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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

H

H .A.R.P.  / How could this traitor live a lie? / / watching his step,
H.A.R.P.
rse, and A.G. on a wall / / in chalk R.
H .  On the Roman vault / / Adam is made man in one image, Eve / / in
Fossils
pe and stream / / we lost all trace of
habitation —house / / and street gone from the fresh earth like a drea
The Black-out
ath for thieving, lying / / and filthy
habits which, the father said, / / were driving him and her mother ne
Law Report
dly sick.  / / But still he dragged and
hacked , hour after hour.  / / Forced by exhaustion to a moment’s rest
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he would not see.  / / Hour after hour,
hacking and dragging clear, / / breathing hard, head swimming, while
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in / / his pouch, turned homeward.  The
hag , nothing said / / worked steadily, but as he left, again / / lif
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Haiku :  Paedophilia / Suffer the little / / children to come unto me. 
Haiku:  Paedophilia
For Cecil / Tankas and
haikus / Aldeburgh / Cambridge / The North / They burned drowned Shell
For Cecil
/ your armed and ordered self, and cry
Hail Caesar.”  / / That He did not say.  But by setting Caesar / / ove
The Betrayal
y white force, just touching her yellow
hair .  / /
Love Scene
ough those lost eyes / / for her brown
hair .  / /
Song
ured / / and memory the colours in her
hair , / / and in my ears echoed beyond her word / / her voice, as I
The Black-out
/ / pretty doll.  / / Bright bleached
hair curves in a cunning fall / / round masked skin.  / / Only the fi
Song
ur faded—sallow as a dead leaf.  / / My
hair fell out and my body thinned away / / to skin and bone.  I tried
Spells and Love
/ / Hamlet, faltering / / on a split
hair , / / hears the laugh / / of the gravedigger.  / / My thoughts p
Catharsis
the land-journey.”  / / She stroked his
hair , his head laid on her knee.  / / “The fairy’s promise is the prin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
clay / / —their feet are ivory, their
hair is gold, / / all we believed is true, except the old / / preten
Against Pedestals
On the Towpath / He is tall, his
hair is raven; / / hers is sunbright, she is slender.  / / His teeth
On the Towpath
/ There.  Lie down again.  So.  Here’s my
hair , my neck, / / my silver body.  Touch me, though your hands are dr
Greek Folk Song
r’s door, / / but she is busy with her
hair .  / / One at a sill sighs, but the inmate thumbs / / absorbed th
The Party
, bad skin, / / falling or superfluous
hair / / or a good crop has dandruff in.  / / You name it, we’ve the
Gratitude
arkle of dew.  / / Light as the air our
hair our feed.  / / Love will be there and not need making, / / light
Otherworld
ed tall shopkeeper with the black shock-
hair / / phoning the police to fetch him in the little shop / / in t
A Dream
th, and took / / heart, kissed through
hair the brow turned off beneath.  / / She stirred and turned her flow
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e made / / a bracelet braided from her
hair / / to give her love, but he was dead / / and never came again
Ballad
d music.  Shine / / of sun in a child’s
hair / / turns water into wine.  / / Here is the absolute.  / / Negle
Glimpse
s and joins, parts / / like strands of
hair under a comb, / / like currents traced in foam / / on fast wate
How not to listen to music
he bridge and drew along.  / / A bright-
haired girl laughing jumped out: “good-bye, / / thanks,” and fled.  Wa
The Black-out
ield of Marathon, / / witness the long-
haired Mede.  / /
Aeschylus’ Epitaph
as warmer.  He slept late, and then / /
half a day’s walking brought him to the sand— / / soft sand which ros
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s of clay; / / likewise of fired clay,
half a dozen crocks, / / five of them black, prettily formed but plai
Label
ad…” / / half threescore and ten.  / /
Half a lifetime ago / / a thunder-flash put out a glow / / and then
Anniversary
t.  / / Half the courtyard was moonlit,
half a pool / / of night, all empty; and the opposite rooms / / show
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / But after that / / for less than
half a year.  / / Such loss.  A life that might / / have filled so man
Leap Year
els.  / / But Luther broke the world in
half .  / / And whether, as some think, he howls / / in Hell or, on an
Thoughts on the Lavatory
laugh at him—which, while of course it
half / / annoyed him, also made him more aware…  / / But they were no
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
but in the dawn touched by a dream / /
half apprehended as he woke.  He moved / / through the mountains towar
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
’s been—disorderly, / / half-finished,
half -begun, hoped, dreamt, / / tomorrow there behind today.  / / To g
A Prayer
ut still the untaught heart / / would,
half believes, / / half persuades me even, / / we could.  / /
From a Train
’s strength against the buffeting.  / /
Half blind with blown spray, or with the white blaze / / of light on
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
f your kindness / / —but sometimes I’m
half blinded / / as by a new revelation: / / how, having muddled thr
[I have you always in my mind]
lt herself blush, laughed ‘Oh how nice’—
half child / / still, if already half woman, and soon / / to leave c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
circling and alit / / on love—not the
half -child’s romantic dream: / / some deep unknown knowledge of love,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
today, not two selves but a pair, / /
half dissolved in each other, a oneness, aware / / of a mystery—life
Hymn
es, increased / / by love to one, burn
half -divine.  / / Behind the gold and frankincense / / comes myrrh fo
Hymn
Mercury?”  / / I was tired, jet-lagged,
half dreaming.  Is it a dream?  / / I turned and saw a little way off a
A Hoard
ing / / against the glare, he drowsed,
half dreaming yet / / guiding the tiller—whence he had embarked / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
-dry creek] / High boughs arch over the
half -dry creek / / deep in its hidden cleft.  / / There is more shado
[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 i
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
/ / life as it’s been—disorderly, / /
half -finished, half-begun, hoped, dreamt, / / tomorrow there behind t
A Prayer
half freed from the quarry.  God hardly
half freed, / / adumbrated in the block.  He does not heed / / precis
September Cruise
ealed companion setting too.  / / Block
half freed from the quarry.  God hardly half freed, / / adumbrated in
September Cruise
/ With a wife like she is I shouldn’t
half / / give the nice neighbours a belly-laugh.  / / You’re all righ
Love Scene
own too, killed.  / / He’d been in jail
half his life.  / / Ghetto-bred, then cop-picked, / / what hope in hi
George Jackson
e willow was riven away, / / the other
half hollowed back almost to the bark / / and broken through in two p
Five Poems for Roni
light.  They whisper / / to man’s mind
half -intelligible truths / / from inconceivable distances.  / / Not s
Two Cultures?
birdsong and trees, to stone / / and a
half -light.  / / God’s body lay on the altar.  / / She pitied Him ther
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
Night-piece / The
half -moon on Orion’s shoulder / / lays on the world light / / colder
Night-piece
I was true and kind.  / / It has taken
half my life and more to find / / how I was self-deceived.  / / Now i
Original Sin
; then where she led / / followed, but
half my mind followed in Greece.  / / “Such light,” I said, “and more
The Black-out
alleys where the houses pile, / / and
half my mind in Greece, among rocks, still / / clambered Hymettus.  Su
The Black-out
into a flood of tears and fled.  / / He
half -noticed the room was filled with light, / / and hurrying down sa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oems for Roni / / / / / / One full
half of the willow was riven away, / / the other half hollowed back a
Five Poems for Roni
nd dreaming ghosts of islands / / rise
half perceptibly.  / / World is numberless shades of blue, breaking /
September Cruise
t heart / / would, half believes, / /
half persuades me even, / / we could.  / /
From a Train
far.”  / / He to the ranks; and I too,
half possessed, / / half turned; but not my guide.  My purpose froze. 
The Black-out
am.”  / / Lifetimes later, / / visions
half -realised littering his wake, / / his sublimated loves corroding
Pietà
eper.  / / Far among far-spread forests
half -ringed by hills, / / a distant, lovely, rough and empty land.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nst so huge an enemy.  / / Towards that
half -seen enemy / / Love walked alone, and presently / / found—not i
Masque
choice already made.  / / Freedom he’d
half so longed for was now his / / total and dead.  The world before h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ss drank a moment’s peace from it.  / /
Half the courtyard was moonlit, half a pool / / of night, all empty;
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Great Britain / Once she held
half the world in fee; / / for evil and for good, a power.  / / But n
Great Britain
thing lay beyond them but the sky.  / /
Half their sweep, though, was blotted out by one / / which towered to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ry / “Half-way along life’s road…”  / /
half threescore and ten.  / / Half a lifetime ago / / a thunder-flash
Anniversary
ranks; and I too, half possessed, / /
half turned; but not my guide.  My purpose froze.  / / We went on, but
The Black-out
with light, / / and hurrying down saw
half -unconsciously / / the castle ruined.  But she was there in sight.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cast which must unbless, / / but I can
half uncurse it.  Needling fate / / shall pierce her youth, and yet sh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Anniversary / “
Half -way along life’s road…” / / half threescore and ten.  / / Half a
Anniversary
love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / About
half way, near Lycon’s, who should pass us / / but Delphis, strolling
Spells and Love
/ / the two in one, the one and other
half / / which made a whole.  / / They kissed, and hand in hand / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nice’—half child / / still, if already
half woman, and soon / / to leave childhood behind—if anyone / / rea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d at it / / wondering.  He, lifting the
half -worked stuff, / / ran the needle deep in his thumb, and bled, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the princes lolled about the draughty
hall / / shouting for more wood on the fire, for light / / and food,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ paved, echoing, empty—on to the great
hall : / / tables, stools, hangings, one great chair, and all / / emp
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed / / good in fight / / —witness the
hallowed field of Marathon, / / witness the long-haired Mede.  / /
Aeschylus’ Epitaph
she laughed: “remember Elbe’s pillared
halls , / / the shimmering chandeliers of Thrushcross Grange.”  / / Bu
The Black-out
om his sail / / the moment after.  / /
Hamlet , faltering / / on a split hair, / / hears the laugh / / of t
Catharsis
nd the gathering dawn, / / I turned to
Hampstead and walked slowly home.  / /
The Black-out
st and above the tramway terminus, / /
Hampstead Heath, which now low but clear of cloud / / the eleven day
The Black-out
nd light.  / / Walk with me home, where
Hampstead sleeps above / / the quenched city, and talk.”  But she: “to
The Black-out
estminster Bridge, / / where trips for
Hampton Court and Greenwich are / / embarked, we went, Giles leading.
The Black-out
/ / to hold it like a dead leaf in the
hand .  / /
Moment and Memory
n-tied / / knots.  It was almost in his
hand —a few / / strands now.  He took it.  / / A clotted mass fell clea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is yours if…”  / / She pressed into his
hand a handkerchief.  / / And he, finding still in his other hand / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Prayer to Time / O Time, whose
hand about our childhood’s hand / / led us delighted through the open
Prayer to Time
h water came / / my father pulling his
hand across his face / / —perhaps now at his desk doing the same?  /
The Black-out
d before.  / / He leaned and pulled his
hand across his face: / / “the second darkness falls,” he said, “the
The Black-out
wn the tears of shame.  / / I pulled my
hand across my face, weary, / / and through my limbs like wine throug
The Black-out
roved, / / the treacherous laziness of
hand and brain, / / and love making no contact with the loved.  / / W
The Black-out
e.  / / He waded in and took one in his
hand / / and knifed it from the stone.  The pricks drew blood, / / an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
biddable slave, fire / / twist in his
hand / / and make a suddener end.  / /
Dr Faustus
/ Hearts flower in words, or works of
hand and mind, / / song and colour and stone, / / or in the whisperi
Fossils
und scissors and cut / / the offending
hand away.  More punishment.  / / They loved her though (as she loved t
Eugénie de Guérin
egenerate days, / / and we enjoyed, we
hand back whole, / / improved indeed in many ways, / / encrusted wit
Recessional
an unmarked border, / / thralled by a
hand / / beautiful, inhuman, / / the Queen of fair Elfland.  / / I a
Los Altos Hills
/ / snaking in line or circle, hand in
hand / / between temple and altar and the crowd / / of worshippers,
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ at the bottom of the pit / / hand in
hand / / blinking upwards, / / they did not speak.  / / It seemed th
The Green Children of Woolpit
towards the middle of the lake.  / / A
hand came up and caught it, swung it, a bright circle / / in the last
Finis
/ / a timeless heritage / / for us to
hand down pure / / as we received it.  / / That’s a delusion.  / / Wh
Change
g.  / / Nothing for foot to press on or
hand feel / / to tell me I can count myself a substance still.  / / A
What am I?
into air / / But foot is home / / and
hand , firm / / on notched rock.  / / Oh, the subtle / / steps of the
Sea Cliff
/ fire on the hearth, / / torch in the
hand , / / glow in the heart.  / /
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
/ / above the shaded wall, and near at
hand / / glows the monument of Philopappos / / (a Syrian princeling
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
listen for the post, / / when mind and
hand hold so much to be done?”  / / I drank his voice and did not thin
The Black-out
the lifting feet.  / / And on his right
hand hung the face of Diaghilev, / / and on his left hand hung the fa
Nijinsky
face of Diaghilev, / / and on his left
hand hung the face of God, / / and played at war between them with th
Nijinsky
a welcoming gleam.  / / Within, book in
hand , I looked down at a page / / which sang to me likewise in letter
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
/ Not seeing only.  Her untaught child-
hand / / impossibly catches the movements and their sound.  / / Faces
Nadia
y true, / / snaking in line or circle,
hand in hand / / between temple and altar and the crowd / / of worsh
Pelopia and Thyestes
ound / / at the bottom of the pit / /
hand in hand / / blinking upwards, / / they did not speak.  / / It s
The Green Children of Woolpit
ich made a whole.  / / They kissed, and
hand in hand / / walked out together through the broken gate.  / / An
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t her sombre wraps.  / / A knife in one
hand , in the other perhaps, / / he thought, a hedgehog.  Curiosity /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
knew at last the tracked woods like his
hand .  / / Later he learned the fords of the broad flow / / beneath t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Time, whose hand about our childhood’s
hand / / led us delighted through the opening day, / / the light str
Prayer to Time
And heart and tears were mine, / / as
hand on spade in the alley-shop was mine, / / my feet struggling from
A Dream
and I was glad to hear.  / / I stooped,
hand on the open door, but drew / / back as another voice said:  “Mama
The Black-out
ll that sprang / / from Michelangelo’s
hand or Homer’s tongue, / / all craft or thought / / achieves with h
Fossils
e of our love / / which passes hand to
hand , / / powerless to out-buy that power of hatred?  / /
Choice
didn’t need persuading.  / / I took his
hand , pulled him down on the soft bed.  / / Skin to bare skin our bodi
Spells and Love
heir towers at once.  / / One, heart in
hand , stands at another’s door, / / but she is busy with her hair.  /
The Party
/ / And he, finding still in his other
hand / / the shell “And this is yours.”  She looked at it / / wonderi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ls.  / / But then the sword broke in my
hand , / / the steel snapped clean in two.  / / A Turkish dog came rid
A Ballad
ty / / had touched so little at Love’s
hand / / they did not care to make a stand / / against so huge an en
Masque
s a still morning / / cool on brow and
hand / / till flesh and soul flowered / / in those of Ferdinand.”  /
Dialogue
ll-change of our love / / which passes
hand to hand, / / powerless to out-buy that power of hatred?  / /
Choice
a whole.  / / They kissed, and hand in
hand / / walked out together through the broken gate.  / / And how di
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed in here, / / and if it were / / no
hand would rise to catch it.  / / This is a place without legend / /
Water in a Wood
spring light, a clear- / / eyed, firm-
handed geometer, / / built an intelligible world / / of surfaced sha
For Cecil
o better than a badger here— / / rough-
handed serf in perpetuity.  / / The seasons in the years went round by
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ter-painter / / like to have known his
handiwork seen, / / shown, loved again?  / /
Label
petent.  / / She was at work on a white
handkerchief — / / a plain square plainly hemmed, but she would fill,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s if…”  / / She pressed into his hand a
handkerchief .  / / And he, finding still in his other hand / / the sh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bove the tang / / which held it in the
handle , doubtless of wood / / (no trace of that remained); / / two j
Label
n knees and knuckles, / / gripping the
handle of my heavy bag, / / my weight behind me grinding my raw knuck
The Fall
ng felt another door.  / / He found the
handle .  The small room dazzled him / / with shafted sunlight falling
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Love’s Eyes and Hands / Love’s eyes and
hands and all his senses flower / / in speechless speech; but parted,
Love’s Eyes and Hands
Causes / Children of the mines / / on
hands and knees in dark, / / weight of the roped truck / / cutting n
Causes
truth, / / had she to offer?  Not these
hands and lips / / to take my love, but others formed beyond / / the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ my silver body.  Touch me, though your
hands are dry.  / / Hands seek flowers in April, hands seek coolth in
Greek Folk Song
ween our closing arms, / / between our
hands , between finger and thumb, / / whittles and whittles and there
That Way Madness Lies
k / Wrist locked over wrist, / / wrung
hands between knees, / / hunched shoulders closing / / across the su
Winter Recalled
we grieve / / numbly under his rifling
hands , but he / / leaves us our fee to Death.  The will to live / / (
Age
e rank cigar / / perfumes the Ritz, my
hands cease from their art / / to take arms, not in this but a just w
The Black-out
her knees, / / gets up, her dress and
hands dripping with gore.  / / Red smears down her white skirt, the re
Pelopia and Thyestes
numbed groin; / / white figures, busy
hands , flicker of steel / / at the roots of life, a scarlet flood— /
Block 21
her alone.  / / They hoped to keep her
hands from thorns and pins / / but dared not tell her why.  No hint of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / flesh cast its bloom and shapely
hands grow sharp.  / / Here be content only to form and keep / / peac
Inscription for a Convent
/ The youngest son sets out with empty
hands , / / harvests a mint of luck in distant lands, / / returns…  Th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bbornness.  / / Next time with bleeding
hands he harvested / / nine, cleaned up three unbroken, placed them i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
which might distract him.  So with naked
hands / / he tore at the barbed tightly-woven strands / / which yiel
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n to the gorse.  / / Loving from loving
hands / / inexorably drawn / / moves mastered by an inner law, / /
Lady into Fox
begin; / / or lost, an acreage to our
hands is laid / / heavier if not so wide.  / / Those who must die, le
Prayer to Truth
Love’s Eyes and
Hands / Love’s eyes and hands and all his senses flower / / in speech
Love’s Eyes and Hands
head, black / / thick gauntlets on her
hands .  Most deeply aged / / he could not doubt her, though he could n
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eased to flee.  / / Over her breasts my
hands moved gently, / / the new-formed girlhood she bared for me; /
Love Scene
nce a day or once perhaps in three / /
hands of careful kindness count / / into the bowl the grains of rice.
Dinner
[Our lives are in other
hands ] / Our lives are in other hands.  So are the lives / / of those
[Our lives are in other hands]
f life, a scarlet flood— / / and other
hands , quiet, soothing the head, / / veiling the terrified staring ey
Block 21
uncing the fatal word, / / washing his
hands remembers Pilate.  / / Could anything be more absurd?  / / And y
Responsibility
n April, hands seek coolth in May, / /
hands seek a pair of little breasts, two lemons on a tree.”  / /
Greek Folk Song
dry.  / / Hands seek flowers in April,
hands seek coolth in May, / / hands seek a pair of little breasts, tw
Greek Folk Song
uch me, though your hands are dry.  / /
Hands seek flowers in April, hands seek coolth in May, / / hands seek
Greek Folk Song
/ / And now the vision begins to mist. 
