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Martin Robertson

Now and Then

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

C

when our / / long affection opened its
cactus -flower, / / we noticed Time / / choosing to walk with us / /
Two Poems from a New Life
:  / / Will Caesar die in God or God in
Caesar ?  / /
The Betrayal
/ / to be reframed in terms of God and
Caesar / / as equal powers.  So Christians can make Caesar / / their
The Betrayal
, our serving Caesar / / may yet bring
Caesar back with us to God’s / / service—what’s Caesar’s in the end b
The Betrayal
, / / and what is Caesar’s render unto
Caesar ,” / / But did He not thereby, Himself being God’s / / son, Go
The Betrayal
there’s the jackpot question:  / / Will
Caesar die in God or God in Caesar?  / /
The Betrayal
/ No.  The steward’s master is God, not
Caesar .  / / From the good city bravely back old Plato / / framed law
The Betrayal
answered “No.  Not wholly God’s.  / / If
Caesar give you arms, yours not to question / / when he gives orders.
The Betrayal
that, though cheating Him, our serving
Caesar / / may yet bring Caesar back with us to God’s / / service—wh
The Betrayal
/ (a clever thought) as double-crossing
Caesar ?  / / No.  The steward’s master is God, not Caesar.  / / From th
The Betrayal
/ That He did not say.  But by setting
Caesar / / over against God He allowed the question / / to be refram
The Betrayal
/ / tried on his master?…  Render unto
Caesar …  / / Perhaps there’s some thought links steward to Caesar / /
The Betrayal
ur armed and ordered self, and cry Hail
Caesar .”  / / That He did not say.  But by setting Caesar / / over aga
The Betrayal
as equal powers.  So Christians can make
Caesar / / their scapegoat.  Might we, though, construe the steward /
The Betrayal
s there’s some thought links steward to
Caesar / / which glimpsed might both throw light on the praised stewa
The Betrayal
/ / when he gives orders.  Render unto
Caesar / / your armed and ordered self, and cry Hail Caesar.”  / / Th
The Betrayal
empty quarries, shells / / riven by a
Caesarian birth.  / / The fairy-story hero’s cake / / was eaten with
Mother’s Malison
ck with us to God’s / / service—what’s
Caesar’s in the end be God’s?  / / “Only the worldly-wise can manage G
The Betrayal
hings which are God’s, / / and what is
Caesar’s render unto Caesar,” / / But did He not thereby, Himself bei
The Betrayal
speechless speech; but parted, bird in
cage , / / shakes with dumb power, / / blots a blank page.  / /
Love’s Eyes and Hands
The Shepherdess of
Cahuzac / from Eugénie de Guérin’s Journal / The girl came into the ch
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
al pang / / you cannot have your eaten
cake .  / / Then take, oh take your trip with us.  / / We know the spel
The Sirens
rian birth.  / / The fairy-story hero’s
cake / / was eaten with his mother’s curse.  / / He won through from
Mother’s Malison
he snail-course / / of her sentence.  A
calendar .  / /
War-time Anecdote
this intercalary date / / joggled the
calendar / / Cecil was still here, / / breathing the air, / / looki
Leap Year
nge of / / date in our artificial / /
calendar seem so / / significant? ’84 / / you were in, not ’85.  / /
For Cecil
is calling me always, and that mine can
call / / (bursts of song) back to you, and that all / / these gales,
Two Poems from a New Life
r / / the white, noisy water.  / / The
call comes from them / / naturally.  / / I stand on the balcony.  / /
Climacteric by the Sea
r fate or God or what we choose / / to
call it, for being thus unforehopedly blest / / in the late radiance
[Yes, you’re right]
/ “You’re lucky.”  “What about dowries? 
Call that luck?”  / / “Everything’s arse-up, blast it.  Blast them!  War
On the Border
ve make you presently / / to those who
call you father, mother, / / as dear as to your own you are.  / /
Epithalamium
embling.  And he held her close / / and
called aloud, defying Carabosse / / “We are together and each other’s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e army though.”  / / “My brother’s been
called and I’ll be going soon / / —have to put off getting married.” 
On the Border
e Places…  / The Judge was very kind.  He
called her up / / to sit beside him for her evidence, / / spoke to h
Change Places…
/ Behind him walked his brother, and I
called him:  / / “Christopher”, and he stepped out of a train / / of
The Black-out
ver had the sea and the far shores / /
called him so coaxingly.  He sensed also / / an unvoiced elders’ plot
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
know not even abortive love can be / /
called the first cause, however sharp its sting.  / / You are unhappy
The Black-out
fore.  / / For her, that country deeply
called to her.  / / In autumn (her own mistress, near fifteen) / / sh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / at work alone on a sand-castle, or
calling / / another to see some trove dredged from the water, / / un
For Rachel
/ / out of the outer world loud voices
calling .  / / Authority breaks, calling, the world of children.  / / G
For Rachel
moment’s brimming being.  Not us they’re
calling / / but others within the crystal, child to children / / as
For Rachel
rammelled sea / / but heard his mother
calling , calling him, / / and turned—with dreadful pain, for what he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ or a man, but all the evening he kept
calling / / for unmixed wine for a toast to Love, and he went off /
Spells and Love
sea / / but heard his mother calling,
calling him, / / and turned—with dreadful pain, for what he loved /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
our voice from the far distance / / is
calling me always, and that mine can call / / (bursts of song) back t
Two Poems from a New Life
presently / / they from the boat were
calling me: “why not / / come with us too?  Come with us.”  But my guid
The Black-out
smooth back into beach-sand; as shrill
calling / / of child or bird leaves the next moment empty.  / / Look
For Rachel
ove the sea and the wide sand gulls fly
calling / / or walk far out by the ripples’ edge, where children / /
For Rachel
voices calling.  / / Authority breaks,
calling , the world of children.  / / Gone the seagulls, silence.  The b
For Rachel
hid as now it is.  / / Turn to whatever
calls you, only use / / your power, and do not use it least for this:
The Black-out
her forester.’  / / It came unnaturally
calm and clear.  / / ‘She is my lady and a prince’s wife.’  / / He stu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
that sea shall endure / / its round of
calm and storm / / when all we see / / of land shall cease / / to b
The Sea
hind, the bright sea under it, / / and
calm .  Miles to his left stretched the cold sands.  / / With painful ca
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ oh for the sea! the sea in storm and
calm / / raised for him in a wren’s-nest mockery.  / / A nest?  He pee
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ort light / / the temporal earth.  / /
Calm shine some, in whom power and deadweight hold / / a steady balan
Lamps
ch, whose sane / / classical stillness
calmed the aimless flow / / of gall.  From such a still height I looke
The Black-out
us / / a form, my mother, came.  “From
Cambridge how / / came she?” my prophet mocked.  And she to me:  / / “
The Black-out
said, and sought her / / eyes, “is in
Cambridge .”  “I am in the ground, / / cold bones in Haworth,” said the
The Black-out
d the parson’s daughter; / / “he is in
Cambridge , talking, sleeping sound, / / O thou of little faith; but w
The Black-out
Cecil / Tankas and haikus / Aldeburgh /
Cambridge / The North / They burned drowned Shelley / / on the beach.
For Cecil
grey cloud.  / / Monochrome world from
Cambridge / / to the Border.  Or / / from here to eternity.  / / The
For Cecil
nian Sea.  / / In that same far past, a
Cambridge winter evening / / gave me, amazed, the Aurora Borealis.  /
A Hoard
eary body go / / with Emily on towards
Camden Town.  / / Suddenly Emily spoke: “often in winter / / for week
The Black-out
ow I moved with lighter feet.  / / Past
Camden Town we took the Chalk Farm Road, / / turned with the tramline
The Black-out
er love, but he was dead / / and never
came again to her.  / / She wept a little time alone, / / alone much
Ballad
er own mistress, near fifteen) / / she
came again, to set beside the green / / and bare the forest in its ho
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ht.  The tests came sooner, though— / /
came all the time, it seemed, in various ways.  / / He had been taught
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hed the days go by, / / and when death
came among us / / we watched our brothers die.  / / But as we watched
[We lived and sang, my brother]
gusts soon to be tonsured.  / / Spring
came , and hardly come had fled / / —footloose wanderer, not pretendin
Dance of the Seasons
’s dead now), / / who lived next door,
came and kept begging me / / to come to the show with her, and I to m
Spells and Love
ough the frothing water-edges / / that
came and went, that come and go.  / / Do I make too much of not liking
Climacteric by the Sea
onger moved and sat.  / / In time there
came another one / / who loved her dearly though so late.  / / She li
Ballad
it, dear Moon, / / we achieved it all,
came both to our desire.  / / Till the other day he’d no fault to find
Spells and Love
/ Then the hills parted, and the river
came / / broader and fuller out across a plain / / many days more to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
“Martin” from the shadow of a tree / /
came clear.  Clean from my heart the black cloud fell; / / softly the
The Black-out
the ford with dawn, / / and when night
came , deep in the mountains stopped, / / his water-bottle filled at a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / and then at last the naked blade
came free… / / but he had done his business and was gone.  / / She sa
Pelopia and Thyestes
g road above us / / a form, my mother,
came .  “From Cambridge how / / came she?” my prophet mocked.  And she t
The Black-out
did not live, / / went down where they
came from / / through the pit of the grave, / / while greenness rece
The Green Children of Woolpit
t one more’— / / a look he didn’t know
came in her eyes, / / and then she told him, to his shocked surprise,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Eugénie de Guérin’s Journal / The girl
came into the church / / from changing light, / / birdsong and trees
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
uscan market-place.  / / A little later
came Kipling’s ballads: / / two men riding through a death-sown plain
Poetry
/ / of that they were sure.  / / This
came later.  / / When they were found / / at the bottom of the pit /
The Green Children of Woolpit
.  Soon the song, / / lost for a while,
came loud.  The gondola / / shot from beneath the bridge and drew alon
The Black-out
hrough my limbs like wine through water
came / / my father pulling his hand across his face / / —perhaps now
The Black-out
nd.  / / The light wind faded out as he
came near.  / / “Oh what a moon,” he said.  “By such a shine / / we fi
The Black-out
oy a gangling woodman of eighteen) / /
came news again: this Christmas-time the Queen / / comes with the cou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er midnight in the Thames valley / / I
came on glow-worms.  Years earlier still, at dusk, / / fireflies flick
A Hoard
’ / / “I don’t know what he meant.”  He
came once more / / to the same beach.  Then trudged, a weary way, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / to the sweet air / / and a voice
came out of the wind / / for all to hear / / “The spirit is innocent
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
heart.  But ‘It’s not possible to’ / /
came reason—and this time he bowed to her.  / / Work along for a gap. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
napped clean in two.  / / A Turkish dog
came riding, / / his scimitar he drew, / / he swung it high to strik
A Ballad
over / / Croyde Bay or Ringstead Bay. 
Came sharply through / / me hate to be where streets and houses cover
The Black-out
mother, came.  “From Cambridge how / /
came she?” my prophet mocked.  And she to me: / / “countless the hours
The Black-out
/ / That’s what he thought.  The tests
came sooner, though— / / came all the time, it seemed, in various way
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ickness did / / near-crush him when he
came , south always south / / watching the mountains rise, to where a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
either side.  / / And every day at noon
came the white flights / / fanning out, wheeling west, ahead, as if /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
know how long.  He sensed the air, / /
came to himself, and pulled himself together, / / saw with surprise t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y had a fall / / and died, and grandpa
came to live at our / / house here”—it was a long time getting starte
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d.  / / I know, if ever / / your image
came to mind it brought / / a warmth of innocent pleasure, / / as mi
Leap Year
mother (the flute-girl’s) and Melixo’s
came / / to see me early, Dawn pink in the sky, / / with lots of sto
Spells and Love
/ / Still in his cloud of rage / / he
came to Sicyon.  / / He heard the hum and buzz, / / the shrilling and
Pelopia and Thyestes
ks / / out of the temenos.  Outside she
came / / to silence—or rather to cicada-shrill / / stillness, where
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ / is lost, but love is never lost.  I
came / / to tell you this.  It may seem little enough / / or nothing
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ … night and day, day and night…  / /
came to the Delphic fane, / / burst in (uncleansed his stain) / / cr
Pelopia and Thyestes
ed her by the pedestal alone.  / / “You
came towards me sad,” she said, “with flapping / / aimlessly certain
The Black-out
what I can.  I am her forester.’  / / It
came unnaturally calm and clear.  / / ‘She is my lady and a prince’s w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rds the middle of the lake.  / / A hand
came up and caught it, swung it, a bright circle / / in the last ligh
Finis
/ / a marriage.  / / So, as the mists
came up and choked / / that very fiery particle, it was Lady Byron /
“Tell Lady Byron…”
Tower, Pont due Gard…  / / …  Remove the
camera / / and the eyes behind / / are, you’ll find, / / blind.  /
Tourist
e phases of our life, / / not like the
camera catch the fading moment / / to hold it like a dead leaf in the
Moment and Memory
oon we quarrelled at Arezzo / / over a
camera , where all divine / / Piero’s great frescoes stand.”  “Your Ita
The Black-out
older boys / / would rush through the
camp -site, flat / / out, crying out “Louise, Louise, / / save me”.  /
Vignette
ate to give.  / / Huddled in his barbed
camp we fret, we grieve / / numbly under his rifling hands, but he /
Age
napped in exotic places / / —Katmandu,
Campdown Races, / / the Sphinx, the Blarney Stone.  / / Or the places
Tourist
asons are late this year): / / pink of
campion and wild geranium, / / toad-flax, cow-parsley, yellow straggl
[Late October hedges]
se in the hedge is answered / / now by
campion in the grass / / while the grass-skirted poppy-dancer / / di
Dance of the Seasons
h a falling star), Border Ballads, / /
Campion , Wyatt.  A little later on / / Lycidas draws ahead of L’Allegr
Poetry
to lose but chains?”  So why / / slave-
camps , torture (body, mind) to compel / / blind, obedient conformity,
Betrayals
by Yeats.  / / Well, this park was the
campus / / of a small East Coast college, / / the girls young academ
Grace
/ / Well, so patterns shift.  / / The
campus was beautiful, / / grass and tall trees, / / grave colonial b
Grace
and through / / the eye of the Corinth
canal .  Another grows / / in the far corner of Weymouth Bay, at Ringst
Bury My Heart
dustrious humanity / / (industrious as
cancer -cells / / building their busy colony / / which kills their ho
Mother’s Malison
.  I believe / / our game was worth her
candle after all.  / /
The Reckoning
the palpable vision.  / / The guttering
candle flared up straight.  Out.  / / Night claimed him.  / / But in th
Pietà
n his heart, / / the old man carved by
candlelight / / behind a locked door, hitting / / recalcitrant marbl
Pietà
s of conscious conscience?  Oh / / what
candyfloss / / I know they are.  / /
Dinner
ed the repeated, the unique scene, / /
canopied the still trolley, trundled in / / with girl or boy.  Boy or
Block 21
rigging, air / / on rope and wood, in
canvas , clap, rattle.  / / His arm along the tiller, the live thing /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cold in its gold-mounted phial.  / / In
canyons of the high-slummed hill / / sick children sell themselves fo
Naples
ought up a mist / / or blown the cloud-
cap from a point of truth?  / /
In the Audience
century / / took her cliff-top walk at
Cap Martin / / with a clever little boy, Kenneth Clark, / / how many
Time’s Reach
, it’s our love that melts / / the ice-
cap on that love—its living force / / shifts into proportion resentme
[White foam sweeps]
/ and the tokens of his birth / / (the
cap , the sandals, and the sword) / / rot unclaimed under the stone.  /
Dark Age
nnot see.”  / / “I am not all that I am
capable of,” / / I said, “but what you want I cannot be.  / / Elsewhe
The Black-out
mingly you do not see) / / an attested
capacity / / for causing irritation to those I love / / even though
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
s to his left, a second / / and longer
cape , almost sunk in the blue, / / reached out from a remoter range,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Those barren ranges / / climbing from
cape and cliff…  He felt the grim / / threat, shivered in the sun.  So
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / He was abreast now, nearly, of the
cape / / and drew in closer.  Huge cliffs black and red, / / footed i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the plain.  / / South from the southern
cape lay mystery.  / / Home, he found fuss and news, a messenger / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Today he eyed the coast between the
capes / / and felt constricted, narrowly hedged in.  / / West, his mo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
velling.  / / Far ahead still the south
cape’s silhouette, / / darker and hard on the bright water, marked /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Choice / Hatred’s well invested.  The
capital / / grows year by year.  Love / / lies in the current account
Choice
/ we found the drink was out / / —the
Captain had to pick on me / / to fetch another lot.  / / I didn’t kno
A Ballad
1981 / England’s proud barque, / / her
captain mad, her crew in mutiny / / but bound in no purpose or unity,
England, 1981
are, / / but caught by chance / / or
captained by a fool / / drifting drove on this shore.  / / These are
A Wreck
ow he knew the love / / he’d been made
captive by the image of / / was true, and his beyond this last defenc
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uild / / memory and life; the artist’s
captured moment / / lives like a memory / / and, would we live, we m
Moment and Memory
new / / relation? (live—dead).  / / In
car , bus, train I / / want the journey not to end / / even when the
For Cecil
o, are, / / no less than cigarette and
car / / creations of humanity.  / / From the astonishing age when we
The Rift
muted lights but a familiar air / / a
car .  “Hullo; get in.”  Familiar too / / the friendly voice, and I was
The Black-out
e done and all we could / / do, as the
car -road rives the wood.  / /
The Rift
to malice moved or bitterness.  / / To
Carabosse all things are ground for hate, / / but here we meet the ot
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
—loss, / / negation, new-moon darkness—
Carabosse !  / / And words like cave-drips from her cold mouth dropped:
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y—all gone / / together to the castle? 
Carabosse / / had seen to that?—or else the other one?  / / He washed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
she plunged gaily in / / but he feared
Carabosse in the thorny brakes / / and coaxed her to the ford; soon f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ows?  / / But the last word is not with
Carabosse , / / or in this story was not, or not yet.  / / Dusk was al
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er close / / and called aloud, defying
Carabosse / / “We are together and each other’s own.”  / / He heard,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ne colour, spilled / / beside whatever
carcase in the dust.  / / As first, think of these last: / / this man
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
ider / / that more cars may carry more
carcase -ladings / / farther, faster, in their frantic, red-queen, /
Full Circle
ain, / / but recognise vengeance for a
cardinal sin; / / honour all bravery, but not pretend / / that war i
Prayer to Truth
/ / in fifty-two pieces like a pack of
cards ; / / and the faces whirled in intersecting circles / / with th
Nijinsky
with you still.  / / A careful house of
cards has fallen flat: / / turn to a firmer building now.”  “I will” /
The Black-out
y.  / / Enjoy today’s beauty and forget
care .  / /
Relax
/ Our gratitude weighs no less than our
care .  / /
May Day, 1986
carelessness.  Have learned from that to
care .  / / A central part of our love’s nature (more, / / don’t you t
[Yes, you’re right]
ded / / the life-blood water with more
care .  And though / / extreme exhaustion and thirst-sickness did / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
earned how not to care / / find how to
care become a failing skill: / / am seldom now made inwardly aware /
Teach Us…
ainst reason.  / / But most, surely, to
care .  / / Care for ourselves (how else / / can we understand caring?
Caring
and having painfully learned how not to
care / / find how to care become a failing skill: / / am seldom now
Teach Us…
ruth), most, like Sydney / / dying, to
care for others.  / / The image of Sydney's death / / is mythical, so
Caring
n.  / / But most, surely, to care.  / /
Care for ourselves (how else / / can we understand caring?) / / more
Caring
tched the cold sands.  / / With painful
care he worked round to his right.  / / The cliffs.  And under them a f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ere in despair / / at man’s failure to
care , / / his obsessive, his mad drive to go / / on down the same ol
Antipodes
p long, / / awake netted in human / /
care , lingers among / / down, under spread wing; / / growing, never
Parenthood
ve her there for good if you don’t take
care .  / / No, down a bit.  Yes, there—a bit to your right.”  / / “Than
On the Border
/ He found himself again, with greater
care , / / severing tough stems and more than Gordion-tied / / knots.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
was stilled for now, and in the other’s
care / / they walked, indeed they rode—at the bank-side / / a trim b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
little at Love’s hand / / they did not
care to make a stand / / against so huge an enemy.  / / Towards that
Masque
Good unbelieved-in God, why should you
care / / to show a kindness to an atheist? / / single him out as ble
Uncertain
in time, would be / / a bet I’d hardly
care to take, / / love as I do humanity.  / /
Mother’s Malison
e of the young, / / yet in that loving
care / / yield themselves to no / / oneness, will not even come, /
Woodpeckers
ed on the rock.  One arrow gone.  / / Be
careful .  He looked where the two flasks lay.  / / A bow, eleven arrows
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
good and time is with you still.  / / A
careful house of cards has fallen flat: / / turn to a firmer building
The Black-out
or once perhaps in three / / hands of
careful kindness count / / into the bowl the grains of rice.  / / Far
Dinner
lie to chart and log.) / / We must be
careful where we tread: / / the path across the quaking bog / / lies
Lost
/ / could wait.  He drew his knife, and
carefully / / began to cut his way.  He forced the task / / to be the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
h made him hesitate, / / and laying it
carefully in the reeds at last, go back / / and tell the king he had
Finis
dit walk the earth / / while the hero,
careless , bored, / / hunts the gamy hills alone, / / and the tokens
Dark Age
the other crop (tare / / in the wheat)—
careless insensitive unkindness, / / small but so painful it cannot b
Treasure
reedom, which our fathers stole / / in
careless , unregenerate days, / / and we enjoyed, we hand back whole,
Recessional
well how kindness may be killed / / by
carelessness .  Have learned from that to care.  / / A central part of o
[Yes, you’re right]
self existing / / as one with others,
cares for others also.  / / In tedious winter as in teasing summer /
Patience
d with self alone / / nor only others,
cares for self existing / / as one with others, cares for others also
Patience
/ / and nothing in plant or tree / /
cares if it sprout or wither.  / / Nestling and cub go free / / of th
Parenthood
she’s hysterical / / and one no longer
cares / / to put a rough thought into kinder words / / or keep it si
Back Room, 1944
lost limb… / / fingers supple / / to
caress or grasp, / / unravel muddle, / / adapt chance, / / determin
Lopped
/ the fairy-promised girl.  That thought
caressed / / him still, even while he limped mechanically / / into t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ience pushes, pulls her to people.  / /
Caresses , words, make occasional contact.  / / And now the vision begi
Nadia
selves (how else / / can we understand
caring ?) / / more for other things (beauty, / / truth), most, like S
Caring
Caring / We are here for many things / / mostly at variance: / / to
Caring
ar-old Louise adored / / wicked little
Carly Gancher, / / and did just that.  / /
Vignette
Vignette /
Carly Gancher at four / / knew all the answers and a good many more,
Vignette
Dream under a
Carob -tree / They dance in rings, dancing, a ring of women, / / a rin
Dream under a Carob-tree
e boys of course were nothing / / —and
Caroline , he may have had a thought for her / / but one would not exp
“Tell Lady Byron…”
e / / beauty, breed out of death, / /
carpet again the heath / / where once, between rose / / and larch, H
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
leaf follows its crooked trail / / to
carpet the bare wood, / / days in any season of them all / / when yo
[Golden, red, brown]
summer’s green tent now / / this brown
carpet ; yet this brown carpet’s not / / that summer four years gone—t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / this brown carpet; yet this brown
carpet’s not / / that summer four years gone—that’s gone to rot / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the six white horses swept the golden
carriage .  / / The young queen looked, and a curve suddenly / / gave
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
on the yard, straight from above:  / /
carriage -top, horse-backs, backs of stooping men— / / one face: hers,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
can remember / / the Schooner Hesperus
carried me, / / a pressed man, to serve a lifetime / / under the sai
Poetry
day.  Today / / that sickly stream / /
carries away / / the knot of tissue and nerve, / / structurally / /
Miscarriage
erhaps, but hard to say / / since each
carries the other at its core) / / pollute love, discolour grief.  /
[Feelings of guilt]
bulus’s girl, Anaxo, / / was picked to
carry a basket for Artemis / / to her holy grove in the feast-day pro
Spells and Love
t plea allowed could never fail / / to
carry a built-in reprieve, / / a passport to eternity.  / / No, let m
A Prayer
entred on the sea.  / / His nurse would
carry him along the shore.  / / He crowed against the seagulls and the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
I was very small / / my mother used to
carry me out there / / to see them, but old granny had a fall / / an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ds may be wider / / that more cars may
carry more carcase-ladings / / farther, faster, in their frantic, red
Full Circle
that roads may be wider / / that more
cars may carry more carcase-ladings / / farther, faster, in their fra
Full Circle
Sparta, Paris and Berlin, / / Rome and
Carthage , London and Edinburgh.  / / The world goes round and the word
On the Border
/ Not that I was ever / / a competent
cartwheeler / / or steady in a handstand / / —ran like another thoug
Climacteric by the Sea
(not after I was younger / / than this
cartwheeling child) / / yet never lacked, do not lack, delight, / /
Climacteric by the Sea
imacteric by the Sea / / / / A child
cartwheels by me on the sand / / where my steps now are staid and hea
Climacteric by the Sea
and autumn…  Man proposes… / / winter’s
carved boughs… and hark, how sing…  / / Man’s seasons, though, link in
Man’s Seasons
d broken in his heart, / / the old man
carved by candlelight / / behind a locked door, hitting / / recalcit
Pietà
lemming counterwish, / / that in that
case as in this / / (man and dinosaur) / / it is some built-in devic
What goes up must come down
e likelihood seems thin / / and in any
case we go / / sure only of our sin.  / /
Living and Dying
Label / The objects in this
case / / were taken from a grave: / / a pair of ear-rings, gold, sim
Label
/ / in frost and ice.  The black twigs
cased in glass / / rang on each other in the bitter wind.  / / A magi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Presage /
Cassandra screamed that Troy would fall / / and no one noticed her at
Presage
Cassandra’s Song / Beauty and dreams of beauty flourish.  / / Earth le
Cassandra’s Song
ou the other?  / / Even the shadow / /
cast by a cypress / / is cypress.  Shadow / / of willow on river / /
Five Poems for Roni
ed him as peers.  / / But now the net’s
cast in other waters / / more gleaming wonders leap from the mass:  /
Poetry
cret, o enchanted space / / thus spell-
cast into time and space, / / we shall not tread your turf, or snuff
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
onging blood allay its heat, / / flesh
cast its bloom and shapely hands grow sharp.  / / Here be content only
Inscription for a Convent
n fancy / / indissolubly long / / and
cast its mirror-image / / against the clouds ahead: / / a heaven to
Other World
hin / / to passers jealous, cold, / /
cast on the blind the silhouette of sin.  / /
A Window
oor, / / the driven and lost, / / who
cast or crushed out of the casual world, / / drawn to the river but f
The Embankment
he girl / / nibbling a hard green / /
cast -out shell.  / / Coaxed into feeding / / with raw husk and stalk
The Green Children of Woolpit
“The interest that through all shadows
cast / / shines still is yours, and mine through you,” I said,    /
The Black-out
side—pity / / and love:  “The spell is
cast which must unbless, / / but I can half uncurse it.  Needling fate
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed, empty—all gone / / together to the
castle ?  Carabosse / / had seen to that?—or else the other one?  / / H
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s through.  / / Beyond an empty space a
castle -gate / / stood open.  He went in.  No one at all.  / / No one.  T
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
might in fairy-story go / / some magic
castle , leaving a bleak moor.  / / We followed on across the dreary ci
The Black-out
or morrow, / / at work alone on a sand-
castle , or calling / / another to see some trove dredged from the wat
For Rachel
ng down saw half-unconsciously / / the
castle ruined.  But she was there in sight.  / / He caught her by the g
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t home really belongs to this.  / / The
castle ruined, the great thorn-barrier / / was breached and withered
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
boughs not yet bare / / concealed the
castle still.  To one not knowing / / this might have been an uninhabi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / and food, wine and more food.  The
castle store / / was low, replenishment impossible.  / / The boy went
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ld within the world of children, / / a
castle that waves (we know) before tomorrow / / will smooth back into
For Rachel
the wood / / should mark him near the
castle .  Then he knew.  / / He hurled himself against the armoured mass
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hunt.  Those three months gone / / the
castle was for nine their quiet home.  / / But now the Queen, it seeme
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oor widow far away / / to be a hunting-
castle’s housekeeper.  / / Far among far-spread forests half-ringed by
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
where the others said.  / / (The seaman
casts his thought ahead, / / but sandbanks shift under the fog / / g
Lost
der cloud or clear stars / / what wind
casts on what shore / / these baulks to which they cling, this water
Shipwreck
this glittering skein the light-source
casts you / / … and yet… and yet / / reaching you so, it surely shou
September Cruise
r walkers not returning / / may turn a
casual parting to a last, / / though the night be deprived of moon an
The Black-out
st, / / who cast or crushed out of the
casual world, / / drawn to the river but from it still withheld, / /
The Embankment
.  / / Insult-tinselling flattery, / /
cat -and-mouse of proffered hope, / / pretend kindness…  Grind the axe,
Royal Family
L’Allegro), Marvell, Donne / / (Go and
catch a falling star), Border Ballads, / / Campion, Wyatt.  A little l
Poetry
d if it were / / no hand would rise to
catch it.  / / This is a place without legend / / but not less magic.
