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

P

P . / How could this traitor live a lie? / / watching his step, watchi

/ / Now in a narrowing chamber / / we

pace and pace and turn, and pace and turn, / / and turn again. / /

That Way Madness Lies

walk with us / / at our shared natural

pace , / / and so shared joy is a shared peace, / / a home. / / It h

Two Poems from a New Life

in a narrowing chamber / / we pace and

pace and turn, and pace and turn, / / and turn again. / /

That Way Madness Lies

ber / / we pace and pace and turn, and

pace and turn, / / and turn again. / /

That Way Madness Lies

/ and run the world’s course at her own

pace / / long after we have thrown ourselves away. / / We must weep

g feet, / / won’t, can’t / / keep the

pace you want. / / Rein slack / / on sunk neck, / / let him amble h

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

and long Whitehall received my echoing

paces , / / the noiseless passage of my friend and guide. / / We turn

/ Jupiter occulted. And above the huge

Pacific / / Mercury last night. / / One long ago summer midnight in

ijinsky / / in fifty-two pieces like a

pack of cards; / / and the faces whirled in intersecting circles / /

back, / / down, in, / / irreversibly

packed / / to a still point. Matter and energy / / funnelled through

the ripples’ edge, where children / /

paddle and shout. The waves rustle. Yet silence / / encloses all in c

rdling from the sin, / / was pawed and

paddled night and day; and (though / / hating herself and it) yet lea

/ a narrow supple vixen on quick black

Paedophilia / Suffer the little / / children to come unto me. / / I

Haiku: Paedophilia

kes with dumb power, / / blots a blank

Love’s Eyes and Hands

prince—the same or not? Well, turn the

page / / and meet his parents on their wedding-day. / / Down the whi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / of great and happy life. An early

page / / closed my unfinished book; how does yours read?” / / I laug

air, / / note painfully on the waiting

page / / for the deaf world to hear, / / spring light, spring water,

/ to find an answer to that one on this

page ? / / Sell it down the river, and make another start. / /

A flat illustration / / jumps off the

page — / / the rider reins his galloping horse towards here, blows /

ithin, book in hand, I looked down at a

page / / which sang to me likewise in letters of gold / / “If it’s h

[The municipal building stood square in my dream]

en now / / our long debt to America is

paid ; / / both James Joyce and Virginia Woolf know how / / thought w

udy what I owe / / and how it might be

paid / / in part—a penny in / / each generous pound? / / This and t

. / / And yet her death-throes give me

ade—smote him. O beauty, delight, love,

pain . / / A violent longing for the hills again / / hustled him to t

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the year’s beginning, / / one in time—

pain and joy are one in love”? / /

Winter Solstice

I find / / the image of you with less

pain and more peace. / / And you, my warm love now, it’s our love tha

[White foam sweeps]

/ feeling its foredoomed beauty like a

pain . / / And there of course against a dark trunk stood / / that bo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rcles from stone dropped in water) / /

pain ; and worse (last / / worst twist and waste) / / transmutation o

arkness, fear, / / fire, flowers, / /

pain , angels singing. / /

the shore. / / His fingers’ festering

pain burned up his arm. / / Almost blindly he turned towards the hill

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

il. / / Let us detest aggression, pity

pain , / / but recognise vengeance for a cardinal sin; / / honour all

Prayer to Truth

ness of peace / / but that movement is

pain . / / Can the natural dance / / ever break out again? / / Wait.

Winter Recalled

night, when at last the Queen / / felt

pain crown her initiation’s joy, / / an old forester whom a wheel had

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

g man journeying. A sense of loss, / /

pain deeply felt. And yet, this was a story. / / A story. What, whose

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ling him, / / and turned—with dreadful

pain , for what he loved / / lay on, away from her, and yet was she. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d yet was she. / / Waking, he knew the

pain for what it was / / and knew the supposed choice already made. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / but now with inexpressible joy and

pain / / from eyes and ears memorial shadows fade / / in the truth’s

/ Horrible pain, sickness and horrible

pain / / ground him. He groaned, and groaning felt himself / / there

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rmth of the sun / / revived him to his

pain . He lay awhile, / / but something made him rouse. Hardly in him

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / this deep acceptance of a story’s

pain ? / / How know the spot’s ahead there, waiting now, / / where th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

knife / / and rose at her with all his

pain in hate. / / And then he saw her eyes and knew his error / / an

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

and pass / / in, but because the blind

pain in his breast / / drove him into the teeth of any pain / / whic

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ropped sharp as new, contorted him with

pain , / / its black authority cutting across / / all argument; and s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

in / / and playfully allot our joy and

pain . / / Life between earth below and sky above / / is work and bre

/ / harsh in its lasting though their

pain must be, / / and wide, wide the horizon of the heart / / where

w drowned / / his brave thought in the

pain of powerless love, / / and was silent and sad. The princess sigh

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ust betrayed, / / for brief despairing

pain / / of these untimely dead. / / Weep more for who remain. / /

Whom the Gods Love

with that chimney’s cloud. Squalor and

pain / / reek under the clear sky round your birth. / / Anne Frank l

Two Poems for G

he pang / / which is so much more than

pain . / / Sea, stone, cypress, / / sharp-cornered shadow, / / wrenc

Five Poems for Roni

ife sang from a far tree. / / Horrible

pain , sickness and horrible pain / / ground him. He groaned, and groa

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ Visited on our children… Part of the

pain , / / the sickest element in our fear for them, / / is that shar

[Our lives are in other hands]

pain. Think of these first. / / So, in

pain they fell. But also as fall / / sparks. The wind blows against t

Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville

these dead, and each, one, / / dead in

pain . Think of these first. / / So, in pain they fell. But also as fa

Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville

ficial Man, / / drained of urgency and

pain , / / timeworn image, will not fix / / the shifting look. / / L

Stray Thoughts at a Wedding

r / / all possibilities of delight and

pain . / / “We know this shining stream bears London’s refuse / / fro

st / / drove him into the teeth of any

pain / / which might distract him. So with naked hands / / he tore a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

h a friend / / who’d share his joy and

pain , who’d lead, or rather / / more often be led through the threate

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

eft stretched the cold sands. / / With

painful care he worked round to his right. / / The cliffs. And under

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

sensitive unkindness, / / small but so

painful it cannot be forgotten / / by either party. “It wasn’t meant”

cence and youth, / / which ours seemed

painful or hardly to exist, / / move us in others. Has time brought u

In the Audience

en for granted. Not as yet for her / /

painful passion obsessively distilled. / / Child, happy; princess too

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

fond of sitting still, / / and having

painfully learned how not to care / / find how to care become a faili

ould still coax from the air, / / note

painfully on the waiting page / / for the deaf world to hear, / / sp

ver / / mankindness with its gifts and

pains , / / even proud perhaps to suffer / / the flaunting symbol of

never lose touch with the joys and the

pains / / of this deeper existence we know, at whose heart / / is ou

pencer’s vision tells / / one need not

paint in French exclusively; / / Margot Fonteyn dances at Sadler’s We

jutting stump, dance. / / “Why do you

paint the past so rosy? Wrack / / and doom along that same roadway wo

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

fact would come to him / / and put his

painted fantasies to flight / / leaving him sick, until he fled to th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

we built for them were all / / plaster

painted for marble. These gave way / / and gold and ivory shatter in

Against Pedestals

Still, might perhaps the master potter-

painter / / like to have known his handiwork seen, / / shown, loved

/ our love, keeps happiness living in

pain’s teeth. / / … But only the real presence brings us that peace.

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

stand here today, not two selves but a

pair , / / half dissolved in each other, a oneness, aware / / of a my

d also / / an unvoiced elders’ plot to

pair him off / / with one of the two sisters. ‘Little bores’ / / he

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / to rack the celibate and bless the

pair . / / Now evening trysts in orchards reach their peak / / and pe

se / / were taken from a grave: / / a

pair of ear-rings, gold, simple design; / / a bronze mirror, its shin

s seek coolth in May, / / hands seek a

pair of little breasts, two lemons on a tree.” / /

Greek Folk Song

are they all that they pretend? (a / /

pair of sets of teeth so even…?) / / Look round. His black is thin be

s they drew still, and out the welcomed

pair / / stepped in their beauty down, stepped up the stair, / / the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

aged / / and, a class of their own, in

pairs / / or singly, greeting each other / / with a kind of masonry,

Climacteric by the Sea

y / Mary and Elizabeth / / each in her

palace -cell alone / / notching up which heads shall fall / / if she

break to barbary. / / Hunger burns the

palace -wall, / / robs the revered graves. We see / / the singer sile

boy. / / They closed his eyes. Now the

palace was hushed. / / Born in the purple? Well, not quite imperial—

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

g of Roland, / / Leopardi, Theocritus,

Palamas , / / Heine, Hoffmann von Hoffmanswaldau, / / Baudelaire, Du

oble mountain stood, / / St Paul’s, in

pale and shadow-moulded stone, / / and stilled, emptied my mind; and

d not pause to con her, / / but in the

pale Circus stood one alone / / just where the moon threw Eros’ shado

y heart. The moonlight fell / / on her

pale face and tall, slight, angular figure. / / “And you?” I said; an

vage and the face. Faintly wells / / a

pale returning light whose kindness veils / / jut and furrow, restori

In the Audience

Wind / The stars are faint on the

pale sky above, / / the phosphorus sparkles in the foam below / / li

o / / lark song strikes out of the sun-

paled blue. / / Pass from the green brilliance of the meadow / / int

Two Summer Songs

the glow / / of autumn leaves is mute,

palely yellowing / / towards winter. Everything / / is withdrawing,

[Noon. But the sun is low]

rizon / / under the high-cloud-mottled

pallid blue / / offers all colours equally subdued. / / Winter beaut

[Bare trees black]

earth and air,” I said, “the grime that

palls / / this town must choke you more than me.” “A change,” / / sh

kely as they come? / / Hadn’t I my ten-

palm sword / / and my fathom gun? / / A likely lad, a bonny fighter

heir dream / / —Utopia or the martyr’s

palm — / / The chatterers have their sound, the beautiful / / their c

ught / / in the wide dew-pond of Mount

Palomar , / / leapt from some galaxy, far / / past the faint nebula /

eart and in my flesh), / / The all but

palpable presence / / of your warmth, of your kindness / / —but some

[I have you always in my mind]

d up out of the sea / / like something

palpable , veiling the meeting / / of sea and sky, thickening, till on

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

g / / the brute block back towards the

palpable vision. / / The guttering candle flared up straight. Out. /

y’s sack / / —these in the other scale-

pan you must throw. / / Record, since you’re recording, all you know,

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

I saw the portico / / beside us of St.

Pancras ’ Church, whose sane / / classical stillness calmed the aimles

of what depth, fingered on a steamed-up

pane , / / can that loud trumpeter charge again?) / /

Substance / The lamp in the translucent

pane / / reflected overlays the moon. / / Sometimes when the self gr

Shadow and Substance

ield and hill. / / To stars and window-

panes withdraws the light. / / Hunched to the chill / / hushed birds

Country and Town

/ / a kind of sweetness to an undulled

“Life is sweet, brother”

/ Longing’s back at once with a quick

pang . / / But the constant consciousness that we belong, / / our lov

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

tever day / / wakes your heart. / / A

pang that’s like the joy / / of being together, / / its double, its

[The clouds that pressed the air]

ing, reshining / / of an ache into the

pang / / which is so much more than pain. / / Sea, stone, cypress, /

Five Poems for Roni

exual ache / / bursts in its paradisal

pang / / you cannot have your eaten cake. / / Then take, oh take you

it sounds, in Newcastle / / but above

Pangbourne on the middle Thames) / / dreams across the valley to Sulh

brutal, hopeless circumstance. / / But

pangs of conscious conscience? Oh / / what candyfloss / / I know the

. / / Now we pump back poison from our

panic deathwish, / / slip to lasting sleep in a sterile slime. / /

out to send to you / / they dry in the

papery air / / colourless dull words again. / / But drop them in you

nd / / on such an insolent flight?—the

parable / / forgotten of the badger and the hind, / / and with it th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / beautiful crown of myth, / / this

parable of truth. / /

elicious sexual ache / / bursts in its

paradisal pang / / you cannot have your eaten cake. / / Then take, o

r at your books, / / cough yourself to

paradise . / / Father, spin your choking web / / —you will rot there

rble innocence: / / a light such as in

Paradise / / flowed from the smile of Beatrice / / should fuse them

John Ruskin’s Wedding Night

cer, / / other Milton (flawed glory of

Paradise Lost) / / The White Devil and the Duchess of Malfi, / / Byr

rely life is only love / / and love is

paradise .” / / Ophelia to Miranda: / / “Life and love are hell. / /

yet our dear / / mother and love. This

paradox / / (a rift in the firm-seeming rocks) / / rives all we’ve d

Dulce et Decorum / Death’s

paradox dissolves our clear ‘to be’: / / Their not being, having been

Dulce et Decorum

al bliss nears / / for you, for me the

parallel / / of eternity in Hell. / /

Virgil’s Farewell to Dante

d passed thirteen hundred years / / of

paralysed yearning. All fell / / away in action, hopes, fears / / fo

Virgil’s Farewell to Dante

eaf, the blind / / who fumbling in the

paralytic dark / / await no dawn, and those / / exiled, to whom the

od / / part lit; to right the shadowed

parapet / / where leaned a man against the light and drew. / / I loo

stump, dance. / / Along the paved and

parapeted track / / forgetful of the tamed wildness below / / once-s

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

your house and your kingdom / / of the

parasitic clutter. But do not think / / to live in peace. The angry s

hose (in spite of these / / nullifying

parentheses ) / / is all the difference in the world. / /

Parenthood / Husk flakes from the seed / / and nothing in plant or tr

ity and desire, / / acts of childhood,

parents , affection, age; / / necessary and unnecessary death; / / re

wholly away, stays / / linked still to

parents / / by fibres, filaments / / charged with subtle currents. /

learned the tide, / / coaxed from his

parents early a trim boat / / and an old long-shore fisherman to teac

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ularity, strange and not good— / / her

parents lived out in the country, down / / beside the river where it

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

? Well, turn the page / / and meet his

parents on their wedding-day. / / Down the white hill-road, high abov

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rave, / / put there by friends, by her

parents probably, / / to be there always in the dark ground / / with

-frosted. And, alone, / / a god’s nail-

paring , / / a silver sliver caught on / / western darkness, hangs th

boil up to war / / —Athens and Sparta,

Paris and Berlin, / / Rome and Carthage, London and Edinburgh. / / T

sérables). / / Then, 1870. / / Sedan,

Paris besieged, France lost, / / exile, chilled in English Chislehurs

he loved brother lives in Babylon, / /

Paris , leagues away. And further. / / He has left the walled garden o

Eugénie de Guérin

/ / as light falls on the blind. / /

Paris loves Helen in all tongues of the world, / / Gorgias Tamynis on

énie? / / High nineteenth-century / /

Paris . Rich, squalid, whirling Paris: / / Winterhalter, Gounod, Offen

ed / / an answering flame in me.” “The

Paris spring / / and hope,” I answered, “made me lighter-hearted / /

ury / / Paris. Rich, squalid, whirling

Paris : / / Winterhalter, Gounod, Offenbach, Guys, / / Viollet-le-Duc

under wide trees / / of a well-ordered

park . / / Like a poem by Yeats. / / Well, this park was the campus /

/ Like a poem by Yeats. / / Well, this

park was the campus / / of a small East Coast college, / / the girls

nd dark. / / Something like an English

parkland / / but bigger, wilder, stronger, / / unearthlier. / / The

Los Altos Hills

sted with the interest / / of road and

parliament and school, / / the priceless blessings of the West / / t

left behind the shadowy spaces / / of

Parliament Square, crossed the untrafficked, wide / / Embankment to t

e Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de

Parme . / /

of life and land. / / The shepherds of

Parnes or the Pyrenees / / are fetched to the ranks, and the frontier

y summer, / / green sea foaming in cow-

parsley and may, / / sun-streaked with dandelion and buttercup. / /

and wild geranium, / / toad-flax, cow-

parsley , yellow stragglers, / / a single honeysuckle. / / The bushes

[Late October hedges]

, / / cold bones in Haworth,” said the

parson’s daughter; / / “he is in Cambridge, talking, sleeping sound,

come to this? / / Or have we? / / In

part a myth, surely—not all but partly— / / and true though much of i

e / / and how it might be paid / / in

part —a penny in / / each generous pound? / / This and this I see /

r love, and the love of which ours is a

part . / / God is Love. Love is God. In that creed or in this / / or

/ of present trouble worse, and when we

part / / gondola sunk or walkers not returning / / may turn a casual

/ pronounced that Mary’s was the better

part . / / How like a man. Martha of course deserved / / better than

The court would come. / / He’d have no

part in that, but fetch a gift / / from the unknown coast by the unkn

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

. / / Trust, no. But part of me prays,

part keeps / / fingers crossed for a magpie from the left / / (thing

/ What do they feel, two old people who

part / / knowing quite certainly / / they will never see each other

What Do They Feel?

