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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

O

es across a clear / / glade—smote him. 
O beauty, delight, love, pain.  / / A violent longing for the hills ag
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
act with house and lane.  / / O secret,
o enchanted space / / thus spell-cast into time and space, / / we sh
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
ouse.  / / As the flame melts this wax (
O help me, goddess) / / may this Myndian, this Delphis waste with lov
Spells and Love
ss the shreds on the savage fire.  / / …
O Love, harsh Eros, why do you cling so hard? / / —pond-leech, suckin
Spells and Love
ugh, fire-spells to bind him.  / / But,
O Moon, / / shine out while I croon, to you, goddess, and to Hecate,
Spells and Love
atter-of-fact with house and lane.  / /
O secret, o enchanted space / / thus spell-cast into time and space,
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
ambridge, talking, sleeping sound, / /
O thou of little faith; but we are here.”  / / I listened, and his foo
The Black-out
Prayer to Time /
O Time, whose hand about our childhood’s hand / / led us delighted th
Prayer to Time
d seen all day / / among the beech and
oak .  Its thin black spire / / was sinister, and boded him no good.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e winter puts out the torches.  / / The
oak still holds its rust and the beech its red / / but winds have was
Dance of the Seasons
But soon / / a few yards in under the
oaks , he found / / the undergrowth master again.  The noon / / was hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
w cliff, like Saunton’s but topped with
oaks , / / out over grey shining water, grey / / shining mud of an Ea
Bury My Heart
l rime.  / / Let us learn wisdom at the
oar , and grow / / kinder by your unkindness, cruel Time.  / / Let not
Prayer to Time
kind of winnowing-fan.”  / / Plant the
oar in the ground, / / mark out a temenos, build an altar, sacrifice
Odysseus
o the sea / / and walk inland with the
oar on your shoulder.  / / You will meet with men from time to time, /
Odysseus
on an unknown shore.  / / Then take an
oar , turn your back to the sea / / and walk inland with the oar on yo
Odysseus
led.  Waited at the back the strong / /
oarsman , in front the singers silently, / / while Laurence, Giles and
The Black-out
cries the manic queen “faster” / / to
obedient Alice.  / / The goal still flies ahead.  / / Faster, faster,
Curvature of Space
ture (body, mind) to compel / / blind,
obedient conformity, the dreamed ideal / / hardened into a stony tyra
Betrayals
ge and strength, to his imperative / /
obedient , love, hope—each successively / / leaves us.  Our fee to Deat
Age
/ / and speak to her.”  I felt my legs
obey , / / and joined her by the pedestal alone.  / / “You came toward
The Black-out
y.  / / A man must live.  A soldier must
obey .  / / “Bombers, proceed to London, to Berlin.  / / Sentries, patr
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
y.  / / A man must live.  A soldier must
obey .  / / Strontium 90 we need perhaps, to clear / / the stench of B
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
y.  / / A man must live.  A soldier must
obey .  / / “That not the present only (child, woman, man, / / womb-ch
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
y.  / / A man must live.  A soldier must
obey .  / / “You to gas-chamber duty at Auschwitz.  You / / to herd the
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
/ but still the king, his master to be
obeyed .  / / “Toss it in the lake,” He went back to the lake / / and
Finis
our nature, / / that love may know the
object of its thought? / / what secret force could gather / / you, f
Becoming
Label / The
objects in this case / / were taken from a grave: / / a pair of ear-
Label
hat summer noon struck blankly on, / /
obliterated and dissolved, / / autumn and evening form again.  / /
For Cecil
dream / / and, like a dream, framed in
obscurity .  / / Out of the positive blackness of the night / / under
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s endlessly absorbing love, earth.  / /
Observe , absorb her faces of night and day / / before the more than s
[Now of threescore and ten]
ded in your heart a wealth of good / /
observed , absorbed, lies ready.  Give it power.  / / “Consider those wh
The Black-out
/ / at man’s failure to care, / / his
obsessive , his mad drive to go / / on down the same old way, / / hel
Antipodes
Not as yet for her / / painful passion
obsessively distilled.  / / Child, happy; princess too.  The boy was on
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
out from its hide-out, in, / / giving
obstacles space, / / sensitive certainty.  / / Honour this radar, thi
Bat
r to people.  / / Caresses, words, make
occasional contact.  / / And now the vision begins to mist.  Hands seek
Nadia
/ busy with his own play, / / glancing
occasionally / / towards the grown-ups / / (to check that they are t
[Time is a child]
a Lion / Leaving Kea / Syros to Naxos /
Occultation of Jupiter / (Naxos harbour, 12 September, 1983) / Statue
September Cruise
go above an Aegean harbour / / Jupiter
occulted .  And above the huge Pacific / / Mercury last night.  / / One
A Hoard
s and his mother and his home, / / his
occupation and his dream, all gone.  / / Would he, from lack of will t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
these specks which we / / have briefer
occupation of, / / but gains no wide or long control / / against the
Entropy
e / / the final bomb fall wide in open
ocean / / —harmless?  Look—circles of desert spread: / / seas and riv
Stones
/ / But away, Lady, bend your team to
Ocean / / now, and I’ll bear my longing as I have borne it.  / / Good
Spells and Love
ick-faded southern sunset / / over the
ocean rim.  I looked at the moon, / / looked up searching stars.  And I
A Hoard
where? to be / / keel on what un-isled
ocean , spark / / in what / / other-dimension dark?  / /
Holes in Space
moved by this moon.  / / By moon-heaped
ocean , strait / / and firth where the tides race, / / Leif Ericsson,
The Sea
/ to deep heaven, which like the deep
ocean / / takes everything to itself and remains pure.  / / And if th
Relax
/ He’ll find it doesn’t do.  / / Land,
ocean , wind, / / starved and poisoned must / / starve and poison him
Dr Faustus
[Late October hedges] / Late
October hedges along this lane / / coloured with flowers / / (season
[Late October hedges]
[Late
October hedges] / Late October hedges along this lane / / coloured wi
[Late October hedges]
ome insolent stag her joys.  / / It was
October .  Work was traversing / / the forest, marking movements of the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he Ferris wheel / / contrasts with the
Octopus whose tilted axis / / and epicycles were designed to illustra
Content
you are with me / / continually.  / /
Odd chills are chance.  Destined the steady glow / / our loving knows.