Water in a Wood
ring in the new” / / but you can never
catch the changing / / years.  Time flows unbroken through.  / / What
New Year
s of our life, / / not like the camera
catch the fading moment / / to hold it like a dead leaf in the hand. 
Moment and Memory
/ / next year”.  / / Have you tried to
catch / / these autumn flutterers?  / / Almost all elude your snatchi
[Golden, red, brown]
ingered green / / of an ash-tree, / /
catches the look, / / lifts the heart / / to a still starburst / /
Summer Vision
Her untaught child-hand / / impossibly
catches the movements and their sound.  / / Faces express feelings, re
Nadia
olished shells or polished shields / /
catches the sun across two thousand years.  / / “Good-bye.”  “Good luck
On the Border
tray so much.  / / These too her pencil
catches , / / these and their inwardness.  / / But kind patience pushe
Nadia
Catharsis / Lear storms.  / / The fool’s laughter / / takes the wind
Catharsis
g and changing as we go, / / like some
cathedral , centuries / / a-building.  But that image, as / / the othe
Cedar
ll of flesh in fire / / as Protestant,
Catholic , turn and turn about / / burned one another in the name of /
Betrayals
Against Anorexia:  For
Cathy / / / / This demon that has come / / between you and your pl
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
eaming wonders leap from the mass:  / /
Catullus , Villon, Aeschylus, The Song of Roland, / / Leopardi, Theocr
Poetry
and tommy-gun / / where crave in their
cat’s -cradle of barbed wire / / these prisoners of war.”  / / We have
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
flecked with white of large convolvulus
caught / / among blackberry-flowers with torn edges / / and honeysuc
The Grass Road
/ he swung it high to strike me / / —I
caught and held it high, / / but he pulled out his pistol / / and la
A Ballad
/ at least as all ships are, / / but
caught by chance / / or captained by a fool / / drifting drove on th
A Wreck
“and more the full moon shed / / when
caught by night my second day in Greece / / we lost our way about the
The Black-out
y moved, / / wheeled in the air, a sun-
caught cloud, and flew / / together up the westering fork.  The powers
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
my wits left me.  My wretched heart / /
caught fire.  I must have looked awful.  I don’t remember / / a thing a
Spells and Love
, what people!”  / / Unhappy women / /
caught from their open world into a cell, / / uncomprehending, lost,
War-time Anecdote
ed.  But she was there in sight.  / / He
caught her by the gate-house.  “Where am I?  / / Who am I?”  She clung t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eens, / / white birch-trunks, blue sky
caught , / / hide darkness where that fish is moving / / like an esca
Water in a Wood
in, and the unpredictable / / current
caught him and forced him out to sea.  / / He fought it, and knew fear
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / and out, new-fired.  Then something
caught his eye.  / / A flowered bush, studded among the flowers / / w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
u over there!  / / One of your goats is
caught in a bush, caught tight.  / / You’ll leave her there for good i
On the Border
tumn?—which listened to, I’m done, / /
caught in the cycle again of seasonal longing, / / winter’s bare trut
Sixtieth Summer
om years ere light, / / that falls now
caught / / in the wide dew-pond of Mount Palomar, / / leapt from som
The Sea
le of the lake.  / / A hand came up and
caught it, swung it, a bright circle / / in the last light, before it
Finis
wn / / I hear my mother say / / “Each
caught leaf promises a happy day / / next year”.  / / Have you tried
[Golden, red, brown]
War-time Anecdote / “After they
caught me behind their desert lines / / I was in gaol, a women’s pris
War-time Anecdote
ed on complacently.  / / Later a figure
caught my eye / / —the same? another? odd.  / / The mirror made a rud
Reflection
god’s nail-paring, / / a silver sliver
caught on / / western darkness, hangs the moon.  / / Frosted stars ar
Exchange
in the whittled, bruised stone he left
caught / / that straight flame.  / /
Pietà
d.  / / And once when a great wind-gust
caught the water / / and spooned a pint of brine over his head, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
One of your goats is caught in a bush,
caught tight.  / / You’ll leave her there for good if you don’t take c
On the Border
face she could not glimpse; but she was
caught , / / trapped, pinned on the rough bank; yet still she fought,
Pelopia and Thyestes
cross and sweep / / the world before a
cause , but none the more / / to sit and wait and lull your powers asl
The Black-out
rtive love can be / / called the first
cause , however sharp its sting.  / / You are unhappy because you dare
The Black-out
cent hate.  / / Let not our knowing our
cause the better be / / condition in us of complacency, / / the cert
Prayer to Truth
/ / to nothing, but we cannot see the
cause / / which moves the tides of gain and loss.  / / This year we s
Winter Solstice
“Gale is Dead” / May we assign a
cause ? / / —who cannot be content / / with a cruel pattern of stars,
“Gale is Dead”
Causes / Children of the mines / / on hands and knees in dark, / / w
Causes
want, though such things are / / good
causes for unhappiness, does not spring / / from them.  Unhappiness hi
The Black-out
see) / / an attested capacity / / for
causing irritation to those I love / / even though they love me.  / /
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
m.  / / He struggled out.  Soon, rested,
cautiously / / tried his fresh-water-swimmer’s limbs again / / in th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
darkness—Carabosse!  / / And words like
cave -drips from her cold mouth dropped:  / / “All remembered but I?  An
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
thing to keep them up, / / a lightless
cave whose emptiness takes all in / / and remains empty.  / / Their n
Where?
ge God’s / / affairs.  Go down into the
cave with Plato.  / / Make friends with Mammon, make Mammon your stewa
The Betrayal
d life dried soon, / / leaving a dusty
cavernous lump gaping / / at the sun, at the dead moon, dead as the m
Stones
the still moment of the absent sun / /
cease , be gone.  / / And saw begin / / out of the same darkness stran
Winter Solstice
s just that flat fact that what is must
cease .”  / / “But no.  No.  All that once has been delight, / / even if
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cigar / / perfumes the Ritz, my hands
cease from their art / / to take arms, not in this but a just war /
The Black-out
ightmares or wars, quarrels or waitings
cease .  / / “Martin” she said, “how goes your pilgrimage?”  / / No rem
The Black-out
/ / when all we see / / of land shall
cease / / to be, or change its nature, structure, form.  / / Within t
The Sea
ke the primal curse, / / yet should he
cease to prey / / the scales would tip one way.  / / There is a balan
Ecology
this coast.  / / She sat where the sand
ceased against the rock, / / an old, bowed woman, busily engaged.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
torch out of the ivory tower.”  / / She
ceased , and I turned from the waiting water / / and saw my brother mo
The Black-out
t.  / / The blood clotted and the tears
ceased to come, / / the sun climbed and declined, but he lay on— / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
comforted / / her fear.  The fawn soon
ceased to flee.  / / Over her breasts my hands moved gently, / / the
Love Scene
year “This is the end.  / / The sap has
ceased to rise” we think.  / / “Lay an axe to that brittle bole.”  / /
Renewal
rare night.  Beach deep / / in snow.  A
ceaseless gale that / / strips it.  Night for you.  / / Warm summer cy
For Cecil
’t sit down for a brief breathing, / /
ceaselessly pushed by the varying / / this way, that way, of the wind
Villon’s Epitaph
September Cruise / (for Tom, Les,
Cecil ) / Aegean / Kea Lion / Leaving Kea / Syros to Naxos / Occultatio
September Cruise
/ / a powerful hurt hits me / / that
Cecil can’t hear, see, / / can’t watch the change, the growth.  But af
A poem you may like to see
For
Cecil / Morning’s first light, spring light, a clear- / / eyed, firm-
For Cecil
For
Cecil / Tankas and haikus / Aldeburgh / Cambridge / The North / They b
For Cecil
ary date / / joggled the calendar / /
Cecil was still here, / / breathing the air, / / looking across the
Leap Year
in.  / / Beetle and man, / / grass and
cedar , climbed to complexity / / from cells formed in the sea / / —e
The Sea
Cedar / The cedar’s sunny terraces / / extend about a vault of shade
Cedar
Cedar / The
cedar’s sunny terraces / / extend about a vault of shade / / —inevit
Cedar
.  What is it?  / / Why, a great ball in
celebration of / / her fourteenth Christmas (she was autumn-born).  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e wintered senses wake / / to rack the
celibate and bless the pair.  / / Now evening trysts in orchards reach
May Day
y and Elizabeth / / each in her palace-
cell alone / / notching up which heads shall fall / / if she can onc
Royal Family
/ caught from their open world into a
cell , / / uncomprehending, lost, / / illiterate most likely, no reso
War-time Anecdote
t had been / / under the Italians.  The
cell -walls were streaked / / with red-brown smears.  Jesus, what peopl
War-time Anecdote
us humanity / / (industrious as cancer-
cells / / building their busy colony / / which kills their host and
Mother’s Malison
cedar, climbed to complexity / / from
cells formed in the sea / / —elementals that float on / / past (they
The Sea
atellite (faster, faster) / / of Alpha
Centauri (faster), of some guessed star / / in Andromeda’s nebula.  /
Curvature of Space
le or charged stillness / / of heroes,
centaurs , gods from the temple-gables, / / weight of a winged power /
Hermes of Olympia
Have learned from that to care.  / / A
central part of our love’s nature (more, / / don’t you think? than of
[Yes, you’re right]
-black and bloody, spinning, and in the
centre / / hung God Nijinsky, and Diaghilev not.  / /
Nijinsky
To one each turns, as / / to a natural
centre .  / / Now my centre’s gone.  / / I am haunted by / / a thought
For Cecil
speed-gathering flight / / from a lost
centre : seeming to press back / / dimension’s imperceptible boundarie
Macrocosm
t she would fill, / / she thought, the
centre with embroidery.  / / She’d meant it for the young wood-ranger,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
infinitely small / / and in no sense a
centre .  / / Yet here we are.  And here’s our apprehension / / of beau
Credo
on round it: / / action and dream were
centred on the sea.  / / His nurse would carry him along the shore.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s / / to a natural centre.  / / Now my
centre’s gone.  / / I am haunted by / / a thought: might it have been
For Cecil
e universe is not a whole.  / / Valiant
centripetality / / (Dante’s and Aristotle’s love) / / briefly cluste
Entropy
ing as we go, / / like some cathedral,
centuries / / a-building.  But that image, as / / the other melting i
Cedar
don’t believe, / / but after all / /
centuries of love / / and misery have sought / / here in the blank o
Villevieille
axed and watchful, / / serene over the
centuries .  / / Pirates and empires pass.  / / Life changes and goes o
September Cruise
e Empress Eugénie?  / / High nineteenth-
century / / Paris.  Rich, squalid, whirling Paris:  / / Winterhalter,
Time’s Reach
cks.  / / The old lady / / who in this
century / / took her cliff-top walk at Cap Martin / / with a clever
Time’s Reach
lways so much of love?  / / Why narrow,
cerebral , unhappy Annabel? / / the last person who should have picked
“Tell Lady Byron…”
st our wills / / a no less ineluctably
certain end / / for triumphant humankind, / / it does look probable
What goes up must come down
she said, “with flapping / / aimlessly
certain feet, as you have done / / always from that first party till
The Black-out
ready to / / move like the river to my
certain goal.  / / She smiled: “this is no loss,” she said.  “If you /
The Black-out
ird, like the wind / / they take their
certain , incalculable way, / / and passing lend / / our eyes percept
The Lilies of the Field
?  / / The tunnel spirals down?  Is that
certain ?  / / Or after all might patience, picking through / / the ta
Again
a pattern took shape in our ways.  / /
Certain rhythms repeat in the weeks and the years, / / of the seasons
Hymn
/ / Can only keep / / as to guilt, a
certain sense of proportion; / / an unforgetting longing for innocenc
Judgement
/ / In memory’s chest a drawer full of
certain treasures.  / /
A Hoard
/ for dying kills, my brother, / / as
certainly as death.  / /
[We lived and sang, my brother]
tes.  I move away / / admiring perhaps,
certainly disliking.  / / But today / / meeting your face suddenly, d
Hermes of Olympia
s along what now made itself known / /
certainly for a way.  But long neglect / / had left it more a guide-li
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ell.  / / He turned along the bank, and
certainly / / knew this was not his way.  Turned from the plain, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s I?  / / Or will he know?  He will not,
certainly .  / / My only joy to know I shall be he’— / / or might be h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
haps for no recording eye.  / / One day
certainly / / not recurring, / / the planet dying, dead.  / / This p
Credo
e little one perhaps was prettier, / /
certainly sharper, and inclined to laugh / / and laugh at him—which,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
old people who part / / knowing quite
certainly / / they will never see each other again?  Friends, / / not
What Do They Feel?
giving obstacles space, / / sensitive
certainty .  / / Honour this radar, this / / contrived effective wing.
Bat
appiness of the hour, / / unquestioned
certainty / / of an infinity more.  / / Weep for that trust betrayed,
Whom the Gods Love
ondition in us of complacency, / / the
certainty the other side is evil / / our compact with the devil.  / /
Prayer to Truth
ow and here, / / than this meaningless
cessation I do not share?  / / Autumn is here and lovely, / / the sea
Death
he grains, heavy fans shifting / / the
chaff from the freed grains.  One time, one way.  / / One image.  All ma
Dream under a Carob-tree
oman, man, / / womb-child) but all the
chain of life within / / the egg, the sperm, be hideously undone, /
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ul / / but he is built to kill.  / / A
chain of predators / / looks like the primal curse, / / yet should h
Ecology
there is; but I who wait / / invisibly
chained for—what?—to set me free / / am neither great nor likely to b
The Black-out
dromeda.  / / Andromeda, who naked / /
chained on a sea-rock, waited / / out of the wave / / a monstrous lo
The Sea
/ / and “What have you got to lose but
chains ?”  So why / / slave-camps, torture (body, mind) to compel / /
Betrayals
/ tables, stools, hangings, one great
chair , and all / / empty.  The play seemed waiting to begin.  / / Thro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
feet.  / / Past Camden Town we took the
Chalk Farm Road, / / turned with the tramlines along Ferdinand Street
The Black-out
ortland or up to Whitenothe’s / / high
chalk head.  / / A fifth in Ithaca, from the end / / of the long land
Bury My Heart
tched verse, and A.G. on a wall / / in
chalk R.H.  On the Roman vault / / Adam is made man in one image, Eve
Fossils
he had a real reason for haste / / but
challenged himself always to press on.  / / This restlessness robbed h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  A soldier must obey.  / / “You to gas-
chamber duty at Auschwitz.  You / / to herd the beasts in Belsen.  Stam
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
e easy slumber.  / / Now in a narrowing
chamber / / we pace and pace and turn, and pace and turn, / / and tu
That Way Madness Lies
; some flare smokily up; / / some by a
chance blow are untimely over; / / on others / / presses too hard th
Lamps
love can keep its faith / / there is a
chance (chance?) / / the frost will break, youth / / break to its na
Winter Recalled
e / / continually.  / / Odd chills are
chance .  Destined the steady glow / / our loving knows.  / /
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
grasp, / / unravel muddle, / / adapt
chance , / / determine beauty, / / explore truth…  / / Sheared nerves
Lopped
rld, / / all seeming happenings here a
chance effect / / of happenings there (and so on).  / / But on the si
Credo
/ / It takes long plotting or a lucky
chance / / for two to leave their towers at once.  / / One, heart in
The Party
and labour made / / perfect, what even
chance / / left unspoiled.  / / Advance / / is good, surely (as well
Progress
st as all ships are, / / but caught by
chance / / or captained by a fool / / drifting drove on this shore. 
A Wreck
kfulness / / each to other and to / /
chance or fate or God or what we choose / / to call it, for being thu
[Yes, you’re right]
th others fed his joy.  / / But unhoped
chance soon made him one with those: / / the princess wished to walk
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hive off on a gambler’s hope / / that
chance , sown on the wind, might somehow sprout / / in love.  His love
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
keep its faith / / there is a chance (
chance ?) / / the frost will break, youth / / break to its natural da
Winter Recalled
/ / may bear from wounds of spite and
chance / / the scars but be itself again.  / / Grey boughs beneath th
Hymn
d whether we / / have left ourselves a
chance to make / / a second choice in time, would be / / a bet I’d h
Mother’s Malison
o dominance / / is linked by more than
chance / / with a lemming counterwish, / / that in that case as in t
What goes up must come down
nk, when choice can muster strength and
chance .  / / Yet, while the arch is down, what should we do / / but d
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
sordid, ill-rich city, on / / towards
Chancery Lane, but turned once more / / north up the Grays Inn Road. 
The Black-out
more / / seeing the girl.  Preferment’s
chancy flow / / at court washed the poor widow far away / / to be a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ils, / / red velvet drapes, glittering
chandeliers / / (and dark past draped glass, Les Misérables).  / / Th
Time’s Reach
e’s pillared halls, / / the shimmering
chandeliers of Thrushcross Grange.”  / / But I: “remember Roe Head and
The Black-out
hedges again.  / / My year passing must
change but can’t renew.  / / I am out of sorts with self and others, w
Again
hedges.  Again / / my year passing must
change but can’t renew?  / / The tunnel spirals down?  Is that certain?
Again
.  / / House-bound I watched its beauty
change —clouds frown / / or cold sun brighten over it, and though / /
The Black-out
owers in the bramble’s room, / / small-
change for a cheapened purchase.  / / The seasons pass, the seasons co
Dance of the Seasons
rings—and oh, mountains! what a blessed
change / / from the flat ribbon stretching on and on.  / / The nurse’
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ched out from the flat green plain.  The
change / / in land-structure intrigued his thoughts today.  / / South
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / of land shall cease / / to be, or
change its nature, structure, form.  / / Within this same salt tide /
The Sea
/ yours.  Some things slip though.  / /
Change , knowingly made, all right.  / / Not, that’s not so good.  / /
For Cecil
Change / Language and landscape change.  / / What we were bred to seem
Change
but hard.  Very cold.  / / Why should a
change of / / date in our artificial / / calendar seem so / / signi
For Cecil
up).  Is our real wealth, / / the small-
change of our love / / which passes hand to hand, / / powerless to o
Choice
which was not there before.  / / Though
change offend and hurt, / / immutability / / would be non-entity.  /
Change
mark.  / / He ate, and watched the sun
change on the wave, / / and in a dream was home again, and boasted /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Change Places…  / The Judge was very kind.  He called her up / / to sit
Change Places…
s town must choke you more than me.”  “A
change ,” / / she laughed: “remember Elbe’s pillared halls, / / the s
The Black-out
l can’t hear, see, / / can’t watch the
change , the growth.  But after all / / it won’t be long before I’m out
A poem you may like to see
hitected tree.  / / We plan a life, and
change the plan, / / as life goes on, or think we do, / / or think a
Cedar
/ / unbroken, unthinned, quite without
change , until / / he almost thought that it could have no end.  / / S
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Change / Language and landscape
change .  / / What we were bred to seems / / immutably the same, / /
Change
epeats in the repeating season / / and
change with time you will, he will.  / / But love be with you still.  /
Epithalamium
and wet, / / moves into summer with no
change .  Yet / / the brave blossom is white, / / and this first day o
Upward Turn
isit.  / / But time went on and nothing
changed at all.  / / These are the springs of my love.  Mark them, lady
Spells and Love
through circumstance / / love will be
changed but does remain, / / may bear from wounds of spite and chance
Hymn
f / / the unresponding grave, / / are
changed in spring’s breath.  / / Stripped trees put green on.  / / Not
The Difference
of a girl sleeping on a bed, / / then
changed , merged, telescoped.  The point was made.  / / The sky-ring sha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ws and light / / stretched far out but
changed quickly between night and night, / / till the field reached a
Hymn
hangelessly changing, / / the changing
changeless cliffs, and thoughts and dreams.  / / More dream than thoug
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
guide.  / / The birds, the ruffled sea,
changelessly changing, / / the changing changeless cliffs, and though
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Pirates and empires pass.  / / Life
changes and goes on, / / hard among these terraces of vine and thin c
September Cruise
st that, sinks choked and chilled, / /
changes to hate—for much more than each other: / / for life, which th
Law Report
/ So.  This way too…  Suppose the weather
changes / / what hope for a small boat, what hope for him, / / betwe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eternity.  / / The train moves.  Nothing
changes .  / / What in this city / / do we share?  Best, Dominick / /
For Cecil
k at any rate we can, / / planning and
changing as we go, / / like some cathedral, centuries / / a-building
Cedar
ed sea, changelessly changing, / / the
changing changeless cliffs, and thoughts and dreams.  / / More dream t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / unbelievable ranges / / of daily
changing colours.  / / Someone had stuck to the hired window / / a co
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
The girl came into the church / / from
changing light, / / birdsong and trees, to stone / / and a half-ligh
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
he air’s brightness, / / watched light
changing on broken rock, as day / / climbed and declined.  And dreamed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he birds, the ruffled sea, changelessly
changing , / / the changing changeless cliffs, and thoughts and dreams
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng / / through the melting now / / in
changing unchanging round, / / build the world where we must build.  /
Exchange
e new” / / but you can never catch the
changing / / years.  Time flows unbroken through.  / / What of that cl
New Year
king the charted darkness where / / (a
channel for the silver boat, / / the golden boat) the Zodiac / / thr
Night
d rears / / now the tower, round whose
channelled stone / / speeds gather as lives hurtle down.  / /
Anniversaries
experience / / alone could grave those
channels , from those strong / / contours erode the softness.  Beautifu
In the Audience
with age’s oncoming you harden / / the
channels of our thought as of our blood, / / yet raise each spring ne
Prayer to Time
this reach of life / / with a singular
character .  / / The beauty of the flower, / / enough of course in its
Epoch
d-up pane, / / can that loud trumpeter
charge again?) / /
Nadia
/ of a vaster matter (as the electron’s
charge / / might hold a universe).  Or perhaps / / our time, space, m
Credo
Olympia / After the others—struggle or
charged stillness / / of heroes, centaurs, gods from the temple-gable
Hermes of Olympia
parents / / by fibres, filaments / /
charged with subtle currents. / / which must flow on to others.  / /
Parenthood
owing no god in honesty I may) / / for
charity .  / /
Original Sin
homet, God or gods.  / / Paul’s song of
charity I love, in Plato / / the passionate search.  Great spirits, Pa
The Betrayal
hers had filled; / / but Cromwell (and
Charles / / the foolish and false) / / they it was killed.  / /
Merrie England
ve her; another kindness; and wit; / /
charm ; and a true heart.  They did not give love.  / / Love would follo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ll.  / / Traditional ornament and lucky
charm / / in every house…  A sea-people…  The sea— / / oh for the sea!