/ / To left the plane-trees stood / /

part lit; to right the shadowed parapet / / where leaned a man agains

/ within the door, and mastering it in

part / / moved, hesitated, afraid to break the charm. / / Pausing to

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

worse and sillier. / / Trust, no. But

part of me prays, part keeps / / fingers crossed for a magpie from th

The Reckoning / We are

part of nature. At least, we issue from / / nature—yet wreck the bala

arned from that to care. / / A central

part of our love’s nature (more, / / don’t you think? than of most lo

[Yes, you’re right]

wicked as well, / / sharing in guilt,

part of the guilty world. / / Visited on our children… Part of the pa

[Our lives are in other hands]

ty world. / / Visited on our children…

Part of the pain, / / the sickest element in our fear for them, / /

[Our lives are in other hands]

above, / / shared toil and danger made

part of their dream. / / Then the hills parted, and the river came /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

away. / / I drink the brilliance, am a

part / / of this cold, rare / / new day. / / You and I are still ap

[The clouds that pressed the air]

h to wreck, but man can do it / / and,

part of what we ruin, we shall rue it. / /

. Free? we are all bond still / / and,

part of what we ruin, we shall rue it. / / He cracks the nucleus and

last proof of power and will— / / and

part of what we ruin, we shall rue it. / / Is the wind free and stron

peck’s contaminated overspill / / and,

part of what we ruin, we shall rue it. / / The world’s our wilderness

woods, / / those hills that climb and

part , / / this clear shore.” / / No more. / / Mind knows Time has c

eems) its own unique / / self—yet they

partake / / of one another and / / the others of their kind. / / Se

art of their dream. / / Then the hills

parted , and the river came / / broader and fuller out across a plain

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s flower / / in speechless speech; but

parted , bird in cage, / / shakes with dumb power, / / blots a blank

Love’s Eyes and Hands

e, of echo left on eye, / / on ear, on

parted flesh. All dreams. But even / / moments of dream are moments p

ds me here. I cannot choose.” / / They

parted , not pleased with each other or / / themselves. She to her roo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Parted / Together, love spreads bright under the clear / / sky, from

Winter beauty’s in tune / / with love

parted , which is in no way less / / itself for that, but can’t show a

[Bare trees black]

/ always from that first party till we

parted / / —your pleasure, if you felt it, never shown, / / no brigh

believes that. / / Less because of our

partedness (together / / only in fragments of a honeymoon). / / Much

[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]

/ Or the places alone / / —Taj Mahal,

Parthenon , / / Angkor Wat, Avila, / / Eiffel Tower, Pont due Gard… /

reen hill, / / from the Acropolis, the

Parthenon / / burns back stilly at the setting sun. / / Crossing the

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

and died, they say in gaol.) / / Their

Parthenon endures; and thus shall, sad, / / crowded cuttings in the r

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

y bottoms). / / Now the sun goes down.

Parthenon glows / / above the shaded wall, and near at hand / / glow

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

ste. / / Climbing among pines / / the

Parthenon lifts again its lovely head / / or rather (here is west) it

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

had brought them there, had raised the

Parthenon . / / (Pheidias, his arbiter of art / / escaped the plague.

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

ss loosening, falling, / / drifting on

partial wind / / petal from white petal: / / image of everything /

[What words are there for Spring?]

r those who will tune in / / a pattern

partially apprehensible. / /

came up and choked / / that very fiery

particle , it was Lady Byron / / he wanted told… what? / /

“Tell Lady Byron…”

’ but “When my mother was a girl”— / /

particularity , strange and not good— / / her parents lived out in the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

gthens the shadows of the children / /

parting , gathering, trailing across the empty / / sand, in evening’s

rs not returning / / may turn a casual

parting to a last, / / though the night be deprived of moon and morni

/ / In part a myth, surely—not all but

partly — / / and true though much of it is, need that be final? / / G

I take a road / / I owe to you—if I am

partly free / / from the slothful depressive mud that slowed / / my

word for him to the head forester / / (

partly he hated trouble; more, he knew / / she would feel better with

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

How not to listen to music / The music

parts and joins, parts / / like strands of hair under a comb, / / li

How not to listen to music

n to music / The music parts and joins,

parts / / like strands of hair under a comb, / / like currents trace

How not to listen to music

e way, though / / —a stranger in these

parts . / / The roads I took turned into lanes, / / lanes dwindled in

l it cannot be forgotten / / by either

party . “It wasn’t meant”’s a rotten / / excuse, doesn’t excuse. Spiri

Party / The light falls equally on all; it glances / / from brilliant

u have done / / always from that first

party till we parted / / —your pleasure, if you felt it, never shown,

e un peu, mon enfant. Mon enfant, n’aie

pas peur. / / … but the knife whips out manhood, womanhood… / / Was

, and store / / flashes of truth which

pass and many miss, / / but sensibility locked behind a door / / is

/ and slept. He let twenty-four hours

pass / / before he faced the question how to cross, / / regaining st

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

claimed to worship her, / / and made a

pass ; but left her little moved. / / Next day she slept late, but lat

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s] / Wind is chilly on shoulders. Buses

pass / / but not my bus. / / Comforting glow, warmth of drink, food

[Wind is chilly on shoulders]

f glass / / which speech, touch do not

pass . / / But what she sees lives. A flat illustration / / jumps off

r stir the lips, / / but helpless till

pass by this long eclipse / / the spirit waits, / / tasting in small

n lies / / stoned, to be spat on as we

pass / / by those who dare not recognise / / that all our houses are

hers, men who breathe the air, / / who

pass counting us where we swing, / / do not hate us for what we were,

Villon’s Epitaph

Winter / The seasons come, the seasons

pass . / / Dog-rose in the hedge is answered / / now by campion in th

Dance of the Seasons

strikes out of the sun-paled blue. / /

Pass from the green brilliance of the meadow / / into graver green of

Two Summer Songs

ldau, / / Baudelaire, Du Bellay—let it

pass . / / How have I forgotten Emily Bronte, / / so many years my co

to break its spell-rooted defence, and

pass / / in, but because the blind pain in his breast / / drove him

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the centuries. / / Pirates and empires

pass . / / Life changes and goes on, / / hard among these terraces of

September Cruise

but must do more than watch the seasons

pass , / / must in their passage make his own work good. / / Each tim

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

e / Galaxies, galleon-bold adventurers,

pass / / out through uncharted night, / / extending being. But in th

turned and began the climb towards the

pass . / / The mountains brought new muscles into play / / with new d

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

a cheapened purchase. / / The seasons

pass , the seasons come. / / One by one winter puts out the torches. /

Dance of the Seasons

eedy timbers fish / / smooth-threading

pass . / / Tide out, on bright / / days children splash / / in sea-p

and, would we live, we must let moments

pass / / to memory, form the phases of our life, / / not like the ca

Moment and Memory

bout half way, near Lycon’s, who should

pass us / / but Delphis, strolling along with Eudamippos. / / Their

Spells and Love

/ Open your eyes, and yet may come to

pass / / your unschemed hope, as the new morning finds / / dew on th

ch the seasons pass, / / must in their

passage make his own work good. / / Each time its task: cutting the u

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ed my echoing paces, / / the noiseless

passage of my friend and guide. / / We turned, and left behind the sh

pride in that. This time it took / / a

passage of time, an effort of conscious will, / / to heave my heavine

/ / He aimed and loosed, but the shaft

passed above / / and shattered on the rock. One arrow gone. / / Be c

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

oad” / / and added gentler: “Come.” We

passed across / / under Queen Anne, and North by a dark road. / / No

sat, in the cool wind, / / while time

passed and the sun went low behind / / levelling the light across the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ement, till the mind grew weary. / / I

passed by each and did not pause to con her, / / but in the pale Circ

ook my head: “meet soon.” The boat / /

passed down with the already turning tide. / / The wind was up and co

he forest in its hour of fire. / / She

passed him often, sometimes paused to speak— / / she liked his thinki

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

tion of my brooded wrong. / / No buses

passed me and one taxi, hired. / / A wind touched me, and a voice cle

Dante / Of eternity in Hell / / I had

passed thirteen hundred years. / / Not ice or fire, no shrieks, no te

Virgil’s Farewell to Dante

ll / / of eternity in Hell. / / I had

passed thirteen hundred years / / of paralysed yearning. All fell /

Virgil’s Farewell to Dante

eapons on the wall, / / but no one. He

passed to the yard within, / / paved, echoing, empty—on to the great

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

old. / / Who happy kiss within / / to

passers jealous, cold, / / cast on the blind the silhouette of sin. /

the grey horse whirls through wolf-wild

passes , / / brings fear to the Tuscan market-place. / / A little lat

the small-change of our love / / which

passes hand to hand, / / powerless to out-buy that power of hatred? /

/ / oneness, will not even come, / /

passing , beak to beak. / / One within, one without, / / taps on the

Lamps / We are the

passing contacts of two worlds. / / Power out of space and time / /

eir certain, incalculable way, / / and

passing lend / / our eyes perception of a clearer air / / a brighter

The Lilies of the Field

tterfly on a board, / / dead. / / But

passing moments do not perish, build / / memory and life; the artist’

Moment and Memory

hes star the hedges again. / / My year

passing must change but can’t renew. / / I am out of sorts with self

hes star the hedges. Again / / my year

passing must change but can’t renew? / / The tunnel spirals down? Is

e, / / dream; passing, perishing / / —

passing , perishing all / / from us, renewed for others / / white in

[What words are there for Spring?]

childhood, innocence, love, / / dream;

passing , perishing / / —passing, perishing all / / from us, renewed

[What words are there for Spring?]

ephemeral and wild / / prodigal to all

passing throws / / the unstable beauty of a child. / /

even / / moments of dream are moments

passing —time / / moves to our meeting with the starting, slow, / / h

r transience / / and never mourn their

passing until they’re past. / /

not the end: / / loving and thieving,

passion and blood, live on / / in song. / / And there’s a further bo

[The bare, beautiful borders]

thieving and loving alike are things of

passion / / and every passion, or nearly, ends in a killing. / / Onl

[The bare, beautiful borders]

ers which should have stayed: / / what

passion and labour made / / perfect, what even chance / / left unspo

f love, and what I wrote was true. / /

Passion and loneliness, despair and pride / / peopled my moor and hea

/ the fruits that wait their greed and

passion cull, / / once wrecked the mind / / make with the soul and w

titute for peace, / / a substitute for

passion , for all perfection / / dreamed and unwon: the only ivory tow

ranted. Not as yet for her / / painful

passion obsessively distilled. / / Child, happy; princess too. The bo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ke are things of passion / / and every

passion , or nearly, ends in a killing. / / Only, it’s not the end: /

[The bare, beautiful borders]

ng of charity I love, in Plato / / the

passionate search. Great spirits, Paul and Plato, / / but the long ho

ooks / / out from the green shade / /

passionately fearing for his soul’s health (fearing / / for his body’

Eugénie de Guérin

ut she felt there too that he / / took

passively the fact of love, instead / / of making it a life or breaki

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ to carry a built-in reprieve, / / a

passport to eternity. / / No, let me live as now, and leave / / life

never mourn their passing until they’re

e the Ionian Sea. / / In that same far

past , a Cambridge winter evening / / gave me, amazed, the Aurora Bore

Malden Road, and on until we trod, / /

past and above the tramway terminus, / / Hampstead Heath, which now l

n dream, / / weak tissue woven / / of

past and hope, of echo left on eye, / / on ear, on parted flesh. All

annous / / one-way of future, present,

past . / / Beach on our lotus-strand, and be / / happy.” The wily her

spun / / out of the chasm of depth and

past — / / but surely no less truthfully / / age-traced patterns on a

utumn lost. / / Her own summer already

past / / but winter not yet come, / / what this death blasted / / w

ted now I moved with lighter feet. / /

Past Camden Town we took the Chalk Farm Road, / / turned with the tra

, glittering chandeliers / / (and dark

past draped glass, Les Misérables). / / Then, 1870. / / Sedan, Paris

/ day was before it—and we have had the

past . / / “Follows the dark but interesting future.” / / “The intere

work, the worshipped master knew. / /

Past intellectual truth or visual beauty / / yet both intense; the cr

high / Flying low / (for L) / Far down

past melting drifts of cloud / / remote and faint lies mother earth.

o, / / walking home, a long cold walk,

past midnight, / / I found the whole world round me suddenly whiten.

/ / Unaware, at least, as birds of the

past or morrow, / / at work alone on a sand-castle, or calling / / a

fage unbelievably stretched / / almost

past sight—only a faint blue rim, / / another range. Light, dark brow

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

tump, dance. / / “Why do you paint the

past so rosy? Wrack / / and doom along that same roadway would blow.

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

/ One year, of course, spring’s power

past , / / summer will show the bony tree / / still bare. Now though

/ from their mother’s dark sources / /

past that laboured earth. / /

The Green Children of Woolpit

, / / leapt from some galaxy, far / /

past the faint nebula / / remotest ranged / / within our sense / /

/ bitter beautiful winter / / cycling,

past the hospital. / / Silver spoon in the / / bathroom. My outrage

ll live unlost / / sealed in the amber

past . / / The ugly duckling flowered into a swan; / / and if this ch

sea / / —elementals that float on / /

past (they the same) / / eel, dolphin, weed, / / coral, as when all

/ desolation of shining stone. / / No

past throws up against the sense / / a reek of crowd and sacrifice /

Delos in Spring

were herded into gas. / / And that is

past too. / / World about us now / / West and South and East / / al

lked through the black night home. / /

Past two o’clock. The ball went on and on. / / All the princes were s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rd lay / / a thin blue ribbon, merging

past unravelling / / detail of trees and harbour, city and beach, /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ilway, gasworks, factory and drain / /

past wordy Westminster to the mined sea, / / who know Scamander and t

green from black) / / rough immemorial

pasture from new plough, / / laid face on arm he wept—sobbing waves /

/ cold dew, shelly horns, bulls walking

pastures / / in kingly-flashing coats under burning rays. / / By now

nd ourselves made free / / to roam the

pastures side by side? / /

[The grass in the next field]

p for the yearning boy. / / And then a

patch of doubt formed suddenly / / ‘How will the young price know tha

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

else the other one? / / He washed and

patched and looted. Clean and clad, / / his bow restrung, his quiver

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

range. Light, dark brown, reds, golds,

patched / / and mingled, were a revelation to him / / of autumn. But

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

road straight between dark hedges / /

patchworked with green and grey / / and flecked with white of large c

at sought (but found the quag) / / the

path across the quaking bog. / /

path across the quaking bog / / lies not quite where the others said.

ust be careful where we tread: / / the

path across the quaking bog / / lies not quite where the others said.

d into paths, / / and where should the

path bring me to / / but a church in a churchyard? / / A little chur

/ a round high moon lighting the field

path home. / / Cold…colder…then, a matter of moments, / / grass, bra

n / / irresistibly leading / / like a

path in a ballad or a story / / leading the wandering traveller / /

Los Altos Hills

ng flashes / / of lighthouse beam. The

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

September Cruise

okes them with excuse. / / Find me the

path missed on the clouded hill / / I set my feet to climb. Let me no

ifferently viewed / / is Eden, prison,

path of exile, fold. / / Who happy kiss within / / to passers jealou

ach, from your feet always / / a light-

path on the water reaches / / towards sun, moon, / / fisher’s lamp,

September Cruise

e in this your land. / / But still the

path tempted me on. / / And suddenly I reached a board: / / “End of

Los Altos Hills

loss / / ways to live with it, / / a

path towards peace. / / Sought, and sometimes found. / / Peace is pr

r, stronger, / / unearthlier. / / The

path went on and on / / irresistibly leading / / like a path in a ba

Los Altos Hills

n’s steps / / are too stiff for life’s

path , where fate / / takes like cloud unpredictable shapes. / /

/ Do not trespass”. / / The unbroken

path whispered, but I did not trespass, / / turned back, wondering /

Los Altos Hills

the night, / / without window, without

path , / / without ladder, he found himself, / / climbed into his own

igh hill, in sun-bright scrub, / / the

path wound under trees / / a big loop, and then / / out into a space

Los Altos Hills

e learning. / / The other way the rare-

pathed hills spread on / / till nothing lay beyond them but the sky.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ed into lanes, / / lanes dwindled into

paths , / / and where should the path bring me to / / but a church in

d offered him / / a dozen or a hundred

paths to take. / / He’d crossed the stream, he could not have said wh

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

your own. / / Tread it… No. No bodily

pathway / / this glittering skein the light-source casts you / / … a

September Cruise

edious winter as in teasing summer / /

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

fortress, neither is it a prison. / /

Patience is not concerned with self alone / / nor only others, cares

ractice you have improved patience / /

patience may comfort you in the lack of peace, / / itself may prove a

Patience / Only through patience peace. Not always then, / / but if b

/ but if by practice you have improved

patience / / patience may comfort you in the lack of peace, / / itse

Patience / Only through

patience peace. Not always then, / / but if by practice you have impr

s that certain? / / Or after all might

patience , picking through / / the tangles, light at last upon a clue,

ese and their inwardness. / / But kind

patience pushes, pulls her to people. / / Caresses, words, make occas

lf and others, when / / experience and

patience should know how to / / guide the cross spirit with a steady

e you may not so, / / lay on our fever

patience’s cool rime. / / Let us learn wisdom at the oar, and grow /

the swing / / of lengthening days. Be

patient and allow / / winter its weakening onsets in retreat; / / sp

t. Sidelong she saw him wait, / / gaze

patiently . She frowned, but turned to him / / smiling: “You were my k

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ed to London, to Berlin. / / Sentries,

patrol with dog and tommy-gun / / where crave in their cat’s-cradle o

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

dull as felt, / / creeps up across the

pattern , damps / / then blots the sword, the studded belt, / / Betel

hy should we mourn? / / Why accept the

pattern / / for these, question ours? / / It matters and doesn’t mat

ing a recurring vision / / of possible

pattern laid through the confusion. / / Truth, find us strength to ma

Prayer to Truth

who cannot be content / / with a cruel

pattern of stars, / / Venus shivering under the Scorpion’s tail, / /

“Gale is Dead”