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
or will not do.  / / To me it seems too
odd .  / / I can’t envisage death / / or life as acts of god.  / / And
Question
humour, / / but laughing aloud / / is
odd in a crowd / / and gives rise to rumour.  / / Don’t talk in a tra
Merrie England
n the thorn, a nest / / he thought, an
odd one, hung.  His dull mind played / / with its likeness to a sea-ur
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
caught my eye / / —the same? another? 
odd .  / / The mirror made a rude reply.  / / There go I.  / / There go
Reflection
/ swayed by prayer; yet do not think it
odd / / to frame some longings in a form of prayer / / addressed to
Prayer
estion.) The thing / / that strikes me
oddly now / / is that I have to make / / a conscious effort to take
Climacteric by the Sea
/ to have Him on the horns.  It was big
odds / / against His twisting free.  But was it God’s / / wit gave Hi
The Betrayal
ural star, / / forefailed / / through
odds of brutal, hopeless circumstance.  / / But pangs of conscious con
Dinner
Odysseus / He had reached the ends of the earth, / / done all in orde
Odysseus
ess.  Man fumbles through it, / / blind
Oedipus constrained to rape and kill.  / / Nature is much to wreck, bu
Man in Nature
No Complex /
Oedipus laid the king his father dead, / / then laid his mother in hi
No Complex
rling Paris:  / / Winterhalter, Gounod,
Offenbach , Guys, / / Viollet-le-Duc, Dumas fils, / / red velvet drap
Time’s Reach
as not there before.  / / Though change
offend and hurt, / / immutability / / would be non-entity.  / / Mour
Change
h out / / I wonder if the lack’ll / /
offend you to see.  / / Never doubting that you do love me / / and lo
[Age’s bony knuckle]
s / / —found scissors and cut / / the
offending hand away.  More punishment.  / / They loved her though (as s
Eugénie de Guérin
than I have seen.  / / No, the seasons
offer / / no analogy for loss.  / / Yet, this untamed recurring / /
Five Poems for Roni
fe.  Yet what, in truth, / / had she to
offer ?  Not these hands and lips / / to take my love, but others forme
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
far from / / nothing, or little.  And I
offer too / / what may seem nothing or seem all to you / / but is a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
must be true.  / / Not courage nor the
offered avatar / / guided his thought to a deliberate choice / / of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eft / / mountains beleaguered him, and
offered him / / a dozen or a hundred paths to take.  / / He’d crossed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / spring song?” she said.  “You never
offered me / / relationship—only an inner-grown / / and self-existen
The Black-out
ve, / / but when some actual company’s
offered , move / / heaven and earth to keep out of its way?  / / The y
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
as the stage is set / / small hope is
offered of a happy ending.  / / The world seems more than usually wet
The Black-out
nted aura and soft ‘hullo, dearie’ / /
offered the troubled flesh peace with dishonour, / / dangerous appeas
The Black-out
ly on a briar / / its early bloom / /
offering cups of light.  / / Despair / / is judged by some / / the l
Upward Turn
liberate choice / / of dedication.  The
offering of his life / / had been made and accepted long ago.  / / A
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ I see Anne Frank / / on the cross,
offering of / / our indifference, of my / / indifference.  / / You w
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
crowd / / of worshippers, the crowded
offerings , / / statues, tripods, the rest, to ringing strings / / an
Pelopia and Thyestes
the high-cloud-mottled pallid blue / /
offers all colours equally subdued.  / / Winter beauty’s in tune / /
[Bare trees black]
ism, / / that hurries us down to drown
offshore .  / /
What goes up must come down
d pain, who’d lead, or rather / / more
often be led through the threatening wild / / by him, the brave one,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
beauty / / would not again appear / /
often enough.  At sixty / / that’s something all of us can see.  / / F
[Housman was old beyond his years]
ards him, beckoning threateningly.  / /
Often he wanted, once or twice essayed / / its final peak; but reache
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
de.  / / Sound of church-bells / / was
often in the air.  / / It was a Christian country, / / of that they w
The Green Children of Woolpit
in the moon— / / that youth she met so
often in the wood / / who stood aside and fixed her with his gaze /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
amden Town.  / / Suddenly Emily spoke:  “
often in winter / / for weeks together I have seen the brown / / hil
The Black-out
own, towards / / hands sometimes, more
often lower / / to legs, feet, which unaware / / betray so much.  /
Nadia
g a high black mountain’s rim.  / / But
often mind forgot the joy of eyes.  / / Valley, col, valley formed his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d that hatred’s not without reason / /
often , on either side.  / / But what good can hate do?  / / The stocks
Choice
n its hour of fire.  / / She passed him
often , sometimes paused to speak— / / she liked his thinking (none of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rue me’ / / That’s what you feel / /
often .  Sometimes though / / don’t you clearly see / / this lump the
Body
nd sadly we know ourselves / / foolish
often , sometimes wicked as well, / / sharing in guilt, part of the gu
[Our lives are in other hands]
sometimes wears a mask, / / most of us
often .  Such as he, / / taking up their ungrateful task, / / must fix
H.A.R.P.