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
which need not arise / / from beauty,
charm or cleverness, / / which does not sense the boundaries / / of
Love…  No
/ moved, hesitated, afraid to break the
charm .  / / Pausing to quell his heart again, to breathe, / / trembli
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
The bloom’s gone—she’s coarse— / / the
charm too (she had it)—now she’s on heat / / the whole time, can’t ke
Love Scene
muck / / lest he find them clear.  / /
Charred field, / / clotted stream.  / / I have spoiled my world / /
Scorched Earth
ft under the fog / / giving the lie to
chart and log.) / / We must be careful where we tread: / / the path
Lost
s of the planets float / / marking the
charted darkness where / / (a channel for the silver boat, / / the g
Night
thor / / of Le Rouge et le Noir and La
Chartreuse de Parme.  / /
Time’s Reach
f age and distance spun / / out of the
chasm of depth and past— / / but surely no less truthfully / / age-t
Night
; intrusive memory’s sudden force:  / /
chastity and desire, / / acts of childhood, parents, affection, age;
Wedding Night
k man on his bed.  / / I sit by him and
chatter —not a word he’ll say.  / / I bring him food, I bring him drink
Greek Folk Song
phecy / / are lost to Apollo, lost the
chatter of water.  / / His chattering fountain’s dry.  / /
The Last Oracle
—Utopia or the martyr’s palm— / / The
chatterers have their sound, the beautiful / / their coloured-shining
The Party
lo, lost the chatter of water.  / / His
chattering fountain’s dry.  / /
The Last Oracle
/ of Donne, a little Langland, a lot of
Chaucer , / / other Milton (flawed glory of Paradise Lost) / / The Wh
Poetry
bramble’s room, / / small-change for a
cheapened purchase.  / / The seasons pass, the seasons come.  / / One
Dance of the Seasons
on, because as steward / / he tried to
cheat his master?  Were I God’s / / (if I believed in God), were I His
The Betrayal
a and Majnun, / / loving children / /
cheated by a feud, / / sundered, bewildered, dead, / / breathe from
What Hope?
er and cold.  / / There a child / / is
cheated of its natural star, / / forefailed / / through odds of brut
Dinner
He (like Plato?) / / hope that, though
cheating Him, our serving Caesar / / may yet bring Caesar back with u
The Betrayal
eward?  / / It was, when all is said, a
cheating question.  / / The head He had them show Him was, no question
The Betrayal
/ / That way he trudged, and suddenly—
check and chill— / / knew himself not alone upon this coast.  / / She
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lly / / towards the grown-ups / / (to
check that they are there).  / / Give him a smile / / sometimes.  Do n
[Time is a child]
hin the wood, it forked.  He paused, but
checked / / his reason’s helpless wondering, and strode / / down the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ with Life-enhancement / / cheek to
cheek .  / /
Sea Cliff
dances / / with Life-enhancement / /
cheek to cheek.  / /
Sea Cliff
hen we fold / / fond revisiting loves,
cheek will be cold, / / salt from sea-wind.  / /
Out from the Cliff
and a choked-down cry / / lost in the
cheers of the domestic mass / / as they drew still, and out the welco
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
single room.  On a rough block / / were
cheese and bread, a jug of water.  Down / / in one corner he saw a few
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rn / / and things we shall not live to
cherish / / others are born to burn.  / / Fire-raising autumn, black-
Cassandra’s Song
undergrowth, / / keeping down vermin,
cherishing the deer.  / / His dreams shrank further into fantasy.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ft, sweet strength of spring, / / till
chesnut -blossom scattering heralds again / / the hedge-rose and the s
Sixtieth Summer
nd me suddenly whiten.  / / In memory’s
chest a drawer full of certain treasures.  / /
A Hoard
knocking at.  / / I’ve bad drugs in my
chest , Mistress, things I bought / / from an eastern pedlar, who taug
Spells and Love
nd harsh.  I feel harden / / here in my
chest that lump of childish lead / / (and a man’s framework croaks to
Revisited
hearted / / —orange blinds, fountains,
chestnuts flowering, / / red mullet and tomato sauce, and sun; / / m
The Black-out
yellower than goldenrod / / and their
chests shone brighter than you are shining, Moon, / / fresh-oiled fro
Spells and Love
ts / Dog-shit in London; / / New York,
chewed gum.  / / To each culture-surface / / its proper scum.  / /
Pavements
/ But felt at once her natural kindness
chide / / her churlishness; and felt, too, gratitude.  / / This love
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
act, of death.  / / What do I see?  / /
Chiefly the urgency / / of looking, rather, deep / / and long, with
[Now of threescore and ten]
it was not that, / / not that at least
chiefly which made him hesitate, / / and laying it carefully in the r
Finis
e last: / / this man, this woman, this
child .  / /
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
ng throws / / the unstable beauty of a
child .  / /
Summer
/ Now in humility / / I must become a
child again, and pray / / (if knowing no god in honesty I may) / / f
Original Sin
full of hope, full of hope’ he told the
child — / / and found there, not the worst, but the next worst / / th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eping.  So she took him / / once more a
child asleep, took him in love / / that would not leave him till he d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
[Time is a child] / Time is a
child / / busy with his own play, / / glancing occasionally / / tow
[Time is a child]
sent only (child, woman, man, / / womb-
child ) but all the chain of life within / / the egg, the sperm, be hi
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
Climacteric by the Sea / / / / A
child cartwheels by me on the sand / / where my steps now are staid a
Climacteric by the Sea
is an empty / / world, where bird and
child exist like water / / and today is yesterday and is tomorrow.  /
For Rachel
hot from the Court—the Queen and royal
child / / expected daily.  / / Always, other years, / / the King and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r riding country, where you played as a
child / / growing the you I love.  Yet that land / / I move through i
Two Poems for G
ace.  / / Not seeing only.  Her untaught
child -hand / / impossibly catches the movements and their sound.  / /
Nadia
/ was sold five or six years before) a
child / / happy in the long grass, the hot sun.  / / Open my eyes now
Summers
ful passion obsessively distilled.  / /
Child , happy; princess too.  The boy was only, / / at first, a servant
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
such buds swelled, / / Dropped from my
child -heart, grow / / there where they were buried long ago: / / one
Bury My Heart
/ hungry for bed, home, mother, like a
child .  / / Hungry too for the sight of the princess.  / / But at the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Original Sin /
Child I believed / / that in my nature I was true and kind.  / / It h
Original Sin
Otherworld / When I was a
child I shall come to you / / a child too in the old garden.  / / A s
Otherworld
sand a small way from the water / / a
child is building, wrapped in private silence, / / small crystal worl
For Rachel
e between hunger and cold.  / / There a
child / / is cheated of its natural star, / / forefailed / / throug
Dinner
/ behind me coming in.  / / So did the
child , / / jumped from his seat and ran / / straight for the line.  /
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
faces in her face, / / a dancer and a
child , / / long ago, long apart, / / each out of time and space / /
Meeting
/ to reassure, make contact with, the
child .  / / Looked into Down’s / / Syndrome features.  / / A happenin
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
cracks / / barking about her, the poor
child makes tracks / / out of the temenos.  Outside she came / / to s
Pelopia and Thyestes
of Hyacinth’s temperament.  Just such a
child / / mankind appears: of knowledge insatiate, / / secret on unw
Greenham Common
/ / and love—as love comes to a happy
child : / / mother and nurse and father, near and dear, / / taken for
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / the season-sloughing mother.  / /
Child of man and woman, / / slow from the womb coming, / / sleeping
Parenthood
y lay, and the princess, / / the fated
child of many day-dreams’ yearning / / whom he must somehow save.  The
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o beach-sand; as shrill calling / / of
child or bird leaves the next moment empty.  / / Look on the walls, lo
For Rachel
s in the dark ground / / with the dead
child .  / / Popular name for archaeologist / / is grave-robber.  / /
Label
ords and smiles.  / / Between woman and
child , / / something of two faces in her face, / / a dancer and a ch
Meeting
Vision Between Waking and Sleep / A
child standing in a wilderness of snow / / looking in at my door:  /
Vision Between Waking and Sleep
rself blush, laughed ‘Oh how nice’—half
child / / still, if already half woman, and soon / / to leave childh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
en.  Stamp out the Jew, / / man, woman,
child .  (The dying can be made / / to stack and burn the dead.)” / /
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
Dead at Sharpeville / This woman, this
child , this man; / / and there; and here; these many in this dust /
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
[Time is a
child ] / Time is a child / / busy with his own play, / / glancing oc
[Time is a child]
) / / beloved and loving, but a lonely
child , / / timid, he walked his long dreams with a friend / / who’d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing / / but others within the crystal,
child to children / / as gull to gull across the sand and water.  / /
For Rachel
seize are / / not mine.  My soul cries (
child ) to stay up late—“Oh / / don’t send me to bed yet—I want to pla
The Betrayal
was a child I shall come to you / / a
child too in the old garden.  / / A spring morning, light green, dark
Otherworld
/ This darkness then was visited on the
child ; / / until they killed her, and the police took over.  / /
Law Report
apart, the old.  / / I know I am not a
child .  / / (Up to a point I know / / —have I ever really, though, /
Climacteric by the Sea
plain words, what no one gave / / this
child was love.  Without love / / all those happy things are mockery. 
“Gale is Dead”
Law Report / This
child was thrashed to death for thieving, lying / / and filthy habits
Law Report
en played their mother / / played as a
child ; where she and I, young, / / walked together, in love with one
[White foam sweeps]
ant, eager, delicate approach / / of a
child who barefoot down a pebble beach / / makes for the sea.  / /
Separation
e river / / and favourite uncle to the
child who had / / first opened to him.  But he told them little / / o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
obey.  / / “That not the present only (
child , woman, man, / / womb-child) but all the chain of life within /
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
rld.  And incidentally / / the prince’s
child -world was a different one.  / / A hunting-wood his father’s king
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / Impossible Hyacinth, though, was a
child yet, / / and man’s an infant still in earth’s life-span.  / / I
Greenham Common
was younger / / than this cartwheeling
child ) / / yet never lacked, do not lack, delight, / / would be whol
Climacteric by the Sea
eatures, / / your friend, sib, spouse,
child , you and you.  / / I am the sea.  Do not forget me.  / /
The Wave
sweetheart-flower these have not:  / /
childheart (while the swallow / / settles down, the cuckoo’s / / voi
[Housman was old beyond his years]
st out of beech- / / woods, Berkshire,
childhood , Anabel, the flood / / waits for the turn,” began my helper
The Black-out
eady half woman, and soon / / to leave
childhood behind—if anyone / / really does that; and if, for her, the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bered, no memory-wakening voice / / of
childhood , but herself set out of age; / / “in my heart and in yours
The Black-out
er penny-face of the same visions, / /
childhood .  / / From a deep layer suddenly thrown / / up, a clear ima
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g / Summer recurs.  / / Green fields of
childhood greet us / / washed with yellow and white, / / daisy and b
Two Summer Songs
hed, refined, / / was with him all his
childhood .  He never knew / / a time he did not know it; and behind /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
everything / / lovely, ephemeral / / —
childhood , innocence, love, / / dream; passing, perishing / / —passi
[What words are there for Spring?]
/ / chastity and desire, / / acts of
childhood , parents, affection, age; / / necessary and unnecessary dea
Wedding Night
nick and Jo / Through untimed fields of
childhood the shadows and light / / stretched far out but changed qui
Hymn
to Time / O Time, whose hand about our
childhood’s hand / / led us delighted through the opening day, / / t
Prayer to Time
nd of love / / (garden more sweet than
childhood’s happy valley) / / and having crowned us king and queen th
Prayer to Time
rden / / here in my chest that lump of
childish lead / / (and a man’s framework croaks towards death, in bed
Revisited
small crystal world within the world of
children , / / a castle that waves (we know) before tomorrow / / will
For Rachel
but others within the crystal, child to
children / / as gull to gull across the sand and water.  / / Look, on
For Rachel
nt? ’84 / / you were in, not ’85.  / /
Children (bright-coloured / / mufflings against a white snow / / slo
For Cecil
iet, / / Leila and Majnun, / / loving
children / / cheated by a feud, / / sundered, bewildered, dead, / /
What Hope?
/ / her narrow barren road.  / / Loves
children , could have been a loving wife.  / / Would have been bride, w
Eugénie de Guérin
/ unaware as waves almost, the sanded
children / / dot like sea-birds, sea-shells, the beach, that empty /
For Rachel
h other?…  / / Lived happy ever after?… 
Children ?…  Dozens / / of questions where a story finishes / / follow
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
image: birds of Coole, / / Lir’s three
children , Elsa’s brothers, / / and the white godhead, Leda’s lover.  /
Bicycle Ride
and in a new love, a wife / / perhaps,
children .  For him it was not so.  / / He made his way to the head fore
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
by his own brother’s hate / / his own
children for meat, / / learning the horror, fled / / … night and day
Pelopia and Thyestes
Authority breaks, calling, the world of
children .  / / Gone the seagulls, silence.  The beach is empty, / / an
For Rachel
her, in love with one another.  / / Our
children , grandchildren; your sea, your land; / / our good love in it
[White foam sweeps]
ing-uncle, with his wife and their / /
children .  He scowled and went to bed.  What is it / / that makes an ad
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
not there.) / / And kind he is, loves
children , keeps his hate / / all for the hateful, is just what he see
Change Places…
/ shakes the crystal bubble about the
children .  / / Light slopes, lengthens the shadows of the children /
For Rachel
errents / We must, if we would have our
children live, / / do more than understand, more than forgive, / / m
Against Deterrents
ather’s sins / / visited always on the
children .  Must / / the final turn / / of the irreversible screw / /
May Day, 1986
Causes /
Children of the mines / / on hands and knees in dark, / / weight of
Causes
The Green
Children of Woolpit / Over beyond the river / / the children said /
The Green Children of Woolpit
alk far out by the ripples’ edge, where
children / / paddle and shout.  The waves rustle.  Yet silence / / enc
For Rachel
f the guilty world.  / / Visited on our
children …  Part of the pain, / / the sickest element in our fear for t
[Our lives are in other hands]
ht slopes, lengthens the shadows of the
children / / parting, gathering, trailing across the empty / / sand,
For Rachel
s cold and colourlessly.  / / A child’s
children play by the shifting run / / of white water, where children
[White foam sweeps]
shifting run / / of white water, where
children played their mother / / played as a child; where she and I,
[White foam sweeps]
ally.  / / I stand on the balcony.  / /
Children run and shout / / on the beach, splash and shout / / in the
Climacteric by the Sea
oolpit / Over beyond the river / / the
children said / / was the shine of sunlight, / / on their side was s
The Green Children of Woolpit
yons of the high-slummed hill / / sick
children sell themselves for food.  / / Song… and blue sea… and on the
Naples
poem you may like to see / Watching the
children shouting in the pool / / a powerful hurt hits me / / that C
A poem you may like to see
r not you recurring, / / for these our
children soon not me.  Then / / for theirs not them.  / / One day perh
Credo
ass.  / / Tide out, on bright / / days
children splash / / in sea-pools at their base, / / or climb them, s
A Wreck
Headline /
Children stone a swan.  / / Troopers shot the fawn, / / Wanton brutal
Headline
the wit.  / / What did their children’s
children think of it? / / thin-legged and mocked, in London or in Lym
La Fontaine et le Déluge
u:  Paedophilia / Suffer the little / /
children to come unto me.  / / I come.  They suffer.  / /
Haiku:  Paedophilia
gold / / puts the dandelion out, / /
Children undress to bathe.  / / My crooked heart grows old.  / /
Another Summer
on us our fathers’ sin / / but on your
children visited.  / /
Recessional
tory does not say, / / nor whether her
children / / were common girls and boys / / or brought shimmering sh
The Green Children of Woolpit
o we share?  Best, Dominick / / and the
children who / / had no fares but an old hat / / he bought, wore to
For Cecil
good and brave, / / Kurt Huber and his
children :  / / Willi Graf, Christl Probst, / / Alex Morell, Hans Scho
Die Weisse Rose
I’d be afraid if I married her / / my
children would be like the bitch’s litter / / —born blind, and severa
Love Scene
un enjoyed the wit.  / / What did their
children’s children think of it? / / thin-legged and mocked, in Londo
La Fontaine et le Déluge
/ but reared in rigid abstinence, / /
children’s light voices and cool hands / / were all he dared to dream
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
lly / / in others.  Harder to bear, our
children’s lives / / are subject too.  And sadly we know ourselves /
[Our lives are in other hands]
wering hour, / / our children’s, their
children’s opening day?  / / We too, we two, / / are guilty with the
May Day, 1986
/ in our late-flowering hour, / / our
children’s , their children’s opening day?  / / We too, we two, / / ar
May Day, 1986
free / / from any mark, almost like a
child’s .  / /
Two Serenities
flowered into a swan; / / and if this
child’s beauty, ephemeral, fade / / rebuke no promise, made / / and
Joy
ind blows cold and colourlessly.  / / A
child’s children play by the shifting run / / of white water, where c
[White foam sweeps]
olour and music.  Shine / / of sun in a
child’s hair / / turns water into wine.  / / Here is the absolute.  /
Glimpse
ling and alit / / on love—not the half-
child’s romantic dream: / / some deep unknown knowledge of love, her
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
clear green / / (soft and strong as a
child’s skin) / / of earliest summer.  This is / / life, which live t
Seasons
long time getting started, / / but the
child’s straying fancy was alerted / / suddenly by “a knocking at the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / Yet endeavour / / to loosen the
child’s tether / / and to leave soon enough.  / /
Parenthood
nd from distant snow / / struck deeply
chill , but too worn-out for waking / / curled between two boulders he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ to warm us, be you, burn off / / the
chill crematorium.  / / To one each turns, as / / to a natural centre
For Cecil
ithdraws the light.  / / Hunched to the
chill / / hushed birds on boughs crouch, deep in grass the hare.  / /
Country and Town
way he trudged, and suddenly—check and
chill — / / knew himself not alone upon this coast.  / / She sat where
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the from the tomb. / / to hover on the
chill / / of fury and hate / / a fugitive goodwill, / / hardly to b
What Hope?
/ Waking before dawn always, stiff with
chill , / / still tired, set off simply to stir some heat.  / / Some a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
benches stir / / against the deepened
chill the worse than poor, / / the driven and lost, / / who cast or
The Embankment
ed, saw my guide, and turned again.  The
chill / / wind seemed among my bones.  Molly was gone.  / / The sky wa
The Black-out
waits.”  I turned to my father / / and
chilled beheld him gone; then where she led / / followed, but half my
The Black-out
t, perhaps; lost that, sinks choked and
chilled , / / changes to hate—for much more than each other: / / for
Law Report
winter, / / the spring’s pulse in the
chilled earth wakening, / / which to returning cold rehardens now; /
The Black-out
wooded clefts and the hot spring, / /
chilled him with horror and with terror.  / /
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
aris besieged, France lost, / / exile,
chilled in English Chislehurst, / / widowhood, soon to mourn / / her
Time’s Reach
are with me / / continually.  / / Odd
chills are chance.  Destined the steady glow / / our loving knows.  /
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
[Wind is chilly on shoulders] / Wind is
chilly on shoulders.  Buses pass / / but not my bus.  / / Comforting g
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
[Wind is
chilly on shoulders] / Wind is chilly on shoulders.  Buses pass / / bu
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
nch, sky and earth / / black with that
chimney’s cloud.  Squalor and pain / / reek under the clear sky round
Two Poems for G
ver green of the wood’s shadow / / sky-
chinked above, bluebell-pooled below.  / / This is my country I do not
Two Summer Songs
Content / Fish and
chips under the pines at Manly, / / looking across the small-boat anc
Content
ntain.  He lies below the face / / they
chiselled back to free the block.  This is his place.  / / Squatting on
September Cruise
ce lost, / / exile, chilled in English
Chislehurst , / / widowhood, soon to mourn / / her killed, her only,
Time’s Reach
what it was / / and knew the supposed
choice already made.  / / Freedom he’d half so longed for was now his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ pension gives the ailing old / / a
choice between hunger and cold.  / / There a child / / is cheated of
Dinner
ith our miscreations, which by one / /
choice , by one mistake, / / can leave an uninhabitable / / waste, hu
Consider
lifeblood to renew / / the link, when
choice can muster strength and chance.  / / Yet, while the arch is dow
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
Choice / Hatred’s well invested.  The capital / / grows year by year. 
Choice
urselves a chance to make / / a second
choice in time, would be / / a bet I’d hardly care to take, / / love
Mother’s Malison
she would have shared with us, / / no
choice is left us but to render war / / all glory and all power.  / /
Prayer to Truth
n he thought, there fronted him / / no
choice , no way—a mountainous barrier / / of thorn, lost in the woods
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / guided his thought to a deliberate
choice / / of dedication.  The offering of his life / / had been made
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he river-mouth.  / / A new trouble: the
choice of right or left, / / of wrong or right.  The desert-beach was
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and the harsh salt combined almost to
choke him.  / / He struggled out.  Soon, rested, cautiously / / tried
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he grime that palls / / this town must
choke you more than me.”  “A change,” / / she laughed: “remember Elbe’
The Black-out
/ / contact, perhaps; lost that, sinks
choked and chilled, / / changes to hate—for much more than each other
Law Report
ing wrong?  / / A bump, a flurry, and a
choked -down cry / / lost in the cheers of the domestic mass / / as t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
iage.  / / So, as the mists came up and
choked / / that very fiery particle, it was Lady Byron / / he wanted
“Tell Lady Byron…”
a pint of brine over his head, / / his
chokes and sputters ended, the nurse said, / / not in the tears she l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t should fill / / my days with action,
chokes them with excuse.  / / Find me the path missed on the clouded h
The Black-out
elf to paradise.  / / Father, spin your
choking web / / —you will rot there with the flies.  / / Insult-tinse
Royal Family
/ / My mother needs me here.  I cannot
choose .”  / / They parted, not pleased with each other or / / themsel
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o / / chance or fate or God or what we
choose / / to call it, for being thus unforehopedly blest / / in the
[Yes, you’re right]
actus-flower, / / we noticed Time / /
choosing to walk with us / / at our shared natural pace, / / and so
Two Poems from a New Life
/ / Much more because / / we feel our
chords so faultlessly in tune / / how can there be / / the makings h
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
into their timeless round of beauty and
chore / / and the established tyranny of his dream, / / more solid a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / After grassed acres, / / here you
chose stone to raise / / your lovely garden round.  / / Did you suffe
For Cecil
Yeats and Water-Birds / He
chose the symbol of the swan / / and that of the grey gull.  Nearer th
Yeats and Water-Birds
princess wished to walk the woods; they
chose / / to be her guide (oh, well-spent years!) the boy.  / / So th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
should flower / / (even before).  None
chose to give her power / / to love.  Better, they thought, keep fancy
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
se / / some people find / / they have
chosen even better than they knew.  / / May that be true / / (indeed
Epithalamium
g traveller / / (the youngest son, the
chosen man) / / at last suddenly across an unmarked border, / / thra
Los Altos Hills
me,” / / I said, “I would of all have
chosen you.  / / Through different worlds we take a different way, /
The Black-out
have been bride, with greater love, of
Christ , / / but stays with her father / / who needs her, loves her,
Eugénie de Guérin
d me where I lie.  / / Friend, you’re a
christened man, / / weep for me, weep for me.”  / /
A Ballad
e despair reborn.  / / The image of the
christening rose once more / / before him in its primal clarity— / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sun…  / / Put it as you will, / / the
christening -sisters meant / / to give her, if not all, / / much—look
“Gale is Dead”
/ was often in the air.  / / It was a
Christian country, / / of that they were sure.  / / This came later. 