Hands seeking / / other outlets / / forget the pencil.  / / (And out
Nadia
n other hands] / Our lives are in other
hands .  So are the lives / / of those we love.  Our love though is our
[Our lives are in other hands]
ooks away from them, down, towards / /
hands sometimes, more often lower / / to legs, feet, which unaware /
Nadia
/ out of the sea.  He heaved up on his
hands , / / steadied his swimming head, saw it was night, / / a moon—
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e lake.  / / He turned the sword in his
hands .  / / The king his master was dying, this was his sword, / / th
Finis
tood and turned the bright sword in his
hands / / then tossed it flashing towards the middle of the lake.  /
Finis
is markets grow.  / / Friendship joined
hands there.  And the singular glow / / of lovers’ meeting was a thing
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
y lake / / and turned the sword in his
hands .  / / There were gems in the gold hilt, but it was not that / /
Finis
/ / all the time our own / / feet and
hands , tongue, thoughts, thoughtlessness / / are fretting, working on
Change
, / / children’s light voices and cool
hands / / were all he dared to dream in woman.  / / The statue undern
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
ropped his eyes from hers to the gloved
hands / / which deftly shaved and gutted the gay shell.  / / That tem
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tween, life and death, died / / into a
handsgrasp for the yearning boy.  / / And then a patch of doubt formed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
if you had let me in (and they say I’m
handsome / / and trim as any young man) that would have been lovely. 
Spells and Love
there be a god, cannot be so.  / / The
handsome plinths we built for them were all / / plaster painted for m
Against Pedestals
mpetent cartwheeler / / or steady in a
handstand / / —ran like another though / / barefoot along the bare /
Climacteric by the Sea
onour’s due to the bat.  / / Before the
hang -glider / / (daring it earlier and much more skilfully) / / here
Bat
In my beginning is my end / Ripe they
hang on the bough, / / last-fruits of the primal tree / / matured in
In my beginning is my end
s again / / hustled him to the ford—be
hanged the deer!  / / He made the peak, and in the evening glow / / g
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ She fails now in her fated hour, / /
hanging herself in her own rope.  / / We shall not see her like again?
Great Britain
Block 21 / The huge reflector of the
hanging light / / repeated the repeated, the unique scene, / / canop
Block 21
new, / / as out of cloud, the moon; as
hanging over / / Croyde Bay or Ringstead Bay.  Came sharply through /
The Black-out
tal bear, / / decencies and affections
hanging / / rags on his rotting age, / / yet he could still coax fro
Beethoven
he window shut.  / / A man in the woven
hanging reached for a nest.  / / Each morning when she woke she could
Eugénie de Guérin
She sat there on a low bough, her legs
hanging , / / swinging a wide hat, not as in the wood / / she braved
The Black-out
nset, deepening / / the colours in the
hangings of memory.  / / Not fear, not defiance, but consciousness tha
What Do They Feel?
to the great hall: / / tables, stools,
hangings , one great chair, and all / / empty.  The play seemed waiting
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
food and love / / —a sweet little girl—
hanging’s not bad enough— / / But who can know the darkness of that h
Law Report
filled / / that ever-hungry beak.  / /
Hangs heavy on my neck / / Time killed.  / /
Albatross
pity you.  We stuffed our skin / / —it
hangs in rags, and the bones within / / (we, the bones) fritter away.
Villon’s Epitaph
ody, till the body dies.  / / Then / /
hangs in the air, an interrupted song.  / / There is no last rose.  /
Five Poems for Roni
s its way upwards, / / on and up, / /
hangs its constellations / / improbably / / in the light-fingered gr
Summer Vision
the thoughts of men.  / / The dry moon
hangs , skull to a Magdalen, / / a mirror to the earth of beauty’s end
Macrocosm
ering-sunk / / down on the collarbone,
hangs / / the drawn body of a young / / girl.  / / I see Anne Frank
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
sliver caught on / / western darkness,
hangs the moon.  / / Frosted stars are veiled / / in black.  The clean
Exchange
here the light was thrown, / / cried:  “
Hangs the sheath still empty, and the sword / / stands ever in the wa
The Black-out
Graf, Christl Probst, / / Alex Morell,
Hans Scholl, / / Sophie Scholl.  / /
Die Weisse Rose
Die Weisse Rose / Munich, 1942–3 /
Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, / / Alex Morell, / / Christl Probst, Wil
Die Weisse Rose
ed you.  You didn’t mind.  Death / / had
happened , but was / / release from work, and that was / / (you said)
For Cecil
o Down’s / / Syndrome features.  / / A
happening .  / / Why ask what it can mean?  / /
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
other-dimension world, / / all seeming
happenings here a chance effect / / of happenings there (and so on). 
Credo
perceptible section.  / / Might seeming
happenings here, for which one guesses / / or fails to guess a meanin
Dimension
happenings here a chance effect / / of
happenings there (and so on).  / / But on the simplest model of the co
Credo
e girls young academics, / / one as it
happens Greek, / / the other one Italian.  / / Well, so patterns shif
Grace
you.  / / We love each other.  Whatever
happens now / / our love is pure, is absolute, is ours, / / a grace,
[Our lives are in other hands]
d hold her out of danger / / against a
happier day) / / must now be coming on / / her ripe, her bearing age
Pelopia and Thyestes
was his nurse.  Desire / / for nothing
happier filled him with delight.  / / “Come here.  Get warm.  I’ve got a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ In spite of the misery / / even the
happiest / / life must settle for / / sometimes, it’s good to be bor
Miscarriage
ce he could never wholly be a man, / /
happily have remained / / an air-and-water-wandering swan?  / / Or di
Fairy Story
great nor likely to be great.  / / “For
happiness a still more doubtful season: / / we are at war, and as the
The Black-out
art.  / / Rejoice in beauty, rejoice in
happiness , / / accept their transience / / and never mourn their pas
Omens
m / / held spreading riches: peace and
happiness / / and love—as love comes to a happy child: / / mother an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Happiness / Between two steps, between two thoughts, breaking / / lik
Happiness
n Pier (‘Famed for fun since 31’, / / ‘
Happiness is a visit to the Manly Fun Pier’) / / where the even motio
Content
ss that we belong, / / our love, keeps
happiness living in pain’s teeth.  / / …  But only the real presence br
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
ce / / floods me that’s always in that
happiness .  / / Longing’s back at once with a quick pang.  / / But the
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
blown out while they had / / unflawed
happiness of the hour, / / unquestioned certainty / / of an infinity
Whom the Gods Love
sti Fummo / How / / how, when you have
happiness , see beauty, / / can you succumb to an unreasoned gloom?  /
Tristi Fummo
me, / / I watch the world and wait for
happiness .”  / / She sighed: “unhappiness has always reasons; / / fen
The Black-out
east, the unnamed wrong / / dispelled,
happiness spreads like a bright spring / / unsummoned, unreasoned, se
Happiness
hat were surely our / / successes, our
happiness .  / / Too much about me.  / / But I think about you more /
For Cecil
he natural unpremeditated start / / of
happiness welling suddenly within, / / secreted from a life-time, and
And Then
gnal-lights repassed, of tears / / and
happiness , while upward rears / / now the tower, round whose channell
Anniversaries
t the clouds ahead: / / a heaven to be
happy / / again when wrong is dead.  / / Today we feel behind us / /
Other World
e brave and wise / / and beautiful and
happy , and as the bud / / is dying into the flower, she shall prick /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
on of innocence in a dream…  / / I woke
happy , and though / / a backwash of regret / / (a dream is a dream,
[Restoration of innocence in a dream]
retty mouth / / I’d have gone to sleep
happy .  But if your door had been barred / / be sure I’d have come aga
Spells and Love
piness / / and love—as love comes to a
happy child: / / mother and nurse and father, near and dear, / / tak
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r say / / “Each caught leaf promises a
happy day / / next year”.  / / Have you tried to catch / / these aut
[Golden, red, brown]
ild / / by him, the brave one, to some
happy end.  / / Thus was the field ploughed for the seed to fall / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is set / / small hope is offered of a
happy ending.  / / The world seems more than usually wet / / with blo
The Black-out
e princess like each other?…  / / Lived
happy ever after?…  Children?…  Dozens / / of questions where a story f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
I laughed: “a hard time to be great or
happy .  / / Greatness I think we lack since Yeats is dead; / / yet we
The Black-out
This way and that I love and am loved;
happy / / I—could not help being? rather, I deeply am.  / / Yet look
Tristi Fummo
five or six years before) a child / /
happy in the long grass, the hot sun.  / / Open my eyes now on what af
Summers
, prison, path of exile, fold.  / / Who
happy kiss within / / to passers jealous, cold, / / cast on the blin
A Window
ours slumbered a seed / / of great and
happy life.  An early page / / closed my unfinished book; how does you
The Black-out
.  / / I, already old, / / successful,
happy , mourned / / a hollow failure of the heart.  / / Your joy of li
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
s done?”, spells are taken off / / and
happy now lives ever after.  / / All spells but this?  Must this spell
End of Fairy-Story
sks done, spells are taken off / / and
happy now lives ever after.  / / Beyond sound of Time’s warning cough
End of Fairy-Story
sion obsessively distilled.  / / Child,
happy ; princess too.  The boy was only, / / at first, a servant—one wh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is here.  / / The old remember and the
happy store / / their memories up.  The empty-hearted fret.  / / The e
May Day
were my kind guide and my friend / / a
happy summer I shall not forget.”  / / He blushed.  The thousand things
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Beach on our lotus-strand, and be / /
happy .”  The wily hero, bound / / tight by his ear-blocked company, /
The Sirens
d was love.  Without love / / all those
happy things are mockery.  / / She had to spoil herself, and spoiled d
“Gale is Dead”
Albatross /
Happy those who filled / / that ever-hungry beak.  / / Hangs heavy on
Albatross
/ (garden more sweet than childhood’s
happy valley) / / and having crowned us king and queen thereof / / s
Prayer to Time
st unravelling / / detail of trees and
harbour , city and beach, / / against the rising, broken range, throug
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ion lost.  / / Their sweep enclosed the
harbour -city’s bay— / / rock rising to a mountain, to a range, / / s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
boat anchorage / / to the sail-flecked
harbour .  Clear, still evening light.  / / Stillness undisturbed by the
Content
ut.  / / Six months ago above an Aegean
harbour / / Jupiter occulted.  And above the huge Pacific / / Mercury
A Hoard
Naxos / Occultation of Jupiter / (Naxos
harbour , 12 September, 1983) / Statue at Apollona, Naxos / Thomas auf
September Cruise
/ / the milkiness.  / / Above the dark
harbour the crescent moon, / / and just beside her bright Jupiter.  /
September Cruise
he moon over Vathý, and bright / / the
harbour under the dark hills is laid.”  / / But she: “our way waits.” 
The Black-out
rom the end / / of the long landlocked
harbour with its island, / / enjoys the shining broom-slopes.  Another
Bury My Heart
ss.  / / Life changes and goes on, / /
hard among these terraces of vine and thin corn, / / inescapable ston
September Cruise
r once the wooded plain / / and, lying
hard and living hard for once, / / to make his way there and for once
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rrent summer had not yet dried.  / / On
hard bare feet she hurried down the hill.  / / The maddened father, fe
Pelopia and Thyestes
hardly a rain-puddle; / / and worst a
hard blank grey sky over all / / (no trees to guide his forest-sense)
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t the salt and bitter gulf / / get him
hard by the throat again.  He retched / / again, and brought up more o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
I promise—I do know how.  / / Don’t be
hard , darling.  Truly I’ll stay / / out on the garden-grass, not force
Love Scene
d plain / / and, lying hard and living
hard for once, / / to make his way there and for once be free…  / / S
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y to follow, but / / too steep, rough,
hard / / for this old / / body.  I yield, / / a little sad.  / / Not
[The track up the wild stream]
alleys and down, / / until, five days’
hard going from the coast, / / he reached it.  Just before he made the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ll someone saw the girl / / nibbling a
hard green / / cast-out shell.  / / Coaxed into feeding / / with raw
The Green Children of Woolpit
ly / / of some at home dead in the ice-
hard ground.  / /
Gunnar of Lithend
.  She raised her head and eyed / / him
hard .  He shivered in the sun.  What other / / such frozen gaze frighte
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
king and dragging clear, / / breathing
hard , head swimming, while sweat and blood / / ran down his face, he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eld.  / / Here too sea clings round the
hard land / / but other water is rare, rare as trees.  / / The sun, t
Varangian in Mickelgard
.  / / Clear, bright, very cold.  / / A
hard landscape, beautiful / / but hard.  Very cold.  / / Why should a
For Cecil
ve to put off getting married.”  “It’s a
hard life.  / / Why can’t the bastards leave each other alone?  / / Ru
On the Border
/ / I’m going to bind my man to me, my
hard love.  / / Eleven days, and he hasn’t come to me, / / doesn’t kn
Spells and Love
ruth which unfailingly is.  / / Love is
hard , love is here, not beyond or above, / / love in bliss, love in g
Hymn
/ to spiritual flights, less cold, less
hard / / make their deliberate bed / / than those that huddle to the
The Embankment
rare, rare as trees.  / / The sun, the
hard master, brooks no mist.  / / Where are streams and drenched woods
Varangian in Mickelgard
ove you. / / … but toothless old?  / /
Hard not to be repelled.  / /
[Age’s bony knuckle]
outh cape’s silhouette, / / darker and
hard on the bright water, marked / / the end of seen and known.  His e
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to go.  / / Then, when I felt my throat
hard on the tether, / / the thaw—soft air one night, and sound on wak
The Black-out
fairly another heart / / is more than
hard .  / / One land, one house, one life, differently viewed / / is E
A Window
O Love, harsh Eros, why do you cling so
hard ? / / —pond-leech, sucking the dark blood out of me.  / / Draw hi
Spells and Love
to one hideous end.  / / She fought the
hard sinews, the horribly / / cloaked face she could not glimpse; but
Pelopia and Thyestes
y over; / / on others / / presses too
hard the splendour of the power; / / glows like a star their mould, b
Lamps
k, sand, pebble beach, / / yielding or
hard / / throw back the wild / / inconstant water that cries against
The Sea
ow does yours read?”  / / I laughed: “a
hard time to be great or happy.  / / Greatness I think we lack since Y
The Black-out
onely, but loneliness / / itself’s not
hard to accept.  / / I found I could adapt, / / not only practically
[Living alone is lonely]
nd, / / miles, days—crossed by a river
hard to cross, / / and closed by cliffs.  These cliffs, this promontor
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ent / / (resentment worse perhaps, but
hard to say / / since each carries the other at its core) / / pollut
[Feelings of guilt]
/ A hard landscape, beautiful / / but
hard .  Very cold.  / / Why should a change of / / date in our artifici
For Cecil
fear possessed him / / that after the
hard victories of the way / / he might, when all seemed won, yet lose
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
his host—drank and fell to / / on the
hard victuals (they were far from new / / did cross his mind) and dro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
umn out of leaves and grass / / till a
hard winter clamped suddenly down / / in frost and ice.  The black twi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / in me, timeless and harsh.  I feel
harden / / here in my chest that lump of childish lead / / (and a ma
Revisited
/ / And though with age’s oncoming you
harden / / the channels of our thought as of our blood, / / yet rais
Prayer to Time
ient conformity, the dreamed ideal / /
hardened into a stony tyranny?  / / Just such a vile perversion of goo
Betrayals
’s-nest mockery.  / / A nest?  He peered
harder .  It was a shell, / / its shaven bright fragility intact.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ compel the twisting mind and (what is
harder ) / / the twisting heart.  / / See that in earthquake now and b
Prayer to Truth
to wickedness and folly / / in others. 
Harder to bear, our children’s lives / / are subject too.  And sadly w
[Our lives are in other hands]
mpany, alone.  / / No game, no streams,
hardly a rain-puddle; / / and worst a hard blank grey sky over all /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y thing that mattered—not to miss.  / /
Hardly a sport, but he was hungry, and / / hunger is answerable for a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
reedily piled.  / / But knowing better? 
Hardly a trace of that.  / / Impossible Hyacinth, though, was a child
Greenham Common
e?  Well, lonely / / she sometimes was;
hardly aware, and yet / / glad in the woods to be with one friend los
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
huffled on under the darkening air / /
hardly aware that he dared not lie down, / / stumbled, tumbled, and t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the ribbon stretching out for ever / /
hardly beckoned; and he’d been nearly drowned / / lately, crossing a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
choice in time, would be / / a bet I’d
hardly care to take, / / love as I do humanity.  / /
Mother’s Malison
n to be tonsured.  / / Spring came, and
hardly come had fled / / —footloose wanderer, not pretending / / to
Dance of the Seasons
sky / / except where islands lie / /
hardly distinguishable through / / the bluish haze, / / the milkines
September Cruise
/ Block half freed from the quarry.  God
hardly half freed, / / adumbrated in the block.  He does not heed / /
September Cruise
ile, / / but something made him rouse. 
Hardly in him / / the force that made him rise and struggle on.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
himself against the armoured mass / /
hardly in hope (even though unexpressed) / / to break its spell-roote
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Today the sea is milk, milky blue / /
hardly lined off from the milky sky / / except where islands lie / /
September Cruise
king was not deceived.  / / Angry?  No. 
