavement stand / / abstracted, still, like trees. / /

Country and Town

e beached? / / Probably not. He looked

along the plain. / / South from the southern cape lay mystery. / / H

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / as the solid trunks flanking this

along the river. / / How can the sap rise? / / How does the tree liv

Five Poems for Roni

along the road] / Most of us, somewhere

along the road, / / find the way lost and the dark wood / / a fear.

[Most of us, somewhere along the road]

[Most of us, somewhere

along the road] / Most of us, somewhere along the road, / / find the

[Most of us, somewhere along the road]

, she nodded at the sea. / / He looked

along the rock, and presently / / glimpsed them, clumped low under th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ showed the cleft now. / / He looked

along the sand / / for something for his love—a love-gift and / / a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

went / / barefoot through the surf and

along the shore. / / But all this slowed him, and his flasks were dry

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the sea. / / His nurse would carry him

along the shore. / / He crowed against the seagulls and the wind / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

nterminably / / tormenting as he moved

along the shore. / / His fingers’ festering pain burned up his arm. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the three-thousandth day / / the ships

along the shore, / / the tents about the plain. / / Armed soon, as b

Back Room, 1944 / Riven temper runs

along the table / / like a ladder down a stocking, like flame / / al

Back Room, 1944

, in canvas, clap, rattle. / / His arm

along the tiller, the live thing / / moving with him, extension of mu

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ cramped and cold he stood looking up

along / / the two valleys, each climbing its own way. / / One must b

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

e October hedges] / Late October hedges

along this lane / / coloured with flowers / / (seasons are late this

[Late October hedges]

was thinner, and he made / / progress

along what now made itself known / / certainly for a way. But long ne

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

uld pass us / / but Delphis, strolling

along with Eudamippos. / / Their beards curled yellower than goldenro

Spells and Love

along , wondering whether I oughtn’t / / soon to go back, I saw a litt

to protect us from fear and to guide us

along . / / Yet we stand here today, not two selves but a pair, / / h

. And he held her close / / and called

aloud , defying Carabosse / / “We are together and each other’s own.”

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ourse we have humour, / / but laughing

aloud / / is odd in a crowd / / and gives rise to rumour. / / Don’t

e. On / / thin rough grass of a valley-

alp he dropped / / his weariness, and slept without a dream. / / The

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ture satellite (faster, faster) / / of

Alpha Centauri (faster), of some guessed star / / in Andromeda’s nebu

Curvature of Space

ernité / Liberty. / / That’s difficult

already . / / All are (should be) born free? / / Give absolute freedo

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

. I seem to see a sharp / / dorsal fin

already cutting the air, / / betraying a shark / / (yet dream still

tory was not, or not yet. / / Dusk was

already filling up the wood / / when an awareness seeped to his numbe

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

‘Oh how nice’—half child / / still, if

already half woman, and soon / / to leave childhood behind—if anyone

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

t was / / and knew the supposed choice

already made. / / Freedom he’d half so longed for was now his / / to

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

and the dark wood / / a fear. / / I,

already old, / / successful, happy, mourned / / a hollow failure of

[Most of us, somewhere along the road]

, this autumn lost. / / Her own summer

already past / / but winter not yet come, / / what this death blaste

f the flame. / / I was almost burnt up

already . Surely Love / / builds a hotter fire than Hephaestus under E

Spells and Love

which / / (he smiled) his cousins were

already travelling. / / Far ahead still the south cape’s silhouette,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

on.” The boat / / passed down with the

already turning tide. / / The wind was up and cold; I shivered, watch

up the hill again, as though / / heavy

already with the vengeful seed. / /

Pelopia and Thyestes

/ / called him so coaxingly. He sensed

also / / an unvoiced elders’ plot to pair him off / / with one of th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

first. / / So, in pain they fell. But

also as fall / / sparks. The wind blows against the fire / / beating

Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville

se serious scholars, teachers / / were

also beautiful. / / I felt the presence of grace / / like Yeats at L

/ as one with others, cares for others

also . / / In tedious winter as in teasing summer / / patience alone

hatever it was it was irreparable. / /

Also inevitable? / / Well, that again’s a thing we can hardly tell. /

What goes up must come down

wars no one can win), / / is for them

also , knowing or nothing, peace. / /

Dulce et Decorum

ile of course it half / / annoyed him,

also made him more aware… / / But they were not the point. / / Long

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

r apprehension / / of beauty and good (

also of bad and ugly, / / but those are negatives, / / shadow to lig

e, hand in hand / / between temple and

altar and the crowd / / of worshippers, the crowded offerings, / / s

Pelopia and Thyestes

pped away. / / The priest comes to the

altar , / / finds it robbed. / / Gone the silver monstrance / / with

The Shepherdess of Cahuzac

ound, / / mark out a temenos, build an

altar , sacrifice / / there to Him of the sea. / / He will accept it,

half-light. / / God’s body lay on the

altar . / / She pitied Him there / / under the vaulted dark, / / the

The Shepherdess of Cahuzac

ine steers are brought; / / and by the

altar where they slashed the throat / / blood stood in puddles, slopp

Pelopia and Thyestes

just a what-once-might-have-been / / (

although you know it never would). / / And between those (in spite of

Altos Hills / On the high hill, in sun-bright scrub, / / the path wou

Los Altos Hills

ro / Traverse the beach, from your feet

always / / a light-path on the water reaches / / towards sun, moon,

September Cruise

And, alas, / / once a freedom fighter

always a terrorist. / / Not so different really. Those we hate, / /

and wild, / / under a bright, a grey,

always a wide sky, / / your riding country, where you played as a chi

Two Poems for G

rom the far distance / / is calling me

always , and that mine can call / / (bursts of song) back to you, and

Two Poems from a New Life

/ Am always I, are always you, / / is

always any human being / / not only to his own self true / / but sho

dragons—in some wild distress. / / And

always at the fatal hour, the bold / / prince to confront the monster

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Teach Us… / / / Have

always been too fond of sitting still, / / and having painfully learn

ilt / / we can’t win. We’re all guilty

always . / / Can only keep / / as to guilt, a certain sense of propor

was not holding course / / but sidling

always closer, must perforce / / drive on the rocks at last, and that

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

sly certain feet, as you have done / /

always from that first party till we parted / / —your pleasure, if yo

him for her evidence, / / spoke to her

always gently, put a stop / / to any funny stuff by the defence. / /

Change Places…

er stood godfather. Their home / / was

always his. He played with her and taught her / / and loved her as hi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