The Green Children of Woolpit
any other / / —not the Father / / of
Christian thought, / / not the slain Son, / / God in man.  / / The G
Divinity
God and Caesar / / as equal powers.  So
Christians can make Caesar / / their scapegoat.  Might we, though, con
The Betrayal
/ He fooled the spies and priests, the
Christian’s question / / “Should not my life, my actions, all be God’
The Betrayal
rgetful of:  / / De la Mare very early,
Christina , the other Emily / / —trees specially sacred in the holy gr
Poetry
uber and his children:  / / Willi Graf,
Christl Probst, / / Alex Morell, Hans Scholl, / / Sophie Scholl.  /
Die Weisse Rose
, Sophie Scholl, / / Alex Morell, / /
Christl Probst, Willi Graf / / —so many years lost / / (none more th
Die Weisse Rose
l in celebration of / / her fourteenth
Christmas (she was autumn-born).  / / Why here?  The princess wants it
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of eighteen) / / came news again: this
Christmas -time the Queen / / comes with the court, and the princess. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed his brother, and I called him:  / / “
Christopher ”, and he stepped out of a train / / of shamblers, saying
The Black-out
Chrysalis / The
chrysalis age of waiting is not wasted.  / / The prisoner has time to
Chrysalis
Chrysalis / The chrysalis age of waiting is not wasted.  / / The priso
Chrysalis
at the sky.  / / They must home to the
church / / and the girl must die.  / / They set a stake in the square
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
on their side was shade.  / / Sound of
church -bells / / was often in the air.  / / It was a Christian countr
The Green Children of Woolpit
érin’s Journal / The girl came into the
church / / from changing light, / / birdsong and trees, to stone /
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
should the path bring me to / / but a
church in a churchyard?  / / A little church, with few graves / / lyi
A Ballad
Villevieille / The
church is very still.  / / True, I don’t believe, / / but after all /
Villevieille
ping further on, look down / / where a
church sits small, alone / / on a small promontory / / and the sea-s
September Cruise
portico / / beside us of St. Pancras’
Church , whose sane / / classical stillness calmed the aimless flow /
The Black-out
a church in a churchyard?  / / A little
church , with few graves / / lying close together / / —brothers and c
A Ballad
path bring me to / / but a church in a
churchyard ?  / / A little church, with few graves / / lying close tog
A Ballad
nce her natural kindness chide / / her
churlishness ; and felt, too, gratitude.  / / This love was not that dr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rincess.  / / Watched, heard, the water
churning round a rock / / or falling whitely in a widening pool / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e she came / / to silence—or rather to
cicada -shrill / / stillness, where thickly-bushed steep mountain-side
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ Knowing men starving while the rank
cigar / / perfumes the Ritz, my hands cease from their art / / to ta
The Black-out
these woods too, are, / / no less than
cigarette and car / / creations of humanity.  / / From the astonishin
The Rift
ot a thought less strong / / than were
Circe’s or Medea’s or blonde Perimede’s.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, dr
Spells and Love
ooked again.  / / A pine…  Oh, fool—full-
circle fool.  He wept, / / knowing his weariness, knowing his goal /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
that eye, eye without sight / / whose
circle gathered both sides of the screen: / / conscious terrified eye
Block 21
hm fairly true, / / snaking in line or
circle , hand in hand / / between temple and altar and the crowd / /
Pelopia and Thyestes
me up and caught it, swung it, a bright
circle / / in the last light, before it sank in the lake.  / /
Finis
/ Consider this shrunk ball / / (words
circle it in seconds, you and I / / in twice the time perhaps the sun
Consider
ng his goal / / here, here, within the
circle .  Oh fool, fool.  / / Worn out he dropped on the leaf-mould and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Fledged presently, son, daughter, / /
circle , take flight / / from ours to outer world, build worlds in /
Out from the Cliff
Full
Circle / Uproot the rich hedges that roads may be wider / / that more
Full Circle
, / / his master was dying, the bright
circle was broken, / / withdrawn all brightness to this brightness of
Finis
/ a ring of men dancing on the marble
circle / / where they had laboured with heavy flails, beating / / th
Dream under a Carob-tree
g the unseen edge, / / the moon’s dark
circle / / which joins her crescent-tips.  / / Then we notice / / ho
September Cruise
ind / / levelling the light across the
circled space.  / / Slowly darkness seeped up out of the sea / / like
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ts those that love him, / / spreading (
circles from stone dropped in water) / / pain; and worse (last / / w
Stones
wide in open ocean / / —harmless?  Look—
circles of desert spread: / / seas and rivers, all water, sap, blood,
Stones
/ and the faces whirled in intersecting
circles / / with the spades and diamonds and clubs and hearts / / ni
Nijinsky
dead.  / / This planet, tiny speck / /
circling an only little less tiny spark, / / one of uncounted million
Credo
t in fear / / for some firm rock, rose
circling and alit / / on love—not the half-child’s romantic dream:  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, loud cries / / of fierce white birds
circling , fish-plunging, woke him.  / / He stretched and stripped, plu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of the quick-winged hounds, / / sharp-
circling sloops, prevails / / forcing it from its fishing-grounds.  /
Heron and Gulls
I can’t help it.  / / Seagulls cry / /
circling , swooping over / / the white, noisy water.  / / The call com
Climacteric by the Sea
wire / / I count twelve in a row?  / /
circling , twittering, sitting again there, / / gathering themselves t
Swallows
k, the nine-year-old princess?  / / The
circumscription of her small world’s rim / / held spreading riches: p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is an island’ or, if / / brine-girt by
circumstance , / / a desert island then.  / / …  Yes, there is still lo
Touch
d / / through odds of brutal, hopeless
circumstance .  / / But pangs of conscious conscience?  Oh / / what can
Dinner
and be.  / / Through season and through
circumstance / / love will be changed but does remain, / / may bear
Hymn
at that and, clever, / / found ways to
circumvent them which they never / / guessed.  She was sempstress now,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / We followed on across the dreary
circus , / / pit where the sordid alleys of the poor / / march with t
The Black-out
pause to con her, / / but in the pale
Circus stood one alone / / just where the moon threw Eros’ shadow on
The Black-out
but straight, gold in the sun, / / the
cities of Greece: which flowered in her own spring, / / withered thro
Greece
fumes of brimstone spill / / from the
cities of the plain.  / /
On the Border
.  Blast them!  Wars!”  / / Behind in the
cities words boil up to war / / —Athens and Sparta, Paris and Berlin,
On the Border
lling / / detail of trees and harbour,
city and beach, / / against the rising, broken range, through which /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ampstead sleeps above / / the quenched
city , and talk.”  But she: “to-night / / you shall not home so soon; i
The Black-out
is God, not Caesar.  / / From the good
city bravely back old Plato / / framed laws for shadow-men.  Does He (
The Betrayal
ves.  Nothing changes.  / / What in this
city / / do we share?  Best, Dominick / / and the children who / / h
For Cecil
st have been before / / they built the
city .  Far away—’ he threw / / his right arm out.  That beach.  He’d bee
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
opes; far beyond those / / he knew the
city lay, and the princess, / / the fated child of many day-dreams’ y
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
or / / march with the sordid, ill-rich
city , on / / towards Chancery Lane, but turned once more / / north u
The Black-out
ilent and dark behind the nebulous / /
city receded; crossing slope and stream / / we lost all trace of habi
The Black-out
strange / / there should be times this
city sits me ill?”  / / “Brussels, Roe Head, Law Hill—exile and prison
The Black-out
uck them, thousands; struck through the
city , / / struck Pericles, whose statesmanship / / had brought them
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
e suddenly / / gave her the sea-lapped
city where this marriage / / should make her life.  Strange, and most
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / Their sweep enclosed the harbour-
city’s bay— / / rock rising to a mountain, to a range, / / sand stre
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
low.  / / Wheatfields fired, a pleasant
city’s sack / / —these in the other scale-pan you must throw.  / / Re
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ashed and patched and looted.  Clean and
clad , / / his bow restrung, his quiver once more full, / / he set ou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o live in the lands above the sea, / /
claim nothing within the sea’s reach.  / / Easy to live below the buil
The Wave
hat if this war is won / / the good we
claim to do waits to begin; / / or lost, an acreage to our hands is l
Prayer to Truth
dle flared up straight.  Out.  / / Night
claimed him.  / / But in the whittled, bruised stone he left caught /
Pietà
her prince / / had praised her beauty,
claimed to worship her, / / and made a pass; but left her little move
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mind in Greece, among rocks, still / /
clambered Hymettus.  Suddenly stood plain / / great St Paul’s, and bef
The Black-out
rappling the rock.  And dressed / / and
clambered nimbly up the cliff and on.  / / High on the col, late in th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hurled on rock was lost / / in general
clamour and din.  But he was sure / / though he put all his weight and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eaves and grass / / till a hard winter
clamped suddenly down / / in frost and ice.  The black twigs cased in
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
coast / / could not be seen.  Even the
clap and roar / / of water heaved and hurled on rock was lost / / in
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, air / / on rope and wood, in canvas,
clap , rattle.  / / His arm along the tiller, the live thing / / movin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
once more / / before him in its primal
clarity — / / and could that last best apparition be / / here but to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ers— / / or the whole ring an unflawed
clarity — / / he learnt the infinite variation of days, / / season’s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / with a clever little boy, Kenneth
Clark , / / how many lifetimes earlier, / / a fourteen-year-old count
Time’s Reach
/ / Hecate’s come to the cross-roads! 
Clash the brass quick!  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him (you know w
Spells and Love
/ / young and middle-aged / / and, a
class of their own, in pairs / / or singly, greeting each other / /
Climacteric by the Sea
he boundaries / / of sex or age-group,
class or race— / / the single greatest human good, / / sign of our b
Love…  No
of St. Pancras’ Church, whose sane / /
classical stillness calmed the aimless flow / / of gall.  From such a
The Black-out
Sugar and spice…  / / Shatteringly / /
clatters back in the bleak wind / / an ill-latched shutter of the min
Dinner
trunk and leaf, dark but clear, / / a
Claude , a dream.  / / A sword was never tossed in here, / / and if it
Water in a Wood
ith the cracked / / torso, tilted on a
clay foot, / / stands crowned with gold and is mankind.  / /
On the Towpath
d dolls of clay; / / likewise of fired
clay , half a dozen crocks, / / five of them black, prettily formed bu
Label
at remained); / / two jointed dolls of
clay ; / / likewise of fired clay, half a dozen crocks, / / five of t
Label
Our idols fall.  Not that their feet are
clay / / —their feet are ivory, their hair is gold, / / all we belie
Against Pedestals
ted stars are veiled / / in black.  The
clean air is thick / / suddenly with snow, / / blind in a whirl of s
Exchange
/ / He washed and patched and looted. 
Clean and clad, / / his bow restrung, his quiver once more full, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
m the shadow of a tree / / came clear. 
Clean from my heart the black cloud fell; / / softly the fresh wind m
The Black-out
roke in my hand, / / the steel snapped
clean in two.  / / A Turkish dog came riding, / / his scimitar he dre
A Ballad
ng stream of our love, which flows / /
clean of those.  / / A further bliss to bless you for.  / /
[Feelings of guilt]
He sat down on the sand, / / tried to
clean out the shell but cracked it—would / / gladly have fled, but st
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / while I look up, points home, / /
clean through the stable-seeming spinning globe / / —drought-blistere
Antipodes
/ water—the mountain-water, sweet and
clean , / / was gone before.  “I asked him what he ate— / / seagulls h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ut other thoughts took over.  Combed and
cleaned / / he threw out two shells (broken) of the three, / / wrapp
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bleeding hands he harvested / / nine,
cleaned up three unbroken, placed them in / / his pouch, turned homew
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng did come bright.  / / Iridescent the
cleaned world, / / gem-colour-spangled.  / / And clear, still, diamon
Exchange
ges / / every trunk and leaf, dark but
clear , / / a Claude, a dream.  / / A sword was never tossed in here,
Water in a Wood
w.  He took it.  / / A clotted mass fell
clear , / / a natural tunnel from the other side / / opened to join h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ we first saw Florence resting in the
clear / / after-heat dusk of summer’s first decline.  / / “By such a
The Black-out
storm, / / and through this warm / /
clear air / / gooseflesh me with fear.  / /
Antipodes
top.  Turn.  TherE / / Now, look, under
clear aiR / / Is the wide world, waitinG / / Everything comes with t
[A long steep road to climb]
ed.  / / A wind touched me, and a voice
clear and strong: / / “trembles the coward soul?  But Anabel / / who
The Black-out
recall / / all his long age the scene—
clear as a dream / / and, like a dream, framed in obscurity.  / / Out
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
her thoughts, giving them shape / / in
clear , beautiful words.  / / For this they share, as well as their lov
Eugénie de Guérin
/ Hour after hour, hacking and dragging
clear , / / breathing hard, head swimming, while sweat and blood / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ he bought, wore to a première.  / /
Clear , bright, very cold.  / / A hard landscape, beautiful / / but ha
For Cecil
/ or dull.  Though unreturning / / this
clear brilliance, it will live unlost / / sealed in the amber past.  /
Joy
brooks with muck / / lest he find them
clear .  / / Charred field, / / clotted stream.  / / I have spoiled my
Scorched Earth
in” from the shadow of a tree / / came
clear .  Clean from my heart the black cloud fell; / / softly the fresh
The Black-out
phelia to Miranda:  / / “I too knew the
clear dawn; / / my bud was near to blossom.  / / But the thunder-ston
Dialogue
last upon a clue, / / draw one strand
clear , even out of this skein, / / now dogrose bushes star the hedges
Again
Morning’s first light, spring light, a
clear - / / eyed, firm-handed geometer, / / built an intelligible wor
For Cecil
smote him—light on the leaves across a
clear / / glade—smote him.  O beauty, delight, love, pain.  / / A viol
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bluebell-lake, / / and everywhere the
clear green / / (soft and strong as a child’s skin) / / of earliest
Seasons
have followed blind.  / / His head was
clear , his heart strangely at peace.  / / ‘I know my way’ he thought. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hts dwell in a vanished world.  / / But
clear , how clear / / its beauty in their memory burns, / / seeming s
[Some exiles know]
a deep layer suddenly thrown / / up, a
clear image: miles of sea-washed sand, / / miles, days—crossed by a r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n a vanished world.  / / But clear, how
clear / / its beauty in their memory burns, / / seeming so near / /
[Some exiles know]
nding storm / / the spirit’s eye keeps
clear , its footing firm, / / and tune its ear, too negligent in peace
Prayer to Truth
e studded belt, / / Betelgeuse and the
clear lamps.  / / Suns burn, worlds spin unhindered on.  / / This veil
Night
t, brother” / Winter morning.  / / This
clear level light makes beautiful / / all the brick-grey desert, the
“Life is sweet, brother”
over wood and hill, / / now wind-blown
clear , now eddying round again, / / the founts unquenched, the fumes
On the Border
/ / Hampstead Heath, which now low but
clear of cloud / / the eleven day moon whitened in front of us.  / /
The Black-out
ailed the bay and the bare reaches / /
clear of the heads, for sailing’s sake alone, / / his mind content to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Crows, pies have picked our eye-holes
clear , / / plucked beards and brows for their nests’ lining.  / / We
Villon’s Epitaph
/ long low black rocks enclosing / /
clear pools and foaming / / firths of tide, fencing / / the cowrie b
Bury My Heart
/ / distant, streaks a field / / with
clear puddles of gold.  / / Two truths to accept / / with a crooked n
Another Summer
y / / innocent form, a dolphin curving
clear , / / scattering diamonds.  Man was born to hope).  / /
Advent
ter.’  / / It came unnaturally calm and
clear .  / / ‘She is my lady and a prince’s wife.’  / / He stumbled, lo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
se hills that climb and part, / / this
clear shore.”  / / No more.  / / Mind knows Time has closed that door.
From a Train
Together, love spreads bright under the
clear / / sky, from our feet laps to eternity.  / / Alone each listen
Parted
d.  Squalor and pain / / reek under the
clear sky round your birth.  / / Anne Frank lost her breath into that
Two Poems for G
words speak in the ear / / startlingly
clear , / / sometimes beautiful, / / sometimes silly, / / sometimes
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
t man can do it.  / / Now we begin into
clear space to spew it, / / this speck’s contaminated overspill / /
Man in Nature
not matter / / now, nor under cloud or
clear stars / / what wind casts on what shore / / these baulks to wh
Shipwreck
rld, / / gem-colour-spangled.  / / And
clear , still, diamond-lit / / by washed stars is now the night.  / /
Exchange
orage / / to the sail-flecked harbour. 
Clear , still evening light.  / / Stillness undisturbed by the minuscul
Content
he was gone, and gone.  / / The sky was
clear , the dawn-wind light but good, / / as he moved outwards in his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / Strontium 90 we need perhaps, to
clear / / the stench of Belsen from the atmosphere.  / / The diapason
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
No overthrow / / of tyranny / / will
clear the way / / for their return.  Too old, / / their thoughts dwel
[Some exiles know]
y there / / but not, that seemed quite
clear , to be attained / / by climbing now.  A steep glen at his feet /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Decorum / Death’s paradox dissolves our
clear ‘to be’:  / / Their not being, having been; yet, having been, /
Dulce et Decorum
love standing in / / my heart deep and
clear / / turns the dull thoughts lying there / / to shining jewels.
Letters
ng life, behind / / a smooth forehead,
clear , utterly free / / from any mark, almost like a child’s.  / /
Two Serenities
old friends.  / / Between you you shall
clear your house and your kingdom / / of the parasitic clutter.  But d
Odysseus
/ / she wrung the water from her blood-
cleared dress, / / sluiced her own dried blood from the aching place,
Pelopia and Thyestes
sing lend / / our eyes perception of a
clearer air / / a brighter day.  / /
The Lilies of the Field
ss of the far solstice approaches, / /
clearer , blacker against the sky are spread / / patterns of twigs, ju
Dance of the Seasons
ows unbroken through.  / / What of that
clearer frontier, ranging / / life against death? surely a true / /
New Year
/ God in man.  / / The Greek saw / /
clearer , truer, / / when he knew / / long ago / / in sun’s light, /
Divinity
t, / / shining against a forest.  Then,
clearer yet, / / her form, her face, the dear unknown princess.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
often.  Sometimes though / / don’t you
clearly see / / this lump the faithful image of your soul?  / / Is it
Body
went.  / / But once (he now remembered
clearly ) when / / he asked her for a story—‘just one more’— / / a lo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of daisy and buttercup, / / freshness,
clearness of spring not quite gone / / in the long siesta of summer’s
Sixtieth Summer
the tower of loneliness / / but still
cleave to the tower of peace.  / /
The Party
im, every muscle aching, / / where the
cleeve widened to the junction of / / two larger valleys.  Wind from d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ow, though, the gathering of the valley-
cleft / / mountains beleaguered him, and offered him / / a dozen or
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
es in posse.  He for one / / showed the
cleft now.  / / He looked along the sand / / for something for his lo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
half-dry creek / / deep in its hidden
cleft .  / / There is more shadow than light / / but broken brilliance
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
ing and the stiffening, / / the wooded
clefts and the hot spring, / / chilled him with horror and with terro
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
aring my best long linen dress / / and
Cleurista’s wrap borrowed to set it off.  / / These are the springs of
Spells and Love
analysis, or yield / / meaning to the
clever , / / but even awake I seem / / from the depth of a dream / /
Words from a Dream
or needlework.  She laughed at that and,
clever , / / found ways to circumvent them which they never / / guess
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
liff-top walk at Cap Martin / / with a
clever little boy, Kenneth Clark, / / how many lifetimes earlier, /
Time’s Reach
e, though, construe the steward / / (a
clever thought) as double-crossing Caesar?  / / No.  The steward’s mast
The Betrayal
a pretty girl / / precisely, rather a
cleverly remade / / pretty doll.  / / Bright bleached hair curves in
Song
ed not arise / / from beauty, charm or
cleverness , / / which does not sense the boundaries / / of sex or ag
Love…  No
Sea
Cliff / A jutting stone / / yields, is gone / / down into air / / B
Sea Cliff
ressed / / and clambered nimbly up the
cliff and on.  / / High on the col, late in the afternoon, / / the ro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Out from the Cliff / Out from the
cliff birds wheel wild, a white / / fan, scattering wide over the wat
Out from the Cliff
sea, / / purposeful.  Suddenly from the
cliff -face swept / / a flight of white birds, wheeled over the boat /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the sea / / and grew at length into a
cliff -faced range— / / mountains!  The river-water was nearly gone /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
He took the bow.  A gull perched on the
cliff .  / / He aimed and loosed, but the shaft passed above / / and s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rren ranges / / climbing from cape and
cliff …  He felt the grim / / threat, shivered in the sun.  So what?  Go
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y in a widening pool / / from the next
cliff .  He stripped and plunged to cool / / his sweating body—knew the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s / / the smooth horizon, the unbroken
cliff / / held him as in a dream on either side.  / / And every day a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s to forget / / (night on the footless
cliff ) / / I hope I shall feel relief / / as well as, I hope, regret
[When the moment comes to forget]
.  Another at Iken looks / / from a low
cliff , like Saunton’s but topped with oaks, / / out over grey shining
Bury My Heart
Out from the
Cliff / Out from the cliff birds wheel wild, a white / / fan, scatter
Out from the Cliff
uest / The land stoops to the sea.  / /
Cliff , rock, sand, pebble beach, / / yielding or hard / / throw back
The Sea
/ / who in this century / / took her
cliff -top walk at Cap Martin / / with a clever little boy, Kenneth Cl
Time’s Reach
eared / / a great wall of south-facing
cliff , which stretched / / west, west to the horizon, straightly shea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the wind, aslant towards the stretching
cliff , / / while he wrenched at the sheets, salted and stiff.  / / Th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tuff, / / and then the void beyond the
cliff / / will swing him down and swallow him.  / / Life narrows down
That Way Madness Lies
/ the forest, fearful of the cloven and
cliffed / / wind-naked way.  He went peaceful to sleep.  / / Up early,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ve.  / / Later, in a swift gorge, rough
cliffs above, / / shared toil and danger made part of their dream.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and the curved surf-line closed / / in
cliffs and a rock-naked promontory.  / / That way he trudged, and sudd
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lone, / / his mind content to mark the
cliffs and beaches / / scanned by the eye, the seen one with the know
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of the two in one again.  / / So to the
cliffs and round the promontory.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
changing, / / the changing changeless
cliffs , and thoughts and dreams.  / / More dream than thought, inconse
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he worked round to his right.  / / The
cliffs .  And under them a fire was lit.  / / He staggered, crawled, dra
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the cape / / and drew in closer.  Huge
cliffs black and red, / / footed in shifting foam, crowned with thin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing now, / / where these cliffs, those
cliffs , curb that sand-edged plain?  / / He groped.  A glimmer, sinking
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the sea again / / and all between huge
cliffs fronted the sea.  / / No spot there where a small boat might be
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ft / / in short grass on low sandstone
cliffs , / / long low black rocks enclosing / / clear pools and foami
Bury My Heart
t-topped peak / / between two shadowed
cliffs sunlit, which said / / ‘I am your way’ (if butterflies can spe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
river hard to cross, / / and closed by
cliffs .  These cliffs, this promontory.  / / And all along that flat ed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cross, / / and closed by cliffs.  These
cliffs , this promontory.  / / And all along that flat edge of flat lan
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ad there, waiting now, / / where these
cliffs , those cliffs, curb that sand-edged plain?  / / He groped.  A gl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Climacteric by the Sea / / / / A child cartwheels by me on the sand
Climacteric by the Sea
hese rough woods, / / those hills that
climb and part, / / this clear shore.”  / / No more.  / / Mind knows
From a Train
[A long steep road to
climb ] / for Anna / A long steep road to climB / / Nears the top.  Tur
[A long steep road to climb]
w, out of the slums, Athenian poor / /
climb , for love no doubt, demonstrably / / for another purpose.  / /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ld him to follow it, / / descending to
climb further in the end.  / / An hour or so later and far below / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the clouded hill / / I set my feet to
climb .  Let me not lose / / the flame, whose power I feel of work and
The Black-out
limb] / for Anna / A long steep road to
climB / / Nears the top.  Turn.  TherE / / Now, look, under clear aiR
[A long steep road to climb]
/ in sea-pools at their base, / / or
climb them, sit, / / look out to sea, / / ships sliding by…  / / Roo
A Wreck
ntain-stream, / / turned and began the
climb towards the pass.  / / The mountains brought new muscles into pl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ht changing on broken rock, as day / /
climbed and declined.  And dreamed of the princess.  / / Watched, heard
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the tears ceased to come, / / the sun
climbed and declined, but he lay on— / / the princess and his mother
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
led up with light is fairyland.  / / We
climbed from there, and shall descend / / in a few minutes there agai
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
without ladder, he found himself, / /
climbed into his own light.  / /
George Jackson
rnoon, / / the rocks to left and right
climbed steep and bare / / to peak on peak, and on the right spread o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Beetle and man, / / grass and cedar,
climbed to complexity / / from cells formed in the sea / / —elementa
The Sea
and in them / / the recent waste.  / /
Climbing among pines / / the Parthenon lifts again its lovely head /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ade the shore…  Those barren ranges / /
climbing from cape and cliff…  He felt the grim / / threat, shivered i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s cold brightness / / where the sun is
climbing from cloud to its low noon.  / / The wind-swept flat horizon
[Bare trees black]
ing up along / / the two valleys, each
climbing its own way.  / / One must be right, he knew, the other wrong
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
it lifted from the sea / / flat on the
climbing land, flat on the coast / / the rock-piled and the sandy pro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
med quite clear, to be attained / / by
climbing now.  A steep glen at his feet / / falling away, told him to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is our earth’s alone, / / The cloud is
climbing on my sky.  / / Star after loved star vanishes, / / and thes
Night
e, pine and bare rock, / / broken rock
climbing to a point of snow, / / to the blinding blue of sky; diamond
Greece
e.  / / …O Love, harsh Eros, why do you
cling so hard? / / —pond-leech, sucking the dark blood out of me.  /
Spells and Love
t shore / / these baulks to which they
cling , this water / / in which they drown.  / /
Shipwreck
away / / to earth and slow decay— / /
cling unnaturally / / shrivelling on their ties, / / dying as the tr
The Difference
acing rock and field.  / / Here too sea
clings round the hard land / / but other water is rare, rare as trees
Varangian in Mickelgard
blows / / the hedge-rose, / / sways,
clings , / / white, pink, / / and I think / / lightly sings / / “Be
Divinity
house.  / / This fringe from Delphis’s
cloak he lost, and I / / now shred it and toss the shreds on the sava
Spells and Love
irl / / down among the flowers.  A soft
cloak spread, / / my arm round her neck, I comforted / / her fear.  T
Love Scene
ught the hard sinews, the horribly / /
cloaked face she could not glimpse; but she was caught, / / trapped,
Pelopia and Thyestes
rs said.  / / Watery mud-holes suck and
clog / / and to our vision’s limit spread / / flat as the sea, and s
Lost
He almost lived afloat.  / / Gurgle and
clop and slap and hiss, water / / moving along the moving hollow shel
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
weeping and trembling.  And he held her
close / / and called aloud, defying Carabosse / / “We are together a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pecking on the sand, / / getting quite
close before he loosed the string, / / the only thing that mattered—n
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / but nothing told him which.  Below,
close by, / / the joined streams formed a rock-pool, deep and spread.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
k, food / / begin to fade.  / / Lovers
close , held together, feud / / against wind.  / / I stand alone, shiv
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
/ I saw a tall girl, and not yet drawn
close / / knew Molly and stood still.  “But this once more is / / tru
The Black-out
t silver, bounded / / by clumped, huge
close -leaved trees, green and dark.  / / Something like an English par
Los Altos Hills
e wind of love; / / I open my arms and
close them on the wind.  / /
Wind
ttle church, with few graves / / lying
close together / / —brothers and cousins, I suppose, / / sticking by
A Ballad
ining / / loosens the bindings and the
close walls burst, / / but if the strong straining dissolves in weakn
Chrysalis
fortress”—smiled at him.  / / His eyes
closed , and he opened them alone.  / / ‘To be her prince and have her
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pleasant?  / / I thought, and the door
closed as I stepped in.  / /
The Grass Road
ssed by a river hard to cross, / / and
closed by cliffs.  These cliffs, this promontory.  / / And all along th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e / / image of your face as mask, / /
closed eyes swollen.  / / Snow under grey cloud.  / / Monochrome world
For Cecil
place, coming a stranger boy.  / / They
closed his eyes.  Now the palace was hushed.  / / Born in the purple?  W
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nst the shore, and the curved surf-line
closed / / in cliffs and a rock-naked promontory.  / / That way he tr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Day and night and day / / (time lost)
closed in fever’s bewildering storm.  / / His arrows one by one lost o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ts gong of boom and slump / / disaster
closed , like madness on a dancer.  / /
The Twenties
reat and happy life.  An early page / /
closed my unfinished book; how does yours read?”  / / I laughed: “a ha
The Black-out
/ / No more.  / / Mind knows Time has
closed that door.  / / But still the untaught heart / / would, half b
From a Train
isolated brain grows tight.  / / Roads
closed , wires cut, / / he sees no more the known nor knows the seen. 