othing else.  / / Luckily I am / / too
often too silly to / / be a wise old man.  / / Misunderstandings?  /
For Cecil
in you has stood / / waiting too long. 
Oh , do not miss your hour.  / / Deep hoarded in your heart a wealth of
The Black-out
My soul cries (child) to stay up late—“
Oh / / don’t send me to bed yet—I want to play, to / / read, finish
The Betrayal
t but not to royalty.  / / Where?  When? 
Oh , far away and long ago— / / farther than swallows in the autumn fl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
our tale like to be / / equal to ours?—
oh , feed and fan your flame.”  / / I bent and watched the waters to th
The Black-out
oal / / here, here, within the circle. 
Oh fool, fool.  / / Worn out he dropped on the leaf-mould and slept.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the last.  He looked again.  / / A pine… 
Oh , fool—full-circle fool.  He wept, / / knowing his weariness, knowin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
very house…  A sea-people…  The sea— / /
oh for the sea! the sea in storm and calm / / raised for him in a wre
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ with all the time in the world.  / / “
Oh God, I’m tired” she said.  / / “I wish I were dead.”  / /
Mariana in Miniature
moon, / / felt herself blush, laughed ‘
Oh how nice’—half child / / still, if already half woman, and soon /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y to be / / before it dissipates.  / /
Oh , humanity!  / /
What Hope?
roportion resentments, guilts.  / / And
oh I pray it can do the same for yours.  / / But death, though it froz
[White foam sweeps]
there would surely be / / springs—and
oh , mountains! what a blessed change / / from the flat ribbon stretch
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d Pope / / relinquish every hope.  / /
Oh plan no more the exact, unreal scheme, / / no more live by the dre
Scheme
t have your eaten cake.  / / Then take,
oh take your trip with us.  / / We know the spell of joys that last, /
The Sirens
d hand, firm / / on notched rock.  / /
Oh , the subtle / / steps of the couple / / on the high wire!  / / De
Sea Cliff
woods; they chose / / to be her guide (
oh , well-spent years!) the boy.  / / So that summer for seven enchante
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t wind faded out as he came near.  / / “
Oh what a moon,” he said.  “By such a shine / / we first saw Florence
The Black-out
/ / But pangs of conscious conscience? 
Oh / / what candyfloss / / I know they are.  / /
Dinner
hich are not sea) / / a gull jerks its
oil -bound strength about, / / that way, this way, no way out of its t
Black
/ / and would even leave his precious
oil -flask with me, / / but now it’s eleven days since I’ve even seen
Spells and Love
d remains pure.  / / And if the sea has
oil -slicks, the upper air / / mortal contaminations, today is lovely.