Hardly sad.  / / Beyond sadness and anger, / / but still the king, hi
Finis
How does it come that here / / I have
hardly seen a swallow this year / / but today on the high wire / / I
Swallows
viable, / / your ordered future.  / /
Hardly seen, / / all in a mist of blood is hid.  / / Not upon us our
Recessional
/ / Well, that again’s a thing we can
hardly tell.  / / But now that we watch ourselves / / contriving agai
What goes up must come down
and hate / / a fugitive goodwill, / /
hardly to be / / before it dissipates.  / / Oh, humanity!  / /
What Hope?
outh, / / which ours seemed painful or
hardly to exist, / / move us in others.  Has time brought up a mist /
In the Audience
rds on boughs crouch, deep in grass the
hare .  / / Twigs cracking, one dog’s bark, / / momently pierce but no
Country and Town
poses… / / winter’s carved boughs… and
hark , how sing…  / / Man’s seasons, though, link in no ring / / but j
Man’s Seasons
inal bomb fall wide in open ocean / / —
harmless ?  Look—circles of desert spread: / / seas and rivers, all wat
Stones
all, the far and near / / wheel in one
harmony about us here.  / / Pure light of the last sky that does not m
Cosmology
/ which time has tanned and broken to
harmony ).  / / The sky is green.  Hymettus / / miraculously blushes, s
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ake by its side their rest.  / / Monks,
harnessing the hungers of the flesh / / to spiritual flights, less co
The Embankment
wound.  / / The whale was created to be
harpooned .  / /
Machismo
/ / in Hell or, on another view, / /
harps it beside the highest throne / / (or both these judgements are
Thoughts on the Lavatory
her way.  / / We’re dead.  Spare us more
harrying .  / / We all need mercy, so go pray.  / / Laundered by rain w
Villon’s Epitaph
slept without a dream.  / / The way was
harsh but he was viable.  / / Wind-bitter nights were much the worst o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hreds on the savage fire.  / / …O Love,
harsh Eros, why do you cling so hard? / / —pond-leech, sucking the da
Spells and Love
thing cries on / / in me, timeless and
harsh .  I feel harden / / here in my chest that lump of childish lead
Revisited
the hours trouble and loss allow, / /
harsh in its lasting though their pain must be, / / and wide, wide th
The Black-out
han a squatter’s tenure? / / where the
harsh landlord may distrain on all, / / the holding dissipate like se
The West of Ireland
than those that huddle to the bleak and
harsh / / night here; whose lives, which life has tried to quench, /
The Embankment
unged too.  The fire-in-ice / / and the
harsh salt combined almost to choke him.  / / He struggled out.  Soon,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
gulls he shot and cooked on drift.”  The
harsh - / / screaming seagulls were all the life he’d seen.  / / So, d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ht cypress, / / sea and no river, / /
harsh sea-light.  River / / weaves in this country / / soft light for
Five Poems for Roni
ut no river, / / no mist)—another / /
harsher country.  / / Here, in my country, / / flares no cypress.  /
Five Poems for Roni
t (star-fall).  / / I like to lay up my
harvest in the wind.  / / Smug, you forget the other crop (tare / / i
Treasure
.  / / Next time with bleeding hands he
harvested / / nine, cleaned up three unbroken, placed them in / / hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
est son sets out with empty hands, / /
harvests a mint of luck in distant lands, / / returns…  The youngest,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Biblical conversation / “Why
hast though forsaken me?”  / / “What have I to do with thee?”  / /
Biblical conversation
/ / not that he had a real reason for
haste / / but challenged himself always to press on.  / / This restle
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ildren who / / had no fares but an old
hat / / he bought, wore to a première.  / / Clear, bright, very cold.
For Cecil
her legs hanging, / / swinging a wide
hat , not as in the wood / / she braved the thorns, but later, nine or
The Black-out
to hover on the chill / / of fury and
hate / / a fugitive goodwill, / / hardly to be / / before it dissip
What Hope?
d kind he is, loves children, keeps his
hate / / all for the hateful, is just what he seems, / / is just, is
Change Places…
feel in stale blood renewed a prick of
hate / / and press towards a hope.  The exile’s scar / / now throbs t
May Day
/ and rose at her with all his pain in
hate .  / / And then he saw her eyes and knew his error / / and droppe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
at good can hate do?  / / The stocks of
hate build up / / (and stocks of armaments / / build up).  Is our rea
Choice
To Carabosse all things are ground for
hate , / / but here we meet the other side—pity / / and love:  “The sp
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
on either side.  / / But what good can
hate do?  / / The stocks of hate build up / / (and stocks of armament
Choice
/ / the world of his religion riven by
hate , / / everything sour and broken in his heart, / / the old man c
Pietà
nks choked and chilled, / / changes to
hate —for much more than each other: / / for life, which that lost spa
Law Report
d father, fed / / by his own brother’s
hate / / his own children for meat, / / learning the horror, fled /
Pelopia and Thyestes
y) than we hate / / people we know.  We
hate in bulk / / —Communism, Islam (those Ayatollahs, / / those reds
Choice
ep us from the pit / / of a complacent
hate .  / / Let not our knowing our cause the better be / / condition
Prayer to Truth
tory / / and the sensualist I see / /
hate most bitterly.  / / Hate… what is it then?  / / What indeed but e
I, Who Know My Inner Man
/ We love more easily (mostly) than we
hate / / people we know.  We hate in bulk / / —Communism, Islam (thos
Choice
/ / was it not natural that you should
hate / / the girls who kept your sovereign lord amused?  / / They hur
To Hera
p in and slam the door, / / for we may
hate the tower of loneliness / / but still cleave to the tower of pea
The Party
, hate us (no doubt they do) so we / /
hate them.  And that hatred’s not without reason / / often, on either
Choice
stead Bay.  Came sharply through / / me
hate to be where streets and houses cover / / contours of earth, and
The Black-out
ruthlessly / / Age takes everything we
hate to give.  / / Huddled in his barbed camp we fret, we grieve / /
Age
ng misery, / / Age takes everything we
hate to give: / / knowledge and strength, to his imperative / / obed
Age
of memory.  / / Age takes everything we
hate to give, / / leaves us our fee to Death, the will to live.  / /
Age
Age / Age takes everything we
hate to give / / not everything we have—in mockery / / leaves us (ou
Age
counting us where we swing, / / do not
hate us for what we were, / / pity us.  Come your reckoning, / / God
Villon’s Epitaph
ent really.  Those we hate, / / we say,
hate us (no doubt they do) so we / / hate them.  And that hatred’s not
Choice
/ / Not so different really.  Those we
hate , / / we say, hate us (no doubt they do) so we / / hate them.  An
Choice
ist I see / / hate most bitterly.  / /
Hate … what is it then?  / / What indeed but envy, / / jealousy?  / /
I, Who Know My Inner Man
ling us we / / aren’t who we are, / /
hate whom we love.  / / Nothing, truly, / / to be ashamed of, / / fr
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
he bright saviour whom he must love and
hate , / / would sail perforce upon some other mark— / / her fated pr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Nazism / / —those Germans).  Others are
hated / / simply for being other (those blacks, those Jews).  / / The
Choice
im to the head forester / / (partly he
hated trouble; more, he knew / / she would feel better with a task to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ildren, keeps his hate / / all for the
hateful , is just what he seems, / / is just, is Justice, to unrighteo
Change Places…
/ / that all smooth ways are ways for
hate’s advance.  / / The road’s gone now.  Rejoice with us then, who /
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
paddled night and day; and (though / /
hating herself and it) yet learned the taste / / of pleasure, found i
Beyond Measure
e gazed unseeing at a glowing tree / /
hating himself, his love, his hopelessness.  / / And suddenly that vis
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / powerless to out-buy that power of
hatred ?  / /
Choice
they do) so we / / hate them.  And that
hatred’s not without reason / / often, on either side.  / / But what
Choice
Choice /
Hatred’s well invested.  The capital / / grows year by year.  Love / /
Choice
missed torment, nor those who live / /
haunt as cold ghosts the memory of the dead / / but warmly help and g
Prayer to Truth
e.  / / Now my centre’s gone.  / / I am
haunted by / / a thought: might it have been meant?  / / I do not thi
For Cecil
/ before the growth of wrong / / has
haunted human fancy / / indissolubly long / / and cast its mirror-im
Other World
rence.  / / You will have / / your own
haunter , nailed to die / / on the dry tree, failed love.  / /
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
Ecology / The
hawk is beautiful / / but he is built to kill.  / / A chain of predat
Ecology
“I am in the ground, / / cold bones in
Haworth ,” said the parson’s daughter; / / “he is in Cambridge, talkin
The Black-out
I have seen the brown / / hills about
Haworth white and smooth with snow.  / / House-bound I watched its bea
The Black-out
kle.  / / The bushes though are berried—
hawthorn , blackthorn / / (remnants of blackberry-flower among the ber
[Late October hedges]
/ / Sweetness spreads about / / from
hawthorn -conquering may.  / / The buttercup’s purer gold / / puts the
Another Summer
and stone.  / / The leader skirts these
hazards .  Several more / / follow her skill.  One, dreaming after these
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ Still morning.  Milky sea / / under a
haze of pearl.  / / A girl’s gaze / / absorbing life, considering lif
Two Serenities
distinguishable through / / the bluish
haze , / / the milkiness.  / / Above the dark harbour the crescent moo
September Cruise
/ big and low, yellow through the / /
haze which hides the rest.  / / A young man in the / / street was hum
For Cecil
-bound dreaming island / / shrinks and
hazes , and dreaming ghosts of islands / / rise half perceptibly.  / /
September Cruise
he hazy plain] / Seen from the hill the
hazy plain / / filled up with light is fairyland.  / / We climbed fro
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
[Seen from the hill the
hazy plain] / Seen from the hill the hazy plain / / filled up with li
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
d or up to Whitenothe’s / / high chalk
head .  / / A fifth in Ithaca, from the end / / of the long landlocked
Bury My Heart
er here / / up to the north and on his
head .  / / Above his feet is spread / / a dome studded with unfamilia
Antipodes
nowhere for you to tread / / but on my
head alone?  / / Wasn’t I a lad too once, / / as likely as they come?
A Ballad
/ her knife had shaved.  She raised her
head and eyed / / him hard.  He shivered in the sun.  What other / / s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ross Grange.”  / / But I: “remember Roe
Head and Law Hill, / / remember Brussels.  Can you find it strange /
The Black-out
ad lived all this inside that heart and
head , / / and lived (or died) too that last horrible / / reach, amon
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
shivered, but he stripped, plunged over
head / / and out, new-fired.  Then something caught his eye.  / / A fl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ind shook through the tree; I raised my
head / / and saw a few faint stars across the loose / / network of t
The Black-out
I even saw it / / I trod right on the
head , / / and then I heard the dead man / / how he groaned, and said
A Ballad
crouching in its light / / lifted her
head and was his nurse.  Desire / / for nothing happier filled him wit
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Black dress, black scarf over her bent
head , black / / thick gauntlets on her hands.  Most deeply aged / / h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ust now.  Her face was from him, but the
head / / bright in the sun.  Her slight and lovely form / / was all h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cer / / dips to the wind her brilliant
head / / by time’s rough gusts soon to be tonsured.  / / Spring came,
Dance of the Seasons
oo, to speak / / a word for him to the
head forester / / (partly he hated trouble; more, he knew / / she wo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
was not so.  / / He made his way to the
head forester’s house / / and found it, as he guessed, empty—all gone
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ght and brave / / the flag at the mast
head / / goes last under the wave.  / /
Five Poems for Roni
is said, a cheating question.  / / The
head He had them show Him was, no question, / / a copy’s shadow in th
The Betrayal
/ It was that morning from that valley-
head / / he saw the mountain—a tall flat-topped peak / / between two
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and spooned a pint of brine over his
head , / / his chokes and sputters ended, the nurse said, / / not in
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / “Anabel?” and unanswered turned my
head .  / / I know what Orpheus felt when turning he / / touched empti
The Black-out
the same?  / / I thought, and turned my
head .  In the same place / / I saw him lean where Seurat leaned before
The Black-out
ourney.”  / / She stroked his hair, his
head laid on her knee.  / / “The fairy’s promise is the prince’s bride
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
city sits me ill?”  / / “Brussels, Roe
Head , Law Hill—exile and prison,” / / she said, “but sometimes on the
The Black-out
ut my guide / / touched me; I shook my
head : “meet soon.”  The boat / / passed down with the already turning
The Black-out
/ the Parthenon lifts again its lovely
head / / or rather (here is west) its lovely tail / / (the greeks ga
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
n his hands, / / steadied his swimming
head , saw it was night, / / a moon—behind, the bright sea under it, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd dragging clear, / / breathing hard,
head swimming, while sweat and blood / / ran down his face, he fought
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s here, blows / / his trumpet over her
head .  The cock crows / / triumphant in her face.  / / Not seeing only
Nadia
/ and other hands, quiet, soothing the
head , / / veiling the terrified staring eyes.  / / Hear / / the gent
Block 21
he could have followed blind.  / / His
head was clear, his heart strangely at peace.  / / ‘I know my way’ he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Headline / Children stone a swan.  / / Troopers shot the fawn, / / Wa
Headline
and the bare reaches / / clear of the
heads , for sailing’s sake alone, / / his mind content to mark the cli
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
alace-cell alone / / notching up which
heads shall fall / / if she can once ascend the throne.  / / Peaky br
Royal Family
ht’s tears.  / / Time heals and doesn’t
heal , / / and nature is no comfort but is beautiful.  / /
News of a Death
creasing storm.  / / Must she soon / /
heal over, slide into the dark?  / /
England, 1981
nd bears awkwardly; / / you, Time, who
heal the wounds of violence / / but leave their scar, who work on bra
Prayer to Time
live / / one moment shows as whole and
healed .  / / Accept the vision.  Let it give / / a form on which to mo
Hymn
listens on the night’s tears.  / / Time
heals and doesn’t heal, / / and nature is no comfort but is beautiful
News of a Death
whose converse imparts, then sometimes
heals / / (not always) the to-be-or-not-to-be / / Weltschmerz, virgi
Prayer to Time
/ passionately fearing for his soul’s
health (fearing / / for his body’s too, mortally sick) yet sharing /
Eugénie de Guérin
m against repulsion.  At her side / / a
heap of the spined lumps, by it another / / of rainbow-varied domes w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ pretend kindness…  Grind the axe, / /
heap the faggots.  Notch it up.  / /
Royal Family
s sea, moved by this moon.  / / By moon-
heaped ocean, strait / / and firth where the tides race, / / Leif Er
The Sea
/ the friendly voice, and I was glad to
hear .  / / I stooped, hand on the open door, but drew / / back as ano
The Black-out
stand before a judgement-seat / / and
hear just what / / the things we’ve done, the things we’ve not / / a
Balance Sheet
ey begin to loosen and come down / / I
hear my mother say / / “Each caught leaf promises a happy day / / ne
[Golden, red, brown]
er / God, in whom I have no faith, / /
hear my unbelieving prayer: / / not to play blind-man’s-buff with dea
A Prayer
may not be there / / and surely cannot
hear / / nor, if it could, be moved by them.  / /
Prayer
rful hurt hits me / / that Cecil can’t
hear , see, / / can’t watch the change, the growth.  But after all / /
A poem you may like to see
waiting page / / for the deaf world to
hear , / / spring light, spring water, winter, / / wind, death, darkn
Beethoven
eiling the terrified staring eyes.  / /
Hear / / the gentle voice in the common foreign tongue / / Encore un
Block 21
ce came out of the wind / / for all to
hear / / “The spirit is innocent / / and comes to Me.”  / / Then all
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
ts ear, too negligent in peace, / / to
hear the still, small voice.  / / Having insufficiently rendered unto
Prayer to Truth
ked surprise, / / a story he had never
heard before.  / / It didn’t even start with ‘Once upon / / a time’ b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Later there’s more of him that may be
heard / / from one who knew him in his exiled age, / / but now we ta
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e woods each side.  ‘Go through’ / / he
heard his heart.  But ‘It’s not possible to’ / / came reason—and this
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in) back to my house…  / / The moment I
heard his light step through my door— / / These are the springs of my
Spells and Love
s towards the untrammelled sea / / but
heard his mother calling, calling him, / / and turned—with dreadful p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Lopped / Like music
heard in / / the mindless wind / / nerve-ends murmur / / of a lost
Lopped
he stood at last by his princess, / /
heard in the stillness her soft breath, and took / / heart, kissed th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
w.”  “I will” / / I answered, sad; then
heard : “our way lies on,” / / turned, saw my guide, and turned again.
The Black-out
trod right on the head, / / and then I
heard the dead man / / how he groaned, and said / / “Are you a Turk?
A Ballad
of rage / / he came to Sicyon.  / / He
heard the hum and buzz, / / the shrilling and the twang, / / snatche
Pelopia and Thyestes
ws of a Death / I woke in the night and
heard the rain falling / / softly.  It seemed like weeping.  / / The b
News of a Death
Seconds on a Tube Platform / Walking I
heard the train / / behind me coming in.  / / So did the child, / /
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
dreamed of the princess.  / / Watched,
heard , the water churning round a rock / / or falling whitely in a wi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
each other’s own.”  / / He heard, they
heard , the wicked fairy’s laugh, / / felt the good smile, began to un
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
together and each other’s own.”  / / He
heard , they heard, the wicked fairy’s laugh, / / felt the good smile,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ked up searching stars.  And I thought I
heard / / “Would you like to see the planet Mercury?”  / / I was tire
A Hoard
varied and repeated, / / entranced his
hearing , as the featureless scape— / / blues and greens melting in ea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed by her warm spirit—only seeing, / /
hearing , her life with others fed his joy.  / / But unhoped chance soo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
But soon / / spiralling on one almost
hears / / speeds gather as lives hurtle down / / the helter-skelter.