Nijinsky
w, nearly, of the cape / / and drew in
closer .  Huge cliffs black and red, / / footed in shifting foam, crown
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
holding course / / but sidling always
closer , must perforce / / drive on the rocks at last, and that be all
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
isposes.  / / The lines recur, the poem
closes .  / /
Man’s Seasons
n’s Seasons / The lines recur, the poem
closes .  / / Once more the still-miraculous spring / / drowns as gree
Man’s Seasons
ckoning / / —the lines recur, the poem
closes .  / / Once more the still miraculous spring, / / summer and au
Man’s Seasons
s between knees, / / hunched shoulders
closing / / across the sunk glance, / / knotted, shrunk.  This / / i
Winter Recalled
him.  / / Life narrows down between our
closing arms, / / between our hands, between finger and thumb, / / w
That Way Madness Lies
/ / Now, down the mountain through the
closing day, / / stumbling, shaking, took the familiar way, / / hung
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
from the atmosphere.  / / The diapason
closing full in man / / breaks down in discord.  God must start again.
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
thud of finality.  / / Strange town at
closing -time, / / the street-cold world lies wide / / before the pri
Freedom
Another Spring / The field of
cloth of gold shines as it shone / / but now within under a winter gl
Another Spring
/ / He ran like those who race for the
cloth -of-green / / through the fields outside Verona, / / and among
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
r beautiful / / body’s emptiness.  / /
Clothe again / / in your lovely flesh / / this poor skeleton.  / / B
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
idored the town / / white to blindness
clothes its steep / / hill under the wrecked keep.  / / At the white
September Cruise
tile growth he pressed and thrust, / /
clothes torn, skin bloody, but he could not stop.  / / He gained much
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in the thorns, and wept.  / / The blood
clotted and the tears ceased to come, / / the sun climbed and decline
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ew / / strands now.  He took it.  / / A
clotted mass fell clear, / / a natural tunnel from the other side /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd them clear.  / / Charred field, / /
clotted stream.  / / I have spoiled my world / / for a bad dream.  /
Scorched Earth
/ / knew his polluted state / / (the
cloud a moment thinning) / / —for that unwitting sinning / / dared n
Pelopia and Thyestes
ild colours in / / sun-touched or dark
cloud .  / / A rare night.  Beach deep / / in snow.  A ceaseless gale th
For Cecil
good.’?  / / I laughed, and suddenly in
cloud and blaze / / rolled back across my heart the gain and loss.  /
The Black-out
, / / wheeled in the air, a sun-caught
cloud , and flew / / together up the westering fork.  The powers / / h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
saw in the broken, brightening western
cloud / / and shared with me / / the faintest brief arc of a real ra
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
nd shame—sweet / / day and night, / /
cloud and sun, stars, / / wind on the heath.  / /
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ime brought up a mist / / or blown the
cloud -cap from a point of truth?  / /
In the Audience
moon breaks, as the moon broke through
cloud / / despair thinned on my heart.  The moonlight fell / / on her
The Black-out
me clear.  Clean from my heart the black
cloud fell; / / softly the fresh wind moved; the stars were bright, /
The Black-out
veiling is our earth’s alone, / / The
cloud is climbing on my sky.  / / Star after loved star vanishes, / /
Night
struggle of the ape.  / / The future’s
cloud is gathered / / into a monstrous shape.  / / Yet here and now a
Other World
struggle of the ape; / / the future’s
cloud is gathered / / into a monstrous shape; / / yet here and now a
[Today we feel behind us]
tower whose far base disappears / / in
cloud (like Brueghel’s Babylon / / reversed) when first we’re launche
Anniversaries
Bicycle Ride / In front a black
cloud masks the sky.  / / Behind me the sun’s levelling beam / / illu
Bicycle Ride
osed eyes swollen.  / / Snow under grey
cloud .  / / Monochrome world from Cambridge / / to the Border.  Or /
For Cecil
-swept flat horizon / / under the high-
cloud -mottled pallid blue / / offers all colours equally subdued.  /
[Bare trees black]
grey steeple against a blue-black / /
cloud mounting blue sky.  / / I look through my own eyes and others to
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
ipe, her bearing age.  / / Still in his
cloud of rage / / he came to Sicyon.  / / He heard the hum and buzz,
Pelopia and Thyestes
ere does not matter / / now, nor under
cloud or clear stars / / what wind casts on what shore / / these bau
Shipwreck
or L) / Far down past melting drifts of
cloud / / remote and faint lies mother earth.  / / Above the station
From the Air
nd earth / / black with that chimney’s
cloud .  Squalor and pain / / reek under the clear sky round your birth
Two Poems for G
r / / out under lighter sky beyond the
cloud , / / sun-struck sometimes, but slate again soon / / under the
Varangian in Mickelgard
white blaze / / of light on water—dark
cloud , sweeping showers— / / or the whole ring an unflawed clarity— /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
stead Heath, which now low but clear of
cloud / / the eleven day moon whitened in front of us.  / / Over the
The Black-out
the low sun at my back] / Released from
cloud the low sun at my back / / brightens suddenly / / across the g
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
[Released from
cloud the low sun at my back] / Released from cloud the low sun at my
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
ea—and sudden I saw new, / / as out of
cloud , the moon; as hanging over / / Croyde Bay or Ringstead Bay.  Cam
The Black-out
ess / / where the sun is climbing from
cloud to its low noon.  / / The wind-swept flat horizon / / under the
[Bare trees black]
life’s path, where fate / / takes like
cloud unpredictable shapes.  / /
Uncertain
ugh in a storm, dripping / / gently, a
cloud .  Water—always the sea, / / dark slate under a nearing storm, si
Varangian in Mickelgard
not tell her why.  No hint of fear / /
clouded her rosy thought of being loved— / / a new thought almost; th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
se.  / / Find me the path missed on the
clouded hill / / I set my feet to climb.  Let me not lose / / the fla
The Black-out
groped into the murk.  / / The moon was
clouded , I was deadly tired.  / / This defeat and the inescapable dark
The Black-out
bones.  Molly was gone.  / / The sky was
clouded over; my feet were heavy; / / houses and trees printing their
The Black-out
cast its mirror-image / / against the
clouds ahead: / / a heaven to be happy / / again when wrong is dead.
Other World
House-bound I watched its beauty change—
clouds frown / / or cold sun brighten over it, and though / / my hea
The Black-out
May Day, 1986 / Reactors burn.  / /
Clouds of ruinous dust / / wander in the random winds.  / / We know t
May Day, 1986
Relax /
Clouds roll off.  Summer is truly summer, / / green sea foaming in cow
Relax
[The clouds that pressed the air] / The
clouds that pressed the air / / heavily on my heart / / are quite aw
[The clouds that pressed the air]
[The
clouds that pressed the air] / The clouds that pressed the air / / he
[The clouds that pressed the air]
/ have its day / / till suddenly / /
clouds thin / / under the sun / / and he’s raring / / to gallop awa
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
se fields and trees / / would, if grey
clouds were even on the sky / / or if the sun were bold and high, /
Early Train
ny from / / the forest, fearful of the
cloven and cliffed / / wind-naked way.  He went peaceful to sleep.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e.  / / I’ll go tomorrow to Timagetus’s
club / / and see him and tell him off for treating me so.  / / Now, t
Spells and Love
s / / with the spades and diamonds and
clubs and hearts / / night-black and bloody, spinning, and in the cen
Nijinsky
/ / the tangles, light at last upon a
clue , / / draw one strand clear, even out of this skein, / / now dog
Again
long and burnt silver, bounded / / by
clumped , huge close-leaved trees, green and dark.  / / Something like
Los Altos Hills
rock, and presently / / glimpsed them,
clumped low under the water-line.  / / He waded in and took one in his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e fallen before / / (my feet almost as
clumsy as my fingers) / / but always up almost before I was down, /
The Fall
s been at board and bed / / sullen and
clumsy as the dead.  / /
Interrogation
Body / ‘This
clumsy creature conceals, / / traduces the true me’ / / That’s what
Body
house.  “Where am I?  / / Who am I?”  She
clung to him with this moan, / / weeping and trembling.  And he held h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
te’s and Aristotle’s love) / / briefly
clusters these specks which we / / have briefer occupation of, / / b
Entropy
and your kingdom / / of the parasitic
clutter .  But do not think / / to live in peace.  The angry sea-god /
Odysseus
e skilled driver swung / / the heeling
coach home through a needle’s eye / / into the court—but was there so
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ells—here was the sea; / / and in this
coal a leaf—this was a tree.  / / Leaf and shell / / are with us stil
Fossils
se in a long rampart, crowned / / with
coarse grass—pricked him and drew blood.  He smiled / / thinking of he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ loitering, spying on her high griefs—
coarse , rude— / / crossly she turned her look and step aside.  / / Bu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
se can have her.  The bloom’s gone—she’s
coarse — / / the charm too (she had it)—now she’s on heat / / the who
Love Scene
in many shapes.  / / Today he eyed the
coast between the capes / / and felt constricted, narrowly hedged in.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
but fetch a gift / / from the unknown
coast by the unknown steep / / mountains, most rarely dared by any fr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ark was the campus / / of a small East
Coast college, / / the girls young academics, / / one as it happens
Grace
The noon was darkness, and the terrible
coast / / could not be seen.  Even the clap and roar / / of water hea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
water, grey / / shining mud of an East-
coast estuary.  / / The last, dropped more lately, took deep root / /
Bury My Heart
/ until, five days’ hard going from the
coast , / / he reached it.  Just before he made the top / / he turned,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d his thoughts today.  / / South up the
coast , miles to his left, a second / / and longer cape, almost sunk i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
— / / knew himself not alone upon this
coast .  / / She sat where the sand ceased against the rock, / / an ol
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
flat on the climbing land, flat on the
coast / / the rock-piled and the sandy promontory / / alike in his f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ but thinking of the mountains and the
coast , / / trusting the fairy’s truth, he led her on, / / weighed an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd.  / / The peaks were breaking to the
coastal plain.  / / That night was warmer.  He slept late, and then /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rock, shingle—continent or island, / /
coasts lost down bare horizons.  / / In widening intervals the wind /
Shipwreck
alking pastures / / in kingly-flashing
coats under burning rays.  / / By now the tide was running:  Keats, Hou
Poetry
is rotting age, / / yet he could still
coax from the air, / / note painfully on the waiting page / / for th
Beethoven
ved to swim, and learned the tide, / /
coaxed from his parents early a trim boat / / and an old long-shore f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Carabosse in the thorny brakes / / and
coaxed her to the ford; soon from the crest / / gazed on his kingdom,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a hard green / / cast-out shell.  / /
Coaxed into feeding / / with raw husk and stalk / / they lost some o
The Green Children of Woolpit
a and the far shores / / called him so
coaxingly .  He sensed also / / an unvoiced elders’ plot to pair him of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Golgotha.”  / / And then I knew and the
cock crew.  / /
Quo Vadis
ows / / his trumpet over her head.  The
cock crows / / triumphant in her face.  / / Not seeing only.  Her unta
Nadia
s laughter, is sobbing.  / / Who killed
Cock Robin?  / / Cromwell, I think.  / / Victoria busily / / stamped
Merrie England
/ Its temperate depth sustains / / the
coelacanth unchanged / / from years ere light, / / that falls now ca
The Sea
of the irreversible screw / / fix the
coffin -lid down / / over humanity just / / in our late-flowering hou
May Day, 1986
/ he looked down a broad valley from a
col / / higher than any hill which lay beyond.  / / The peaks were br
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y up the cliff and on.  / / High on the
col , late in the afternoon, / / the rocks to left and right climbed s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd forgot the joy of eyes.  / / Valley,
col , valley formed his zigzag way / / by star and sun bent truly to h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hourly creeps / / stronger the tide of
cold .  / /
The Embankment
.  / / The night is trackless, deep and
cold .  / /
Night
to a première.  / / Clear, bright, very
cold .  / / A hard landscape, beautiful / / but hard.  Very cold.  / /
For Cecil
set like frozen spray, / / are some as
cold : all their mutations done, / / their spectral light’s a lesson t
Macrocosm
s vision is the image of his good.  / /
Cold , and a kind of darkness, which did not drown / / the blaze, but
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
from the north / / a steady wind blows
cold and colourlessly.  / / A child’s children play by the shifting ru
[White foam sweeps]
/ / of this warm, beautiful / / —and
cold , and horrible / / —but felt whatever way / / this endlessly abs
[Now of threescore and ten]
dead.  / / He picked himself up.  He was
cold and stiff, / / bruised, hungry—but at least could stand and move
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ent; and slowly ebbed again.  / / Numb,
cold and utterly worn out, he found / / that he was walking back down
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Upward Turn / Spring,
cold and wet, / / moves into summer with no change.  Yet / / the brav
Upward Turn
lasks, the bow, the quiver / / and the
cold ash.  All a dream it was not.  / / These and the message had been
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
en the sun / / woke him, he saw by the
cold ashes spread / / two water-bottles and a woodman’s bow / / and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n Cambridge.”  “I am in the ground, / /
cold bones in Haworth,” said the parson’s daughter; / / “he is in Cam
The Black-out
Spring Morning / Across a
cold bright air the sun / / slants.  The day and the year are young, /
Spring Morning
/ Bare trees black against the south’s
cold brightness / / where the sun is climbing from cloud to its low n
[Bare trees black]
pride:  / / I felt myself shrunk in the
cold , but whole / / and me; and turned to Emily, ready to / / move l
The Black-out
py kiss within / / to passers jealous,
cold , / / cast on the blind the silhouette of sin.  / /
A Window
nce and darkness.  Darkness, silence and
cold .  / / Cold, silent, dark.  An endless impasse.  No / / answer, no
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
moon lighting the field path home.  / /
Cold …colder…then, a matter of moments, / / grass, brambles, everythin
Magic
uminous through sun-drenched days, / /
cold dew, shelly horns, bulls walking pastures / / in kingly-flashing
Poetry
he thought of the princess / / but in
cold fear.  He sat down on the sand, / / tried to clean out the shell
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rment, nor those who live / / haunt as
cold ghosts the memory of the dead / / but warmly help and guide.  /
Prayer to Truth
in-hidden in high day, / / cramped and
cold he stood looking up along / / the two valleys, each climbing its
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
turning tide.  / / The wind was up and
cold ; I shivered, watching / / the gondola grow smaller on the wide /
The Black-out
les / St. Januarius’s blood / / froths
cold in its gold-mounted phial.  / / In canyons of the high-slummed hi
Naples
e flesh / / to spiritual flights, less
cold , less hard / / make their deliberate bed / / than those that hu
The Embankment
ut never hunger and cold / / —not real
cold , let alone / / real hunger—not want / / and the consequent / /
Climacteric by the Sea
ne?”  / / Her face was memory where the
cold light poured / / and memory the colours in her hair, / / and in
The Black-out
hings we’ve not / / are in an absolute
cold light / / to sink or save us…  / / Or / / to be sent bach— / /
Balance Sheet
love have place.  / / Come in from the
cold moor.  / /
Vision Between Waking and Sleep
/ / And words like cave-drips from her
cold mouth dropped:  / / “All remembered but I?  And all so quick / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ft the deeper shade, / / and tired and
cold moved stiffly, vaguely on.  / / Soon to the Spaniards unexpectedl
The Black-out
of the soul, / / but never hunger and
cold / / —not real cold, let alone / / real hunger—not want / / and
Climacteric by the Sea
the brilliance, am a part / / of this
cold , rare / / new day.  / / You and I are still apart, / / only the
[The clouds that pressed the air]
Winter Garden / Under the grey
cold / / redder than brown, white / / crimson and green-gold / / th
Winter Garden
earth wakening, / / which to returning
cold rehardens now; / / but that thaw showed your earth is on the swi
The Black-out
ishing; / / but sometimes suddenly the
cold , retaking / / our hills, wiped from the world my fancied spring.
The Black-out
/ fond revisiting loves, cheek will be
cold , / / salt from sea-wind.  / /
Out from the Cliff
d calm.  Miles to his left stretched the
cold sands.  / / With painful care he worked round to his right.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ve.  She liked him well.  / / After long
cold she liked the warm.  / / A few tears formed but scarcely fell.  /
Ballad
truth she dare not meet.  Trembling and
cold / / she wrung the water from her blood-cleared dress, / / sluic
Pelopia and Thyestes
kness.  Darkness, silence and cold.  / /
Cold , silent, dark.  An endless impasse.  No / / answer, no possible wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pped, / / his water-bottle filled at a
cold stream, / / a shot bird roasted on a stick-fire.  On / / thin ro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
its beauty change—clouds frown / / or
cold sun brighten over it, and though / / my heart warms to the first
The Black-out
light / / colder than sea-pearl.  / /
Cold the wind too / / and I, as I was young, am now old.  / /
Night-piece
ng old / / a choice between hunger and
cold .  / / There a child / / is cheated of its natural star, / / for
Dinner
n with his world of hidden dreams— / /
cold , though, and hungry.  These bad seasons thinned / / the woods of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ong time ago, / / walking home, a long
cold walk, past midnight, / / I found the whole world round me sudden
A Hoard
andscape, beautiful / / but hard.  Very
cold .  / / Why should a change of / / date in our artificial / / cal
For Cecil
/ is coming, to drain all colour from a
cold world.  / /
What Do They Feel?
e town at closing-time, / / the street-
cold world lies wide / / before the prisoner free.  / / What now?  Fol
Freedom
new the fiery shock / / of snow-water,
colder than he had thought / / water could be, and sweet, sweet to th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ulder / / lays on the world light / /
colder than sea-pearl.  / / Cold the wind too / / and I, as I was you
Night-piece
ove.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / —I went
colder than snow all over.  A drenching sweat / / stood on my forehead
Spells and Love
lighting the field path home.  / / Cold…
colder …then, a matter of moments, / / grass, brambles, everything aro
Magic
s low] / Noon.  But the sun is low, / /
coldly bright in light blue sky.  / / Everywhere a thin beauty.  / / E
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
eatures suffering-sunk / / down on the
collarbone , hangs / / the drawn body of a young / / girl.  / / I see
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
s the campus / / of a small East Coast
college , / / the girls young academics, / / one as it happens Greek,
Grace
, / / grass and tall trees, / / grave
colonial buildings.  / / These serious scholars, teachers / / were al
Grace
s cancer-cells / / building their busy
colony / / which kills their host and so themselves) / / cuts its wa
Mother’s Malison
limpse / Beauty sleeps in the air, / /
colour and music.  Shine / / of sun in a child’s hair / / turns water
Glimpse
r works of hand and mind, / / song and
colour and stone, / / or in the whispering of two alone; / / melting
Fossils
my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / My
colour faded—sallow as a dead leaf.  / / My hair fell out and my body
Spells and Love
that night / / is coming, to drain all
colour from a cold world.  / /
What Do They Feel?
the Valley, Phoebus with Admetus, / /
colour luminous through sun-drenched days, / / cold dew, shelly horns
Poetry
Iridescent the cleaned world, / / gem-
colour -spangled.  / / And clear, still, diamond-lit / / by washed sta
Exchange
nd white, / / he watched entranced the
colour -sparkling sea: / / the King, the Queen, the court, the foreign
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ot for being black.  / / Life’s all one
colour , spilled / / beside whatever carcase in the dust.  / / As firs
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
re— / / grey rocks; bushes green, many-
coloured , dark.  / / Once it blazed to heaven, this hillside, though. 
Makherás
were in, not ’85.  / / Children (bright-
coloured / / mufflings against a white snow / / slope) tobogganing. 
For Cecil
yed, / / scattering as she hurries her
coloured riches.  / / Day by day, as the leaves are loosed and shed /
Dance of the Seasons
e their sound, the beautiful / / their
coloured -shining, lacquered shell; / / even the tongue-tied struggler
The Party
ne had stuck to the hired window / / a
coloured small transparency / / “Have a Rainbow Day” / / One morning
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
e take a different way, / / but common-
coloured threads were woven through / / our minds.  But what brings yo
The Black-out
ate October hedges along this lane / /
coloured with flowers / / (seasons are late this year): / / pink of
[Late October hedges]
world too.  / / Where are now / / the
coloured worlds your eyes fed to your heart?  / /
Green World
ou / / they dry in the papery air / /
colourless dull words again.  / / But drop them in your heart, see /
Letters
north / / a steady wind blows cold and
colourlessly .  / / A child’s children play by the shifting run / / of
[White foam sweeps]
on all; it glances / / from brilliant
colours and bright faces, / / sinks in dark stuffs and secret looks,
The Party
/ Gone are the ivory and gold, / / the
colours and the singing gone, / / but shining still the temples hold
Acropolis
s / / his light, until “he wrapped his
colours ” as / / Felicia Dorothea Hemans says / / “round his breast o
The Black-out
oud-mottled pallid blue / / offers all
colours equally subdued.  / / Winter beauty’s in tune / / with love p
[Bare trees black]
e cold light poured / / and memory the
colours in her hair, / / and in my ears echoed beyond her word / / h
The Black-out
Wind is a sword of / / ice, under wild
colours in / / sun-touched or dark cloud.  / / A rare night.  Beach de
For Cecil
y from a red sunset, deepening / / the
colours in the hangings of memory.  / / Not fear, not defiance, but co
What Do They Feel?
on / / her basic monotone / / scents,
colours , notes, the whole / / dream-treasury of the soul.  / /
Fair Exchange
own.  / / I love white spring, love the
colours / / of autumn, but / / my sweetheart-flower these have not: 
[Housman was old beyond his years]
or natural beauty.  / / Here it’s light
colours on fields / / varying softly across hedges, between trees, /
Gratitude
elievable ranges / / of daily changing
colours .  / / Someone had stuck to the hired window / / a coloured sm
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
in an earlier day, / / something which
colours them through.  / / We feel such thankfulness / / each to othe
[Yes, you’re right]
s in Spring / for Lucy / Time threw the
columned temples down / / and broke the features of the god / / and
Delos in Spring
parts / / like strands of hair under a
comb , / / like currents traced in foam / / on fast water.  / / My th
How not to listen to music
food / / but other thoughts took over. 