down grey boredoms, the grim wait; / /

always his mocking game / / stacked against us. / / But no, not alwa

Two Poems from a New Life

Well, but what am I to preach? / / Am

always I, are always you, / / is always any human being / / not only

ave you always in my mind] / I have you

always in my mind / / (and in my heart and in my flesh), / / The all

[I have you always in my mind]

always in my mind] / I have you always in my mind / / (and in my hear

[I have you always in my mind]

ce, and the peace / / floods me that’s

always in that happiness. / / Longing’s back at once with a quick pan

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

her parents probably, / / to be there

always in the dark ground / / with the dead child. / / Popular name

slow flight. / / The sight of a heron

always lifts my heart, / / even today when the heart might seem too h

We know the father’s sins / / visited

always on the children. Must / / the final turn / / of the irreversi

d royal child / / expected daily. / /

Always , other years, / / the King and the male court alone had come,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Days, years, man’s time-notes, are / /

always perishing. Time / / (man’s making) is outside death. / /

[Time is enough]

teep, white in a long fall. Water / / —

always rain, rough in a storm, dripping / / gently, a cloud. Water—al

Varangian in Mickelgard

ess.” / / She sighed: “unhappiness has

always reasons; / / fences about the truth, veils on her face. / / T

you / / were listening together. / /

Always returns the / / image of your face as mask, / / closed eyes s

too much rain. / / River and tap will

always run. / / A little shift in earth and air’s / / metabolism. Ba

ta? / / and his friendships, which had

always so much of love? / / Why narrow, cerebral, unhappy Annabel? /

“Tell Lady Byron…”

/ / near-crush him when he came, south

always south / / watching the mountains rise, to where a valley- / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

he worst of it. / / Waking before dawn

always , stiff with chill, / / still tired, set off simply to stir som

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ickelgard / Woods, beech and fir. Water—

always / / streams sounding hidden, suddenly leaping / / free from t

Varangian in Mickelgard

m, dripping / / gently, a cloud. Water—

always the sea, / / dark slate under a nearing storm, silver / / out

Varangian in Mickelgard

imparts, then sometimes heals / / (not

always ) the to-be-or-not-to-be / / Weltschmerz, virginity, and all th

ence / Only through patience peace. Not

always then, / / but if by practice you have improved patience / / p

es / / of lighthouse beam. The path is

always / / there, and your own. / / Tread it… No. No bodily pathway

September Cruise

ff some ragged, trailing tail. / / But

always there’s another one / / —that plea allowed could never fail /

/ stacked against us. / / But no, not

always . / / These two days, / / two nights, when our / / long affec

Two Poems from a New Life

aloft against my skin. / / Why are we

always thinking / / since being is so pleasant? / / I thought, and t

s dead. / / To see both sides is good;

always to keep / / a sensitive balance on the fence is bad. / / Not

n for haste / / but challenged himself

always to press on. / / This restlessness robbed him of some delight.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

that, till our ways seemed to lie / /

always together.” From the darkness curled / / a faint rhythm of musi

lmost as clumsy as my fingers) / / but

always up almost before I was down, / / taking a pride in that. This

ble stone. / / The lion lies, is as he

always was. / / High on the precipitous promontory / / dark trees ga

September Cruise

ain, / / each phrase expected where it

always went. / / But once (he now remembered clearly) when / / he as

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

t am I to preach? / / Am always I, are

always you, / / is always any human being / / not only to his own se

Cambridge winter evening / / gave me,

amazed , the Aurora Borealis. / / Later again, but still a long time a

it will live unlost / / sealed in the

amber past. / / The ugly duckling flowered into a swan; / / and if t

t, / / each out of time and space / /

ambered in my heart, / / both imaged back in this bone, this flesh, /

he had let Tiresias drink / / the old

ambivalent spirit spoke: / / “You shall win home / / and find your w

n slack / / on sunk neck, / / let him

amble home / / in his own time; / / dream, keep / / the stall, slee

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

but I? And all so quick / / to bless?

Amen ! She shall be brave and wise / / and beautiful and happy, and as

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

whom in Auden now / / our long debt to

America is paid; / / both James Joyce and Virginia Woolf know how /

d field of Spain;” / / who saw his way

among all possible ways / / and taking it did not look back again. /

white of large convolvulus caught / /

among blackberry-flowers with torn edges / / and honeysuckle drooping

e this year’s delight. / / Cows lounge

among buttercups and dew / / while coolly counterpointed by the cucko

Two Summer Songs

wake netted in human / / care, lingers

among / / down, under spread wing; / / growing, never grows / / who

hunting-castle’s housekeeper. / / Far

among far-spread forests half-ringed by hills, / / a distant, lovely,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

midnight Acropolis / / listening / /

among marble and moonlight. / /

urned again. The chill / / wind seemed

among my bones. Molly was gone. / / The sky was clouded over; my feet

ied) too that last horrible / / reach,

among naked, spiny, treacherous stone, / / no gull’s sad cry for comp

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / a light as Freedom, this too burns

among / / our guiding stars. / / Fraternity. / / That at least (at

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

em / / the recent waste. / / Climbing

among pines / / the Parthenon lifts again its lovely head / / or rat

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

pile, / / and half my mind in Greece,

among rocks, still / / clambered Hymettus. Suddenly stood plain / /

the only conifer he’d seen all day / /

among the beech and oak. Its thin black spire / / was sinister, and b

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

orn / / (remnants of blackberry-flower

among the berries), / / a few rose-bushes burning with red hips, / /

[Late October hedges]

the better gift / / or the lost sleep

among the bush and bracken?” / / Silent the throng watched the white

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

burning / / by the laughing sea. / /

Among the emperor’s guard the wine goes round / / with rattle of dice

Gunnar of Lithend

the river where it starts to curl / /

among the fields, after it leaves the wood. / / “Grandfather was the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

alked enough. I laid the girl / / down

among the flowers. A soft cloak spread, / / my arm round her neck, I

his eye. / / A flowered bush, studded

among the flowers / / with butterflies in scores, which suddenly move

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s brightness of a sword / / He laid it