/ / for those who will tune in / / a

pattern partially apprehensible. / /

rmed in days, / / days in years, and a

pattern took shape in our ways. / / Certain rhythms repeat in the wee

the helter-skelter. Of the year’s / /

pattern we mark flash off, flash on, / / the signal-lights repassed,

level brown; / / against the blue the

patterned twigs were black; / / more beautiful than summer’s green te

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

blacker against the sky are spread / /

patterns of twigs, jutting from narrowing branches, / / from stout, s

Dance of the Seasons

rely no less truthfully / / age-traced

patterns on a domed sky? / / A heavier darkness, dull as felt, / / c

/ the other one Italian. / / Well, so

patterns shift. / / The campus was beautiful, / / grass and tall tre

. / / Yet look just now: / / water in

patterns under the wind’s touch, / / fast falling of waves regatherin

/ the passionate search. Great spirits,

Paul and Plato, / / but the long hopes they hold and bid me seize are

on, / / find me no answer. So much for

Paul and Plato? / / So much for me—an ineffective steward / / myself

it up?” The question / / falls. Plato,

Paul , ask the (for me) wrong question, / / find me no answer. So much

, are long-term—Plato / / no less than

Paul , Buddha no less than Plato. / / I am no follower of Paul or Plat

ss than Plato. / / I am no follower of

Paul or Plato, / / of Buddha or Mahomet, God or gods. / / Paul’s son

tus. Suddenly stood plain / / great St

Paul’s , and before it tall and still, / / Like a poplar or a cypress,

mily. The noble mountain stood, / / St

Paul’s , in pale and shadow-moulded stone, / / and stilled, emptied my

of Buddha or Mahomet, God or gods. / /

Paul’s song of charity I love, in Plato / / the passionate search. Gr

dream this pause] / Why do I dream this

pause / / more likely than another / / to be the end? Because / / t

[Why do I dream this pause]

eary. / / I passed by each and did not

pause to con her, / / but in the pale Circus stood one alone / / jus

from his water-flask / / but would not

pause to hunt or cook. Eating / / could wait. He drew his knife, and

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

[Why do I dream this

pause ] / Why do I dream this pause / / more likely than another / /

[Why do I dream this pause]

ile / / within the wood, it forked. He

paused , but checked / / his reason’s helpless wondering, and strode /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d the hill. / / I reached the tree and

paused , straining my sight, / / standing within the dark tree’s edge,

e. / / She passed him often, sometimes

paused to speak— / / she liked his thinking (none of those she knew /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Winter Solstice / The tilted earth

pauses , prepares to lean / / the other way. Our year begins again /

Winter Solstice

itated, afraid to break the charm. / /

Pausing to quell his heart again, to breathe, / / trembling he stood

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

he jutting stump, dance. / / Along the

paved and parapeted track / / forgetful of the tamed wildness below /

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

one. He passed to the yard within, / /

paved , echoing, empty—on to the great hall: / / tables, stools, hangi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

o peace. / / The prostitutes along the

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

Country and Town

Pavements / Dog-shit in London; / / New York, chewed gum. / / To eac

abella, curdling from the sin, / / was

pawed and paddled night and day; and (though / / hating herself and i

/ We have our orders, and our keep and

pay . / / A man must live. A soldier must obey. / / “Bombers, proceed

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

/ We have our orders, and our keep and

pay . / / A man must live. A soldier must obey. / / Strontium 90 we n

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

/ We have our orders, and our keep and

pay . / / A man must live. A soldier must obey. / / “That not the pre

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

/ We have our orders, and our keep and

pay . / / A man must live. A soldier must obey. / / “You to gas-chamb

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

ng / / —not his our work, not ours his

pay . / / Brother men, mockery here’s nothing. / / We all need mercy,

Villon’s Epitaph

/ / Like a poplar or a cypress, Humfry

Payne . / / After loved unknown dead and loved known living / / the l

-two I died, at thirty she, / / Humfry

Payne thirty-four—two years to run / / or four or six; is your tale l

s / / but still cleave to the tower of

peace . / /

t only the real presence brings us that

peace . / /

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

/ is for them also, knowing or nothing,

peace . / /

Dulce et Decorum

ace, / / and so shared joy is a shared

peace , / / a home. / / It had to end / / but, lived fully, still is

Two Poems from a New Life

/ / itself may prove a substitute for

peace , / / a substitute for passion, for all perfection / / dreamed

world’s rim / / held spreading riches:

peace and happiness / / and love—as love comes to a happy child: / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

in dreams can reach the fields / / of

peace and hope, / / when up from foot and finger hourly creeps / / s

ll / / of the King, the old life. / /

Peace and order flake away. / / Every mountain, plain and bay / / br

he image of you with less pain and more

peace . / / And you, my warm love now, it’s our love that melts / / t

[White foam sweeps]

r drifting—and that brings no true / /

peace , but slow fretting which is bound to fray / / the bonds of love

, shrunk. This / / is not stillness of

peace / / but that movement is pain. / / Can the natural dance / /

Winter Recalled

out hope. To lose / / my prison and my

peace by going away… / / Could I?… But only said: “How can I go? / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ sure of your actual presence, and the

peace / / floods me that’s always in that happiness. / / Longing’s b

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

eature’s line, and scarcely tried; such

peace / / flowed over me to have her there as when / / nightmares or

one, / / the princess drank a moment’s

peace from it. / / Half the courtyard was moonlit, half a pool / / o

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

head was clear, his heart strangely at

peace . / / ‘I know my way’ he thought. ‘As it has been / / all throu

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

e be content only to form and keep / /

peace in the heart. / /

Inscription for a Convent

/ / Sought, and sometimes found. / /

Peace is present here, / / as though what some have gained / / infor

have gained / / informs this air / /

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

patience may comfort you in the lack of

peace , / / itself may prove a substitute for peace, / / a substitute

Patience / Only through patience

peace . Not always then, / / but if by practice you have improved pati

fear the wind / / has failed me of my

peace , or her the wood. / / She is of the wood and I am of the wind /

the same, unborn / / is untroubled, at

peace . / / Primal innocence / / is something to settle for. / / Not

ell. / / The doctors talked of country

peace —she ought, / / they said, to rest in woods and upland air, / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ys to live with it, / / a path towards

peace . / / Sought, and sometimes found. / / Peace is present here, /

cattered) whither—not a thing. / / Yet

peace , that keeps her nest unnoticed in / / hearts holding memory alo

Dulce et Decorum

utter. But do not think / / to live in

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

/ Having insufficiently rendered unto

peace / / the power and glory she would have shared with us, / / no

Prayer to Truth

, by hunger and / / no hope reduced to

peace . / / The prostitutes along the pavement stand / / abstracted,

Country and Town

/ / and tune its ear, too negligent in

peace , / / to hear the still, small voice. / / Having insufficiently

Prayer to Truth

dearie’ / / offered the troubled flesh

peace with dishonour, / / dangerous appeasement, till the mind grew w

nd cliffed / / wind-naked way. He went

peaceful to sleep. / / Up early, off—a letter left to warn / / his m

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

plain, / / straight to a blinding or a

peacock sea. / / And here and there like stalks of asphodel, / / few

rd—be hanged the deer! / / He made the

peak , and in the evening glow / / gazed on the marvellous bonfire, wh

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

climbed steep and bare / / to peak on

peak , and on the right spread on / / west to a range. His hope perhap

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

evening trysts in orchards reach their

peak / / and penances in convents. May is here. / / The old remember

ce. Let / / her cruel spell fade, / /

peak away, as / / she would have had / / you do. Let the grass / /

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

arlowe’s Faustus. / / And gradually, a

peak behind hills / / that rise or shrink as we move through miles an

he saw the mountain—a tall flat-topped

peak / / between two shadowed cliffs sunlit, which said / / ‘I am yo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d, once or twice essayed / / its final

peak ; but reached his fourteenth year / / before one summer’s long da

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

nd right climbed steep and bare / / to

peak on peak, and on the right spread on / / west to a range. His hop

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

han any hill which lay beyond. / / The

peaks were breaking to the coastal plain. / / That night was warmer.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

if she can once ascend the throne. / /

Peaky brother at your books, / / cough yourself to paradise. / / Fat

morning. Milky sea / / under a haze of

pearl . / / A girl’s gaze / / absorbing life, considering life, behin

on the world light / / colder than sea-

pearl . / / Cold the wind too / / and I, as I was young, am now old.

/ Only Othello / / who threw away the

pearl / / has no laughing shadow / / —poor lost fool. / /

iles turned intent, and soon across the

pearled / / water we saw a black smudge with a gleam / / of metal at

green / / or rock straight to an olive-

pearly plain, / / straight to a blinding or a peacock sea. / / And h

from the will of God / / which set the

peasant to labour and not question / / and her to tread, and equally

Eugénie de Guérin

ach / / of a child who barefoot down a

pebble beach / / makes for the sea. / /

ops to the sea. / / Cliff, rock, sand,

pebble beach, / / yielding or hard / / throw back the wild / / inco

/ My spirit moves, as over meaningless

pebbles / / (which are not air, which are not sea) / / a gull jerks

and absurd, / / to stalking gulls slow-

pecking on the sand, / / getting quite close before he loosed the str

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

imension’? Isn’t it more / / a medium?

peculiar means by which alone / / tridimensionality can realize / /

y legs obey, / / and joined her by the

pedestal alone. / / “You came towards me sad,” she said, “with flappi

Pedestals / for Jody / Our idols fall. Not that their feet are clay /

Against Pedestals

s, things I bought / / from an eastern

pedlar , who taught me how to use them. / / But away, Lady, bend your

Spells and Love

a dull hope. / / Once each month / /

peeling a sodden rag from her body she’d / / wipe it down the wall, m

War-time Anecdote

a wren’s-nest mockery. / / A nest? He

peered harder. It was a shell, / / its shaven bright fragility intact

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the blood-filled trench, / / the hero

peered into the opening shadows / / and held his sword against the sh

which is for me (perhaps for that) the

peerless best. / /

/ / and Homer and Dante joined him as

peers . / / But now the net’s cast in other waters / / more gleaming

go pray. / / Laundered by rain we are

pegged here / / for the sun’s drying and blackening. / / Crows, pies

Villon’s Epitaph

Pelopia and Thyestes / / / / Under the spring sun moves the innocen

Pelopia and Thyestes

from a poem attributed to Theocritus /

Pelops may rule his country, Croesus count out his money, / / Achille

Shepherd’s Song

s in orchards reach their peak / / and

penances in convents. May is here. / / The old remember and the happy

king / / other outlets / / forget the

pencil . / / (And out of what depth, fingered on a steamed-up pane, /

/ / betray so much. / / These too her

pencil catches, / / these and their inwardness. / / But kind patienc

we go / / cropping it together, being

penned / / in distant corners of the wide / / acreage that is ours.

[The grass in the next field]

mpossible precisions) / / to the other

penny -face of the same visions, / / childhood. / / From a deep layer

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

and how it might be paid / / in part—a

penny in / / each generous pound? / / This and this I see / / there

unsingular. / / Here a pittance- / /

pension gives the ailing old / / a choice between hunger and cold. /

But kind patience pushes, pulls her to

people . / / Caresses, words, make occasional contact. / / And now th

when his kitten-eyes unclose / / some

people find / / they have chosen even better than they knew. / / May

of the steep / / difficult slope. / /

People have scrambled up. / / I try to follow, but / / too steep, ro

[The track up the wild stream]

fe / Time / Distance / ‘The enemy’ / /

people say, / / meaning Time. / / Enemy indeed he tends to seem: /

Two Poems from a New Life

lucky charm / / in every house… A sea-

people … The sea— / / oh for the sea! the sea in storm and calm / / r

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / with red-brown smears. Jesus, what

people !” / / Unhappy women / / caught from their open world into a c

War-time Anecdote

more easily (mostly) than we hate / /

people we know. We hate in bulk / / —Communism, Islam (those Ayatolla

affair / / having no notion who these

people were. / /

They Feel? / What do they feel, two old

people who part / / knowing quite certainly / / they will never see

What Do They Feel?

and loneliness, despair and pride / /

peopled my moor and heart—that world I knew.” / / “Prophet and guide,

of Barnstaple. / / Later one lodged at

Perachora , from the sanctuary / / below the lighthouse on the rocky p

faster to the moon, to Mars, / / to a

peradventure satellite (faster, faster) / / of Alpha Centauri (faster

Curvature of Space

d sleep. / / Awaking in the morning he

perceived / / the difficulty was not really there. / / Just what he

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

eaming ghosts of islands / / rise half

perceptibly . / / World is numberless shades of blue, breaking / / to

September Cruise

ay, / / and passing lend / / our eyes

perception of a clearer air / / a brighter day. / /

The Lilies of the Field

and move. / / He took the bow. A gull

perched on the cliff. / / He aimed and loosed, but the shaft passed a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

nnot be / / rejected or even made less

perfect by / / acknowledgement of our guilt, / / apprehension of gri

t all days are good, / / but there are

perfect days. / / To what I do not know, but know we should / / give

/ white-glowing marble wrought / / to

perfect intricacy of draperies, / / perfection of sorrow in the flowe

/ / what passion and labour made / /

perfect , what even chance / / left unspoiled. / / Advance / / is go

in the block, / / stood back from the

perfected statue, thought / / “Still, this is not, / / not quite, th

/ / a substitute for passion, for all

perfection / / dreamed and unwon: the only ivory tower / / to build

/ / your smooth-polished lackadaisical

perfection / / grates. I move away / / admiring perhaps, certainly d

Hermes of Olympia

to perfect intricacy of draperies, / /

perfection of sorrow in the flower-face. / / The young man, knowing t

se / / but sidling always closer, must

perforce / / drive on the rocks at last, and that be all. / / The bo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

he must love and hate, / / would sail

perforce upon some other mark— / / her fated prince, a hundred years

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

men starving while the rank cigar / /

perfumes the Ritz, my hands cease from their art / / to take arms, no

guide-line than a road. / / And then,

perhaps a quarter of a mile / / within the wood, it forked. He paused

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

e was not of the slums, / / but stole,

perhaps , and died, they say in gaol.) / / Their Parthenon endures; an

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

the thorns, but later, nine or ten / /

perhaps —another meeting equally good. / / In the darkness I could not

ers too, / / the dead who see nothing,

perhaps another / / who reads this after / / I’m dead, but especiall

[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]

er eyes, / / the boy’s a hundred years

perhaps away / / heavily travelling. And saw one day / / beyond the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

gs of resentment / / (resentment worse

perhaps , but hard to say / / since each carries the other at its core

[Feelings of guilt]

/ / grates. I move away / / admiring

perhaps , certainly disliking. / / But today / / meeting your face su

Hermes of Olympia

n a new land in a new love, a wife / /

perhaps , children. For him it was not so. / / He made his way to the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

se / / death may come sooner—soon / /

perhaps , for better or worse, / / as indeed it might have done / / a

[Now of threescore and ten]

/ / for theirs not them. / / One day

perhaps for no recording eye. / / One day certainly / / not recurrin

urest of the arts / / which is for me (

perhaps for that) the peerless best. / /

/ / A knife in one hand, in the other

perhaps , / / he thought, a hedgehog. Curiosity / / drove him against

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ After a little while / / (or longer)

perhaps / / he’ll come, and lay / / gently in your lap / / his favo

[Time is a child]

nk stare, / / where once a day or once

perhaps in three / / hands of careful kindness count / / into the bo

pread on / / west to a range. His hope

perhaps lay there / / but not, that seemed quite clear, to be attaine

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

is Time / Worse than out of joint. / /

Perhaps lemming-men / / have reached the madness point, / / no retur

o love makes for a minute / / contact,

perhaps ; lost that, sinks choked and chilled, / / changes to hate—for

only love and hope—and pray? / / Well,

perhaps loving hope’s a kind of prayer. / / The unbelievable gift /

to outlast / / their time, their race—

perhaps mankind, / / featureless in a swarming desolation / / as lig

pulling his hand across his face / / —

perhaps now at his desk doing the same? / / I thought, and turned my

/ / all that we loved before, / / and

perhaps of all / / that we ever shall. / / We love a landscape or /

charge / / might hold a universe). Or

perhaps / / our time, space, matter are not / / their own reality, a

f that sort). / / We only mean to say,

perhaps : / / Reason’s steps / / are too stiff for life’s path, where

/ Not without reason. / / Still, might

perhaps the master potter-painter / / like to have known his handiwor

conds, you and I / / in twice the time

perhaps the sun / / seems to take) / / stacked with our miscreations

Gilmour at the Mercury. / / Greatness

perhaps there is; but I who wait / / invisibly chained for—what?—to s

Granted, that limit’s set / / loosely—

perhaps there wait / / twenty or twenty-five / / —but I’d as soon no

[Now of threescore and ten]

n his master?… Render unto Caesar… / /

Perhaps there’s some thought links steward to Caesar / / which glimps

uncounted galaxies sailing space. / /

Perhaps / / these huge galaxies are only atoms / / of a vaster matte

er must obey. / / Strontium 90 we need

perhaps , to clear / / the stench of Belsen from the atmosphere. / /

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

themselves to go. / / More in keeping

perhaps to see them so / / than earlier, / / more in keeping with ho

th its gifts and pains, / / even proud

perhaps to suffer / / the flaunting symbol of a difference? / /

know the answer help? / / Not you. Us

perhaps . / / Walking on the white / / slippery track, face smarting

oting in his dream. / / The little one

perhaps was prettier, / / certainly sharper, and inclined to laugh /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

green. / / Mars might have been, / /

perhaps was, / / watered, sown, / / is dead dust and stone. / /

as weeping sent / / away, when he as I

perhaps was young.’ / / That floor was empty—up the stair again, / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

e hind, / / and with it the sad facts.