Relax
than you are shining, Moon, / / fresh-
oiled from a round of bouts in the wrestling-school.  / / These are th
Spells and Love
apparition be / / here but to lay some
ointment to his sore?  / / And yet, what could she do?  By her own spel
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ural beauty, mutual love are free.  / /
Ointments you have to soothe the personal smart, / / and though this
The Black-out
e world / / (or matter much) and I are
old .  / /
Spring Morning
s to bathe.  / / My crooked heart grows
old .  / /
Another Summer
her would see me / / simply one of the
old .  / /
Climacteric by the Sea
too / / and I, as I was young, am now
old .  / /
Night-piece
pittance- / / pension gives the ailing
old / / a choice between hunger and cold.  / / There a child / / is
Dinner
Do I make too much of not liking to be
old ?  / / After all, I didn’t like being young too much / / (not afte
Climacteric by the Sea
When he had let Tiresias drink / / the
old ambivalent spirit spoke:  / / “You shall win home / / and find yo
Odysseus
But if it were, what courage.  / / I am
old , and as / / I failed you, so can only / / fail to take your plac
For Cecil
do not know— / / old, old, infinitely
old and long ago.  / / The wind blows in my face and shouts “Love”, /
Wind
/ / North, and then West again by the
Old Bailey / / towards High Holborn, tired, a dreary road.  / / But m
The Black-out
eeper’s voice / / was the voice of his
old bawd, ugly and thin, / / crying her sorrow that all his mistresse
A Dream
[Housman was
old beyond his years] / Housman was old beyond his years / / knowing
[Housman was old beyond his years]
was old beyond his years] / Housman was
old beyond his years / / knowing at twenty / / the fleeting seasons
[Housman was old beyond his years]
/ too steep, rough, hard / / for this
old / / body.  I yield, / / a little sad.  / / Not very.  I’ve had /
[The track up the wild stream]
e sand ceased against the rock, / / an
old , bowed woman, busily engaged.  / / Black dress, black scarf over h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Beethoven / Dirty
old brutal bear, / / decencies and affections hanging / / rags on hi
Beethoven
ughes.  / / I was not young, nor was he
old , / / but he had wisdom / / I felt, good wisdom.  / / I sat conte
Homage
lifetimes earlier, / / a fourteen-year-
old countess from proud Spain, / / exchanged letters, friendship, wit
Time’s Reach
gull for his breakfast, roasted / / on
old dry driftwood from the high-tide mark.  / / He ate, and watched th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / But sharper than the image of her
old / / face as she drew the memory up, he saw / / the beach, the ri
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd place.  / / I look across through my
old face / / at the sleeper on the other seat.  / / Dirty old men dre
Meeting
Tourist / The
old familiar faces / / snapped in exotic places / / —Katmandu, Campd
Tourist
nkling fading petals / / dropping from
old flowers, only a few new ones / / coming in their place.  Still, th
Omens
ew strong— / / empty an age—‘When that
old forester, / / who died before my birth, was weeping sent / / awa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ain crown her initiation’s joy, / / an
old forester whom a wheel had crushed / / died.  Eighty years, they sa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
son / / a man now and a friend, a few
old friends.  / / Between you you shall clear your house and your king
Odysseus
arily / / intimate friends, not lovers—
old friends / / who have known each other well, quite well, from yout
What Do They Feel?
all come to you / / a child too in the
old garden.  / / A spring morning, light green, dark green, / / sun-s
Otherworld
resently / / and settled steady in the
old good quarter.  / / He was abreast now, nearly, of the cape / / an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
arry me out there / / to see them, but
old granny had a fall / / and died, and grandpa came to live at our /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
for you, love you. / / … but toothless
old ?  / / Hard not to be repelled.  / /
[Age’s bony knuckle]
e children who / / had no fares but an
old hat / / he bought, wore to a première.  / / Clear, bright, very c
For Cecil
not a new / / heart-life, since to the
old he must be true.  / / Not courage nor the offered avatar / / guid
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
kind of masonry, / / subtly apart, the
old .  / / I know I am not a child.  / / (Up to a point I know / / —ha
Climacteric by the Sea
/ / answer, no possible way out to the
old / / infinitely distant lost warm hum and glow.  / / The long-draw
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ze dress?  / / I do not know— / / old,
old , infinitely old and long ago.  / / The wind blows in my face and s
Wind
ves the wood.  / / “Grandfather was the
old King’s forester / / (your grandfather’s).  When I was very small /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ess.  / / But Time has tricks.  / / The
old lady / / who in this century / / took her cliff-top walk at Cap
Time’s Reach
ilent at the fall / / of the King, the
old life.  / / Peace and order flake away.  / / Every mountain, plain
Dark Age
ltures? / (for Tom) / Planted along the
old line of the railway / / a formal row, filament-flowers, / / radi
Two Cultures?
love, discolour grief.  / / But from my
old long love now and its grief / / these stains are being washed awa
[Feelings of guilt]
s parents early a trim boat / / and an
old long-shore fisherman to teach / / the basic skills; those mastere
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Louise, / / save me”.  / / Twelve-year-
old Louise adored / / wicked little Carly Gancher, / / and did just
Vignette
sour and broken in his heart, / / the
old man carved by candlelight / / behind a locked door, hitting / /
Pietà
dream / / being apprenticed to a tough
old man, / / huntsman and wood-ranger.  Not quite the same / / he fou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ too often too silly to / / be a wise
old man.  / / Misunderstandings?  / / That New Yorker joke:  “My wife /
For Cecil
e sleeper on the other seat.  / / Dirty
old men dream young and sweet.  / /
Meeting
/ / under the sail of poetry / / —the
old moon in the new moon’s arms, / / the little daughter dead in the
Poetry
ecame of her.  / / How’s your father?”  “
Old now.  Your sister—what’s her name?— / / kept the flock sometimes a
On the Border
se, / / the teller of all stories, his
old nurse.  / / But this was different from her other tales.  / / Fair
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e gauze dress?  / / I do not know— / /
old , old, infinitely old and long ago.  / / The wind blows in my face
Wind
Do They Feel?  / What do they feel, two
old people who part / / knowing quite certainly / / they will never
What Do They Feel?