Anniversaries
t, faltering / / on a split hair, / /
hears the laugh / / of the gravedigger.  / / My thoughts posture, /
Catharsis
only to form and keep / / peace in the
heart .  / /
Inscription for a Convent
/ torch in the hand, / / glow in the
heart .  / /
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
e coloured worlds your eyes fed to your
heart ?  / /
Green World
all craft or thought / / achieves with
heart ; / / a little known, / / world on world gone.  / / Spare a sma
Fossils
where / / whatever day / / wakes your
heart .  / / A pang that’s like the joy / / of being together, / / it
[The clouds that pressed the air]
ss your hour.  / / Deep hoarded in your
heart a wealth of good / / observed, absorbed, lies ready.  Give it po
The Black-out
ak the charm.  / / Pausing to quell his
heart again, to breathe, / / trembling he stood at last by his prince
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er, / / had lived all this inside that
heart and head, / / and lived (or died) too that last horrible / / r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ht of sin and sorrow / / away from the
heart .  / / And heart and tears were mine, / / as hand on spade in th
A Dream
e you always in my mind / / (and in my
heart and in my flesh), / / The all but palpable presence / / of you
[I have you always in my mind]
but herself set out of age; / / “in my
heart and in yours slumbered a seed / / of great and happy life.  An e
The Black-out
e horror makes another / / easy, makes
heart and mind / / horror-blunt, horror-blind / / —a sword drawn on
Pelopia and Thyestes
uch—looks, a quick mind, / / a feeling
heart , and one / / thing which doubles those, / / the gift which mak
“Gale is Dead”
the knot / / of Gordian anguish in the
heart ; / / and others in whose silence sounds the roar / / of a remo
The Party
eep.  / / You have a sensitive mind and
heart , and store / / flashes of truth which pass and many miss, / /
The Black-out
rrow / / away from the heart.  / / And
heart and tears were mine, / / as hand on spade in the alley-shop was
A Dream
that pressed the air / / heavily on my
heart / / are quite away.  / / I drink the brilliance, am a part / /
[The clouds that pressed the air]
ink, than any / / of the rest.  Bury my
heart at Sheepstead, then.  / /
Bury My Heart
elf exiled and imprisoned will / / the
heart become, and little matters where / / the body walks—loved place
The Black-out
ut of time and space / / ambered in my
heart , / / both imaged back in this bone, this flesh, / / this hour
Meeting
Bury My
Heart / Bury my heart…  But the heart’s not one.  / / Hearts bud off fr
Bury My Heart
ch side.  ‘Go through’ / / he heard his
heart .  But ‘It’s not possible to’ / / came reason—and this time he bo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
that fixed face was not moulded on his
heart / / but on his will.  / / Can any misery kill / / the natural
And Then
Bury My Heart / Bury my
heart …  But the heart’s not one.  / / Hearts bud off from it, plant the
Bury My Heart
/ But the heart’s misery / / only the
heart can tell / / —mind and tongue break beneath it / / and die in
Dialogue
w him, and my wits left me.  My wretched
heart / / caught fire.  I must have looked awful.  I don’t remember /
Spells and Love
e and backed against the thorn / / his
heart contracting in a kind of terror / / at hope out of complete des
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e stream / / sensed in that truth, her
heart cried out in fear / / for some firm rock, rose circling and ali
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ The pool of love standing in / / my
heart deep and clear / / turns the dull thoughts lying there / / to
Letters
/ The sight of a heron always lifts my
heart , / / even today when the heart might seem too heavy / / even f
Omens
r / / blindfold and mock the visionary
heart , / / fetter the lifting feet.  / / And on his right hand hung t
Nijinsky
/ / scattered prodigally, / / eye and
heart filled.  / / Poetry?  / / This year… / / beauty is not enough,
Another Summer
uds swelled, / / Dropped from my child-
heart , grow / / there where they were buried long ago: / / one from
Bury My Heart
ldren undress to bathe.  / / My crooked
heart grows old.  / /
Another Summer
in answer glowed upon / / her glowing
heart , his smile on her smile—two / / in one.  She raised her face to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
m as sunlight—“You.”  / / “Ah, you” his
heart in answer glowed upon / / her glowing heart, his smile on her s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o leave their towers at once.  / / One,
heart in hand, stands at another’s door, / / but she is busy with her
The Party
/ to know fully, judge fairly another
heart / / is more than hard.  / / One land, one house, one life, diff
A Window
this deeper existence we know, at whose
heart / / is our love, and the love of which ours is a part.  / / God
Hymn
tillness her soft breath, and took / /
heart , kissed through hair the brow turned off beneath.  / / She stirr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / come into contact with the feeling
heart ?  / / Knowing men starving while the rank cigar / / perfumes th
The Black-out
he princess wants it so.  The boy’s / /
heart leapt—‘She loves…’—then dropped again: a love / / for here, not
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
make himself a life, but not a new / /
heart -life, since to the old he must be true.  / / Not courage nor the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ifts my heart, / / even today when the
heart might seem too heavy / / even for a heron’s wings, lifts it a l
Omens
yed at home.  / / He did not miss them,
heart more than content / / with other forms, compulsive as a song /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and thought, / / of threaded mind and
heart ?  / / No.  Knowledge of self / / compels knowledge of others.  /
Parenthood
/ to be the end?  Because / / the human
heart or rather the human frame / / finds in its broken sleep / / de
[Why do I dream this pause]
n a field.  / / Green world in my eyes,
heart .  Other summers, / / last summer, your world too.  / / Where are
Green World
/ better than such a knife-twist in the
heart .  / / Rapt Mary sat and drank all he could give.  / / Martha was
The Two Ways
d guide, only departing should / / the
heart reject us, if it can and will.”  / / “Be with me both,” I answer
The Black-out
ifts it a little.  / / Accept the omen,
heart .  / / Rejoice in beauty, rejoice in happiness, / / accept their
Omens
words again.  / / But drop them in your
heart , see / / how brilliant they appear.  / /
Letters
and (what is harder) / / the twisting
heart .  / / See that in earthquake now and blinding storm / / the spi
Prayer to Truth
eak when gales bend / / the unseasoned
heart .  Sidelong she saw him wait, / / gaze patiently.  She frowned, bu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the fulfilment come, / / though in the
heart sits pinioned, strengthless, dumb / / the natural angel now.  /
Waiting
wed blind.  / / His head was clear, his
heart strangely at peace.  / / ‘I know my way’ he thought.  ‘As it has
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ong.  The wind, the moor / / and my own
heart sufficed.  Three times the rigour / / of exile had me dying, but
The Black-out
ames and the White Horse.  / / A bigger
heart that, I think, than any / / of the rest.  Bury my heart at Sheep
Bury My Heart
pair and pride / / peopled my moor and
heart —that world I knew.”  / / “Prophet and guide, unhoped for helper
The Black-out
f a tree / / came clear.  Clean from my
heart the black cloud fell; / / softly the fresh wind moved; the star
The Black-out
ud and blaze / / rolled back across my
heart the gain and loss.  / / I swallowed, but the tears blotted my ga
The Black-out
/ of pleasure, found in her bewildered
heart / / the instincts (as she judged them) of a tart, / / a cravin
Beyond Measure
hrough cloud / / despair thinned on my
heart .  The moonlight fell / / on her pale face and tall, slight, angu
The Black-out
/ / everything sour and broken in his
heart , / / the old man carved by candlelight / / behind a locked doo
Pietà
/ are facets of one strange, barbarian
heart .  / / Their bonds remain, but you shall to the vow / / and the
Waiting
and our own good.  / / But search your
heart —there you will find us still / / to help and guide, only depart
The Black-out
ndness; and wit; / / charm; and a true
heart .  They did not give love.  / / Love would follow the others prese
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / catches the look, / / lifts the
heart / / to a still starburst / / in the night of thought.  / /
Summer Vision
leave their scar, who work on brain and
heart / / to fuse our sensibility and sense / / into one whole which
Prayer to Time
in Prinsengracht— / / I find it in my
heart / / to love you after all.  / /
Hermes of Olympia
un brighten over it, and though / / my
heart warms to the first of winter weather / / I could have cried at
The Black-out
nce and have her for my bride’ / / his
heart was flooded with unreasoning joy.  / / The age of time between,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / and wide, wide the horizon of the
heart / / where natural beauty, mutual love are free.  / / Ointments
The Black-out
all his dream.  He stood and fought his
heart / / within the door, and mastering it in part / / moved, hesit
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
that door.  / / But still the untaught
heart / / would, half believes, / / half persuades me even, / / we
From a Train
y, mourned / / a hollow failure of the
heart .  / / Your joy of life, your shining / / feeling that everythin
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
/ nor need fear her, holding you in my
heart , / / your presence at my side in this your land.  / / But still
Los Altos Hills
p me to cope / / with an intransigeant
heart ?  / / Yours, Troubled in Middle Age.”  / / Troubled in Middle Ag
Problem
ster, in their frantic, red-queen, / /
heartblank hunger to out-hurry time.  / / The sea-edge solution, salty
Full Circle
store / / their memories up.  The empty-
hearted fret.  / / The empty-bellied, the still driven poor, / / who
May Day
and hope,” I answered, “made me lighter-
hearted / / —orange blinds, fountains, chestnuts flowering, / / red
The Black-out
om / / they make their own light.  / /
Hearth in a dusky room.  / /
Winter Garden
ut a nearer flame too: / / fire on the
hearth , / / torch in the hand, / / glow in the heart.  / /
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
my heart…  But the heart’s not one.  / /
Hearts bud off from it, plant themselves / / in loved places.  / / Tw
Bury My Heart
ished / / taps us these messages.  / /
Hearts flower in words, or works of hand and mind, / / song and colou
Fossils
, that keeps her nest unnoticed in / /
hearts holding memory along life’s increase / / (and outsoars too the
Dulce et Decorum
h the spades and diamonds and clubs and
hearts / / night-black and bloody, spinning, and in the centre / / h
Nijinsky
nd us then / / intensify the shuttered
heart’s despair.  / / From London’s prison now you turn again / / to
The Black-out
ream.  / / Landscape is music: / / the
heart’s dream / / weaves with what we see / / and beguiles us.  / /
Music is Landscape
Scorched Earth / I scorched my
heart’s earth / / retreating miserably / / before the dark army / /
Scorched Earth
an image / / on a prepared brain.  / /
Heart’s feeling / / transfigures again / / that transposed vision /
Music is Landscape
other woman, for love.  / / Love is the
heart’s flower / / not only in these lovers’ / / cries—in all that s
Fossils
/ “Life and love are hell.  / / But the
heart’s misery / / only the heart can tell / / —mind and tongue brea
Dialogue
Bury My Heart / Bury my heart…  But the
heart’s not one.  / / Hearts bud off from it, plant themselves / / in
Bury My Heart
e kindling only for the fire / / whose
heat can forge a world from dreams: / / love—love of God, since God i
Hymn
lorence resting in the clear / / after-
heat dusk of summer’s first decline.  / / “By such a moon we quarrelle
The Black-out
/ Here must the longing blood allay its
heat , / / flesh cast its bloom and shapely hands grow sharp.  / / Her
Inscription for a Convent
storm and sun, ice-nights and sweating
heat / / of shadeless, windless noon, he followed it, / / lost and r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
till tired, set off simply to stir some
heat .  / / Some afternoons he slept, utterly done, / / but grudged al
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / I burn.  The leaves crackle as the
heat takes them, / / flare up suddenly and not even ash is left.  / /
Spells and Love
the charm too (she had it)—now she’s on
heat / / the whole time, can’t keep away from it— / / damn her, don’
Love Scene
cloud and sun, stars, / / wind on the
heath .  / /
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
th the mind’s eyes) / / those acres of
heath and wook, free and wild, / / under a bright, a grey, always a w
Two Poems for G
r, bracken, moss, / / wild rose on the
heath / / —bare from bony feet, / / fouled, burned—recreate / / bea
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ems for G / Tender and Merry / Lüneburg
Heath / Tender and merry.  Other things of course too, / / But these a
Two Poems for G
eed out of death, / / carpet again the
heath / / where once, between rose / / and larch, Hell was.  / / Lif
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ve the tramway terminus, / / Hampstead
Heath , which now low but clear of cloud / / the eleven day moon white
The Black-out
water dribbling, drifting mists, sharp
heather / / black through the snow—the frozen winter breaking, / / s
The Black-out
n.  / / Larch, gorse, rough grass, / /
heather , bracken, moss, / / wild rose on the heath / / —bare from bo
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
e, an effort of conscious will, / / to
heave my heaviness off my hurting knuckles, / / get me on my feet aga
The Fall
n.  Even the clap and roar / / of water
heaved and hurled on rock was lost / / in general clamour and din.  Bu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the sea, / / and once again a longing
heaved in him / / to kick over the traces and be free.  / / The world
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
safely beached / / out of the sea.  He
heaved up on his hands, / / steadied his swimming head, saw it was ni
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ome actual company’s offered, move / /
heaven and earth to keep out of its way?  / / The young prince liked h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eptable.  I belong to earth / / not any
heaven .  Do I now sometimes though / / notice myself, against all I fe
Death
is hillside, though.  / / English (not,
heaven help us, many years ago / / —five hundred years and more gone
Makherás
Bedtime / The Necessity of Purgatory /
Heaven I don’t covet.  / / Timeless nothing’s enough.  / / I feel so d
A Hot Bath at Bedtime
/ The little boy, wrapped to a kind of
heaven , / / loves the whole lot.  So long as he’s alive / / this visi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Treasure / / / Treasure in
heaven ?  Rather, the fleeting kind— / / the exchanged smile, the small
Treasure
-coloured, dark.  / / Once it blazed to
heaven , this hillside, though.  / / English (not, heaven help us, many
Makherás
e / / against the clouds ahead: / / a
heaven to be happy / / again when wrong is dead.  / / Today we feel b
Other World
/ ours, theirs, does remain / / —the
heaven which Blake’s love / / builds in Hell’s despair, / / hope in
Die Weisse Rose
ts the silted vapours away / / to deep
heaven , which like the deep ocean / / takes everything to itself and
Relax
all prick / / her thumb, and all these
heavenly qualities / / shall die into a little bead of blood.”  / / S
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ily bread.  / / She’s the wild gleam of
heaven’s sending.  / / Summer’s slow spell is different from / / hers
Dance of the Seasons
-traced patterns on a domed sky?  / / A
heavier darkness, dull as felt, / / creeps up across the pattern, dam
Night
t, an acreage to our hands is laid / /
heavier if not so wide.  / / Those who must die, let not the spectres
Prayer to Truth
/ The clouds that pressed the air / /
heavily on my heart / / are quite away.  / / I drink the brilliance,
[The clouds that pressed the air]
boy’s a hundred years perhaps away / /
heavily travelling.  And saw one day / / beyond the ribbon a faint sha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ort of conscious will, / / to heave my
heaviness off my hurting knuckles, / / get me on my feet again.  Anoth
The Fall
the truth, veils on her face.  / / The
heaviness you father on the war, / / preventable slaughter, and on th
The Black-out
ne noticed her at all.  / / But Hector,
heaving out of bed, / / saw under the three-thousandth day / / the s
Presage
r way up the hill again, as though / /
heavy already with the vengeful seed.  / /
Pelopia and Thyestes
e ebb-tide) and / / crawled out again,
heavy and dizzy, sank / / down on the beach.  / / Later, killed, cook
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nuckles, / / gripping the handle of my
heavy bag, / / my weight behind me grinding my raw knuckles / / in t
The Fall
ven today when the heart might seem too
heavy / / even for a heron’s wings, lifts it a little.  / / Accept th
Omens
beating / / the husks from the grains,
heavy fans shifting / / the chaff from the freed grains.  One time, on
Dream under a Carob-tree
ircle / / where they had laboured with
heavy flails, beating / / the husks from the grains, heavy fans shift
Dream under a Carob-tree
The sky was clouded over; my feet were
heavy ; / / houses and trees printing their darker tone / / on the du
The Black-out
d / / where my steps now are staid and
heavy .  / / Not that I was ever / / a competent cartwheeler / / or s
Climacteric by the Sea
The Fall / I tripped and fell,
heavy on knees and knuckles, / / gripping the handle of my heavy bag,
The Fall
/ / that ever-hungry beak.  / / Hangs
heavy on my neck / / Time killed.  / /
Albatross
that weighs on you, / / that and your
heavy stone?”  / / “It’s not the earth that weighs on me / / nor yet
A Ballad
earth that weighs on me / / nor yet my
heavy stone.  / / Was there nowhere for you to tread / / but on my he
A Ballad
Hebona / I could not in my orchard sleep that day / / knowing much wa
Hebona
, over black blood.  / / Be there, fell
Hecate , see me through to the end, / / and make these spells of mine
Spells and Love
while I croon, to you, goddess, and to
Hecate , / / your earth-dark Other who has even the dogs shaking / /
Spells and Love
The dogs in the town are howling.  / /
Hecate’s come to the cross-roads!  Clash the brass quick!  / / Draw him
Spells and Love
and no one noticed her at all.  / / But
Hector , heaving out of bed, / / saw under the three-thousandth day /
Presage
nd night, / / till the field reached a
hedge and the hours formed in days, / / days in years, and a pattern
Hymn
the seasons pass.  / / Dog-rose in the
hedge is answered / / now by campion in the grass / / while the gras
Dance of the Seasons
Summer / From every
hedge lightly the rose / / scentless, ephemeral and wild / / prodiga
Summer
s down, the cuckoo’s / / voice breaks)
hedge -reborn, the rose.  / /
[Housman was old beyond his years]
ossom scattering heralds again / / the
hedge -rose and the solstice’s return.  / /
Sixtieth Summer
Divinity / Lightly blows / / the
hedge -rose, / / sways, clings, / / white, pink, / / and I think /
Divinity
Another Summer / Roses in the
hedge / / scattered prodigally, / / eye and heart filled.  / / Poetr
Another Summer
ion / A wild rose lifting / / from the
hedge -top / / hooks its way upwards, / / on and up, / / hangs its c
Summer Vision
pes / / and felt constricted, narrowly
hedged in.  / / West, his mother’s tramontane kingdom reached / / lea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n the other perhaps, / / he thought, a
hedgehog .  Curiosity / / drove him against repulsion.  At her side / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
skein, / / now dogrose bushes star the
hedges again?  / /
Again
Again / Now dogrose bushes star the
hedges again.  / / My year passing must change but can’t renew.  / / I
Again
y rein / / now dogrose bushes star the
hedges .  Again / / my year passing must change but can’t renew?  / / T
Again
[Late October hedges] / Late October
hedges along this lane / / coloured with flowers / / (seasons are la
[Late October hedges]
rs on fields / / varying softly across
hedges , between trees, / / away to a low hill.  / / Other times it ca
Gratitude
en summer settles in.  / / Now from the
hedges drop the roses, / / and now before my donkey-nose is / / nost
Man’s Seasons
[Late October
hedges ] / Late October hedges along this lane / / coloured with flowe
[Late October hedges]
Right we should leave in June, / / the
hedges lit with roses.  / / The years of the rose are done.  / / Each
Epoch
aw the grass road straight between dark
hedges / / patchworked with green and grey / / and flecked with whit
The Grass Road
Full Circle / Uproot the rich
hedges that roads may be wider / / that more cars may carry more carc
Full Circle
June? / / —with the rose light in the
hedges to lift or droop / / over the fields of daisy and buttercup, /
Sixtieth Summer
/ adumbrated in the block.  He does not
heed / / precise feature, upright stance.  He is here in the block, /
September Cruise
unlight, swift and proud.  / / The wing-
heeled boots, the crooked knife / / lent us to hunt a monster with, /
From the Air
he squall struck his port beam / / and
heeled the boat all but under a wave.  / / The lifted water driving ov
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed as the skilled driver swung / / the
heeling coach home through a needle’s eye / / into the court—but was
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
empty air sucks suddenly / / under our
heels , / / the sharp shock is its own cure, telling / / how vain are
That Way Madness Lies
f Anne Frank / Orders / Röslein auf der
Heiden / “Soldiers, advance against the enemy.  / / Shoot when you see
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ss flow / / of gall.  From such a still
height I looked down / / and watched detached my weary body go / / w
The Black-out
/ you are awaited.  Come.”  To the slow
height / / we turned our backs, towards the Thames our faces.  / / Tr
The Black-out
s, / / but a sharpening of the senses,
heightening , glow, / / ray from a red sunset, deepening / / the colo
What Do They Feel?