Perhaps we all / / are schizophrenes in posse. He for one / / showed

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ur intent / / is firm as our love, and

perhaps we shall be able. / /

[White foam sweeps]

/ turned back, wondering / / if this

perhaps were the border of the worlds / / masquerading behind the not

Los Altos Hills

tter left to warn / / his mother—hoped

perhaps within a week / / or two or three, at least he would return /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / throwaway, that in / / five years

perhaps , working at / / home, “We’d start a family”. / / After grass

ain. / / Down in the plain Napoleon or

Pericles / / draws to the drill-ground the flower of life and land. /

s; struck through the city, / / struck

Pericles , whose statesmanship / / had brought them there, had raised

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

than were Circe’s or Medea’s or blonde

Perimede’s . / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my h

Spells and Love

/ dead. / / But passing moments do not

perish , build / / memory and life; the artist’s captured moment / /

Moment and Memory

though man, and with man his time, / /

perish ) creates a world / / whose making and being are. / / Days, ye

[Time is enough]

ot the wood. / / And though the forest

perish , it has been.” / / “But what’s the comfort there?” she asked.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

other than these; / / a world of life

perished and vanished / / taps us these messages. / / Hearts flower

th anorexia), / / the will to flourish

perished in men and women. / / How have we come to this? / / Or have

elf again. / / Grey boughs beneath the

perished leaf / / are lovely as spring-green, red fall. / / Time’s s

ream; passing, perishing / / —passing,

perishing all / / from us, renewed for others / / white in another S

[What words are there for Spring?]

, innocence, love, / / dream; passing,

perishing / / —passing, perishing all / / from us, renewed for other

[What words are there for Spring?]

ears, man’s time-notes, are / / always

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

[Time is enough]

ted to a tool / / of irresistible / /

perpetual revenge. / / His daughter, sent away / / (the hospitable s

Pelopia and Thyestes

badger here— / / rough-handed serf in

perpetuity . / / The seasons in the years went round by rote, / / eac

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

erve, / / structurally / / a sentient

person , personality / / who will not now be. / / ‘Not to be born is

scape or / / a picture or a face / / —

person , thing and place, / / though we may love it for / / (it seems

erebral, unhappy Annabel? / / the last

person who should have picked on him, / / still less been taken by hi

“Tell Lady Byron…”

Prayer / I have no belief in a

personal god / / nor, if I had, could I imagine him / / swayed by pr

ce, twice and, again; / / but still by

personal intellect is guided / / his way who will.” I smiled: “surely

ightmare or a fever. / / Yet while our

personal intellects endure / / we remain masters of our worlds; the r

. / / Ointments you have to soothe the

personal smart, / / and though this dark lies on us all, a warning /

/ structurally / / a sentient person,

personality / / who will not now be. / / ‘Not to be born is best’. /

rt / / would, half believes, / / half

persuades me even, / / we could. / /

the gift of the gab. And I didn’t need

persuading . / / I took his hand, pulled him down on the soft bed. /

Spells and Love

/ / more) remains, yet / / the dream

pervades today. / / In some way / / something does seem / / restore

[Restoration of innocence in a dream]

a stony tyranny? / / Just such a vile

perversion of good thought / / used to fill Smithfield with the smell

other, / / a daughter’s innocence / /

perverted to a tool / / of irresistible / / perpetual revenge. / /

Pelopia and Thyestes

ing, / / drifting on partial wind / /

petal from white petal: / / image of everything / / lovely, ephemera

[What words are there for Spring?]

g on partial wind / / petal from white

petal : / / image of everything / / lovely, ephemeral / / —childhood

[What words are there for Spring?]

/ I stood beside it. Wrinkling fading

petals / / dropping from old flowers, only a few new ones / / coming

and breath alike sing of the rose. / /

Petals we know must fall, / / and not all days are good, / / but the

at Rouen) / / drenched the brush with

petrol round the mountain hide-out / / of Gregory Afxendióu / / —her

he common foreign tongue / / Encore un

peu , mon enfant. Mon enfant, n’aie pas peur. / / … but the knife whip

peu, mon enfant. Mon enfant, n’aie pas

peur . / / … but the knife whips out manhood, womanhood… / / Was she

t moments pass / / to memory, form the

phases of our life, / / not like the camera catch the fading moment /

Moment and Memory

there, had raised the Parthenon. / / (

Pheidias , his arbiter of art / / escaped the plague. He was not of th

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

od / / froths cold in its gold-mounted

phial . / / In canyons of the high-slummed hill / / sick children sel

e other day / / I managed to beat dear

Philinus in a race.”— / / These are the springs of my love. Mark them

Spells and Love

/ any more than I with him. But today

Philista’s / / mother (the flute-girl’s) and Melixo’s came / / to se

Spells and Love

near at hand / / glows the monument of

Philopappos / / (a Syrian princeling of the Roman age / / honoured b

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

m my father or my son. / / A mechanist

philosophy / / conspires with science to deny / / the existence of a

Shadow and Substance

equate phrase: / / Love in the Valley,

Phoebus with Admetus, / / colour luminous through sun-drenched days,

/ why sit like those who listen for the

phone , / / expecting nothing, listen for the post, / / when mind and

opkeeper with the black shock-hair / /

phoning the police to fetch him in the little shop / / in the narrow

e faint on the pale sky above, / / the

phosphorus sparkles in the foam below / / like sequins on a dress—whe

y / / meeting your face suddenly, dark

photograph / / in a blown-up snapshot of Anne Frank’s wall / / —her

Hermes of Olympia

gain and asked for yet again, / / each

phrase expected where it always went. / / But once (he now remembered

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

said ‘and me’ but slipped another / /

phrase in in time “and make some life your own.” / / He sighed. Easy,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

e / / I fell in love—the only adequate

phrase : / / Love in the Valley, Phoebus with Admetus, / / colour lum

/ unlikely cross its stillness but the

phrase / / of Queen Victoria: ‘I will be good.’? / / I laughed, and

/ / / / / / / / / I walked down

Piccadilly in the black-out. / / The scented aura and soft ‘hullo, de

drink was out / / —the Captain had to

pick on me / / to fetch another lot. / / I didn’t know the way, thou

/ / to shining jewels. But when / / I

pick them out to send to you / / they dry in the papery air / / colo

t) is making some tribesman’s day, / /

picked from the bush in which I threw it away. / / I didn’t want to,

Two Songs of a Mercenary

mbered that his nurse was dead. / / He

picked himself up. He was cold and stiff, / / bruised, hungry—but at

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

l? / / the last person who should have

picked on him, / / still less been taken by him. Why reach out to her

“Tell Lady Byron…”

g and blackening. / / Crows, pies have

picked our eye-holes clear, / / plucked beards and brows for their ne

Villon’s Epitaph

t? / / Eubulus’s girl, Anaxo, / / was

picked to carry a basket for Artemis / / to her holy grove in the fea

Spells and Love

ew element to master. Then / / glowing

picked up his bow and with sure eye / / shot down a seagull for his b

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

n a gull’s cry, / / repeated, dropped,

picked up, interminably / / tormenting as he moved along the shore. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

lf his life. / / Ghetto-bred, then cop-

picked , / / what hope in his black future? / / What can the boy beco

n the womb, / / whose nails are broken

picking at the knot / / of Gordian anguish in the heart; / / and oth

this spell too / / his scissor-fingers

picking through / / dissolve? Shall all spells be unpicked, or / / a

End of Fairy-Story

tain? / / Or after all might patience,

picking through / / the tangles, light at last upon a clue, / / draw

all. / / We love a landscape or / / a

picture or a face / / —person, thing and place, / / though we may lo

piece / The half-moon on Orion’s shoulder / / lays on the world light

ies in the current account. We spend it

piecemeal . / / We love more easily (mostly) than we hate / / people

the soul of Nijinsky / / in fifty-two

pieces like a pack of cards; / / and the faces whirled in intersectin

stily, gently flaking, / / dropping to

pieces round her. / / She could not lift a finger / / with all the t

Mariana in Miniature

s undisturbed by the minuscule / / Fun

Pier (‘Famed for fun since 31’, / / ‘Happiness is a visit to the Manl

cracking, one dog’s bark, / / momently

pierce but not disturb or tear / / the silence of the dark. / / The

Country and Town

lf uncurse it. Needling fate / / shall

pierce her youth, and yet she shall not die. / / “The prick shall bri

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the light stillness / / by bird-notes

pierced but not dispersed / / while easy coolness / / lay aloft agai

grey / / grieving’s not there / / but

piercing longing to be where / / whatever day / / wakes your heart.

[The clouds that pressed the air]

/ the experience, shared) / / and now,

piercingly , you. / / And no-one else will ever (I know) do. / / And

[Living alone is lonely]

/ over a camera, where all divine / /

Piero’s great frescoes stand.” “Your Italy,” / / I said, “your fresco

’s boisterous flow / / broken by stone

piers , its attack / / turned, its wild movement mastered—so / / ther

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

‘Happiness is a visit to the Manly Fun

Pier ’) / / where the even motion of the Ferris wheel / / contrasts w

un’s drying and blackening. / / Crows,

pies have picked our eye-holes clear, / / plucked beards and brows fo

Villon’s Epitaph

Pietà / The Mother sat, her dead Son on her knees, / / white-glowing

word, / / washing his hands remembers

Pilate . / / Could anything be more absurd? / / And yet, we need a se

/ / by narrow alleys where the houses

pile , / / and half my mind in Greece, among rocks, still / / clamber

trembling / / through remote air / / —

pile the brooks with muck / / lest he find them clear. / / Charred f

g land, flat on the coast / / the rock-

piled and the sandy promontory / / alike in his foreshortened vision

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ secret on unwrapped secret greedily

piled . / / But knowing better? Hardly a trace of that. / / Impossibl

Greenham Common

/ / “Martin” she said, “how goes your

pilgrimage ?” / / No remembered, no memory-wakening voice / / of chil

en, reached and reached / / behind the

piling rocks. At last appeared / / a great wall of south-facing cliff

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

simply out of yesterday / / through a

pillar of fire. / / Tonight; intrusive memory’s sudden force: / / ch

ge,” / / she laughed: “remember Elbe’s

pillared halls, / / the shimmering chandeliers of Thrushcross Grange.

them away. / / I spread him blankets,

pillows —“Sit up, your poor old wreck. / / There. Lie down again. So.

Greek Folk Song

vast-wheeling galaxies, / / dwindle to

pin -points in speed-gathering flight / / from a lost centre: seeming

snapshot of Anne Frank’s wall / / —her

pin -ups, marking her strip of that confined world / / the house behin

Hermes of Olympia

ock and pine, / / red earth and olive,

pine and bare rock, / / broken rock climbing to a point of snow, / /

und / / between the thorn-wall and the

pine . But soon / / a few yards in under the oaks, he found / / the u

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

love and have mapped in his mind, / /

pine for in what he smiled at as our ‘wood’. / / And yet, I knew, he

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

er way, / / above this bare hill and a

pine -green hill, / / from the Acropolis, the Parthenon / / burns bac

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

like the last. He looked again. / / A

pine … Oh, fool—full-circle fool. He wept, / / knowing his weariness,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Greece / Sea; rocks and sea; rock and

pine , / / red earth and olive, pine and bare rock, / / broken rock c

the naked rock / / breaking down in a

pine -torrent of green / / or rock straight to an olive-pearly plain,

r. / / Right was a space, where a tall

pine -tree stood— / / the only conifer he’d seen all day / / among th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Content / Fish and chips under the

pines at Manly, / / looking across the small-boat anchorage / / to t

/ the recent waste. / / Climbing among

pines / / the Parthenon lifts again its lovely head / / or rather (h

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

ent come, / / though in the heart sits

pinioned , strengthless, dumb / / the natural angel now. / /

g-stretched neck, those purposeful / /

pinions , legend is lifted on. / /

e-rose, / / sways, clings, / / white,

pink , / / and I think / / lightly sings / / “Beauty is. / / Accept

ently, / / love felt for her, when the

pink bud should flower / / (even before). None chose to give her powe

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

neysuckle drooping antlered sprays / /

pink , gold and white, sweetening the light stillness / / by bird-note

elixo’s came / / to see me early, Dawn

pink in the sky, / / with lots of stories—and that Delphis is in love

Spells and Love

lowers / / (the light bright white and

pink ) invisible. / / The dark unflowered bush was beautiful / / but

osa. Other flowers, white and red, / /

pink , mauve, blue, but most yellow. The plain / / is streaked with ye

/ / (seasons are late this year): / /

pink of campion and wild geranium, / / toad-flax, cow-parsley, yellow

[Late October hedges]

d white cradlehood, and under it / / a

pink sleep, while the dowerers bent above. / / Beauty one gave her; a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / the second at Saunton—wind-washed

pink thrift / / in short grass on low sandstone cliffs, / / long low

mpse; but she was caught, / / trapped,

pinned on the rough bank; yet still she fought, / / biting him, scrat

Pelopia and Thyestes

flicks; the fleeting moment stays / /

pinned on time like a butterfly on a board, / / dead. / / But passin

Moment and Memory

hoped to keep her hands from thorns and

pins / / but dared not tell her why. No hint of fear / / clouded her

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ust caught the water / / and spooned a

pint of brine over his head, / / his chokes and sputters ended, the n

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rest, to ringing strings / / and high

pipe , pretty and innocently proud. / / But at such fêtes, that honour

Pelopia and Thyestes

on the tree, / / the quiet birds / /

pipe up. Be / / the year’s spring / / yours. Fill / / out again you

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

l, / / serene over the centuries. / /

Pirates and empires pass. / / Life changes and goes on, / / hard amo

September Cruise

or snuff / / your scents—nor, as from

Pisgah , know / / that others after shall do so. / / The vision’s all

[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]

eld it high, / / but he pulled out his

pistol / / and laid me where I lie. / / Friend, you’re a christened

ey were found / / at the bottom of the

pit / / hand in hand / / blinking upwards, / / they did not speak.

The Green Children of Woolpit

, for when I rose again / / out of the

pit , I saw the portico / / beside us of St. Pancras’ Church, whose sa

/ losing or winning, keep us from the

pit / / of a complacent hate. / / Let not our knowing our cause the

Prayer to Truth

all glory and all power. / / War is a

pit of horror; and defeat / / by these might sink us even deeper. Yet

Prayer to Truth

n where they came from / / through the

pit of the grave, / / while greenness receded / / from his sister’s

The Green Children of Woolpit

lowed on across the dreary circus, / /

pit where the sordid alleys of the poor / / march with the sordid, il

on’s nicest statue / / kneels with her

pitcher and her broken nose / / between the men’s and women’s lavator

/ God’s body lay on the altar. / / She

pitied Him there / / under the vaulted dark, / / the still, stale ai

The Shepherdess of Cahuzac

. / / Twisted, no purchase, she tugged

pitifully , / / and then at last the naked blade came free… / / but h

Pelopia and Thyestes

ommon loss / / unsingular. / / Here a

pittance - / / pension gives the ailing old / / a choice between hung

of work and love, / / in ashes of self-

pity and abuse. / / Just now, sunk in the dark, I could not move / /

e, / / but here we meet the other side—

pity / / and love: “The spell is cast which must unbless, / / but I

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Dialogue / Miranda to Ophelia / / in

pity and surprise: / / “What are those wrinkles on your brow / / tho

eet. / / Beautiful creatures. / / The

pity of it. / /

e devil. / / Let us detest aggression,

pity pain, / / but recognise vengeance for a cardinal sin; / / honou

Prayer to Truth

o”, I said, / / “(a fine woman she was—

pity she’s dead), / / there are plenty of kinds of pretty play / / y

/ do not hate us for what we were, / /

pity us. Come your reckoning, / / God more readily then, judging, /

Villon’s Epitaph

Fontaine et le Déluge / “Some food, for

pity .” / / “Why? What did you do / / in summer?” / / “I sang.” / /

La Fontaine et le Déluge

more readily then, judging, / / shall

pity you. We stuffed our skin / / —it hangs in rags, and the bones wi

Villon’s Epitaph

is mind, water from a cracked pot. / /

Pitying but irked the princess turned away. / / Then, blushing, stamm

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / is nothing, and we bear / / self-

pitying now our anger and despair, / / and like the nephews of a pois

, / / brings fear to the Tuscan market-

place . / / A little later came Kipling’s ballads: / / two men riding

ough, from / / effort. This still / /

place affords me room / / to think as well as feel, / / to study wha

s Reach / Who so firmly set in time and

place / / as the Empress Eugénie? / / High nineteenth-century / / P

eye me so? / / All loves in love have

place . / / Come in from the cold moor. / /

Vision Between Waking and Sleep

said, and more he’d been / / about the

place , coming a stranger boy. / / They closed his eyes. Now the palac

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

crept in the scrub below / / the holy

place . He lay / / under the hot, bright day, / / watched bright, coo

Pelopia and Thyestes

is bone, this flesh, / / this hour and

place . / / I look across through my old face / / at the sleeper on t

hought, and turned my head. In the same

place / / I saw him lean where Seurat leaned before. / / He leaned a

te / / let her go home / / to her own

place . Let / / her cruel spell fade, / / peak away, as / / she woul

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

nd at all our sides / / sits the empty

place of absent love. / / And at all our backs / / (our comfortable

Back Room, 1944

ced her own dried blood from the aching

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

Pelopia and Thyestes

ts its meaning like above, / / nor any

place remains for God but love. / /

led back to free the block. This is his

place . / / Squatting on waterskis, a golden boy / / ploughs with his

September Cruise

nly a few new ones / / coming in their

place . Still, though, starred with beauty. / / I leaned out, looking

y. / / You go and watch by Timategus’s

place / / (that’s where he likes to practise and lounge about)”— / /

Spells and Love

cture or a face / / —person, thing and

place , / / though we may love it for / / (it seems) its own unique /

it matter? / / Aconite, snowdrop, give

place to primrose, / / bluebell to buttercup, dog-rose. / / Flower-s

the dark smooth water, / / marking my

place to turn. / / I stood beside it. Wrinkling fading petals / / dr

e stumbled, looked up, did not know the

place . / / Turning bewildered, the old well-known road / / stretched

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rom the world’s woes. / / In Guildford