r.  / / From the good city bravely back
old Plato / / framed laws for shadow-men.  Does He (like Plato?) / /
The Betrayal
/ all we believed is true, except the
old / / pretence that they were gods.  We have to know / / God, if th
Against Pedestals
/ What could she think, the nine-year-
old princess?  / / The circumscription of her small world’s rim / / h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Fairies and giants, kings and queens of
old , / / princesses in the toils of sorcerers— / / put out for drago
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nces in convents.  May is here.  / / The
old remember and the happy store / / their memories up.  The empty-hea
May Day
New Year / “Ring out the
old , ring in the new” / / but you can never catch the changing / / y
New Year
a jungle.  / / Round her the house grew
old / / slowly, quietly rotting, / / dustily, gently flaking, / / d
Mariana in Miniature
t’s hell to be young it’s the end being
old / / so gather the roses of ripe middle age.”  / /
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
tches, win the sweet princess.  / / The
old stories, alike but different, / / told yet again and asked for ye
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
dark wood / / a fear.  / / I, already
old , / / successful, happy, mourned / / a hollow failure of the hear
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
he air / / are beautiful— / / sad, an
old tale, / / fable, romance…  / / False?  But there’s something there
Heron and Gulls
gaze, / / since they are dead and I am
old .  / / The night is trackless, deep and cold.  / /
Night
/ / Summer and I are neither young nor
old , / / the quiet middle reaches.  / / But something cries on / / i
Revisited
lear the way / / for their return.  Too
old , / / their thoughts dwell in a vanished world.  / / But clear, ho
[Some exiles know]
them, lady Moon. / / —and Theumaridas’
old Thracian nurse (she’s dead now), / / who lived next door, came an
Spells and Love
s mad drive to go / / on down the same
old way, / / hell-bent to destroy / / himself and her.  / / If I cou
Antipodes
the place.  / / Turning bewildered, the
old well-known road / / stretched where he’d come—but turning again,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
suddenly, knowing for what she was the
old / / woman.  As though it bore itself the spell / / he flung it fr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
into himself.  Before him stood / / an
old woman in black.  He snatched his knife / / and rose at her with al
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
im blankets, pillows—“Sit up, your poor
old wreck.  / / There.  Lie down again.  So.  Here’s my hair, my neck, /
Greek Folk Song
some really evil twist / / against the
older boys / / would rush through the camp-site, flat / / out, cryin
Vignette
ie twenty-one.  / / Kurt Huber was much
older / / but name him, praise him as well), / / promised, unfulfill
Die Weisse Rose
ver? / / —grey willow, other / / than
olive .  Cypress / / are you?—whose country / / is without willow.  /
Five Poems for Roni
ow / / to spread shade other / / than
olive , cypress / / mean by a shadow.  / / Am I this shadow / / besid
Five Poems for Roni
nt of green / / or rock straight to an
olive -pearly plain, / / straight to a blinding or a peacock sea.  / /
Greece
sea; rock and pine, / / red earth and
olive , pine and bare rock, / / broken rock climbing to a point of sno
Greece
illow / / weaves in this country / / —
olive , straight cypress, / / sea and no river, / / harsh sea-light. 
Five Poems for Roni
/ sharp-cornered shadow, / / wrenched
olive (willow- / / grey, but no river, / / no mist)—another / / har
Five Poems for Roni
Hermes of
Olympia / After the others—struggle or charged stillness / / of heroe
Hermes of Olympia
ngs, lifts it a little.  / / Accept the
omen , heart.  / / Rejoice in beauty, rejoice in happiness, / / accept
Omens
Were they not / / a guide?  At least an
omen .  ‘I accept.’  / / A day, a night—two, three days and their nights
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ay.  / / I turned away / / and another
omen rose in front of me: / / a heron, lifting its wide grey angled w
Omens
as if / / meant for him, sent for him—
omen , yes, and guide.  / / The birds, the ruffled sea, changelessly ch
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
red bush was beautiful / / but we read
omens according to our mood / / and mine was sad today.  / / I turned
Omens
Omens / Idling along, wondering whether I oughtn’t / / soon to go bac
Omens
s and fears.  / / And though with age’s
oncoming you harden / / the channels of our thought as of our blood,
Prayer to Time
r, / / half dissolved in each other, a
oneness , aware / / of a mystery—life is not just what it seems / / a
Hymn
g care / / yield themselves to no / /
oneness , will not even come, / / passing, beak to beak.  / / One with
Woodpeckers
opping from old flowers, only a few new
ones / / coming in their place.  Still, though, starred with beauty.  /
Omens
she lost them both by one mistake.  / /
Oneself is not one’s own to give / / as though it were a braided lock
Ballad
How, when the ground’s gone from under
one’s feet, / / find a fixed point from which to start again?  / / I
What am I?
/ light against prevailing dark) / /
one’s own garbled, prejudiced reckoning.  / /
Balance Sheet
oth by one mistake.  / / Oneself is not
one’s own to give / / as though it were a braided lock.  / / The scis
Ballad
ent and allow / / winter its weakening
onsets in retreat; / / spring warmth is strengthening though you see
The Black-out
Advent / Up through the
opaque water another year / / is nosing its way.  I seem to see a shar
Advent
the gathered night / / spreads to the
open , darkening field and hill.  / / To stars and window-panes withdra
Country and Town
ad to hear.  / / I stooped, hand on the
open door, but drew / / back as another voice said:  “Mama, no; / / t
The Black-out
/ / may yield a possible future.  / /
Open -ended / / our future lies.  That is the future’s nature.  / / It
Desert Island?