among the reeds again, went slowly back / / to tell the king he had t

the pulse’s roar, / / it drowses. Now

among the smoke and stone / / the deadly poor / / settle themselves

Country and Town

lies under this stone / / dead in Gela

among the white / / wheatlands; a man at need / / good in fight / /

Aeschylus’ Epitaph

/ Life changes and goes on, / / hard

among these terraces of vine and thin corn, / / inescapable stone. /

September Cruise

‘A sacrifice, my love, my youth.’ / /

Among these words the bleak fact of his loss, / / dropped sharp as ne

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

urning with red hips, / / and suddenly

among those / / a white rose, and another white rose. / / The wild r

[Late October hedges]

ugh the fields outside Verona, / / and

among those runners he seemed / / not to be one of the losers, but th

Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell

rror to the earth of beauty’s end. / /

Among those sparklers, set like frozen spray, / / are some as cold: a

he days go by, / / and when death came

among us / / we watched our brothers die. / / But as we watched, our

[We lived and sang, my brother]

he dim light / / shaped me the shadows

among which I stood. / / She sat there on a low bough, her legs hangi

plentiful. / / I need not measure the

amount / / this course, next meal… The alcohol / / I wash it down wi

I can talk too. / / “Daughter of dear

Amphimedo ”, I said, / / “(a fine woman she was—pity she’s dead), / /

…? Did you know…? / / Tell me… This’ll

amuse you though… / / The thought, as natural as breath, / / falls d

Their mother, I’m afraid / / won’t be

amused . But a good time’s being had. / / I walk apart in our own good

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

the girls who kept your sovereign lord

amused ? / / They hurl at you unmerited abuse / / because you met his

and pressing forward questioned: / / “

Anabel ?” and unanswered turned my head. / / I know what Orpheus felt

. Waits ahead the help you need.” / / “

Anabel ,” I thought, and pressing forward questioned: / / “Anabel?” an

rest.” She smiled: “did I not say / /

Anabel sent me? Do not fear the wind / / has failed me of my peace, o

eech- / / woods, Berkshire, childhood,

Anabel , the flood / / waits for the turn,” began my helper. “Each /

she / / was gone; I hoped no more for

Anabel , / / when “Martin” from the shadow of a tree / / came clear.

ng: / / “trembles the coward soul? But

Anabel / / who led you laughing where the thorns were long / / sends

een. / / No, the seasons offer / / no

analogy for loss. / / Yet, this untamed recurring / / of brave, ephe

Five Poems for Roni

eld? / / Dream-words do not allow / /

analysis , or yield / / meaning to the clever, / / but even awake I s

Words from a Dream

r lives. / / The natural good state is

anarchy / / —would be, if human nature let it be, / / but humanness

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

ere shall I start? / / Eubulus’s girl,

Anaxo , / / was picked to carry a basket for Artemis / / to her holy

Spells and Love

ry’s truth, he led her on, / / weighed

anchor , set sail. Many days are lost / / through which they dreamed t

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

trim boat, rigged, provisioned, lay at

anchor . / / They had no notion where the river ran, / / but thinking

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

nly, / / looking across the small-boat

anchorage / / to the sail-flecked harbour. Clear, still evening light

alley / / one might be far—but for the

ancient cuttings / / (a road here rutted in the rock) and in them /

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

as draws ahead of L’Allegro / / as The

Ancient Mariner of Kubla Khan. / / Soon Yeats—maestro ed autore— / /

daughter dead in the sea. / / Lays of

Ancient Rome on my seventh birthday: / / Horatius breasting the Tiber

hin our sense / / behind the jewels of

Andromeda . / / Andromeda, who naked / / chained on a sea-rock, waite

/ behind the jewels of Andromeda. / /

Andromeda , who naked / / chained on a sea-rock, waited / / out of th

(faster), of some guessed star / / in

Andromeda’s nebula. / / The goal whisks on, / / the tip of our own f

Curvature of Space

Anecdote / “After they caught me behind their desert lines / / I was

War-time Anecdote

/ / falters, joined banks are sundered

anew . / / But dance, dance on the jutting stump, dance. / / Along th

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

seen in their form, and seen and formed

anew . / / “Speak to him,” gravely said my guide; and I / / “many hav

out manhood, womanhood… / / Was she an

angel ? Can angels be with devils? / / Was he a devil because he worke

ed, strengthless, dumb / / the natural

angel now. / /

yond Measure / Uxorious the Duke. While

Angelo / / nevermore touched poor Mariana’s skin, / / nun Isabella,

, womanhood… / / Was she an angel? Can

angels be with devils? / / Was he a devil because he worked for devil

s, fear, / / fire, flowers, / / pain,

angels singing. / /

, and we bear / / self-pitying now our

anger and despair, / / and like the nephews of a poisoned Pope / / r

/ / He will accept it, / / forget his

anger . / / And much good may it do you. / / I don’t think you’ll get

No. Hardly sad. / / Beyond sadness and

anger , / / but still the king, his master to be obeyed. / / “Toss it

alone / / —Taj Mahal, Parthenon, / /

Angkor Wat, Avila, / / Eiffel Tower, Pont due Gard… / / … Remove the

se; the cranes on Waterloo / / Bridge,

angled black against the fainter sky, / / seen in their form, and see

me: / / a heron, lifting its wide grey

angled wings, / / its long neck out, rising into slow flight. / / Th

/ He stopped; and she flushed too, but

angrily / / (how dare this stuttering yokel spy on me!) / / Yet she

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

at Hope? / Dreams of good / / drown in

angry blood. / / Romeo and Juliet, / / Leila and Majnun, / / loving

e. / / The king was not deceived. / /

Angry ? No. Hardly sad. / / Beyond sadness and anger, / / but still t

do not think / / to live in peace. The

angry sea-god / / is not assuaged. / / This you shall do. / / Take

ken picking at the knot / / of Gordian

anguish in the heart; / / and others in whose silence sounds the roar

inds are quiet, / / but in my body the

anguish is never quiet, / / burning as I am all over for this man who

Spells and Love

/ / on her pale face and tall, slight,

angular figure. / / “And you?” I said; and she: “you know me well. /

st-day procession / / (they’d a lot of

animals , even a lioness)— / / These are the springs of my love. Mark

Spells and Love

[A long steep road to climb] / for

Anna / A long steep road to climB / / Nears the top. Turn. TherE / /

[A long steep road to climb]

ove? / / Why narrow, cerebral, unhappy

Annabel ? / / the last person who should have picked on him, / / stil

“Tell Lady Byron…”