Place , where London’s nicest statue / / kneels with her pitcher and h

oint, / / no return. / / Down a steep

place / / with the possessed herd / / to sink without trace. / / Ma

would rise to catch it. / / This is a

place without legend / / but not less magic. / / Blue thin brilliant

Water in a Wood

you, so can only / / fail to take your

place . / / Yes, but must still be something / / more than myself, wi

es only with the stag. Plain truth / /

placed him no better than a badger here— / / rough-handed serf in per

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d / / nine, cleaned up three unbroken,

placed them in / / his pouch, turned homeward. The hag, nothing said

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Sphinx, the Blarney Stone. / / Or the

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

d familiar faces / / snapped in exotic

places / / —Katmandu, Campdown Races, / / the Sphinx, the Blarney St

the bark / / and broken through in two

places near the root / / so that only three struts of worn wood / /

Five Poems for Roni

matters where / / the body walks—loved

places round us then / / intensify the shuttered heart’s despair. /

Places … / The Judge was very kind. He called her up / / to sit beside

Change Places…

from it, plant themselves / / in loved

places . / / Two such buds swelled, / / Dropped from my child-heart,

/ you shall not home so soon; in other

places / / you are awaited. Come.” To the slow height / / we turned

as, his arbiter of art / / escaped the

plague . He was not of the slums, / / but stole, perhaps, and died, th

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

lds, / / and learnt to steal. Here the

plague / / struck them, thousands; struck through the city, / / stru

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

stone spill / / from the cities of the

plain . / /

order flake away. / / Every mountain,

plain and bay / / breeds its princeling of the knife. / / Beast and

and longed to lose for once the wooded

plain / / and, lying hard and living hard for once, / / to make his

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ss saw than reckoned) / / bounding the

plain , and the small kingdom too. / / The mountains and the sea enclo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ong the shore, / / the tents about the

plain . / / Armed soon, as before, / / he kissed his wife and said /

/ / to his wood-knowledge. The forest-

plain below / / stretched to the farther slopes; far beyond those /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

zy plain] / Seen from the hill the hazy

plain / / filled up with light is fairyland. / / We climbed from the

[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]

/ / clambered Hymettus. Suddenly stood

plain / / great St Paul’s, and before it tall and still, / / Like a

ffs, those cliffs, curb that sand-edged

plain ? / / He groped. A glimmer, sinking. If it fails, / / darkness…

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

pink, mauve, blue, but most yellow. The

plain / / is streaked with yellow flame / / which licks the lower hi

me / / broader and fuller out across a

plain / / many days more to sand-dunes and the sea. / / He knew then

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ords come round again. / / Down in the

plain Napoleon or Pericles / / draws to the drill-ground the flower o

. / / His elder cousin was by no means

plain / / or stupid, and was not averse to him, / / but—princesse in

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

w this was not his way. Turned from the

plain , / / plunged straight in, and the unpredictable / / current ca

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ two men riding through a death-sown

plain , / / pursued and pursuer—the talk at the watercourse— / / the

[Seen from the hill the hazy

plain ] / Seen from the hill the hazy plain / / filled up with light i

[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]

/ / Probably not. He looked along the

plain . / / South from the southern cape lay mystery. / / Home, he fo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

at work on a white handkerchief— / / a

plain square plainly hemmed, but she would fill, / / she thought, the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ or rock straight to an olive-pearly

plain , / / straight to a blinding or a peacock sea. / / And here and

The peaks were breaking to the coastal

plain . / / That night was warmer. He slept late, and then / / half a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

sand stretched out from the flat green

plain . The change / / in land-structure intrigued his thoughts today.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

five of them black, prettily formed but

plain , / / the sixth (small like the others) a masterpiece / / of sh

ght between the sea / / and broadening

plain . To south, hill crowded hill / / against the shore, and the cur

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / The hind mates only with the stag.

Plain truth / / placed him no better than a badger here— / / rough-h

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

, / / who know Scamander and the windy

plain . / / We hold a double talisman—are free, / / first of as many

The sky is a firm dome bounding earth’s

plain / / whence the inconstant gods send dearth and rain / / and pl

se.” / / Dress it how you may; / / in

plain words, what no one gave / / this child was love. Without love /

“Gale is Dead”

white handkerchief— / / a plain square

plainly hemmed, but she would fill, / / she thought, the centre with

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

med with so much more, / / teasing the

plaintive self: / / Look backward down your life / / for the constel

She bound the bracelet on his arm. / /

Plaited in smiling love to bind / / his arm in whom her soul had live

/ / to the unarchitected tree. / / We

plan a life, and change the plan, / / as life goes on, or think we do

ee. / / We plan a life, and change the

plan , / / as life goes on, or think we do, / / or think at any rate

a gust / / of wind, and our delightful

plan is dust. / / The loved, the long worked-over, the lived through,

ope / / relinquish every hope. / / Oh

plan no more the exact, unreal scheme, / / no more live by the dream,

feel, brushed me then. / / To left the

plane -trees stood / / part lit; to right the shadowed parapet / / wh

certainly / / not recurring, / / the

planet dying, dead. / / This planet, tiny speck / / circling an only

I heard / / “Would you like to see the

planet Mercury?” / / I was tired, jet-lagged, half dreaming. Is it a

again “Would you like to see / / the

planet Mercury?” / / “I would” I said. “I’ve wanted to all my life, /

/ / the planet dying, dead. / / This

planet , tiny speck / / circling an only little less tiny spark, / /

nd the Bear / / the buoy-lights of the

planets float / / marking the charted darkness where / / (a channel

ly, steadily / / together. At last the

planet’s fire / / begins to weaken, flicker, vanishes / / in night,

September Cruise

ng on the aimless ordered way, / / our

planks are rotten, our sails are gossamer… / / But dark is unaware of

but bound in no purpose or unity, / /

planks rotten, seams uncaulked, thin sails torn, / / drifts shudderin

Here is the absolute. / / Neglect the

planned return / / from logical pursuit. / / Let the moment burn. /

/ / or think at any rate we can, / /

planning and changing as we go, / / like some cathedral, centuries /

ir, / / looking across the light, / /

planning , doing, aware. / / But after that / / for less than half a

res’ / / he thought. And suddenly laid

plans to go. / / His elder cousin was by no means plain / / or stupi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hat was / / (you said) relief. We made

plans . / / You felt I had failed you / / profoundly. I don’t forget.

lakes from the seed / / and nothing in

plant or tree / / cares if it sprout or wither. / / Nestling and cub

’s a funny kind of winnowing-fan.” / /

Plant the oar in the ground, / / mark out a temenos, build an altar,

s not one. / / Hearts bud off from it,

plant themselves / / in loved places. / / Two such buds swelled, /

Two Cultures? / (for Tom) /

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

plinths we built for them were all / /

plaster painted for marble. These gave way / / and gold and ivory sha

Against Pedestals

t / / —she takes her meat off anyone’s

plate . / / I’d be afraid if I married her / / my children would be l

that has come / / between you and your

plate / / let her go home / / to her own place. Let / / her cruel s

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

plateful , nice / / and plentiful. / / I need not measure the amount

Ten Seconds on a Tube

Platform / Walking I heard the train / / behind me coming in. / / So

Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform

rd / / I find myself a world away from

Plato / / and in a most strange world. What is this steward / / who

sionate search. Great spirits, Paul and

Plato , / / but the long hopes they hold and bid me seize are / / not

/ From the good city bravely back old

Plato / / framed laws for shadow-men. Does He (like Plato?) / / hope

amed laws for shadow-men. Does He (like

Plato ?) / / hope that, though cheating Him, our serving Caesar / / m

no less than Paul, Buddha no less than

Plato . / / I am no follower of Paul or Plato, / / of Buddha or Mahom

/ affairs. Go down into the cave with

Plato . / / Make friends with Mammon, make Mammon your steward.” / /

, His best friends admit, are long-term—

Plato / / no less than Paul, Buddha no less than Plato. / / I am no

Plato. / / I am no follower of Paul or

Plato , / / of Buddha or Mahomet, God or gods. / / Paul’s song of cha

’t I wait up?” The question / / falls.

Plato , Paul, ask the (for me) wrong question, / / find me no answer.

find me no answer. So much for Paul and

Plato ? / / So much for me—an ineffective steward / / myself, I still

/ / Paul’s song of charity I love, in

Plato / / the passionate search. Great spirits, Paul and Plato, / /

n, / / a copy’s shadow in the terms of

Plato . / / Yes. But, though by so answering their question / / He fo

hear my unbelieving prayer: / / not to

play blind-man’s-buff with death. / / Each year requires another year

d colourlessly. / / A child’s children

play by the shifting run / / of white water, where children played th

[White foam sweeps]

/ / now throbs to agony. Now kiss and

play / / couched where they can the lovers. This is May. / /

urves away, away / / and all across it

play / / flickers of the grumbling storm, / / and through this warm

Time is a child / / busy with his own

play , / / glancing occasionally / / towards the grown-ups / / (to c

[Time is a child]

Disability / “

Play it by ear.” / / “But ear is what / / I haven’t got.” / / “Poor

s, / / images himself at labour and at

play . / / Man creates himself in his own image. / / That is what mak

Dream under a Carob-tree

ages of man / / have him at work or at

play . Man labours and dances, / / images himself at labour and at pla

Dream under a Carob-tree

il up your soul: / / don’t weep at the

play / / or someone may say / / “He’s no self-control.” / / This re

/ / thimble-pocked by the beaks’ sharp

play . / / Our brotherhood is not welcoming. / / We all need mercy, s

Villon’s Epitaph

ne great chair, and all / / empty. The

play seemed waiting to begin. / / Through all the courtyard rooms, up

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / don’t send me to bed yet—I want to

play , to / / read, finish this… Can’t I wait up?” The question / / f

The mountains brought new muscles into

play / / with new delights. He breathed the air’s brightness, / / wa

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ there are plenty of kinds of pretty

play / / young men and girls can know and not go all the way / / —so

ky, / / your riding country, where you

played as a child / / growing the you I love. Yet that land / / I mo

Two Poems for G

where children played their mother / /

played as a child; where she and I, young, / / walked together, in lo

[White foam sweeps]

eft hand hung the face of God, / / and

played at war between them with the soul of Nijinsky / / in fifty-two

ld be soon, eighteen) / / restlessness

played on him in many shapes. / / Today he eyed the coast between the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

run / / of white water, where children

played their mother / / played as a child; where she and I, young, /

[White foam sweeps]

her. Their home / / was always his. He

played with her and taught her / / and loved her as his own. And as s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hought, an odd one, hung. His dull mind

played / / with its likeness to a sea-urchin shell. / / Traditional

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

tant gods send dearth and rain / / and

playfully allot our joy and pain. / / Life between earth below and sk

/ / this isn’t the edge of the school

playing -field / / but a corner of a garden (before that house / / wa

t always there’s another one / / —that

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

/ / in the last instance do we lay our

plea : / / our judges of appeal are Love and Truth / / whose jurisdic

y would blow. / / Wheatfields fired, a

pleasant city’s sack / / —these in the other scale-pan you must throw

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

always thinking / / since being is so

pleasant ? / / I thought, and the door closed as I stepped in. / /

e hurts me / / it’s the door of Death,

please Fate, he’ll be knocking at. / / I’ve bad drugs in my chest, Mi

Spells and Love

most likely, you / / live on after me,

please / / keep me with you that way. / / I don’t say / / don’t gri

A poem you may like to see

I cannot choose.” / / They parted, not

pleased with each other or / / themselves. She to her room to ply her

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / Hurricane Higgins would have / /

pleased you better as the winner. / / Things you only just / / misse

nd it brought / / a warmth of innocent

pleasure , / / as mine surely to you. / / And that’s a sweet thing to

f and it) yet learned the taste / / of

pleasure , found in her bewildered heart / / the instincts (as she jud

t first party till we parted / / —your

pleasure , if you felt it, never shown, / / no bright spark in your lo

e dark aspect is true, / / yet we must

pledge our lifeblood to renew / / the link, when choice can muster st

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

Dinner / A plateful, nice / / and

plentiful . / / I need not measure the amount / / this course, next m

he was—pity she’s dead), / / there are

plenty of kinds of pretty play / / young men and girls can know and n

a god, cannot be so. / / The handsome

plinths we built for them were all / / plaster painted for marble. Th

Against Pedestals

He sensed also / / an unvoiced elders’

plot to pair him off / / with one of the two sisters. ‘Little bores’

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

e of unspoken words. / / It takes long

plotting or a lucky chance / / for two to leave their towers at once.

/ / rough immemorial pasture from new

plough , / / laid face on arm he wept—sobbing waves / / of hot tears

some happy end. / / Thus was the field

ploughed for the seed to fall / / of love, that was his life and is o

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

uatting on waterskis, a golden boy / /

ploughs with his rump a furrow in the blue. / / The Sea-god, ardour k

September Cruise

s have picked our eye-holes clear, / /

plucked beards and brows for their nests’ lining. / / We can’t sit do

Villon’s Epitaph

y / / himself and her. / / If I could

plummet down a radial line… / / But between me and mine / / the surf

he grass / / green up again, buds / /

plump on the tree, / / the quiet birds / / pipe up. Be / / the year

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

n forest. / / Nettles or brambles, she

plunged gaily in / / but he feared Carabosse in the thorny brakes /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ards) awoke to the wide stream. / / He

plunged in where the water met the sand, / / dropped in the shallows—

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ead. / / He shivered, but he stripped,

plunged over head / / and out, new-fired. Then something caught his e

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ot his way. Turned from the plain, / /

plunged straight in, and the unpredictable / / current caught him and

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ from the next cliff. He stripped and

plunged to cool / / his sweating body—knew the fiery shock / / of sn

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ke him. / / He stretched and stripped,

plunged too. The fire-in-ice / / and the harsh salt combined almost t

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ of fierce white birds circling, fish-

plunging , woke him. / / He stretched and stripped, plunged too. The f

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

or / / themselves. She to her room to

ply her thread / / in secret—work forbidden her, not for / / any goo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ay, that way, of the wind, / / thimble-

pocked by the beaks’ sharp play. / / Our brotherhood is not welcoming

Villon’s Epitaph

/ Hush. Do you not see / / whiteness

pocked , dissolving in / / commonness, muddy? / / shimmering light lo

e secretive stream / / to make a great

Yeats and Water-Birds

Shepherd’s Song / from a

poem attributed to Theocritus / Pelops may rule his country, Croesus c

Shepherd’s Song

/ of a well-ordered park. / / Like a

poem by Yeats. / / Well, this park was the campus / / of a small Eas

ime disposes. / / The lines recur, the

poem closes. / /

Man’s Seasons

Man’s Seasons / The lines recur, the

poem closes. / / Once more the still-miraculous spring / / drowns as

Man’s Seasons

mn beckoning / / —the lines recur, the

poem closes. / / Once more the still miraculous spring, / / summer a

Man’s Seasons

poem you may like to see / Watching the children shouting in the pool

A poem you may like to see

Poems for G / Tender and Merry / Lüneburg Heath / Tender and merry. Ot

Two Poems for G

Poems for Roni / / / / / / One full half of the willow was riven

Five Poems for Roni

Poems from a New Life / Time / Distance / ‘The enemy’ / / people say,

Two Poems from a New Life

Poems in Memory of Anne Frank / Orders / Röslein auf der Heiden / “Sol

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

t so different / / from what musician,

poet , any artist / / wrests from the air, relays / / for those who w

ave I the right, / / or power, to be a

poet ? / / I don’t know, / / but I can’t help it. / / Seagulls cry /

Climacteric by the Sea

Poetry / Almost before I can remember / / the Schooner Hesperus carri

he expressive, the living word, of / /

poetry . She made / / —of sewing, cooking, correspondence, the road to

Eugénie de Guérin

serve a lifetime / / under the sail of

poetry / / —the old moon in the new moon’s arms, / / the little daug

igally, / / eye and heart filled. / /

Poetry ? / / This year… / / beauty is not enough, / / truth too diff

rom under one’s feet, / / find a fixed

point from which to start again? / / I am not falling. Falling implie

I know I am not a child. / / (Up to a

point I know / / —have I ever really, though, / / quite grown up? Bu

Climacteric by the Sea

more aware… / / But they were not the

point . / / Long before dawn / / he’d foraged round the kitchens, win

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ irreversibly packed / / to a still