/ to prophesy to a full stop.  Ours the
open / / grace of a question mark.  / /
Desert Island?
an empty space a castle-gate / / stood
open .  He went in.  No one at all.  / / No one.  The empty guard-room see
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
whirled up in the wind of love; / / I
open my arms and close them on the wind.  / /
Wind
py in the long grass, the hot sun.  / /
Open my eyes now on what afternoon?  / /
Summers
I see / / the final bomb fall wide in
open ocean / / —harmless?  Look—circles of desert spread: / / seas an
Stones
ng, sweats with fear.  / / Fled are the
open sky, the easy slumber.  / / Now in a narrowing chamber / / we pa
That Way Madness Lies
/ Unhappy women / / caught from their
open world into a cell, / / uncomprehending, lost, / / illiterate mo
War-time Anecdote
/ the light that lies and blinds.  / /
Open your eyes, and yet may come to pass / / your unschemed hope, as
Scheme
wo nights, when our / / long affection
opened its cactus-flower, / / we noticed Time / / choosing to walk w
Two Poems from a New Life
have been eight or nine) / / “went and
opened the door.  And there, she said, / / stood a young forester.  Utt
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed at him.  / / His eyes closed, and he
opened them alone.  / / ‘To be her prince and have her for my bride’ /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e uncle to the child who had / / first
opened to him.  But he told them little / / of who he was or where he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
natural tunnel from the other side / /
opened to join his own, and he was through.  / / Beyond an empty space
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hand / / led us delighted through the
opening day, / / the light stretched long across the dewy land / / a
Prayer to Time
, / / our children’s, their children’s
opening day?  / / We too, we two, / / are guilty with the rest, and l
May Day, 1986
d trench, / / the hero peered into the
opening shadows / / and held his sword against the shades crowding /
Odysseus
/ and die in doggerel” / / Miranda to
Ophelia :  / / “How can I understand?  / / Life was a still morning /
Dialogue
Dialogue / Miranda to
Ophelia / / in pity and surprise:  / / “What are those wrinkles on yo
Dialogue
/ / broken and alone.”  / / Miranda to
Ophelia :  / / “Then you would forget?  / / Had you your life to make a
Dialogue
again / / You would never meet—?”  / /
Ophelia to Miranda:  / / “I have not said that.”  / /
Dialogue
wered / / in those of Ferdinand.”  / /
Ophelia to Miranda:  / / “I too knew the clear dawn; / / my bud was n
Dialogue
y love / / and love is paradise.”  / /
Ophelia to Miranda:  / / “Life and love are hell.  / / But the heart’s
Dialogue
pool / / of night, all empty; and the
opposite rooms / / showed lightless windows, uninvolved as tombs.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
et / / or someone you meet / / of the
opposite sex / / (or even the same) / / may think you mean them.  /
Merrie England
og-days of Macedon, / / through Rome’s
opulent autumn, all but vanished / / in the long white winter of Byza
Greece
ed her face.  It all / / —horror, lust,
oracle — / / flared to one hideous end.  / / She fought the hard sinew
Pelopia and Thyestes
y / / to vengeance—how repay?  / / The
oracle replied:  / / “Vengeance condign may come / / indeed, but it m
Pelopia and Thyestes
The Last
Oracle / Tell the King: the intricate fane is fallen.  / / His primiti
The Last Oracle
nswered, “made me lighter-hearted / / —
orange blinds, fountains, chestnuts flowering, / / red mullet and tom
The Black-out
Hebona / I could not in my
orchard sleep that day / / knowing much was not well / / between my
Hebona
ss the pair.  / / Now evening trysts in
orchards reach their peak / / and penances in convents.  May is here. 
May Day
the ends of the earth, / / done all in
order as the witch had said, / / and now, sitting over the blood-fill
Odysseus
the King, the old life.  / / Peace and
order flake away.  / / Every mountain, plain and bay / / breeds its p
Dark Age
n comfort and tears / / —a predictable
order , if nothing goes wrong, / / to protect us from fear and to guid
Hymn
he night, but not to extend / / divine
order spun from the thoughts of men.  / / The dry moon hangs, skull to
Macrocosm
/ to make your future viable, / / your
ordered future.  / / Hardly seen, / / all in a mist of blood is hid. 