/ Leopardi, Theocritus, Palamas, / /
Heine , Hoffmann von Hoffmanswaldau, / / Baudelaire, Du Bellay—let it
Poetry
ty, and all the ills / / that youth is
heir to and bears awkwardly; / / you, Time, who heal the wounds of vi
Prayer to Time
/ A hunting-wood his father’s kingdom
held / / but poor and tame our forester had found it / / beside the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Great Britain / Once she
held half the world in fee; / / for evil and for good, a power.  / /
Great Britain
oan, / / weeping and trembling.  And he
held her close / / and called aloud, defying Carabosse / / “We are t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
smooth horizon, the unbroken cliff / /
held him as in a dream on either side.  / / And every day at noon came
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ted / / with winking, wrinkled flashes—
held his gaze.  / / Still on the sand he sat, in the cool wind, / / w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eered into the opening shadows / / and
held his sword against the shades crowding / / to the blood.  / / Whe
Odysseus
it high to strike me / / —I caught and
held it high, / / but he pulled out his pistol / / and laid me where
A Ballad
orled stalks, above the tang / / which
held it in the handle, doubtless of wood / / (no trace of that remain
Label
scription of her small world’s rim / /
held spreading riches: peace and happiness / / and love—as love comes
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / begin to fade.  / / Lovers close,
held together, feud / / against wind.  / / I stand alone, shiver.  But
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
hat only three struts of worn wood / /
held up the tree.  One branch from the main fork / / was broken and la
Five Poems for Roni
ht falls on the blind.  / / Paris loves
Helen in all tongues of the world, / / Gorgias Tamynis on a sherd /
Fossils
for me the parallel / / of eternity in
Hell .  / /
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
Two Glimpses from Dante’s
Hell / Accidie / Brunetto Latini under the Fire-Rain / “Joy we denied,
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
ends me here now to comfort you through
Hell .”  / / As the moon breaks, as the moon broke through cloud / / d
The Black-out
go / / on down the same old way, / /
hell -bent to destroy / / himself and her.  / / If I could plummet dow
Antipodes
Hell’s despair, / / hope in despairing
hell / / breathed by these good and brave, / / Kurt Huber and his ch
Die Weisse Rose
lia to Miranda:  / / “Life and love are
hell .  / / But the heart’s misery / / only the heart can tell / / —m
Dialogue
share in His blessing, / / thunder of
Hell fall another way.  / / We’re dead.  Spare us more harrying.  / / W
Villon’s Epitaph
/ a sea-gift wished him in this forest-
hell .  / / He found himself again, with greater care, / / severing to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
il’s Farewell to Dante / Of eternity in
Hell / / I had passed thirteen hundred years.  / / Not ice or fire, n
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
ady broke the spell / / of eternity in
Hell .  / / I had passed thirteen hundred years / / of paralysed yearn
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
hether, as some think, he howls / / in
Hell or, on another view, / / harps it beside the highest throne / /
Thoughts on the Lavatory
kewise in letters of gold / / “If it’s
hell to be young it’s the end being old / / so gather the roses of ri
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
here once, between rose / / and larch,
Hell was.  / / Life is sweet, / / as you did not forget / / living,
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
eaven which Blake’s love / / builds in
Hell’s despair, / / hope in despairing hell / / breathed by these go
Die Weisse Rose
f everything, / / do not deliver us to
Hell’s king / / —not his our work, not ours his pay.  / / Brother men
Villon’s Epitaph
and with the sinews free, / / and all
help , all hope far / / blindfold and mock the visionary heart, / / f
Nijinsky
the memory of the dead / / but warmly
help and guide.  / / Flash on our groping a recurring vision / / of p
Prayer to Truth
rt—there you will find us still / / to
help and guide, only departing should / / the heart reject us, if it
The Black-out
ve and am loved; happy / / I—could not
help being? rather, I deeply am.  / / Yet look just now: / / water in
Tristi Fummo
er grief not lessened / / but pride to
help her.  / / My mother had her wounds / / in front.  She went to fac
Wounds
as well / / as being inevitable).  / /
Help it, honour it.  Yet / / do not fear to regret / / what best and
Progress
et?  / / I don’t know, / / but I can’t
help it.  / / Seagulls cry / / circling, swooping over / / the white
Climacteric by the Sea
se.  / / As the flame melts this wax (O
help me, goddess) / / may this Myndian, this Delphis waste with love,
Spells and Love
Problem / “Dear Adviser, can you
help me to cope / / with an intransigeant heart?  / / Yours, Troubled
Problem
fer much?  / / Would to know the answer
help ?  / / Not you.  Us perhaps.  / / Walking on the white / / slipper
For Cecil
have been born.  / / And to ask God for
help / / presupposes that there is / / a God, and one who’s well /
Living and Dying
ll, not knowing at all / / if that can
help the scalepan fall.  / / To stand before a judgement-seat / / and
Balance Sheet
can’t help you / / dead.  But it might
help them / / a little who loved you, love / / you, love me, love bo
For Cecil
We all go under earth / / but not, God
help us, before / / inflicting so much hurt / / we’d better not have
Living and Dying
side, though.  / / English (not, heaven
help us, many years ago / / —five hundred years and more gone / / si
Makherás
iving trouble.  / / I don’t know how to
help you, but our intent / / is firm as our love, and perhaps we shal
[White foam sweeps]
led you living / / and what I do can’t
help you / / dead.  But it might help them / / a little who loved you
For Cecil
ugh / / your dark sea.  Waits ahead the
help you need.”  / / “Anabel,” I thought, and pressing forward questio
The Black-out
en the fossil forming in the stone / /
helped build a shape which was not there before.  / / Though change of
Change
lood / / waits for the turn,” began my
helper .  “Each / / of countless currents met in you has stood / / wai
The Black-out
.”  / / “Prophet and guide, unhoped for
helper sent me,” / / I said, “I would of all have chosen you.  / / Th
The Black-out
awakes / / nor stir the lips, / / but
helpless till pass by this long eclipse / / the spirit waits, / / ta
Waiting
e paused, but checked / / his reason’s
helpless wondering, and strode / / down the right fork.  He felt the f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and one who’s well / / disposed to our
helplessness .  / / All of which may be so, / / but the likelihood see
Living and Dying
ds gather as lives hurtle down / / the
helter -skelter of the years— / / a tower whose far base disappears /
Anniversaries
ds gather as lives hurtle down / / the
helter -skelter.  Of the year’s / / pattern we mark flash off, flash on
Anniversaries
d his colours” as / / Felicia Dorothea
Hemans says / / “round his breast on a blood-red field of Spain;” /
The Black-out
ndkerchief— / / a plain square plainly
hemmed , but she would fill, / / she thought, the centre with embroide
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
had commanded / / his steps, but that
hence he might recognise / / the field of his last fight.  But the den
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ely Love / / builds a hotter fire than
Hephaestus under Etna.”— / / These are the springs of my love.  Mark t
Spells and Love
To
Hera / Great Hera, much ill-treated by your mate / / most human of th
To Hera
To Hera / Great
Hera , much ill-treated by your mate / / most human of the gods and mo
To Hera
the white poplar, the holy / / tree of
Herakles , wound with crimson ribbon.”— / / These are the springs of m
Spells and Love
g, / / till chesnut-blossom scattering
heralds again / / the hedge-rose and the solstice’s return.  / /
Sixtieth Summer
-chamber duty at Auschwitz.  You / / to
herd the beasts in Belsen.  Stamp out the Jew, / / man, woman, child. 
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
n a steep place / / with the possessed
herd / / to sink without trace.  / / Man and his dreams dead.  / /
This Time
ere, they say, / / the poor of Attica,
herded in / / between the long walls, learnt to live in slums, / / a
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
, / / long before naked Jews / / were
herded into gas.  / / And that is past too.  / / World about us now /
Causes
/ immutably the same, / / a timeless
heritage / / for us to hand down pure / / as we received it.  / / Th
Change
Hermes of Olympia / After the others—struggle or charged stillness /
Hermes of Olympia
sting the Tiber race, / / Mamilius and
Herminius dead—Black Auster / / gazing into his master’s face / / wh
Poetry
us-strand, and be / / happy.”  The wily
hero , bound / / tight by his ear-blocked company, / / sailed on.  The
The Sirens
nd bandit walk the earth / / while the
hero , careless, bored, / / hunts the gamy hills alone, / / and the t
Dark Age
gons make an easy dream.  / / How can a
hero find a way to fight / / needle or thorn?  The fact would come to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
exiled age, / / but now we take a new
hero —or say / / him rebegotten by the fairy’s word?  / / A prince—the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
over the blood-filled trench, / / the
hero peered into the opening shadows / / and held his sword against t
Odysseus
s—struggle or charged stillness / / of
heroes , centaurs, gods from the temple-gables, / / weight of a winged
Hermes of Olympia
g into slow flight.  / / The sight of a
heron always lifts my heart, / / even today when the heart might seem
Omens
Heron and Gulls / The heron manoeuvres its slow galleon-sails, / / wr
Heron and Gulls
nother omen rose in front of me: / / a
heron , lifting its wide grey angled wings, / / its long neck out, ris
Omens
Heron and Gulls / The
heron manoeuvres its slow galleon-sails, / / writhes its proud neck,
Heron and Gulls
rt might seem too heavy / / even for a
heron’s wings, lifts it a little.  / / Accept the omen, heart.  / / Re
Omens
a Caesarian birth.  / / The fairy-story
hero’s cake / / was eaten with his mother’s curse.  / / He won throug
Mother’s Malison
r meeting with the starting, slow, / /
hesitant , eager, delicate approach / / of a child who barefoot down a
Separation
ot that at least chiefly which made him
hesitate , / / and laying it carefully in the reeds at last, go back /
Finis
r, and mastering it in part / / moved,
hesitated , afraid to break the charm.  / / Pausing to quell his heart
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
before I can remember / / the Schooner
Hesperus carried me, / / a pressed man, to serve a lifetime / / unde
Poetry
tread it / / with lightened feet.  / /
Hewn from the rock / / huge he lies, / / relaxed and watchful, / /
September Cruise
On the Border / “You! 
Hi !  You over there!  / / One of your goats is caught in a bush, caught
On the Border
, neither / / thrown to the winds, nor
hid as now it is.  / / Turn to whatever calls you, only use / / your
The Black-out
ly seen, / / all in a mist of blood is
hid .  / / Not upon us our fathers’ sin / / but on your children visit
Recessional
ce, / / put the wet dress back on.  She
hid the sword, / / seeming to hide her knowledge and his deed; / / s
Pelopia and Thyestes
arvellous marble hidden, / / the slums
hidden behind, down in their valley / / one might be far—but for the
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ver the half-dry creek / / deep in its
hidden cleft.  / / There is more shadow than light / / but broken bri
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
r him / / to walk in with his world of
hidden dreams— / / cold, though, and hungry.  These bad seasons thinne
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e dense floor / / kept all its secrets
hidden .  He descended, / / foothills.  And evening suddenly showed his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rgrowth master again.  The noon / / was
hidden .  His direction was maintained / / by the thorn-bastion only, w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed of love.  / / The sun still mountain-
hidden in high day, / / cramped and cold he stood looking up along /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
fir.  Water—always / / streams sounding
hidden , suddenly leaping / / free from the steep, white in a long fal
Varangian in Mickelgard
another purpose.  / / Marvellous marble
hidden , / / the slums hidden behind, down in their valley / / one mi
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ite birch-trunks, blue sky caught, / /
hide darkness where that fish is moving / / like an escaped thought. 
Water in a Wood
on.  She hid the sword, / / seeming to
hide her knowledge and his deed; / / straightened herself, turned slo
Pelopia and Thyestes
are of its black way, / / out from its
hide -out, in, / / giving obstacles space, / / sensitive certainty.  /
Bat
he brush with petrol round the mountain
hide -out / / of Gregory Afxendióu / / —here, where now welcomed I ad
Makherás
orror, lust, oracle— / / flared to one
hideous end.  / / She fought the hard sinews, the horribly / / cloake
Pelopia and Thyestes
life within / / the egg, the sperm, be
hideously undone, / / take these bombs to Japan.”  / / We have our or
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
r.  Down / / in one corner he saw a few
hides spread.  / / He did not wait his host—drank and fell to / / on
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
not spring / / from them.  Unhappiness
hides the genuine scar / / under some other likely-seeming thing; /
The Black-out
low, yellow through the / / haze which
hides the rest.  / / A young man in the / / street was humming, whist
For Cecil
have liked that, though / / Hurricane
Higgins would have / / pleased you better as the winner.  / / Things
For Cecil
/ woke him—and woke, after the sun was
high , / / a faint sea-breeze, which shifted presently / / and settle
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing-day.  / / Down the white hill-road,
high above the sea / / the six white horses swept the golden carriage
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he sky / / or if the sun were bold and
high , / / an ordinary landscape seem; / / where now an otherworld of
Early Train
huts.  Crowded miseries / / fenced with
high barbs, eyed from towers, stain / / earth and sky with their sten
Two Poems for G
he early night, / / stars contouring a
high black mountain’s rim.  / / But often mind forgot the joy of eyes.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
boughs arch over the half-dry creek] /
High boughs arch over the half-dry creek / / deep in its hidden cleft
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
[
High boughs arch over the half-dry creek] / High boughs arch over the
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
to strike me / / —I caught and held it
high , / / but he pulled out his pistol / / and laid me where I lie. 
A Ballad
to Portland or up to Whitenothe’s / /
high chalk head.  / / A fifth in Ithaca, from the end / / of the long
Bury My Heart
wind-swept flat horizon / / under the
high -cloud-mottled pallid blue / / offers all colours equally subdued
[Bare trees black]
.  / / The sun still mountain-hidden in
high day, / / cramped and cold he stood looking up along / / the two
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / and after that I went down with a
high fever / / —ten days and nights I couldn’t get out of bed.  / / T
Spells and Love
y quenched, was still a fire / / whose
high flame, even remembered, warms and sings.  / / Man’s acts and suff
Question
From the Air / Flying
high / Flying low / (for L) / Far down past melting drifts of cloud /
From the Air
er again— / / loitering, spying on her
high griefs—coarse, rude— / / crossly she turned her look and step as
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Los Altos Hills / On the
high hill, in sun-bright scrub, / / the path wound under trees / / a
Los Altos Hills
st again by the Old Bailey / / towards
High Holborn, tired, a dreary road.  / / But moonlit on the bridge the
The Black-out
nst it, white, / / brilliant, one swan
high in flight / / across the flat fenland.  No dream— / / this is to
Bicycle Ride
/ Late in a winter night, / / a round
high moon lighting the field path home.  / / Cold…colder…then, a matte
Magic
place / / as the Empress Eugénie?  / /
High nineteenth-century / / Paris.  Rich, squalid, whirling Paris:  /
Time’s Reach
o inkling of) / / a temper that flares
high on a short fuse.  / / A bad combination, one would suppose, / /
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
mbered nimbly up the cliff and on.  / /
High on the col, late in the afternoon, / / the rocks to left and rig
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he lion lies, is as he always was.  / /
High on the precipitous promontory / / dark trees gather, and the whi
September Cruise
, the rest, to ringing strings / / and
high pipe, pretty and innocently proud.  / / But at such fêtes, that h
Pelopia and Thyestes
d-mounted phial.  / / In canyons of the
high -slummed hill / / sick children sell themselves for food.  / / So
Naples
g the moving hollow shell.  / / Sigh or
high song of wind in rigging, air / / on rope and wood, in canvas, cl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
extra twist that she should die / / in
high summer, this autumn lost.  / / Her own summer already past / / b
Death
ato sauce, and sun; / / my love burned
high then, but the answering / / flicker died soon.”  “What can one bu
The Black-out
sted / / on old dry driftwood from the
high -tide mark.  / / He ate, and watched the sun change on the wave, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
his scimitar he drew, / / he swung it
high to strike me / / —I caught and held it high, / / but he pulled
A Ballad
, firefruits fallen / / from the sun’s
high tree.  / / Today the sea is milk, milky blue / / hardly lined of
September Cruise
s we find a miracle, / / tender on the
high twigs the green.  / / One year, of course, spring’s power past, /
Renewal
le / / steps of the couple / / on the
high wire!  / / Death-wish dances / / with Life-enhancement / / chee
Sea Cliff
swallow this year / / but today on the
high wire / / I count twelve in a row? / / circling, twittering, sit
Swallows
/ / beating it down, and only blows it
higher .  / / Sparks, wind-scattered wide, dropped on what’s thin / /
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
asily in Fate for her to take.  / / Her
higher spirit burned rather to do / / than bear—his seemed at best a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ked down a broad valley from a col / /
higher than any hill which lay beyond.  / / The peaks were breaking to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hich licks the lower hills.  As we mount
higher / / we lose the illusory fire— / / grey rocks; bushes green,
Makherás
another view, / / harps it beside the
highest throne / / (or both these judgements are untrue) / / this Ma
Thoughts on the Lavatory
en / / have followed the fairies under
hill .  / /
Freedom
and still slow / / made her way up the
hill again, as though / / heavy already with the vengeful seed.  / /
Pelopia and Thyestes
roadening plain.  To south, hill crowded
hill / / against the shore, and the curved surf-line closed / / in c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ce.  The other way, / / above this bare
hill and a pine-green hill, / / from the Acropolis, the Parthenon /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ckfriars’ Bridge my guide turned up the
hill / / by narrow alleys where the houses pile, / / and half my min
The Black-out
ea / / and broadening plain.  To south,
hill crowded hill / / against the shore, and the curved surf-line clo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
me ill?”  / / “Brussels, Roe Head, Law
Hill —exile and prison,” / / she said, “but sometimes on the windy hil
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/ above this bare hill and a pine-green
hill , / / from the Acropolis, the Parthenon / / burns back stilly at
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
/ before dawn and the moon behind the
hill .  / / I reached the tree and paused, straining my sight, / / sta
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Find me the path missed on the clouded
hill / / I set my feet to climb.  Let me not lose / / the flame, whos
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Los Altos Hills / On the high
hill , in sun-bright scrub, / / the path wound under trees / / a big
Los Altos Hills
, with threescore / / lifting over the
hill , / / it’s a moment to take a cool / / look in the face, or / /
[Now of threescore and ten]
r, / / wandered the woods, or from the
hill looked down / / over dank green dissolving into grey, / / dream
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
go: / / one from the garden at Jesmond
Hill / / (not, as it sounds, in Newcastle / / but above Pangbourne o
Bury My Heart
/ / Billowing, settling, over wood and
hill , / / now wind-blown clear, now eddying round again, / / the fou
On the Border
/ she said, “but sometimes on the windy
hill / / of home I felt no less a prisoner.  / / Of itself exiled and
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Athens,
Hill of the Muses; Evening / The quarried rock drops to the slums, /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ut turning again, grew / / a monstrous
hill of thorn before his face / / just where a sudden thinning of the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
dges, between trees, / / away to a low
hill .  / / Other times it can be / / forest, mountain, sea.  / / Stup
Gratitude
he other side of the short grass on the
hill , / / reaches out into the thieving and loving, / / into the kil
[The bare, beautiful borders]
/ / But I: “remember Roe Head and Law
Hill , / / remember Brussels.  Can you find it strange / / there shoul
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their wedding-day.  / / Down the white
hill -road, high above the sea / / the six white horses swept the gold
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
al.  / / In canyons of the high-slummed
hill / / sick children sell themselves for food.  / / Song… and blue
Naples
he hill the hazy plain] / Seen from the
hill the hazy plain / / filled up with light is fairyland.  / / We cl
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
[Seen from the
hill the hazy plain] / Seen from the hill the hazy plain / / filled u
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
On hard bare feet she hurried down the
hill .  / / The maddened father, fed / / by his own brother’s hate /
Pelopia and Thyestes
ld be non-entity.  / / Mourn the smooth
hill , the woods / / you love, the fitted words / / you love.  Love an
Change
preads to the open, darkening field and
hill .  / / To stars and window-panes withdraws the light.  / / Hunched
Country and Town
ite to blindness clothes its steep / /
hill under the wrecked keep.  / / At the white alley’s end you look /
September Cruise
valley from a col / / higher than any
hill which lay beyond.  / / The peaks were breaking to the coastal pla
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Through the Looking-Glass / Towards the
hill would Alice go / / it slipped away from her.  / / At last she tu
Through the Looking-Glass
among far-spread forests half-ringed by
hills , / / a distant, lovely, rough and empty land.  / / Learning fro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eks together I have seen the brown / /
hills about Haworth white and smooth with snow.  / / House-bound I wat
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e, pain.  / / A violent longing for the
hills again / / hustled him to the ford—be hanged the deer!  / / He m
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o, careless, bored, / / hunts the gamy
hills alone, / / and the tokens of his birth / / (the cap, the sanda
Dark Age
the broad flow / / beneath the nearer
hills .  Alone long days / / walking, scrambling, he added mountain-way
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the winter-beautiful / / woods for the
hills .  And there we leave the lad.  / / Later there’s more of him that
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
yellow flame / / which licks the lower
hills .  As we mount higher / / we lose the illusory fire— / / grey ro
Makherás
/ Almost blindly he turned towards the
hills , / / began the long drag.  Day and night and day / / (time lost
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
way about the twentieth mile / / where
hills broke to the sea, and ‘this is Greece’ / / I thought.”  We walke
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more took prisoner / / fighting in the
hills .  / / But then the sword broke in my hand, / / the steel snappe
A Ballad
bright / / the harbour under the dark
hills is laid.”  / / But she: “our way waits.”  I turned to my father /
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Los Altos
Hills / On the high hill, in sun-bright scrub, / / the path wound und
Los Altos Hills
made part of their dream.  / / Then the
hills parted, and the river came / / broader and fuller out across a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
elcomed I admire / / the lovely Cyprus
hills , raised that sacrificial fire.  / /
Makherás
ing.  / / The other way the rare-pathed
hills spread on / / till nothing lay beyond them but the sky.  / / Ha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
walk / / these rough woods, / / those
hills that climb and part, / / this clear shore.”  / / No more.  / /
From a Train
stus.  / / And gradually, a peak behind
hills / / that rise or shrink as we move through miles and years, /
Poetry
those golden shores, / / flower-wooded
hills , which loved them once.  / /
[Some exiles know]
es suddenly the cold, retaking / / our
hills , wiped from the world my fancied spring.  / / “You felt the crus
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rk.  / / Once it blazed to heaven, this
hillside , though.  / / English (not, heaven help us, many years ago /
Makherás
hands.  / / There were gems in the gold
hilt , but it was not that / / —the work was wonderful, and the much-u
Finis
ching him, and suddenly / / this was a
hilt her fingers fastened on.  / / Twisted, no purchase, she tugged pi
Pelopia and Thyestes
le / / forgotten of the badger and the
hind , / / and with it the sad facts.  Perhaps we all / / are schizoph
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ain: a love / / for here, not him.  The
hind could only scorn / / the badger, yield some insolent stag her jo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s shrank further into fantasy.  / / The
hind mates only with the stag.  Plain truth / / placed him no better t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ins / / but dared not tell her why.  No
hint of fear / / clouded her rosy thought of being loved— / / a new
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / a few rose-bushes burning with red
hips , / / and suddenly among those / / a white rose, and another whi
[Late October hedges]
.  / / No buses passed me and one taxi,
hired .  / / A wind touched me, and a voice clear and strong: / / “tre
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colours.  / / Someone had stuck to the
hired window / / a coloured small transparency / / “Have a Rainbow D
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
loat.  / / Gurgle and clop and slap and
hiss , water / / moving along the moving hollow shell.  / / Sigh or hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a sensual puritan, / / the puritan in
history / / and the sensualist I see / / hate most bitterly.  / / Ha
I, Who Know My Inner Man
en / / have learnt from them a view of
history : / / public affairs drift by with public men, / / self-seeki
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globe / / —drought-blistered, cyclone-
hit , / / quake-riven earth, as though / / herself were in despair /
Antipodes
outing in the pool / / a powerful hurt
hits me / / that Cecil can’t hear, see, / / can’t watch the change,
A poem you may like to see
candlelight / / behind a locked door,
hitting / / recalcitrant marble, whittling / / the brute block back
Pietà
est, not the only son.  / / He dare not
hive off on a gambler’s hope / / that chance, sown on the wind, might
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
A
Hoard / Walking in the darkening dusk / / I saw the thinnest sliver o
A Hoard
g.  Oh, do not miss your hour.  / / Deep
hoarded in your heart a wealth of good / / observed, absorbed, lies r
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pardi, Theocritus, Palamas, / / Heine,
Hoffmann von Hoffmanswaldau, / / Baudelaire, Du Bellay—let it pass.  /
Poetry
itus, Palamas, / / Heine, Hoffmann von
Hoffmanswaldau , / / Baudelaire, Du Bellay—let it pass.  / / How have
Poetry
ain by the Old Bailey / / towards High
Holborn , tired, a dreary road.  / / But moonlit on the bridge the stat
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Scamander and the windy plain.  / / We
hold a double talisman—are free, / / first of as many worlds as books
The Black-out
hine some, in whom power and deadweight
hold / / a steady balance; some / / smoulder an age; some flare smok
Lamps
er (as the electron’s charge / / might
hold a universe).  Or perhaps / / our time, space, matter are not / /
Credo
and Plato, / / but the long hopes they
hold and bid me seize are / / not mine.  My soul cries (child) to stay
The Betrayal
/ (the hospitable stranger / / would
hold her out of danger / / against a happier day) / / must now be co
Pelopia and Thyestes
camera catch the fading moment / / to
hold it like a dead leaf in the hand.  / /
Moment and Memory
n for the post, / / when mind and hand
hold so much to be done?”  / / I drank his voice and did not think to
The Black-out
one, / / but shining still the temples
hold / / their broken faces to the dawn.  / /
Acropolis
o not think so.  / / Too much surely to
hold you.  / / But if it were, what courage.  / / I am old, and as /
For Cecil
oul / / against the tiller, he was not
holding course / / but sidling always closer, must perforce / / driv
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
landlord may distrain on all, / / the
holding dissipate like sea-spray to thin air.  / /
The West of Ireland
keeps her nest unnoticed in / / hearts
holding memory along life’s increase / / (and outsoars too these wars
Dulce et Decorum
s to eternity.  / / Alone each listens,
holding to an ear / / an empty shell which whispers of the sea.  / /
Parted
am not for her / / nor need fear her,
holding you in my heart, / / your presence at my side in this your la
Los Altos Hills
g-grounds.  / / Nature’s brutal economy
holds a mirror / / to human doing, / / unflattering / / comparison
Heron and Gulls
uts out the torches.  / / The oak still
holds its rust and the beech its red / / but winds have washed the go
Dance of the Seasons
ht she did not know) / / the bond that
holds me without hope.  To lose / / my prison and my peace by going aw
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ven for one / / for whom that ugliness
holds nothing dear.  / / I remember / / beauty just so shining from a
“Life is sweet, brother”
g.  / / Crows, pies have picked our eye-
holes clear, / / plucked beards and brows for their nests’ lining.  /
Villon’s Epitaph
Holes in Space / Galaxies, galleon-bold adventurers, pass / / out thr
Holes in Space
where the others said.  / / Watery mud-
holes suck and clog / / and to our vision’s limit spread / / flat as
Lost
has made, / / but flight and court and
hollow dome / / melt in each other, melt away, / / Behind the images
Cedar
/ / successful, happy, mourned / / a
hollow failure of the heart.  / / Your joy of life, your shining / /
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
the depth of a dream / / to know that
hollow field.  / /
Words from a Dream
he field is hollow now’.  / / What is a
hollow field?  / / Dream-words do not allow / / analysis, or yield /
Words from a Dream
rom a dream ‘For ever / / the field is
hollow now’.  / / What is a hollow field?  / / Dream-words do not allo
Words from a Dream
iss, water / / moving along the moving
hollow shell.  / / Sigh or high song of wind in rigging, air / / on r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e within, one without, / / taps on the
hollow wood, / / the one communication they admit, / / to time their
Woodpeckers
low was riven away, / / the other half
hollowed back almost to the bark / / and broken through in two places
Five Poems for Roni
glimpse out there / / a swollen belly,
hollowed eyes, / / blank stare, / / where once a day or once perhaps
Dinner
carry a basket for Artemis / / to her
holy grove in the feast-day procession / / (they’d a lot of animals,
Spells and Love
ily / / —trees specially sacred in the
holy grove.  / / You that I’ve named, you that I’ve forgotten, / / yo
Poetry
/ / crept in the scrub below / / the
holy place.  He lay / / under the hot, bright day, / / watched bright
Pelopia and Thyestes
worn a wreath of the white poplar, the
holy / / tree of Herakles, wound with crimson ribbon.”— / / These ar
Spells and Love
Homage / Moonlight transfigures marble.  / / When I think of that beau
Homage
I turned to Hampstead and walked slowly
home .  / /
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but still a long time ago, / / walking
home , a long cold walk, past midnight, / / I found the whole world ro
A Hoard
t do you.  / / I don’t think you’ll get
home a second time.”  / /
Odysseus
ge on the wave, / / and in a dream was
home again, and boasted / / to the princess bending intent to mark /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e…  / / Supper, bed, mother brought him
home again.  / / His mother, waiting up, met him in wild— / / reproac
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
thing about the procession or how I got
home , / / and after that I went down with a high fever / / —ten days
Spells and Love
alent spirit spoke:  / / “You shall win
home / / and find your wife waiting for you, your son / / a man now
Odysseus
/ across the dreadful mountains to his
home / / and found the worst.  Returned on the same track, / / not ho
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
one / / down into air / / But foot is
home / / and hand, firm / / on notched rock.  / / Oh, the subtle /
Sea Cliff
/ thinking of her who now was safe at
home .  / / And then smote on his ears the full, strange sound / / mut
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
broken gate.  / / And how did they get
home ?  And were his mother / / and father fond of her at once?  His cou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the castle was for nine their quiet
home .  / / But now the Queen, it seemed, had not been well.  / / The d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
dusk.  She shivered and turned back / /
home , but smiled as she turned, and said good night…  / / How can one
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ur own is true; / / each takes its own
home by an absolute right.  / / Here I must leave you.  I have given yo
The Black-out
gh my feet / / while I look up, points
home , / / clean through the stable-seeming spinning globe / / —droug
Antipodes
round high moon lighting the field path
home .  / / Cold…colder…then, a matter of moments, / / grass, brambles
Magic
thinking / / enviously / / of some at
home dead in the ice-hard ground.  / /
Gunnar of Lithend
/ of princes—the princesses stayed at
home .  / / He did not miss them, heart more than content / / with oth
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rom the southern cape lay mystery.  / /
Home , he found fuss and news, a messenger / / arrived, announcing the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the princess and his mother and his
home , / / his occupation and his dream, all gone.  / / Would he, from
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
st torture, having no wish to die.  / /
Home howled for him behind.  But he was pressed / / forward by more th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
but sometimes on the windy hill / / of
home I felt no less a prisoner.  / / Of itself exiled and imprisoned w
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the poor / / flesh won and brought me
home .  I lived and died / / in the wide air, behind a bolted door.  /
The Black-out
ht to be, a breach of faith.”  / / Hurt
home I struck back:  “I have not committed / / the cowardice or treach
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k / / on sunk neck, / / let him amble
home / / in his own time; / / dream, keep / / the stall, sleep, /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
o near / / one step will set / / them
home in it, / / their home—those golden shores, / / flower-wooded hi
[Some exiles know]
you.  / / Warm summer cycle / / ride. 
Home , in the garden found / / you dying.  Today, / / bitter beautiful
For Cecil
so shared joy is a shared peace, / / a
home .  / / It had to end / / but, lived fully, still is.  / / Time, t
Two Poems from a New Life
the familiar way, / / hungry for bed,
home , mother, like a child.  / / Hungry too for the sight of the princ
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
at home, walked through the black night
home .  / / Past two o’clock.  The ball went on and on.  / / All the pri
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r story; but, I know, / / how they got
home really belongs to this.  / / The castle ruined, the great thorn-b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ut unfevered, aware, / / he lay on the
home -ridge.  The leaves were blowing / / from the brown wood, but the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
” But she: “to-night / / you shall not
home so soon; in other places / / you are awaited.  Come.”  To the slow
The Black-out
he darkening track.  / / The court went
home .  The seasons settled him / / into their timeless round of beauty
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Dreams / That ghosts come
home …  Things I don’t believe / / I still like sometimes to pretend— /
Dreams
ll set / / them home in it, / / their
home —those golden shores, / / flower-wooded hills, which loved them o
[Some exiles know]
led driver swung / / the heeling coach
home through a needle’s eye / / into the court—but was there somethin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ween you and your plate / / let her go
home / / to her own place.  Let / / her cruel spell fade, / / peak a
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
ss / / wink at the sky.  / / They must
home to the church / / and the girl must die.  / / They set a stake i
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
d the night-slow / / familiar way / /
home to the lit farmsteads…  Who?  / /
From the Air
g.  / / The truths we think are not the
home truths though.  / / A bird sang from a bough / / and drowsing I
Hebona
scending, to dree out / / his weird at
home , walked through the black night home.  / / Past two o’clock.  The
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the forester stood godfather.  Their
home / / was always his.  He played with her and taught her / / and l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
A bow, eleven arrows.  And the way / /
home was the grim mountains…  But the way on?  / / The words seemed alm
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ five years perhaps, working at / /
home , “We’d start a family”.  / / After grassed acres, / / here you c
For Cecil
tastes, that we may make our house your
home ?  / / What is your form, your nature, / / that love may know the
Becoming
am strong and light.  / / Walk with me
home , where Hampstead sleeps above / / the quenched city, and talk.” 
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eyond the lands of my language / / and
Homer and Dante joined him as peers.  / / But now the net’s cast in ot
Poetry
sprang / / from Michelangelo’s hand or
Homer’s tongue, / / all craft or thought / / achieves with heart; /
Fossils
.  He suddenly felt alone and lost, / /
homesick , afraid; but turned back, pressed on up.  / / And there below
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, placed them in / / his pouch, turned
homeward .  The hag, nothing said / / worked steadily, but as he left,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
wall / / and wind hurls the sea in the
home’s face.  / / Who bred here could suppose himself to possess / /
The West of Ireland
ll she had and was she gave.  / / Alas,
honest and warm and brave / / she lost them both by one mistake.  / /
Ballad
re.  / / It is not necessary, it is not
honest / / to prophesy to a full stop.  Ours the open / / grace of a
Desert Island?
ou know, / / and then admit that to an
honest view / / it seems (as surely it must seem to you) / / that al
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ressible spells; / / Sickert we may in
honesty allow / / a measure; Stanley Spencer’s vision tells / / one
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in, and pray / / (if knowing no god in
honesty I may) / / for charity.  / /
Original Sin
fire, and our whispers were as sweet as
honey .  / / And not to make too long a story of it, dear Moon, / / we
Spells and Love
s (together / / only in fragments of a
honeymoon ).  / / Much more because / / we feel our chords so faultles
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
kberry-flowers with torn edges / / and
honeysuckle drooping antlered sprays / / pink, gold and white, sweete
The Grass Road
rsley, yellow stragglers, / / a single
honeysuckle .  / / The bushes though are berried—hawthorn, blackthorn /
[Late October hedges]
nise vengeance for a cardinal sin; / /
honour all bravery, but not pretend / / that war is grand.  / / Make
Prayer to Truth
/ as being inevitable).  / / Help it,
honour it.  Yet / / do not fear to regret / / what best and loveliest
Progress
tly proud.  / / But at such fêtes, that
honour may be done / / duly to deity, fine steers are brought; / / a
Pelopia and Thyestes
s space, / / sensitive certainty.  / /
Honour this radar, this / / contrived effective wing.  / /
Bat
Syrian princeling of the Roman age / /
honoured by rich Athenians of that age / / with this rather pretentio
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
said my guide; and I / / “many have I
honoured , many loved, but none, / / not my guide, more than you.”  He
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Bat /
Honour’s due to the bat.  / / Before the hang-glider / / (daring it e
Bat
se lifting / / from the hedge-top / /
hooks its way upwards, / / on and up, / / hangs its constellations /
Summer Vision
o express her rarity.  / / Next morning
hooves and grinding wheels awoke him.  / / He looked down on the yard,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ scattering diamonds.  Man was born to
hope ).  / /
Advent
so wearisome / / that it is forced to
hope .  / /
[Why do I dream this pause]
a.  / / He fought it, and knew fear and
hope again.  / / “He had to fight the fairy’s curse to win / / the fa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
thinly lie / / the veils of memory, of
hope and fear.  / / Like a bird, like the wind / / they take their ce
The Lilies of the Field
/ without power, / / can only love and
hope —and pray?  / / Well, perhaps loving hope’s a kind of prayer.  / /
May Day, 1986
/ / Well, that’s too much, I think, to
hope .  / / And yet her death-throes give me pain.  / /
Great Britain
et may come to pass / / your unschemed
hope , as the new morning finds / / dew on the grass.  / /
Scheme
What
Hope ?  / Dreams of good / / drown in angry blood.  / / Romeo and Julie
What Hope?
to his imperative / / obedient, love,
hope —each successively / / leaves us.  Our fee to Death, the will to l
Age
gainst the armoured mass / / hardly in
hope (even though unexpressed) / / to break its spell-rooted defence,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the sinews free, / / and all help, all
hope far / / blindfold and mock the visionary heart, / / fetter the
Nijinsky
…  Suppose the weather changes / / what
hope for a small boat, what hope for him, / / between the wild wind a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s / / what hope for a small boat, what
hope for him, / / between the wild wind and that wall of rock?…  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tains, wandering and wild / / ‘full of
hope , full of hope’ he told the child— / / and found there, not the w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
you.  I have given you / / the keys of
hope ; further I cannot lead.  / / Not I the spirit whose eyes can brig
The Black-out
w / / the threads she wove in love and
hope / / grow dim to her and lose their power, / / but on his arm st
Ballad
sunk thing, a wrecking wreck?  / / What
hope ?  His own nature.  / / In the dark of Soledad / / hopeless become
George Jackson
lame in me.”  “The Paris spring / / and
hope ,” I answered, “made me lighter-hearted / / —orange blinds, fount
The Black-out
/ (night on the footless cliff) / / I
hope I shall feel relief / / as well as, I hope, regret.  / /
[When the moment comes to forget]
ove / / builds in Hell’s despair, / /
hope in despairing hell / / breathed by these good and brave, / / Ku
Die Weisse Rose
Ghetto-bred, then cop-picked, / / what
hope in his black future?  / / What can the boy become except / / a s
George Jackson
war, and as the stage is set / / small
hope is offered of a happy ending.  / / The world seems more than usua
The Black-out
more to bless me than I could dare / /
hope , it would be / / curmudgeonly / / to lament / / more than gent
[The track up the wild stream]
there’s only my pregnant wife—” / / “I
hope it’s a boy.”  “Thanks.  How can she keep the flock?”  / / “My two u
On the Border
/ / weak tissue woven / / of past and
hope , of echo left on eye, / / on ear, on parted flesh.  All dreams.  B
Separation
/ with blood and tears; wrongs beyond
hope of mending / / lie at the root of every decent life; / / those
The Black-out
f a poisoned Pope / / relinquish every
hope .  / / Oh plan no more the exact, unreal scheme, / / no more live
Scheme
st likely, no resources / / but a dull
hope .  / / Once each month / / peeling a sodden rag from her body she
War-time Anecdote
contracting in a kind of terror / / at
hope out of complete despair reborn.  / / The image of the christening
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ght spread on / / west to a range.  His
hope perhaps lay there / / but not, that seemed quite clear, to be at
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
attery, / / cat-and-mouse of proffered
hope , / / pretend kindness…  Grind the axe, / / heap the faggots.  Not
Royal Family
mselves on steps, by hunger and / / no
hope reduced to peace.  / / The prostitutes along the pavement stand /
Country and Town
I shall feel relief / / as well as, I
hope , regret.  / /
[When the moment comes to forget]
emptiness.  What Emily had said / / of
hope seemed nothing to me now that she / / was gone; I hoped no more
The Black-out
/ He dare not hive off on a gambler’s
hope / / that chance, sown on the wind, might somehow sprout / / in
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
shadow-men.  Does He (like Plato?) / /
hope that, though cheating Him, our serving Caesar / / may yet bring
The Betrayal
prick of hate / / and press towards a
hope .  The exile’s scar / / now throbs to agony.  Now kiss and play /
May Day
alley with no escape.  / / Now, outside
hope , / / the late sun breaks through / / and round us, me and you /
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
cond him: unjustified, / / unsummoned,
Hope , the loyal fool.  / /
Masque
/ Troubled in Middle Age—Did you really
hope / / to find an answer to that one on this page?  / / Sell it dow
Problem
ow) / / the bond that holds me without
hope .  To lose / / my prison and my peace by going away…  / / Could I?