Combed and cleaned / / he threw out two shells (broken) of the three,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
flares high on a short fuse.  / / A bad
combination , one would suppose, / / a recipe for trouble.  / / Yet /
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
The fire-in-ice / / and the harsh salt
combined almost to choke him.  / / He struggled out.  Soon, rested, cau
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r had been barred / / be sure I’d have
come again with torch and axe.”— / / These are the springs of my love
Spells and Love
ter-edges / / that came and went, that
come and go.  / / Do I make too much of not liking to be old?  / / Aft
Climacteric by the Sea
ile / / (or longer) perhaps / / he’ll
come , and lay / / gently in your lap / / his favourite toy / / for
[Time is a child]
/ / Soon to the Spaniards unexpectedly
come , / / between the set moon and the gathering dawn, / / I turned
The Black-out
or Cathy / / / / This demon that has
come / / between you and your plate / / let her go home / / to her
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
auty, a world singing.  / / Morning did
come bright.  / / Iridescent the cleaned world, / / gem-colour-spangl
Exchange
r noon or afternoon.  Take what may / /
come —bright or broken day / / or dull.  Though unreturning / / this c
Joy
ll-known road / / stretched where he’d
come —but turning again, grew / / a monstrous hill of thorn before his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
own— / / when they begin to loosen and
come down / / I hear my mother say / / “Each caught leaf promises a
[Golden, red, brown]
What goes up must
come down / We can’t tell what mistake / / it was that wiped out the
What goes up must come down
ttle / / of who he was or where he had
come from, / / except that when he reached them he had crossed / / t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tonsured.  / / Spring came, and hardly
come had fled / / —footloose wanderer, not pretending / / to stay us
Dance of the Seasons
a lad too once, / / as likely as they
come ?  / / Hadn’t I my ten-palm sword / / and my fathom gun?  / / A l
A Ballad
happier filled him with delight.  / / “
Come here.  Get warm.  I’ve got all that you’ll need / / if you’ve the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
isies, roses) / / late coming but, now
come , here in profusion.  / / We are ruining the nature we know and lo
Buttercups
was her birthday soon.  The court would
come .  / / He’d have no part in that, but fetch a gift / / from the u
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
—until her fated love / / (if, when he
come , he’s brave and true enough) / / shall force a way and wake her
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Dreams / That ghosts
come home…  Things I don’t believe / / I still like sometimes to prete
Dreams
/ / but is a hope to which you yet may
come .  / / If you dare live on, while the princess sleeps / / in time
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / All loves in love have place.  / /
Come in from the cold moor.  / /
Vision Between Waking and Sleep
le replied:  / / “Vengeance condign may
come / / indeed, but it must grow / / from seed yourself shall sow /
Pelopia and Thyestes
have ever let the reasoning brain / /
come into contact with the feeling heart?  / / Knowing men starving wh
The Black-out
es another year begin?  / / Nothing can
come of nothing, nothing goes / / to nothing, but we cannot see the c
Winter Solstice
ase.  / / The seasons pass, the seasons
come .  / / One by one winter puts out the torches.  / / The oak still
Dance of the Seasons
elves to no / / oneness, will not even
come , / / passing, beak to beak.  / / One within, one without, / / t
Woodpeckers
/ / The world goes round and the words
come round again.  / / Down in the plain Napoleon or Pericles / / dra
On the Border
waited for him, waited.  / / He did not
come .  She waited.  / / Unnoticed the formal garden / / found itself a
Mariana in Miniature
/ Contrariwise of course / / death may
come sooner—soon / / perhaps, for better or worse, / / as indeed it
[Now of threescore and ten]
ir, / / soft sun / / take over.  And I
come / / suddenly on a briar / / its early bloom / / offering cups
Upward Turn
Swallows / How does it
come that here / / I have hardly seen a swallow this year / / but to
Swallows
/ sea stretched to the horizon.  He was
come .  / / The even roar, compact of swish and slap / / innumerably v
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ummer / Autumn and Winter / The seasons
come , the seasons pass.  / / Dog-rose in the hedge is answered / / no
Dance of the Seasons
e blood clotted and the tears ceased to
come , / / the sun climbed and declined, but he lay on— / / the princ
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e / / children to come unto me.  / / I
come .  They suffer.  / /
Haiku:  Paedophilia
hall to the vow / / and the fulfilment
come , / / though in the heart sits pinioned, strengthless, dumb / /
Waiting
imes to pretend— / / that life doesn’t
come to a ragged end / / but death knits up the ravelled sleeve.  / /
Dreams
ht / / needle or thorn?  The fact would
come to him / / and put his painted fantasies to flight / / leaving
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / / No, not a prince.  The boy we’ll
come to know / / was born at court but not to royalty.  / / Where?  Wh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d love.  / / Eleven days, and he hasn’t
come to me, / / doesn’t know even if I’m alive or dead, / / no knock
Spells and Love
s trustworthy.  / / And indeed he would
come to me three or four times a day / / and would even leave his pre
Spells and Love
linds.  / / Open your eyes, and yet may
come to pass / / your unschemed hope, as the new morning finds / / d
Scheme
ands alone, / / and anyone may one day
come / / to see the truth itself in ghostly stuff, / / and then the
That Way Madness Lies
in the town are howling.  / / Hecate’s
come to the cross-roads!  Clash the brass quick!  / / Draw him, bird-wh
Spells and Love
door, came and kept begging me / / to
come to the show with her, and I to my sorrow / / did go, wearing my
Spells and Love
; in other places / / you are awaited. 
Come .”  To the slow height / / we turned our backs, towards the Thames
The Black-out
hts, days) saw—in a dream?— / / a girl
come to the stream / / and strip herself.  He leapt / / awake.  The gi
Pelopia and Thyestes
r, melt away, / / Behind the images we
come / / to the unarchitected tree.  / / We plan a life, and change t
Cedar
shed in men and women.  / / How have we
come to this?  / / Or have we?  / / In part a myth, surely—not all but
Desert Island?
Otherworld / When I was a child I shall
come to you / / a child too in the old garden.  / / A spring morning,
Otherworld
ia / Suffer the little / / children to
come unto me.  / / I come.  They suffer.  / /
Haiku:  Paedophilia
trength now / / they will be stronger. 
Come , we cannot stay.”  / / She turned towards the sea her quiet brow.
The Black-out
natural load” / / and added gentler:  “
Come .”  We passed across / / under Queen Anne, and North by a dark roa
The Black-out
er already past / / but winter not yet
come , / / what this death blasted / / was her autumn.  / /
Death
/ the King and the male court alone had
come , / / with princely guests, from the late autumn on / / till the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing me: “why not / / come with us too? 
Come with us.”  But my guide / / touched me; I shook my head: “meet so
The Black-out
the boat were calling me: “why not / /
come with us too?  Come with us.”  But my guide / / touched me; I shook
The Black-out
hate us for what we were, / / pity us. 
Come your reckoning, / / God more readily then, judging, / / shall p
Villon’s Epitaph
one day’ and he smiled ‘the prince will
come .’  / / “I don’t know what he meant.”  He came once more / / to th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
falling.  / / But suppose morning / /
comes bright, washed things will display / / new beauty, a world sing
Exchange
/ the white, noisy water.  / / The call
comes from them / / naturally.  / / I stand on the balcony.  / / Chil
Climacteric by the Sea
ered, lost in / / defeating gusts, but
comes in bright bursts as if / / to remind me that your voice from th
Two Poems from a New Life
hapes.  / / Now, as then, / / the beam
comes level through the air.  / / What summer noon struck blankly on,
For Cecil
will.”  I smiled: “surely from you / /
comes my taste for an ivory tower provided, / / unlike some towers, w
The Black-out
/ Behind the gold and frankincense / /
comes myrrh for our mortality, / / but in this radiant hour we sense
Hymn
ace and happiness / / and love—as love
comes to a happy child: / / mother and nurse and father, near and dea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
for all future practice / / when time
comes to be free.  / / Good, if new warmth new-quickening his strainin
Chrysalis
ment comes to forget] / When the moment
comes to forget / / (night on the footless cliff) / / I hope I shall
[When the moment comes to forget]
[When the moment
comes to forget] / When the moment comes to forget / / (night on the
[When the moment comes to forget]
r / / “The spirit is innocent / / and
comes to Me.”  / / Then all around gave thanks / / on bended knee, /
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
ron, / / slipped away.  / / The priest
comes to the altar, / / finds it robbed.  / / Gone the silver monstra
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
arian or Greek, Gentile or Jew, it / /
comes to the same.  Free? we are all bond still / / and, part of what
Man in Nature
ain: this Christmas-time the Queen / /
comes with the court, and the princess.  What is it?  / / Why, a great
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the wide world, waitinG / / Everything
comes with timE / /
[A long steep road to climb]
ars, / / of the seasons, of work, even
comfort and tears / / —a predictable order, if nothing goes wrong, /
Hymn
and doesn’t heal, / / and nature is no
comfort but is beautiful.  / /
News of a Death
ish, it has been.”  / / “But what’s the
comfort there?” she asked.  “The blight / / is just that flat fact tha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ave improved patience / / patience may
comfort you in the lack of peace, / / itself may prove a substitute f
Patience
rns were long / / sends me here now to
comfort you through Hell.”  / / As the moon breaks, as the moon broke
The Black-out
ve.  / / And at all our backs / / (our
comfortable backs) thunders war / / with all those deaths of others. 
Back Room, 1944
k spread, / / my arm round her neck, I
comforted / / her fear.  The fawn soon ceased to flee.  / / Over her b
Love Scene
le) / / yet he was frightening too—yet
comforting / / against her wider fears.  She wept a bit, / / then, fe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s.  Buses pass / / but not my bus.  / /
Comforting glow, warmth of drink, food / / begin to fade.  / / Lovers
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
nd more he’d been / / about the place,
coming a stranger boy.  / / They closed his eyes.  Now the palace was h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and ourselves prepare / / for winter
coming , as they / / do, but in our own, our different way.  / /
Swallows
is year (may, daisies, roses) / / late
coming but, now come, here in profusion.  / / We are ruining the natur
Buttercups
ove.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / —“I was
coming , by sweet Love’s self I swear I was coming / / for a proper se
Spells and Love
ing, by sweet Love’s self I swear I was
coming / / for a proper serenade, with two or three friends.  / / I’d
Spells and Love
ght / / ‘The princess, my princess, is
coming here.’  / / The fairy gifts had worked—if what they gave / / i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
alking I heard the train / / behind me
coming in.  / / So did the child, / / jumped from his seat and ran /
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
m old flowers, only a few new ones / /
coming in their place.  Still, though, starred with beauty.  / / I lean
Omens
against a happier day) / / must now be
coming on / / her ripe, her bearing age.  / / Still in his cloud of r
Pelopia and Thyestes
he bed beside me, and began / / “I was
coming , Simaetha.  Your message to bring me here / / was first by only
Spells and Love
man and woman, / / slow from the womb
coming , / / sleeping curled up long, / / awake netted in human / /
Parenthood
e, but consciousness that night / / is
coming , to drain all colour from a cold world.  / /
What Do They Feel?
l.  / / Not for itself the mountain had
commanded / / his steps, but that hence he might recognise / / the f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
What is this steward / / who wins such
commendation , because as steward / / he tried to cheat his master?  We
The Betrayal
ing out of time.  / / What ugly villain
commits / / so lost a crime?  / / But someone saw the girl / / with
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
/ Hurt home I struck back:  “I have not
committed / / the cowardice or treachery of death.”  / / “Death is it
The Black-out
ng Night / Quick to beauty more than is
common / / but reared in rigid abstinence, / / children’s light voic
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
orlds we take a different way, / / but
common -coloured threads were woven through / / our minds.  But what br
The Black-out
/ / Hear / / the gentle voice in the
common foreign tongue / / Encore un peu, mon enfant.  Mon enfant, n’ai
Block 21
/ / nor whether her children / / were
common girls and boys / / or brought shimmering shadows / / to the g
The Green Children of Woolpit
changed, unmagic we shall find / / the
common ground we left behind / / matter-of-fact with house and lane. 
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
faces ground by gross / / poverty, in
common loss / / unsingular.  / / Here a pittance- / / pension gives
Dinner
Greenham
Common / / / … of Hyacinth’s temperament.  Just such a child / / man
Greenham Common
/ whiteness pocked, dissolving in / /
commonness , muddy? / / shimmering light lost again / / in grey rever
Exchange
but one would not expect him to try and
communicate .  / / But what about the Guiccioli? about Augusta? / / an
“Tell Lady Byron…”
r recklessness / / stretch to snapping
communication -lines / / of light, / / are lost.  Night wins.  / / Swi
Holes in Space
/ taps on the hollow wood, / / the one
communication they admit, / / to time their exit and their entrance s
Woodpeckers
/ people we know.  We hate in bulk / / —
Communism , Islam (those Ayatollahs, / / those reds.  Once it was Nazis
Choice
rizon.  He was come.  / / The even roar,
compact of swish and slap / / innumerably varied and repeated, / / e
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rtainty the other side is evil / / our
compact with the devil.  / / Let us detest aggression, pity pain, / /
Prayer to Truth
ch / / a companion as such / / but my
companion (all the years, / / the experience, shared) / / and now, p
[Living alone is lonely]
house.  / / I miss… not so much / / a
companion as such / / but my companion (all the years, / / the exper
[Living alone is lonely]
bidding.  Then at most / / at moments a
companion .  More?  Well, lonely / / she sometimes was; hardly aware, an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e crescent set, / / know her concealed
companion setting too.  / / Block half freed from the quarry.  God hard
September Cruise
ears.  / / And now, alone on the fells,
companioned only / / by the long sharp line dividing (dun green from
A Dream
n adolescent dream all day / / of warm
companionship , friendship and love, / / but when some actual company’
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
erous stone, / / no gull’s sad cry for
company , alone.  / / No game, no streams, hardly a rain-puddle; / / a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e of / / our shared love / / keeps me
company .  / / And that is not but has to be / / and so can be, so is,
[Living alone is lonely]
Woodpeckers / They bear no
company / / beyond their own, / / cannot endure to be / / other tha
Woodpeckers
ro, bound / / tight by his ear-blocked
company , / / sailed on.  The Sirens dropped and drowned, / / the stor
The Sirens
hip and love, / / but when some actual
company’s offered, move / / heaven and earth to keep out of its way? 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to human doing, / / unflattering / /
comparison / / to shame us, but no error— / / naked image of what ge
Heron and Gulls
owns scattered voices.  / / By star and
compass these as one / / kept their fixed course—where does not matte
Shipwreck
/ Their net of feeling and thought / /
compassed the cosmos once, now let drop / / is seemingly simply not. 
Where?
or the grace of God go I.  / / I smiled
compassionately , / / walked on complacently.  / / Later a figure caug
Reflection
pose it is / / a state of being that’s
compatible / / with reason, can imagine war is still / / (if it ever
Consider
/ slave-camps, torture (body, mind) to
compel / / blind, obedient conformity, the dreamed ideal / / hardene
Betrayals
cal symbol, artist’s vision—Truth, / /
compel the twisting mind and (what is harder) / / the twisting heart.
Prayer to Truth
heart?  / / No.  Knowledge of self / /
compels knowledge of others.  / / Knowledge compels love.  / / Love ma
Parenthood
els knowledge of others.  / / Knowledge
compels love.  / / Love makes us.  / / Yet endeavour / / to loosen th
Parenthood
ess flame transcends / / imagination’s
competence .  / / Marble in sun burning like snow.  / / Green, violet,
Delos in Spring
heavy.  / / Not that I was ever / / a
competent cartwheeler / / or steady in a handstand / / —ran like ano
Climacteric by the Sea
/ guessed.  She was sempstress now, and
competent .  / / She was at work on a white handkerchief— / / a plain
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e the better be / / condition in us of
complacency , / / the certainty the other side is evil / / our compac
Prayer to Truth
winning, keep us from the pit / / of a
complacent hate.  / / Let not our knowing our cause the better be / /
Prayer to Truth
smiled compassionately, / / walked on
complacently .  / / Later a figure caught my eye / / —the same? anothe
Reflection
/ Don’t talk in a train / / unless to
complain .  / / Veil up your soul: / / don’t weep at the play / / or
Merrie England
lowing.  / / Not enough sun / / is our
complaint , / / too much rain.  / / River and tap will always run.  /
Drought
in a kind of terror / / at hope out of
complete despair reborn.  / / The image of the christening rose once m
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
move faster—more than sixty turns / /
completed , am more aware / / what a small number we’re entitled to, /
Swallows
ask / / as time ran short / / yet she
completed of her nettlework / / all but the second sleeve of the twel
Fairy Story
No
Complex / Oedipus laid the king his father dead, / / then laid his mo
No Complex
d man, / / grass and cedar, climbed to
complexity / / from cells formed in the sea / / —elementals that flo
The Sea
blind girl’s face, which never was / /
composed before a looking-glass, / / learns a composure in the end /
Blind
d before a looking-glass, / / learns a
composure in the end / / no looking-glass can lend.  / /
Blind
o wide—but born a prince.  / / No doubt
compounded of the same material / / as others are, yet there’s a diff
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ore than content / / with other forms,
compulsive as a song / / and as incorporeal, sharp as frost or flame:
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ I passed by each and did not pause to
con her, / / but in the pale Circus stood one alone / / just where t
The Black-out
pects.  / / If seized with a laugh / /
conceal it in cough.  / / Of course we have humour, / / but laughing
Merrie England
e watch the crescent set, / / know her
concealed companion setting too.  / / Block half freed from the quarry
September Cruise
ue and look, / / feared by so many, he
concealed from her.  / / (He turned them on the raper in the dock / /
Change Places…
wood, but the boughs not yet bare / /
concealed the castle still.  To one not knowing / / this might have be
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Body / ‘This clumsy creature
conceals , / / traduces the true me’ / / That’s what you feel / / o
Body
ing on / / I can as little wish for as
conceive .  / /
Survival
olute nothingness / / is what we can’t
conceive / / but must imply at least / / an absence of unrest) / /
Balance Sheet
e, / / envisage them, because we can’t
conceive / / what mediates their being, as Time our own.  / / Suppose
Dimension
winter.  Everything / / is withdrawing,
concentrating / / with us, in the long wait / / for spring.  / /
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
ness of war and love misfired, / / the
concentration of my brooded wrong.  / / No buses passed me and one tax
The Black-out
er is it a prison.  / / Patience is not
concerned with self alone / / nor only others, cares for self existin
Patience
t? / / would ask a Spartan mother / /
concerning her dead son.  / / And found in an affirmative answer / /
Wounds
ur fee to Death) the will to live.  / /
Condemned we snatch at every short reprieve, / / disguising from ours
Age
/ The oracle replied:  / / “Vengeance
condign may come / / indeed, but it must grow / / from seed yourself
Pelopia and Thyestes
ur knowing our cause the better be / /
condition in us of complacency, / / the certainty the other side is e
Prayer to Truth
nor too, / / responsible for what / /
conditions prevail there.  / /
Body
/ a dome studded with unfamiliar / /
configurations , star by alien star.  / / Meanwhile my body, through my
Antipodes
d won’t do, / / alike too wide and too
confined — / / the incandescent one in two, / / the kindness that we
Love…  No
—her pin-ups, marking her strip of that
confined world / / the house behind the house in Prinsengracht— / /
Hermes of Olympia
ruth, find us strength to make our ways
confirm / / and not deface its form.  / /
Prayer to Truth
y, mind) to compel / / blind, obedient
conformity , the dreamed ideal / / hardened into a stony tyranny?  / /
Betrayals
the fatal hour, the bold / / prince to
confront the monsters in their lairs, / / outwit the witches, win the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g, bridal, / / incorruptible.  / / All
confusion lost in light / / it is ours.  Rejoice in it.  / / Hush.  Do
Exchange
/ of possible pattern laid through the
confusion .  / / Truth, find us strength to make our ways confirm / /
Prayer to Truth
e a tall pine-tree stood— / / the only
conifer he’d seen all day / / among the beech and oak.  Its thin black
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
across our world, with which they’ve no
connection , / / of things whose meaning is in those othernesses, / /
Dimension
ntrol / / of her new love-kingdom, his
conquered being.  / / Her look, her walk, her laugh, her voice, the wh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
etness spreads about / / from hawthorn-
conquering may.  / / The buttercup’s purer gold / / puts the dandelio
Another Summer
rcumstance.  / / But pangs of conscious
conscience ?  Oh / / what candyfloss / / I know they are.  / /
Dinner
opeless circumstance.  / / But pangs of
conscious conscience?  Oh / / what candyfloss / / I know they are.  /
Dinner
now / / is that I have to make / / a
conscious effort to take / / the fact that, looking down / / on me f
Climacteric by the Sea
gathered both sides of the screen:  / /
conscious terrified eyes and numbed groin; / / white figures, busy ha
Block 21
ok / / a passage of time, an effort of
conscious will, / / to heave my heaviness off my hurting knuckles, /
The Fall
emory.  / / Not fear, not defiance, but
consciousness that night / / is coming, to drain all colour from a co
What Do They Feel?
ith a quick pang.  / / But the constant
consciousness that we belong, / / our love, keeps happiness living in
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
/ / real hunger—not want / / and the
consequent / / stress and distress, / / miseries, misery.  / / This
Climacteric by the Sea
s a delusion.  / / While we dream we’re
conserving , / / all the time our own / / feet and hands, tongue, tho
Change
Consider / Consider this shrunk ball / / (words circle it in seconds,
Consider
ng is owed.  / / Do not be humble, sad;
consider that / / your gifts are good and time is with you still.  /
The Black-out
Consider /
Consider this shrunk ball / / (words circle it in seconds, you and I
Consider
orbed, lies ready.  Give it power.  / / “
Consider those whose lives have kindled your life / / and bring your
The Black-out
/ / A girl’s gaze / / absorbing life,
considering life, behind / / a smooth forehead, clear, utterly free /
Two Serenities
Whom the Gods Love /
Considering our mortality / / and that most of us will not die / / b
Whom the Gods Love
y gone / / and all our dream.  / / If,
considering this, / / we can suppose it is / / a state of being that
Consider
Wedding Night /
Considers , musing at the sleeper’s side, / / the initiated bride / /
Wedding Night
t least I do not let / / the mirage of
consistency / / dazzle me.  / / That narrow master shan’t dictate /
Uncertain
y son.  / / A mechanist philosophy / /
conspires with science to deny / / the existence of a me.  / / Yet I
Shadow and Substance
at once with a quick pang.  / / But the
constant consciousness that we belong, / / our love, keeps happiness
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
ten Emily Bronte, / / so many years my
constant star and love?  / / There must too be many darlings of a seas
Poetry
xistence of a me.  / / Yet I believe it
constantly .  / /
Shadow and Substance
Gratitude / Man and woman
constantly (are we not?) / / are constipated or cursing diarrhoea, /
Gratitude
olden boat) the Zodiac / / threads the
constellated black.  / / These sparks, I know, are world or sun / / v
Night
ok backward down your life / / for the
constellated roses.  / /
Epoch
ere is no last rose.  / / This year the
constellations crowd and wander / / richer, wilder it seems than I ha
Five Poems for Roni
upwards, / / on and up, / / hangs its
constellations / / improbably / / in the light-fingered green / / o
Summer Vision
woman constantly (are we not?) / / are
constipated or cursing diarrhoea, / / bad breath, bad teeth, bad skin
Gratitude
olarities, / / false as this, his life
constrained / / him too to accept, extend.  / / That’s not to remembe
George Jackson
fumbles through it, / / blind Oedipus
constrained to rape and kill.  / / Nature is much to wreck, but man ca
Man in Nature
e coast between the capes / / and felt
constricted , narrowly hedged in.  / / West, his mother’s tramontane ki
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / their scapegoat.  Might we, though,
construe the steward / / (a clever thought) as double-crossing Caesar
The Betrayal
t.  / / May Delphis’s flesh waste so in
consuming fire.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him (you know who) to
Spells and Love
.  / / Caresses, words, make occasional
contact .  / / And now the vision begins to mist.  Hands seeking / / ot
Nadia
rm urge to love makes for a minute / /
contact , perhaps; lost that, sinks choked and chilled, / / changes to
Law Report
p.  I smiled down / / to reassure, make
contact with, the child.  / / Looked into Down’s / / Syndrome feature
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
let the reasoning brain / / come into
contact with the feeling heart?  / / Knowing men starving while the ra
The Black-out
hand and brain, / / and love making no
contact with the loved.  / / We had turned North, for when I rose agai
The Black-out
Lamps / We are the passing
contacts of two worlds.  / / Power out of space and time / / touches
Lamps
/ / of earth and water and air may be
contained , / / may yield a possible future.  / / Open-ended / / our
Desert Island?