Recessional
sk / / under wide trees / / of a well-
ordered park.  / / Like a poem by Yeats.  / / Well, this park was the
Grace
rrow there behind today.  / / To get it
ordered , rounded, kempt / / would be to die before I die.  / /
A Prayer
Render unto Caesar / / your armed and
ordered self, and cry Hail Caesar.”  / / That He did not say.  But by s
The Betrayal
om of innocence, / / total faith in an
ordered universe / / breathed from the will of God / / which set the
Eugénie de Guérin
ge / We’ve fared so long on the aimless
ordered way, / / our planks are rotten, our sails are gossamer…  / /
Voyage
ours is the victory.”  / / We have our
orders , and our keep and pay.  / / A man must live.  A soldier must obe
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ese prisoners of war.”  / / We have our
orders , and our keep and pay.  / / A man must live.  A soldier must obe
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
k and burn the dead.)” / / We have our
orders , and our keep and pay.  / / A man must live.  A soldier must obe
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
these bombs to Japan.”  / / We have our
orders , and our keep and pay.  / / A man must live.  A soldier must obe
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ours not to question / / when he gives
orders .  Render unto Caesar / / your armed and ordered self, and cry H
The Betrayal
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank /
Orders / Röslein auf der Heiden / “Soldiers, advance against the enemy
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
nd mist and level light / / before our
ordinary eyes.  / /
Early Train
if the sun were bold and high, / / an
ordinary landscape seem; / / where now an otherworld of art or dream
Early Train
Original Sin / Child I believed / / that in my nature I was true and
Original Sin
Night / Between
Orion and the Bear / / the buoy-lights of the planets float / / mark
Night
Antipodes / I find
Orion the hunter here / / up to the north and on his head.  / / Above
Antipodes
Night-piece / The half-moon on
Orion’s shoulder / / lays on the world light / / colder than sea-pea
Night-piece
to a sea-urchin shell.  / / Traditional
ornament and lucky charm / / in every house…  A sea-people…  The sea— /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
swered turned my head.  / / I know what
Orpheus felt when turning he / / touched emptiness.  What Emily had sa
The Black-out
ner / / and laughs them out.  / / Only
Othello / / who threw away the pearl / / has no laughing shadow / /
Catharsis
rselves again, / / is there so huge an
otherness / / between that and the run of men?  / / The mangled reput
H.A.R.P.
se / / blotting the world out with its
otherness .  / / But while he dreamed senses and limbs were learning.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ of things whose meaning is in those
othernesses , / / outside our time-thought’s three-way recognizing?  /
Dimension
t plain, / / the sixth (small like the
others ) a masterpiece / / of shaping and drawing.  / / These were lif
Label
nts—nor, as from Pisgah, know / / that
others after shall do so.  / / The vision’s all, and is enough.  / /
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
ting / / as one with others, cares for
others also.  / / In tedious winter as in teasing summer / / patience
Patience
nest avatar.  / / Love keep you kind to
others and each other.  / / Love make you presently / / to those who
Epithalamium
d is mine and lost, / / but some waits
others , and of those are you; / / the time to do things in is short a
The Black-out
nders war / / with all those deaths of
others .  / / And that huge violence flickers in that void / / with th
Back Room, 1944
hings we shall not live to cherish / /
others are born to burn.  / / Fire-raising autumn, black-boughed winte
Cassandra’s Song
nce it was Nazism / / —those Germans). 
Others are hated / / simply for being other (those blacks, those Jews
Choice
compounded of the same material / / as
others are, yet there’s a difference.  / / The forester, the poor cour
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ares for self existing / / as one with
others , cares for others also.  / / In tedious winter as in teasing su
Patience
concerned with self alone / / nor only
others , cares for self existing / / as one with others, cares for oth
Patience
nly seeing, / / hearing, her life with
others fed his joy.  / / But unhoped chance soon made him one with tho
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ands and lips / / to take my love, but
others formed beyond / / the grave.  ‘A sacrifice, my love, my youth.’
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / stamped the grave Wesley / / and
others had filled; / / but Cromwell (and Charles / / the foolish and
Merrie England
subject to wickedness and folly / / in
others .  Harder to bear, our children’s lives / / are subject too.  And
[Our lives are in other hands]
ful or hardly to exist, / / move us in
others .  Has time brought up a mist / / or blown the cloud-cap from a
In the Audience
Gordian anguish in the heart; / / and
others in whose silence sounds the roar / / of a remote, fanatic fire
The Party
ledge of self / / compels knowledge of
others .  / / Knowledge compels love.  / / Love makes us.  / / Yet ende
Parenthood
le currents. / / which must flow on to
others .  / / Must we then, human, envy / / beast and flower? netted,
Parenthood
artake / / of one another and / / the
others of their kind.  / / Sex is everywhere / / as Freud made us awa
Fair Exchange
t give love.  / / Love would follow the
others presently, / / love felt for her, when the pink bud should flo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
chance blow are untimely over; / / on
others / / presses too hard the splendour of the power; / / glows li
Lamps
aking bog / / lies not quite where the
others said.  / / (The seaman casts his thought ahead, / / but sandba
Lost
aking bog / / lies not quite where the
others said.  / / Watery mud-holes suck and clog / / and to our visio
Lost
Hermes of Olympia / After the
others —struggle or charged stillness / / of heroes, centaurs, gods fr
Hermes of Olympia
r her is truly Love— / / but above all
others : / / the baby brother she first was jealous of, / / but they
Eugénie de Guérin
st, like Sydney / / dying, to care for
others .  / / The image of Sydney's death / / is mythical, someone say
Caring
our lives, / / and all those lives of
others / / the silt of whose brief or eternal loves / / now beds the
Becoming
ky.  / / I look through my own eyes and
others too, / / the dead who see nothing, perhaps another / / who re
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
w.  / / I am out of sorts with self and
others , when / / experience and patience should know how to / / guid
Again
/ But swept out in that flow / / are
others which should have stayed: / / what passion and labour made /
Progress
perishing all / / from us, renewed for
others / / white in another Spring.  / /
[What words are there for Spring?]