ome.” We passed across / / under Queen

Anne , and North by a dark road. / / North, and then West again by the

er the clear sky round your birth. / /

Anne Frank lost her breath into that air / / just when your innocent

Two Poems for G

n body of a young / / girl. / / I see

Anne Frank / / on the cross, offering of / / our indifference, of my

Stray Thoughts at a Wedding

Two Poems in Memory of

Anne Frank / Orders / Röslein auf der Heiden / “Soldiers, advance agai

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

otograph / / in a blown-up snapshot of

Anne Frank’s wall / / —her pin-ups, marking her strip of that confine

Hermes of Olympia

Anniversaries / Speeds gather as lives hurtle down / / the helter-ske

Anniversary / “Half-way along life’s road…” / / half threescore and t

uss and news, a messenger / / arrived,

announcing the immediate visit / / of his king-uncle, with his wife a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

him—which, while of course it half / /

annoyed him, also made him more aware… / / But they were not the poin

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ph of the light, / / yet blackness not

annulled . Must that long night / / divide the princess from her woman

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rish unstricken. Some recover / / from

anorexia , and shine. / / Sink into / / the seedy role, laudator temp

Anorexia : For Cathy / / / / This demon that has come / / between y

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

s and beeches / / (beautiful girl with

anorexia ), / / the will to flourish perished in men and women. / / H

nce. / / One, heart in hand, stands at

another’s door, / / but she is busy with her hair. / / One at a sill

I drank his voice and did not think to

answer / / but looked and looked; and then I was alone / / with Emil

ight—“You.” / / “Ah, you” his heart in

answer glowed upon / / her glowing heart, his smile on her smile—two

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s it God’s / / wit gave Him that smart

answer ? He was Steward / / of a vast trust, and a far-sighted steward

you suffer much? / / Would to know the

answer help? / / Not you. Us perhaps. / / Walking on the white / /

d son. / / And found in an affirmative

answer / / her grief not lessened / / but pride to help her. / / My

lent, dark. An endless impasse. No / /

answer , no possible way out to the old / / infinitely distant lost wa

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

for me) wrong question, / / find me no

answer . So much for Paul and Plato? / / So much for me—an ineffective

ishes / / follow of course. Mostly the

answer , though, / / leads to another story; but, I know, / / how the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

spies’ question / / more than a trick

answer to a trick question. / / Why do I feel that answer to that que

Age—Did you really hope / / to find an

answer to that one on this page? / / Sell it down the river, and make

trick question. / / Why do I feel that

answer to that question / / such a betrayal of His trust as Steward?

n the praised steward / / and make His

answer to the priests’ spies’ question / / more than a trick answer t

ams they throw / / crystals glisten in

answer / / which could not know / / till then they were other / / t

Music is Landscape

. / / But the gay twenties got a dusty

answer : / / with fear sounding its gong of boom and slump / / disast

, but he was hungry, and / / hunger is

answerable for anything— / / at any rate (he sighed) for more than th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

an and will.” / / “Be with me both,” I

answered , “long. My way / / is lost or never found. Life, that should

e.” “The Paris spring / / and hope,” I

answered , “made me lighter-hearted / / —orange blinds, fountains, che

tions, all be God’s?” / / by this gets

answered “No. Not wholly God’s. / / If Caesar give you arms, yours no

ons pass. / / Dog-rose in the hedge is

answered / / now by campion in the grass / / while the grass-skirted

Dance of the Seasons

a firmer building now.” “I will” / / I

answered , sad; then heard: “our way lies on,” / / turned, saw my guid

The Betrayal / “To God” He

answered “those things which are God’s, / / and what is Caesar’s rend

, / / not my guide, more than you.” He

answered : “why / / worshipping us, have you so little done? / / at t

d seem / / Berkshire.” “Or Yorkshire,”

answered with a light / / laugh Emily; “each to our own is true; / /

t? / / single him out as blest / / by

answering a faithless prayer? / / Dark power / / of formula and rune

ur love that might have started / / an

answering flame in me.” “The Paris spring / / and hope,” I answered,

/ / my love burned high then, but the

answering / / flicker died soon.” “What can one build on one / / spr

s of Plato. / / Yes. But, though by so

answering their question / / He fooled the spies and priests, the Chr

Carly Gancher at four / / knew all the

answers and a good many more, / / master of wickedness. / / After wo

his wit, / / hers with the laugh that

answers it. / / —Yet are they all that they pretend? (a / / pair of

at narrow master shan’t dictate / / my

answers to the mystery. / / Good unbelieved-in God, why should you ca

Antipodes / I find Orion the hunter here / / up to the north and on h

orn edges / / and honeysuckle drooping

antlered sprays / / pink, gold and white, sweetening the light stilln

ave known, / / unhappiness, / / fear,

anxiety / / and worse corrosions of the soul, / / but never hunger a

Climacteric by the Sea

have done / / at any time before. / /

Anyhow , with threescore / / lifting over the hill, / / it’s a moment

[Now of threescore and ten]

e blind / / when they cannot find / /

anyone / / else, and together, / / blind with blind is better / / t

truth no longer stands alone, / / and

anyone may one day come / / to see the truth itself in ghostly stuff,

That Way Madness Lies

soon / / to leave childhood behind—if

anyone / / really does that; and if, for her, the doom / / wished on

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

away from it— / / damn her, don’t let

anyone saddle me with that. / / With a wife like she is I shouldn’t h

d straight / / —she takes her meat off

anyone’s plate. / / I’d be afraid if I married her / / my children w

least / / in its own moment by almost

anything ? / /

ngry, and / / hunger is answerable for

anything — / / at any rate (he sighed) for more than this. / / And th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

told? Why indeed / / want to tell her

anything at that late hour? / / Why her? / / The whores and the boys

“Tell Lady Byron…”

his hands remembers Pilate. / / Could

anything be more absurd? / / And yet, we need a sense of sin / / to

can move / / Death’s adamant door, and

anything else as stubborn… / / —Thestylis, listen! The dogs in the to

Spells and Love

iples of pre-Copernican astronomy… / /

Anything is possible here, and probable. / / I am out of time, and fo

el… / / Either of these. But these and

anything / / like these lie outside / / my sense of what might be. /

doubt her, though he could not see / /

anything of her but her sombre wraps. / / A knife in one hand, in the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

they must die, / / unable to eat / /

anything put before them, / / till someone saw the girl / / nibbling

The Green Children of Woolpit

ing water. Nothing he could do / / was

anything . The water sucked and struck / / and hurled him down. Life s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

l the winds are fallen / / for want of

anything to keep them up, / / a lightless cave whose emptiness takes

ally was) a viable / / way of settling

anything , we must be / / stupid over the edge of idiocy. / /

in a queue / / (a shared short laugh)—

anything will do / / that dies quickly but has gleamed first (star-fa

the walled garden of Faith, walks / /

anywhere wilful thought may lead. She looks / / out from the green sh

Eugénie de Guérin

dancer and a child, / / long ago, long

apart , / / each out of time and space / / ambered in my heart, / /

of shamblers, saying “how can you stand

apart , / / if you have ever let the reasoning brain / / come into co

ut a good time’s being had. / / I walk

apart in our own good other time, / / you beside me. And for a moment

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

/ / new day. / / You and I are still

apart , / / only the sullen grey / / grieving’s not there / / but pi

[The clouds that pressed the air]