sky, / / drops over all at last, / /
contaminated dust.  / /
Headline
ear space to spew it, / / this speck’s
contaminated overspill / / and, part of what we ruin, we shall rue it
Man in Nature
s oil-slicks, the upper air / / mortal
contaminations , today is lovely.  / / Enjoy today’s beauty and forget
Relax
to blame.  / / (I speak as a fast-dyed
contemplative , / / but one not quite without a sense of shame.) / /
The Two Ways
nd I shall / / be with one another and
content .  / /
[Golden, red, brown]
/ / I am out of time, and for the time
content .  / /
Content
Content / Fish and chips under the pines at Manly, / / looking across
Content
shapely hands grow sharp.  / / Here be
content only to form and keep / / peace in the heart.  / /
Inscription for a Convent
e earth can cradle thought asleep, / /
content that those we love have lived, knowing / / our narrow length
Happiness
for sailing’s sake alone, / / his mind
content to mark the cliffs and beaches / / scanned by the eye, the se
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rnoon.  / / With that ahead, might I be
content to sink, / / letting it dull my ears against the song / / of
Sixtieth Summer
we assign a cause? / / —who cannot be
content / / with a cruel pattern of stars, / / Venus shivering under
“Gale is Dead”
that is stupid, self-defeative.  / / Be
content with its being and your love.  / /
Two Summer Songs
/ He did not miss them, heart more than
content / / with other forms, compulsive as a song / / and as incorp
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
om / / I felt, good wisdom.  / / I sat
contented at his feet / / on the midnight Acropolis / / listening /
Homage
s, or break on sand, / / rock, shingle—
continent or island, / / coasts lost down bare horizons.  / / In wide
Shipwreck
Apart we are, but you are with me / /
continually .  / / Odd chills are chance.  Destined the steady glow / /
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
hour’s, / / the same and not the same
continually .  / / The sun struck as it lifted from the sea / / flat o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of his loss, / / dropped sharp as new,
contorted him with pain, / / its black authority cutting across / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
h beauty—or the early night, / / stars
contouring a high black mountain’s rim.  / / But often mind forgot the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
those channels, from those strong / /
contours erode the softness.  Beautiful / / but not unravaged.  / / Li
In the Audience
be where streets and houses cover / /
contours of earth, and water runs by walls.  / / I sought my guide’s l
The Black-out
e.  The wreck / / falls back on itself,
contracting back, / / down, in, / / irreversibly packed / / to a st
Holes in Space
backed against the thorn / / his heart
contracting in a kind of terror / / at hope out of complete despair r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o?  But the shrammed soul / / shrinking
contracts against a knot of pride:  / / I felt myself shrunk in the co
The Black-out
quickly near.  / / That was a dream of
contraries .  / / Our goal’s before us, and / / —yet “Who would find h
Through the Looking-Glass
/ / if living’s the word for it.  / /
Contrariwise of course / / death may come sooner—soon / / perhaps, f
[Now of threescore and ten]
he even motion of the Ferris wheel / /
contrasts with the Octopus whose tilted axis / / and epicycles were d
Content
inty.  / / Honour this radar, this / /
contrived effective wing.  / /
Bat
/ But now that we watch ourselves / /
contriving against our wills / / a no less ineluctably certain end /
What goes up must come down
tion of, / / but gains no wide or long
control / / against the stronger counterblast.  / / Each unstable sta
Entropy
then.  / / Awake she took (all unaware)
control / / of her new love-kingdom, his conquered being.  / / Her lo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r’s kick / / hurled him aside.  He lost
control .  Then he / / was fighting water.  Nothing he could do / / was
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ or someone may say / / “He’s no self-
control .”  / / This respectable curse / / is laid on us: worse / / t
Merrie England
y in the air till we are dead.  / / The
convent and the court have their own good, / / and its own good the w
The Black-out
Inscription for a
Convent / Here must the longing blood allay its heat, / / flesh cast
Inscription for a Convent
ubbed, tongue-repeated, all / / become
conventional , / / dull.  Yet Spring is still / / an undimmed miracle,
[What words are there for Spring?]
s reach their peak / / and penances in
convents .  May is here.  / / The old remember and the happy store / /
May Day
Biblical
conversation / “Why hast though forsaken me?”  / / “What have I to do
Biblical conversation
ver:  / / I have been, am ever, in your
converse blest / / —masters of the impurest of the arts / / which is
Poetry
, to whom now we pray; / / Time, whose
converse imparts, then sometimes heals / / (not always) the to-be-or-
Prayer to Time
/ / against the dark, had somehow been
conveyed / / to strike the boy with a full force of truth, / / throu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ey / / and flecked with white of large
convolvulus caught / / among blackberry-flowers with torn edges / /
The Grass Road
ask / / but would not pause to hunt or
cook .  Eating / / could wait.  He drew his knife, and carefully / / be
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
down on the beach.  / / Later, killed,
cooked and ate / / and slept.  He let twenty-four hours pass / / befo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
what he ate— / / seagulls he shot and
cooked on drift.”  The harsh- / / screaming seagulls were all the life
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / poetry.  She made / / —of sewing,
cooking , correspondence, the road to the mill / / with its flowers, b
Eugénie de Guérin
nence, / / children’s light voices and
cool hands / / were all he dared to dream in woman.  / / The statue u
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
next cliff.  He stripped and plunged to
cool / / his sweating body—knew the fiery shock / / of snow-water, c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the hill, / / it’s a moment to take a
cool / / look in the face, or / / rather at the fact, of death.  / /
[Now of threescore and ten]
and?  / / Life was a still morning / /
cool on brow and hand / / till flesh and soul flowered / / in those
Dialogue
ubdue it / / “Blow this way, that way,
cool or warm.  Be still.”  / / Nature is much to wreck, but man can do
Man in Nature
ot so, / / lay on our fever patience’s
cool rime.  / / Let us learn wisdom at the oar, and grow / / kinder b
Prayer to Time
e hot, bright day, / / watched bright,
cool water flow, / / drowsing (he had not slept / / nights, days) sa
Pelopia and Thyestes
.  / / Still on the sand he sat, in the
cool wind, / / while time passed and the sun went low behind / / lev
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t a swan.  / / A loaded image: birds of
Coole , / / Lir’s three children, Elsa’s brothers, / / and the white
Bicycle Ride
ered; but as night wears on, / / blood
cooler , quieted the pulse’s roar, / / it drowses.  Now among the smoke
Country and Town
nge among buttercups and dew / / while
coolly counterpointed by the cuckoo / / lark song strikes out of the
Two Summer Songs
erced but not dispersed / / while easy
coolness / / lay aloft against my skin.  / / Why are we always thinki
The Grass Road
Hands seek flowers in April, hands seek
coolth in May, / / hands seek a pair of little breasts, two lemons on
Greek Folk Song
l half his life.  / / Ghetto-bred, then
cop -picked, / / what hope in his black future?  / / What can the boy
George Jackson
lem / “Dear Adviser, can you help me to
cope / / with an intransigeant heart?  / / Yours, Troubled in Middle
Problem
ed to illustrate / / principles of pre-
Copernican astronomy…  / / Anything is possible here, and probable.  /
Content
rose-bush flowers / / at the edge of a
copse .  / / Monstrance and Host in the grass / / wink at the sky.  /
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
them show Him was, no question, / / a
copy’s shadow in the terms of Plato.  / / Yes.  But, though by so answe
The Betrayal
the same) / / eel, dolphin, weed, / /
coral , as when all seas were theirs alone.  / / Its temperate depth su
The Sea
Nijinsky / / / The
cordon drawn / / about the isolated brain grows tight.  / / Roads clo
Nijinsky
/ since each carries the other at its
core ) / / pollute love, discolour grief.  / / But from my old long lo
[Feelings of guilt]
Achaea, and through / / the eye of the
Corinth canal.  Another grows / / in the far corner of Weymouth Bay, a
Bury My Heart
d among these terraces of vine and thin
corn , / / inescapable stone.  / / The lion lies, is as he always was.
September Cruise
/ but a rude thought / / sits in the
corner / / and laughs them out.  / / Only Othello / / who threw away
Catharsis
bread, a jug of water.  Down / / in one
corner he saw a few hides spread.  / / He did not wait his host—drank
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ime round the upper, and / / in a dark
corner of a corridor / / a small door somehow missed led to a stair,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of the school playing-field / / but a
corner of a garden (before that house / / was sold five or six years
Summers
awless flight.  / / A fish jumps at the
corner of my eye, / / back into black unglimpsed / / as some thought
Water in a Wood
th canal.  Another grows / / in the far
corner of Weymouth Bay, at Ringstead, / / looks out to Portland or up
Bury My Heart
se against our mother’s life.  / / That
corner where the road / / turns from the fields into the wood, / /
From the Air
Masque /
Cornered in the bewildering night / / Love summoned Dignity to fight,
Masque
n.  / / Sea, stone, cypress, / / sharp-
cornered shadow, / / wrenched olive (willow- / / grey, but no river,
Five Poems for Roni
together, being penned / / in distant
corners of the wide / / acreage that is ours.  Surely we / / in the e
[The grass in the next field]
round, and said / / “Beautiful are the
cornfields , white to reaping.  / / I will not go.”  / / And stayed, an
Gunnar of Lithend
try.  She made / / —of sewing, cooking,
correspondence , the road to the mill / / with its flowers, birds in t
Eugénie de Guérin
e upper, and / / in a dark corner of a
corridor / / a small door somehow missed led to a stair, / / low, na
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
th doth cruelly enjoy.  / / Stepped and
corridored the town / / white to blindness clothes its steep / / hil
September Cruise
ing his wake, / / his sublimated loves
corroding in him, / / the world of his religion riven by hate, / / e
Pietà
ness, / / fear, anxiety / / and worse
corrosions of the soul, / / but never hunger and cold / / —not real
Climacteric by the Sea
it will be when we’re gone.  / / Decay,
corruption foster life.  / / Even the fossil forming in the stone / /
Change
Cosmology / The sky is a firm dome bounding earth’s plain / / whence
Cosmology
feeling and thought / / compassed the
cosmos once, now let drop / / is seemingly simply not.  / /
Where?
.  / / But on the simplest model of the
cosmos / / this our world is infinitely small / / and in no sense a
Credo
throbs to agony.  Now kiss and play / /
couched where they can the lovers.  This is May.  / /
May Day
er.  / / Beyond sound of Time’s warning
cough / / all tasks done, spells are taken off / / this shimmering c
End of Fairy-Story
seized with a laugh / / conceal it in
cough .  / / Of course we have humour, / / but laughing aloud / / is
Merrie England
/ / Peaky brother at your books, / /
cough yourself to paradise.  / / Father, spin your choking web / / —y
Royal Family
in three / / hands of careful kindness
count / / into the bowl the grains of rice.  / / Far away, far…  / /
Dinner
s on or hand feel / / to tell me I can
count myself a substance still.  / / Am I just my dream, in daylight d
What am I?
/ Pelops may rule his country, Croesus
count out his money, / / Achilles outrace the winds, since those are
Shepherd’s Song
allows in the autumn fly, / / I cannot
count the generations gone— / / but once upon a time, in some demesne
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / but today on the high wire / / I
count twelve in a row? / / circling, twittering, sitting again there,
Swallows
long control / / against the stronger
counterblast .  / / Each unstable star / / wears towards unbeing.  / /
Entropy
ing together, / / its double, its true
counterpart .  / /
[The clouds that pressed the air]
ng buttercups and dew / / while coolly
counterpointed by the cuckoo / / lark song strikes out of the sun-pal
Two Summer Songs
by more than chance / / with a lemming
counterwish , / / that in that case as in this / / (man and dinosaur)
What goes up must come down
times earlier, / / a fourteen-year-old
countess from proud Spain, / / exchanged letters, friendship, with th
Time’s Reach
men who breathe the air, / / who pass
counting us where we swing, / / do not hate us for what we were, / /
Villon’s Epitaph
e turn,” began my helper.  “Each / / of
countless currents met in you has stood / / waiting too long.  Oh, do
The Black-out
my prophet mocked.  And she to me:  / / “
countless the hours trouble and loss allow, / / harsh in its lasting
The Black-out
Country and Town / From woods and valleys now the gathered night / /
Country and Town
ted to Theocritus / Pelops may rule his
country , Croesus count out his money, / / Achilles outrace the winds,
Shepherd’s Song
/ fighting a foreigners’ war in a far
country .  / / Darkness.  / / But Time has tricks.  / / The old lady /
Time’s Reach
opeless than before.  / / For her, that
country deeply called to her.  / / In autumn (her own mistress, near f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
good— / / her parents lived out in the
country , down / / beside the river where it starts to curl / / among
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the green / / the memory / / of that
country faded / / the story does not say, / / nor whether her childr
The Green Children of Woolpit
/ / harsher country.  / / Here, in my
country , / / flares no cypress.  / / Misty willow / / dreams by the
Five Poems for Roni
ver, / / no mist)—another / / harsher
country .  / / Here, in my country, / / flares no cypress.  / / Misty
Five Poems for Roni
bluebell-pooled below.  / / This is my
country I do not want to leave.  / / But brood on that is stupid, self
Two Summer Songs
than olive.  Cypress / / are you?—whose
country / / is without willow.  / / Am I the willow? / / misty count
Five Poems for Roni
ream; / / freshness and silence of the
country night.  / / I spoke: “if I did not know, this would seem / /
The Black-out
ten in the air.  / / It was a Christian
country , / / of that they were sure.  / / This came later.  / / When
The Green Children of Woolpit
ook deep root / / at Sheepstead, quiet
country of water and wood / / between the wandering Thames and the Wh
Bury My Heart
/ than ever willow / / weaves in this
country / / —olive, straight cypress, / / sea and no river, / / har
Five Poems for Roni
t been well.  / / The doctors talked of
country peace—she ought, / / they said, to rest in woods and upland a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
k, / / she’d see again.  She loved this
country , so / / at least there was a love for them to share.  / / He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sh sea-light.  River / / weaves in this
country / / soft light for willow / / to spread shade other / / tha
Five Poems for Roni
illow.  / / Am I the willow? / / misty
country , / / soft-light river?  / / Are you the other?  / / Even the
Five Poems for Roni
/ / of willow on river / / is another
country .  / / The waste, the loss we said.  / / Yes, but how bright an
Five Poems for Roni
ey, always a wide sky, / / your riding
country , where you played as a child / / growing the you I love.  Yet
Two Poems for G
on the dark water.  / / Back in a quiet
country / / whose understated beauty / / I seem to have remembered /
Return
inal crunch, / / is the one thing that
counts .  / / But as we live ‘No man / / is an island’ or, if / / bri
Touch
.  / / Oh, the subtle / / steps of the
couple / / on the high wire!  / / Death-wish dances / / with Life-en
Sea Cliff
all that you’ll need / / if you’ve the
courage for the land-journey.”  / / She stroked his hair, his head lai
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to hold you.  / / But if it were, what
courage .  / / I am old, and as / / I failed you, so can only / / fai
For Cecil
ce to the old he must be true.  / / Not
courage nor the offered avatar / / guided his thought to a deliberate
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d beauty like a pain.  / / And there of
course against a dark trunk stood / / that boy, his gaze intent on he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
gs you only just / / missed.  Sophie of
course , and Tom’s / / throwaway, that in / / five years perhaps, wor
For Cecil
o her own ends / / and run the world’s
course at her own pace / / long after we have thrown ourselves away. 
Buttercups
d them on the raper in the dock / / of
course , but only when she was not there.) / / And kind he is, loves c
Change Places…
against the tiller, he was not holding
course / / but sidling always closer, must perforce / / drive on the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s the word for it.  / / Contrariwise of
course / / death may come sooner—soon / / perhaps, for better or wor
[Now of threescore and ten]
er part.  / / How like a man.  Martha of
course deserved / / better than such a knife-twist in the heart.  / /
The Two Ways
ngth and decay; / / tomorrow’s natural
course / / following simply out of yesterday / / through a pillar of
Wedding Night
he beauty of the flower, / / enough of
course in itself, / / is informed with so much more, / / teasing the
Epoch
h / / and laugh at him—which, while of
course it half / / annoyed him, also made him more aware…  / / But th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s where a story finishes / / follow of
course .  Mostly the answer, though, / / leads to another story; but, I
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
I need not measure the amount / / this
course , next meal…  The alcohol / / I wash it down with warms the soul
Dinner
ipe it down the wall, marking the snail-
course / / of her sentence.  A calendar.  / /
War-time Anecdote
nd left it very thoroughly done.  / / A
course of life, dear self, which you / / at seventy may meditate on. 
Thoughts on the Lavatory
high twigs the green.  / / One year, of
course , spring’s power past, / / summer will show the bony tree / /
Renewal
arkness…  But no, the light flamed up—of
course , / / the teller of all stories, his old nurse.  / / But this w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing-green, red fall.  / / Time’s spiral
course through joy and grief / / exacts and justifies it all.  / / Th
Hymn
ath / Tender and merry.  Other things of
course too, / / But these are uppermost in my thoughts of you.  / / F
Two Poems for G
irling under them, / / sure on its own
course , unaware.  / /
How not to listen to music
laugh / / conceal it in cough.  / / Of
course we have humour, / / but laughing aloud / / is odd in a crowd
Merrie England
hy her?  / / The whores and the boys of
course were nothing / / —and Caroline, he may have had a thought for
“Tell Lady Byron…”
pass these as one / / kept their fixed
course —where does not matter / / now, nor under cloud or clear stars
Shipwreck
/ / I don’t say / / don’t grieve.  Of
course you will.  But share / / what matters with me (you will) as tho
A poem you may like to see
ou would have lost your way; / / their
course your drifting—and that brings no true / / peace, but slow fret
The Black-out
Shipwreck / The waves move on uncharted
courses / / to lose themselves, or break on sand, / / rock, shingle—
Shipwreck
other years, / / the King and the male
court alone had come, / / with princely guests, from the late autumn
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er Bridge, / / where trips for Hampton
Court and Greenwich are / / embarked, we went, Giles leading.  Soon th
The Black-out
which man has made, / / but flight and
court and hollow dome / / melt in each other, melt away, / / Behind
Cedar
tmas-time the Queen / / comes with the
court , and the princess.  What is it?  / / Why, a great ball in celebra
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
boy we’ll come to know / / was born at
court but not to royalty.  / / Where?  When?  Oh, far away and long ago—
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
me through a needle’s eye / / into the
court —but was there something wrong?  / / A bump, a flurry, and a chok
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l we are dead.  / / The convent and the
court have their own good, / / and its own good the way you took inst
The Black-out
difference.  / / The forester, the poor
court -lady’s son / / we knew before, could not with a like eye / / v
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ling sea: / / the King, the Queen, the
court , the foreign throng / / of princes—the princesses stayed at hom
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
xcitement.  Messengers / / hot from the
Court —the Queen and royal child / / expected daily.  / / Always, othe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
girl.  Preferment’s chancy flow / / at
court washed the poor widow far away / / to be a hunting-castle’s hou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
there on the darkening track.  / / The
court went home.  The seasons settled him / / into their timeless roun
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ve.’  / / It was her birthday soon.  The
court would come.  / / He’d have no part in that, but fetch a gift /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hen dance the winter through.”  / / The
courtiers of King Sun enjoyed the wit.  / / What did their children’s
La Fontaine et le Déluge
waiting to begin.  / / Through all the
courtyard rooms, up the curled stair, / / through bedrooms, boudoirs,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a moment’s peace from it.  / / Half the
courtyard was moonlit, half a pool / / of night, all empty; and the o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ddenly laid plans to go.  / / His elder
cousin was by no means plain / / or stupid, and was not averse to him
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and father fond of her at once?  His
cousins , / / how did they and the princess like each other?…  / / Liv
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lying close together / / —brothers and
cousins , I suppose, / / sticking by one another, / / but one was at
A Ballad
ts way?  / / The young prince liked his
cousins well enough, / / but never had the sea and the far shores /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nge, through which / / (he smiled) his
cousins were already travelling.  / / Far ahead still the south cape’s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
me hate to be where streets and houses
cover / / contours of earth, and water runs by walls.  / / I sought m
The Black-out
self, against all I feel and know, / /
covet the fountain of youth or a new birth?  / /
Death
Necessity of Purgatory / Heaven I don’t
covet .  / / Timeless nothing’s enough.  / / I feel so dirty though, /
A Hot Bath at Bedtime
tion being something I neither have nor
covet ).  / / Without that, can I stand outside time?  / / May I think,
Death
truly summer, / / green sea foaming in
cow -parsley and may, / / sun-streaked with dandelion and buttercup.  /
Relax
pion and wild geranium, / / toad-flax,
cow -parsley, yellow stragglers, / / a single honeysuckle.  / / The bu
[Late October hedges]
ce clear and strong: / / “trembles the
coward soul?  But Anabel / / who led you laughing where the thorns wer
The Black-out
t sit with bated breath / / —a kind of
cowardice and treachery / / to all you ought to be, a breach of faith
The Black-out
ck back:  “I have not committed / / the
cowardice or treachery of death.”  / / “Death is itself and asks no mo
The Black-out
door / / is lost—is power betrayed by
cowardice .  / / “Your delicate task to keep your power, neither / / t
The Black-out
g / / firths of tide, fencing / / the
cowrie beach— / / looks out to Lundy or along the long sands which re
Bury My Heart
/ love more this year’s delight.  / /
Cows lounge among buttercups and dew / / while coolly counterpointed
Two Summer Songs
heets over the green grass, / / yellow
cowslip -balls of flowering fennel, / / yellow mimosa.  Other flowers,
Makherás
ense / / into one whole which will not
crack apart; / / you brought us to the promised land of love / / (ga
Prayer to Time
d / / to serve that violent lust, / /
crack .  Drifts over sky, / / drops over all at last, / / contaminated
Headline
, / / tried to clean out the shell but
cracked it—would / / gladly have fled, but stayed from stubbornness. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y / / went from his mind, water from a
cracked pot.  / / Pitying but irked the princess turned away.  / / The
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
faked…  / / So what?—The image with the
cracked / / torso, tilted on a clay foot, / / stands crowned with go
On the Towpath
under a gathered blow / / reeling and
cracking , and the tiller’s kick / / hurled him aside.  He lost control
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uch, deep in grass the hare.  / / Twigs
cracking , one dog’s bark, / / momently pierce but not disturb or tear
Country and Town
now for Delphis / / I burn.  The leaves
crackle as the heat takes them, / / flare up suddenly and not even as
Spells and Love
er face, friends giggling, crowd’s rude
cracks / / barking about her, the poor child makes tracks / / out of
Pelopia and Thyestes
what we ruin, we shall rue it.  / / He
cracks the nucleus and cries “I knew it!  / / Nothing so subtle as esc
Man in Nature
mmy-gun / / where crave in their cat’s-
cradle of barbed wire / / these prisoners of war.”  / / We have our o
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
love, her rare / / spirit made in the
cradle one with it.  / / Out of her thoughts she looked into the wood,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s strong, / / hours when the earth can
cradle thought asleep, / / content that those we love have lived, kno
Happiness
o a blessed light: / / a figure by the
cradle , white by white— / / one more forgotten fairy, but this one no
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r the grand event.  / / A crowned white
cradlehood , and under it / / a pink sleep, while the dowerers bent ab
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
her, the doom / / wished on her in the
cradle’s overcome— / / the threat which burdens all but her alone.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
gelo’s hand or Homer’s tongue, / / all
craft or thought / / achieves with heart; / / a little known, / / w
Fossils
t’s why he was so good / / at all that
craft —there wasn’t tree or track / / he didn’t love and have mapped i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
suppose himself to possess / / of his
cramped acres more than a squatter’s tenure? / / where the harsh land
The West of Ireland
still mountain-hidden in high day, / /
cramped and cold he stood looking up along / / the two valleys, each
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
isual beauty / / yet both intense; the
cranes on Waterloo / / Bridge, angled black against the fainter sky,
The Black-out
atrol with dog and tommy-gun / / where
crave in their cat’s-cradle of barbed wire / / these prisoners of war
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
nse and reasoning.  / / We who are sped
crave your praying / / of Mary’s Son, by His good willing, / / that
Villon’s Epitaph
like a mouse / / in the dusk of walls,
craved scraps of food and love / / —a sweet little girl—hanging’s not
Law Report
(as she judged them) of a tart, / / a
craving to be had by… well, you’ve guessed.  / / His lust, once lit, b
Beyond Measure
them a fire was lit.  / / He staggered,
crawled , dragged himself to the fire.  / / A hunched black figure crou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
river thrusting the ebb-tide) and / /
crawled out again, heavy and dizzy, sank / / down on the beach.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and sweet, sweet to the taste.  / / He
crawled out gasping, sat there in the sun / / and dreamed of the prin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ark them, lady Moon.  / / —“He wantonly
crazes the maiden out of her bower, / / and the bride from her husban
Spells and Love
rden, / / draw green afresh out of the
creaking wood.  / / Yet not, deaf Time, before your doubtful ruth / /
Prayer to Time
one would think.  But this man / / can
create his own star.  / / Jailbird, killer?… martyr-saint?  / / Just s
George Jackson
on, woman’s a wound.  / / The whale was
created to be harpooned.  / /
Machismo
an, and with man his time, / / perish)
creates a world / / whose making and being are.  / / Days, years, man
[Time is enough]
himself at labour and at play.  / / Man
creates himself in his own image.  / / That is what makes him, extraor
Dream under a Carob-tree
/ no less than cigarette and car / /
creations of humanity.  / / From the astonishing age when we / / (in
The Rift
ure where they laid / / their fugitive
creations , the three sweet witches.  / / The strongest beauty of all w
Dance of the Seasons
Body / ‘This clumsy
creature conceals, / / traduces the true me’ / / That’s what you fee
Body
d even you make a joke of me now, dirty
creature ?  / / Strew them on, and say “These are Delphis’s bones I’m s
Spells and Love
/ / they may not meet.  / / Beautiful
creatures .  / / The pity of it.  / /
Woodpeckers
/ sets your houses awash, drowns your
creatures , / / your friend, sib, spouse, child, you and you.  / / I a
The Wave
Credo / Blossom and greening.  / / Recurring wonder.  / / For me this
Credo
/ / God is Love.  Love is God.  In that
creed or in this / / or in none, here’s a truth which unfailingly is.