point . Matter and energy / / funnelled through a point of not- / / b

mming-men / / have reached the madness

point , / / no return. / / Down a steep place / / with the possessed

ter and energy / / funnelled through a

point of not- / / being, are re-formed what? where? to be / / keel o

re rock, / / broken rock climbing to a

point of snow, / / to the blinding blue of sky; diamond air / / edge

mist / / or blown the cloud-cap from a

point of truth? / /

In the Audience

/ then changed, merged, telescoped. The

point was made. / / The sky-ring sharp, unbroken, reached and reached

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ough, link in no ring / / but join two

points as Time disposes. / / The lines recur, the poem closes. / /

Man’s Seasons

, through my feet / / while I look up,

points home, / / clean through the stable-seeming spinning globe / /

-wheeling galaxies, / / dwindle to pin-

points in speed-gathering flight / / from a lost centre: seeming to p

nse)—east, west, / / north, south, all

points were sullenly the same. / / ’The fairy’s curse’—he knew he fou

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ve, with mansoul. / / Now we pump back

poison from our panic deathwish, / / slip to lasting sleep in a steri

arved and poisoned must / / starve and

poison him / / —unless rather his first / / but still wildest, least

/ Land, ocean, wind, / / starved and

poisoned must / / starve and poison him / / —unless rather his first

despair, / / and like the nephews of a

poisoned Pope / / relinquish every hope. / / Oh plan no more the exa

rpion’s tail, / / Saturn’s black frost

poisoning the sun… / / Put it as you will, / / the christening-siste

“Gale is Dead”

having mastered earth, / / starves and

poisons her; / / extends his firman further: / / water and air / /

er?… martyr-saint? / / Just such fatal

polarities , / / false as this, his life constrained / / him too to a

escaped from the alley, / / pursued by

police and by the shopkeeper shouting / / a list of his crimes. And t

h the black shock-hair / / phoning the

police to fetch him in the little shop / / in the narrow alley. / /

ld; / / until they killed her, and the

police took over. / /

of the wind alighting— / / your smooth-

polished lackadaisical perfection / / grates. I move away / / admiri

Hermes of Olympia

edge ground on spears / / —a stack of

polished shells or polished shields / / catches the sun across two th

ars / / —a stack of polished shells or

polished shields / / catches the sun across two thousand years. / /

ach carries the other at its core) / /

pollute love, discolour grief. / / But from my old long love now and

[Feelings of guilt]

“Goddess, be good to us”, / / knew his

polluted state / / (the cloud a moment thinning) / / —for that unwit

Pelopia and Thyestes

/ / No. Bad trouble, but even our sick

polutions / / of earth and water and air may be contained, / / may y

h Eros, why do you cling so hard? / / —

pond -leech, sucking the dark blood out of me. / / Draw him, bird-whee

Spells and Love

t falls now caught / / in the wide dew-

pond of Mount Palomar, / / leapt from some galaxy, far / / past the

/ Angkor Wat, Avila, / / Eiffel Tower,

Pont due Gard… / / … Remove the camera / / and the eyes behind / /

Pont d’Avignon / Timbers driven deep through summer-slack / / water,

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

/ Watching the children shouting in the

pool / / a powerful hurt hits me / / that Cecil can’t hear, see, /

A poem you may like to see

, / / the joined streams formed a rock-

pool , deep and spread. / / He shivered, but he stripped, plunged over

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

k / / or falling whitely in a widening

pool / / from the next cliff. He stripped and plunged to cool / / hi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ founded on rock above her quivering

pool . / / It was a love-match (though most suitable) / / yet he was

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

pool of love standing in / / my heart deep and clear / / turns the d

Half the courtyard was moonlit, half a

pool / / of night, all empty; and the opposite rooms / / showed ligh

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

e to life / / as suddenly a reflecting

pool , / / somewhere a tinkling fall / / show that the stream is livi

[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]

shadow / / sky-chinked above, bluebell-

pooled below. / / This is my country I do not want to leave. / / But

Two Summer Songs

ng low black rocks enclosing / / clear

pools and foaming / / firths of tide, fencing / / the cowrie beach—

t / / days children splash / / in sea-

pools at their base, / / or climb them, sit, / / look out to sea, /

wood his father’s kingdom held / / but

poor and tame our forester had found it / / beside the great-treed mi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rude cracks / / barking about her, the

poor child makes tracks / / out of the temenos. Outside she came / /

Pelopia and Thyestes

/ where now, out of the slums, Athenian

poor / / climb, for love no doubt, demonstrably / / for another purp

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

’s a difference. / / The forester, the

poor court-lady’s son / / we knew before, could not with a like eye /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ear is what / / I haven’t got.” / / “

Poor dear.” / /

our / / of exile had me dying, but the

poor / / flesh won and brought me home. I lived and died / / in the

pearl / / has no laughing shadow / / —

poor lost fool. / /

/ / pit where the sordid alleys of the

poor / / march with the sordid, ill-rich city, on / / towards Chance

ke. While Angelo / / nevermore touched

poor Mariana’s skin, / / nun Isabella, curdling from the sin, / / wa

wellings. / / Here, they say, / / the

poor of Attica, herded in / / between the long walls, learnt to live

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

ead him blankets, pillows—“Sit up, your

poor old wreck. / / There. Lie down again. So. Here’s my hair, my nec

Greek Folk Song

ong the smoke and stone / / the deadly

poor / / settle themselves on steps, by hunger and / / no hope reduc

Country and Town

ain / / in your lovely flesh / / this

poor skeleton. / / Between waking and sleep / / things appear / / s

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

ainst the deepened chill the worse than

poor , / / the driven and lost, / / who cast or crushed out of the ca

/ the woods of game. The hunting being

poor / / the princes lolled about the draughty hall / / shouting for

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ The empty-bellied, the still driven

poor , / / who yearly add to what they would forget, / / feel in stal

’s chancy flow / / at court washed the

poor widow far away / / to be a hunting-castle’s housekeeper. / / Fa

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

in service to a King and Queen, / / a

poor young widow with an only son. / / A mother’s boy (he never knew

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / and like the nephews of a poisoned

Pope / / relinquish every hope. / / Oh plan no more the exact, unrea

d before it tall and still, / / Like a

poplar or a cypress, Humfry Payne. / / After loved unknown dead and l

me / / and worn a wreath of the white

poplar , the holy / / tree of Herakles, wound with crimson ribbon.”— /

Spells and Love

the grass / / while the grass-skirted

poppy -dancer / / dips to the wind her brilliant head / / by time’s r

Dance of the Seasons

k ground / / with the dead child. / /

Popular name for archaeologist / / is grave-robber. / / Not without

om the south-east the squall struck his

port beam / / and heeled the boat all but under a wave. / / The lift

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

se again / / out of the pit, I saw the

portico / / beside us of St. Pancras’ Church, whose sane / / classic

th Bay, at Ringstead, / / looks out to

Portland or up to Whitenothe’s / / high chalk head. / / A fifth in I

m, framed in obscurity. / / Out of the

positive blackness of the night / / under the bright lights, against

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

erhaps we all / / are schizophrenes in

posse . He for one / / showed the cleft now. / / He looked along the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Who bred here could suppose himself to

possess / / of his cramped acres more than a squatter’s tenure? / /

The West of Ireland

” / / He to the ranks; and I too, half

possessed , / / half turned; but not my guide. My purpose froze. / /

. / / Down a steep place / / with the

possessed herd / / to sink without trace. / / Man and his dreams dea

/ / The fairy’s curse—a shocking fear

possessed him / / that after the hard victories of the way / / he mi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

thin our private senses quiver / / all

possibilities of delight and pain. / / “We know this shining stream b

ng / / feeling that everything / / is

possible , faded from you in / / a narrow walled alley with no escape.

[Most of us, somewhere along the road]

air may be contained, / / may yield a

possible future. / / Open-ended / / our future lies. That is the fut

-Copernican astronomy… / / Anything is

possible here, and probable. / / I am out of time, and for the time c

our groping a recurring vision / / of

possible pattern laid through the confusion. / / Truth, find us stren

Prayer to Truth

/ / he heard his heart. But ‘It’s not

possible to’ / / came reason—and this time he bowed to her. / / Work

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

An endless impasse. No / / answer, no

possible way out to the old / / infinitely distant lost warm hum and

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Spain;” / / who saw his way among all

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

eye on the strength of the Twelve-Mile

Post ?” / / Billowing, settling, over wood and hill, / / now wind-blo

/ / expecting nothing, listen for the

post , / / when mind and hand hold so much to be done?” / / I drank h

fetched to the ranks, and the frontier-

posts are manned. / / The men to the ranks and the women to the field

A Wreck / These

posts which stud / / the sterile sand / / were a ship once, / / as

/ of the gravedigger. / / My thoughts

posture , / / but a rude thought / / sits in the corner / / and laug

ent from his mind, water from a cracked

pot . / / Pitying but irked the princess turned away. / / Then, blush

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

n. / / Still, might perhaps the master

potter -painter / / like to have known his handiwork seen, / / shown,

three unbroken, placed them in / / his

pouch , turned homeward. The hag, nothing said / / worked steadily, bu

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

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

pound a lizard and mix an ill drink for him / / tomorrow. But now, Th

Spells and Love

/ in part—a penny in / / each generous

pound ? / / This and this I see / / there for me to do, / / work I o

er face was memory where the cold light

poured / / and memory the colours in her hair, / / and in my ears ec

featureless faces ground by gross / /

poverty , in common loss / / unsingular. / / Here a pittance- / / pe

worse (and better, / / as sun-scorched

poverty is better / / than rain-logged poverty). The sun burns / / o

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

poverty is better / / than rain-logged

poverty ). The sun burns / / on the quarry-face. The other way, / / a

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

he blaze, but seemed to drain it of all

power . / / A stiff, a frozen silence settled down / / like a sea-mis

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

al earth. / / Calm shine some, in whom

power and deadweight hold / / a steady balance; some / / smoulder an

whatever calls you, only use / / your

power , and do not use it least for this: / / to strip your own inacti

fficiently rendered unto peace / / the

power and glory she would have shared with us, / / no choice is left

Prayer to Truth

it— / / his greatest and last proof of

power and will— / / and part of what we ruin, we shall rue it. / / I

ty locked behind a door / / is lost—is

power betrayed by cowardice. / / “Your delicate task to keep your pow

ed, bird in cage, / / shakes with dumb

power , / / blots a blank page. / /

Love’s Eyes and Hands

d in fee; / / for evil and for good, a

power . / / But nothing lasts indefinitely. / / She fails now in her

ope / / grow dim to her and lose their

power , / / but on his arm still burning bright / / as though lit by

he rest, and like the rest / / without

power , / / can only love and hope—and pray? / / Well, perhaps loving

observed, absorbed, lies ready. Give it

power . / / “Consider those whose lives have kindled your life / / an

/ presses too hard the splendour of the

power ; / / glows like a star their mould, but in an hour / / burns o

/ / fairy, the bad was rousing all her

power . / / His strength and purpose flowed and ebbed—now weak, / / n

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

. Let me not lose / / the flame, whose

power I feel of work and love, / / in ashes of self-pity and abuse. /

r-face. / / The young man, knowing the

power in his fingers, / / knowing the vision in the block, / / stood

. / / “Your delicate task to keep your

power , neither / / thrown to the winds, nor hid as now it is. / / Tu

l less / / now than before he felt the

power of / / breaking away for good, but thought ‘I’ll make / / the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

answering a faithless prayer? / / Dark

power / / of formula and rune, to trust / / you would be worse and s

to hand, / / powerless to out-buy that

power of hatred? / /

istening, / / looking, hours where the

power of quiet is strong, / / hours when the earth can cradle thought

he passing contacts of two worlds. / /

Power out of space and time / / touches in us into a life’s short lig

temple-gables, / / weight of a winged

power / / out of the wind alighting— / / your smooth-polished lackad

Hermes of Olympia

een. / / One year, of course, spring’s

power past, / / summer will show the bony tree / / still bare. Now t

being so / / have I the right, / / or

power , to be a poet? / / I don’t know, / / but I can’t help it. / /

Climacteric by the Sea

/ These make for me / / your special

power to bless: / / laughter and tenderness. / / I haven’t seen (onl

Two Poems for G

/ (even before). None chose to give her

power / / to love. Better, they thought, keep fancy free? / / Or tho

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ut to render war / / all glory and all

power . / / War is a pit of horror; and defeat / / by these might sin

Prayer to Truth

orest, mountain, sea. / / Stupidity is

powerful , and ill will. / / Destroying each other we may quite probab

he children shouting in the pool / / a

powerful hurt hits me / / that Cecil can’t hear, see, / / can’t watc

A poem you may like to see

loop, and then / / out into a space of

powerful slopes, / / grass long and burnt silver, bounded / / by clu

Los Altos Hills

ing / / —strong and beautiful / / but

powerless and grotesque / / where a man’s arm should spring. / / Wou

d / / his brave thought in the pain of

powerless love, / / and was silent and sad. The princess sighed / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ve / / which passes hand to hand, / /

powerless to out-buy that power of hatred? / /

more / / to sit and wait and lull your

powers asleep. / / You have a sensitive mind and heart, and store /

/ together up the westering fork. The

powers / / he trusted had not failed him but had proved / / themselv

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

n terms of God and Caesar / / as equal

powers . So Christians can make Caesar / / their scapegoat. Might we,

, was shocked by it. He sought / / the

pox at Mistress Overdone’s instead. / /

/ I found I could adapt, / / not only

practically / / but in myself, more easily / / than I could ever sup

[Living alone is lonely]

n / / lovely precisions for all future

practice / / when time comes to be free. / / Good, if new warmth new

peace. Not always then, / / but if by

practice you have improved patience / / patience may comfort you in t

’s place / / (that’s where he likes to

practise and lounge about)”— / / These are the springs of my love. Ma

Spells and Love

I pray; / / still less in magic, but I

practise it. / / At least I do not let / / the mirage of consistency

to hunt and use the bow / / but never

practised much, and several days / / he didn’t manage to bring down a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

not know, but know we should / / give

praise . / /

Huber was much older / / but name him,

praise him as well), / / promised, unfulfilled / / years, years for

Die Weisse Rose

most; though a smoother prince / / had

praised her beauty, claimed to worship her, / / and made a pass; but

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

glimpsed might both throw light on the

praised steward / / and make His answer to the priests’ spies’ questi

nothing. / / We all need mercy, so go

Villon’s Epitaph

y / / I must become a child again, and

pray / / (if knowing no god in honesty I may) / / for charity. / /

tion resentments, guilts. / / And oh I

pray it can do the same for yours. / / But death, though it froze the

[White foam sweeps]

harrying. / / We all need mercy, so go

pray . / / Laundered by rain we are pegged here / / for the sun’s dry

Villon’s Epitaph

elcoming. / / We all need mercy, so go

pray . / / Prince Jesus, Master of everything, / / do not deliver us

Villon’s Epitaph

ain / I don’t believe in God, and yet I

pray ; / / still less in magic, but I practise it. / / At least I do

reak out again? / / Wait. If you like,

pray . / / Though you do not know what to, / / some words, some thing

Winter Recalled

d / / and you unheeded, to whom now we

pray ; / / Time, whose converse imparts, then sometimes heals / / (no

uffering. / / We all need mercy, so go

pray . / / We died by law, but do not sneer / / at the name of brothe

Villon’s Epitaph

power, / / can only love and hope—and

pray ? / / Well, perhaps loving hope’s a kind of prayer. / / The unbe

/ to frame some longings in a form of

prayer / / addressed to something which may not be there / / and sur

as blest / / by answering a faithless

prayer ? / / Dark power / / of formula and rune, to trust / / you wo

Prayer / God, in whom I have no faith, / / hear my unbelieving prayer

Prayer / I have no belief in a personal god / / nor, if I had, could

have no faith, / / hear my unbelieving

prayer : / / not to play blind-man’s-buff with death. / / Each year r

/ Well, perhaps loving hope’s a kind of

prayer . / / The unbelievable gift / / of our late love should not be

Prayer to Time / O Time, whose hand about our childhood’s hand / / le

Prayer to Truth / You who are manifest in reason and faith, / / mathe

Prayer to Truth

had, could I imagine him / / swayed by

prayer ; yet do not think it odd / / to frame some longings in a form

hustled her back to bed with cries and

prayers / / and nailed the window shut. / / A man in the woven hangi

Eugénie de Guérin

soning. / / We who are sped crave your

praying / / of Mary’s Son, by His good willing, / / that we may shar

Villon’s Epitaph

sillier. / / Trust, no. But part of me

prays , part keeps / / fingers crossed for a magpie from the left / /

signed to illustrate / / principles of

pre -Copernican astronomy… / / Anything is possible here, and probable

What am I?’ / / Well, but what am I to

preach ? / / Am always I, are always you, / / is always any human bei

tures of the god / / and of the living

precinct made / / this beauty of scattered skeleton, / / desolation

Delos in Spring

mes a day / / and would even leave his

precious oil-flask with me, / / but now it’s eleven days since I’ve e

Spells and Love

own begetting / / force us back to the

precipice / / and empty air sucks suddenly / / under our heels, / /

That Way Madness Lies

, is as he always was. / / High on the

precipitous promontory / / dark trees gather, and the white monastery

September Cruise

lection— / / bush in the smooth water,

precise but darkened, / / light green leaves dark, and strangely the

ted in the block. He does not heed / /

precise feature, upright stance. He is here in the block, / / itself

September Cruise

y can’t be said / / a pretty girl / /

precisely , rather a cleverly remade / / pretty doll. / / Bright blea

as time to think, and learn / / lovely

precisions for all future practice / / when time comes to be free. /

nown / / behind all dreamed impossible

precisions ) / / to the other penny-face of the same visions, / / chi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ut he is built to kill. / / A chain of

predators / / looks like the primal curse, / / yet should he cease t

of work, even comfort and tears / / —a

predictable order, if nothing goes wrong, / / to protect us from fear

the boy once more / / seeing the girl.