/ with a kind of masonry, / / subtly

apart , the old. / / I know I am not a child. / / (Up to a point I kn

Climacteric by the Sea

er. But not alone / / ever again. / /

Apart we are, but you are with me / / continually. / / Odd chills ar

[Wind is chilly on shoulders]

/ into one whole which will not crack

apart ; / / you brought us to the promised land of love / / (garden m

feel behind us / / the struggle of the

ape . / / The future’s cloud is gathered / / into a monstrous shape.

feel behind us / / the struggle of the

ape ; / / the future’s cloud is gathered / / into a monstrous shape;

[Today we feel behind us]

is waste with love, / / and as I whirl

Aphrodite’s brazen hummer / / so may he turn and turn about my door.

Spells and Love

his laurel of prophecy / / are lost to

Apollo , lost the chatter of water. / / His chattering fountain’s dry.

The Last Oracle

arbour, 12 September, 1983) / Statue at

Apollona , Naxos / Thomas auf Naxos / Siphnos, Kastro / Traverse the be

September Cruise

clarity— / / and could that last best

apparition be / / here but to lay some ointment to his sore? / / And

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

do we lay our plea: / / our judges of

appeal are Love and Truth / / whose jurisdiction is eternity. / /

your heart, see / / how brilliant they

appear . / /

ns in their beauty / / would not again

appear / / often enough. At sixty / / that’s something all of us can

[Housman was old beyond his years]

/ Between waking and sleep / / things

appear / / sharp in the eye, / / words speak in the ear / / startli

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

d / / behind the piling rocks. At last

appeared / / a great wall of south-facing cliff, which stretched / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

erament. Just such a child / / mankind

appears : of knowledge insatiate, / / secret on unwrapped secret greed

Greenham Common

cy, / / Shakespeare standing above all

appears , / / until I looked beyond the lands of my language / / and

sh peace with dishonour, / / dangerous

appeasement , till the mind grew weary. / / I passed by each and did n

hree friends. / / I’d have brought the

apples of Dionysus with me / / and worn a wreath of the white poplar,

Spells and Love

n the dawn touched by a dream / / half

apprehended as he woke. He moved / / through the mountains towards th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

o will tune in / / a pattern partially

apprehensible . / /

e. / / Yet here we are. And here’s our

apprehension / / of beauty and good (also of bad and ugly, / / but t

/ / acknowledgement of our guilt, / /

apprehension of grief. / / Our gratitude weighs no less than our care

lent him less time to dream / / being

apprenticed to a tough old man, / / huntsman and wood-ranger. Not qui

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

g, slow, / / hesitant, eager, delicate

approach / / of a child who barefoot down a pebble beach / / makes f

r that unwitting sinning / / dared not

approach the fête, / / crept in the scrub below / / the holy place.

Pelopia and Thyestes

/ and the stillness of the far solstice

approaches , / / clearer, blacker against the sky are spread / / patt

Dance of the Seasons

nds are dry. / / Hands seek flowers in

April , hands seek coolth in May, / / hands seek a pair of little brea

Greek Folk Song

But someone saw the girl / / with her

apron -full. / / They follow her to the fields. / / She tells them al

The Shepherdess of Cahuzac

ing day? / / She laid the thing in her

apron , / / slipped away. / / The priest comes to the altar, / / fin

The Shepherdess of Cahuzac

ised the Parthenon. / / (Pheidias, his

arbiter of art / / escaped the plague. He was not of the slums, / /

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

ark / / that dying traces aimlessly an

arc / / across the curving but uncentred dark. / / Beyond forgets it

shared with me / / the faintest brief

arc of a real rainbow. / /

[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]

Arc / What did the flame force from the flesh? / / Agony and greasy a

my house. / / This maresbane grows in

Arcadia , and all the foals / / and their mothers, cropping it, run ma

Spells and Love

trength and chance. / / Yet, while the

arch is down, what should we do / / but dance, dance on the jutting s

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

over the half-dry creek] / High boughs

arch over the half-dry creek / / deep in its hidden cleft. / / There

[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]

arch over the half-dry creek] / High boughs arch over the half-dry cre

[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]

h the dead child. / / Popular name for

archaeologist / / is grave-robber. / / Not without reason. / / Stil

Love Scene / from the Greek of

Archilochus / “… but if you’re in a hurry and can’t wait for me / / t

Two Songs of a Mercenary / from

Archilochus / / / The spear is my rough wine, as it is my bread, /

Two Songs of a Mercenary

aroque. / / In letters of gold from an

architrave block / / PUBLIC LIBRARY winked with a welcoming gleam. /

[The municipal building stood square in my dream]

a furrow in the blue. / / The Sea-god,

ardour kindled by the view, / / the beauteous youth doth cruelly enjo

September Cruise

. / / “By such a moon we quarrelled at

Arezzo / / over a camera, where all divine / / Piero’s great frescoe

black authority cutting across / / all

argument ; and slowly ebbed again. / / Numb, cold and utterly worn out

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

in Naxos, they say, / / Theseus forgot

Ariadne for all her beauty. / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him (you k

Spells and Love

eling is / / affection, which need not

arise / / from beauty, charm or cleverness, / / which does not sense

aliant centripetality / / (Dante’s and

Aristotle’s love) / / briefly clusters these specks which we / / hav

eserts are somewhere else. / / Sahara,

Arizona , Gobi, / / back of Australian bush. / / We are growth, green

s fingers’ festering pain burned up his

arm . / / Almost blindly he turned towards the hills, / / began the l

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

wood, in canvas, clap, rattle. / / His

arm along the tiller, the live thing / / moving with him, extension o

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ight and drew. / / I looked across his

arm , and having set / / eyes on the work, the worshipped master knew.