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
othing or seem all to you / / but is a
hope to which you yet may come.  / / If you dare live on, while the pr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
can reach the fields / / of peace and
hope , / / when up from foot and finger hourly creeps / / stronger th
The Embankment
rderly, / / half-finished, half-begun,
hoped , dreamt, / / tomorrow there behind today.  / / To get it ordere
A Prayer
ing to me now that she / / was gone; I
hoped no more for Anabel, / / when “Martin” from the shadow of a tree
The Black-out
f—a letter left to warn / / his mother—
hoped perhaps within a week / / or two or three, at least he would re
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ch burdens all but her alone.  / / They
hoped to keep her hands from thorns and pins / / but dared not tell h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t.  Returned on the same track, / / not
hopeful or afraid or sick, but sad.  / / “ ‘But one day’ and he smiled
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ature.  / / In the dark of Soledad / /
hopeless becomes hopelesser, / / natural goodness goes bad… / / one
George Jackson
forefailed / / through odds of brutal,
hopeless circumstance.  / / But pangs of conscious conscience?  Oh / /
Dinner
back.  / / Sick with the knowledge of a
hopeless dream / / he looked the other way, towards the sea, / / and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
or fire, no shrieks, no tears, / / but
hopeless ill yearning for well.  / / Then—music of the spheres, / / l
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
of his dream, / / more solid and more
hopeless than before.  / / For her, that country deeply called to her.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e dark of Soledad / / hopeless becomes
hopelesser , / / natural goodness goes bad… / / one would think.  But
George Jackson
tree / / hating himself, his love, his
hopelessness .  / / And suddenly that vision of the sea / / and dreame
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rden of the years.  / / Make viable our
hopes and truths, stillborn / / the bastard misconcepts, falsehoods a
Prayer to Time
yearning.  All fell / / away in action,
hopes , fears / / for you.  Eternal bliss nears / / for you, for me th
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
houghts and hopes, sharing with him her
hopes / / (few in this world), her thoughts, giving them shape / / i
Eugénie de Guérin
warm loving pride / / his thoughts and
hopes , sharing with him her hopes / / (few in this world), her though
Eugénie de Guérin
at as the sea, and sea-like fed / / on
hopes that sought (but found the quag) / / the path across the quakin
Lost
rits, Paul and Plato, / / but the long
hopes they hold and bid me seize are / / not mine.  My soul cries (chi
The Betrayal
ng and wild / / ‘full of hope, full of
hope ’ he told the child— / / and found there, not the worst, but the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ope—and pray?  / / Well, perhaps loving
hope’s a kind of prayer.  / / The unbelievable gift / / of our late l
May Day, 1986
e them in this instance advisedly, / /
hoping faintly that mankind’s temperament / / might now find itself w
Greenham Common
o ed autore— / / Eliot, Auden, Ransom,
Hopkins , the rest / / of Donne, a little Langland, a lot of Chaucer,
Poetry
rude Master Tom’s and prim Miss Betty’s
hops .  / /
La Fontaine et le Déluge
cient Rome on my seventh birthday:  / /
Horatius breasting the Tiber race, / / Mamilius and Herminius dead—Bl
Poetry
isited / The sun is soft, soft the blue
horizon / / from which a dozen greens melt towards gold.  / / Summer
Revisited
And the wild / / sea stretched to the
horizon .  He was come.  / / The even roar, compact of swish and slap /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r pain must be, / / and wide, wide the
horizon of the heart / / where natural beauty, mutual love are free. 
The Black-out
nt shadow rise / / which broke too the
horizon of the sea / / and grew at length into a cliff-faced range— /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
led— / / but the white shore, the wide
horizon round it: / / action and dream were centred on the sea.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
which stretched / / west, west to the
horizon , straightly sheared / / from grass to surf, golden against th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e days and their nights / / the smooth
horizon , the unbroken cliff / / held him as in a dream on either side
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
its low noon.  / / The wind-swept flat
horizon / / under the high-cloud-mottled pallid blue / / offers all
[Bare trees black]
t or island, / / coasts lost down bare
horizons .  / / In widening intervals the wind / / drowns scattered vo
Shipwreck
me.  / / Threatening shadow / / on the
horizon’s rim / / —burn every blade of grass / / that might be green
Scorched Earth
the house / / shrinks from a shrilling
horn .  / / Slips from the empty gown / / a vixen to the gorse.  / / L
Lady into Fox
un-drenched days, / / cold dew, shelly
horns , bulls walking pastures / / in kingly-flashing coats under burn
Poetry
trick question / / to have Him on the
horns .  It was big odds / / against His twisting free.  But was it God’
The Betrayal
l, / / sometimes silly, / / sometimes
horrible , / / all to be dismissed / / when we’re right awake.  / / N
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
his warm, beautiful / / —and cold, and
horrible / / —but felt whatever way / / this endlessly absorbing lov
[Now of threescore and ten]
tree.  / / Horrible pain, sickness and
horrible pain / / ground him.  He groaned, and groaning felt himself /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
m down.  Life sang from a far tree.  / /
Horrible pain, sickness and horrible pain / / ground him.  He groaned,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / and lived (or died) too that last
horrible / / reach, among naked, spiny, treacherous stone, / / no gu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d.  / / She fought the hard sinews, the
horribly / / cloaked face she could not glimpse; but she was caught,
Pelopia and Thyestes
ears / / gone with the white rose / /
horribly lopped, / / the manner of the loss / / and all that’s in th
Die Weisse Rose
ory and all power.  / / War is a pit of
horror ; and defeat / / by these might sink us even deeper.  Yet, / /
Prayer to Truth
d the hot spring, / / chilled him with
horror and with terror.  / /
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
makes heart and mind / / horror-blunt,
horror -blind / / —a sword drawn on a mother, / / a daughter’s innoce
Pelopia and Thyestes
er / / easy, makes heart and mind / /
horror -blunt, horror-blind / / —a sword drawn on a mother, / / a dau
Pelopia and Thyestes
get / / living, never let / / fear or
horror deny it; / / so now, dead, can teach / / our doubt and shame—
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
wn children for meat, / / learning the
horror , fled / / … night and day, day and night… / / came to the Del
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ / She turned her face.  It all / / —
horror , lust, oracle— / / flared to one hideous end.  / / She fought
Pelopia and Thyestes
in your own daughter’s womb.”  / / One
horror makes another / / easy, makes heart and mind / / horror-blunt
Pelopia and Thyestes
ween the wandering Thames and the White
Horse .  / / A bigger heart that, I think, than any / / of the rest.  B
Bury My Heart
straight from above: / / carriage-top,
horse -backs, backs of stooping men— / / one face: hers, lifted sleepi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aiting / / in the firth below / / his
horse threw him.  He rose, looked round, and said / / “Beautiful are t
Gunnar of Lithend
age— / / the rider reins his galloping
horse towards here, blows / / his trumpet over her head.  The cock cro
Nadia
o his master’s face / / while the grey
horse whirls through wolf-wild passes, / / brings fear to the Tuscan
Poetry
, high above the sea / / the six white
horses swept the golden carriage.  / / The young queen looked, and a c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e the Queen.”  So, this was it.  / / The
horses swerved as the skilled driver swung / / the heeling coach home
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / His daughter, sent away / / (the
hospitable stranger / / would hold her out of danger / / against a h
Pelopia and Thyestes
beautiful winter / / cycling, past the
hospital .  / / Silver spoon in the / / bathroom.  My outrage is as /
For Cecil
heir busy colony / / which kills their
host and so themselves) / / cuts its way into mother earth / / till
Mother’s Malison
hides spread.  / / He did not wait his
host —drank and fell to / / on the hard victuals (they were far from n
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he edge of a copse.  / / Monstrance and
Host in the grass / / wink at the sky.  / / They must home to the chu
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
awn, and those / / exiled, to whom the
hostile and the kind / / are facets of one strange, barbarian heart. 
Waiting
uld have no end.  / / Still through the
hostile growth he pressed and thrust, / / clothes torn, skin bloody,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
A
Hot Bath at Bedtime / The Necessity of Purgatory / Heaven I don’t cove
A Hot Bath at Bedtime
sle.  / / Blood spurts, dries soon… but
hot blood still / / reliquifies the sun-dried blood.  / /
Naples
/ the holy place.  He lay / / under the
hot , bright day, / / watched bright, cool water flow, / / drowsing (
Pelopia and Thyestes
ach?  Not so—excitement.  Messengers / /
hot from the Court—the Queen and royal child / / expected daily.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
her white skirt, the red of shame / /
hot in her face, friends giggling, crowd’s rude cracks / / barking ab
Pelopia and Thyestes
ffening, / / the wooded clefts and the
hot spring, / / chilled him with horror and with terror.  / /
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
child / / happy in the long grass, the
hot sun.  / / Open my eyes now on what afternoon?  / /
Summers
iful, / / and frightening.  Shaken by a
hot tear-shower / / she turned to the firm shoulder there, a tower /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to death.  His lady bent above, / / the
hot tears running down her face, and cried / / ‘My knight, my prince,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ce on arm he wept—sobbing waves / / of
hot tears washing the weight of sin and sorrow / / away from the hear
A Dream
t up already.  Surely Love / / builds a
hotter fire than Hephaestus under Etna.”— / / These are the springs o
Spells and Love
as the attack / / of the quick-winged
hounds , / / sharp-circling sloops, prevails / / forcing it from its
Heron and Gulls
wn / / like a sea-mist.  A minute or an
hour , / / a hundred years…  Time, it seemed, had stopped, / / as stoo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / But still he dragged and hacked,
hour after hour.  / / Forced by exhaustion to a moment’s rest / / he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  The vast whole he would not see.  / /
Hour after hour, hacking and dragging clear, / / breathing hard, head
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ack in this bone, this flesh, / / this
hour and place.  / / I look across through my old face / / at the sle
Meeting
/ / at the dead season, at the silent
hour , / / at the still moment of the absent sun / / cease, be gone. 
Winter Solstice
lows like a star their mould, but in an
hour / / burns out.  / /
Lamps
waiting too long.  Oh, do not miss your
hour .  / / Deep hoarded in your heart a wealth of good / / observed,
The Black-out
still he dragged and hacked, hour after
hour .  / / Forced by exhaustion to a moment’s rest / / he saw the lit
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
whole he would not see.  / / Hour after
hour , hacking and dragging clear, / / breathing hard, head swimming,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nitely.  / / She fails now in her fated
hour , / / hanging herself in her own rope.  / / We shall not see her
Great Britain
/ / that loosed or crushed before its
hour / / left unfulfilled its being, nor / / vanishing stamped its i
Fossils
e green / / and bare the forest in its
hour of fire.  / / She passed him often, sometimes paused to speak— /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y; even if the best / / must fall, the
hour of triumph is not far.”  / / He to the ranks; and I too, half pos
The Black-out
ng to climb further in the end.  / / An
hour or so later and far below / / darkness mastered him, every muscl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
umanity just / / in our late-flowering
hour , / / our children’s, their children’s opening day?  / / We too,
May Day, 1986
—that would be out of reason.  / / The
hour repeats in the repeating season / / and change with time you wil
Epithalamium
distress.  / / And always at the fatal
hour , the bold / / prince to confront the monsters in their lairs, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
they had / / unflawed happiness of the
hour , / / unquestioned certainty / / of an infinity more.  / / Weep
Whom the Gods Love
our mortality, / / but in this radiant
hour we sense / / all things we’re meant to do and be.  / / Through s
Hymn
/ they touch the absolute value of each
hour / / where lightly, thinly lie / / the veils of memory, of hope
The Lilies of the Field
want to tell her anything at that late
hour ?  / / Why her?  / / The whores and the boys of course were nothin
“Tell Lady Byron…”
hope, / / when up from foot and finger
hourly creeps / / stronger the tide of cold.  / /
The Embankment
ndeed he tends to seem: / / longed-for
hours , almost as soon / / as entered, gone; / / yet drags his feet /
Two Poems from a New Life
till the field reached a hedge and the
hours formed in days, / / days in years, and a pattern took shape in
Hymn
alked on the sounding beach / / miles,
hours .  He loved to swim, and learned the tide, / / coaxed from his pa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed, unreasoned, secreted long / / from
hours in still woods, on the wind-shaved sweep / / of downs, walking,
Happiness
ate / / and slept.  He let twenty-four
hours pass / / before he faced the question how to cross, / / regain
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ked.  And she to me: / / “countless the
hours trouble and loss allow, / / harsh in its lasting though their p
The Black-out
here the power of quiet is strong, / /
hours when the earth can cradle thought asleep, / / content that thos
Happiness
, sitting, now listening, / / looking,
hours where the power of quiet is strong, / / hours when the earth ca
Happiness
/ season’s return, and in the season’s
hour’s , / / the same and not the same continually.  / / The sun struc
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ But who can know the darkness of that
house ?  / / A black brew of stupidity, distilled / / through stunted
Law Report
ornament and lucky charm / / in every
house …  A sea-people…  The sea— / / oh for the sea! the sea in storm an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
He made his way to the head forester’s
house / / and found it, as he guessed, empty—all gone / / together t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
life-span.  / / If he doesn’t burn the
house and himself in it / / might he mature into a wiser man?  / / Fe
Greenham Common
we left behind / / matter-of-fact with
house and lane.  / / O secret, o enchanted space / / thus spell-cast
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
am / / we lost all trace of habitation—
house / / and street gone from the fresh earth like a dream; / / fre
The Black-out
.  / / Between you you shall clear your
house and your kingdom / / of the parasitic clutter.  But do not think
Odysseus
rd-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my
house .  / / As the flame melts this wax (O help me, goddess) / / may
Spells and Love
rd-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my
house .  / / Barley-grains first shrivel in the fire—why, Thestylis, /
Spells and Love
r strip of that confined world / / the
house behind the house in Prinsengracht— / / I find it in my heart /
Hermes of Olympia
aworth white and smooth with snow.  / /
House -bound I watched its beauty change—clouds frown / / or cold sun
The Black-out
rd-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my
house .  / / Bran goes on next.  Artemis, Moon, you can move / / Death’
Spells and Love
rd-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my
house .  / / Delphis hurts me.  And this bay now for Delphis / / I burn
Spells and Love
itself as a jungle.  / / Round her the
house grew old / / slowly, quietly rotting, / / dustily, gently flak
Mariana in Miniature
/ in a tearing hurry, to garland that
house , he said.  / / That’s what my friend told me, and she’s trustwor
Spells and Love
d, and grandpa came to live at our / /
house here”—it was a long time getting started, / / but the child’s s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n I could ever suppose / / to my empty
house .  / / I miss… not so much / / a companion as such / / but my c
[Living alone is lonely]
ything.  There isn’t / / a wise-woman’s
house in miles I didn’t visit.  / / But time went on and nothing chang
Spells and Love
onfined world / / the house behind the
house in Prinsengracht— / / I find it in my heart / / to love you af
Hermes of Olympia
rd-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my
house .  / / I’ll pound a lizard and mix an ill drink for him / / tomo
Spells and Love
n mad on the mountains.  / / So to this
house may I see Delphis bolting, / / a mad thing, breaking away from
Spells and Love
rd-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my
house .  / / Now I’m alone.  / / How did this love begin?  / / Where sh
Spells and Love
time is with you still.  / / A careful
house of cards has fallen flat: / / turn to a firmer building now.”  “
The Black-out
/ is more than hard.  / / One land, one
house , one life, differently viewed / / is Eden, prison, path of exil
A Window
/ / almost a kind of death.  About the
house / / shall spread and sprawl a thorny wilderness / / one hundre
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Sally Gilmour dancing / The lady of the
house / / shrinks from a shrilling horn.  / / Slips from the empty go
Lady into Fox
Delphis (such a smooth skin) back to my
house …  / / The moment I heard his light step through my door— / / Th
Spells and Love
rd-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my
house .  / / The sea is quiet now, the winds are quiet, / / but in my
Spells and Love
rd-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my
house .  / / This fringe from Delphis’s cloak he lost, and I / / now s
Spells and Love
rd-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my
house .  / / This maresbane grows in Arcadia, and all the foals / / an
Spells and Love
rd-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my
house .  / / Three libations to you, lady, and with each I cry / / “Be
Spells and Love
/ but a corner of a garden (before that
house / / was sold five or six years before) a child / / happy in th
Summers
n sight.  / / He caught her by the gate-
house .  “Where am I?  / / Who am I?”  She clung to him with this moan, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
for me / / there’s another girl in our
house who’s quite ready / / to marry, a pretty girl, just right for y
Love Scene
/ / your tastes, that we may make our
house your home?  / / What is your form, your nature, / / that love m
Becoming
er, and ever / / a loved friend in the
household by the river / / and favourite uncle to the child who had /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
far away / / to be a hunting-castle’s
housekeeper .  / / Far among far-spread forests half-ringed by hills, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
clouded over; my feet were heavy; / /
houses and trees printing their darker tone / / on the dull sky weigh
The Black-out
ho dare not recognise / / that all our
houses are of glass.  / /
H.A.R.P.
at sweeps over the wall, / / sets your
houses awash, drowns your creatures, / / your friend, sib, spouse, ch
The Wave
gh / / me hate to be where streets and
houses cover / / contours of earth, and water runs by walls.  / / I s
The Black-out
he hill / / by narrow alleys where the
houses pile, / / and half my mind in Greece, among rocks, still / /
The Black-out
ich seep into our smoky rooms.  / / Yet
houses , rooms, these woods too, are, / / no less than cigarette and c
The Rift
yards, the yards, even the narrow / /
houses , serried and stacked.  / / Not only in the eye of the beholder.