Hymn
k] / High boughs arch over the half-dry
creek / / deep in its hidden cleft.  / / There is more shadow than li
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
[High boughs arch over the half-dry
creek ] / High boughs arch over the half-dry creek / / deep in its hid
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
/ when up from foot and finger hourly
creeps / / stronger the tide of cold.  / /
The Embankment
A heavier darkness, dull as felt, / /
creeps up across the pattern, damps / / then blots the sword, the stu
Night
arm us, be you, burn off / / the chill
crematorium .  / / To one each turns, as / / to a natural centre.  / /
For Cecil
/ / dared not approach the fête, / /
crept in the scrub below / / the holy place.  He lay / / under the ho
Pelopia and Thyestes
kiness.  / / Above the dark harbour the
crescent moon, / / and just beside her bright Jupiter.  / / We watch
September Cruise
nk towards the ships.  / / We watch the
crescent set, / / know her concealed companion setting too.  / / Bloc
September Cruise
moon’s dark circle / / which joins her
crescent -tips.  / / Then we notice / / how far, while we were watchin
September Cruise
d coaxed her to the ford; soon from the
crest / / gazed on his kingdom, standing by its Queen.  / / He loved
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ells are taken off / / this shimmering
crest which knows no trough.  / / Since princess meeting prince cried,
End of Fairy-Story
tha.”  / / And then I knew and the cock
crew .  / /
Quo Vadis
proud barque, / / her captain mad, her
crew in mutiny / / but bound in no purpose or unity, / / planks rott
England, 1981
rst of winter weather / / I could have
cried at last for it to go.  / / Then, when I felt my throat hard on t
The Black-out
ddenly where the light was thrown, / /
cried :  “Hangs the sheath still empty, and the sword / / stands ever i
The Black-out
ugh.  / / Since princess meeting prince
cried , laughed “Are / / all tasks done?”, spells are taken off / / a
End of Fairy-Story
he hot tears running down her face, and
cried / / ‘My knight, my prince, my love’, and leaning kissed / / hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
am / / sensed in that truth, her heart
cried out in fear / / for some firm rock, rose circling and alit / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd bled, / / red on the white.  And she
cried out, upset, / / and dropped the shell, which broke.  It was enou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ack the wild / / inconstant water that
cries against the shore.  / / Yet that sea shall endure / / its round
The Sea
/ / They hustled her back to bed with
cries and prayers / / and nailed the window shut.  / / A man in the w
Eugénie de Guérin
bid me seize are / / not mine.  My soul
cries (child) to stay up late—“Oh / / don’t send me to bed yet—I want
The Betrayal
rue it.  / / He cracks the nucleus and
cries “I knew it!  / / Nothing so subtle as escapes my skill.”  / / Na
Man in Nature
wer / / not only in these lovers’ / /
cries —in all that sprang / / from Michelangelo’s hand or Homer’s tong
Fossils
he beach, that empty / / accepts their
cries into its crystal silence.  / / You, though, reader, must watch o
For Rachel
/ / Dazzle of sun out of the sea, loud
cries / / of fierce white birds circling, fish-plunging, woke him.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uiet middle reaches.  / / But something
cries on / / in me, timeless and harsh.  I feel harden / / here in my
Revisited
Curvature of Space / “Faster, faster”
cries the manic queen “faster” / / to obedient Alice.  / / The goal s
Curvature of Space
hat ugly villain commits / / so lost a
crime ?  / / But someone saw the girl / / with her apron-full.  / / Th
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
shopkeeper shouting / / a list of his
crimes .  And then the shopkeeper’s voice / / was the voice of his old
A Dream
cold / / redder than brown, white / /
crimson and green-gold / / the bare-stemmed bushes glow, / / just as
Winter Garden
holy / / tree of Herakles, wound with
crimson ribbon.”— / / These are the springs of my love.  Mark them, la
Spells and Love
ail / / or steam or dream driven, / /
criss -cross the seas.  / / The sea remains / / indifferent, inviolate
The Sea
ildish lead / / (and a man’s framework
croaks towards death, in bed / / above the scavenged garden).  / /
Revisited
/ likewise of fired clay, half a dozen
crocks , / / five of them black, prettily formed but plain, / / the s
Label
eocritus / Pelops may rule his country,
Croesus count out his money, / / Achilles outrace the winds, since th
Shepherd’s Song
ey / / and others had filled; / / but
Cromwell (and Charles / / the foolish and false) / / they it was kil
Merrie England
bbing.  / / Who killed Cock Robin?  / /
Cromwell , I think.  / / Victoria busily / / stamped the grave Wesley
Merrie England
vered—terrible / / the thought of ways
crook -tunnelled all about / / or no way.  For he knew beyond a doubt /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / Children undress to bathe.  / / My
crooked heart grows old.  / /
Another Summer
proud.  / / The wing-heeled boots, the
crooked knife / / lent us to hunt a monster with, / / misborn into a
From the Air
.  / / Two truths to accept / / with a
crooked neighbour’s love / / before Struwwelpeter and straw-gold vani
Another Summer
t— / / after the last leaf follows its
crooked trail / / to carpet the bare wood, / / days in any season of
[Golden, red, brown]
/ But, O Moon, / / shine out while I
croon , to you, goddess, and to Hecate, / / your earth-dark Other who
Spells and Love
ling or superfluous hair / / or a good
crop has dandruff in.  / / You name it, we’ve the lot.  / / Yet there
Gratitude
e wind.  / / Smug, you forget the other
crop (tare / / in the wheat)—careless insensitive unkindness, / / sm
Treasure
d all the foals / / and their mothers,
cropping it, run mad on the mountains.  / / So to this house may I see
Spells and Love
ief is other: how seldom can we go / /
cropping it together, being penned / / in distant corners of the wide
[The grass in the next field]
about you, watching / / our two flocks
cropping together against the Sicilian sea.  / /
Shepherd’s Song
miles, days—crossed by a river hard to
cross , / / and closed by cliffs.  These cliffs, this promontory.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e could give.  / / Martha was tired and
cross and so to blame.  / / (I speak as a fast-dyed contemplative, /
The Two Ways
is bad.  / / Not yours to raise a fiery
cross and sweep / / the world before a cause, but none the more / /
The Black-out
ctuals (they were far from new / / did
cross his mind) and dropped flat on the bed.  / / Next morning, fit an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ind; and then what should / / unlikely
cross its stillness but the phrase / / of Queen Victoria:  ‘I will be
The Black-out
girl.  / / I see Anne Frank / / on the
cross , offering of / / our indifference, of my / / indifference.  /
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
/ before he faced the question how to
cross , / / regaining strength and learning how to wait.  / / He watch
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
are howling.  / / Hecate’s come to the
cross -roads!  Clash the brass quick!  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw hi
Spells and Love
ience should know how to / / guide the
cross spirit with a steady rein / / now dogrose bushes star the hedge
Again
/ or steam or dream driven, / / criss-
cross the seas.  / / The sea remains / / indifferent, inviolate.  / /
The Sea
u know,” remarked my guide, “you make a
cross / / too easily out of your natural load” / / and added gentler
The Black-out
under the leafy light, / / at fork or
cross -track he went still by whim, / / rejecting reason’s query ‘Whic
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
es of sea-washed sand, / / miles, days—
crossed by a river hard to cross, / / and closed by cliffs.  These cli
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rt of me prays, part keeps / / fingers
crossed for a magpie from the left / / (things at least of that sort)
Uncertain
ushes out on to a track…  / / But thorn-
crossed like the last.  He looked again.  / / A pine…  Oh, fool—full-cir
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
except that when he reached them he had
crossed / / the southern mountains, steep and bare, with little / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n or a hundred paths to take.  / / He’d
crossed the stream, he could not have said why, / / to where the beac
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
adowy spaces / / of Parliament Square,
crossed the untrafficked, wide / / Embankment to the bridge, and saw
The Black-out
d he’d been nearly drowned / / lately,
crossing a river he knew well.  / / He turned along the bank, and cert
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eward / / (a clever thought) as double-
crossing Caesar?  / / No.  The steward’s master is God, not Caesar.  /
The Betrayal
That beach.  He’d been there first / /
crossing huge mountains, wandering and wild / / ‘full of hope, full o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, one-tracked, one-sided / / or double-
crossing once, twice and, again; / / but still by personal intellect
The Black-out
behind the nebulous / / city receded;
crossing slope and stream / / we lost all trace of habitation—house /
The Black-out
ns back stilly at the setting sun.  / /
Crossing the thistle-bristling rock / / one stumbles in the square-cu
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
g on her high griefs—coarse, rude— / /
crossly she turned her look and step aside.  / / But felt at once her
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o the chill / / hushed birds on boughs
crouch , deep in grass the hare.  / / Twigs cracking, one dog’s bark, /
Country and Town
o the fire.  / / A hunched black figure
crouching in its light / / lifted her head and was his nurse.  Desire
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ but laughing aloud / / is odd in a
crowd / / and gives rise to rumour.  / / Don’t talk in a train / / u
Merrie England
ows up against the sense / / a reek of
crowd and sacrifice / / with blood and smoke, movement and noise.  /
Delos in Spring
rose.  / / This year the constellations
crowd and wander / / richer, wilder it seems than I have seen.  / / N
Five Poems for Roni
d / / between temple and altar and the
crowd / / of worshippers, the crowded offerings, / / statues, tripod
Pelopia and Thyestes
enon endures; and thus shall, sad, / /
crowded cuttings in the rock endure; / / where now, out of the slums,
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
/ and broadening plain.  To south, hill
crowded hill / / against the shore, and the curved surf-line closed /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hat free sky stand / / alleys of huts. 
Crowded miseries / / fenced with high barbs, eyed from towers, stain
Two Poems for G
and the crowd / / of worshippers, the
crowded offerings, / / statues, tripods, the rest, to ringing strings
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ and held his sword against the shades
crowding / / to the blood.  / / When he had let Tiresias drink / / t
Odysseus
/ / hot in her face, friends giggling,
crowd’s rude cracks / / barking about her, the poor child makes track
Pelopia and Thyestes
before, / / young man,” she’d say.  He
crowed again and grinned.  / / And once when a great wind-gust caught
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ould carry him along the shore.  / / He
crowed against the seagulls and the wind / / or simply smiled.  “Well,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, when at last the Queen / / felt pain
crown her initiation’s joy, / / an old forester whom a wheel had crus
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ut living he earned this / / beautiful
crown of myth, / / this parable of truth.  / /
Caring
ildhood’s happy valley) / / and having
crowned us king and queen thereof / / sold us to separate benches in
Prayer to Time
, gathering for the grand event.  / / A
crowned white cradlehood, and under it / / a pink sleep, while the do
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
soft sand which rose in a long rampart,
crowned / / with coarse grass—pricked him and drew blood.  He smiled /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rso, tilted on a clay foot, / / stands
crowned with gold and is mankind.  / /
On the Towpath
and red, / / footed in shifting foam,
crowned with thin jade, / / broke down to island-rocks.  One took the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r the sun’s drying and blackening.  / /
Crows , pies have picked our eye-holes clear, / / plucked beards and b
Villon’s Epitaph
/ his trumpet over her head.  The cock
crows / / triumphant in her face.  / / Not seeing only.  Her untaught
Nadia
f cloud, the moon; as hanging over / /
Croyde Bay or Ringstead Bay.  Came sharply through / / me hate to be w
The Black-out
oughts at a Wedding / Glance lifts to a
crucifix .  / / Form of the sacrificial Man, / / drained of urgency an
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
borders] / The bare, beautiful borders,
cruel borders / / where thieving and loving alike are things of passi
[The bare, beautiful borders]
/ / —who cannot be content / / with a
cruel pattern of stars, / / Venus shivering under the Scorpion’s tail
“Gale is Dead”
ome / / to her own place.  Let / / her
cruel spell fade, / / peak away, as / / she would have had / / you
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
nd grow / / kinder by your unkindness,
cruel Time.  / / Let not our flesh and spirit, longing-torn, / / grow
Prayer to Time
unt a monster with, / / misborn into a
crueller myth / / we use against our mother’s life.  / / That corner
From the Air
the view, / / the beauteous youth doth
cruelly enjoy.  / / Stepped and corridored the town / / white to blin
September Cruise
nd waste) / / transmutation of love to
cruelty .  / / I see / / the final bomb fall wide in open ocean / / —
Stones
September
Cruise / (for Tom, Les, Cecil) / Aegean / Kea Lion / Leaving Kea / Syr
September Cruise
ly put to it, / / brought to the final
crunch , / / is the one thing that counts.  / / But as we live ‘No man
Touch
stion and thirst-sickness did / / near-
crush him when he came, south always south / / watching the mountains
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ovely shell or leaf / / that loosed or
crushed before its hour / / left unfulfilled its being, nor / / vani
Fossils
, / / an old forester whom a wheel had
crushed / / died.  Eighty years, they said, and more he’d been / / ab
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the driven and lost, / / who cast or
crushed out of the casual world, / / drawn to the river but from it s
The Embankment
d my fancied spring.  / / “You felt the
crusted snow melt from your winter, / / the spring’s pulse in the chi
The Black-out
/ to each according to need.”  A noble
cry , / / and “What have you got to lose but chains?”  So why / / slav
Betrayals
libations to you, lady, and with each I
cry / / “Be it a woman he lies by, be it a man, / / may he quite for
Spells and Love
/ / but I can’t help it.  / / Seagulls
cry / / circling, swooping over / / the white, noisy water.  / / The
Climacteric by the Sea
, treacherous stone, / / no gull’s sad
cry for company, alone.  / / No game, no streams, hardly a rain-puddle
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r / / your armed and ordered self, and
cry Hail Caesar.”  / / That He did not say.  But by setting Caesar / /
The Betrayal
/ A bump, a flurry, and a choked-down
cry / / lost in the cheers of the domestic mass / / as they drew sti
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Her laughter’s end was lost in a gull’s
cry , / / repeated, dropped, picked up, interminably / / tormenting a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ns.”  / / “May I…?”  She laughed (gull’s
cry ) “To buy and sell / / love-presents is unlucky” (that laugh again
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ce of his old bawd, ugly and thin, / /
crying her sorrow that all his mistresses loved him, / / even the lit
A Dream
/ burst in (uncleansed his stain) / /
crying on the Lord of Light / / not to be purified / / but to be sho
Pelopia and Thyestes
h through the camp-site, flat / / out,
crying out “Louise, Louise, / / save me”.  / / Twelve-year-old Louise
Vignette
ed sand.  A windy morrow / / shakes the
crystal bubble about the children.  / / Light slopes, lengthens the sh
For Rachel
y’re calling / / but others within the
crystal , child to children / / as gull to gull across the sand and wa
For Rachel
empty / / accepts their cries into its
crystal silence.  / / You, though, reader, must watch outside the sile
For Rachel
ustle.  Yet silence / / encloses all in
crystal .  This is an empty / / world, where bird and child exist like
For Rachel
wrapped in private silence, / / small
crystal world within the world of children, / / a castle that waves (
For Rachel
dance of / / the beams they throw / /
crystals glisten in answer / / which could not know / / till then th
Music is Landscape
it sprout or wither.  / / Nestling and
cub go free / / of the uncaring father, / / the season-sloughing mot
Parenthood
/ / while coolly counterpointed by the
cuckoo / / lark song strikes out of the sun-paled blue.  / / Pass fro
Two Summer Songs
hile the swallow / / settles down, the
cuckoo’s / / voice breaks) hedge-reborn, the rose.  / /
[Housman was old beyond his years]
ruits that wait their greed and passion
cull , / / once wrecked the mind / / make with the soul and with the
Nijinsky
/ / New York, chewed gum.  / / To each
culture -surface / / its proper scum.  / /
Pavements
Two
Cultures ? / (for Tom) / Planted along the old line of the railway / /
Two Cultures?
.  / / Bright bleached hair curves in a
cunning fall / / round masked skin.  / / Only the fixed brown eyes se
Song
riar / / its early bloom / / offering
cups of light.  / / Despair / / is judged by some / / the lowest sin
Upward Turn
/ / where these cliffs, those cliffs,
curb that sand-edged plain?  / / He groped.  A glimmer, sinking.  If it
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
poor Mariana’s skin, / / nun Isabella,
curdling from the sin, / / was pawed and paddled night and day; and (
Beyond Measure
e / / “Thestylis, you must find me the
cure for this.  / / That man from Myndus has got me, soul and body.  /
Spells and Love
heels, / / the sharp shock is its own
cure , telling / / how vain are our imaginings, / / and soon our feet
That Way Madness Lies
r perhaps, / / he thought, a hedgehog. 
Curiosity / / drove him against repulsion.  At her side / / a heap of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
looks, and shows / / the simple to the
curious .  / / And all are here—the easy and the bright, / / putting q
The Party
/ beside the river where it starts to
curl / / among the fields, after it leaves the wood.  / / “Grandfathe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ always together.”  From the darkness
curled / / a faint rhythm of music far up stream.  / / Giles turned i
The Black-out
reached out from a remoter range, which
curled / / back to the first (this he less saw than reckoned) / / bo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
chill, but too worn-out for waking / /
curled between two boulders he dreamed of love.  / / The sun still mou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Through all the courtyard rooms, up the
curled stair, / / through bedrooms, boudoirs, everywhere he went / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
low from the womb coming, / / sleeping
curled up long, / / awake netted in human / / care, lingers among /
Parenthood
Becoming /
Curled up you sleep, or stirring / / kick in the darkness of an image
Becoming
we / / (in Nature’s cyclic sleep long
curled ) / / woke to ourselves and to the world / / we have been forc
The Rift
long with Eudamippos.  / / Their beards
curled yellower than goldenrod / / and their chests shone brighter th
Spells and Love
could dare / / hope, it would be / /
curmudgeonly / / to lament / / more than gently this slackening stre
[The track up the wild stream]
ows year by year.  Love / / lies in the
current account.  We spend it piecemeal.  / / We love more easily (most
Choice
straight in, and the unpredictable / /
current caught him and forced him out to sea.  / / He fought it, and k
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d—so / / there, not there, the trained
current shall go.  / / And so it went, gentle, reflective, blue / / o
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
egan my helper.  “Each / / of countless
currents met in you has stood / / waiting too long.  Oh, do not miss y
The Black-out
strands of hair under a comb, / / like
currents traced in foam / / on fast water.  / / My thoughts / / lift
How not to listen to music
res, filaments / / charged with subtle
currents . / / which must flow on to others.  / / Must we then, human,
Parenthood
ut he was still alone…  / / The fairy’s
curse —a shocking fear possessed him / / that after the hard victories
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ood / / would fail him—but the fairy’s
curse ?—Ah, that.  / / Off to his right the bank was flattened back, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s cake / / was eaten with his mother’s
curse .  / / He won through from that first mistake, / / but only just
Mother’s Malison
no self-control.”  / / This respectable
curse / / is laid on us: worse / / than women or drink / / is laugh
Merrie England
gain.  / / “He had to fight the fairy’s
curse to win / / the fairy’s promise—that was what he said.  / / I do
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of predators / / looks like the primal
curse , / / yet should he cease to prey / / the scales would tip one
Ecology
re sullenly the same.  / / ’The fairy’s
curse ’—he knew he fought a spell…  / / Who knew?  Who fought?  / / A su
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y (are we not?) / / are constipated or
cursing diarrhoea, / / bad breath, bad teeth, bad skin, / / falling
Gratitude
’ and she smiled / / alone between the
curtain and the moon, / / felt herself blush, laughed ‘Oh how nice’—h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
moved, strained face / / raised to the
curtained room, white in the moon— / / that youth she met so often in
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
re slow of foot and wit.  / / Deep in a
curtained window, quite alone, / / the princess drank a moment’s peac
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Curvature of Space / “Faster, faster” cries the manic queen “faster” /
Curvature of Space
have said why, / / to where the beach-
curve ended at the steep / / rock.  There dossed down, at first uneasi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Return / On a
curve of the river / / a white swan / / and then another / / and si
Return
age.  / / The young queen looked, and a
curve suddenly / / gave her the sea-lapped city where this marriage /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing on endlessly.  Until one day / / it
curved off, merging into mud.  He found / / the wide mouth of a sluggi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed hill / / against the shore, and the
curved surf-line closed / / in cliffs and a rock-naked promontory.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ut between me and mine / / the surface
curves away, away / / and all across it play / / flickers of the gru
Antipodes
pretty doll.  / / Bright bleached hair
curves in a cunning fall / / round masked skin.  / / Only the fixed b
Song
traces aimlessly an arc / / across the
curving but uncentred dark.  / / Beyond forgets its meaning like above
Cosmology
a shapely / / innocent form, a dolphin
curving clear, / / scattering diamonds.  Man was born to hope).  / /
Advent
ridge the statues were / / like a wood-
cut ; and there beside us slowed / / with muted lights but a familiar
The Black-out
re an end?  / / Or a beginning?  Can you
cut flowing / / water, or mark the moments of the wind?  / / Is it th
Winter Solstice
/ he looked, and foreign in his strange-
cut green.”  / / The image of the strange exhausted youth / / against
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n grows tight.  / / Roads closed, wires
cut , / / he sees no more the known nor knows the seen.  / / Follows t
Nijinsky
his knife, and carefully / / began to
cut his way.  He forced the task / / to be the cutting each thick stem
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng rock / / one stumbles in the square-
cut marks of man / / having flatness enough for a small dwelling, /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
d bear it less / / —found scissors and
cut / / the offending hand away.  More punishment.  / / They loved her
Eugénie de Guérin
ills their host and so themselves) / /
cuts its way into mother earth / / till all is empty quarries, shells
Mother’s Malison
him with pain, / / its black authority
cutting across / / all argument; and slowly ebbed again.  / / Numb, c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
way.  He forced the task / / to be the
cutting each thick stem, each string / / of spear-thorns.  The vast wh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rk, / / weight of the roped truck / /
cutting naked loins.  / / But that was long ago, / / long before nake
Causes
to see a sharp / / dorsal fin already
cutting the air, / / betraying a shark / / (yet dream still of a sha
Advent
own work good.  / / Each time its task: 
cutting the undergrowth, / / keeping down vermin, cherishing the deer
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ one might be far—but for the ancient
cuttings / / (a road here rutted in the rock) and in them / / the re
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ures; and thus shall, sad, / / crowded
cuttings in the rock endure; / / where now, out of the slums, Athenia
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
stened to, I’m done, / / caught in the
cycle again of seasonal longing, / / winter’s bare truths, soft, swee
Sixtieth Summer
r’s side, / / the initiated bride / /
cycle of seed and growth, strength and decay; / / tomorrow’s natural
Wedding Night
ips it.  Night for you.  / / Warm summer
cycle / / ride.  Home, in the garden found / / you dying.  Today, / /
For Cecil
ight / / have filled so many four-year
cycles more.  / / And on that twenty-ninth of February / / nineteen-e
Leap Year
tonishing age when we / / (in Nature’s
cyclic sleep long curled) / / woke to ourselves and to the world / /
The Rift
oday, / / bitter beautiful winter / /
cycling , past the hospital.  / / Silver spoon in the / / bathroom.  My
For Cecil
spinning globe / / —drought-blistered,
cyclone -hit, / / quake-riven earth, as though / / herself were in de
Antipodes
swan / / and then another / / and six
cygnets , full grown / / but still grey.  Silver / / rather than grey.
Return
/ —grey willow, other / / than olive. 
Cypress / / are you?—whose country / / is without willow.  / / Am I
Five Poems for Roni
tall and still, / / Like a poplar or a
cypress , Humfry Payne.  / / After loved unknown dead and loved known l
The Black-out
er?  / / Even the shadow / / cast by a
cypress / / is cypress.  Shadow / / of willow on river / / is anothe
Five Poems for Roni
to spread shade other / / than olive,
cypress / / mean by a shadow.  / / Am I this shadow / / beside the r
Five Poems for Roni
/ Here, in my country, / / flares no
cypress .  / / Misty willow / / dreams by the river, / / drops a soft
Five Poems for Roni
s in this country / / —olive, straight
cypress , / / sea and no river, / / harsh sea-light.  River / / weave
Five Poems for Roni
e shadow / / cast by a cypress / / is
cypress .  Shadow / / of willow on river / / is another country.  / /
Five Poems for Roni
o much more than pain.  / / Sea, stone,
cypress , / / sharp-cornered shadow, / / wrenched olive (willow- / /
Five Poems for Roni
But as it is, I owe thanks first to the
Cyprian / / goddess, and after the Cyprian thanks, my dear, / / to y
Spells and Love
the Cyprian / / goddess, and after the
Cyprian thanks, my dear, / / to you, who brought me here and out of t
Spells and Love
e now welcomed I admire / / the lovely
Cyprus hills, raised that sacrificial fire.  / /
Makherás