ture from new plough, / / laid face on

arm he wept—sobbing waves / / of hot tears washing the weight of sin

laited in smiling love to bind / / his

arm in whom her soul had lived, / / she gave it now to be a sign / /

ity. Far away—’ he threw / / his right

arm out. That beach. He’d been there first / / crossing huge mountain

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ell. / / She bound the bracelet on his

arm . / / Plaited in smiling love to bind / / his arm in whom her sou

e flowers. A soft cloak spread, / / my

arm round her neck, I comforted / / her fear. The fawn soon ceased to

erless and grotesque / / where a man’s

arm should spring. / / Would he then, / / since he could never wholl

r and lose their power, / / but on his

arm still burning bright / / as though lit by the inner flame / / wh

ks of hate build up / / (and stocks of

armaments / / build up). Is our real wealth, / / the small-change of

s, / / from stout, straight trunks—the

armature where they laid / / their fugitive creations, the three swee

Dance of the Seasons

es orders. Render unto Caesar / / your

armed and ordered self, and cry Hail Caesar.” / / That He did not say

e, / / the tents about the plain. / /

Armed soon, as before, / / he kissed his wife and said / / “I must g

new. / / He hurled himself against the

armoured mass / / hardly in hope (even though unexpressed) / / to br

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ I’ll sit under this rock singing, my

arms about you, watching / / our two flocks cropping together against

Shepherd’s Song

up in the wind of love; / / I open my

arms and close them on the wind. / /

ch / No, there’s no substitute / / for

arms around one another, / / two bodies warm together. / / … Yes, in

/ Life narrows down between our closing

arms , / / between our hands, between finger and thumb, / / whittles

That Way Madness Lies

hands cease from their art / / to take

arms , not in this but a just war / / with final victory; even if the

ry / / —the old moon in the new moon’s

arms , / / the little daughter dead in the sea. / / Lays of Ancient R

t wholly God’s. / / If Caesar give you

arms , yours not to question / / when he gives orders. Render unto Cae

treating miserably / / before the dark

army / / pursuing me. / / Threatening shadow / / on the horizon’s r

/ Thanks. They’ve taken her man for the

army though.” / / “My brother’s been called and I’ll be going soon /

e found fuss and news, a messenger / /

arrived , announcing the immediate visit / / of his king-uncle, with h

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ove / / and shattered on the rock. One

arrow gone. / / Be careful. He looked where the two flasks lay. / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the two flasks lay. / / A bow, eleven

arrows . And the way / / home was the grim mountains… But the way on?

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

to bring down a bird. / / Three of his

arrows landed in the sea / / (though one he did get back); and presen

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

in fever’s bewildering storm. / / His

arrows one by one lost on missed kills, / / memory or instinct someho

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

es? Call that luck?” / / “Everything’s

arse -up, blast it. Blast them! Wars!” / / Behind in the cities words

rthenon. / / (Pheidias, his arbiter of

art / / escaped the plague. He was not of the slums, / / but stole,

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

e seem; / / where now an otherworld of

art or dream / / (the spirit’s two alembics) lies / / built out of f

mes the Ritz, my hands cease from their

art / / to take arms, not in this but a just war / / with final vict

o) to my house. / / Bran goes on next.

Artemis , Moon, you can move / / Death’s adamant door, and anything el

Spells and Love

, / / was picked to carry a basket for

Artemis / / to her holy grove in the feast-day procession / / (they’

Spells and Love

Why should a change of / / date in our

artificial / / calendar seem so / / significant? ’84 / / you were i

rent / / from what musician, poet, any

artist / / wrests from the air, relays / / for those who will tune i

perish, build / / memory and life; the

artist’s captured moment / / lives like a memory / / and, would we l

Moment and Memory

on and faith, / / mathematical symbol,

artist’s vision—Truth, / / compel the twisting mind and (what is hard

Prayer to Truth

st / / —masters of the impurest of the

arts / / which is for me (perhaps for that) the peerless best. / /

h heads shall fall / / if she can once

ascend the throne. / / Peaky brother at your books, / / cough yourse

, the bow, the quiver / / and the cold

ash . All a dream it was not. / / These and the message had been given

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

em, / / flare up suddenly and not even

ash is left. / / May Delphis’s flesh waste so in consuming fire. / /

Spells and Love

in the light-fingered green / / of an

ash -tree, / / catches the look, / / lifts the heart / / to a still

e from the flesh? / / Agony and greasy

ash . / / What did the soul steal from the flame? / / New wings for i

e love. / / Nothing, truly, / / to be

ashamed of, / / frightened by, even / / surprised at. / / North-nor

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

power I feel of work and love, / / in

ashes of self-pity and abuse. / / Just now, sunk in the dark, I could

e sun / / woke him, he saw by the cold

ashes spread / / two water-bottles and a woodman’s bow / / and full

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

tomorrow. But now, Thestylis, take the

ashes / / while it’s still night, and knead them into his door-sill /

Spells and Love

met so often in the wood / / who stood

aside and fixed her with his gaze / / troubling her faintly… Now, sud

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ crossly she turned her look and step

aside . / / But felt at once her natural kindness chide / / her churl

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

, and the tiller’s kick / / hurled him

aside . He lost control. Then he / / was fighting water. Nothing he co

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / From my lone way I could not turn

aside , / / yet wrote of love, and what I wrote was true. / / Passion

ere all his wounds in front? / / would

ask a Spartan mother / / concerning her dead son. / / And found in a

better not have been born. / / And to

ask God for help / / presupposes that there is / / a God, and one wh

Living and Dying

Ask no surety of this flawless morning / / for noon or afternoon. Tak

” The question / / falls. Plato, Paul,

ask the (for me) wrong question, / / find me no answer. So much for P

me features. / / A happening. / / Why

ask what it can mean? / /

Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform

but different, / / told yet again and

asked for yet again, / / each phrase expected where it always went. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

he now remembered clearly) when / / he

asked her for a story—‘just one more’— / / a look he didn’t know came

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

would return / / within the month. He

asked her, too, to speak / / a word for him to the head forester / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

eet and clean, / / was gone before. “I

asked him what he ate— / / seagulls he shot and cooked on drift.” The

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

aid “Good morning”, I the same / / and

asked if he was going far. / / He said “As far as Golgotha.” / / And

/ “But what’s the comfort there?” she

asked . “The blight / / is just that flat fact that what is must cease

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ry of death.” / / “Death is itself and