“Life is sweet, brother”
/ By now the tide was running:  Keats,
Housman , / / Milton (L’Allegro), Marvell, Donne / / (Go and catch a
Poetry
s something all of us can see.  / / For
Housman , spring’s whitening / / —fair enough.  / / One can’t do bette
[Housman was old beyond his years]
[
Housman was old beyond his years] / Housman was old beyond his years /
[Housman was old beyond his years]
[Housman was old beyond his years] /
Housman was old beyond his years / / knowing at twenty / / the fleet
[Housman was old beyond his years]
ad, / / breathe from the tomb. / / to
hover on the chill / / of fury and hate / / a fugitive goodwill, /
What Hope?
ove can be / / called the first cause,
however sharp its sting.  / / You are unhappy because you dare not fre
The Black-out
rture, having no wish to die.  / / Home
howled for him behind.  But he was pressed / / forward by more than th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tylis, listen!  The dogs in the town are
howling .  / / Hecate’s come to the cross-roads!  Clash the brass quick!
Spells and Love
lf.  / / And whether, as some think, he
howls / / in Hell or, on another view, / / harps it beside the highe
Thoughts on the Lavatory
thed by these good and brave, / / Kurt
Huber and his children:  / / Willi Graf, Christl Probst, / / Alex Mor
Die Weisse Rose
five, / / Sophie twenty-one.  / / Kurt
Huber was much older / / but name him, praise him as well), / / prom
Die Weisse Rose
eir deliberate bed / / than those that
huddle to the bleak and harsh / / night here; whose lives, which life
The Embankment
takes everything we hate to give.  / /
Huddled in his barbed camp we fret, we grieve / / numbly under his ri
Age
ot care to make a stand / / against so
huge an enemy.  / / Towards that half-seen enemy / / Love walked alon
Masque
ng to ourselves again, / / is there so
huge an otherness / / between that and the run of men?  / / The mangl
H.A.R.P.
/ / found—not indeed Despair / / but,
huge and grim enough, / / the Black Knight of the Question-Mark, / /
Masque
y, of the cape / / and drew in closer. 
Huge cliffs black and red, / / footed in shifting foam, crowned with
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, to the sea again / / and all between
huge cliffs fronted the sea.  / / No spot there where a small boat mig
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
burnt silver, bounded / / by clumped,
huge close-leaved trees, green and dark.  / / Something like an Englis
Los Altos Hills
sailing space.  / / Perhaps / / these
huge galaxies are only atoms / / of a vaster matter (as the electron’
Credo
ened feet.  / / Hewn from the rock / /
huge he lies, / / relaxed and watchful, / / serene over the centurie
September Cruise
ch.  He’d been there first / / crossing
huge mountains, wandering and wild / / ‘full of hope, full of hope’ h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ur / / Jupiter occulted.  And above the
huge Pacific / / Mercury last night.  / / One long ago summer midnigh
A Hoard
t number spin, / / suns.  One bursts in
huge radiance.  The wreck / / falls back on itself, contracting back,
Holes in Space
Block 21 / The
huge reflector of the hanging light / / repeated the repeated, the un
Block 21
/ / that might be green for him.  / /
Huge sound trembling / / through remote air / / —pile the brooks wit
Scorched Earth
l those deaths of others.  / / And that
huge violence flickers in that void / / with the little ugly flame of
Back Room, 1944
of us.  / / You were there, and I / /
hugged you.  You didn’t mind.  Death / / had happened, but was / / rel
For Cecil
of that beauty / / I think of Richard
Hughes .  / / I was not young, nor was he old, / / but he had wisdom /
Homage
ck-out.  / / The scented aura and soft ‘
hullo , dearie’ / / offered the troubled flesh peace with dishonour, /
The Black-out
lights but a familiar air / / a car.  “
Hullo ; get in.”  Familiar too / / the friendly voice, and I was glad t
The Black-out
/ he came to Sicyon.  / / He heard the
hum and buzz, / / the shrilling and the twang, / / snatches of what
Pelopia and Thyestes
e old / / infinitely distant lost warm
hum and glow.  / / The long-drawn moment, intolerably taut, / / sudde
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uality, / / except that we are equally
human , and / / much human inequality / / both in kind and degree /
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
s I, are always you, / / is always any
human being / / not only to his own self true / / but shown so to hi
H.A.R.P.
/ / Not easy to make work (we are all
human ) / / but easy to agree necessity of.  / / All are born sib.  /
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
ng curled up long, / / awake netted in
human / / care, lingers among / / down, under spread wing; / / grow
Parenthood
s brutal economy holds a mirror / / to
human doing, / / unflattering / / comparison / / to shame us, but n
Heron and Gulls
nderstandings may / / sometimes (we’re
human ) drift our way / / but surely we shall never let them build /
[Yes, you’re right]
t flow on to others.  / / Must we then,
human , envy / / beast and flower? netted, / / knitted into this knot
Parenthood
re the growth of wrong / / has haunted
human fancy / / indissolubly long / / and cast its mirror-image / /
Other World
ause / / the human heart or rather the
human frame / / finds in its broken sleep / / despair so wearisome /
[Why do I dream this pause]
class or race— / / the single greatest
human good, / / sign of our brother-and-sisterhood.  / /
Love…  No
er / / to be the end?  Because / / the
human heart or rather the human frame / / finds in its broken sleep /
[Why do I dream this pause]
ly aware / / of the atrocious range of
human ill / / by my own jealousies and near-despair.  / /
Teach Us…
hat we are equally human, and / / much
human inequality / / both in kind and degree / / is wicked and unnec
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
ood state is anarchy / / —would be, if
human nature let it be, / / but humanness can only be itself / / by
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
much ill-treated by your mate / / most
human of the gods and most abused / / was it not natural that you sho
To Hera
a look and glowed to wine, / / our two
humanities , increased / / by love to one, burn half-divine.  / / Behi
Hymn
be / / before it dissipates.  / / Oh,
humanity !  / /
What Hope?
hardly care to take, / / love as I do
humanity .  / /
Mother’s Malison
han cigarette and car / / creations of
humanity .  / / From the astonishing age when we / / (in Nature’s cycl
The Rift
can leave an uninhabitable / / waste,
humanity gone / / and all our dream.  / / If, considering this, / /
Consider
Mother’s Malison / Industrious
humanity / / (industrious as cancer-cells / / building their busy co
Mother’s Malison
/ / fix the coffin-lid down / / over
humanity just / / in our late-flowering hour, / / our children’s, th
May Day, 1986
womankind / / towards a better-knowing
humankind .  / /
Greenham Common
uctably certain end / / for triumphant
humankind , / / it does look probable / / that the drive to dominanc
What goes up must come down
be, if human nature let it be, / / but
humanness can only be itself / / by acceptance of a bond.  / / Yet, i
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
fference, / / the good sine qua non of
humanness , / / cannot be tailored to equality, / / except that we ar
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
aid, “something is owed.  / / Do not be
humble , sad; consider that / / your gifts are good and time is with y
The Black-out
still, / / Like a poplar or a cypress,
Humfry Payne.  / / After loved unknown dead and loved known living /
The Black-out
thirty-two I died, at thirty she, / /
Humfry Payne thirty-four—two years to run / / or four or six; is your
The Black-out
/ how I was self-deceived.  / / Now in
humility / / I must become a child again, and pray / / (if knowing n
Original Sin
/ / and as I whirl Aphrodite’s brazen
hummer / / so may he turn and turn about my door.  / / Draw him, bird
Spells and Love
/ / A young man in the / / street was
humming , whistling not / / very tunefully / / a tune, familiar…  Then
For Cecil
eal it in cough.  / / Of course we have
humour , / / but laughing aloud / / is odd in a crowd / / and gives
Merrie England
r wind-wooer struck him to a stone / /
humped in the tides, gull-lone, / / gull-tenanted, and soon / / gull
The Sea
ed, dragged himself to the fire.  / / A
hunched black figure crouching in its light / / lifted her head and w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t, / / wrung hands between knees, / /
hunched shoulders closing / / across the sunk glance, / / knotted, s
Winter Recalled
window-panes withdraws the light.  / /
Hunched to the chill / / hushed birds on boughs crouch, deep in grass
Country and Town
him, and offered him / / a dozen or a
hundred paths to take.  / / He’d crossed the stream, he could not have
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t could she do?  By her own spell / / a
hundred years, a hundred years, were laid— / / a hundred years to lay
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aven help us, many years ago / / —five
hundred years and more gone / / since we burned the maid at Rouen) /
Makherás
me other mark— / / her fated prince, a
hundred years away.  / / The rains of summer’s draggled end dragged on
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nity in Hell / / I had passed thirteen
hundred years.  / / Not ice or fire, no shrieks, no tears, / / but ho
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
ity in Hell.  / / I had passed thirteen
hundred years / / of paralysed yearning.  All fell / / away in action
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
with those other eyes, / / the boy’s a
hundred years perhaps away / / heavily travelling.  And saw one day /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a sea-mist.  A minute or an hour, / / a
hundred years…  Time, it seemed, had stopped, / / as stood against the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ars, a hundred years, were laid— / / a
hundred years to lay him in the grave / / and raise a prince to rouse
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and sprawl a thorny wilderness / / one
hundred years—until her fated love / / (if, when he come, he’s brave
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y her own spell / / a hundred years, a
hundred years, were laid— / / a hundred years to lay him in the grave
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
’ turned to a voice.  She said / / “The
hundred years’ sleep was not all I gave.  / / “My gift was love.  And w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e to rouse the bride.  The knell / / ‘a
hundred years’ turned to a voice.  She said / / “The hundred years’ sl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tness enough for a small dwelling, / /
hundreds of small dwellings.  / / Here, they say, / / the poor of Att
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
through ageing time / / till with your
hundredth year your life is done, / / you shall be born the prince fo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
loody, spinning, and in the centre / /
hung God Nijinsky, and Diaghilev not.  / /
Nijinsky
rn, a nest / / he thought, an odd one,
hung .  His dull mind played / / with its likeness to a sea-urchin shel
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Eugénie de Guérin / She
hung out of her window to watch the stars.  / / They hustled her back
Eugénie de Guérin
ifting feet.  / / And on his right hand
hung the face of Diaghilev, / / and on his left hand hung the face of
Nijinsky
of Diaghilev, / / and on his left hand
hung the face of God, / / and played at war between them with the sou
Nijinsky
corrosions of the soul, / / but never
hunger and cold / / —not real cold, let alone / / real hunger—not wa
Climacteric by the Sea
es the ailing old / / a choice between
hunger and cold.  / / There a child / / is cheated of its natural sta
Dinner
oor / / settle themselves on steps, by
hunger and / / no hope reduced to peace.  / / The prostitutes along t
Country and Town
Age / Frontiers break to barbary.  / /
Hunger burns the palace-wall, / / robs the revered graves.  We see /
Dark Age
ly a sport, but he was hungry, and / /
hunger is answerable for anything— / / at any rate (he sighed) for mo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ —not real cold, let alone / / real
hunger —not want / / and the consequent / / stress and distress, / /
Climacteric by the Sea
eir frantic, red-queen, / / heartblank
hunger to out-hurry time.  / / The sea-edge solution, salty, bloodwarm
Full Circle
their rest.  / / Monks, harnessing the
hungers of the flesh / / to spiritual flights, less cold, less hard /
The Embankment
o miss.  / / Hardly a sport, but he was
hungry , and / / hunger is answerable for anything— / / at any rate (
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Happy those who filled / / that ever-
hungry beak.  / / Hangs heavy on my neck / / Time killed.  / /
Albatross
p.  He was cold and stiff, / / bruised,
hungry —but at least could stand and move.  / / He took the bow.  A gull
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g, shaking, took the familiar way, / /
hungry for bed, home, mother, like a child.  / / Hungry too for the si
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
f hidden dreams— / / cold, though, and
hungry .  These bad seasons thinned / / the woods of game.  The hunting
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r bed, home, mother, like a child.  / /
Hungry too for the sight of the princess.  / / But at the ford his wea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oots, the crooked knife / / lent us to
hunt a monster with, / / misborn into a crueller myth / / we use aga
From the Air
arious ways.  / / He had been taught to
hunt and use the bow / / but never practised much, and several days /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
water-flask / / but would not pause to
hunt or cook.  Eating / / could wait.  He drew his knife, and carefully
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ate autumn on / / till the New Year to
hunt .  Those three months gone / / the castle was for nine their quiet
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Antipodes / I find Orion the
hunter here / / up to the north and on his head.  / / Above his feet
Antipodes
ons thinned / / the woods of game.  The
hunting being poor / / the princes lolled about the draughty hall /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed the poor widow far away / / to be a
hunting -castle’s housekeeper.  / / Far among far-spread forests half-r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e, / / making all ready for the King’s
hunting .  / / He walked drowned in his dreams.  Then a red flame / / s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
work docketed, / / only in the King’s
hunting -season not / / strictly determined by the season’s need.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
child-world was a different one.  / / A
hunting -wood his father’s kingdom held / / but poor and tame our fore
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ while the hero, careless, bored, / /
hunts the gamy hills alone, / / and the tokens of his birth / / (the
Dark Age
ng apprenticed to a tough old man, / /
huntsman and wood-ranger.  Not quite the same / / he found the woods o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t your sovereign lord amused?  / / They
hurl at you unmerited abuse / / because you met his mistresses with s
To Hera
nd cracking, and the tiller’s kick / /
hurled him aside.  He lost control.  Then he / / was fighting water.  No
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g.  The water sucked and struck / / and
hurled him down.  Life sang from a far tree.  / / Horrible pain, sickne
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
near the castle.  Then he knew.  / / He
hurled himself against the armoured mass / / hardly in hope (even tho
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
clap and roar / / of water heaved and
hurled on rock was lost / / in general clamour and din.  But he was su
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rock and bog lap the wall / / and wind
hurls the sea in the home’s face.  / / Who bred here could suppose him
The West of Ireland
ond more slowly / / and in the general
hurly -burly / / the solid truth no longer stands alone, / / and anyo
That Way Madness Lies
/ / would have liked that, though / /
Hurricane Higgins would have / / pleased you better as the winner.  /
For Cecil
t yet dried.  / / On hard bare feet she
hurried down the hill.  / / The maddened father, fed / / by his own b
Pelopia and Thyestes
ng have strayed, / / scattering as she
hurries her coloured riches.  / / Day by day, as the leaves are loosed
Dance of the Seasons
/ / some failsafe mechanism, / / that
hurries us down to drown offshore.  / /
What goes up must come down
of Archilochus / “… but if you’re in a
hurry and can’t wait for me / / there’s another girl in our house who
Love Scene
ed-queen, / / heartblank hunger to out-
hurry time.  / / The sea-edge solution, salty, bloodwarm, / / lay qui
Full Circle
Love, and he went off / / in a tearing
hurry , to garland that house, he said.  / / That’s what my friend told
Spells and Love
he room was filled with light, / / and
hurrying down saw half-unconsciously / / the castle ruined.  But she w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Stones / One
hurt by one he loves hurts those that love him, / / spreading (circle
Stones
view, I fancy, / / worry that we have
hurt her.  / /
Buttercups
en shouting in the pool / / a powerful
hurt hits me / / that Cecil can’t hear, see, / / can’t watch the cha
A poem you may like to see
u ought to be, a breach of faith.”  / /
Hurt home I struck back:  “I have not committed / / the cowardice or t
The Black-out
e before.  / / Though change offend and
hurt , / / immutability / / would be non-entity.  / / Mourn the smoot
Change
d in a deep determination / / never to
hurt / / the other—a thing our loving natures learned / / each in an
[Yes, you’re right]
help us, before / / inflicting so much
hurt / / we’d better not have been born.  / / And to ask God for help
Living and Dying
aine: / / love it like that and let it
hurt you.  / /
Responsibility
will, / / to heave my heaviness off my
hurting knuckles, / / get me on my feet again.  Another milestone.  /
The Fall
elled stone / / speeds gather as lives
hurtle down.  / /
Anniversaries
Anniversaries / Speeds gather as lives
hurtle down / / the helter-skelter of the years— / / a tower whose f
Anniversaries
lmost hears / / speeds gather as lives
hurtle down / / the helter-skelter.  Of the year’s / / pattern we mar
Anniversaries
e?  my soul will show its share / / of
hurts , but where?  / /
Wounds
you know who) to my house.  / / Delphis
hurts me.  And this bay now for Delphis / / I burn.  The leaves crackle
Spells and Love
se love-spells I’ll bind him.  But if he
hurts me / / it’s the door of Death, please Fate, he’ll be knocking a
Spells and Love
Stones / One hurt by one he loves
hurts those that love him, / / spreading (circles from stone dropped
Stones
now.  / / His feet were sounder, and he
husbanded / / the life-blood water with more care.  And though / / ex
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
her bower, / / and the bride from her
husband’s bed while it’s still warm.”  / / He’d the gift of the gab.  A
Spells and Love
ht / / it is ours.  Rejoice in it.  / /
Hush .  Do you not see / / whiteness pocked, dissolving in / / commonn
Exchange
e light.  / / Hunched to the chill / /
hushed birds on boughs crouch, deep in grass the hare.  / / Twigs crac
Country and Town
hey closed his eyes.  Now the palace was
hushed .  / / Born in the purple?  Well, not quite imperial— / / our st
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / Coaxed into feeding / / with raw
husk and stalk / / they lost some of their wildness, / / learned to
The Green Children of Woolpit
Parenthood /
Husk flakes from the seed / / and nothing in plant or tree / / cares
Parenthood
red with heavy flails, beating / / the
husks from the grains, heavy fans shifting / / the chaff from the fre
Dream under a Carob-tree
er window to watch the stars.  / / They
hustled her back to bed with cries and prayers / / and nailed the win
Eugénie de Guérin
iolent longing for the hills again / /
hustled him to the ford—be hanged the deer!  / / He made the peak, and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cate fane is fallen.  / / His primitive
hut , his laurel of prophecy / / are lost to Apollo, lost the chatter
The Last Oracle
is feebleness / / to a known woodman’s
hut there by the stream / / to beg food and a shelter for the night. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d and a shelter for the night.  / / The
hut was dark, and silent to his knock.  / / He pushed the door and str
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nder that free sky stand / / alleys of
huts .  Crowded miseries / / fenced with high barbs, eyed from towers,
Two Poems for G
Hardly a trace of that.  / / Impossible
Hyacinth , though, was a child yet, / / and man’s an infant still in e
Greenham Common
Greenham Common / / / … of
Hyacinth’s temperament.  Just such a child / / mankind appears: of kno
Greenham Common
ken to harmony).  / / The sky is green. 
Hymettus / / miraculously blushes, soon / / is grey again.  / /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
eece, among rocks, still / / clambered
Hymettus .  Suddenly stood plain / / great St Paul’s, and before it tal
The Black-out
Hymn / for the wedding of Dominick and Jo / Through untimed fields of
Hymn
Hymn / for the wedding of Lucy and Garth / To make a world all kinds a
Hymn
a tune, familiar…  Then I / / realized: 
Hyperactive .  / / I don’t believe in / / any afterlife, so must / /
For Cecil
n realize / / a world?  Mentally we can
hypothetize / / existence in two dimensions or in four / / or many,
Dimension
e firm silk.  He’s a fool / / and she’s
hysterical / / and one no longer cares / / to put a rough thought in
Back Room, 1944