Preferment’s chancy flow / / at court washed the poor widow far away

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ne? / / Ruined if I go—there’s only my

pregnant wife—” / / “I hope it’s a boy.” “Thanks. How can she keep th

revailing dark) / / one’s own garbled,

prejudiced reckoning. / /

ut an old hat / / he bought, wore to a

première . / / Clear, bright, very cold. / / A hard landscape, beauti

of their far journey / / and ourselves

prepare / / for winter coming, as they / / do, but in our own, our d

l an eye / / prints an image / / on a

prepared brain. / / Heart’s feeling / / transfigures again / / that

Music is Landscape

ter Solstice / The tilted earth pauses,

prepares to lean / / the other way. Our year begins again / / —or do

Winter Solstice

Presage / Cassandra screamed that Troy would fall / / and no one noti

r a moment I’m / / sure of your actual

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

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

/ No—if intangible, / / still a warm

presence at his side / / to second him: unjustified, / / unsummoned,

her, holding you in my heart, / / your

presence at my side in this your land. / / But still the path tempted

Los Altos Hills

pain’s teeth. / / … But only the real

presence brings us that peace. / /

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

rom tears / / dry-eyed to the puzzling

presence of a dream. / /

/ were also beautiful. / / I felt the

presence of grace / / like Yeats at Lissadell. / /

have / / you with me in yourself, the

presence of / / our shared love / / keeps me company. / / And that

[Living alone is lonely]

in my flesh), / / The all but palpable

presence / / of your warmth, of your kindness / / —but sometimes I’m

[I have you always in my mind]

morial shadows fade / / in the truth’s

presence . “There is more to do / / than any life has time to dream,”

ght, and sometimes found. / / Peace is

present here, / / as though what some have gained / / informs this a

A soldier must obey. / / “That not the

present only (child, woman, man, / / womb-child) but all the chain of

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

ime’s tyrannous / / one-way of future,

present , past. / / Beach on our lotus-strand, and be / / happy.” The

dark lies on us all, a warning / / of

present trouble worse, and when we part / / gondola sunk or walkers n

/ / a faint sea-breeze, which shifted

presently / / and settled steady in the old good quarter. / / He was

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

-seen enemy / / Love walked alone, and

presently / / found—not indeed Despair / / but, huge and grim enough

sea. / / He looked along the rock, and

presently / / glimpsed them, clumped low under the water-line. / / H

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / (though one he did get back); and

presently / / he took, feeling both wicked and absurd, / / to stalki

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

love. / / Love would follow the others

presently , / / love felt for her, when the pink bud should flower /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ter, / / dwindling, lost. / / Fledged

presently , son, daughter, / / circle, take flight / / from ours to o

Out from the Cliff

/ from this search talked at ease. And

presently / / they from the boat were calling me: “why not / / come

hers and each other. / / Love make you

presently / / to those who call you father, mother, / / as dear as t

(gull’s cry) “To buy and sell / / love-

presents is unlucky” (that laugh again). / / “Get one yourself”, she

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ght / / from a lost centre: seeming to

press back / / dimension’s imperceptible boundaries, / / lose one an

ther floating. / / Nothing for foot to

press on or hand feel / / to tell me I can count myself a substance s

e / / but challenged himself always to

press on. / / This restlessness robbed him of some delight. / / Issu

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

blood renewed a prick of hate / / and

press towards a hope. The exile’s scar / / now throbs to agony. Now k

/ Still through the hostile growth he

pressed and thrust, / / clothes torn, skin bloody, but he could not s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Home howled for him behind. But he was

pressed / / forward by more than the immediate dry / / lust for the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

This” faltering “is yours if…” / / She

pressed into his hand a handkerchief. / / And he, finding still in hi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

he Schooner Hesperus carried me, / / a

pressed man, to serve a lifetime / / under the sail of poetry / / —t

/ / homesick, afraid; but turned back,

pressed on up. / / And there below him lay the great forest. / / Acr

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

that pressed the air] / The clouds that

pressed the air / / heavily on my heart / / are quite away. / / I d

[The clouds that pressed the air]

[The clouds that

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

[The clouds that pressed the air]

are untimely over; / / on others / /

presses too hard the splendour of the power; / / glows like a star th

ou need.” / / “Anabel,” I thought, and

pressing forward questioned: / / “Anabel?” and unanswered turned my h

born. / / And to ask God for help / /

presupposes that there is / / a God, and one who’s well / / disposed

Living and Dying

e believed is true, except the old / /

pretence that they were gods. We have to know / / God, if there be a

Against Pedestals

rs it. / / —Yet are they all that they

pretend ? (a / / pair of sets of teeth so even…?) / / Look round. His

/ cat-and-mouse of proffered hope, / /

pretend kindness… Grind the axe, / / heap the faggots. Notch it up. /

believe / / I still like sometimes to

pretend — / / that life doesn’t come to a ragged end / / but death kn

l sin; / / honour all bravery, but not

pretend / / that war is grand. / / Make us remember that if this war

Prayer to Truth

s shut, sun on face, / / imagining—no,

pretending rather— / / this isn’t the edge of the school playing-fiel

had fled / / —footloose wanderer, not

pretending / / to stay us like our daily bread. / / She’s the wild g

Dance of the Seasons

nians of that age / / with this rather

pretentious monument / / which time has tanned and broken to harmony)

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

dream. / / The little one perhaps was

prettier , / / certainly sharper, and inclined to laugh / / and laugh

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

dozen crocks, / / five of them black,

prettily formed but plain, / / the sixth (small like the others) a ma

to ringing strings / / and high pipe,

pretty and innocently proud. / / But at such fêtes, that honour may b

Pelopia and Thyestes

recisely, rather a cleverly remade / /

pretty doll. / / Bright bleached hair curves in a cunning fall / / r

ouse who’s quite ready / / to marry, a

pretty girl, just right for you.” / / That was what she said but I ca

g face? She really can’t be said / / a

pretty girl / / precisely, rather a cleverly remade / / pretty doll.

likely lads they wed, / / but for me,

pretty Janet, the sick man on his bed. / / I sit by him and chatter—n

Greek Folk Song

ely. / / And if I’d got a kiss of your

pretty mouth / / I’d have gone to sleep happy. But if your door had b

Spells and Love

ead), / / there are plenty of kinds of

pretty play / / young men and girls can know and not go all the way /

/ responsible for what / / conditions

prevail there. / /

again, again, until / / our beterness

prevail / / to free us from the wheel… / / Either of these. But thes

light against dark, / / light against

prevailing dark) / / one’s own garbled, prejudiced reckoning. / /

ged hounds, / / sharp-circling sloops,

prevails / / forcing it from its fishing-grounds. / / Nature’s bruta

Heron and Gulls

e heaviness you father on the war, / /

preventable slaughter, and on the disgrace / / of wide preventable wa

ghter, and on the disgrace / / of wide

preventable want, though such things are / / good causes for unhappin

imal curse, / / yet should he cease to

prey / / the scales would tip one way. / / There is a balance in thi

ormed suddenly / / ‘How will the young

price know that he is I? / / Or will he know? He will not, certainly.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

oad and parliament and school, / / the

priceless blessings of the West / / to make your future viable, / /

/ is dying into the flower, she shall

prick / / her thumb, and all these heavenly qualities / / shall die

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

get, / / feel in stale blood renewed a

prick of hate / / and press towards a hope. The exile’s scar / / now

, / / disturbed but not stirred by the

prick of shame, / / I watch the world and wait for happiness.” / / S

h, and yet she shall not die. / / “The

prick shall bring not death but a long sleep. / / A sleep not as you

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

acle is”— / / and then he thought of a

pricked finger, of / / a sleep that must see him into the ground / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rampart, crowned / / with coarse grass—

pricked him and drew blood. He smiled / / thinking of her who now was

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / and knifed it from the stone. The

pricks drew blood, / / and this time too he thought of the princess /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

streaks retreating / / and to the star-

pricks of the velvet dome. / / Dazzle of sun out of the sea, loud cri

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

wn moor is out of bloom / / that still

pricks to the bone. / /

ove summoned Dignity to fight, / / and

Pride , against Despair; / / but Pride and Dignity / / had touched so

/ and Pride, against Despair; / / but

Pride and Dignity / / had touched so little at Love’s hand / / they

yet sharing / / still with warm loving

pride / / his thoughts and hopes, sharing with him her hopes / / (fe

Eugénie de Guérin

/ shrinking contracts against a knot of

pride : / / I felt myself shrunk in the cold, but whole / / and me; a

almost before I was down, / / taking a

pride in that. This time it took / / a passage of time, an effort of

basic skills; those mastered, knew the

pride / / of deeper skill. He almost lived afloat. / / Gurgle and cl

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ Passion and loneliness, despair and

pride / / peopled my moor and heart—that world I knew.” / / “Prophet

er / / her grief not lessened / / but

pride to help her. / / My mother had her wounds / / in front. She we

her apron, / / slipped away. / / The

priest comes to the altar, / / finds it robbed. / / Gone the silver

The Shepherdess of Cahuzac

r question / / He fooled the spies and

priests , the Christian’s question / / “Should not my life, my actions

steward / / and make His answer to the

priests ’ spies’ question / / more than a trick answer to a trick ques

still— / / how dare she lecture him so

priggishly ? / / He gazed unseeing at a glowing tree / / hating himse

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

over shops) / / rude Master Tom’s and

prim Miss Betty’s hops. / /

La Fontaine et le Déluge

g rose once more / / before him in its

primal clarity— / / and could that last best apparition be / / here

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

chain of predators / / looks like the

primal curse, / / yet should he cease to prey / / the scales would t

born / / is untroubled, at peace. / /

Primal innocence / / is something to settle for. / / Nothingness is

g on the bough, / / last-fruits of the

primal tree / / matured ineluctably / / to fall any time now. / /

In my beginning is my end

the intricate fane is fallen. / / His

primitive hut, his laurel of prophecy / / are lost to Apollo, lost th

The Last Oracle

? / / Aconite, snowdrop, give place to

primrose , / / bluebell to buttercup, dog-rose. / / Flower-seasons re

ce upon some other mark— / / her fated

prince , a hundred years away. / / The rains of summer’s draggled end

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d he opened them alone. / / ‘To be her

prince and have her for my bride’ / / his heart was flooded with unre

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the King was brave— / / when they were

prince and princess in their youth / / she had been worthy to be won,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

A sudden violent blast / / roused the

prince brutally from his deep dream. / / From the south-east the squa

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

no trough. / / Since princess meeting

prince cried, laughed “Are / / all tasks done?”, spells are taken off

End of Fairy-Story

mory. / / Seldom by that was the young

prince enspelled— / / but the white shore, the wide horizon round it:

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ife is done, / / you shall be born the

prince for whom time keeps / / the keys of this thorn fortress”—smile

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

r had spent / / his days trudging. The

prince grew quickly sore, / / but sensibly took off his shoes and wen

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

a new thought almost; though a smoother

prince / / had praised her beauty, claimed to worship her, / / and m

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ We all need mercy, so go pray. / /

Prince Jesus, Master of everything, / / do not deliver us to Hell’s k

Villon’s Epitaph

to keep out of its way? / / The young

prince liked his cousins well enough, / / but never had the sea and t

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

her face, and cried / / ‘My knight, my

prince , my love’, and leaning kissed / / his dying mouth. He died. Or

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ our stage is not so wide—but born a

prince . / / No doubt compounded of the same material / / as others a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

The Sleeping Beauty’s

Prince / / / / / No, not a prince. The boy we’ll come to know / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ance on the jutting stump, dance.” / /

Prince of Lies, no. The dark aspect is true, / / yet we must pledge o

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

Beauty’s Prince / / / / / No, not a

prince . The boy we’ll come to know / / was born at court but not to r

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rebegotten by the fairy’s word? / / A

prince —the same or not? Well, turn the page / / and meet his parents

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

always at the fatal hour, the bold / /

prince to confront the monsters in their lairs, / / outwit the witche

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

o lay him in the grave / / and raise a

prince to rouse the bride. The knell / / ‘a hundred years’ turned to

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / “ ‘But one day’ and he smiled ‘the

prince will come.’ / / “I don’t know what he meant.” He came once mor

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

mountain, plain and bay / / breeds its

princeling of the knife. / / Beast and bandit walk the earth / / whi

monument of Philopappos / / (a Syrian

princeling of the Roman age / / honoured by rich Athenians of that ag

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

he male court alone had come, / / with

princely guests, from the late autumn on / / till the New Year to hun

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

f game. The hunting being poor / / the

princes lolled about the draughty hall / / shouting for more wood on

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

, the court, the foreign throng / / of

princes —the princesses stayed at home. / / He did not miss them, hear

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

. The ball went on and on. / / All the

princes were slow of foot and wit. / / Deep in a curtained window, qu

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d and declined, but he lay on— / / the

princess and his mother and his home, / / his occupation and his drea

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

here in the sun / / and dreamed of the

princess , and watched the root / / of a green tree grappling the rock

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

where love is, I am. / / You love the

princess , and you think your love / / is lost, but love is never lost

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

was home again, and boasted / / to the

princess bending intent to mark / / the toils and triumphs of her sli

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d. / / Hungry too for the sight of the

princess . / / But at the ford his weakness frightened him— / / all b

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ and this time too he thought of the

princess / / but in cold fear. He sat down on the sand, / / tried to

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

curtained window, quite alone, / / the

princess drank a moment’s peace from it. / / Half the courtyard was m

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d. Must that long night / / divide the

princess from her womanhood?… / / The story and the vision. Latent, t

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / trembling he stood at last by his

princess , / / heard in the stillness her soft breath, and took / / h

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s brave— / / when they were prince and

princess in their youth / / she had been worthy to be won, and he /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

dancing thought / / ‘The princess, my

princess , is coming here.’ / / The fairy gifts had worked—if what the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

His cousins, / / how did they and the

princess like each other?… / / Lived happy ever after?… Children?… Do

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

crest which knows no trough. / / Since

princess meeting prince cried, laughed “Are / / all tasks done?”, spe

End of Fairy-Story

e long on the dancing thought / / ‘The

princess , my princess, is coming here.’ / / The fairy gifts had worke

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

love, / / and was silent and sad. The

princess sighed / / and a small bitter wind sighed through the wood /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

me. / / If you dare live on, while the

princess sleeps / / in timeless youth, love on through ageing time /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

What could she think, the nine-year-old

princess ? / / The circumscription of her small world’s rim / / held

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hose / / he knew the city lay, and the

princess , / / the fated child of many day-dreams’ yearning / / whom

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / outwit the witches, win the sweet

princess . / / The old stories, alike but different, / / told yet aga

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ her form, her face, the dear unknown

princess . / / Then darkness. / / Rest and faint warmth of the sun /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

sessively distilled. / / Child, happy;

princess too. The boy was only, / / at first, a servant—one whose nat

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

cracked pot. / / Pitying but irked the

princess turned away. / / Then, blushing, stammering, he blurted out

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

he was autumn-born). / / Why here? The

princess wants it so. The boy’s / / heart leapt—‘She loves…’—then dro

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

limbed and declined. And dreamed of the

princess . / / Watched, heard, the water churning round a rock / / or

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

cause, they said, / / the fingers of a

princess were not meant / / for needlework. She laughed at that and,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ueen / / comes with the court, and the

princess . What is it? / / Why, a great ball in celebration of / / he

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

soon made him one with those: / / the

princess wished to walk the woods; they chose / / to be her guide (oh

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

id, and was not averse to him, / / but—

princesse insufficiently lointaine— / / she simply had no footing in

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d giants, kings and queens of old, / /

princesses in the toils of sorcerers— / / put out for dragons—in some

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the foreign throng / / of princes—the

princesses stayed at home. / / He did not miss them, heart more than

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s need. / / Then, four years after the

princess’s visit / / (the boy a gangling woodman of eighteen) / / ca

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

knee. / / “The fairy’s promise is the

prince’s bride.” / / He fell asleep as she was speaking. No / / drea

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ost spoken more than thought… / / ‘The

prince’s bride’… That was a fevered dream. / / He looked down at the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

a like world. And incidentally / / the

prince’s child-world was a different one. / / A hunting-wood his fath

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

m and clear. / / ‘She is my lady and a

prince’s wife.’ / / He stumbled, looked up, did not know the place. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

cycles were designed to illustrate / /

principles of pre-Copernican astronomy… / / Anything is possible here

orld / / the house behind the house in

Prinsengracht — / / I find it in my heart / / to love you after all.

Hermes of Olympia

feet were heavy; / / houses and trees

printing their darker tone / / on the dull sky weighed on me as I mov

othing, / / unformed, till an eye / /

prints an image / / on a prepared brain. / / Heart’s feeling / / tr

Music is Landscape

holds me without hope. To lose / / my

prison and my peace by going away… / / Could I?… But only said: “How

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ert lines / / I was in gaol, a women’s

prison it had been / / under the Italians. The cell-walls were streak

War-time Anecdote

red heart’s despair. / / From London’s

prison now you turn again / / to Dorset, Devon, Berkshire, Greece, an

life, differently viewed / / is Eden,

prison , path of exile, fold. / / Who happy kiss within / / to passer

/ / Being no fortress, neither is it a

prison . / / Patience is not concerned with self alone / / nor only o

ithful image of your soul? / / Is it a

prison ? / / Remember then, you / / aren’t only prisoner / / —warder

“Brussels, Roe Head, Law Hill—exile and

prison ,” / / she said, “but sometimes on the windy hill / / of home

I killed, / / and two-score more took

prisoner / / fighting in the hills. / / But then the sword broke in

et-cold world lies wide / / before the

prisoner free. / / What now? Follow the wind / / away, follow your w

age of waiting is not wasted. / / The

prisoner has time to think, and learn / / lovely precisions for all f

indy hill / / of home I felt no less a

prisoner . / / Of itself exiled and imprisoned will / / the heart bec

self-murdered? blank as a solitary / /

prisoner / / she is looking blindly through those lost eyes / / for

/ Remember then, you / / aren’t only

prisoner / / —warder, Governor too, / / responsible for what / / co

cat’s-cradle of barbed wire / / these

prisoners of war.” / / We have our orders, and our keep and pay. / /

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

reached a board: / / “End of Reserve.

Private land beyond. / / Do not trespass”. / / The unbroken path whi

Los Altos Hills

es and brain, / / and bound within our

private senses quiver / / all possibilities of delight and pain. / /

er / / a child is building, wrapped in

private silence, / / small crystal world within the world of children

my… / / Anything is possible here, and

probable . / / I am out of time, and for the time content. / /

triumphant humankind, / / it does look

probable / / that the drive to dominance / / is linked by more than

What goes up must come down

ppose, and I the whole day through / /

probably never thought / / once one of the other. But if we did / /

ere a small boat might be beached? / /

Probably not. He looked along the plain. / / South from the southern

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ put there by friends, by her parents

probably , / / to be there always in the dark ground / / with the dea

/ / Destroying each other we may quite

probably / / wipe out nature with us (or else / / ruining nature we

Problem / “Dear Adviser, can you help me to cope / / with an intransi

his children: / / Willi Graf, Christl

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

Die Weisse Rose

Scholl, / / Alex Morell, / / Christl

Probst , Willi Graf / / —so many years lost / / (none more than twent

Die Weisse Rose

ve. A soldier must obey. / / “Bombers,

proceed to London, to Berlin. / / Sentries, patrol with dog and tommy

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

nnatural “I am”. / / The extraordinary

process of becoming man / / forces us out of nature, to upset, / / f

re mesh, we met a mass / / solemn in a

procession , led by one / / whose fierce, dark look I knew; who never

I don’t remember / / a thing about the

procession or how I got home, / / and after that I went down with a h

Spells and Love

ered but not named, lest / / the proud

procession should wind on for ever: / / I have been, am ever, in your

/ / to her holy grove in the feast-day

procession / / (they’d a lot of animals, even a lioness)— / / These

Spells and Love

/ / scentless, ephemeral and wild / /

prodigal to all passing throws / / the unstable beauty of a child. /

mer / Roses in the hedge / / scattered

prodigally , / / eye and heart filled. / / Poetry? / / This year… /

selling flattery, / / cat-and-mouse of

proffered hope, / / pretend kindness… Grind the axe, / / heap the fa

ns. / / You felt I had failed you / /

profoundly . I don’t forget. / / But must not let that / / blot out w

/ / late coming but, now come, here in

profusion . / / We are ruining the nature we know and love, / / but n

vergrowth was thinner, and he made / /

progress along what now made itself known / / certainly for a way. Bu

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Progress / Many things have to go. / / But swept out in that flow /

ecause he had believed / / the fairy’s

promise . And if that were so / / he must believe she’d make a guide f

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d willing. But now / / I’ll be good, I

promise —I do know how. / / Don’t be hard, darling. Truly I’ll stay /

ead laid on her knee. / / “The fairy’s

promise is the prince’s bride.” / / He fell asleep as she was speakin

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

beauty, ephemeral, fade / / rebuke no

promise , made / / and broken—there was none. / / Beauty owes nothing

e fairy’s curse to win / / the fairy’s

promise —that was what he said. / / I don’t know what he meant.” When

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

river. Far beyond it lay / / the fairy-

promised girl. That thought caressed / / him still, even while he lim

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

crack apart; / / you brought us to the

promised land of love / / (garden more sweet than childhood’s happy v

but name him, praise him as well), / /

promised , unfulfilled / / years, years for fun, / / years of trouble

Die Weisse Rose

ar my mother say / / “Each caught leaf

promises a happy day / / next year”. / / Have you tried to catch /

[Golden, red, brown]

in. / / So to the cliffs and round the

promontory . / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

coast / / the rock-piled and the sandy

promontory / / alike in his foreshortened vision lost. / / Their swe

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

nd closed by cliffs. These cliffs, this

promontory . / / And all along that flat edge of flat land / / a youn

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hurch sits small, alone / / on a small

promontory / / and the sea-swell swings its shock / / against rough

September Cruise

lways was. / / High on the precipitous

promontory / / dark trees gather, and the white monastery / / looks

September Cruise

/ / below the lighthouse on the rocky

promontory / / looks over blue gulf-water to the blue / / mountains

closed / / in cliffs and a rock-naked

promontory . / / That way he trudged, and suddenly—check and chill— /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

digesting the meal Martha served, / /

pronounced that Mary’s was the better part. / / How like a man. Marth

tor, after the examination, / / before

pronouncing the fatal word, / / washing his hands remembers Pilate. /

n can do it— / / his greatest and last

proof of power and will— / / and part of what we ruin, we shall rue i

ing for his love—a love-gift and / / a

proof that this new world was truly won. / / Northwards the dunes ran

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

. / / To each culture-surface / / its

proper scum. / /

’s self I swear I was coming / / for a

proper serenade, with two or three friends. / / I’d have brought the

Spells and Love

ir, / / taught itself to fly, / / fly

properly like a bird. / / Twittering light-scared thing, / / blind b

. / / His primitive hut, his laurel of

prophecy / / are lost to Apollo, lost the chatter of water. / / His

The Last Oracle

not necessary, it is not honest / / to

prophesy to a full stop. Ours the open / / grace of a question mark.

oor and heart—that world I knew.” / / “

Prophet and guide, unhoped for helper sent me,” / / I said, “I would

“From Cambridge how / / came she?” my

prophet mocked. And she to me: / / “countless the hours trouble and l

ep / / as to guilt, a certain sense of

proportion ; / / an unforgetting longing for innocence. / /

er we’re entitled to, / / what a small

proportion of those remains / / for me. Never mind. / / A full, a wh

love—its living force / / shifts into

proportion resentments, guilts. / / And oh I pray it can do the same

[White foam sweeps]

ous spring, / / summer and autumn… Man

proposes … / / winter’s carved boughs… and hark, how sing… / / Man’s

Man’s Seasons

/ / no hope reduced to peace. / / The

prostitutes along the pavement stand / / abstracted, still, like tree

Country and Town

e order, if nothing goes wrong, / / to

protect us from fear and to guide us along. / / Yet we stand here tod

with the smell of flesh in fire / / as

Protestant , Catholic, turn and turn about / / burned one another in t

England, 1981 / England’s

proud barque, / / her captain mad, her crew in mutiny / / but bound

/ and high pipe, pretty and innocently

proud . / / But at such fêtes, that honour may be done / / duly to de

Pelopia and Thyestes

ts slow galleon-sails, / / writhes its

proud neck, / / as the attack / / of the quick-winged hounds, / / s

Heron and Gulls

ess with its gifts and pains, / / even

proud perhaps to suffer / / the flaunting symbol of a difference? /

remembered but not named, lest / / the

proud procession should wind on for ever: / / I have been, am ever, i

/ / a fourteen-year-old countess from

proud Spain, / / exchanged letters, friendship, with the aging author

th / / we ride the sunlight, swift and

proud . / / The wing-heeled boots, the crooked knife / / lent us to h

u in the lack of peace, / / itself may

prove a substitute for peace, / / a substitute for passion, for all p

/ he trusted had not failed him but had

proved / / themselves to him, as he to them was, true. / / It was th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / comes my taste for an ivory tower

provided , / / unlike some towers, with windows and a view.” / / My e

the bank-side / / a trim boat, rigged,

provisioned , lay at anchor. / / They had no notion where the river ra

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

mudge with a gleam / / of metal at the

prow . “A gondola; / / Laurence,” he said. No more than in a dream /

sea. Grown-ups lounge out / / from the

pub to drink on the wall / / or sit on the beach or walk, / / young

Climacteric by the Sea

earnt from them a view of history: / /

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

s of gold from an architrave block / /

PUBLIC LIBRARY winked with a welcoming gleam. / / Within, book in han

[The municipal building stood square in my dream]

tory: / / public affairs drift by with

public men, / / self-seeking or at sea, one-tracked, one-sided / / o

/ / No game, no streams, hardly a rain-

puddle ; / / and worst a hard blank grey sky over all / / (no trees t

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ My grandchildren are stamping the ice-

puddles , / / dirty and sometimes deep. Fountains of muddy / / water

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-

puddles ] / My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles, / / dirty a

[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]

istant, streaks a field / / with clear

puddles of gold. / / Two truths to accept / / with a crooked neighbo

slashed the throat / / blood stood in

puddles , slopped on grass and stone. / / The leader skirts these haza

Pelopia and Thyestes

r and straw-gold vanish / / in a silky

puff . / / Sweetness spreads about / / from hawthorn-conquering may.

need persuading. / / I took his hand,

pulled him down on the soft bed. / / Skin to bare skin our bodies flo

Spells and Love

nsed the air, / / came to himself, and

pulled himself together, / / saw with surprise that it was lovely wea

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

eurat leaned before. / / He leaned and

pulled his hand across his face: / / “the second darkness falls,” he

allowed down the tears of shame. / / I

pulled my hand across my face, weary, / / and through my limbs like w

—I caught and held it high, / / but he

pulled out his pistol / / and laid me where I lie. / / Friend, you’r

wine through water came / / my father

pulling his hand across his face / / —perhaps now at his desk doing t

ardness. / / But kind patience pushes,

pulls her to people. / / Caresses, words, make occasional contact. /

d; / / “not so life. Life is more than

pulse and breath, / / getting through days and years till one is dead

elt from your winter, / / the spring’s

pulse in the chilled earth wakening, / / which to returning cold reha

balance of things, the breath, / / the

pulse , the natural interlocking of death / / and life, with our unnat

ears on, / / blood cooler, quieted the

pulse’s roar, / / it drowses. Now among the smoke and stone / / the

Country and Town

e, with love, with mansoul. / / Now we

pump back poison from our panic deathwish, / / slip to lasting sleep

cut / / the offending hand away. More

punishment . / / They loved her though (as she loved them) and meant /

Eugénie de Guérin

r fingers fastened on. / / Twisted, no

purchase , she tugged pitifully, / / and then at last the naked blade

Pelopia and Thyestes

room, / / small-change for a cheapened

purchase . / / The seasons pass, the seasons come. / / One by one win

Dance of the Seasons

takes everything to itself and remains

pure . / / And if the sea has oil-slicks, the upper air / / mortal co

eless heritage / / for us to hand down

pure / / as we received it. / / That’s a delusion. / / While we dre

. Whatever happens now / / our love is

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

[Our lives are in other hands]

heel in one harmony about us here. / /

Pure light of the last sky that does not move / / is God, who moves t

rn-conquering may. / / The buttercup’s

purer gold / / puts the dandelion out, / / Children undress to bathe

Hot Bath at Bedtime / The Necessity of

Purgatory / Heaven I don’t covet. / / Timeless nothing’s enough. / /

A Hot Bath at Bedtime

ing on the Lord of Light / / not to be

purified / / but to be shown the way / / to vengeance—how repay? /

Pelopia and Thyestes

an / / for a sensual puritan, / / the

puritan in history / / and the sensualist I see / / hate most bitter

I, Who Know My Inner Man

ho know my inner man / / for a sensual

puritan , / / the puritan in history / / and the sensualist I see /

I, Who Know My Inner Man

the palace was hushed. / / Born in the

purple ? Well, not quite imperial— / / our stage is not so wide—but bo

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ng all her power. / / His strength and

purpose flowed and ebbed—now weak, / / now firm again, then suddenly

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / half turned; but not my guide. My

purpose froze. / / We went on, but I felt as we turned West / / that

no doubt, demonstrably / / for another

purpose . / / Marvellous marble hidden, / / the slums hidden behind,

Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening

her crew in mutiny / / but bound in no

purpose or unity, / / planks rotten, seams uncaulked, thin sails torn

r. / / That long-stretched neck, those

purposeful / / pinions, legend is lifted on. / /

moved rippling forward on the sea, / /

purposeful . Suddenly from the cliff-face swept / / a flight of white

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rent from / / hers, now from that long

purse spending / / blackberry-flowers in the bramble’s room, / / sma

Dance of the Seasons

riding through a death-sown plain, / /

pursued and pursuer—the talk at the watercourse— / / the tall son whi

/ But he escaped from the alley, / /

pursued by police and by the shopkeeper shouting / / a list of his cr

gh a death-sown plain, / / pursued and

pursuer —the talk at the watercourse— / / the tall son whistled down;

ontinently, / / noisomer ill, / / yet

pursues / / beauty, and is blest. / / For all our wickedness, / / o

iserably / / before the dark army / /

pursuing me. / / Threatening shadow / / on the horizon’s rim / / —b

ne, / / my feet struggling from my own

pursuing voices / / which broke in my own tears. / / I woke from tea

ct the planned return / / from logical

pursuit . / / Let the moment burn. / /

for a brief breathing, / / ceaselessly

pushed by the varying / / this way, that way, of the wind, / / thimb

Villon’s Epitaph

f a track, so overgrown… / / Still, he

pushed in, and once in the deep shade / / the overgrowth was thinner,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

dark, and silent to his knock. / / He

pushed the door and struck a light. No one. / / Empty the single room

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

heir inwardness. / / But kind patience

pushes , pulls her to people. / / Caresses, words, make occasional con

I bring him food, I bring him drink—he

pushes them away. / / I spread him blankets, pillows—“Sit up, your po

Greek Folk Song

e dogrose bush by the river’s edge / /

pushing its sprays out over the dark smooth water, / / marking my pla

al / / and one no longer cares / / to

put a rough thought into kinder words / / or keep it silent. And at a

Back Room, 1944

dence, / / spoke to her always gently,

put a stop / / to any funny stuff by the defence. / / The deadly kni

Change Places…

and din. But he was sure / / though he

put all his weight and strength and soul / / against the tiller, he w

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

t die, / / unable to eat / / anything

put before them, / / till someone saw the girl / / nibbling a hard g

The Green Children of Woolpit

And yet, we need a sense of sin / / to

put force in our will to virtue. / / Life is split like a migraine: /

in spring’s breath. / / Stripped trees

put green on. / / Not the felled one. / /

rn? The fact would come to him / / and

put his painted fantasies to flight / / leaving him sick, until he fl

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

n’s black frost poisoning the sun… / /

Put it as you will, / / the christening-sisters meant / / to give he

“Gale is Dead”

ed and I’ll be going soon / / —have to

put off getting married.” “It’s a hard life. / / Why can’t the bastar

alf a lifetime ago / / a thunder-flash

put out a glow / / and then / / another light was water-quenched. /

ncesses in the toils of sorcerers— / /

put out for dragons—in some wild distress. / / And always at the fata

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

dried blood from the aching place, / /

put the wet dress back on. She hid the sword, / / seeming to hide her

Pelopia and Thyestes

Beauty owes nothing: by having been has

put / / the world, rather, in debt. / /

e were lifted from a girl’s grave, / /

put there by friends, by her parents probably, / / to be there always

in the end love, / / when we’re really

put to it, / / brought to the final crunch, / / is the one thing tha

han love our enemies. Trust them. / / “

Put up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.” / /

Against Deterrents

Fair Exchange / Everything we love / /

puts on features of / / all that we loved before, / / and perhaps of

he seasons come. / / One by one winter

puts out the torches. / / The oak still holds its rust and the beech

Dance of the Seasons

y. / / The buttercup’s purer gold / /

puts the dandelion out, / / Children undress to bathe. / / My crooke

are here—the easy and the bright, / /

putting quick words to ready thought; / / the slow, the shy, the dull

orning, fit and fresh, the mystery / /

puzzled him of the empty room, stale food / / but other thoughts took

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

I woke from tears / / dry-eyed to the

puzzling presence of a dream. / /

nd. / / The shepherds of Parnes or the

Pyrenees / / are fetched to the ranks, and the frontier-posts are man