asks no more,” she said; / / “not so life. Life is more than pulse an

hted boat running before / / the wind,

aslant towards the stretching cliff, / / while he wrenched at the she

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

se is the prince’s bride.” / / He fell

asleep as she was speaking. No / / dreams, a deep, sweet, long slumbe

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hours when the earth can cradle thought

asleep , / / content that those we love have lived, knowing / / our n

So she took him / / once more a child

asleep , took him in love / / that would not leave him till he died, n

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ to sit and wait and lull your powers

asleep . / / You have a sensitive mind and heart, and store / / flash

nce.” / / Prince of Lies, no. The dark

aspect is true, / / yet we must pledge our lifeblood to renew / / th

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

/ / And here and there like stalks of

asphodel , / / few and broken but straight, gold in the sun, / / the

y and Garth / To make a world all kinds

aspire , / / all kinds are needed, but there seems / / one kindling o

“Gale is Dead” / May we

assign a cause? / / —who cannot be content / / with a cruel pattern

“Gale is Dead”

in peace. The angry sea-god / / is not

assuaged . / / This you shall do. / / Take ship again. Yes, take ship

/ creations of humanity. / / From the

astonishing age when we / / (in Nature’s cyclic sleep long curled) /

trate / / principles of pre-Copernican

astronomy … / / Anything is possible here, and probable. / / I am out

e beach. / / Later, killed, cooked and

ate / / and slept. He let twenty-four hours pass / / before he faced

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ftwood from the high-tide mark. / / He

ate , and watched the sun change on the wave, / / and in a dream was h

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ was gone before. “I asked him what he

ate — / / seagulls he shot and cooked on drift.” The harsh- / / screa

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

you care / / to show a kindness to an

atheist ? / / single him out as blest / / by answering a faithless pr

dure; / / where now, out of the slums,

Athenian poor / / climb, for love no doubt, demonstrably / / for ano

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

of the Roman age / / honoured by rich

Athenians of that age / / with this rather pretentious monument / /

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

n the cities words boil up to war / / —

Athens and Sparta, Paris and Berlin, / / Rome and Carthage, London an

Athens , Hill of the Muses; Evening / The quarried rock drops to the sl

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

ph / Aeschylus, Euphorion’s son / / of

Athens , lies under this stone / / dead in Gela among the white / / w

Aeschylus’ Epitaph

lear / / the stench of Belsen from the

atmosphere . / / The diapason closing full in man / / breaks down in

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

rhaps / / these huge galaxies are only

atoms / / of a vaster matter (as the electron’s charge / / might hol

dom now made inwardly aware / / of the

atrocious range of human ill / / by my own jealousies and near-despai

/ writhes its proud neck, / / as the

attack / / of the quick-winged hounds, / / sharp-circling sloops, pr

Heron and Gulls

us flow / / broken by stone piers, its

attack / / turned, its wild movement mastered—so / / there, not ther

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

but not, that seemed quite clear, to be

attained / / by climbing now. A steep glen at his feet / / falling a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ch / / —twist induced by the ache / /

attendant on the lack / / of loving, mutual touch. / /

ight’s a lesson to the sun / / on what

attends an incandescent day. / / The star-swarms, the vast-wheeling g

(what seemingly you do not see) / / an

attested capacity / / for causing irritation to those I love / / eve

[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]

. / / Here, they say, / / the poor of

Attica , herded in / / between the long walls, learnt to live in slums

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

Shepherd’s Song / from a poem

attributed to Theocritus / Pelops may rule his country, Croesus count

Shepherd’s Song

as no room for me if she said so. / / “

Au revoir.” “Au revoir.” I shut the door. / / They went as might in f

r me if she said so. / / “Au revoir.” “

Au revoir.” I shut the door. / / They went as might in fairy-story go

ad; / / yet we have Eliot, for whom in

Auden now / / our long debt to America is paid; / / both James Joyce

on Yeats—maestro ed autore— / / Eliot,

Auden , Ransom, Hopkins, the rest / / of Donne, a little Langland, a l

Audience / Still young that unknown face; yet not quite young: / / wo

In the Audience

Memory of Anne Frank / Orders / Röslein

auf der Heiden / “Soldiers, advance against the enemy. / / Shoot when

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

3) / Statue at Apollona, Naxos / Thomas

auf Naxos / Siphnos, Kastro / Traverse the beach, from your feet alway

September Cruise

/ But what about the Guiccioli? about

Augusta ? / / and his friendships, which had always so much of love? /

“Tell Lady Byron…”

illy in the black-out. / / The scented

aura and soft ‘hullo, dearie’ / / offered the troubled flesh peace wi

inter evening / / gave me, amazed, the

Aurora Borealis. / / Later again, but still a long time ago, / / wal

obey. / / “You to gas-chamber duty at

Auschwitz . You / / to herd the beasts in Belsen. Stamp out the Jew, /

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

/ / Mamilius and Herminius dead—Black

Auster / / gazing into his master’s face / / while the grey horse wh

/ Sahara, Arizona, Gobi, / / back of

Australian bush. / / We are growth, greenness, / / water falling, fl

ged letters, friendship, with the aging

author / / of Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme. / /

e outer world loud voices calling. / /

Authority breaks, calling, the world of children. / / Gone the seagul

contorted him with pain, / / its black

authority cutting across / / all argument; and slowly ebbed again. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

strengthened. / / He moved the tiller

automatically / / to make the most of the recovered wind. / / The bo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Kubla Khan. / / Soon Yeats—maestro ed

autore — / / Eliot, Auden, Ransom, Hopkins, the rest / / of Donne, a

/ what this death blasted / / was her

autumn . / /

The Black-out / London,

Autumn 1939 / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

of Macedon, / / through Rome’s opulent

autumn , all but vanished / / in the long white winter of Byzantium. /

n, / / obliterated and dissolved, / /

autumn and evening form again. / /

ce of the Seasons / Spring and Summer /

Autumn and Winter / The seasons come, the seasons pass. / / Dog-rose

Dance of the Seasons

before my donkey-nose is / / nostalgic

autumn beckoning / / —the lines recur, the poem closes. / / Once mor

Man’s Seasons

ers are born to burn. / / Fire-raising

autumn , black-boughed winter, / / spring’s green-and-white return: /

Cassandra’s Song

/ / her fourteenth Christmas (she was

autumn -born). / / Why here? The princess wants it so. The boy’s / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ngled, were a revelation to him / / of

autumn . But he shivered—terrible / / the thought of ways crook-tunnel

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

white spring, love the colours / / of

autumn , but / / my sweetheart-flower these have not: / / childheart

[Housman was old beyond his years]

/ / Have you tried to catch / / these

autumn flutterers? / / Almost all elude your snatching / / though on

[Golden, red, brown]

ago— / / farther than swallows in the

autumn fly, / / I cannot count the generations gone— / / but once up

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

t country deeply called to her. / / In

autumn (her own mistress, near fifteen) / / she came again, to set be

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

am and feel. / / Autumn is near. / /

Autumn is beautiful. / / All seasons are beautiful, but now / / I fi

ningless cessation I do not share? / /

Autumn is here and lovely, / / the season she loved most. / / An ext

in keeping with how I am and feel. / /

Autumn is near. / / Autumn is beautiful. / / All seasons are beautif

d the gold from the white birches. / /

Autumn is off where summer and spring have strayed, / / scattering as

Dance of the Seasons

thin beauty. / / Even the glow / / of

autumn leaves is mute, palely yellowing / / towards winter. Everythin

[Noon. But the sun is low]

he should die / / in high summer, this

autumn lost. / / Her own summer already past / / but winter not yet

till miraculous spring, / / summer and

autumn … Man proposes… / / winter’s carved boughs… and hark, how sing…

Man’s Seasons

/ with princely guests, from the late

autumn on / / till the New Year to hunt. Those three months gone / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

raggled end dragged on / / washing the

autumn out of leaves and grass / / till a hard winter clamped suddenl

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

my ears against the song / / of siren

autumn ?—which listened to, I’m done, / / caught in the cycle again of

Sixtieth Summer

ties, / / dying as the tree dies. / /

Autumn’s little death, / / winter’s image of / / the unresponding gr

won, and he / / to win her; but their

autumn’s spring-time daughter / / was something more, and ‘what the f

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

true. / / Not courage nor the offered

avatar / / guided his thought to a deliberate choice / / of dedicati

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

allows) from jealousy, / / his meanest

avatar . / / Love keep you kind to others and each other. / / Love ma

means plain / / or stupid, and was not

averse to him, / / but—princesse insufficiently lointaine— / / she s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

—Taj Mahal, Parthenon, / / Angkor Wat,

Avila , / / Eiffel Tower, Pont due Gard… / / … Remove the camera / /

who fumbling in the paralytic dark / /

await no dawn, and those / / exiled, to whom the hostile and the kind

e so soon; in other places / / you are

awaited . Come.” To the slow height / / we turned our backs, towards t

/ meaning to the clever, / / but even

awake I seem / / from the depth of a dream / / to know that hollow f

Words from a Dream

went to bed under a spell / / and lay

awake long on the dancing thought / / ‘The princess, my princess, is

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ing, / / sleeping curled up long, / /

awake netted in human / / care, lingers among / / down, under spread

l to be dismissed / / when we’re right

awake . / / Normally, that is. / / Sick and weak, / / we feel them t

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

leave him till he died, nor then. / /

Awake she took (all unaware) control / / of her new love-kingdom, his

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

m / / and strip herself. He leapt / /

awake . The girl was there. / / Slender and firm and white, / / forme

Pelopia and Thyestes

Waiting / Not yet the necessary word

awakes / / nor stir the lips, / / but helpless till pass by this lon

later in a long untroubled sleep. / /

Awaking in the morning he perceived / / the difficulty was not really

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Sex is everywhere / / as Freud made us

aware , / / and he was surely right / / but wrong surely to say / /

, lonely / / she sometimes was; hardly

aware , and yet / / glad in the woods to be with one friend lost. / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

across the light, / / planning, doing,

aware . / / But after that / / for less than half a year. / / Such l

lf / / annoyed him, also made him more

aware … / / But they were not the point. / / Long before dawn / / he

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s way. / / Utterly weak but unfevered,

aware , / / he lay on the home-ridge. The leaves were blowing / / fro

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

alf dissolved in each other, a oneness,

aware / / of a mystery—life is not just what it seems / / after all,

hing, / / blind but unfalteringly / /

aware of its black way, / / out from its hide-out, in, / / giving ob

/ / The nurse’s tale? Yes, but he felt

aware / / of much, much more, than she could ever have said. / / He

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

’ve had / / a good day; now at evening

aware / / of so much more to bless me than I could dare / / hope, it

[The track up the wild stream]

skill: / / am seldom now made inwardly

aware / / of the atrocious range of human ill / / by my own jealousi

on under the darkening air / / hardly

aware that he dared not lie down, / / stumbled, tumbled, and then he

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

han sixty turns / / completed, am more

aware / / what a small number we’re entitled to, / / what a small pr

cross the empty / / sand, in evening’s

awareness of tomorrow. / / Brief wind ruckles gulls’ feathers, wrinkl

lready filling up the wood / / when an

awareness seeped to his numbed life / / of someone there. He stared d

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ps over the wall, / / sets your houses

awash , drowns your creatures, / / your friend, sib, spouse, child, yo

rt / / caught fire. I must have looked

awful . I don’t remember / / a thing about the procession or how I got

Spells and Love

un / / revived him to his pain. He lay

awhile , / / but something made him rouse. Hardly in him / / the forc

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ls / / that youth is heir to and bears

awkwardly ; / / you, Time, who heal the wounds of violence / / but le

Next morning hooves and grinding wheels

awoke him. / / He looked down on the yard, straight from above: / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ave gone a mile, / / two, fifty yards)

awoke to the wide stream. / / He plunged in where the water met the s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / He kissed her on the mouth and she

awoke . / / “You?…” a faint trouble in a moment gone, / / lost in a s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hope, / / pretend kindness… Grind the

axe , / / heap the faggots. Notch it up. / /

sure I’d have come again with torch and

axe .”— / / These are the springs of my love. Mark them, lady Moon. /

Spells and Love

ceased to rise” we think. / / “Lay an

axe to that brittle bole.” / / Then, one morning, at last, again / /

contrasts with the Octopus whose tilted

axis / / and epicycles were designed to illustrate / / principles of

e in bulk / / —Communism, Islam (those

Ayatollahs , / / those reds. Once it was Nazism / / —those Germans).