being.  Not us they’re calling / / but
others within the crystal, child to children / / as gull to gull acro
For Rachel
trouble, mind / / your troubles, mind
others ’ troubles more, / / taking them seriously / / but not allowin
Two Poems for G
inary landscape seem; / / where now an
otherworld of art or dream / / (the spirit’s two alembics) lies / /
Early Train
Otherworld / When I was a child I shall come to you / / a child too i
Otherworld
ur / / was stilled for now, and in the
other’s care / / they walked, indeed they rode—at the bank-side / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
arabosse / / “We are together and each
other’s own.”  / / He heard, they heard, the wicked fairy’s laugh, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ens / Idling along, wondering whether I
oughtn’t / / soon to go back, I saw a little ahead / / a single dogr
Omens
/ section sliced through our world; an
outer whole / / through which our world’s an imperceptible section.  /
Dimension
/ circle, take flight / / from ours to
outer world, build worlds in / / differing ways their own.  When we fo
Out from the Cliff
in the bitter wind.  / / A magic of the
outer world, for him / / to walk in with his world of hidden dreams—
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
above into this silence / / out of the
outer world loud voices calling.  / / Authority breaks, calling, the w
For Rachel
one; / / melting mist / / or tough to
outlast / / their time, their race—perhaps mankind, / / featureless
Fossils
ur fee to Death, the will to live, / /
outlasts this tarnished thing, worn to a sieve, / / once the golden b
Age
egins to mist.  Hands seeking / / other
outlets / / forget the pencil.  / / (And out of what depth, fingered
Nadia
esus count out his money, / / Achilles
outrace the winds, since those are their fancies.  Me, / / I’ll sit un
Shepherd’s Song
/ Silver spoon in the / / bathroom.  My
outrage is as / / yours.  Some things slip though.  / / Change, knowin
For Cecil
.  Yet / / only we, seeing her from the
outside , can / / love her.  Natural things in nature are / / blind to
The Reckoning
perishing.  Time / / (man’s making) is
outside death.  / /
[Time is enough]
walled alley with no escape.  / / Now,
outside hope, / / the late sun breaks through / / and round us, me a
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
these and anything / / like these lie
outside / / my sense of what might be.  / / No, alone one has to make
Balance Sheet
e meaning is in those othernesses, / /
outside our time-thought’s three-way recognizing?  / /
Dimension
d makes tracks / / out of the temenos. 
Outside she came / / to silence—or rather to cicada-shrill / / still
Pelopia and Thyestes
e.  / / You, though, reader, must watch
outside the silence / / with me, since after-knowledge sets tomorrow
For Rachel
Green World / Green world
outside the window, summer world.  / / Daffodils on this side of the s
Green World
covet).  / / Without that, can I stand
outside time?  / / May I think, as I need to think, that because one /
Death
Time is enough.  Death / / has dominion
outside time / / (when nobody measures time / / time is dead, and th
[Time is enough]
cloth-of-green / / through the fields
outside Verona, / / and among those runners he seemed / / not to be
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
memory along life’s increase / / (and
outsoars too these wars no one can win), / / is for them also, knowin
Dulce et Decorum
atched the river running furiously / /
outward , saw the forester’s ignorance / / (inland bred), waited for t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n-wind light but good, / / as he moved
outwards in his loaded boat.  / / Most of the morning he stood out to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
front the monsters in their lairs, / /
outwit the witches, win the sweet princess.  / / The old stories, alik
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
white, / / embodied light / / of the
overcast day / / on the dark water.  / / Back in a quiet country / /
Return
doom / / wished on her in the cradle’s
overcome — / / the threat which burdens all but her alone.  / / They h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
it.  He sought / / the pox at Mistress
Overdone’s instead.  / /
Beyond Measure
ut not / / the track—or if a track, so
overgrown …  / / Still, he pushed in, and once in the deep shade / / t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in, and once in the deep shade / / the
overgrowth was thinner, and he made / / progress along what now made
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in the translucent pane / / reflected
overlays the moon.  / / Sometimes when the self grows thin / / I am m
Shadow and Substance
spew it, / / this speck’s contaminated
overspill / / and, part of what we ruin, we shall rue it.  / / The wo
Man in Nature
y will not, cannot be recalled.  / / No
overthrow / / of tyranny / / will clear the way / / for their retur
[Some exiles know]
k as well as feel, / / to study what I
owe / / and how it might be paid / / in part—a penny in / / each ge
Villevieille
pressive mud that slowed / / my way, I
owe it you; and more than that.”  / / “And on my side,” she said, “som
The Black-out
t one in two, / / the kindness that we
owe mankind.  / / Wider than that, warmer than this / / the word I wa
Love…  No
them, lady Moon.  / / —“But as it is, I
owe thanks first to the Cyprian / / goddess, and after the Cyprian th
Spells and Love
ee / / there for me to do, / / work I
owe to love / / and might achieve.  / / Not much, not enough, / / bu
Villevieille
my road.  But that I take a road / / I
owe to you—if I am partly free / / from the slothful depressive mud t
The Black-out
nd on my side,” she said, “something is
owed .  / / Do not be humble, sad; consider that / / your gifts are go
The Black-out
and broken—there was none.  / / Beauty
owes nothing: by having been has put / / the world, rather, in debt. 
Joy
ugh the black night home.  / / Past two
o’clock .  The ball went on and on.  / / All the princes were slow of fo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince