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Martin Robertson

Now and Then

Concordance

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

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

S

/ Wheatfields fired, a pleasant city’s
sack / / —these in the other scale-pan you must throw.  / / Record, s
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
, the other Emily / / —trees specially
sacred in the holy grove.  / / You that I’ve named, you that I’ve forg
Poetry
others formed beyond / / the grave.  ‘A
sacrifice , my love, my youth.’  / / Among these words the bleak fact o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a far-sighted steward / / may have to
sacrifice some bargains.  God’s / / terms, His best friends admit, are
The Betrayal
/ mark out a temenos, build an altar,
sacrifice / / there to Him of the sea.  / / He will accept it, / / f
Odysseus
inst the sense / / a reek of crowd and
sacrifice / / with blood and smoke, movement and noise.  / / The mome
Delos in Spring
/ the lovely Cyprus hills, raised that
sacrificial fire.  / /
Makherás
e lifts to a crucifix.  / / Form of the
sacrificial Man, / / drained of urgency and pain, / / timeworn image
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
girl of flesh they burned / / for her
sacrilege .  / /
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
ngs in the air / / are beautiful— / /
sad , an old tale, / / fable, romance…  / / False?  But there’s somethi
Heron and Gulls
mering, he blurted out / / “You looked
sad as you walked.  If I could do…”  / / He stopped; and she flushed to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
as not deceived.  / / Angry?  No.  Hardly
sad .  / / Beyond sadness and anger, / / but still the king, his maste
Finis
/ / not hopeful or afraid or sick, but
sad .  / / “ ‘But one day’ and he smiled ‘the prince will come.’  / / “
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mething is owed.  / / Do not be humble,
sad ; consider that / / your gifts are good and time is with you still
The Black-out
heir Parthenon endures; and thus shall,
sad , / / crowded cuttings in the rock endure; / / where now, out of
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
piny, treacherous stone, / / no gull’s
sad cry for company, alone.  / / No game, no streams, hardly a rain-pu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
dger and the hind, / / and with it the
sad facts.  Perhaps we all / / are schizophrenes in posse.  He for one
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
onging to have died, / / do not be too
sad / / for those whose flame was blown out while they had / / unfla
Whom the Gods Love
ther.  “There was something sad, / / so
sad .  Just what it was I never knew.  / / But he would talk about the f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s old / / body.  I yield, / / a little
sad .  / / Not very.  I’ve had / / a good day; now at evening aware /
[The track up the wild stream]
destal alone.  / / “You came towards me
sad ,” she said, “with flapping / / aimlessly certain feet, as you hav
The Black-out
are sunk to mud.  How should one not be
sad / / since we must all go under with the green?”  / / Words found
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ven to her mother.  “There was something
sad , / / so sad.  Just what it was I never knew.  / / But he would tal
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
powerless love, / / and was silent and
sad .  The princess sighed / / and a small bitter wind sighed through t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uilding now.”  “I will” / / I answered,
sad ; then heard: “our way lies on,” / / turned, saw my guide, and tur
The Black-out
according to our mood / / and mine was
sad today.  / / I turned away / / and another omen rose in front of m
Omens
rom it— / / damn her, don’t let anyone
saddle me with that.  / / With a wife like she is I shouldn’t half /
Love Scene
lusively; / / Margot Fonteyn dances at
Sadler’s Wells / / and Sally Gilmour at the Mercury.  / / Greatness p
The Black-out
ldren’s lives / / are subject too.  And
sadly we know ourselves / / foolish often, sometimes wicked as well,
[Our lives are in other hands]
/ / Angry?  No.  Hardly sad.  / / Beyond
sadness and anger, / / but still the king, his master to be obeyed.  /
Finis
ments recalling / / story and dream…  A
sadness in your silence / / recalls me to mounded sand.  A windy morro
For Rachel
smiled / / thinking of her who now was
safe at home.  / / And then smote on his ears the full, strange sound
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
again, / / and knew himself alive and
safely beached / / out of the sea.  He heaved up on his hands, / / st
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ught / Deserts are somewhere else.  / /
Sahara , Arizona, Gobi, / / back of Australian bush.  / / We are growt
Drought
The strongest beauty of all when all is
said .  / /
Dance of the Seasons
st as Steward?  / / It was, when all is
said , a cheating question.  / / The head He had them show Him was, no
The Betrayal
o.  / / “Daughter of dear Amphimedo”, I
said , / / “(a fine woman she was—pity she’s dead), / / there are ple
Love Scene
/ on a spring face?  She really can’t be
said / / a pretty girl / / precisely, rather a cleverly remade / /
Song
e.  / / Life makes our life, for all we
said ; / / and looking back on it we see / / less what we made than w
Cedar
r’s woods, your mother” / / she almost
said ‘and me’ but slipped another / / phrase in in time “and make som
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d crushed / / died.  Eighty years, they
said , and more he’d been / / about the place, coming a stranger boy. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ollowed in Greece.  / / “Such light,” I
said , “and more the full moon shed / / when caught by night my second
The Black-out
/ / done all in order as the witch had
said , / / and now, sitting over the blood-filled trench, / / the her
Odysseus
ight, angular figure.  / / “And you?”  I
said ; and she: “you know me well.  / / The moor’s loneliness and the w
The Black-out
” / / “At its brightest this month” he
said , and showed me how / / working up from the moon, off to the righ
A Hoard
/ / stance his long steps.  “But he” I
said , and sought her / / eyes, “is in Cambridge.”  “I am in the ground
The Black-out
d the dead man / / how he groaned, and
said / / “Are you a Turk?  Trample me then, / / foul me if you’re a J
A Ballad
and asked if he was going far.  / / He
said “As far as Golgotha.”  / / And then I knew and the cock crew.  /
Quo Vadis
e threw him.  He rose, looked round, and
said / / “Beautiful are the cornfields, white to reaping.  / / I will
Gunnar of Lithend
network of twigs, and knew that all was
said .  / / Before I looked again I knew her gone; / / then looked, an
The Black-out
ve may be, I suppose, / / as some have
said , born blind, / / but when his kitten-eyes unclose / / some peop
Epithalamium
right for you.”  / / That was what she
said but I can talk too.  / / “Daughter of dear Amphimedo”, I said, /
Love Scene
d, Law Hill—exile and prison,” / / she
said , “but sometimes on the windy hill / / of home I felt no less a p
The Black-out
m not all that I am capable of,” / / I
said , “but what you want I cannot be.  / / Elsewhere my road.  But that
The Black-out
She liked his love (no word of love was
said / / by either) but she felt there too that he / / took passivel
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he came near.  / / “Oh what a moon,” he
said .  “By such a shine / / we first saw Florence resting in the clear
The Black-out
man I knew but could not name.  / / He
said “Good morning”, I the same / / and asked if he was going far.  /
Quo Vadis
/ home, but smiled as she turned, and
said good night…  / / How can one love and not be understood?  / / He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ch, much more, than she could ever have
said .  / / He almost felt he was the forester, / / had lived all this
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
by going away…  / / Could I?…  But only
said :  “How can I go?  / / My mother needs me here.  I cannot choose.”  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ls or waitings cease.  / / “Martin” she
said , “how goes your pilgrimage?”  / / No remembered, no memory-wakeni
The Black-out
tween two shadowed cliffs sunlit, which
said / / ‘I am your way’ (if butterflies can speak, / / why not moun
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the fairy’s promise—that was what he
said .  / / I don’t know what he meant.”  When he won in / / at last to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
as before, / / he kissed his wife and
said / / “I must go fight again, / / who once believed they could be
Presage
the world.  / / “Oh God, I’m tired” she
said .  / / “I wish I were dead.”  / /
Mariana in Miniature
de, unhoped for helper sent me,” / / I
said , “I would of all have chosen you.  / / Through different worlds w
The Black-out
/ / She smiled: “this is no loss,” she
said .  “If you / / had stepped in too, you would have lost your way; /
The Black-out
/ the planet Mercury?”  / / “I would” I
said .  “I’ve wanted to all my life, / / which is quite a long time now
A Hoard
or, but drew / / back as another voice
said :  “Mama, no; / / there isn’t room for him.”  And it was true; / /
The Black-out
/ than any life has time to dream,” he
said .  / / “Many, many the things I meant, and few / / I made; and mu
The Black-out
rmed anew.  / / “Speak to him,” gravely
said my guide; and I / / “many have I honoured, many loved, but none,
The Black-out
he prow.  “A gondola; / / Laurence,” he
said .  No more than in a dream / / surprised, I listened to the faint
The Black-out
” / / Have loved.  Say that, and all is
said .  / / “Not all.  What else?”  / / Have seen under the wind and sun
Interrogation
is chokes and sputters ended, the nurse
said , / / not in the tears she looked for but in laughter.  / / Later
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
“Death is itself and asks no more,” she
said ; / / “not so life.  Life is more than pulse and breath, / / gett
The Black-out
is / / truth but not flesh,” my guide
said ; “not the scene / / which nicely rounds so many wishful stories,
The Black-out
/ / touched emptiness.  What Emily had
said / / of hope seemed nothing to me now that she / / was gone; I h
The Black-out
lease from work, and that was / / (you
said ) relief.  We made plans.  / / You felt I had failed you / / profo
For Cecil
e; / / there was no room for me if she
said so.  / / “Au revoir.”  “Au revoir.”  I shut the door.  / / They wen
The Black-out
t.”  / / “Lovely—an exile to desire,” I
said .  / / “So stands the moon over Vathý, and bright / / the harbour
The Black-out
than that.”  / / “And on my side,” she
said , “something is owed.  / / Do not be humble, sad; consider that /
The Black-out
ent and opened the door.  And there, she
said , / / stood a young forester.  Utterly worn out / / he looked, an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Ophelia to Miranda:  / / “I have not
said that.”  / /
Dialogue
earing hurry, to garland that house, he
said .  / / That’s what my friend told me, and she’s trustworthy.  / /
Spells and Love
/ / any good reason but because, they
said , / / the fingers of a princess were not meant / / for needlewor
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rrupted lover / / of earth and air,” I
said , “the grime that palls / / this town must choke you more than me
The Black-out
a hundred years’ turned to a voice.  She
said / / “The hundred years’ sleep was not all I gave.  / / “My gift
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he ground, / / cold bones in Haworth,”
said the parson’s daughter; / / “he is in Cambridge, talking, sleepin
The Black-out
og / / lies not quite where the others
said .  / / (The seaman casts his thought ahead, / / but sandbanks shi
Lost
e: / / “the second darkness falls,” he
said , “the war / / recurring like a nightmare or a fever.  / / Yet wh
The Black-out
n the other side, / / rejected, black,
said / / “These she shall have.  But they shall be no use.”  / / Dress
“Gale is Dead”
Moon.  / / At last I made my mind up.  I
said to my slave / / “Thestylis, you must find me the cure for this. 
Spells and Love
d of country peace—she ought, / / they
said , to rest in woods and upland air, / / and so…  He went to bed und
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Over beyond the river / / the children
said / / was the shine of sunlight, / / on their side was shade.  /
The Green Children of Woolpit
og / / lies not quite where the others
said .  / / Watery mud-holes suck and clog / / and to our vision’s lim
Lost
/ and filthy habits which, the father
said , / / were driving him and her mother nearly mad.  / / The neighb
Law Report
s is in love.  / / She wasn't sure, she
said , whether it was a woman / / or a man, but all the evening he kep
Spells and Love
d crossed the stream, he could not have
said why, / / to where the beach-curve ended at the steep / / rock. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ne.  / / “You came towards me sad,” she
said , “with flapping / / aimlessly certain feet, as you have done /
The Black-out
till is yours, and mine through you,” I
said ,    / / “with memory that no despair can blast / / and beauty i
The Black-out
ouch, turned homeward.  The hag, nothing
said / / worked steadily, but as he left, again / / lifted her eyes
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er country.  / / The waste, the loss we
said .  / / Yes, but how bright and brave / / the flag at the mast hea
Five Poems for Roni
one build on one / / spring song?” she
said .  “You never offered me / / relationship—only an inner-grown / /
The Black-out
t frescoes stand.”  “Your Italy,” / / I
said , “your frescoes, all through you are mine.  / / Through you I hav
The Black-out
what?  Go back?  / / A gust bellied the
sail , and then strengthened.  / / He moved the tiller automatically /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ip again.  Yes, take ship again / / and
sail distance and days, / / beach on an unknown shore.  / / Then take
Odysseus
ss the small-boat anchorage / / to the
sail -flecked harbour.  Clear, still evening light.  / / Stillness undis
Content
he led her on, / / weighed anchor, set
sail .  Many days are lost / / through which they dreamed their way alo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
man, to serve a lifetime / / under the
sail of poetry / / —the old moon in the new moon’s arms, / / the lit
Poetry
a white whale, / / legend and life, by
sail / / or steam or dream driven, / / criss-cross the seas.  / / Th
The Sea
whom he must love and hate, / / would
sail perforce upon some other mark— / / her fated prince, a hundred y
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s laughter / / takes the wind from his
sail / / the moment after.  / / Hamlet, faltering / / on a split hai
Catharsis
tight by his ear-blocked company, / /
sailed on.  The Sirens dropped and drowned, / / the story says.  But no
The Sirens
enclosed his world.  / / For years he’d
sailed the bay and the bare reaches / / clear of the heads, for saili
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a galaxy / / one of uncounted galaxies
sailing space.  / / Perhaps / / these huge galaxies are only atoms /
Credo
re reaches / / clear of the heads, for
sailing’s sake alone, / / his mind content to mark the cliffs and bea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
was utterly still.  / / He dropped the
sails and lashed the tiller.  Dressed / / and wrapped up in a rug he s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed way, / / our planks are rotten, our
sails are gossamer…  / / But dark is unaware of the truths of day.  /
Voyage
and stiff.  / / Then they gave too, the
sails slumped to the floor.  / / Now he could keep her more into the w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ planks rotten, seams uncaulked, thin
sails torn, / / drifts shuddering in the gloom / / of the increasing
England, 1981
/ The heron manoeuvres its slow galleon-
sails , / / writhes its proud neck, / / as the attack / / of the qui
Heron and Gulls
wn star.  / / Jailbird, killer?… martyr-
saint ?  / / Just such fatal polarities, / / false as this, his life c
George Jackson
/ / clear of the heads, for sailing’s
sake alone, / / his mind content to mark the cliffs and beaches / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ur failure; / / not least, for our own
sake , / / what we are doing to nature as we love her; / / but need n
Buttercups
k them, lady Moon.  / / My colour faded—
sallow as a dead leaf.  / / My hair fell out and my body thinned away
Spells and Love
nteyn dances at Sadler’s Wells / / and
Sally Gilmour at the Mercury.  / / Greatness perhaps there is; but I w
The Black-out
Lady into Fox /
Sally Gilmour dancing / The lady of the house / / shrinks from a shri
Lady into Fox
st again.  / / He retched, and felt the
salt and bitter gulf / / get him hard by the throat again.  He retched
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
too.  The fire-in-ice / / and the harsh
salt combined almost to choke him.  / / He struggled out.  Soon, rested
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
isiting loves, cheek will be cold, / /
salt from sea-wind.  / /
Out from the Cliff
structure, form.  / / Within this same
salt tide / / the other end of time / / saw life begin.  / / Beetle
The Sea
, / / while he wrenched at the sheets,
salted and stiff.  / / Then they gave too, the sails slumped to the fl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hurry time.  / / The sea-edge solution,
salty , bloodwarm, / / lay quick with life, with love, with mansoul.  /
Full Circle
s in the garden—made her journal / / a
sampler that does not fade.  / /
Eugénie de Guérin
Later one lodged at Perachora, from the
sanctuary / / below the lighthouse on the rocky promontory / / looks
Bury My Heart
s the sand and water.  / / Look, on the
sand a small way from the water / / a child is building, wrapped in p
For Rachel
your silence / / recalls me to mounded
sand .  A windy morrow / / shakes the crystal bubble about the children
For Rachel
ed, secreted, / / strained through the
sand and rich soil of our lives, / / and all those lives of others /
Becoming
hildren / / as gull to gull across the
sand and water.  / / Look, on the sand a small way from the water / /
For Rachel
morrow / / will smooth back into beach-
sand ; as shrill calling / / of child or bird leaves the next moment e
For Rachel
past or morrow, / / at work alone on a
sand -castle, or calling / / another to see some trove dredged from th
For Rachel
upon this coast.  / / She sat where the
sand ceased against the rock, / / an old, bowed woman, busily engaged
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ He plunged in where the water met the
sand , / / dropped in the shallows—kneeling, drank and drank / / (the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t across a plain / / many days more to
sand -dunes and the sea.  / / He knew then the two rivers were the same
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e these cliffs, those cliffs, curb that
sand -edged plain?  / / He groped.  A glimmer, sinking.  If it fails, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the cleft now.  / / He looked along the
sand / / for something for his love—a love-gift and / / a proof that
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ to stalking gulls slow-pecking on the
sand , / / getting quite close before he loosed the string, / / the o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
For Rachel / Above the sea and the wide
sand gulls fly calling / / or walk far out by the ripples’ edge, wher
For Rachel
ll he bled.  Beyond, below / / the soft
sand , he rejoined the mountain-stream, / / turned and began the climb
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lashes—held his gaze.  / / Still on the
sand he sat, in the cool wind, / / while time passed and the sun went
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
thering, trailing across the empty / /
sand , in evening’s awareness of tomorrow.  / / Brief wind ruckles gull
For Rachel
up, a clear image: miles of sea-washed
sand , / / miles, days—crossed by a river hard to cross, / / and clos
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd stoops to the sea.  / / Cliff, rock,
sand , pebble beach, / / yielding or hard / / throw back the wild /
The Sea
es / / to lose themselves, or break on
sand , / / rock, shingle—continent or island, / / coasts lost down ba
Shipwreck
half a day’s walking brought him to the
sand — / / soft sand which rose in a long rampart, crowned / / with c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rising to a mountain, to a range, / /
sand stretched out from the flat green plain.  The change / / in land-
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ but in cold fear.  He sat down on the
sand , / / tried to clean out the shell but cracked it—would / / glad
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
These posts which stud / / the sterile
sand / / were a ship once, / / as swift and beautiful / / at least
A Wreck
/ / / A child cartwheels by me on the
sand / / where my steps now are staid and heavy.  / / Not that I was
Climacteric by the Sea
king brought him to the sand— / / soft
sand which rose in a long rampart, crowned / / with coarse grass—pric
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tokens of his birth / / (the cap, the
sandals , and the sword) / / rot unclaimed under the stone.  / /
Dark Age
was shut, but not the second.  / / Down
sandbag -narrowed steps I reached the glare, / / but swift a sanded fi
The Black-out
eaman casts his thought ahead, / / but
sandbanks shift under the fog / / giving the lie to chart and log.) /
Lost
ater, / / unaware as waves almost, the
sanded children / / dot like sea-birds, sea-shells, the beach, that e
For Rachel
s I reached the glare, / / but swift a
sanded figure from his work / / turned and forbade me right of entran
The Black-out
reach / / with their spread of softer-
sanded , spear-grassed dunes / / miles away to the rivers of Barnstapl
Bury My Heart
er side.  / / He had the measure of the
sands by now.  / / His feet were sounder, and he husbanded / / the li
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ looks out to Lundy or along the long
sands which reach / / with their spread of softer-sanded, spear-grass
Bury My Heart
m.  Miles to his left stretched the cold
sands .  / / With painful care he worked round to his right.  / / The c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pink thrift / / in short grass on low
sandstone cliffs, / / long low black rocks enclosing / / clear pools
Bury My Heart
n the coast / / the rock-piled and the
sandy promontory / / alike in his foreshortened vision lost.  / / The
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
beside us of St. Pancras’ Church, whose
sane / / classical stillness calmed the aimless flow / / of gall.  Fr
The Black-out
derstanding, / / wept—and love blessed
sang —and both were love.  / / Was there an end?  / / Or a beginning?  C
Winter Solstice
not the home truths though.  / / A bird
sang from a bough / / and drowsing I began / / to lose my thoughts,
Hebona
d struck / / and hurled him down.  Life
sang from a far tree.  / / Horrible pain, sickness and horrible pain /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d the twang, / / snatches of what they
sang , / / “Goddess, be good to us”, / / knew his polluted state / /
Pelopia and Thyestes
ed and sang, my brother] / We lived and
sang , my brother, / / and watched the days go by, / / and when death
[We lived and sang, my brother]
[We lived and
sang , my brother] / We lived and sang, my brother, / / and watched th
[We lived and sang, my brother]
The Sirens / You wonder what the sirens
sang ?  / / “Once the delicious sexual ache / / bursts in its paradisa
The Sirens
hat did you do / / in summer?”  / / “I
sang .”  / / “Then dance the winter through.”  / / The courtiers of Kin
La Fontaine et le Déluge
and, I looked down at a page / / which
sang to me likewise in letters of gold / / “If it’s hell to be young
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
/ crawled out again, heavy and dizzy,
sank / / down on the beach.  / / Later, killed, cooked and ate / / a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ircle / / in the last light, before it
sank in the lake.  / /
Finis
pread: / / seas and rivers, all water,
sap , blood, / / all springs of earth and life dried soon, / / leavin
Stones
d every year “This is the end.  / / The
sap has ceased to rise” we think.  / / “Lay an axe to that brittle bol
Renewal
this along the river.  / / How can the
sap rise?  / / How does the tree live?  / / The living spirit, as beau
Five Poems for Roni
eem (though without roots, / / without
sap , / / their greenness not their own), / / seem the trees, almost,
A Wreck
one his business and was gone.  / / She
sat a long time on the stony ground, / / the naked sword across her n
Pelopia and Thyestes
nife-twist in the heart.  / / Rapt Mary
sat and drank all he could give.  / / Martha was tired and cross and s
The Two Ways
wisdom / / I felt, good wisdom.  / / I
sat contented at his feet / / on the midnight Acropolis / / listenin
Homage
, the rake, then lowered his eyes, / /
sat down on the bed beside me, and began / / “I was coming, Simaetha.
Spells and Love
the princess / / but in cold fear.  He
sat down on the sand, / / tried to clean out the shell but cracked it
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Pietà / The Mother
sat , her dead Son on her knees, / / white-glowing marble wrought / /
Pietà
eld his gaze.  / / Still on the sand he
sat , in the cool wind, / / while time passed and the sun went low beh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
alone, / / alone much longer moved and
sat .  / / In time there came another one / / who loved her dearly tho
Ballad
the taste.  / / He crawled out gasping,
sat there in the sun / / and dreamed of the princess, and watched the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e shadows among which I stood.  / / She
sat there on a low bough, her legs hanging, / / swinging a wide hat,
The Black-out
elf not alone upon this coast.  / / She
sat where the sand ceased against the rock, / / an old, bowed woman,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lessed God for a soul rescued / / from
Satan’s siege.  / / But the girl of flesh they burned / / for her sac
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
e moon, to Mars, / / to a peradventure
satellite (faster, faster) / / of Alpha Centauri (faster), of some gu
Curvature of Space
t be given?  / / Or did not think?  Well
satisfied , the five / / stand round and look down at the gifted bud. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rather, not many, but so good, / / so
satisfying , enough’s irrelevant— / / after the last leaf follows its
[Golden, red, brown]
time we started drinking / / early on
Saturday / / and went on over Sunday / / and never stopped all day. 
A Ballad
ivering under the Scorpion’s tail, / /
Saturn’s black frost poisoning the sun…  / / Put it as you will, / /
“Gale is Dead”
s flowering, / / red mullet and tomato
sauce , and sun; / / my love burned high then, but the answering / /
The Black-out
ley to Sulham woods; / / the second at
Saunton —wind-washed pink thrift / / in short grass on low sandstone c
Bury My Heart
Iken looks / / from a low cliff, like
Saunton’s but topped with oaks, / / out over grey shining water, grey
Bury My Heart
now shred it and toss the shreds on the
savage fire.  / / …O Love, harsh Eros, why do you cling so hard?  / /
Spells and Love
s still love.  / / Loving, being loved,
save / / from total withering.  / / But this distortion of / / self
Touch
/ out, crying out “Louise, Louise, / /
save me”.  / / Twelve-year-old Louise adored / / wicked little Carly
Vignette
ams’ yearning / / whom he must somehow
save .  The vision rose / / blotting the world out with its otherness. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
an absolute cold light / / to sink or
save us…  / / Or / / to be sent bach— / / another life, down or up t
Balance Sheet
w it away.  / / I didn’t want to, but I
saved my skin.  Good-bye / / that shield.  I shall get one no worse qui
Two Songs of a Mercenary
diment of his jealousy, / / the bright
saviour whom he must love and hate, / / would sail perforce upon some
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d soon across the pearled / / water we
saw a black smudge with a gleam / / of metal at the prow.  “A gondola;
The Black-out
ugh the tree; I raised my head / / and
saw a few faint stars across the loose / / network of twigs, and knew
The Black-out
ug of water.  Down / / in one corner he
saw a few hides spread.  / / He did not wait his host—drank and fell t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ther I oughtn’t / / soon to go back, I
saw a little ahead / / a single dogrose bush by the river’s edge / /
Omens
aming.  Is it a dream?  / / I turned and
saw a little way off a bench, / / a man and a woman sitting on it, el
A Hoard
des of gain and loss.  / / This year we
saw a shining being enter, / / like any other year, the darkening win
Winter Solstice
he men’s and women’s lavatories, / / I
saw a tall girl, and not yet drawn close / / knew Molly and stood sti
The Black-out
bsent sun / / cease, be gone.  / / And
saw begin / / out of the same darkness strangely growing / / with wa
Winter Solstice
slumber.  When the sun / / woke him, he
saw by the cold ashes spread / / two water-bottles and a woodman’s bo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in Son, / / God in man.  / / The Greek
saw / / clearer, truer, / / when he knew / / long ago / / in sun’s
Divinity
he said.  “By such a shine / / we first
saw Florence resting in the clear / / after-heat dusk of summer’s fir
The Black-out
lled with light, / / and hurrying down
saw half-unconsciously / / the castle ruined.  But she was there in si
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
all his pain in hate.  / / And then he
saw her eyes and knew his error / / and dropped the knife and backed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
f my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / I
saw him, and my wits left me.  My wretched heart / / caught fire.  I mu
Spells and Love
urned my head.  In the same place / / I
saw him lean where Seurat leaned before.  / / He leaned and pulled his
The Black-out
year / / before one summer’s long day
saw him there.  / / Staring from it, not back but far ahead, / / he g
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / the unseasoned heart.  Sidelong she
saw him wait, / / gaze patiently.  She frowned, but turned to him / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n a blood-red field of Spain;” / / who
saw his way among all possible ways / / and taking it did not look ba
The Black-out
ng (he had not slept / / nights, days)
saw —in a dream?— / / a girl come to the stream / / and strip herself
Pelopia and Thyestes
and looking out into the dawn sky / /
saw in the broken, brightening western cloud / / and shared with me /
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
at it with unseeing eyes.  / / Then she
saw it, and knew it, and there found / / a truth she dare not meet.  T
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ separately made.  / / Before I even
saw it / / I trod right on the head, / / and then I heard the dead m
A Ballad
hands, / / steadied his swimming head,
saw it was night, / / a moon—behind, the bright sea under it, / / an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lt tide / / the other end of time / /
saw life begin.  / / Beetle and man, / / grass and cedar, climbed to
The Sea
turned from the waiting water / / and
saw my brother moving towards our / / stance his long steps.  “But he”
The Black-out
heard: “our way lies on,” / / turned,
saw my guide, and turned again.  The chill / / wind seemed among my bo
The Black-out
ster, / / fast to the sea—and sudden I
saw new, / / as out of cloud, the moon; as hanging over / / Croyde B
The Black-out
/ / of rainbow-varied domes which, he
saw now, / / her knife had shaved.  She raised her head and eyed / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rhaps away / / heavily travelling.  And
saw one day / / beyond the ribbon a faint shadow rise / / which brok
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
artin Luther, dead and gone, / / alive
saw something he must do / / and left it very thoroughly done.  / / A
Thoughts on the Lavatory
ed / / back to the first (this he less
saw than reckoned) / / bounding the plain, and the small kingdom too.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / face as she drew the memory up, he
saw / / the beach, the river, with those other eyes, / / the boy’s a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e river running furiously / / outward,
saw the forester’s ignorance / / (inland bred), waited for the turnin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hing put before them, / / till someone
saw the girl / / nibbling a hard green / / cast-out shell.  / / Coax
The Green Children of Woolpit
/ / so lost a crime?  / / But someone
saw the girl / / with her apron-full.  / / They follow her to the fie
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
/ I stepped out of my thoughts / / and
saw the grass road straight between dark hedges / / patchworked with
The Grass Road
y exhaustion to a moment’s rest / / he
saw the little tunnel he had made / / in the vast mass.  It was imposs
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t morning from that valley-head / / he
saw the mountain—a tall flat-topped peak / / between two shadowed cli
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hen I rose again / / out of the pit, I
saw the portico / / beside us of St. Pancras’ Church, whose sane / /
The Black-out
wide / / Embankment to the bridge, and
saw the reach / / of river, silver at the full of tide.  / / “East fr
The Black-out
/ Walking in the darkening dusk / / I
saw the thinnest sliver of a new moon, / / a day or two only, tilted
A Hoard
/ But Hector, heaving out of bed, / /
saw under the three-thousandth day / / the ships along the shore, /
Presage
self, and pulled himself together, / /
saw with surprise that it was lovely weather, / / felt with surprise
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ not one of mine, or any of ours I’d
say .”  / / “A month ago…  That’s what became of her.  / / How’s your fa
On the Border
solve and rest.”  She smiled: “did I not
say / / Anabel sent me?  Do not fear the wind / / has failed me of my
The Black-out
cry Hail Caesar.”  / / That He did not
say .  But by setting Caesar / / over against God He allowed the questi
The Betrayal
keep me with you that way.  / / I don’t
say / / don’t grieve.  Of course you will.  But share / / what matters
A poem you may like to see
sen and come down / / I hear my mother
say / / “Each caught leaf promises a happy day / / next year”.  / /
[Golden, red, brown]
years.  / / How does it feel when they
say good-bye for good?  / / No, I see no tears, / / but a sharpening
What Do They Feel?
ifferent really.  Those we hate, / / we
say , hate us (no doubt they do) so we / / hate them.  And that hatred’
Choice
een born before, / / young man,” she’d
say .  He crowed again and grinned.  / / And once when a great wind-gust
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
’t weep at the play / / or someone may
say / / “He’s no self-control.”  / / This respectable curse / / is l
Merrie England
age, / / but now we take a new hero—or
say / / him rebegotten by the fairy’s word?  / / A prince—the same or
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sit by him and chatter—not a word he’ll
say .  / / I bring him food, I bring him drink—he pushes them away.  /
Greek Folk Song
rought.  I give it now, / / and who can
say if that’s the better gift / / or the lost sleep among the bush an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / but stole, perhaps, and died, they
say in gaol.) / / Their Parthenon endures; and thus shall, sad, / /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
/ —“And if you had let me in (and they
say I’m handsome / / and trim as any young man) that would have been
Spells and Love
me / Distance / ‘The enemy’ / / people
say , / / meaning Time.  / / Enemy indeed he tends to seem: / / longe
Two Poems from a New Life
t country faded / / the story does not
say , / / nor whether her children / / were common girls and boys /
The Green Children of Woolpit
ast of that sort).  / / We only mean to
say , perhaps:  / / Reason’s steps / / are too stiff for life’s path,
Uncertain
He sighed.  Easy, he thought, for her to
say .  / / She does not know (he thought she did not know) / / the bon
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he’s alone, give him a sign, / / then
say ‘Simaetha’s waiting’, and bring him here.”  / / That’s what I told
Spells and Love
(resentment worse perhaps, but hard to
say / / since each carries the other at its core) / / pollute love,
[Feelings of guilt]
, what have you done?”  / / Have loved. 
Say that, and all is said.  / / “Not all.  What else?”  / / Have seen u
Interrogation
eds of small dwellings.  / / Here, they
say , / / the poor of Attica, herded in / / between the long walls, l
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
s surely right / / but wrong surely to
say / / the traffic is one-way.  / / Sex lends her delight / / to ev
Fair Exchange
dirty creature?  / / Strew them on, and
say “These are Delphis’s bones I’m strewing”.  / / Draw him, bird-whee
Spells and Love
ite forget them, as once in Naxos, they
say , / / Theseus forgot Ariadne for all her beauty.  / / Draw him, bi
Spells and Love
mother nearly mad.  / / The neighbours
say :  We knew that she was dying— / / skin, bone and scared eyes, movi
Law Report
blushed.  The thousand things he had to
say / / went from his mind, water from a cracked pot.  / / Pitying bu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
epped out of a train / / of shamblers,
saying “how can you stand apart, / / if you have ever let the reasoni
The Black-out
wind?  / / Is it the wind, is it love,
saying / / “The year’s end is the year’s beginning, / / one in time—
Winter Solstice
ydney's death / / is mythical, someone
says .  / / But living he earned this / / beautiful crown of myth, /
Caring
ens dropped and drowned, / / the story
says .  But not for long.  / / They soar to Lucy in the sky / / with di
The Sirens
And Then / And then / / never, it
says , he never smiled again.  / / I doubt it, though; / / or were it
And Then
olours” as / / Felicia Dorothea Hemans
says / / “round his breast on a blood-red field of Spain;” / / who s
The Black-out
days / / you will meet a man / / who
says “That’s a funny kind of winnowing-fan.”  / / Plant the oar in the
Odysseus
/ / which whipped his body with their
scalding flail.  / / The noon was darkness, and the terrible coast /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bach— / / another life, down or up the
scale , / / again, again, again, until / / our beterness prevail / /
Balance Sheet
nt city’s sack / / —these in the other
scale -pan you must throw.  / / Record, since you’re recording, all you
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
nowing at all / / if that can help the
scalepan fall.  / / To stand before a judgement-seat / / and hear jus
Balance Sheet
/ yet should he cease to prey / / the
scales would tip one way.  / / There is a balance in things / / subtl
Ecology
minster to the mined sea, / / who know
Scamander and the windy plain.  / / We hold a double talisman—are free
The Black-out
ent to mark the cliffs and beaches / /
scanned by the eye, the seen one with the known.  / / But now (he was,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tranced his hearing, as the featureless
scape — / / blues and greens melting in each other, fretted / / with
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o Christians can make Caesar / / their
scapegoat .  Might we, though, construe the steward / / (a clever thoug
The Betrayal
The Rift / for Matthew / The
scar -lips of the wounded wood / / watch the sleek sweep of the road. 
The Rift
/ and press towards a hope.  The exile’s
scar / / now throbs to agony.  Now kiss and play / / couched where th
May Day
rom them.  Unhappiness hides the genuine
scar / / under some other likely-seeming thing; / / you know not eve
The Black-out
wounds of violence / / but leave their
scar , who work on brain and heart / / to fuse our sensibility and sen
Prayer to Time
e with joy the love of Zeus / / should
scarce expect affection from his wife.  / /
To Hera
d the warm.  / / A few tears formed but
scarcely fell.  / / She bound the bracelet on his arm.  / / Plaited in
Ballad
ace again / / each feature’s line, and
scarcely tried; such peace / / flowed over me to have her there as wh
The Black-out
that she was dying— / / skin, bone and
scared eyes, moving like a mouse / / in the dusk of walls, craved scr
Law Report
erly like a bird.  / / Twittering light-
scared thing, / / blind but unfalteringly / / aware of its black way
Bat
busily engaged.  / / Black dress, black
scarf over her bent head, black / / thick gauntlets on her hands.  Mos
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r of steel / / at the roots of life, a
scarlet flood— / / and other hands, quiet, soothing the head, / / ve
Block 21
burning like snow.  / / Green, violet,
scarlet , scattered free, / / and blue, shadow of burning blue / / ab
Delos in Spring
is, / / and the stuff for spells.  Wind
scarlet wool round the bowl.  / / I’m going to bind my man to me, my h
Spells and Love
rom wounds of spite and chance / / the
scars but be itself again.  / / Grey boughs beneath the perished leaf
Hymn
like snow.  / / Green, violet, scarlet,
scattered free, / / and blue, shadow of burning blue / / above, echo
Delos in Spring
lift / / and their trilling is mostly
scattered , lost in / / defeating gusts, but comes in bright bursts as
Two Poems from a New Life
nother Summer / Roses in the hedge / /
scattered prodigally, / / eye and heart filled.  / / Poetry?  / / Thi
Another Summer
iving precinct made / / this beauty of
scattered skeleton, / / desolation of shining stone.  / / No past thr
Delos in Spring
widening intervals the wind / / drowns
scattered voices.  / / By star and compass these as one / / kept thei
Shipwreck
ere, on what wing / / (whole) or wind (
scattered ) whither—not a thing.  / / Yet peace, that keeps her nest un
Dulce et Decorum
only blows it higher.  / / Sparks, wind-
scattered wide, dropped on what’s thin / / and dry, blaze against the
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
re summer and spring have strayed, / /
scattering as she hurries her coloured riches.  / / Day by day, as the
Dance of the Seasons
ent form, a dolphin curving clear, / /
scattering diamonds.  Man was born to hope).  / /
Advent
th of spring, / / till chesnut-blossom
scattering heralds again / / the hedge-rose and the solstice’s return
Sixtieth Summer
iff birds wheel wild, a white / / fan,
scattering wide over the water, / / dwindling, lost.  / / Fledged pre
Out from the Cliff
ks towards death, in bed / / above the
scavenged garden).  / /
Revisited
/ / repeated the repeated, the unique
scene , / / canopied the still trolley, trundled in / / with girl or
Block 21
could recall / / all his long age the
scene —clear as a dream / / and, like a dream, framed in obscurity.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Love
Scene / from the Greek of Archilochus / “… but if you’re in a hurry an
Love Scene
but not flesh,” my guide said; “not the
scene / / which nicely rounds so many wishful stories, / / where boy
The Black-out
n Piccadilly in the black-out.  / / The
scented aura and soft ‘hullo, dearie’ / / offered the troubled flesh
The Black-out
From every hedge lightly the rose / /
scentless , ephemeral and wild / / prodigal to all passing throws / /
Summer
hrows upon / / her basic monotone / /
scents , colours, notes, the whole / / dream-treasury of the soul.  /
Fair Exchange
not tread your turf, or snuff / / your
scents —nor, as from Pisgah, know / / that others after shall do so.  /
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
Scheme / A word, a gust / / of wind, and our delightful plan is dust.
Scheme
/ / Oh plan no more the exact, unreal
scheme , / / no more live by the dream, / / the light that lies and b
Scheme
the sad facts.  Perhaps we all / / are
schizophrenes in posse.  He for one / / showed the cleft now.  / / He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
colonial buildings.  / / These serious
scholars , teachers / / were also beautiful.  / / I felt the presence
Grace
/ Alex Morell, Hans Scholl, / / Sophie
Scholl .  / /
Die Weisse Rose
/ Munich, 1942–3 / Hans Scholl, Sophie
Scholl , / / Alex Morell, / / Christl Probst, Willi Graf / / —so man
Die Weisse Rose
Christl Probst, / / Alex Morell, Hans
Scholl , / / Sophie Scholl.  / /
Die Weisse Rose
Die Weisse Rose / Munich, 1942–3 / Hans
Scholl , Sophie Scholl, / / Alex Morell, / / Christl Probst, Willi Gr
Die Weisse Rose
rather— / / this isn’t the edge of the
school playing-field / / but a corner of a garden (before that house
Summers
nterest / / of road and parliament and
school , / / the priceless blessings of the West / / to make your fut
Recessional
from a round of bouts in the wrestling-
school .  / / These are the springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  /
Spells and Love
/ Almost before I can remember / / the
Schooner Hesperus carried me, / / a pressed man, to serve a lifetime
Poetry
e irrecoverable.  / / On the radio / /
Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rocks.  / / For me, you.  For you, / / Step
For Cecil
echanist philosophy / / conspires with
science to deny / / the existence of a me.  / / Yet I believe it cons
Shadow and Substance
/ A Turkish dog came riding, / / his
scimitar he drew, / / he swung it high to strike me / / —I caught an
A Ballad
but this.  Must this spell too / / his
scissor -fingers picking through / / dissolve?  Shall all spells be unp
End of Fairy-Story
woke she could bear it less / / —found
scissors and cut / / the offending hand away.  More punishment.  / / T
Eugénie de Guérin
though it were a braided lock.  / / The
scissors left a little gap / / filled long ago by growth, and now /
Ballad
man / / jumping up from the seat.  / /
Scolding the mother ran / / up.  I smiled down / / to reassure, make
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
whitening under the black gale / / was
scooped up, shaken, broken, shredded, thinned / / into a thousand tho
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Scorched Earth / I scorched my heart’s earth / / retreating miserably
Scorched Earth
Scorched Earth / I
scorched my heart’s earth / / retreating miserably / / before the da
Scorched Earth
ums, but worse (and better, / / as sun-
scorched poverty is better / / than rain-logged poverty).  The sun bur
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
two-score Turks I killed, / / and two-
score more took prisoner / / fighting in the hills.  / / But then the
A Ballad
Three nights and days together / / two-
score Turks I killed, / / and two-score more took prisoner / / fight
A Ballad
ng the flowers / / with butterflies in
scores , which suddenly moved, / / wheeled in the air, a sun-caught cl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
for here, not him.  The hind could only
scorn / / the badger, yield some insolent stag her joys.  / / It was
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
f stars, / / Venus shivering under the
Scorpion’s tail, / / Saturn’s black frost poisoning the sun…  / / Put
“Gale is Dead”
, is Justice, to unrighteousness / / a
scourge , to injured innocence aid.  And yet / / those kindly features
Change Places…
th his wife and their / / children.  He
scowled and went to bed.  What is it / / that makes an adolescent drea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / difficult slope.  / / People have
scrambled up.  / / I try to follow, but / / too steep, rough, hard /
[The track up the wild stream]
er hills.  Alone long days / / walking,
scrambling , he added mountain-ways / / to his wood-knowledge.  The for
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d, in London or in Lyme / / timelessly
scraping gay unheeded time / / to guide in draughts and grease (rooms
La Fontaine et le Déluge
mouse / / in the dusk of walls, craved
scraps of food and love / / —a sweet little girl—hanging’s not bad en
Law Report
/ Gorgias Tamynis on a sherd / / in a
scratched verse, and A.G. on a wall / / in chalk R.H.  On the Roman va
Fossils
yet still she fought, / / biting him,
scratching him, and suddenly / / this was a hilt her fingers fastened
Pelopia and Thyestes
Presage / Cassandra
screamed that Troy would fall / / and no one noticed her at all.  / /
Presage
t and cooked on drift.”  The harsh- / /
screaming seagulls were all the life he’d seen.  / / So, drowsing at t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
whose circle gathered both sides of the
screen : / / conscious terrified eyes and numbed groin; / / white fig
Block 21
the final turn / / of the irreversible
screw / / fix the coffin-lid down / / over humanity just / / in our
May Day, 1986
ot approach the fête, / / crept in the
scrub below / / the holy place.  He lay / / under the hot, bright day
Pelopia and Thyestes
Hills / On the high hill, in sun-bright
scrub , / / the path wound under trees / / a big loop, and then / /
Los Altos Hills
a gap.  Left of the way / / bushes and
scrub were knotted to the briar.  / / Right was a space, where a tall
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
To each culture-surface / / its proper
scum .  / /
Pavements
down a pebble beach / / makes for the
sea .  / /
Separation
/ an empty shell which whispers of the
sea .  / /
Parted
ow / / round us (green, violet) in the
sea .  / /
Delos in Spring
cropping together against the Sicilian
sea .  / /
Shepherd’s Song
Climacteric by the
Sea / / / / A child cartwheels by me on the sand / / where my step
Climacteric by the Sea
/ / (which are not air, which are not
sea ) / / a gull jerks its oil-bound strength about, / / that way, th
Black
/ leagues north, she told him, to the
sea again / / and all between huge cliffs fronted the sea.  / / No sp
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Most of the morning he stood out to
sea / / against the sun, but somewhere round midday / / the wind shi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the sun is burning / / by the laughing
sea .  / / Among the emperor’s guard the wine goes round / / with ratt
Gunnar of Lithend
ards the dunes ran straight between the
sea / / and broadening plain.  To south, hill crowded hill / / agains
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s.  / / And suddenly that vision of the
sea / / and dreamed escape sprang back to him.  Still less / / now th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t the full of tide.  / / “East from the
sea and Greece, west out of beech- / / woods, Berkshire, childhood, A
The Black-out
/ / which broke too the horizon of the
sea / / and grew at length into a cliff-faced range— / / mountains! 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ straight to a blinding or a peacock
sea .  / / And here and there like stalks of asphodel, / / few and bro
Greece
semblances / / of shells—here was the
sea ; / / and in this coal a leaf—this was a tree.  / / Leaf and shell
Fossils
a faint flat blue, and knew it for the
sea — / / and longed to lose for once the wooded plain / / and, lying
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
try / / —olive, straight cypress, / /
sea and no river, / / harsh sea-light.  River / / weaves in this coun
Five Poems for Roni
hemselves for food.  / / Song… and blue
sea … and on the blue / / distance, Tiberius’s isle.  / / Blood spurts
Naples
/ he looked the other way, towards the
sea , / / and once again a longing heaved in him / / to kick over the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
vision’s limit spread / / flat as the
sea , and sea-like fed / / on hopes that sought (but found the quag) /
Lost
g palpable, veiling the meeting / / of
sea and sky, thickening, till only foam / / shone in the black; light
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
water running faster, / / fast to the
sea —and sudden I saw new, / / as out of cloud, the moon; as hanging o
The Black-out
ins well enough, / / but never had the
sea and the far shores / / called him so coaxingly.  He sensed also /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
For Rachel / Above the
sea and the wide sand gulls fly calling / / or walk far out by the ri
For Rachel
ieth mile / / where hills broke to the
sea , and ‘this is Greece’ / / I thought.”  We walked in silence for a
The Black-out
Then take an oar, turn your back to the
sea / / and walk inland with the oar on your shoulder.  / / You will
Odysseus
most, the sanded children / / dot like
sea -birds, sea-shells, the beach, that empty / / accepts their cries
For Rachel
e, after the sun was high, / / a faint
sea -breeze, which shifted presently / / and settled steady in the old
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the mountains towards the untrammelled
sea / / but heard his mother calling, calling him, / / and turned—wi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and guide.  / / The birds, the ruffled
sea , changelessly changing, / / the changing changeless cliffs, and t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e / Easy to live in the lands above the
sea , / / claim nothing within the sea’s reach.  / / Easy to live belo
The Wave
Sea Cliff / A jutting stone / / yields, is gone / / down into air /
Sea Cliff
cy, by request / The land stoops to the
sea .  / / Cliff, rock, sand, pebble beach, / / yielding or hard / /
The Sea
embracing rock and field.  / / Here too
sea clings round the hard land / / but other water is rare, rare as t
Varangian in Mickelgard
/ / gently, a cloud.  Water—always the
sea , / / dark slate under a nearing storm, silver / / out under ligh
Varangian in Mickelgard
ouse, child, you and you.  / / I am the
sea .  Do not forget me.  / /
The Wave
hite monastery / / looks east over the
sea .  / / East we fare, and the rock-bound dreaming island / / shrink
September Cruise
lank hunger to out-hurry time.  / / The
sea -edge solution, salty, bloodwarm, / / lay quick with life, with lo
Full Circle
omplexity / / from cells formed in the
sea / / —elementals that float on / / past (they the same) / / eel,
The Sea
kingdom too.  / / The mountains and the
sea enclosed his world.  / / For years he’d sailed the bay and the bar
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ The sun struck as it lifted from the
sea / / flat on the climbing land, flat on the coast / / the rock-pi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
off.  Summer is truly summer, / / green
sea foaming in cow-parsley and may, / / sun-streaked with dandelion a
Relax
The
Sea / for Lucy, by request / The land stoops to the sea.  / / Cliff, r
The Sea
t be? here?  Here it was, a fact, / / a
sea -gift wished him in this forest-hell.  / / He found himself again,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
his rump a furrow in the blue.  / / The
Sea -god, ardour kindled by the view, / / the beauteous youth doth cru
September Cruise
think / / to live in peace.  The angry
sea -god / / is not assuaged.  / / This you shall do.  / / Take ship a
Odysseus
the beach, splash and shout / / in the
sea .  Grown-ups lounge out / / from the pub to drink on the wall / /
Climacteric by the Sea
tself and remains pure.  / / And if the
sea has oil-slicks, the upper air / / mortal contaminations, today is
Relax
urrent caught him and forced him out to
sea .  / / He fought it, and knew fear and hope again.  / / “He had to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
live and safely beached / / out of the
sea .  He heaved up on his hands, / / steadied his swimming head, saw i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ many days more to sand-dunes and the
sea .  / / He knew then the two rivers were the same— / / the lesson o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ “Get one yourself”, she nodded at the
sea .  / / He looked along the rock, and presently / / glimpsed them,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d glimpsed, miles to the east, / / the
sea .  He suddenly felt alone and lost, / / homesick, afraid; but turne
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tar, sacrifice / / there to Him of the
sea .  / / He will accept it, / / forget his anger.  / / And much good
Odysseus
nnot stay.”  / / She turned towards the
sea her quiet brow.  / / Down the steps from the sloping road above us
The Black-out
/ action and dream were centred on the
sea .  / / His nurse would carry him along the shore.  / / He crowed ag
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the built wall, / / forget the exiled
sea .  / / I am the wave that sweeps over the wall, / / sets your hous
The Wave
ople…  The sea— / / oh for the sea! the
sea in storm and calm / / raised for him in a wren’s-nest mockery.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ fireflies flickered beside the Ionian
Sea .  / / In that same far past, a Cambridge winter evening / / gave
A Hoard
og lap the wall / / and wind hurls the
sea in the home’s face.  / / Who bred here could suppose himself to po
The West of Ireland
rom the sun’s high tree.  / / Today the
sea is milk, milky blue / / hardly lined off from the milky sky / /
September Cruise
im (you know who) to my house.  / / The
sea is quiet now, the winds are quiet, / / but in my body the anguish
Spells and Love
and a curve suddenly / / gave her the
sea -lapped city where this marriage / / should make her life.  Strange
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s, / / the little daughter dead in the
sea .  / / Lays of Ancient Rome on my seventh birthday:  / / Horatius b
Poetry
ress, / / sea and no river, / / harsh
sea -light.  River / / weaves in this country / / soft light for willo
Five Poems for Roni
limit spread / / flat as the sea, and
sea -like fed / / on hopes that sought (but found the quag) / / the p
Lost
/ Slowly darkness seeped up out of the
sea / / like something palpable, veiling the meeting / / of sea and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
vet dome.  / / Dazzle of sun out of the
sea , loud cries / / of fierce white birds circling, fish-plunging, wo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
frozen silence settled down / / like a
sea -mist.  A minute or an hour, / / a hundred years…  Time, it seemed,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and just at the still moment, when the
sea / / moved again upwards in the endless dance, / / he struck out
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he myth-dark / / sea; that is yet this
sea , moved by this moon.  / / By moon-heaped ocean, strait / / and fi
The Sea
and all between huge cliffs fronted the
sea .  / / No spot there where a small boat might be beached?  / / Prob
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / in every house…  A sea-people…  The
sea — / / oh for the sea! the sea in storm and calm / / raised for hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ith public men, / / self-seeking or at
sea , one-tracked, one-sided / / or double-crossing once, twice and, a
The Black-out
ays on the world light / / colder than
sea -pearl.  / / Cold the wind too / / and I, as I was young, am now o
Night-piece
and lucky charm / / in every house…  A
sea -people…  The sea— / / oh for the sea! the sea in storm and calm /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
right / / days children splash / / in
sea -pools at their base, / / or climb them, sit, / / look out to sea
A Wreck
The boat moved rippling forward on the
sea , / / purposeful.  Suddenly from the cliff-face swept / / a flight
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
soon / / under the nearing storm.  The
sea , reaching / / its firths round us, embracing rock and field.  / /
Varangian in Mickelgard
en, / / criss-cross the seas.  / / The
sea remains / / indifferent, inviolate.  / /
The Sea
Greece / Sea; rocks and
sea ; rock and pine, / / red earth and olive, pine and bare rock, / /
Greece
Andromeda, who naked / / chained on a
sea -rock, waited / / out of the wave / / a monstrous love / / —but
The Sea
Greece /
Sea ; rocks and sea; rock and pine, / / red earth and olive, pine and
Greece
/ I bent and watched the waters to the
sea / / running, and swallowed down the tears of shame.  / / I pulled
The Black-out
cries against the shore.  / / Yet that
sea shall endure / / its round of calm and storm / / when all we see
The Sea
anded children / / dot like sea-birds,
sea -shells, the beach, that empty / / accepts their cries into its cr
For Rachel
/ or climb them, sit, / / look out to
sea , / / ships sliding by…  / / Rooted and green / / these seem (tho
A Wreck
on all, / / the holding dissipate like
sea -spray to thin air.  / /
The West of Ireland
e alley’s end you look / / straight on
sea .  / / Stepping further on, look down / / where a church sits smal
September Cruise
/ which is so much more than pain.  / /
Sea , stone, cypress, / / sharp-cornered shadow, / / wrenched olive (
Five Poems for Roni
before—the breakers.  And the wild / /
sea stretched to the horizon.  He was come.  / / The even roar, compact
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
times it can be / / forest, mountain,
sea .  / / Stupidity is powerful, and ill will.  / / Destroying each ot
Gratitude
/ / on a small promontory / / and the
sea -swell swings its shock / / against rough rock.  / /
September Cruise
opping-white / / on the myth-dark / /
sea ; that is yet this sea, moved by this moon.  / / By moon-heaped oce
The Sea
/ / he lost the breeze, and on a quiet
sea / / the boat drifted from the last impulse on…  / / So.  This way
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
watched entranced the colour-sparkling
sea : / / the King, the Queen, the court, the foreign throng / / of p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
A sea-people…  The sea— / / oh for the
sea ! the sea in storm and calm / / raised for him in a wren’s-nest mo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
own the white hill-road, high above the
sea / / the six white horses swept the golden carriage.  / / The youn
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / Three of his arrows landed in the
sea / / (though one he did get back); and presently / / he took, fee
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to the bright wind and the sound of the
sea , / / throwing stones at a stone.  / /
Tristi Fummo
e grey-brown shore / / from grey-green
sea under a grey-blue sky, / / Low bright sun in the south, and from
[White foam sweeps]
Two Serenities / Still morning.  Milky
sea / / under a haze of pearl.  / / A girl’s gaze / / absorbing life
Two Serenities
s night, / / a moon—behind, the bright
sea under it, / / and calm.  Miles to his left stretched the cold sand
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mind played / / with its likeness to a
sea -urchin shell.  / / Traditional ornament and lucky charm / / in ev
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ That tempted him.  “What are they?”  “
Sea -urchins.”  / / “May I…?”  She laughed (gull’s cry) “To buy and sell
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
yes can brighten through / / your dark
sea .  Waits ahead the help you need.”  / / “Anabel,” I thought, and pre
The Black-out
thrown / / up, a clear image: miles of
sea -washed sand, / / miles, days—crossed by a river hard to cross, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, which with her / / he’d seen a green
sea , which soon, bare and black, / / she’d see again.  She loved this
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ past wordy Westminster to the mined
sea , / / who know Scamander and the windy plain.  / / We hold a doubl
The Black-out
ves, cheek will be cold, / / salt from
sea -wind.  / /
Out from the Cliff
white.  A light wind makes / / the flat
sea wrinkle, / / suddenly kindles / / stars, firefruits fallen / /
September Cruise
The Embankment / The river to the
sea / / yields, slides up the stone the insidious tide.  / / The dark
The Embankment
/ / Our children, grandchildren; your
sea , your land; / / our good love in its best time, here, now is / /
[White foam sweeps]
bow and with sure eye / / shot down a
seagull for his breakfast, roasted / / on old dry driftwood from the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g the shore.  / / He crowed against the
seagulls and the wind / / or simply smiled.  “Well, you’ve been born b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
’t know, / / but I can’t help it.  / /
Seagulls cry / / circling, swooping over / / the white, noisy water.
Climacteric by the Sea
before.  “I asked him what he ate— / /
seagulls he shot and cooked on drift.”  The harsh- / / screaming seagu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g, the world of children.  / / Gone the
seagulls , silence.  The beach is empty, / / and water, advancing, rene
For Rachel
ed on drift.”  The harsh- / / screaming
seagulls were all the life he’d seen.  / / So, drowsing at the tiller,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ar brilliance, it will live unlost / /
sealed in the amber past.  / / The ugly duckling flowered into a swan;
Joy
/ / Sheared nerves mutter / / in the
sealed stump.  / /
Lopped
quite where the others said.  / / (The
seaman casts his thought ahead, / / but sandbanks shift under the fog
Lost
o purpose or unity, / / planks rotten,
seams uncaulked, thin sails torn, / / drifts shuddering in the gloom
England, 1981
ty I love, in Plato / / the passionate
search .  Great spirits, Paul and Plato, / / but the long hopes they ho
The Betrayal
s and I on things remote / / from this
search talked at ease.  And presently / / they from the boat were call
The Black-out
ved to earth and our own good.  / / But
search your heart—there you will find us still / / to help and guide,
The Black-out
himself out on the ramparts.  Down, / /
searched the first floor a second time in vain— / / the ground-floor
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ On our own doorstep / / (sink that
searching gaze) / / stinking jetsam lies.  / / Here.  Now.  No escape. 
Causes
m.  I looked at the moon, / / looked up
searching stars.  And I thought I heard / / “Would you like to see the
A Hoard
hough lit by the inner flame / / which
sears his spirit day and night / / they mark his bondage to a dream. 
Ballad
ss?  Look—circles of desert spread:  / /
seas and rivers, all water, sap, blood, / / all springs of earth and
Stones
m or dream driven, / / criss-cross the
seas .  / / The sea remains / / indifferent, inviolate.  / /
The Sea
dolphin, weed, / / coral, as when all
seas were theirs alone.  / / Its temperate depth sustains / / the coe
The Sea
f us to bless him / / has, in whatever
season , / / a flower-love that seems his own.  / / I love white sprin
[Housman was old beyond his years]
/ / The hour repeats in the repeating
season / / and change with time you will, he will.  / / But love be w
Epithalamium
we’re meant to do and be.  / / Through
season and through circumstance / / love will be changed but does rem
Hymn
unlike any other year, / / at the dead
season , at the silent hour, / / at the still moment of the absent sun
Winter Solstice
/ There must too be many darlings of a
season , / / more of recurrent moods, I’m forgetful of:  / / De la Mar
Poetry
cketed, / / only in the King’s hunting-
season not / / strictly determined by the season’s need.  / / Then, f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is still / / an undimmed miracle, / /
season of blossoming, / / season of blossom’s fall.  / / A white tree
[What words are there for Spring?]
iracle, / / season of blossoming, / /
season of blossom’s fall.  / / A white tree at the full; / / whitenes
[What words are there for Spring?]
carpet the bare wood, / / days in any
season of them all / / when you and I shall / / be with one another
[Golden, red, brown]
/ Autumn is here and lovely, / / the
season she loved most.  / / An extra twist that she should die / / in
Death
e / / of the uncaring father, / / the
season -sloughing mother.  / / Child of man and woman, / / slow from t
Parenthood
e, you, us now in this late / / out-of-
season summer / / we are giving each other / / or fate is giving us,
[Late October hedges]
/ “For happiness a still more doubtful
season : / / we are at war, and as the stage is set / / small hope is
The Black-out
n and sun, snow, wind, / / weather and
season , wheeling / / through the melting now / / in changing unchang
Exchange
done, / / caught in the cycle again of
seasonal longing, / / winter’s bare truths, soft, sweet strength of s
Sixtieth Summer
ear.  / / Autumn is beautiful.  / / All
seasons are beautiful, but now / / I find the year’s wheel / / move
Swallows
s lane / / coloured with flowers / / (
seasons are late this year): / / pink of campion and wild geranium, /
[Late October hedges]
tion / The year wheels on into the same
seasons / / as last year and all earlier years spun through.  / / God
Question
ed purchase.  / / The seasons pass, the
seasons come.  / / One by one winter puts out the torches.  / / The oa
Dance of the Seasons
ng and Summer / Autumn and Winter / The
seasons come, the seasons pass.  / / Dog-rose in the hedge is answered
Dance of the Seasons
Sixtieth Summer / Still the spiralling
seasons draw me on.  / / But since the shears must snap and my time st
Sixtieth Summer
ugh-handed serf in perpetuity.  / / The
seasons in the years went round by rote, / / each month for work or l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ knowing at twenty / / the fleeting
seasons in their beauty / / would not again appear / / often enough.
[Housman was old beyond his years]
in the weeks and the years, / / of the
seasons , of work, even comfort and tears / / —a predictable order, if
Hymn
it seems than I have seen.  / / No, the
seasons offer / / no analogy for loss.  / / Yet, this untamed recurri
Five Poems for Roni
tumn and Winter / The seasons come, the
seasons pass.  / / Dog-rose in the hedge is answered / / now by campi
Dance of the Seasons
s) / / but must do more than watch the
seasons pass, / / must in their passage make his own work good.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ange for a cheapened purchase.  / / The
seasons pass, the seasons come.  / / One by one winter puts out the to
Dance of the Seasons
ell to buttercup, dog-rose.  / / Flower-
seasons return / / but not the season’s flowers.  / / And why should
Seasons
ng track.  / / The court went home.  The
seasons settled him / / into their timeless round of beauty and chore
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Dance of the
Seasons / Spring and Summer / Autumn and Winter / The seasons come, th
Dance of the Seasons
Seasons / The bare trunks of the beech-trees / / rise out of the blue
Seasons
Man’s
Seasons / The lines recur, the poem closes.  / / Once more the still-m
Man’s Seasons
/ cold, though, and hungry.  These bad
seasons thinned / / the woods of game.  The hunting being poor / / th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
boughs… and hark, how sing…  / / Man’s
seasons , though, link in no ring / / but join two points as Time disp
Man’s Seasons
Flower-seasons return / / but not the
season’s flowers.  / / And why should we mourn?  / / Why accept the pa
Seasons
days, / / season’s return, and in the
season’s hour’s, / / the same and not the same continually.  / / The
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
son not / / strictly determined by the
season’s need.  / / Then, four years after the princess’s visit / / (
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nt the infinite variation of days, / /
season’s return, and in the season’s hour’s, / / the same and not the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
fall.  / / To stand before a judgement-
seat / / and hear just what / / the things we’ve done, the things we
Balance Sheet
So did the child, / / jumped from his
seat and ran / / straight for the line.  / / I could step between, /
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
d face / / at the sleeper on the other
seat .  / / Dirty old men dream young and sweet.  / /
Meeting
r him at a man / / jumping up from the
seat .  / / Scolding the mother ran / / up.  I smiled down / / to reas
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
the sea, / / claim nothing within the
sea’s reach.  / / Easy to live below the built wall, / / forget the e
The Wave
outh up the coast, miles to his left, a
second / / and longer cape, almost sunk in the blue, / / reached out
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ accustomed streets.  / / But at the
second and the third return / / our jaded souls respond more slowly /
That Way Madness Lies
ss the valley to Sulham woods; / / the
second at Saunton—wind-washed pink thrift / / in short grass on low s
Bury My Heart
do / / than bear—his seemed at best a
second -best.  / / She liked his love (no word of love was said / / by
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
left ourselves a chance to make / / a
second choice in time, would be / / a bet I’d hardly care to take, /
Mother’s Malison
led his hand across his face: / / “the
second darkness falls,” he said, “the war / / recurring like a nightm
The Black-out
moon shed / / when caught by night my
second day in Greece / / we lost our way about the twentieth mile /
The Black-out
e first tube gate was shut, but not the
second .  / / Down sandbag-narrowed steps I reached the glare, / / but
The Black-out
ill a warm presence at his side / / to
second him: unjustified, / / unsummoned, Hope, the loyal fool.  / /
Masque
Spells and Love / (Theocritus’s
second Idyll) / My bay-leaves, where are they?  Bring them here, Thesty
Spells and Love
eted of her nettlework / / all but the
second sleeve of the twelfth shirt, / / leaving her youngest brother
Fairy Story
u.  / / I don’t think you’ll get home a
second time.”  / /
Odysseus
.  Down, / / searched the first floor a
second time in vain— / / the ground-floor too, but he was still alone
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Ten
Seconds on a Tube Platform / Walking I heard the train / / behind me
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
is shrunk ball / / (words circle it in
seconds , you and I / / in twice the time perhaps the sun / / seems t
Consider
ness and the wind’s vigour / / bred me
secret and strong.  The wind, the moor / / and my own heart sufficed. 
The Black-out
ow the object of its thought? / / what
secret force could gather / / you, form and soul, in this drop, mingl
Becoming
dge insatiate, / / secret on unwrapped
secret greedily piled.  / / But knowing better?  Hardly a trace of that
Greenham Common
ht faces, / / sinks in dark stuffs and
secret looks, and shows / / the simple to the curious.  / / And all a
The Party
ft from the stream, dance upon / / the
secret motions of the air, / / there and here, up, down, / / settle
How not to listen to music
ter-of-fact with house and lane.  / / O
secret , o enchanted space / / thus spell-cast into time and space, /
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
d appears: of knowledge insatiate, / /
secret on unwrapped secret greedily piled.  / / But knowing better?  Ha
Greenham Common
e to her room to ply her thread / / in
secret —work forbidden her, not for / / any good reason but because, t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
happiness welling suddenly within, / /
secreted from a life-time, and released / / if not by nothing, at lea
And Then
ght spring / / unsummoned, unreasoned,
secreted long / / from hours in still woods, on the wind-shaved sweep
Happiness
ir which takes delight in the sun, / /
secreted smog within.  / / Now, here, / / under the black, thick tide
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
tain of delight?  / / Waters distilled,
secreted , / / strained through the sand and rich soil of our lives, /
Becoming
ark bird / / breaks the surface of the
secretive stream / / to make a great poem.  / /
Yeats and Water-Birds
.  But the dense floor / / kept all its
secrets hidden.  He descended, / / foothills.  And evening suddenly sho
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ith lifted faces / / listening / / to
secrets of the universe…  / / Listening?  These have ears / / tuned to
Two Cultures?
ough which our world’s an imperceptible
section .  / / Might seeming happenings here, for which one guesses /
Dimension
ose they’re here: an imperceptible / /
section sliced through our world; an outer whole / / through which ou
Dimension
/ their own reality, are really / / a
section through an other-dimension world, / / all seeming happenings
Credo
Les Misérables).  / / Then, 1870.  / /
Sedan , Paris besieged, France lost, / / exile, chilled in English Chi
Time’s Reach
ve / / (which yet loves nothing like a
sedative ) / / traps us in self-despising misery, / / Age takes every
Age
age works on.  / / Vision and thought,
seduced / / to serve that violent lust, / / crack.  Drifts over sky,
Headline
pecially yours.  You / / must see all I
see .  / /
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
/ melting back to the beauty / / I now
see .  / /
Return
year / / is nosing its way.  I seem to
see a sharp / / dorsal fin already cutting the air, / / betraying a
Advent
ow about me / / between two thoughts I
see / / a sleeping beauty’s kingdom / / that was and is to be.  / /
Other World
ow about me / / between two thoughts I
see / / a Sleeping Beauty’s kingdom / / that was and is to be.  / /
[Today we feel behind us]
which soon, bare and black, / / she’d
see again.  She loved this country, so / / at least there was a love f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ad, but especially yours.  You / / must
see all I see.  / /
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
e)] / I have (what seemingly you do not
see ) / / an attested capacity / / for causing irritation to those I
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
heart’s dream / / weaves with what we
see / / and beguiles us.  / / Nature is nothing, / / unformed, till
Music is Landscape
drawn body of a young / / girl.  / / I
see Anne Frank / / on the cross, offering of / / our indifference, o
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
ould not doubt her, though he could not
see / / anything of her but her sombre wraps.  / / A knife in one han
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
How / / how, when you have happiness,
see beauty, / / can you succumb to an unreasoned gloom?  / / This way
Tristi Fummo
ays and years till one is dead.  / / To
see both sides is good; always to keep / / a sensitive balance on the
The Black-out
urt hits me / / that Cecil can’t hear,
see , / / can’t watch the change, the growth.  But after all / / it wo
A poem you may like to see
r at the fact, of death.  / / What do I
see ?  / / Chiefly the urgency / / of looking, rather, deep / / and l
[Now of threescore and ten]
mountains.  / / So to this house may I
see Delphis bolting, / / a mad thing, breaking away from sport and fr
Spells and Love
ng quite certainly / / they will never
see each other again?  Friends, / / not necessarily / / intimate frie
What Do They Feel?
xty / / that’s something all of us can
see .  / / For Housman, spring’s whitening / / —fair enough.  / / One
[Housman was old beyond his years]
an in history / / and the sensualist I
see / / hate most bitterly.  / / Hate… what is it then?  / / What ind
I, Who Know My Inner Man
self in her own rope.  / / We shall not
see her like again?  / / Well, that’s too much, I think, to hope.  / /
Great Britain
rk them, lady Moon. / / —“and when you
see he’s alone, give him a sign, / / then say ‘Simaetha’s waiting’, a
Spells and Love
o tomorrow to Timagetus’s club / / and
see him and tell him off for treating me so.  / / Now, though, fire-sp
Spells and Love
icked finger, of / / a sleep that must
see him into the ground / / before another woke her; and knew drowned
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ear-thorns.  The vast whole he would not
see .  / / Hour after hour, hacking and dragging clear, / / breathing
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
gain.  / / But drop them in your heart,
see / / how brilliant they appear.  / /
Letters
nst the wind again.  / / Mind shakes to
see / / how fighting wind and fire can absolutely / / destroy themse
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
ompassing untroubled love, / / I don’t
see how we ever could / / renege on such suffusing gratitude.  / /
[Yes, you’re right]
own / / and self-existent you I cannot
see .”  / / “I am not all that I am capable of,” / / I said, “but what
The Black-out
[I have (what seemingly you do not
see )] / I have (what seemingly you do not see) / / an attested capaci
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
we said; / / and looking back on it we
see / / less what we made than what we’re made, / / less dome and te
Cedar
flute-girl’s) and Melixo’s came / / to
see me early, Dawn pink in the sky, / / with lots of stories—and that
Spells and Love
from this balcony, / / a watcher would
see me / / simply one of the old.  / /
Climacteric by the Sea
lack blood.  / / Be there, fell Hecate,
see me through to the end, / / and make these spells of mine not a th
Spells and Love
onder if the lack’ll / / offend you to
see .  / / Never doubting that you do love me / / and long for me as I
[Age’s bony knuckle]
they say good-bye for good?  / / No, I
see no tears, / / but a sharpening of the senses, heightening, glow,
What Do They Feel?
ring warmth is strengthening though you
see not how.”  / / Quieted now I moved with lighter feet.  / / Past Ca
The Black-out
in the dark tree’s edge, and could / /
see nothing first, but slowly the dim light / / shaped me the shadows
The Black-out
eyes and others too, / / the dead who
see nothing, perhaps another / / who reads this after / / I’m dead,
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
ound of calm and storm / / when all we
see / / of land shall cease / / to be, or change its nature, structu
The Sea
sand-castle, or calling / / another to
see some trove dredged from the water, / / unaware as waves almost, t
For Rachel
s harder) / / the twisting heart.  / /
See that in earthquake now and blinding storm / / the spirit’s eye ke
Prayer to Truth
ing goes / / to nothing, but we cannot
see the cause / / which moves the tides of gain and loss.  / / This y
Winter Solstice
ransmutation of love to cruelty.  / / I
see / / the final bomb fall wide in open ocean / / —harmless?  Look—c
Stones
thought I heard / / “Would you like to
see the planet Mercury?”  / / I was tired, jet-lagged, half dreaming. 
A Hoard
) and the man again  “Would you like to
see / / the planet Mercury?”  / / “I would” I said.  “I’ve wanted to a
A Hoard
-wall, / / robs the revered graves.  We
see / / the singer silent at the fall / / of the King, the old life.
Dark Age
/ and anyone may one day come / / to
see the truth itself in ghostly stuff, / / and then the void beyond t
That Way Madness Lies
against the enemy.  / / Shoot when you
see the white of a man’s eye.  / / If more of you can kill your man th
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ther used to carry me out there / / to
see them, but old granny had a fall / / and died, and grandpa came to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to go.  / / More in keeping perhaps to
see them so / / than earlier, / / more in keeping with how I am and
Swallows
ch generous pound?  / / This and this I
see / / there for me to do, / / work I owe to love / / and might ac
Villevieille
Sometimes though / / don’t you clearly
see / / this lump the faithful image of your soul?  / / Is it a priso
Body
A poem you may like to
see / Watching the children shouting in the pool / / a powerful hurt
A poem you may like to see
s.  Rejoice in it.  / / Hush.  Do you not
see / / whiteness pocked, dissolving in / / commonness, muddy?  / /
Exchange
gh / / heavy already with the vengeful
seed .  / /
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ / the initiated bride / / cycle of
seed and growth, strength and decay; / / tomorrow’s natural course /
Wedding Night
Parenthood / Husk flakes from the
seed / / and nothing in plant or tree / / cares if it sprout or with
Parenthood
/ / Sparks?  A martyr’s blood falls as
seed , / / and these, if not in will, are that in deed.  / / …  Fire… m
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
/ “in my heart and in yours slumbered a
seed / / of great and happy life.  An early page / / closed my unfini
The Black-out
/ Thus was the field ploughed for the
seed to fall / / of love, that was his life and is our theme.  / / It
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / indeed, but it must grow / / from
seed yourself shall sow / / in your own daughter’s womb.”  / / One ho
Pelopia and Thyestes
xia, and shine.  / / Sink into / / the
seedy role, laudator temporis acti?  / / No.  Bad trouble, but even our
Desert Island?
ue / / but shown so to his neighbours’
seeing ?  / / Each of us sometimes wears a mask, / / most of us often.
H.A.R.P.
e / / informed by her warm spirit—only
seeing , / / hearing, her life with others fed his joy.  / / But unhop
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
defy her, defeat her.  Yet / / only we,
seeing her from the outside, can / / love her.  Natural things in natu
The Reckoning
s / / triumphant in her face.  / / Not
seeing only.  Her untaught child-hand / / impossibly catches the movem
Nadia
went on without the boy once more / /
seeing the girl.  Preferment’s chancy flow / / at court washed the poo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l, hands seek coolth in May, / / hands
seek a pair of little breasts, two lemons on a tree.”  / /
Greek Folk Song
/ / Hands seek flowers in April, hands
seek coolth in May, / / hands seek a pair of little breasts, two lemo
Greek Folk Song
, though your hands are dry.  / / Hands
seek flowers in April, hands seek coolth in May, / / hands seek a pai
Greek Folk Song
sought he did not know, or where; / /
seek it he did, because he had believed / / the fairy’s promise.  And
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Leif Ericsson, / / Magellan, one / /
seeking a golden fleece, a white whale, / / legend and life, by sail
The Sea
irs drift by with public men, / / self-
seeking or at sea, one-tracked, one-sided / / or double-crossing once
The Black-out
nd now the vision begins to mist.  Hands
seeking / / other outlets / / forget the pencil.  / / (And out of wh
Nadia
offer too / / what may seem nothing or
seem all to you / / but is a hope to which you yet may come.  / / If
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
I spoke: “if I did not know, this would
seem / / Berkshire.”  “Or Yorkshire,” answered with a light / / laugh
The Black-out
d sings.  / / Man’s acts and sufferings
seem / / equally dreadful, yet / / I love man and his dream.  / /
Question
those who fall defending / / justice,
seem equally guilty of the strife / / with gangsters and with gambler
The Black-out
ng to the clever, / / but even awake I
seem / / from the depth of a dream / / to know that hollow field.  /
Words from a Dream
/ Yet there are those / / who almost
seem immune from all, / / whose skin and breath alike sing of the ros
Gratitude
t.  I came / / to tell you this.  It may
seem little enough / / or nothing to you now, but it’s far from / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing Time.  / / Enemy indeed he tends to
seem : / / longed-for hours, almost as soon / / as entered, gone; /
Two Poems from a New Life
r little.  And I offer too / / what may
seem nothing or seem all to you / / but is a hope to which you yet ma
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y.  / / In some way / / something does
seem / / restored in me…  Innocence through a dream?  / /
[Restoration of innocence in a dream]
s, which life has tried to quench, / /
seem shrunk now to their end; / / who here not even in dreams can rea
The Embankment
/ date in our artificial / / calendar
seem so / / significant? ’84 / / you were in, not ’85.  / / Children
For Cecil
/ their greenness not their own), / /
seem the trees, almost, / / that were before the ship, / /
A Wreck
ng by…  / / Rooted and green / / these
seem (though without roots, / / without sap, / / their greenness not
A Wreck
ry / / whose understated beauty / / I
seem to have remembered / / but had, truly, forgotten, / / after ini
Return
ed skin.  / / Only the fixed brown eyes
seem to reveal / / someone within.  / / Self-made? self-murdered? bla
Song
another year / / is nosing its way.  I
seem to see a sharp / / dorsal fin already cutting the air, / / betr
Advent
t view / / it seems (as surely it must
seem to you) / / that all smooth ways are ways for hate’s advance.  /
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
t, / / even today when the heart might
seem too heavy / / even for a heron’s wings, lifts it a little.  / /
Omens
ld and high, / / an ordinary landscape
seem ; / / where now an otherworld of art or dream / / (the spirit’s
Early Train
t bank too; and at that spot / / there
seemed a thinning in the trees.  A track?  / / Reached by a ford?  The f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
untains…  But the way on?  / / The words
seemed almost spoken more than thought…  / / ‘The prince’s bride’…  Tha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, and turned again.  The chill / / wind
seemed among my bones.  Molly was gone.  / / The sky was clouded over;
The Black-out
burned rather to do / / than bear—his
seemed at best a second-best.  / / She liked his love (no word of love
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
quiet home.  / / But now the Queen, it
seemed , had not been well.  / / The doctors talked of country peace—sh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
an hour, / / a hundred years…  Time, it
seemed , had stopped, / / as stood against the starry donors—loss, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ner, though— / / came all the time, it
seemed , in various ways.  / / He had been taught to hunt and use the b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
heard the rain falling / / softly.  It
seemed like weeping.  / / The bright morning glistens on the night’s t
News of a Death
Verona, / / and among those runners he
seemed / / not to be one of the losers, but the winner.  / /
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
iness.  What Emily had said / / of hope
seemed nothing to me now that she / / was gone; I hoped no more for A
The Black-out
/ Innocence and youth, / / which ours
seemed painful or hardly to exist, / / move us in others.  Has time br
In the Audience
pe perhaps lay there / / but not, that
seemed quite clear, to be attained / / by climbing now.  A steep glen
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
wards, / / they did not speak.  / / It
seemed that they must die, / / unable to eat / / anything put before
The Green Children of Woolpit
is defeat and the inescapable dark / /
seemed the blackness of war and love misfired, / / the concentration
The Black-out
which did not drown / / the blaze, but
seemed to drain it of all power.  / / A stiff, a frozen silence settle
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ted sunlight falling on a bed.  / / She
seemed to have lain down, dropped into dream, / / just now.  Her face
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rld / / wider than that, till our ways
seemed to lie / / always together.”  From the darkness curled / / a f
The Black-out
all.  / / No one.  The empty guard-room
seemed to wait— / / bench, table, brazier, weapons on the wall, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eat chair, and all / / empty.  The play
seemed waiting to begin.  / / Through all the courtyard rooms, up the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ries of the way / / he might, when all
seemed won, yet lose the day, / / defeated with the fairy who had ble
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ough an other-dimension world, / / all
seeming happenings here a chance effect / / of happenings there (and
Credo
’s an imperceptible section.  / / Might
seeming happenings here, for which one guesses / / or fails to guess
Dimension
found / / the wide mouth of a sluggish-
seeming river.  / / Beyond, the ribbon stretching out for ever / / ha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  This paradox / / (a rift in the firm-
seeming rocks) / / rives all we’ve done and all we could / / do, as
The Rift
its beauty in their memory burns, / /
seeming so near / / one step will set / / them home in it, / / thei
[Some exiles know]
nts home, / / clean through the stable-
seeming spinning globe / / —drought-blistered, cyclone-hit, / / quak
Antipodes
nuine scar / / under some other likely-
seeming thing; / / you know not even abortive love can be / / called
The Black-out
dress back on.  She hid the sword, / /
seeming to hide her knowledge and his deed; / / straightened herself,
Pelopia and Thyestes
thering flight / / from a lost centre: 
seeming to press back / / dimension’s imperceptible boundaries, / /
Macrocosm
d the cosmos once, now let drop / / is
seemingly simply not.  / /
Where?
emingly you do not see)] / I have (what
seemingly you do not see) / / an attested capacity / / for causing i
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
[I have (what
seemingly you do not see)] / I have (what seemingly you do not see) /
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
/ of a mystery—life is not just what it
seems / / after all, and its ruts are less true than our dreams.  / /
Hymn
en admit that to an honest view / / it
seems (as surely it must seem to you) / / that all smooth ways are wa
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
hatever season, / / a flower-love that
seems his own.  / / I love white spring, love the colours / / of autu
[Housman was old beyond his years]
scape change.  / / What we were bred to
seems / / immutably the same, / / a timeless heritage / / for us to
Change
/ all for the hateful, is just what he
seems , / / is just, is Justice, to unrighteousness / / a scourge, to
Change Places…
/ / though we may love it for / / (it
seems ) its own unique / / self—yet they partake / / of one another a
Fair Exchange
fered of a happy ending.  / / The world
seems more than usually wet / / with blood and tears; wrongs beyond h
The Black-out
e, / / all kinds are needed, but there
seems / / one kindling only for the fire / / whose heat can forge a
Hymn
m lunch to love, from the future (which
seems / / so full and so eternal, so unknown / / behind all dreamed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nce; and silent some / / whose thought
seems strangled in the womb, / / whose nails are broken picking at th
The Party
crowd and wander / / richer, wilder it
seems than I have seen.  / / No, the seasons offer / / no analogy for
Five Poems for Roni
hich may be so, / / but the likelihood
seems thin / / and in any case we go / / sure only of our sin.  / /
Living and Dying
in twice the time perhaps the sun / /
seems to take) / / stacked with our miscreations, which by one / / c
Consider
and will or will not do.  / / To me it
seems too odd.  / / I can’t envisage death / / or life as acts of god
Question
llous bonfire, which with her / / he’d
seen a green sea, which soon, bare and black, / / she’d see again.  Sh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
es it come that here / / I have hardly
seen a swallow this year / / but today on the high wire / / I count
Swallows
-tree stood— / / the only conifer he’d
seen all day / / among the beech and oak.  Its thin black spire / / w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / your ordered future.  / / Hardly
seen , / / all in a mist of blood is hid.  / / Not upon us our fathers
Recessional
inter sky, / / seen in their form, and
seen and formed anew.  / / “Speak to him,” gravely said my guide; and
The Black-out
he bright water, marked / / the end of
seen and known.  His eyelids dropping / / against the glare, he drowse
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
egathering slow / / —so much joy to be
seen ; / / but the idle spiteful soul sits on the beach, / / blind to
Tristi Fummo
o huge an enemy.  / / Towards that half-
seen enemy / / Love walked alone, and presently / / found—not indeed
Masque
nd the terrible coast / / could not be
seen .  Even the clap and roar / / of water heaved and hurled on rock w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he sees no more the known nor knows the
seen .  / / Follows the fall: / / strong in the streets the legions of
Nijinsky
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain] /
Seen from the hill the hazy plain / / filled up with light is fairyla
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
[
Seen from the hill the hazy plain] / Seen from the hill the hazy plain
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
ut now it’s eleven days since I’ve even
seen him.  / / He must have another fancy, and I’m forgotten.  / / Now
Spells and Love
.  / / Ripples are quickly still.  Again
seen / / in the mirror’s tinted grey—leaf-greens, / / white birch-tr
Water in a Wood
led black against the fainter sky, / /
seen in their form, and seen and formed anew.  / / “Speak to him,” gra
The Black-out
/ richer, wilder it seems than I have
seen .  / / No, the seasons offer / / no analogy for loss.  / / Yet, t
Five Poems for Roni
nd beaches / / scanned by the eye, the
seen one with the known.  / / But now (he was, or would be soon, eight
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
laughter and tenderness.  / / I haven’t
seen (only with the mind’s eyes) / / those acres of heath and wook, f
Two Poems for G
/ like sequins on a dress—where have I
seen / / shining sequins on a white gauze dress?  / / I do not know—
Wind
r / / like to have known his handiwork
seen , / / shown, loved again?  / /
Label
reaming seagulls were all the life he’d
seen .  / / So, drowsing at the tiller, the boy recalled / / the nurse
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n winter / / for weeks together I have
seen the brown / / hills about Haworth white and smooth with snow.  /
The Black-out
fferent, isn’t it?  Every terrorist / /
seen the other way’s a freedom fighter.  / / And, alas, / / once a fr
Choice
e shadow of action, word and look, / /
seen through our shifting mood, / / a double wall of smoke, / / to k
A Window
ether to the castle?  Carabosse / / had
seen to that?—or else the other one?  / / He washed and patched and lo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d.  / / “Not all.  What else?”  / / Have
seen under the wind and sun / / the world in infinite beauty laid.  /
Interrogation
posed trees absorb the fumes / / which
seep into our smoky rooms.  / / Yet houses, rooms, these woods too, ar
The Rift
ling up the wood / / when an awareness
seeped to his numbed life / / of someone there.  He stared dully.  Then
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the circled space.  / / Slowly darkness
seeped up out of the sea / / like something palpable, veiling the mee
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Miscarriage / / / Blood
seeps from a womb / / yesterday.  Today / / that sickly stream / / c
Miscarriage
h, touch do not pass.  / / But what she
sees lives.  A flat illustration / / jumps off the page— / / the ride
Nadia
.  / / Roads closed, wires cut, / / he
sees no more the known nor knows the seen.  / / Follows the fall:  / /
Nijinsky
but the long hopes they hold and bid me
seize are / / not mine.  My soul cries (child) to stay up late—“Oh /
The Betrayal
an them.  / / England Suspects.  / / If
seized with a laugh / / conceal it in cough.  / / Of course we have h
Merrie England
e the great-treed miles of memory.  / /
Seldom by that was the young prince enspelled— / / but the white shor
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s emerald.  / / Our grief is other: how
seldom can we go / / cropping it together, being penned / / in dista
[The grass in the next field]
to care become a failing skill: / / am
seldom now made inwardly aware / / of the atrocious range of human il
Teach Us…
on.  / / Patience is not concerned with
self alone / / nor only others, cares for self existing / / as one w
Patience
unto Caesar / / your armed and ordered
self , and cry Hail Caesar.”  / / That He did not say.  But by setting C
The Betrayal
an’t renew.  / / I am out of sorts with
self and others, when / / experience and patience should know how to
Again
ppy because you dare not free / / your
self -bound life, but sit with bated breath / / —a kind of cowardice a
The Black-out
d mind and heart?  / / No.  Knowledge of
self / / compels knowledge of others.  / / Knowledge compels love.  /
Parenthood
y / / or someone may say / / “He’s no
self -control.”  / / This respectable curse / / is laid on us: worse /
Merrie England
my life and more to find / / how I was
self -deceived.  / / Now in humility / / I must become a child again,
Original Sin
eave.  / / But brood on that is stupid,
self -defeative.  / / Be content with its being and your love.  / /
Two Summer Songs
thing like a sedative) / / traps us in
self -despising misery, / / Age takes everything we hate to give:  / /
Age
lationship—only an inner-grown / / and
self -existent you I cannot see.”  / / “I am not all that I am capable
The Black-out
f alone / / nor only others, cares for
self existing / / as one with others, cares for others also.  / / In
Patience
rlays the moon.  / / Sometimes when the
self grows thin / / I am my father or my son.  / / A mechanist philos
Shadow and Substance
n.  / / —“I was coming, by sweet Love’s
self I swear I was coming / / for a proper serenade, with two or thre
Spells and Love
o much more, / / teasing the plaintive
self :  / / Look backward down your life / / for the constellated rose
Epoch
man.  / / But we must watch at last our
self -made image, / / when the sun leaves it, gather its own shadow /
Dream under a Carob-tree
eem to reveal / / someone within.  / /
Self -made? self-murdered? blank as a solitary / / prisoner / / she i
Song
al / / someone within.  / / Self-made? 
self -murdered? blank as a solitary / / prisoner / / she is looking b
Song
feel of work and love, / / in ashes of
self -pity and abuse.  / / Just now, sunk in the dark, I could not move
The Black-out
true, / / is nothing, and we bear / /
self -pitying now our anger and despair, / / and like the nephews of a
Scheme
affairs drift by with public men, / /
self -seeking or at sea, one-tracked, one-sided / / or double-crossing
The Black-out
ering.  / / But this distortion of / /
self spoils too much / / —twist induced by the ache / / attendant on
Touch
ny human being / / not only to his own
self true / / but shown so to his neighbours’ seeing?  / / Each of us
H.A.R.P.
ughly done.  / / A course of life, dear
self , which you / / at seventy may meditate on.  / /
Thoughts on the Lavatory
for / / (it seems) its own unique / /
self —yet they partake / / of one another and / / the others of their
Fair Exchange
n answer to that one on this page?  / /
Sell it down the river, and make another start.  / /
Problem
?”  She laughed (gull’s cry) “To buy and
sell / / love-presents is unlucky” (that laugh again).  / / “Get one
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he high-slummed hill / / sick children
sell themselves for food.  / / Song… and blue sea… and on the blue /
Naples
.  / / Yet we stand here today, not two
selves but a pair, / / half dissolved in each other, a oneness, aware
Hymn
Fossils / Here in this rock lie stony
semblances / / of shells—here was the sea; / / and in this coal a le
Fossils
/ Steve Davis knocked out / / of the
semi -final.  You / / would have liked that, though / / Hurricane Higg
For Cecil
which they never / / guessed.  She was
sempstress now, and competent.  / / She was at work on a white handker
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s plain / / whence the inconstant gods
send dearth and rain / / and playfully allot our joy and pain.  / / L
Cosmology
ave.  / / How could such little liberty
send his mind / / on such an insolent flight?—the parable / / forgot
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
(child) to stay up late—“Oh / / don’t
send me to bed yet—I want to play, to / / read, finish this…  Can’t I
The Betrayal
ewels.  But when / / I pick them out to
send to you / / they dry in the papery air / / colourless dull words
Letters
.  / / She’s the wild gleam of heaven’s
sending .  / / Summer’s slow spell is different from / / hers, now fro
Dance of the Seasons
aughing where the thorns were long / /
sends me here now to comfort you through Hell.”  / / As the moon break
The Black-out
orld is infinitely small / / and in no
sense a centre.  / / Yet here we are.  And here’s our apprehension / /
Credo
one.  / / No past throws up against the
sense / / a reek of crowd and sacrifice / / with blood and smoke, mo
Delos in Spring
ality, / / but in this radiant hour we
sense / / all things we’re meant to do and be.  / / Through season an
Hymn
have an equal share / / of sound good
sense and reasoning.  / / We who are sped crave your praying / / of M
Villon’s Epitaph
la / / remotest ranged / / within our
sense / / behind the jewels of Andromeda.  / / Andromeda, who naked /
The Sea
all / / (no trees to guide his forest-
sense )—east, west, / / north, south, all points were sullenly the sam
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
went / / furnished and empty, and—the
sense grew strong— / / empty an age—‘When that old forester, / / who
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
heart / / to fuse our sensibility and
sense / / into one whole which will not crack apart; / / you brought
Prayer to Time
lat land / / a young man journeying.  A
sense of loss, / / pain deeply felt.  And yet, this was a story.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n only keep / / as to guilt, a certain
sense of proportion; / / an unforgetting longing for innocence.  / /
Judgement
ative, / / but one not quite without a
sense of shame.) / /
The Two Ways
be more absurd?  / / And yet, we need a
sense of sin / / to put force in our will to virtue.  / / Life is spl
Responsibility
ing / / like these lie outside / / my
sense of what might be.  / / No, alone one has to make / / (fumbling
Balance Sheet
harm or cleverness, / / which does not
sense the boundaries / / of sex or age-group, class or race— / / the
Love…  No
shores / / called him so coaxingly.  He
sensed also / / an unvoiced elders’ plot to pair him off / / with on
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Then, almost fore-defeated, Love / /
sensed at his shoulder something move… / / so whisper-faint… a dream?
Masque
rst time Time’s inescapable stream / /
sensed in that truth, her heart cried out in fear / / for some firm r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s dead / / he didn’t know how long.  He
sensed the air, / / came to himself, and pulled himself together, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ts otherness.  / / But while he dreamed
senses and limbs were learning.  / / The other way the rare-pathed hil
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nds / Love’s eyes and hands and all his
senses flower / / in speechless speech; but parted, bird in cage, /
Love’s Eyes and Hands
no tears, / / but a sharpening of the
senses , heightening, glow, / / ray from a red sunset, deepening / /
What Do They Feel?
bout us, loud and lit, / / touches the
senses , nothing further; form / / thins into smoke, thence into light
That Way Madness Lies
rain, / / and bound within our private
senses quiver / / all possibilities of delight and pain.  / / “We kno
The Black-out
May Day / Now May is here.  The wintered
senses wake / / to rack the celibate and bless the pair.  / / Now eve
May Day
ork on brain and heart / / to fuse our
sensibility and sense / / into one whole which will not crack apart;
Prayer to Time
ght about my life and little done / / —
sensibility dumb and strength unproved, / / the treacherous laziness
The Black-out
ruth which pass and many miss, / / but
sensibility locked behind a door / / is lost—is power betrayed by cow
The Black-out
The prince grew quickly sore, / / but
sensibly took off his shoes and went / / barefoot through the surf an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
th sides is good; always to keep / / a
sensitive balance on the fence is bad.  / / Not yours to raise a fiery
The Black-out
, in, / / giving obstacles space, / /
sensitive certainty.  / / Honour this radar, this / / contrived effec
Bat
ull your powers asleep.  / / You have a
sensitive mind and heart, and store / / flashes of truth which pass a
The Black-out
n / I, who know my inner man / / for a
sensual puritan, / / the puritan in history / / and the sensualist I
I, Who Know My Inner Man
/ the puritan in history / / and the
sensualist I see / / hate most bitterly.  / / Hate… what is it then? 
I, Who Know My Inner Man
/ perpetual revenge.  / / His daughter,
sent away / / (the hospitable stranger / / would hold her out of dan
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ who died before my birth, was weeping
sent / / away, when he as I perhaps was young.’  / / That floor was e
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to sink or save us…  / / Or / / to be
sent bach— / / another life, down or up the scale, / / again, again,
Balance Sheet
west, ahead, as if / / meant for him,
sent for him—omen, yes, and guide.  / / The birds, the ruffled sea, ch
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
But the dying king knew better / / and
sent him back to the lake.  / / He turned the sword in his hands.  / /
Finis
She smiled: “did I not say / / Anabel
sent me?  Do not fear the wind / / has failed me of my peace, or her t
The Black-out
“Prophet and guide, unhoped for helper
sent me,” / / I said, “I would of all have chosen you.  / / Through d
The Black-out
l, marking the snail-course / / of her
sentence .  A calendar.  / /
War-time Anecdote
sue and nerve, / / structurally / / a
sentient person, personality / / who will not now be.  / / ‘Not to be
Miscarriage
ers, proceed to London, to Berlin.  / /
Sentries , patrol with dog and tommy-gun / / where crave in their cat’
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
king and queen thereof / / sold us to
separate benches in war’s galley.  / / Redeem us soon.  But while you m
Prayer to Time
l of the tamed wildness below / / once-
separated worlds long wandered, back / / and forth.  The trader found
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ld linger… we?… they?… / / later, each
separately , / / found the night-slow / / familiar way / / home to t
From the Air
r, / / but one was at a distance, / /
separately made.  / / Before I even saw it / / I trod right on the he
A Ballad
Separation / When shall we meet again?  We do not know / / —can only d
Separation
September Cruise / (for Tom, Les, Cecil) / Aegean / Kea Lion / Leaving
September Cruise
ltation of Jupiter / (Naxos harbour, 12
September , 1983) / Statue at Apollona, Naxos / Thomas auf Naxos / Siph
September Cruise
us sparkles in the foam below / / like
sequins on a dress—where have I seen / / shining sequins on a white g
Wind
a dress—where have I seen / / shining
sequins on a white gauze dress?  / / I do not know— / / old, old, inf
Wind
I swear I was coming / / for a proper
serenade , with two or three friends.  / / I’d have brought the apples
Spells and Love
e lies, / / relaxed and watchful, / /
serene over the centuries.  / / Pirates and empires pass.  / / Life ch
September Cruise
Two
Serenities / Still morning.  Milky sea / / under a haze of pearl.  / /
Two Serenities
r than a badger here— / / rough-handed
serf in perpetuity.  / / The seasons in the years went round by rote,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ grave colonial buildings.  / / These
serious scholars, teachers / / were also beautiful.  / / I felt the p
Grace
others’ troubles more, / / taking them
seriously / / but not allowing them to be a bore.  / / These make for
Two Poems for G
the yards, even the narrow / / houses,
serried and stacked.  / / Not only in the eye of the beholder.  / / Be
“Life is sweet, brother”
e, for all my life it is:  / / I am her
servant and she is my queen.  / / I am to love her, serve her, all my
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
too.  The boy was only, / / at first, a
servant —one whose natural state / / was being at her bidding.  Then at
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
erus carried me, / / a pressed man, to
serve a lifetime / / under the sail of poetry / / —the old moon in t
Poetry
she is my queen.  / / I am to love her,
serve her, all my life / / in what I can.  I am her forester.’  / / It
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Vision and thought, seduced / / to
serve that violent lust, / / crack.  Drifts over sky, / / drops over
Headline
Ways / Jesus, digesting the meal Martha
served , / / pronounced that Mary’s was the better part.  / / How like
The Two Ways
and ‘what the fairies brought her’ / /
serves at least to express her rarity.  / / Next morning hooves and gr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
make Mammon your steward.”  / / But who
serves whom?…  Well, there’s the jackpot question:  / / Will Caesar die
The Betrayal
, in some demesne, / / there lived, in
service to a King and Queen, / / a poor young widow with an only son.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bring Caesar back with us to God’s / /
service —what’s Caesar’s in the end be God’s?  / / “Only the worldly-wi
The Betrayal
/ hope that, though cheating Him, our
serving Caesar / / may yet bring Caesar back with us to God’s / / se
The Betrayal
h / / and the girl must die.  / / They
set a stake in the square / / for her soul’s good, / / and first of
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
, near fifteen) / / she came again, to
set beside the green / / and bare the forest in its hour of fire.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ I looked across his arm, and having
set / / eyes on the work, the worshipped master knew.  / / Past intel
The Black-out
did her love / / raise him to life and
set him at her side?  / / The story shifted like the shifting mist.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Time’s Reach / Who so firmly
set in time and place / / as the Empress Eugénie?  / / High nineteent
Time’s Reach
s / / and Cleurista’s wrap borrowed to
set it off.  / / These are the springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moo
Spells and Love
s the ships.  / / We watch the crescent
set , / / know her concealed companion setting too.  / / Block half fr
September Cruise
auty’s end.  / / Among those sparklers,
set like frozen spray, / / are some as cold: all their mutations done
Macrocosm
elve remain.  / / Granted, that limit’s
set / / loosely—perhaps there wait / / twenty or twenty-five / / —b
[Now of threescore and ten]
ait / / invisibly chained for—what?—to
set me free / / am neither great nor likely to be great.  / / “For ha
The Black-out
rds unexpectedly come, / / between the
set moon and the gathering dawn, / / I turned to Hampstead and walked
The Black-out
path missed on the clouded hill / / I
set my feet to climb.  Let me not lose / / the flame, whose power I fe
The Black-out
ys, stiff with chill, / / still tired,
set off simply to stir some heat.  / / Some afternoons he slept, utter
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng voice / / of childhood, but herself
set out of age; / / “in my heart and in yours slumbered a seed / / o
The Black-out
ung, his quiver once more full, / / he
set out through the winter-beautiful / / woods for the hills.  And the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
th, he led her on, / / weighed anchor,
set sail.  Many days are lost / / through which they dreamed their way
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / we are at war, and as the stage is
set / / small hope is offered of a happy ending.  / / The world seems
The Black-out
reathed from the will of God / / which
set the peasant to labour and not question / / and her to tread, and
Eugénie de Guérin
tiller’s will.  At last it gave / / and
set the righted boat running before / / the wind, aslant towards the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / seeming so near / / one step will
set / / them home in it, / / their home—those golden shores, / / fl
[Some exiles know]
t all / / true) done or left undone to
set us wrong.  / / The truths we think are not the home truths though.
Hebona
all that they pretend? (a / / pair of
sets of teeth so even…?) / / Look round.  His black is thin behind, /
On the Towpath
made, deeds done.  / / The youngest son
sets out with empty hands, / / harvests a mint of luck in distant lan
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nce / / with me, since after-knowledge
sets tomorrow / / to mirror yesterday—images which empty / / the mom
For Rachel
he wave that sweeps over the wall, / /
sets your houses awash, drowns your creatures, / / your friend, sib,
The Wave
esar.”  / / That He did not say.  But by
setting Caesar / / over against God He allowed the question / / to b
The Betrayal
Parthenon / / burns back stilly at the
setting sun.  / / Crossing the thistle-bristling rock / / one stumble
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
set, / / know her concealed companion
setting too.  / / Block half freed from the quarry.  God hardly half fr
September Cruise
ir, / / there and here, up, down, / /
settle at last back on the stream, / / the water swirling under them,
How not to listen to music
/ Primal innocence / / is something to
settle for.  / / Nothingness is at least / / good, though not the bes
Miscarriage
y / / even the happiest / / life must
settle for / / sometimes, it’s good to be born.  / / All the same, un
Miscarriage
lude your snatching / / though one may
settle on you unawares.  / / Now I don’t need / / such magic fancies.
[Golden, red, brown]
oke and stone / / the deadly poor / /
settle themselves on steps, by hunger and / / no hope reduced to peac
Country and Town
l power.  / / A stiff, a frozen silence
settled down / / like a sea-mist.  A minute or an hour, / / a hundred
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / The court went home.  The seasons
settled him / / into their timeless round of beauty and chore / / an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
reeze, which shifted presently / / and
settled steady in the old good quarter.  / / He was abreast now, nearl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / childheart (while the swallow / /
settles down, the cuckoo’s / / voice breaks) hedge-reborn, the rose. 
[Housman was old beyond his years]
lous spring / / drowns as green summer
settles in.  / / Now from the hedges drop the roses, / / and now befo
Man’s Seasons
t ever really was) a viable / / way of
settling anything, we must be / / stupid over the edge of idiocy.  /
Consider
the Twelve-Mile Post?”  / / Billowing,
settling , over wood and hill, / / now wind-blown clear, now eddying r
On the Border
he same place / / I saw him lean where
Seurat leaned before.  / / He leaned and pulled his hand across his fa
The Black-out
ears!) the boy.  / / So that summer for
seven enchanted weeks / / they were together in the green forest.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he sea.  / / Lays of Ancient Rome on my
seventh birthday:  / / Horatius breasting the Tiber race, / / Mamiliu
Poetry
e of life, dear self, which you / / at
seventy may meditate on.  / /
Thoughts on the Lavatory
bow / / but never practised much, and
several days / / he didn’t manage to bring down a bird.  / / Three of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he bitch’s litter / / —born blind, and
several months too early.”  / / But I’d talked enough.  I laid the girl
Love Scene
.  / / The leader skirts these hazards. 
Several more / / follow her skill.  One, dreaming after these, / / tr
Pelopia and Thyestes
himself again, with greater care, / /
severing tough stems and more than Gordion-tied / / knots.  It was alm
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
word, of / / poetry.  She made / / —of
sewing , cooking, correspondence, the road to the mill / / with its fl
Eugénie de Guérin
Machismo / Man’s
sex is a weapon, woman’s a wound.  / / The whale was created to be har
Machismo
and / / the others of their kind.  / /
Sex is everywhere / / as Freud made us aware, / / and he was surely
Fair Exchange
o say / / the traffic is one-way.  / /
Sex lends her delight / / to every joy, her stress / / to all our wi
Fair Exchange
h does not sense the boundaries / / of
sex or age-group, class or race— / / the single greatest human good,
Love…  No
r someone you meet / / of the opposite
sex / / (or even the same) / / may think you mean them.  / / England
Merrie England
rength.  Rapt stranger / / what is your
sex , that we may give you a name? / / your tastes, that we may make o
Becoming
e sirens sang?  / / “Once the delicious
sexual ache / / bursts in its paradisal pang / / you cannot have you
The Sirens
n looked, and shivering left the deeper
shade , / / and tired and cold moved stiffly, vaguely on.  / / Soon to
The Black-out
y terraces / / extend about a vault of
shade / / —inevitable images / / forming from things which man has m
Cedar
/ soft light for willow / / to spread
shade other / / than olive, cypress / / mean by a shadow.  / / Am I
Five Poems for Roni
lead.  She looks / / out from the green
shade / / passionately fearing for his soul’s health (fearing / / fo
Eugénie de Guérin
ine of sunlight, / / on their side was
shade .  / / Sound of church-bells / / was often in the air.  / / It w
The Green Children of Woolpit
ill, he pushed in, and once in the deep
shade / / the overgrowth was thinner, and he made / / progress along
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lliance drips through / / touching the
shade to life / / as suddenly a reflecting pool, / / somewhere a tin
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
es down.  Parthenon glows / / above the
shaded wall, and near at hand / / glows the monument of Philopappos /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
n, ice-nights and sweating heat / / of
shadeless , windless noon, he followed it, / / lost and recovered, up
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ows / / and held his sword against the
shades crowding / / to the blood.  / / When he had let Tiresias drink
Odysseus
f perceptibly.  / / World is numberless
shades of blue, breaking / / to greys, to silver, white.  A light wind
September Cruise
/ / than olive, cypress / / mean by a
shadow .  / / Am I this shadow / / beside the river? / / —grey willow
Five Poems for Roni
Shadow and Substance / The lamp in the translucent pane / / reflected
Shadow and Substance
s / / mean by a shadow.  / / Am I this
shadow / / beside the river? / / —grey willow, other / / than olive
Five Poems for Roni
?  / / Are you the other?  / / Even the
shadow / / cast by a cypress / / is cypress.  Shadow / / of willow o
Five Poems for Roni
way you took instead.”  / / The bridge
shadow , darker than a night wood, / / took three and rendered two; wh
The Black-out
how Him was, no question, / / a copy’s
shadow in the terms of Plato.  / / Yes.  But, though by so answering th
The Betrayal
when the sun leaves it, gather its own
shadow / / into itself, itself into its shadows, / / grow one again
Dream under a Carob-tree
ely back old Plato / / framed laws for
shadow -men.  Does He (like Plato?) / / hope that, though cheating Him,
The Betrayal
tain stood, / / St Paul’s, in pale and
shadow -moulded stone, / / and stilled, emptied my mind; and then what
The Black-out
for Anabel, / / when “Martin” from the
shadow of a tree / / came clear.  Clean from my heart the black cloud
The Black-out
A Window / Shown through the
shadow of action, word and look, / / seen through our shifting mood,
A Window
scarlet, scattered free, / / and blue,
shadow of burning blue / / above, echo of blues that glow / / round
Delos in Spring
/ / cast by a cypress / / is cypress. 
Shadow / / of willow on river / / is another country.  / / The waste
Five Poems for Roni
ne / / just where the moon threw Eros’
shadow on her.  / / She, stepping suddenly where the light was thrown,
The Black-out
army / / pursuing me.  / / Threatening
shadow / / on the horizon’s rim / / —burn every blade of grass / /
Scorched Earth
rew away the pearl / / has no laughing
shadow / / —poor lost fool.  / /
Catharsis
one day / / beyond the ribbon a faint
shadow rise / / which broke too the horizon of the sea / / and grew
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ow / / into graver green of the wood’s
shadow / / sky-chinked above, bluebell-pooled below.  / / This is my
Two Summer Songs
r / / land, tread another / / sharper
shadow / / than ever willow / / weaves in this country / / —olive,
Five Poems for Roni
in its hidden cleft.  / / There is more
shadow than light / / but broken brilliance drips through / / touchi
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
gly, / / but those are negatives, / /
shadow to light).  And somehow I believe / / without doubt in the abso
Credo
stepped up the stair, / / the moment’s
shadow vanished.  / / So it was / / that just at midnight, when at la
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nly with snow, / / blind in a whirl of
shadow / / whose white glints can build no world.  / / Under bright s
Exchange
ea, stone, cypress, / / sharp-cornered
shadow , / / wrenched olive (willow- / / grey, but no river, / / no
Five Poems for Roni
dreams by the river, / / drops a soft
shadow .  / / You, in your other / / land, tread another / / sharper
Five Poems for Roni
tall flat-topped peak / / between two
shadowed cliffs sunlit, which said / / ‘I am your way’ (if butterflie
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
trees stood / / part lit; to right the
shadowed parapet / / where leaned a man against the light and drew.  /
The Black-out
slowly the dim light / / shaped me the
shadows among which I stood.  / / She sat there on a low bough, her le
The Black-out
ning, light green, dark green, / / sun-
shadows and a sparkle of dew.  / / Light as the air our hair our feed.
Otherworld
, / / the hero peered into the opening
shadows / / and held his sword against the shades crowding / / to th
Odysseus
Through untimed fields of childhood the
shadows and light / / stretched far out but changed quickly between n
Hymn
e.”  / / “The interest that through all
shadows cast / / shines still is yours, and mine through you,” I said
The Black-out
d pain / / from eyes and ears memorial
shadows fade / / in the truth’s presence.  “There is more to do / / t
The Black-out
hadow / / into itself, itself into its
shadows , / / grow one again with nature in the night.  / /
Dream under a Carob-tree
ldren.  / / Light slopes, lengthens the
shadows of the children / / parting, gathering, trailing across the e
For Rachel
rls and boys / / or brought shimmering
shadows / / to the griefs and joys / / of life in the flat fields /
The Green Children of Woolpit
de.  / / We turned, and left behind the
shadowy spaces / / of Parliament Square, crossed the untrafficked, wi
The Black-out
liff.  / / He aimed and loosed, but the
shaft passed above / / and shattered on the rock.  One arrow gone.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e.  The small room dazzled him / / with
shafted sunlight falling on a bed.  / / She seemed to have lain down,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
der the black gale / / was scooped up,
shaken , broken, shredded, thinned / / into a thousand thousand steely
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d most beautiful, / / and frightening. 
Shaken by a hot tear-shower / / she turned to the firm shoulder there
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
me to mounded sand.  A windy morrow / /
shakes the crystal bubble about the children.  / / Light slopes, lengt
For Rachel
blaze against the wind again.  / / Mind
shakes to see / / how fighting wind and fire can absolutely / / dest
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
speech; but parted, bird in cage, / /
shakes with dumb power, / / blots a blank page.  / /
Love’s Eyes and Hands
tablishing unchallenged supremacy, / /
Shakespeare standing above all appears, / / until I looked beyond the
Poetry
earth-dark Other who has even the dogs
shaking / / as she fleets by over graveyards, over black blood.  / /
Spells and Love
in the dark / / against them, sole and
shaking , Love.  / / Then, almost fore-defeated, Love / / sensed at hi
Masque
hrough the closing day, / / stumbling,
shaking , took the familiar way, / / hungry for bed, home, mother, lik
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
-fingers picking through / / dissolve? 
Shall all spells be unpicked, or / / all spells but this?  Must this s
End of Fairy-Story
/ is firm as our love, and perhaps we
shall be able.  / /
[White foam sweeps]
dredth year your life is done, / / you
shall be born the prince for whom time keeps / / the keys of this tho
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d all so quick / / to bless?  Amen!  She
shall be brave and wise / / and beautiful and happy, and as the bud /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, certainly.  / / My only joy to know I
shall be he’— / / or might be he…  The doubt spread to eclipse / / th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
id / / “These she shall have.  But they
shall be no use.”  / / Dress it how you may; / / in plain words, what
“Gale is Dead”
season of them all / / when you and I
shall / / be with one another and content.  / /
[Golden, red, brown]
yet she shall not die.  / / “The prick
shall bring not death but a long sleep.  / / A sleep not as you know i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
star vanishes, / / and these no breeze
shall by and by / / uncurtain unchanged to my gaze, / / since they a
Night
storm / / when all we see / / of land
shall cease / / to be, or change its nature, structure, form.  / / Wi
The Sea
a few old friends.  / / Between you you
shall clear your house and your kingdom / / of the parasitic clutter.
Odysseus
Otherworld / When I was a child I
shall come to you / / a child too in the old garden.  / / A spring mo
Otherworld
ryland.  / / We climbed from there, and
shall descend / / in a few minutes there again, / / knowing quite we
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
, and all these heavenly qualities / /
shall die into a little bead of blood.”  / / Silence and darkness.  Dar
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rom Pisgah, know / / that others after
shall do so.  / / The vision’s all, and is enough.  / /
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
god / / is not assuaged.  / / This you
shall do.  / / Take ship again.  Yes, take ship again / / and sail dis
Odysseus
es against the shore.  / / Yet that sea
shall endure / / its round of calm and storm / / when all we see /
The Sea
cell alone / / notching up which heads
shall fall / / if she can once ascend the throne.  / / Peaky brother
Royal Family
ht on the footless cliff) / / I hope I
shall feel relief / / as well as, I hope, regret.  / /
[When the moment comes to forget]
is ours.  Surely we / / in the end / /
shall find ourselves made free / / to roam the pastures side by side?
[The grass in the next field]
en, as then, / / unchanged, unmagic we
shall find / / the common ground we left behind / / matter-of-fact w
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
come, he’s brave and true enough) / /
shall force a way and wake her with a kiss.  / / And it’s to love that
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d my skin.  Good-bye / / that shield.  I
shall get one no worse quite easily.  / /
Two Songs of a Mercenary
/ there, not there, the trained current
shall go.  / / And so it went, gentle, reflective, blue / / or swelli
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
/ rejected, black, said / / “These she
shall have.  But they shall be no use.”  / / Dress it how you may; / /
“Gale is Dead”
/ How did this love begin?  / / Where
shall I start?  / / Eubulus’s girl, Anaxo, / / was picked to carry a
Spells and Love
uching.  Waking, / / the dream gone you
shall keep the sweetness.  / /
Otherworld
human) drift our way / / but surely we
shall never let them build / / into a barrier.  / / We know too well
[Yes, you’re right]
/ shall pierce her youth, and yet she
shall not die.  / / “The prick shall bring not death but a long sleep.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ide and my friend / / a happy summer I
shall not forget.”  / / He blushed.  The thousand things he had to say
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and talk.”  But she: “to-night / / you
shall not home so soon; in other places / / you are awaited.  Come.”  T
The Black-out
and the leaves turn / / and things we
shall not live to cherish / / others are born to burn.  / / Fire-rais
Cassandra’s Song
anging herself in her own rope.  / / We
shall not see her like again?  / / Well, that’s too much, I think, to
Great Britain
spell-cast into time and space, / / we
shall not tread your turf, or snuff / / your scents—nor, as from Pisg
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
can half uncurse it.  Needling fate / /
shall pierce her youth, and yet she shall not die.  / / “The prick sha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ God more readily then, judging, / /
shall pity you.  We stuffed our skin / / —it hangs in rags, and the bo
Villon’s Epitaph
bud / / is dying into the flower, she
shall prick / / her thumb, and all these heavenly qualities / / shal
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o it / / and, part of what we ruin, we
shall rue it.  / /
Man in Nature
till / / and, part of what we ruin, we
shall rue it.  / / He cracks the nucleus and cries “I knew it!  / / No
Man in Nature
will— / / and part of what we ruin, we
shall rue it.  / / Is the wind free and strong? we must subdue it / /
Man in Nature
pill / / and, part of what we ruin, we
shall rue it.  / / The world’s our wilderness.  Man fumbles through it,
Man in Nature
/ / Their Parthenon endures; and thus
shall , sad, / / crowded cuttings in the rock endure; / / where now,
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ut it must grow / / from seed yourself
shall sow / / in your own daughter’s womb.”  / / One horror makes ano
Pelopia and Thyestes
t a kind of death.  About the house / /
shall spread and sprawl a thorny wilderness / / one hundred years—unt
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
heart.  / / Their bonds remain, but you
shall to the vow / / and the fulfilment come, / / though in the hear
Waiting
rain / Young, I thought / / “One day I
shall walk / / these rough woods, / / those hills that climb and par
From a Train
/ and perhaps of all / / that we ever
shall .  / / We love a landscape or / / a picture or a face / / —pers
Fair Exchange
Separation / When
shall we meet again?  We do not know / / —can only dress our longing t
Separation
old ambivalent spirit spoke:  / / “You
shall win home / / and find your wife waiting for you, your son / /
Odysseus
water met the sand, / / dropped in the
shallows —kneeling, drank and drank / / (the fresh river thrusting the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, and he stepped out of a train / / of
shamblers , saying “how can you stand apart, / / if you have ever let
The Black-out
/ but one not quite without a sense of
shame .) / /
The Two Ways
smears down her white skirt, the red of
shame / / hot in her face, friends giggling, crowd’s rude cracks / /
Pelopia and Thyestes
unning, and swallowed down the tears of
shame .  / / I pulled my hand across my face, weary, / / and through m
The Black-out
sturbed but not stirred by the prick of
shame , / / I watch the world and wait for happiness.”  / / She sighed
The Black-out
now, dead, can teach / / our doubt and
shame —sweet / / day and night, / / cloud and sun, stars, / / wind o
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
/ unflattering / / comparison / / to
shame us, but no error— / / naked image of what gets done.  / / And y
Heron and Gulls
feel them take over / / reality, / /
shameful , frightening, / / telling us we / / aren’t who we are, / /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
roke down to island-rocks.  One took the
shape , / / he thought, of a girl sleeping on a bed, / / then changed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
this world), her thoughts, giving them
shape / / in clear, beautiful words.  / / For this they share, as wel
Eugénie de Guérin
/ / days in years, and a pattern took
shape in our ways.  / / Certain rhythms repeat in the weeks and the ye
Hymn
orming in the stone / / helped build a
shape which was not there before.  / / Though change offend and hurt,
Change
cloud is gathered / / into a monstrous
shape .  / / Yet here and now about me / / between two thoughts I see
Other World
cloud is gathered / / into a monstrous
shape ; / / yet here and now about me / / between two thoughts I see
[Today we feel behind us]
ng first, but slowly the dim light / /
shaped me the shadows among which I stood.  / / She sat there on a low
The Black-out
its heat, / / flesh cast its bloom and
shapely hands grow sharp.  / / Here be content only to form and keep /
Inscription for a Convent
ying a shark / / (yet dream still of a
shapely / / innocent form, a dolphin curving clear, / / scattering d
Advent
ate / / takes like cloud unpredictable
shapes .  / /
Uncertain
an intelligible world / / of surfaced
shapes .  / / Now, as then, / / the beam comes level through the air. 
For Cecil
/ / restlessness played on him in many
shapes .  / / Today he eyed the coast between the capes / / and felt c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
like the others) a masterpiece / / of
shaping and drawing.  / / These were lifted from a girl’s grave, / /
Label
move, / / the sharper love that lovers
share .  / / As water at the wedding-feast / / endured a look and glow
Hymn
ar, beautiful words.  / / For this they
share , as well as their love: love / / of the expressive, the living
Eugénie de Guérin
han this meaningless cessation I do not
share ?  / / Autumn is here and lovely, / / the season she loved most.
Death
nges.  / / What in this city / / do we
share ?  Best, Dominick / / and the children who / / had no fares but
For Cecil
/ at least there was a love for them to
share .  / / He gazed to the blue rim.  Then turned his back.  / / Sick
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is long dreams with a friend / / who’d
share his joy and pain, who’d lead, or rather / / more often be led t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, by His good willing, / / that we may
share in His blessing, / / thunder of Hell fall another way.  / / We’
Villon’s Epitaph
han alone.  / / They meet to mate, then
share / / nurture of the young, / / yet in that loving care / / yie
Woodpeckers
hink / / of me?  my soul will show its
share / / of hurts, but where?  / /
Wounds
ink / / that not all men have an equal
share / / of sound good sense and reasoning.  / / We who are sped cra
Villon’s Epitaph
mself, defraud Himself?  Is God’s / / a
share only?  They thought by a trick question / / to have Him on the h
The Betrayal
/ don’t grieve.  Of course you will.  But
share / / what matters with me (you will) as though I’m there.  / /
A poem you may like to see
eye / / for visual truth.  And we have
shared a world / / wider than that, till our ways seemed to lie / /
The Black-out
on (all the years, / / the experience,
shared ) / / and now, piercingly, you.  / / And no-one else will ever
[Living alone is lonely]
ment in our fear for them, / / is that
shared guilt.  But our love stands free. / / thank you for loving me,
[Our lives are in other hands]
at our shared natural pace, / / and so
shared joy is a shared peace, / / a home.  / / It had to end / / but
Two Poems from a New Life
e in yourself, the presence of / / our
shared love / / keeps me company.  / / And that is not but has to be
[Living alone is lonely]
/ choosing to walk with us / / at our
shared natural pace, / / and so shared joy is a shared peace, / / a
Two Poems from a New Life
tural pace, / / and so shared joy is a
shared peace, / / a home.  / / It had to end / / but, lived fully, s
Two Poems from a New Life
be remembered), joke in a queue / / (a
shared short laugh)—anything will do / / that dies quickly but has gl
Treasure
a swift gorge, rough cliffs above, / /
shared toil and danger made part of their dream.  / / Then the hills p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / A full, a whole time, / / a time
shared .  / / Wish the gathered swallows joy of their far journey / /
Swallows
ken, brightening western cloud / / and
shared with me / / the faintest brief arc of a real rainbow.  / /
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
/ / the power and glory she would have
shared with us, / / no choice is left us but to render war / / all g
Prayer to Truth
h often, sometimes wicked as well, / /
sharing in guilt, part of the guilty world.  / / Visited on our childr
[Our lives are in other hands]
for his body’s too, mortally sick) yet
sharing / / still with warm loving pride / / his thoughts and hopes,
Eugénie de Guérin
ving pride / / his thoughts and hopes,
sharing with him her hopes / / (few in this world), her thoughts, giv
Eugénie de Guérin
ready cutting the air, / / betraying a
shark / / (yet dream still of a shapely / / innocent form, a dolphin
Advent
sive as a song / / and as incorporeal,
sharp as frost or flame: / / the fairies, gathering for the grand eve
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he bleak fact of his loss, / / dropped
sharp as new, contorted him with pain, / / its black authority cuttin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
k / / of the quick-winged hounds, / /
sharp -circling sloops, prevails / / forcing it from its fishing-groun
Heron and Gulls
an pain.  / / Sea, stone, cypress, / /
sharp -cornered shadow, / / wrenched olive (willow- / / grey, but no
Five Poems for Roni
/ / is nosing its way.  I seem to see a
sharp / / dorsal fin already cutting the air, / / betraying a shark
Advent
/ of water dribbling, drifting mists,
sharp heather / / black through the snow—the frozen winter breaking,
The Black-out
h cast its bloom and shapely hands grow
sharp .  / / Here be content only to form and keep / / peace in the he
Inscription for a Convent
aking and sleep / / things appear / /
sharp in the eye, / / words speak in the ear / / startlingly clear,
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
be / / called the first cause, however
sharp its sting.  / / You are unhappy because you dare not free / / y
The Black-out
ells, companioned only / / by the long
sharp line dividing (dun green from black) / / rough immemorial pastu
A Dream
wind, / / thimble-pocked by the beaks’
sharp play.  / / Our brotherhood is not welcoming.  / / We all need me
Villon’s Epitaph
suddenly / / under our heels, / / the
sharp shock is its own cure, telling / / how vain are our imaginings,
That Way Madness Lies
.  The point was made.  / / The sky-ring
sharp , unbroken, reached and reached / / behind the piling rocks.  At
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
od?  / / No, I see no tears, / / but a
sharpening of the senses, heightening, glow, / / ray from a red sunse
What Do They Feel?
ne perhaps was prettier, / / certainly
sharper , and inclined to laugh / / and laugh at him—which, while of c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to make those love-tides move, / / the
sharper love that lovers share.  / / As water at the wedding-feast /
Hymn
our other / / land, tread another / /
sharper shadow / / than ever willow / / weaves in this country / /
Five Poems for Roni
rse’s story told him long ago.  / / But
sharper than the image of her old / / face as she drew the memory up,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Elegy for the Dead at
Sharpeville / This woman, this child, this man; / / and there; and he
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
/ / Croyde Bay or Ringstead Bay.  Came
sharply through / / me hate to be where streets and houses cover / /
The Black-out
These gave way / / and gold and ivory
shatter in the fall.  / /
Against Pedestals
ed, but the shaft passed above / / and
shattered on the rock.  One arrow gone.  / / Be careful.  He looked wher
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ms the soul…  / / Sugar and spice…  / /
Shatteringly / / clatters back in the bleak wind / / an ill-latched
Dinner
s to the gloved hands / / which deftly
shaved and gutted the gay shell.  / / That tempted him.  “What are they
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s which, he saw now, / / her knife had
shaved .  She raised her head and eyed / / him hard.  He shivered in the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
from hours in still woods, on the wind-
shaved sweep / / of downs, walking, sitting, now listening, / / look
Happiness
peered harder.  It was a shell, / / its
shaven bright fragility intact.  / / How could it be? here?  Here it wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and doing, thought and love, / / all
sheared by a fall / / of slanting steel, / / gone in a burst of bloo
Die Weisse Rose
/ west, west to the horizon, straightly
sheared / / from grass to surf, golden against the noon, / / lovely,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ermine beauty, / / explore truth…  / /
Sheared nerves mutter / / in the sealed stump.  / /
Lopped
seasons draw me on.  / / But since the
shears must snap and my time stop / / sometime, might a tolerable mon
Sixtieth Summer
ight was thrown, / / cried:  “Hangs the
sheath still empty, and the sword / / stands ever in the water-wander
The Black-out
ay by day, as the leaves are loosed and
shed / / and the stillness of the far solstice approaches, / / clear
Dance of the Seasons
light,” I said, “and more the full moon
shed / / when caught by night my second day in Greece / / we lost ou
The Black-out
f ragged wood, / / glimpsed through it
sheep grazing in a field.  / / Green world in my eyes, heart.  Other su
Green World
ped more lately, took deep root / / at
Sheepstead , quiet country of water and wood / / between the wandering
Bury My Heart
any / / of the rest.  Bury my heart at
Sheepstead , then.  / /
Bury My Heart
Balance
Sheet / Not so much the fear of dying or of being dead / / (absolute
Balance Sheet
Makherás / Yellow daisies in
sheets over the green grass, / / yellow cowslip-balls of flowering fe
Makherás
ng cliff, / / while he wrenched at the
sheets , salted and stiff.  / / Then they gave too, the sails slumped t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
inding still in his other hand / / the
shell “And this is yours.”  She looked at it / / wondering.  He, liftin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l a leaf—this was a tree.  / / Leaf and
shell / / are with us still / / but delicately other than these; /
Fossils
n the sand, / / tried to clean out the
shell but cracked it—would / / gladly have fled, but stayed from stub
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ nibbling a hard green / / cast-out
shell .  / / Coaxed into feeding / / with raw husk and stalk / / they
The Green Children of Woolpit
/ / uncaring, when his eye lit on the
shell / / dropped there unharmed.  Vaguely he touched it—leapt / / su
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / their coloured-shining, lacquered
shell ; / / even the tongue-tied struggler jealous guards / / his ref
The Party
/ / A nest?  He peered harder.  It was a
shell , / / its shaven bright fragility intact.  / / How could it be? 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Spare a small grief / / for lovely
shell or leaf / / that loosed or crushed before its hour / / left un
Fossils
ter / / moving along the moving hollow
shell .  / / Sigh or high song of wind in rigging, air / / on rope and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
which deftly shaved and gutted the gay
shell .  / / That tempted him.  “What are they?”  “Sea-urchins.”  / / “Ma
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / with its likeness to a sea-urchin
shell .  / / Traditional ornament and lucky charm / / in every house… 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cried out, upset, / / and dropped the
shell , which broke.  It was enough, / / she broke into a flood of tear
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
istens, holding to an ear / / an empty
shell which whispers of the sea.  / /
Parted
ridge / The North / They burned drowned
Shelley / / on the beach.  We on your beach / / raised you a bonfire
For Cecil
ombed and cleaned / / he threw out two
shells (broken) of the three, / / wrapped up the last in red leaves f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
this rock lie stony semblances / / of
shells —here was the sea; / / and in this coal a leaf—this was a tree.
Fossils
und on spears / / —a stack of polished
shells or polished shields / / catches the sun across two thousand ye
On the Border
earth / / till all is empty quarries,
shells / / riven by a Caesarian birth.  / / The fairy-story hero’s ca
Mother’s Malison
d children / / dot like sea-birds, sea-
shells , the beach, that empty / / accepts their cries into its crysta
For Rachel
rough sun-drenched days, / / cold dew,
shelly horns, bulls walking pastures / / in kingly-flashing coats und
Poetry
re by the stream / / to beg food and a
shelter for the night.  / / The hut was dark, and silent to his knock.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Shelved / That dream, like many another dream, / / is now no longer a
Shelved
able.  / / On the radio / / Schubert’s
Shepherd on the Rocks.  / / For me, you.  For you, / / Stephen.  I wish
For Cecil
The
Shepherdess of Cahuzac / from Eugénie de Guérin’s Journal / The girl c
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
d the flower of life and land.  / / The
shepherds of Parnes or the Pyrenees / / are fetched to the ranks, and
On the Border
Shepherd’s Song / from a poem attributed to Theocritus / Pelops may ru
Shepherd’s Song
of the world, / / Gorgias Tamynis on a
sherd / / in a scratched verse, and A.G. on a wall / / in chalk R.H.
Fossils
but I saved my skin.  Good-bye / / that
shield .  I shall get one no worse quite easily.  / /
Two Songs of a Mercenary
I’m drinking my spear is ready.  / / My
shield (not its fault) is making some tribesman’s day, / / picked fro
Two Songs of a Mercenary
—a stack of polished shells or polished
shields / / catches the sun across two thousand years.  / / “Good-bye
On the Border
and tap will always run.  / / A little
shift in earth and air’s / / metabolism.  Bareness, / / water runs th
Drought
her one Italian.  / / Well, so patterns
shift .  / / The campus was beautiful, / / grass and tall trees, / /
Grace
s his thought ahead, / / but sandbanks
shift under the fog / / giving the lie to chart and log.) / / We mus
Lost
ut somewhere round midday / / the wind
shifted into the north, and he / / turned the bow south.  Dim to the s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and set him at her side?  / / The story
shifted like the shifting mist.  / / Robbers and dragons make an easy
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
as high, / / a faint sea-breeze, which
shifted presently / / and settled steady in the old good quarter.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ge cliffs black and red, / / footed in
shifting foam, crowned with thin jade, / / broke down to island-rocks
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ timeworn image, will not fix / / the
shifting look.  / / Lift it again.  / / Naked under brutal lamps, / /
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
r side?  / / The story shifted like the
shifting mist.  / / Robbers and dragons make an easy dream.  / / How c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n, word and look, / / seen through our
shifting mood, / / a double wall of smoke, / / to know fully, judge
A Window
ly.  / / A child’s children play by the
shifting run / / of white water, where children played their mother /
[White foam sweeps]
/ the husks from the grains, heavy fans
shifting / / the chaff from the freed grains.  One time, one way.  / /
Dream under a Carob-tree
-cap on that love—its living force / /
shifts into proportion resentments, guilts.  / / And oh I pray it can
[White foam sweeps]
emember Elbe’s pillared halls, / / the
shimmering chandeliers of Thrushcross Grange.”  / / But I: “remember R
The Black-out
ks done, spells are taken off / / this
shimmering crest which knows no trough.  / / Since princess meeting pr
End of Fairy-Story
solving in / / commonness, muddy?  / /
shimmering light lost again / / in grey reversion of rain?  / / Rain
Exchange
e common girls and boys / / or brought
shimmering shadows / / to the griefs and joys / / of life in the fla
The Green Children of Woolpit
imple design; / / a bronze mirror, its
shine a roughened green / / but on the back still, delicately lined,
Label
eeps in the air, / / colour and music. 
Shine / / of sun in a child’s hair / / turns water into wine.  / / H
Glimpse
ver / / the children said / / was the
shine of sunlight, / / on their side was shade.  / / Sound of church-
The Green Children of Woolpit
lls to bind him.  / / But, O Moon, / /
shine out while I croon, to you, goddess, and to Hecate, / / your ear
Spells and Love
n.  Some recover / / from anorexia, and
shine .  / / Sink into / / the seedy role, laudator temporis acti?  /
Desert Island?
ight / / the temporal earth.  / / Calm
shine some, in whom power and deadweight hold / / a steady balance; s
Lamps
/ “Oh what a moon,” he said.  “By such a
shine / / we first saw Florence resting in the clear / / after-heat
The Black-out
her Spring / The field of cloth of gold
shines as it shone / / but now within under a winter gloom / / the g
Another Spring
rest that through all shadows cast / /
shines still is yours, and mine through you,” I said,    / / “with me
The Black-out
hemselves, or break on sand, / / rock,
shingle —continent or island, / / coasts lost down bare horizons.  / /
Shipwreck
life to themselves: a river, wet, / /
shining against a forest.  Then, clearer yet, / / her form, her face,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
gain and loss.  / / This year we saw a
shining being enter, / / like any other year, the darkening winter; /
Winter Solstice
arbour with its island, / / enjoys the
shining broom-slopes.  Another at Iken looks / / from a low cliff, lik
Bury My Heart
the heart.  / / Your joy of life, your
shining / / feeling that everything / / is possible, faded from you
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
ar.  / / I remember / / beauty just so
shining from air to eye / / across brimming waters of misery, / / no
“Life is sweet, brother”
/ / the factories themselves, washing
shining / / in narrow yards, the yards, even the narrow / / houses,
“Life is sweet, brother”
s the dull thoughts lying there / / to
shining jewels.  But when / / I pick them out to send to you / / they
Letters
ound, the beautiful / / their coloured-
shining , lacquered shell; / / even the tongue-tied struggler jealous
The Party
heir chests shone brighter than you are
shining , Moon, / / fresh-oiled from a round of bouts in the wrestling
Spells and Love
out over grey shining water, grey / /
shining mud of an East-coast estuary.  / / The last, dropped more late
Bury My Heart
quins on a dress—where have I seen / /
shining sequins on a white gauze dress?  / / I do not know— / / old,
Wind
colours and the singing gone, / / but
shining still the temples hold / / their broken faces to the dawn.  /
Acropolis
scattered skeleton, / / desolation of
shining stone.  / / No past throws up against the sense / / a reek of
Delos in Spring
of delight and pain.  / / “We know this
shining stream bears London’s refuse / / from railway, gasworks, fact
The Black-out
e borne it.  / / Good-bye, Moon on your
shining throne.  Good-bye / / you other stars that ride with the quiet
Spells and Love
/ / moat upmounting, but straight from
shining water / / bravely bridged—flagged battlements recalling / /
For Rachel
ut topped with oaks, / / out over grey
shining water, grey / / shining mud of an East-coast estuary.  / / Th
Bury My Heart
rees, almost, / / that were before the
ship , / /
A Wreck
all do.  / / Take ship again.  Yes, take
ship again / / and sail distance and days, / / beach on an unknown s
Odysseus
aged.  / / This you shall do.  / / Take
ship again.  Yes, take ship again / / and sail distance and days, / /
Odysseus
ware of the truths of day.  / / Let the
ship drive through the keyhole of a star.  / /
Voyage
Gunnar of Lithend / Riding down to the
ship of exile waiting / / in the firth below / / his horse threw him
Gunnar of Lithend
stud / / the sterile sand / / were a
ship once, / / as swift and beautiful / / at least as all ships are,
A Wreck
drove on this shore.  / / These are no
ship .  / / When tide flows deep / / round weedy timbers fish / / smo
A Wreck
under the three-thousandth day / / the
ships along the shore, / / the tents about the plain.  / / Armed soon
Presage
wift and beautiful / / at least as all
ships are, / / but caught by chance / / or captained by a fool / /
A Wreck
b them, sit, / / look out to sea, / /
ships sliding by…  / / Rooted and green / / these seem (though withou
A Wreck
m, these two / / have sunk towards the
ships .  / / We watch the crescent set, / / know her concealed compani
September Cruise
Shipwreck / The waves move on uncharted courses / / to lose themselve
Shipwreck
ll but the second sleeve of the twelfth
shirt , / / leaving her youngest brother one swan’s wing / / —strong
Fairy Story
Pavements / Dog-
shit in London; / / New York, chewed gum.  / / To each culture-surfac
Pavements
/ / against wind.  / / I stand alone,
shiver .  But not alone / / ever again.  / / Apart we are, but you are
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
gh the wood / / filling with dusk.  She
shivered and turned back / / home, but smiled as she turned, and said
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d a rock-pool, deep and spread.  / / He
shivered , but he stripped, plunged over head / / and out, new-fired. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd cliff…  He felt the grim / / threat,
shivered in the sun.  So what?  Go back?  / / A gust bellied the sail, a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sed her head and eyed / / him hard.  He
shivered in the sun.  What other / / such frozen gaze frighted him lon
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
evelation to him / / of autumn.  But he
shivered —terrible / / the thought of ways crook-tunnelled all about /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tide.  / / The wind was up and cold; I
shivered , watching / / the gondola grow smaller on the wide / / wate
The Black-out
enishment impossible.  / / The boy went
shivering , his belt drawn tight.  / / The next four years lent him les
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
I knew her gone; / / then looked, and
shivering left the deeper shade, / / and tired and cold moved stiffly
The Black-out
th a cruel pattern of stars, / / Venus
shivering under the Scorpion’s tail, / / Saturn’s black frost poisoni
“Gale is Dead”
ntory / / and the sea-swell swings its
shock / / against rough rock.  / /
September Cruise
te-faced tall shopkeeper with the black
shock -hair / / phoning the police to fetch him in the little shop /
A Dream
ly / / under our heels, / / the sharp
shock is its own cure, telling / / how vain are our imaginings, / /
That Way Madness Lies
l / / his sweating body—knew the fiery
shock / / of snow-water, colder than he had thought / / water could
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hough not blind / / to her desire, was
shocked by it.  He sought / / the pox at Mistress Overdone’s instead. 
Beyond Measure
yes, / / and then she told him, to his
shocked surprise, / / a story he had never heard before.  / / It didn
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s still alone…  / / The fairy’s curse—a
shocking fear possessed him / / that after the hard victories of the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ly sore, / / but sensibly took off his
shoes and went / / barefoot through the surf and along the shore.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
h up the Grays Inn Road.  Where the moon
shone / / across a tram-wire mesh, we met a mass / / solemn in a pro
The Black-out
er than goldenrod / / and their chests
shone brighter than you are shining, Moon, / / fresh-oiled from a rou
Spells and Love
The field of cloth of gold shines as it
shone / / but now within under a winter gloom / / the gorse on the b
Another Spring
nd sky, thickening, till only foam / /
shone in the black; light imperceptibly / / withdrawn from all, to th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
elled with flowers and butterflies / /
shook him with beauty—or the early night, / / stars contouring a high
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
th us.”  But my guide / / touched me; I
shook my head: “meet soon.”  The boat / / passed down with the already
The Black-out
n inaction’s false excuse.”  / / A wind
shook through the tree; I raised my head / / and saw a few faint star
The Black-out
ldiers, advance against the enemy.  / /
Shoot when you see the white of a man’s eye.  / / If more of you can k
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
g the police to fetch him in the little
shop / / in the narrow alley.  / / But he escaped from the alley, /
A Dream
ine, / / as hand on spade in the alley-
shop was mine, / / my feet struggling from my own pursuing voices /
A Dream
lley, / / pursued by police and by the
shopkeeper shouting / / a list of his crimes.  And then the shopkeeper
A Dream
ade to strike / / the white-faced tall
shopkeeper with the black shock-hair / / phoning the police to fetch
A Dream
/ / a list of his crimes.  And then the
shopkeeper’s voice / / was the voice of his old bawd, ugly and thin,
A Dream
uide in draughts and grease (rooms over
shops ) / / rude Master Tom’s and prim Miss Betty’s hops.  / /
La Fontaine et le Déluge
uth, hill crowded hill / / against the
shore , and the curved surf-line closed / / in cliffs and a rock-naked
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
barefoot through the surf and along the
shore .  / / But all this slowed him, and his flasks were dry / / befo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
early a trim boat / / and an old long-
shore fisherman to teach / / the basic skills; those mastered, knew t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
White foam sweeps along the grey-brown
shore / / from grey-green sea under a grey-blue sky, / / Low bright
[White foam sweeps]
/ His nurse would carry him along the
shore .  / / He crowed against the seagulls and the wind / / or simply
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ And one day (they were sitting on the
shore ) / / he told her of another beach he knew, / / empty—‘Much as
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y / / tormenting as he moved along the
shore .  / / His fingers’ festering pain burned up his arm.  / / Almost
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ls that climb and part, / / this clear
shore .”  / / No more.  / / Mind knows Time has closed that door.  / /
From a Train
/ / the narrow ribbon of the flatland
shore / / stretching on endlessly.  Until one day / / it curved off,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
thousandth day / / the ships along the
shore , / / the tents about the plain.  / / Armed soon, as before, /
Presage
ng prince enspelled— / / but the white
shore , the wide horizon round it: / / action and dream were centred o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ance and days, / / beach on an unknown
shore .  / / Then take an oar, turn your back to the sea / / and walk
Odysseus
d by a fool / / drifting drove on this
shore .  / / These are no ship.  / / When tide flows deep / / round we
A Wreck
lear stars / / what wind casts on what
shore / / these baulks to which they cling, this water / / in which
Shipwreck
wall of rock?…  / / Suppose he made the
shore …  Those barren ranges / / climbing from cape and cliff…  He felt
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
kens down.  / / Without you your winter
shore .  / / Wind is a sword of / / ice, under wild colours in / / su
For Cecil
inconstant water that cries against the
shore .  / / Yet that sea shall endure / / its round of calm and storm
The Sea
/ / but never had the sea and the far
shores / / called him so coaxingly.  He sensed also / / an unvoiced e
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ome in it, / / their home—those golden
shores , / / flower-wooded hills, which loved them once.  / /
[Some exiles know]
e you; / / the time to do things in is
short at most; / / why sit like those who listen for the phone, / /
The Black-out
of) / / a temper that flares high on a
short fuse.  / / A bad combination, one would suppose, / / a recipe f
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
whitened in front of us.  / / Over the
short grass my feet too were silent; / / silent and dark behind the n
The Black-out
Saunton—wind-washed pink thrift / / in
short grass on low sandstone cliffs, / / long low black rocks enclosi
Bury My Heart
faery / / is on the other side of the
short grass on the hill, / / reaches out into the thieving and loving
[The bare, beautiful borders]
mbered), joke in a queue / / (a shared
short laugh)—anything will do / / that dies quickly but has gleamed f
Treasure
d time / / touches in us into a life’s
short light / / the temporal earth.  / / Calm shine some, in whom pow
Lamps
live.  / / Condemned we snatch at every
short reprieve, / / disguising from ourselves how ruthlessly / / Age
Age
tumbling at their task / / as time ran
short / / yet she completed of her nettlework / / all but the second
Fairy Story
asked him what he ate— / / seagulls he
shot and cooked on drift.”  The harsh- / / screaming seagulls were all
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
-bottle filled at a cold stream, / / a
shot bird roasted on a stick-fire.  On / / thin rough grass of a valle
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
icked up his bow and with sure eye / /
shot down a seagull for his breakfast, roasted / / on old dry driftwo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mind back / / to these whom white men
shot for being black.  / / Life’s all one colour, spilled / / beside
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
or a while, came loud.  The gondola / /
shot from beneath the bridge and drew along.  / / A bright-haired girl
The Black-out
/ Children stone a swan.  / / Troopers
shot the fawn, / / Wanton brutality / / by all ages of man / / in e
Headline
Night-piece / The half-moon on Orion’s
shoulder / / lays on the world light / / colder than sea-pearl.  / /
Night-piece
fore-defeated, Love / / sensed at his
shoulder something move… / / so whisper-faint… a dream?  / / No—if in
Masque
tear-shower / / she turned to the firm
shoulder there, a tower / / founded on rock above her quivering pool.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and walk inland with the oar on your
shoulder .  / / You will meet with men from time to time, / / and afte
Odysseus
hilly on shoulders] / Wind is chilly on
shoulders .  Buses pass / / but not my bus.  / / Comforting glow, warmt
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
wrung hands between knees, / / hunched
shoulders closing / / across the sunk glance, / / knotted, shrunk.  T
Winter Recalled
[Wind is chilly on
shoulders ] / Wind is chilly on shoulders.  Buses pass / / but not my b
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
and shout / / on the beach, splash and
shout / / in the sea.  Grown-ups lounge out / / from the pub to drink
Climacteric by the Sea
d on the balcony.  / / Children run and
shout / / on the beach, splash and shout / / in the sea.  Grown-ups l
Climacteric by the Sea
s’ edge, where children / / paddle and
shout .  The waves rustle.  Yet silence / / encloses all in crystal.  Thi
For Rachel
pursued by police and by the shopkeeper
shouting / / a list of his crimes.  And then the shopkeeper’s voice /
A Dream
ces lolled about the draughty hall / /
shouting for more wood on the fire, for light / / and food, wine and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
may like to see / Watching the children
shouting in the pool / / a powerful hurt hits me / / that Cecil can’
A poem you may like to see
ago.  / / The wind blows in my face and
shouts “Love”, / / the wild fresh wind; the rest / / is lifted, whir
Wind
ved-in God, why should you care / / to
show a kindness to an atheist? / / single him out as blest / / by an
Uncertain
ay less / / itself for that, but can’t
show all it is.  / /
[Bare trees black]
ing question.  / / The head He had them
show Him was, no question, / / a copy’s shadow in the terms of Plato.
The Betrayal
she now think / / of me?  my soul will
show its share / / of hurts, but where?  / /
Wounds
ol, / / somewhere a tinkling fall / /
show that the stream is living too.  / /
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
, spring’s power past, / / summer will
show the bony tree / / still bare.  Now though give thanks, be blessed
Renewal
and kept begging me / / to come to the
show with her, and I to my sorrow / / did go, wearing my best long li
Spells and Love
d, / / foothills.  And evening suddenly
showed his eyes / / the river of his vision days before.  / / The oth
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
all empty; and the opposite rooms / /
showed lightless windows, uninvolved as tombs.  / / The night, she tho
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
its brightest this month” he said, and
showed me how / / working up from the moon, off to the right, / / I
A Hoard
schizophrenes in posse.  He for one / /
showed the cleft now.  / / He looked along the sand / / for something
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cold rehardens now; / / but that thaw
showed your earth is on the swing / / of lengthening days.  Be patient
The Black-out
/ and frightening.  Shaken by a hot tear-
shower / / she turned to the firm shoulder there, a tower / / founde
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of light on water—dark cloud, sweeping
showers — / / or the whole ring an unflawed clarity— / / he learnt th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ for life, which that lost spark has
shown as spoiled.  / / This darkness then was visited on the child; /
Law Report
to have known his handiwork seen, / /
shown , loved again?  / /
Label
/ —your pleasure, if you felt it, never
shown , / / no bright spark in your love that might have started / /
The Black-out
not only to his own self true / / but
shown so to his neighbours’ seeing?  / / Each of us sometimes wears a
H.A.R.P.
/ / not to be purified / / but to be
shown the way / / to vengeance—how repay?  / / The oracle replied:  /
Pelopia and Thyestes
A Window /
Shown through the shadow of action, word and look, / / seen through o
A Window
world in which we live / / one moment
shows as whole and healed.  / / Accept the vision.  Let it give / / a
Hymn
y, still is.  / / Time, this time, / /
shows himself a friend.  / / Larks with difficulty into the wild wind
Two Poems from a New Life
ks in dark stuffs and secret looks, and
shows / / the simple to the curious.  / / And all are here—the easy a
The Party
hin / / thin as grass.  / / The desert
shows through flaking green.  / / Mars might have been, / / perhaps w
Drought
de / / water—so lose them too?  But the
shrammed soul / / shrinking contracts against a knot of pride:  / / I
The Black-out
n, cherishing the deer.  / / His dreams
shrank further into fantasy.  / / The hind mates only with the stag.  P
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Delphis’s cloak he lost, and I / / now
shred it and toss the shreds on the savage fire.  / / …O Love, harsh E
Spells and Love
le / / was scooped up, shaken, broken,
shredded , thinned / / into a thousand thousand steely rays / / which
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t, and I / / now shred it and toss the
shreds on the savage fire.  / / …O Love, harsh Eros, why do you cling
Spells and Love
keep her more into the wind / / which
shrieked against the straining mast and stays.  / / The water whitenin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hundred years.  / / Not ice or fire, no
shrieks , no tears, / / but hopeless ill yearning for well.  / / Then—
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
/ will smooth back into beach-sand; as
shrill calling / / of child or bird leaves the next moment empty.  /
For Rachel
ame / / to silence—or rather to cicada-
shrill / / stillness, where thickly-bushed steep mountain-side / / b
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ He heard the hum and buzz, / / the
shrilling and the twang, / / snatches of what they sang, / / “Goddes
Pelopia and Thyestes
e lady of the house / / shrinks from a
shrilling horn.  / / Slips from the empty gown / / a vixen to the gor
Lady into Fox
, a peak behind hills / / that rise or
shrink as we move through miles and years, / / establishing unchallen
Poetry
se them too?  But the shrammed soul / /
shrinking contracts against a knot of pride:  / / I felt myself shrunk
The Black-out
and the rock-bound dreaming island / /
shrinks and hazes, and dreaming ghosts of islands / / rise half perce
September Cruise
ur dancing / The lady of the house / /
shrinks from a shrilling horn.  / / Slips from the empty gown / / a v
Lady into Fox
) to my house.  / / Barley-grains first
shrivel in the fire—why, Thestylis, / / strew them on then.  Stupid gi
Spells and Love
slow decay— / / cling unnaturally / /
shrivelling on their ties, / / dying as the tree dies.  / / Autumn’s
The Difference
laid / / the rose from the wood.  / /
Shriven , she raised her face / / to the sweet air / / and a voice ca
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
Consider / Consider this
shrunk ball / / (words circle it in seconds, you and I / / in twice
Consider
nst a knot of pride:  / / I felt myself
shrunk in the cold, but whole / / and me; and turned to Emily, ready
The Black-out
ich life has tried to quench, / / seem
shrunk now to their end; / / who here not even in dreams can reach th
The Embankment
/ across the sunk glance, / / knotted,
shrunk .  This / / is not stillness of peace / / but that movement is
Winter Recalled
uncaulked, thin sails torn, / / drifts
shuddering in the gloom / / of the increasing storm.  / / Must she so
England, 1981
ght of his third waterless day.  / / He
shuffled on under the darkening air / / hardly aware that he dared no
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and prayers / / and nailed the window
shut .  / / A man in the woven hanging reached for a nest.  / / Each mo
Eugénie de Guérin
er Square.  / / The first tube gate was
shut , but not the second.  / / Down sandbag-narrowed steps I reached t
The Black-out
he long grass / / sun on my face, eyes
shut , remembering / / sixty years ago I suppose it was / / lying in
Summers
e it was / / lying in long grass, eyes
shut , sun on face, / / imagining—no, pretending rather— / / this isn
Summers
id so.  / / “Au revoir.”  “Au revoir.”  I
shut the door.  / / They went as might in fairy-story go / / some mag
The Black-out
Moment and Memory / The
shutter flicks; the fleeting moment stays / / pinned on time like a b
Moment and Memory
k in the bleak wind / / an ill-latched
shutter of the mind.  / / I glimpse out there / / a swollen belly, ho
Dinner
places round us then / / intensify the
shuttered heart’s despair.  / / From London’s prison now you turn agai
The Black-out
ds to ready thought; / / the slow, the
shy , the dull, the worse than dull, / / whose laughter like a leper’s
The Party
o agree necessity of.  / / All are born
sib .  / / Brothers and sisters quarrel / / but learn (have to learn)
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
rowns your creatures, / / your friend,
sib , spouse, child, you and you.  / / I am the sea.  Do not forget me. 
The Wave
Sibling / Do you remember…?  Did you know…?  / / Tell me…  This’ll amuse
Sibling
wo flocks cropping together against the
Sicilian sea.  / /
Shepherd’s Song
aid went back, / / a dreadful journey,
sick and almost mad, / / across the dreadful mountains to his home /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ght awake.  / / Normally, that is.  / /
Sick and weak, / / we feel them take over / / reality, / / shameful
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
me track, / / not hopeful or afraid or
sick , but sad.  / / “ ‘But one day’ and he smiled ‘the prince will com
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ now firm again, then suddenly deadly
sick .  / / But still he dragged and hacked, hour after hour.  / / Forc
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n canyons of the high-slummed hill / /
sick children sell themselves for food.  / / Song… and blue sea… and o
Naples
wed, / / but for me, pretty Janet, the
sick man on his bed.  / / I sit by him and chatter—not a word he’ll sa
Greek Folk Song
cti?  / / No.  Bad trouble, but even our
sick polutions / / of earth and water and air may be contained, / /
Desert Island?
ed fantasies to flight / / leaving him
sick , until he fled to them / / again—or else took refuge in a new /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he blue rim.  Then turned his back.  / /
Sick with the knowledge of a hopeless dream / / he looked the other w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aring / / for his body’s too, mortally
sick ) yet sharing / / still with warm loving pride / / his thoughts
Eugénie de Guérin
in words its inexpressible spells; / /
Sickert we may in honesty allow / / a measure; Stanley Spencer’s visi
The Black-out
ur children…  Part of the pain, / / the
sickest element in our fear for them, / / is that shared guilt.  But o
[Our lives are in other hands]
a womb / / yesterday.  Today / / that
sickly stream / / carries away / / the knot of tissue and nerve, /
Miscarriage
ng from a far tree.  / / Horrible pain,
sickness and horrible pain / / ground him.  He groaned, and groaning f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ough / / extreme exhaustion and thirst-
sickness did / / near-crush him when he came, south always south / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ll in his cloud of rage / / he came to
Sicyon .  / / He heard the hum and buzz, / / the shrilling and the twa
Pelopia and Thyestes
free / / to roam the pastures side by
side ?  / /
[The grass in the next field]
/ drove him against repulsion.  At her
side / / a heap of the spined lumps, by it another / / of rainbow-va
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
this side of the stream, / / the other
side a strip of ragged wood, / / glimpsed through it sheep grazing in
Green World
ey walked, indeed they rode—at the bank-
side / / a trim boat, rigged, provisioned, lay at anchor.  / / They h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
f / / held him as in a dream on either
side .  / / And every day at noon came the white flights / / fanning o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ss, where thickly-bushed steep mountain-
side / / broke to a torrent summer had not yet dried.  / / On hard ba
Pelopia and Thyestes
ot without reason / / often, on either
side .  / / But what good can hate do?  / / The stocks of hate build up
Choice
ves made free / / to roam the pastures
side by side?  / /
[The grass in the next field]
r / / of thorn, lost in the woods each
side .  ‘Go through’ / / he heard his heart.  But ‘It’s not possible to’
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
not die / / before at least our better
side / / has long been longing to have died, / / do not be too sad /
Whom the Gods Love
e struck out and soon reached the other
side .  / / He had the measure of the sands by now.  / / His feet were
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
u in my heart, / / your presence at my
side in this your land.  / / But still the path tempted me on.  / / An
Los Altos Hills
mplacency, / / the certainty the other
side is evil / / our compact with the devil.  / / Let us detest aggre
Prayer to Truth
other day?  / / I found a dead one this
side , not far from here, / / not one of mine, or any of ours I’d say.
On the Border
The world of faery / / is on the other
side of the short grass on the hill, / / reaches out into the thievin
[The bare, beautiful borders]
w, summer world.  / / Daffodils on this
side of the stream, / / the other side a strip of ragged wood, / / g
Green World
r, / / a natural tunnel from the other
side / / opened to join his own, and he was through.  / / Beyond an e
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r hate, / / but here we meet the other
side —pity / / and love:  “The spell is cast which must unbless, / / b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / felt.  But the figure on the other
side , / / rejected, black, said / / “These she shall have.  But they
“Gale is Dead”
u; and more than that.”  / / “And on my
side ,” she said, “something is owed.  / / Do not be humble, sad; consi
The Black-out
ht / Considers, musing at the sleeper’s
side , / / the initiated bride / / cycle of seed and growth, strength
Wedding Night
/ raise him to life and set him at her
side ?  / / The story shifted like the shifting mist.  / / Robbers and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rom it still withheld, / / take by its
side their rest.  / / Monks, harnessing the hungers of the flesh / /
The Embankment
ible, / / still a warm presence at his
side / / to second him: unjustified, / / unsummoned, Hope, the loyal
Masque
as the shine of sunlight, / / on their
side was shade.  / / Sound of church-bells / / was often in the air. 
The Green Children of Woolpit
elf-seeking or at sea, one-tracked, one-
sided / / or double-crossing once, twice and, again; / / but still b
The Black-out
n gales bend / / the unseasoned heart. 
Sidelong she saw him wait, / / gaze patiently.  She frowned, but turne
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he name of / / the same God, whom both
sides could declare / / (even believe), to be a god of love.  / /
Betrayals
ears till one is dead.  / / To see both
sides is good; always to keep / / a sensitive balance on the fence is
The Black-out
t sight / / whose circle gathered both
sides of the screen: / / conscious terrified eyes and numbed groin; /
Block 21
/ / or keep it silent.  And at all our
sides / / sits the empty place of absent love.  / / And at all our ba
Back Room, 1944
ler, he was not holding course / / but
sidling always closer, must perforce / / drive on the rocks at last,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
od for a soul rescued / / from Satan’s
siege .  / / But the girl of flesh they burned / / for her sacrilege. 
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
spring not quite gone / / in the long
siesta of summer’s afternoon.  / / With that ahead, might I be content
Sixtieth Summer
utlasts this tarnished thing, worn to a
sieve , / / once the golden bowl of memory.  / / Age takes everything
Age
ing along the moving hollow shell.  / /
Sigh or high song of wind in rigging, air / / on rope and wood, in ca
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and was silent and sad.  The princess
sighed / / and a small bitter wind sighed through the wood / / filli
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
“and make some life your own.”  / / He
sighed .  Easy, he thought, for her to say.  / / She does not know (he t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
able for anything— / / at any rate (he
sighed ) for more than this.  / / And then his feet.  The forester had s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ess sighed / / and a small bitter wind
sighed through the wood / / filling with dusk.  She shivered and turne
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
world and wait for happiness.”  / / She
sighed : “unhappiness has always reasons; / / fences about the truth,
The Black-out
busy with her hair.  / / One at a sill
sighs , but the inmate thumbs / / absorbed the book of his own dreams.
The Party
the castle ruined.  But she was there in
sight .  / / He caught her by the gate-house.  “Where am I?  / / Who am
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ntil kindled / / by act of sight.  / /
Sight is silence / / without feeling mind.  / / We bring our own ligh
Music is Landscape
out, rising into slow flight.  / / The
sight of a heron always lifts my heart, / / even today when the heart
Omens
, like a child.  / / Hungry too for the
sight of the princess.  / / But at the ford his weakness frightened hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
unbelievably stretched / / almost past
sight —only a faint blue rim, / / another range.  Light, dark brown, re
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
light / / until kindled / / by act of
sight .  / / Sight is silence / / without feeling mind.  / / We bring
Music is Landscape
ached the tree and paused, straining my
sight , / / standing within the dark tree’s edge, and could / / see n
The Black-out
/ looked up into that eye, eye without
sight / / whose circle gathered both sides of the screen: / / consci
Block 21
Steward / / of a vast trust, and a far-
sighted steward / / may have to sacrifice some bargains.  God’s / / t
The Betrayal
/ the single greatest human good, / /
sign of our brother-and-sisterhood.  / /
Love…  No
had lived, / / she gave it now to be a
sign / / that all she had and was she gave.  / / Alas, honest and war
Ballad
and when you see he’s alone, give him a
sign , / / then say ‘Simaetha’s waiting’, and bring him here.”  / / Th
Spells and Love
n we mark flash off, flash on, / / the
signal -lights repassed, of tears / / and happiness, while upward rear
Anniversaries
r artificial / / calendar seem so / /
significant ? ’84 / / you were in, not ’85.  / / Children (bright-colo
For Cecil
am, / / unremarked word) / / suddenly
significantly recovered, / / twice that small dark bird / / breaks t
Yeats and Water-Birds
.”  / / Silence and darkness.  Darkness,
silence and cold.  / / Cold, silent, dark.  An endless impasse.  No / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
die into a little bead of blood.”  / /
Silence and darkness.  Darkness, silence and cold.  / / Cold, silent, d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ke a leper’s bell / / falls in its own
silence ; and silent some / / whose thought seems strangled in the wom
The Party
Tombstone / “In memoriam…”  / /
Silence belongs to him, / / but somebody unknown / / lends unnecessa
Tombstone
paddle and shout.  The waves rustle.  Yet
silence / / encloses all in crystal.  This is an empty / / world, whe
For Rachel
s Greece’ / / I thought.”  We walked in
silence for a while.  / / At Blackfriars’ Bridge my guide turned up th
The Black-out
earth like a dream; / / freshness and
silence of the country night.  / / I spoke: “if I did not know, this w
The Black-out
pierce but not disturb or tear / / the
silence of the dark.  / / The town is fevered; but as night wears on,
Country and Town
f the temenos.  Outside she came / / to
silence —or rather to cicada-shrill / / stillness, where thickly-bushe
Pelopia and Thyestes
rops, still.  Break from above into this
silence / / out of the outer world loud voices calling.  / / Authorit
For Rachel
/ / story and dream…  A sadness in your
silence / / recalls me to mounded sand.  A windy morrow / / shakes th
For Rachel
it of all power.  / / A stiff, a frozen
silence settled down / / like a sea-mist.  A minute or an hour, / / a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a child is building, wrapped in private
silence , / / small crystal world within the world of children, / / a
For Rachel
in the heart; / / and others in whose
silence sounds the roar / / of a remote, fanatic fire.  / / To each a
The Party
ld of children.  / / Gone the seagulls,
silence .  The beach is empty, / / and water, advancing, renews it for
For Rachel
though, reader, must watch outside the
silence / / with me, since after-knowledge sets tomorrow / / to mirr
For Rachel
led / / by act of sight.  / / Sight is
silence / / without feeling mind.  / / We bring our own lights / / i
Music is Landscape
/ accepts their cries into its crystal
silence .  / / You, though, reader, must watch outside the silence / /
For Rachel
ought into kinder words / / or keep it
silent .  And at all our sides / / sits the empty place of absent love.
Back Room, 1944
ort grass my feet too were silent; / /
silent and dark behind the nebulous / / city receded; crossing slope
The Black-out
he pain of powerless love, / / and was
silent and sad.  The princess sighed / / and a small bitter wind sighe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
revered graves.  We see / / the singer
silent at the fall / / of the King, the old life.  / / Peace and orde
Dark Age
Darkness, silence and cold.  / / Cold,
silent , dark.  An endless impasse.  No / / answer, no possible way out
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ undefined terms—‘love’.  / / I fall
silent .  / / Death one would think is / / a fact one can’t disguise,
Another Summer
r year, / / at the dead season, at the
silent hour, / / at the still moment of the absent sun / / cease, be
Winter Solstice
oving skill, / / not, like this, to be
silent .  / / She lives behind a wall of glass / / which speech, touch
Nadia
/ Over the short grass my feet too were
silent ; / / silent and dark behind the nebulous / / city receded; cr
The Black-out
bell / / falls in its own silence; and
silent some / / whose thought seems strangled in the womb, / / whose
The Party
sleep among the bush and bracken?”  / /
Silent the throng watched the white sisters go, / / each on his silen
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the white sisters go, / / each on his
silent thoughts alone, adrift.  / / Told and retold the story, botched
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r the night.  / / The hut was dark, and
silent to his knock.  / / He pushed the door and struck a light.  No on
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e of what gets done.  / / And yet those
silent weavings in the air / / are beautiful— / / sad, an old tale,
Heron and Gulls
rong / / oarsman, in front the singers
silently , / / while Laurence, Giles and I on things remote / / from
The Black-out
.  / / Far ahead still the south cape’s
silhouette , / / darker and hard on the bright water, marked / / the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
alous, cold, / / cast on the blind the
silhouette of sin.  / /
A Window
in the stocking, wrecking / / the firm
silk .  He’s a fool / / and she’s hysterical / / and one no longer car
Back Room, 1944
elpeter and straw-gold vanish / / in a
silky puff.  / / Sweetness spreads about / / from hawthorn-conquering
Another Summer
ill night, and knead them into his door-
sill / / and as you do, whisper “It’s Delphis’s bones I’m kneading”. 
Spells and Love
he is busy with her hair.  / / One at a
sill sighs, but the inmate thumbs / / absorbed the book of his own dr
The Party
e, to trust / / you would be worse and
sillier .  / / Trust, no.  But part of me prays, part keeps / / fingers
Uncertain
/ sometimes beautiful, / / sometimes
silly , / / sometimes horrible, / / all to be dismissed / / when we’
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
e.  / / Luckily I am / / too often too
silly to / / be a wise old man.  / / Misunderstandings?  / / That New
For Cecil
/ / he thought, drop on the dead-leaf
silt , give up, / / give in, lie down and not get up again.  / / No, h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and all those lives of others / / the
silt of whose brief or eternal loves / / now beds the wood where ours
Becoming
and buttercup.  / / Light air lifts the
silted vapours away / / to deep heaven, which like the deep ocean /
Relax
rey.  Silver / / rather than grey.  / /
Silver and white, / / embodied light / / of the overcast day / / on
Return
ridge, and saw the reach / / of river,
silver at the full of tide.  / / “East from the sea and Greece, west o
The Black-out
darkness where / / (a channel for the
silver boat, / / the golden boat) the Zodiac / / threads the constel
Night
n.  So.  Here’s my hair, my neck, / / my
silver body.  Touch me, though your hands are dry.  / / Hands seek flow
Greek Folk Song
erful slopes, / / grass long and burnt
silver , bounded / / by clumped, huge close-leaved trees, green and da
Los Altos Hills
ar, / / finds it robbed.  / / Gone the
silver monstrance / / with the flesh of God.  / / Elders gather, the
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
/ / dark slate under a nearing storm,
silver / / out under lighter sky beyond the cloud, / / sun-struck so
Varangian in Mickelgard
ygnets, full grown / / but still grey. 
Silver / / rather than grey.  / / Silver and white, / / embodied lig
Return
alone, / / a god’s nail-paring, / / a
silver sliver caught on / / western darkness, hangs the moon.  / / Fr
Exchange
r / / cycling, past the hospital.  / /
Silver spoon in the / / bathroom.  My outrage is as / / yours.  Some t
For Cecil
des of blue, breaking / / to greys, to
silver , white.  A light wind makes / / the flat sea wrinkle, / / sudd
September Cruise
eside me, and began / / “I was coming,
Simaetha .  Your message to bring me here / / was first by only as much
Spells and Love
alone, give him a sign, / / then say ‘
Simaetha’s waiting’, and bring him here.”  / / That’s what I told her.
Spells and Love
/ / You’re all right, darling.  You’re
simple and straight / / —she takes her meat off anyone’s plate.  / /
Love Scene
grave: / / a pair of ear-rings, gold,
simple design; / / a bronze mirror, its shine a roughened green / /
Label
fs and secret looks, and shows / / the
simple to the curious.  / / And all are here—the easy and the bright,
The Party
ings there (and so on).  / / But on the
simplest model of the cosmos / / this our world is infinitely small /
Credo
/ / you fool, you fool, of having / /
simply become, you fool, / / you fool, unlovable?  / / Fool, fool, fo
Hebona
—those Germans).  Others are hated / /
simply for being other (those blacks, those Jews).  / / Then there are
Choice
esse insufficiently lointaine— / / she
simply had no footing in his dream.  / / The little one perhaps was pr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
os once, now let drop / / is seemingly
simply not.  / /
Where?
lcony, / / a watcher would see me / /
simply one of the old.  / /
Climacteric by the Sea
omorrow’s natural course / / following
simply out of yesterday / / through a pillar of fire.  / / Tonight; i
Wedding Night
ainst the seagulls and the wind / / or
simply smiled.  “Well, you’ve been born before, / / young man,” she’d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
f with chill, / / still tired, set off
simply to stir some heat.  / / Some afternoons he slept, utterly done,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ cast on the blind the silhouette of
sin .  / /
A Window
in any case we go / / sure only of our
sin .  / /
Living and Dying
/ / of hot tears washing the weight of
sin and sorrow / / away from the heart.  / / And heart and tears were
A Dream
/ / is judged by some / / the lowest
sin .  And they are right.  / /
Upward Turn
d is hid.  / / Not upon us our fathers’
sin / / but on your children visited.  / /
Recessional
Original
Sin / Child I believed / / that in my nature I was true and kind.  /
Original Sin
but recognise vengeance for a cardinal
sin ; / / honour all bravery, but not pretend / / that war is grand. 
Prayer to Truth
bsurd?  / / And yet, we need a sense of
sin / / to put force in our will to virtue.  / / Life is split like a
Responsibility
n, / / nun Isabella, curdling from the
sin , / / was pawed and paddled night and day; and (though / / hating
Beyond Measure
watch outside the silence / / with me,
since after-knowledge sets tomorrow / / to mirror yesterday—images wh
For Rachel
n.  / / Why are we always thinking / /
since being is so pleasant?  / / I thought, and the door closed as I s
The Grass Road
ent worse perhaps, but hard to say / /
since each carries the other at its core) / / pollute love, discolour
[Feelings of guilt]
rld from dreams: / / love—love of God,
since God is love; / / and love of man, since that we are; / / and m
Hymn
should spring.  / / Would he then, / /
since he could never wholly be a man, / / happily have remained / /
Fairy Story
ne else will ever (I know) do.  / / And
since I cannot have / / you with me in yourself, the presence of / /
[Living alone is lonely]
with me, / / but now it’s eleven days
since I’ve even seen him.  / / He must have another fancy, and I’m for
Spells and Love
ering crest which knows no trough.  / /
Since princess meeting prince cried, laughed “Are / / all tasks done?
End of Fairy-Story
ince God is love; / / and love of man,
since that we are; / / and most, to make those love-tides move, / /
Hymn
spiralling seasons draw me on.  / / But
since the shears must snap and my time stop / / sometime, might a tol
Sixtieth Summer
/ uncurtain unchanged to my gaze, / /
since they are dead and I am old.  / / The night is trackless, deep an
Night
money, / / Achilles outrace the winds,
since those are their fancies.  Me, / / I’ll sit under this rock singi
Shepherd’s Song
a life, but not a new / / heart-life,
since to the old he must be true.  / / Not courage nor the offered ava
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
—five hundred years and more gone / /
since we burned the maid at Rouen) / / drenched the brush with petrol
Makherás
to mud.  How should one not be sad / /
since we must all go under with the green?”  / / Words found him—“The
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r happy.  / / Greatness I think we lack
since Yeats is dead; / / yet we have Eliot, for whom in Auden now /
The Black-out
scale-pan you must throw.  / / Record,
since you’re recording, all you know, / / and then admit that to an h
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
minuscule / / Fun Pier (‘Famed for fun
since 31’, / / ‘Happiness is a visit to the Manly Fun Pier’) / / whe
Content
fferent.  / / Difference, / / the good
sine qua non of humanness, / / cannot be tailored to equality, / / e
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
nd / / make with the soul and with the
sinews free, / / and all help, all hope far / / blindfold and mock t
Nijinsky
e hideous end.  / / She fought the hard
sinews , the horribly / / cloaked face she could not glimpse; but she
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ winter’s carved boughs… and hark, how
sing …  / / Man’s seasons, though, link in no ring / / but join two po
Man’s Seasons
e are / / blind to her beauty, dumb to
sing of her.  / / We, though wrecked nature ruin us in the fall / / w
The Reckoning
m all, / / whose skin and breath alike
sing of the rose.  / / Petals we know must fall, / / and not all days
Gratitude
obs the revered graves.  We see / / the
singer silent at the fall / / of the King, the old life.  / / Peace a
Dark Age
k the strong / / oarsman, in front the
singers silently, / / while Laurence, Giles and I on things remote /
The Black-out
, / / fire, flowers, / / pain, angels
singing .  / /
Beethoven
ifficulty into the wild wind / / wing,
singing against it as they lift / / and their trilling is mostly scat
Two Poems from a New Life
others die.  / / But as we watched, our
singing / / died too upon our breath, / / for dying kills, my brothe
[We lived and sang, my brother]
vory and gold, / / the colours and the
singing gone, / / but shining still the temples hold / / their broke
Acropolis
s will display / / new beauty, a world
singing .  / / Morning did come bright.  / / Iridescent the cleaned wor
Exchange
cies.  Me, / / I’ll sit under this rock
singing , my arms about you, watching / / our two flocks cropping toge
Shepherd’s Song
to go back, I saw a little ahead / / a
single dogrose bush by the river’s edge / / pushing its sprays out ov
Omens
x or age-group, class or race— / / the
single greatest human good, / / sign of our brother-and-sisterhood.  /
Love…  No
to show a kindness to an atheist?  / /
single him out as blest / / by answering a faithless prayer?  / / Dar
Uncertain
cow-parsley, yellow stragglers, / / a
single honeysuckle.  / / The bushes though are berried—hawthorn, black
[Late October hedges]
struck a light.  No one.  / / Empty the
single room.  On a rough block / / were cheese and bread, a jug of wat
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a class of their own, in pairs / / or
singly , greeting each other / / with a kind of masonry, / / subtly a
Climacteric by the Sea
te, pink, / / and I think / / lightly
sings / / “Beauty is.  / / Accept this.  / / God is not / / any othe
Divinity
high flame, even remembered, warms and
sings .  / / Man’s acts and sufferings seem / / equally dreadful, yet
Question
touched this reach of life / / with a
singular character.  / / The beauty of the flower, / / enough of cour
Epoch
Friendship joined hands there.  And the
singular glow / / of lovers’ meeting was a thing it knew.  / / On day
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
and oak.  Its thin black spire / / was
sinister , and boded him no good.  / / He turned on to the unencumbered
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ver / / from anorexia, and shine.  / /
Sink into / / the seedy role, laudator temporis acti?  / / No.  Bad tr
Desert Island?
With that ahead, might I be content to
sink , / / letting it dull my ears against the song / / of siren autu
Sixtieth Summer
/ are in an absolute cold light / / to
sink or save us…  / / Or / / to be sent bach— / / another life, down
Balance Sheet
ar away.  / / On our own doorstep / / (
sink that searching gaze) / / stinking jetsam lies.  / / Here.  Now.  N
Causes
horror; and defeat / / by these might
sink us even deeper.  Yet, / / losing or winning, keep us from the pit
Prayer to Truth
ce / / with the possessed herd / / to
sink without trace.  / / Man and his dreams dead.  / /
This Time
edged plain?  / / He groped.  A glimmer,
sinking .  If it fails, / / darkness…  But no, the light flamed up—of co
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
inute / / contact, perhaps; lost that,
sinks choked and chilled, / / changes to hate—for much more than each
Law Report
rilliant colours and bright faces, / /
sinks in dark stuffs and secret looks, and shows / / the simple to th
The Party
ment thinning) / / —for that unwitting
sinning / / dared not approach the fête, / / crept in the scrub belo
Pelopia and Thyestes
random winds.  / / We know the father’s
sins / / visited always on the children.  Must / / the final turn /
May Day, 1986
at Apollona, Naxos / Thomas auf Naxos /
Siphnos , Kastro / Traverse the beach, from your feet always / / a lig
September Cruise
t dull my ears against the song / / of
siren autumn?—which listened to, I’m done, / / caught in the cycle ag
Sixtieth Summer
amonds and a new song.  / / I think the
Sirens do not die.  / /
The Sirens
ar-blocked company, / / sailed on.  The
Sirens dropped and drowned, / / the story says.  But not for long.  /
The Sirens
The Sirens / You wonder what the
sirens sang?  / / “Once the delicious sexual ache / / bursts in its p
The Sirens
The
Sirens / You wonder what the sirens sang?  / / “Once the delicious sex
The Sirens
er, whom she loves too; stays / / with
sister and brother she loves too in their ways / / but not with the b
Eugénie de Guérin
doorway / / —just try.  But as for that
sister of yours, / / someone else can have her.  The bloom’s gone—she’
Love Scene
/ / How’s your father?”  “Old now.  Your
sister —what’s her name?— / / kept the flock sometimes a year or two a
On the Border
uman good, / / sign of our brother-and-
sisterhood .  / /
Love…  No
keep the flock?”  / / “My two unmarried
sisters can manage ours.”  / / “You’re lucky.”  “What about dowries?  Ca
On the Border
/ Silent the throng watched the white
sisters go, / / each on his silent thoughts alone, adrift.  / / Told
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o pair him off / / with one of the two
sisters .  ‘Little bores’ / / he thought.  And suddenly laid plans to go
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ut it as you will, / / the christening-
sisters meant / / to give her, if not all, / / much—looks, a quick m
“Gale is Dead”
/ All are born sib.  / / Brothers and
sisters quarrel / / but learn (have to learn) to make it up; / / lea
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
/ while greenness receded / / from his
sister’s skin.  / / She grew up, and married / / a man from Lynn.  /
The Green Children of Woolpit
fore a cause, but none the more / / to
sit and wait and lull your powers asleep.  / / You have a sensitive mi
The Black-out
was very kind.  He called her up / / to
sit beside him for her evidence, / / spoke to her always gently, put
Change Places…
Janet, the sick man on his bed.  / / I
sit by him and chatter—not a word he’ll say.  / / I bring him food, I
Greek Folk Song
for their nests’ lining.  / / We can’t
sit down for a brief breathing, / / ceaselessly pushed by the varying
Villon’s Epitaph
do things in is short at most; / / why
sit like those who listen for the phone, / / expecting nothing, liste
The Black-out
ools at their base, / / or climb them,
sit , / / look out to sea, / / ships sliding by…  / / Rooted and gree
A Wreck
om the pub to drink on the wall / / or
sit on the beach or walk, / / young and middle-aged / / and, a class
Climacteric by the Sea
ot of every decent life; / / those who
sit still, and those who fall defending / / justice, seem equally gui
The Black-out
those are their fancies.  Me, / / I’ll
sit under this rock singing, my arms about you, watching / / our two
Shepherd’s Song
y.  / / I spread him blankets, pillows—“
Sit up, your poor old wreck.  / / There.  Lie down again.  So.  Here’s my
Greek Folk Song
not free / / your self-bound life, but
sit with bated breath / / —a kind of cowardice and treachery / / to
The Black-out
r boys / / would rush through the camp-
site , flat / / out, crying out “Louise, Louise, / / save me”.  / / T
Vignette
s posture, / / but a rude thought / /
sits in the corner / / and laughs them out.  / / Only Othello / / wh
Catharsis
ge / / there should be times this city
sits me ill?”  / / “Brussels, Roe Head, Law Hill—exile and prison,” /
The Black-out
e seen; / / but the idle spiteful soul
sits on the beach, / / blind to the bright wind and the sound of the
Tristi Fummo
lfilment come, / / though in the heart
sits pinioned, strengthless, dumb / / the natural angel now.  / /
Waiting
rther on, look down / / where a church
sits small, alone / / on a small promontory / / and the sea-swell sw
September Cruise
ep it silent.  And at all our sides / /
sits the empty place of absent love.  / / And at all our backs / / (o
Back Room, 1944
ve in a row? / / circling, twittering,
sitting again there, / / gathering themselves to go.  / / More in kee
Swallows
nd-shaved sweep / / of downs, walking,
sitting , now listening, / / looking, hours where the power of quiet i
Happiness
way off a bench, / / a man and a woman
sitting on it, elderly, / / (my age) and the man again  “Would you li
A Hoard
d go back.”  / / And one day (they were
sitting on the shore) / / he told her of another beach he knew, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er as the witch had said, / / and now,
sitting over the blood-filled trench, / / the hero peered into the op
Odysseus
s…  / / / Have always been too fond of
sitting still, / / and having painfully learned how not to care / /
Teach Us…
ite swan / / and then another / / and
six cygnets, full grown / / but still grey.  Silver / / rather than g
Return
y-four—two years to run / / or four or
six ; is your tale like to be / / equal to ours?—oh, feed and fan your
The Black-out
.  I followed him, and made it out.  / /
Six months ago above an Aegean harbour / / Jupiter occulted.  And abov
A Hoard
hill-road, high above the sea / / the
six white horses swept the golden carriage.  / / The young queen looke
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
before that house / / was sold five or
six years before) a child / / happy in the long grass, the hot sun.  /
Summers
ck, prettily formed but plain, / / the
sixth (small like the others) a masterpiece / / of shaping and drawin
Label
Sixtieth Summer / Still the spiralling seasons draw me on.  / / But si
Sixtieth Summer
not again appear / / often enough.  At
sixty / / that’s something all of us can see.  / / For Housman, sprin
[Housman was old beyond his years]
year’s wheel / / move faster—more than
sixty turns / / completed, am more aware / / what a small number we’
Swallows
on my face, eyes shut, remembering / /
sixty years ago I suppose it was / / lying in long grass, eyes shut,
Summers
or an infinitely / / intricately woven
skein ?  / /
Anniversary
draw one strand clear, even out of this
skein , / / now dogrose bushes star the hedges again?  / /
Again
No bodily pathway / / this glittering
skein the light-source casts you / / … and yet… and yet / / reaching
September Cruise
sland?  / Loved England, / / green land
skeletal with dead elms and beeches / / (beautiful girl with anorexia
Desert Island?
/ in your lovely flesh / / this poor
skeleton .  / / Between waking and sleep / / things appear / / sharp
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
inct made / / this beauty of scattered
skeleton , / / desolation of shining stone.  / / No past throws up aga
Delos in Spring
er as lives hurtle down / / the helter-
skelter of the years— / / a tower whose far base disappears / / in c
Anniversaries
er as lives hurtle down / / the helter-
skelter .  Of the year’s / / pattern we mark flash off, flash on, / /
Anniversaries
hese, / / treads in the slippery mess,
skids to her knees, / / gets up, her dress and hands dripping with go
Pelopia and Thyestes
r / / (daring it earlier and much more
skilfully ) / / here’s one mammal that / / took off into the air, /
Bat
/ / find how to care become a failing
skill : / / am seldom now made inwardly aware / / of the atrocious ra
Teach Us…
mastered, knew the pride / / of deeper
skill .  He almost lived afloat.  / / Gurgle and clop and slap and hiss,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t!  / / Nothing so subtle as escapes my
skill .”  / / Nature is much to wreck, but man can do it.  / / Now we b
Man in Nature
trument evolved, built / / with loving
skill , / / not, like this, to be silent.  / / She lives behind a wall
Nadia
/ you never can) / / beauty of earth,
skill / / of visionary man.  / / Man, who knows / / from nature how
Beauty
e hazards.  Several more / / follow her
skill .  One, dreaming after these, / / treads in the slippery mess, sk
Pelopia and Thyestes
was it.  / / The horses swerved as the
skilled driver swung / / the heeling coach home through a needle’s ey
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
shore fisherman to teach / / the basic
skills ; those mastered, knew the pride / / of deeper skill.  He almost
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ll out and my body thinned away / / to
skin and bone.  I tried everything.  There isn’t / / a wise-woman’s hou
Spells and Love
almost seem immune from all, / / whose
skin and breath alike sing of the rose.  / / Petals we know must fall,
Gratitude
t him back, / / Delphis (such a smooth
skin ) back to my house…  / / The moment I heard his light step through
Spells and Love
r me; / / over all her body, the young
skin bare, / / I spilt my white force, just touching her yellow hair.
Love Scene
pressed and thrust, / / clothes torn,
skin bloody, but he could not stop.  / / He gained much ground—but was
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s say:  We knew that she was dying— / /
skin , bone and scared eyes, moving like a mouse / / in the dusk of wa
Law Report
rrhoea, / / bad breath, bad teeth, bad
skin , / / falling or superfluous hair / / or a good crop has dandruf
Gratitude
.  / / I didn’t want to, but I saved my
skin .  Good-bye / / that shield.  I shall get one no worse quite easily
Two Songs of a Mercenary
ng, / / shall pity you.  We stuffed our
skin / / —it hangs in rags, and the bones within / / (we, the bones)
Villon’s Epitaph
o / / nevermore touched poor Mariana’s
skin , / / nun Isabella, curdling from the sin, / / was pawed and pad
Beyond Measure
reen / / (soft and strong as a child’s
skin ) / / of earliest summer.  This is / / life, which live things by
Seasons
ves in a cunning fall / / round masked
skin .  / / Only the fixed brown eyes seem to reveal / / someone withi
Song
down on the soft bed.  / / Skin to bare
skin our bodies flowered, our faces / / were on fire, and our whisper
Spells and Love
reenness receded / / from his sister’s
skin .  / / She grew up, and married / / a man from Lynn.  / / But whe
The Green Children of Woolpit
, pulled him down on the soft bed.  / /
Skin to bare skin our bodies flowered, our faces / / were on fire, an
Spells and Love
easy coolness / / lay aloft against my
skin .  / / Why are we always thinking / / since being is so pleasant?
The Grass Road
th gore.  / / Red smears down her white
skirt , the red of shame / / hot in her face, friends giggling, crowd’
Pelopia and Thyestes
mpion in the grass / / while the grass-
skirted poppy-dancer / / dips to the wind her brilliant head / / by
Dance of the Seasons
ped on grass and stone.  / / The leader
skirts these hazards.  Several more / / follow her skill.  One, dreamin
Pelopia and Thyestes
oughts of men.  / / The dry moon hangs,
skull to a Magdalen, / / a mirror to the earth of beauty’s end.  / /
Macrocosm
lly / / age-traced patterns on a domed
sky ?  / / A heavier darkness, dull as felt, / / creeps up across the
Night
ove.  / / A sphere the earth is and the
sky a sphere / / —no, many spheres; and all, the far and near / / wh
Cosmology
pain.  / / Life between earth below and
sky above / / is work and breeding and the spark of love.  / / A sphe
Cosmology
Wind / The stars are faint on the pale
sky above, / / the phosphorus sparkles in the foam below / / like se
Wind
n / / earth and sky with their stench,
sky and earth / / black with that chimney’s cloud.  Squalor and pain /
Two Poems for G
ches, / / clearer, blacker against the
sky are spread / / patterns of twigs, jutting from narrowing branches
Dance of the Seasons
Ride / In front a black cloud masks the
sky .  / / Behind me the sun’s levelling beam / / illuminates against
Bicycle Ride
ng storm, silver / / out under lighter
sky beyond the cloud, / / sun-struck sometimes, but slate again soon
Varangian in Mickelgard
f-greens, / / white birch-trunks, blue
sky caught, / / hide darkness where that fish is moving / / like an
Water in a Wood
graver green of the wood’s shadow / /
sky -chinked above, bluebell-pooled below.  / / This is my country I do
Two Summer Songs
t of snow, / / to the blinding blue of
sky ; diamond air / / edge to knife-edge with the naked rock / / brea
Greece
t violent lust, / / crack.  Drifts over
sky , / / drops over all at last, / / contaminated dust.  / /
Headline
s low, / / coldly bright in light blue
sky .  / / Everywhere a thin beauty.  / / Even the glow / / of autumn
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
ue / / hardly lined off from the milky
sky / / except where islands lie / / hardly distinguishable through
September Cruise
ove spreads bright under the clear / /
sky , from our feet laps to eternity.  / / Alone each listens, holding
Parted
/ till nothing lay beyond them but the
sky .  / / Half their sweep, though, was blotted out by one / / which
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Finis / Under the grey
sky / / he stood by the grey lake / / and turned the sword in his ha
Finis
t a blue-black / / cloud mounting blue
sky .  / / I look through my own eyes and others too, / / the dead who
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
Cosmology / The
sky is a firm dome bounding earth’s plain / / whence the inconstant g
Cosmology
tanned and broken to harmony).  / / The
sky is green.  Hymettus / / miraculously blushes, soon / / is grey ag
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
n garlanded, under the blue / / bright
sky , keeping their rhythm fairly true, / / snaking in line or circle,
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ from grey-green sea under a grey-blue
sky , / / Low bright sun in the south, and from the north / / a stead
[White foam sweeps]
would, if grey clouds were even on the
sky / / or if the sun were bold and high, / / an ordinary landscape
Early Train
uddle; / / and worst a hard blank grey
sky over all / / (no trees to guide his forest-sense)—east, west, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
elescoped.  The point was made.  / / The
sky -ring sharp, unbroken, reached and reached / / behind the piling r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
alor and pain / / reek under the clear
sky round your birth.  / / Anne Frank lost her breath into that air /
Two Poems for G
way, / / and looking out into the dawn
sky / / saw in the broken, brightening western cloud / / and shared
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
ridge, angled black against the fainter
sky , / / seen in their form, and seen and formed anew.  / / “Speak to
The Black-out
I’ve known before.  / / Under that free
sky stand / / alleys of huts.  Crowded miseries / / fenced with high
Two Poems for G
alone, / / The cloud is climbing on my
sky .  / / Star after loved star vanishes, / / and these no breeze sha
Night
ut us here.  / / Pure light of the last
sky that does not move / / is God, who moves them all, moves us, thro
Cosmology
weats with fear.  / / Fled are the open
sky , the easy slumber.  / / Now in a narrowing chamber / / we pace an
That Way Madness Lies
and Host in the grass / / wink at the
sky .  / / They must home to the church / / and the girl must die.  /
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
le, veiling the meeting / / of sea and
sky , thickening, till only foam / / shone in the black; light imperce
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mother he was gone, and gone.  / / The
sky was clear, the dawn-wind light but good, / / as he moved outwards
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mong my bones.  Molly was gone.  / / The
sky was clouded over; my feet were heavy; / / houses and trees printi
The Black-out
ting their darker tone / / on the dull
sky weighed on me as I moved / / and thought about my life and little
The Black-out
for long.  / / They soar to Lucy in the
sky / / with diamonds and a new song.  / / I think the Sirens do not
The Sirens
/ / to see me early, Dawn pink in the
sky , / / with lots of stories—and that Delphis is in love.  / / She w
Spells and Love
eyed from towers, stain / / earth and
sky with their stench, sky and earth / / black with that chimney’s cl
Two Poems for G
/ under a bright, a grey, always a wide
sky , / / your riding country, where you played as a child / / growin
Two Poems for G
dscape: / / wide grass / / melts to a
skyline , / / dips to a stream.  / / Landscape is music: / / the hear
Music is Landscape
life in the flat fields / / under the
sky’s breadth / / from their mother’s dark sources / / past that lab
The Green Children of Woolpit
/ / keep the pace you want.  / / Rein
slack / / on sunk neck, / / let him amble home / / in his own time;
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
on / Timbers driven deep through summer-
slack / / water, through mud; winter’s boisterous flow / / broken by
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
/ to lament / / more than gently this
slackening strength.  / /
[The track up the wild stream]
/ / of Christian thought, / / not the
slain Son, / / God in man.  / / The Greek saw / / clearer, truer, /
Divinity
/ The other river, once his thirst was
slaked , / / he’d recognised quite different from that in / / the vis
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
yet in fear, / / or bored, slip in and
slam the door, / / for we may hate the tower of loneliness / / but s
The Party
ove, / / all sheared by a fall / / of
slanting steel, / / gone in a burst of blood.  / / Yet, against lost
Die Weisse Rose
/ Across a cold bright air the sun / /
slants .  The day and the year are young, / / and it doesn’t matter tha
Spring Morning
lived afloat.  / / Gurgle and clop and
slap and hiss, water / / moving along the moving hollow shell.  / / S
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ The even roar, compact of swish and
slap / / innumerably varied and repeated, / / entranced his hearing,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ought; / / and by the altar where they
slashed the throat / / blood stood in puddles, slopped on grass and s
Pelopia and Thyestes
e cloud, / / sun-struck sometimes, but
slate again soon / / under the nearing storm.  The sea, reaching / /
Varangian in Mickelgard
cloud.  Water—always the sea, / / dark
slate under a nearing storm, silver / / out under lighter sky beyond
Varangian in Mickelgard
you father on the war, / / preventable
slaughter , and on the disgrace / / of wide preventable want, though s
The Black-out
ou got to lose but chains?”  So why / /
slave -camps, torture (body, mind) to compel / / blind, obedient confo
Betrayals
/ / but still wildest, least biddable
slave , fire / / twist in his hand / / and make a suddener end.  / /
Dr Faustus
the toils and triumphs of her slighted
slave .  / / How could such little liberty send his mind / / on such a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
At last I made my mind up.  I said to my
slave / / “Thestylis, you must find me the cure for this.  / / That m
Spells and Love
lips of the wounded wood / / watch the
sleek sweep of the road.  / / The exposed trees absorb the fumes / /
The Rift
night and day / / before the more than
sleep .  / /
[Now of threescore and ten]
Vision Between Waking and
Sleep / A child standing in a wilderness of snow / / looking in at my
Vision Between Waking and Sleep
prick shall bring not death but a long
sleep .  / / A sleep not as you know it, from which you rouse / / to y
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
that’s the better gift / / or the lost
sleep among the bush and bracken?”  / / Silent the throng watched the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ily / / but later in a long untroubled
sleep .  / / Awaking in the morning he perceived / / the difficulty wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Rather, without a dreamer.  They do not
sleep .  / / Body, borrowed from matter, to matter’s keep / / returned
Dulce et Decorum
he human frame / / finds in its broken
sleep / / despair so wearisome / / that it is forced to hope.  / /
[Why do I dream this pause]
time; / / dream, keep / / the stall,
sleep , / / dream, eat.  / / Let the day-dream / / have its day / /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
oy life as it was before the fall:  / /
sleep easy and eat freely, and again / / travel, and watch again Niji
The Twenties
your pretty mouth / / I’d have gone to
sleep happy.  But if your door had been barred / / be sure I’d have co
Spells and Love
n / / whimpering for his mother in his
sleep .  / / I lay there, my living body stiff as a doll.  / / These ar
Spells and Love
r panic deathwish, / / slip to lasting
sleep in a sterile slime.  / /
Full Circle
ng age when we / / (in Nature’s cyclic
sleep long curled) / / woke to ourselves and to the world / / we hav
The Rift
ring not death but a long sleep.  / / A
sleep not as you know it, from which you rouse / / to your known worl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Becoming / Curled up you
sleep , or stirring / / kick in the darkness of an imageless dream, /
Becoming
you rouse / / to your known world, but
sleep so long, so deep, / / almost a kind of death.  About the house /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Hebona / I could not in my orchard
sleep that day / / knowing much was not well / / between my queen an
Hebona
thought of a pricked finger, of / / a
sleep that must see him into the ground / / before another woke her;
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
poor skeleton.  / / Between waking and
sleep / / things appear / / sharp in the eye, / / words speak in th
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
/ wind-naked way.  He went peaceful to
sleep .  / / Up early, off—a letter left to warn / / his mother—hoped
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oice.  She said / / “The hundred years’
sleep was not all I gave.  / / “My gift was love.  And where love is, I
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
te cradlehood, and under it / / a pink
sleep , while the dowerers bent above.  / / Beauty one gave her; anothe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e living we / / …  But what for them?  A
sleep without a dream?  / / Rather, without a dreamer.  They do not sle
Dulce et Decorum
across through my old face / / at the
sleeper on the other seat.  / / Dirty old men dream young and sweet.  /
Meeting
edding Night / Considers, musing at the
sleeper’s side, / / the initiated bride / / cycle of seed and growth
Wedding Night
/ / between two thoughts I see / / a
sleeping beauty’s kingdom / / that was and is to be.  / /
Other World
/ / between two thoughts I see / / a
Sleeping Beauty’s kingdom / / that was and is to be.  / /
[Today we feel behind us]
The
Sleeping Beauty’s Prince / / / / / No, not a prince.  The boy we’ll
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n, / / slow from the womb coming, / /
sleeping curled up long, / / awake netted in human / / care, lingers
Parenthood
k the shape, / / he thought, of a girl
sleeping on a bed, / / then changed, merged, telescoped.  The point wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ooping men— / / one face: hers, lifted
sleeping .  So she took him / / once more a child asleep, took him in l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ter; / / “he is in Cambridge, talking,
sleeping sound, / / O thou of little faith; but we are here.”  / / I
The Black-out
/ / Walk with me home, where Hampstead
sleeps above / / the quenched city, and talk.”  But she: “to-night /
The Black-out
Glimpse / Beauty
sleeps in the air, / / colour and music.  Shine / / of sun in a child
Glimpse
If you dare live on, while the princess
sleeps / / in timeless youth, love on through ageing time / / till w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the storm now; now here / / too the
sleet -wind darkens down.  / / Without you your winter shore.  / / Wind
For Cecil
nd / / but death knits up the ravelled
sleeve .  / /
Dreams
her nettlework / / all but the second
sleeve of the twelfth shirt, / / leaving her youngest brother one swa
Fairy Story
pt / / awake.  The girl was there.  / /
Slender and firm and white, / / formed for a man’s delight, / / love
Pelopia and Thyestes
s raven; / / hers is sunbright, she is
slender .  / / His teeth flash snowy in his wit, / / hers with the lau
On the Towpath
Later, killed, cooked and ate / / and
slept .  He let twenty-four hours pass / / before he faced the question
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l plain.  / / That night was warmer.  He
slept late, and then / / half a day’s walking brought him to the sand
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eft her little moved.  / / Next day she
slept late, but late afternoon / / dry and still drew her down a fore
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
He dropped flat where he stood / / and
slept like death on the uneven ground.  / / Like death, but in the daw
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l water flow, / / drowsing (he had not
slept / / nights, days) saw—in a dream?— / / a girl come to the stre
Pelopia and Thyestes
Dressed / / and wrapped up in a rug he
slept until / / the summer dawn brightening above the water / / woke
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
stir some heat.  / / Some afternoons he
slept , utterly done, / / but grudged all such delays, the daylight’s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rn out he dropped on the leaf-mould and
slept .  / / Waking, he drank deep from his water-flask / / but would
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
-alp he dropped / / his weariness, and
slept without a dream.  / / The way was harsh but he was viable.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
’re here: an imperceptible / / section
sliced through our world; an outer whole / / through which our world’
Dimension
r fails to guess a meaning, be the mere
slicing / / across our world, with which they’ve no connection, / /
Dimension
mains pure.  / / And if the sea has oil-
slicks , the upper air / / mortal contaminations, today is lovely.  /
Relax
orm.  / / Must she soon / / heal over,
slide into the dark?  / /
England, 1981
ent / The river to the sea / / yields,
slides up the stone the insidious tide.  / / The darkness stirs along
The Embankment
, sit, / / look out to sea, / / ships
sliding by…  / / Rooted and green / / these seem (though without root
A Wreck
ut the head / / bright in the sun.  Her
slight and lovely form / / was all his dream.  He stood and fought his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ht fell / / on her pale face and tall,
slight , angular figure.  / / “And you?”  I said; and she: “you know me
The Black-out
s stirs along its lifting spine / / in
slight but bitter wind.  / / Stir the bare trees, and on the benches s
The Embankment
mark / / the toils and triumphs of her
slighted slave.  / / How could such little liberty send his mind / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / slip to lasting sleep in a sterile
slime .  / /
Full Circle
or both may yet in fear, / / or bored,
slip in and slam the door, / / for we may hate the tower of lonelines
The Party
y outrage is as / / yours.  Some things
slip though.  / / Change, knowingly made, all right.  / / Not, that’s
For Cecil
k poison from our panic deathwish, / /
slip to lasting sleep in a sterile slime.  / /
Full Circle
ther” / / she almost said ‘and me’ but
slipped another / / phrase in in time “and make some life your own.” 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Towards the hill would Alice go / / it
slipped away from her.  / / At last she turned her back, and so / / d
Through the Looking-Glass
/ She laid the thing in her apron, / /
slipped away.  / / The priest comes to the altar, / / finds it robbed
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
reaming after these, / / treads in the
slippery mess, skids to her knees, / / gets up, her dress and hands d
Pelopia and Thyestes
perhaps.  / / Walking on the white / /
slippery track, face smarting / / in the evening frost / / —this mon
For Cecil
/ shrinks from a shrilling horn.  / /
Slips from the empty gown / / a vixen to the gorse.  / / Loving from
Lady into Fox
/ / a god’s nail-paring, / / a silver
sliver caught on / / western darkness, hangs the moon.  / / Frosted s
Exchange
darkening dusk / / I saw the thinnest
sliver of a new moon, / / a day or two only, tilted on its back, / /
A Hoard
uick-winged hounds, / / sharp-circling
sloops , prevails / / forcing it from its fishing-grounds.  / / Nature
Heron and Gulls
he nebulous / / city receded; crossing
slope and stream / / we lost all trace of habitation—house / / and s
The Black-out
ough growth of the steep / / difficult
slope .  / / People have scrambled up.  / / I try to follow, but / / t
[The track up the wild stream]
/ mufflings against a white snow / /
slope ) tobogganing.  / / Misunderstandings.  / / Can they be sloughed
For Cecil
s island, / / enjoys the shining broom-
slopes .  Another at Iken looks / / from a low cliff, like Saunton’s bu
Bury My Heart
ain below / / stretched to the farther
slopes ; far beyond those / / he knew the city lay, and the princess,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
then / / out into a space of powerful
slopes , / / grass long and burnt silver, bounded / / by clumped, hug
Los Altos Hills
l bubble about the children.  / / Light
slopes , lengthens the shadows of the children / / parting, gathering,
For Rachel
uiet brow.  / / Down the steps from the
sloping road above us / / a form, my mother, came.  “From Cambridge ho
The Black-out
the throat / / blood stood in puddles,
slopped on grass and stone.  / / The leader skirts these hazards.  Seve
Pelopia and Thyestes
o you—if I am partly free / / from the
slothful depressive mud that slowed / / my way, I owe it you; and mor
The Black-out
/ Misunderstandings.  / / Can they be
sloughed in the new / / relation? (live—dead).  / / In car, bus, trai
For Cecil
of the uncaring father, / / the season-
sloughing mother.  / / Child of man and woman, / / slow from the womb
Parenthood
/ do not drift away / / to earth and
slow decay— / / cling unnaturally / / shrivelling on their ties, /
The Difference
, each separately, / / found the night-
slow / / familiar way / / home to the lit farmsteads…  Who?  / /
From the Air
gs, / / its long neck out, rising into
slow flight.  / / The sight of a heron always lifts my heart, / / eve
Omens
and that brings no true / / peace, but
slow fretting which is bound to fray / / the bonds of love; but in yo
The Black-out
ther.  / / Child of man and woman, / /
slow from the womb coming, / / sleeping curled up long, / / awake ne
Parenthood
on and Gulls / The heron manoeuvres its
slow galleon-sails, / / writhes its proud neck, / / as the attack /
Heron and Gulls
ces / / you are awaited.  Come.”  To the
slow height / / we turned our backs, towards the Thames our faces.  /
The Black-out
moves to our meeting with the starting,
slow , / / hesitant, eager, delicate approach / / of a child who bare
Separation
tened herself, turned slowly, and still
slow / / made her way up the hill again, as though / / heavy already
Pelopia and Thyestes
nt on and on.  / / All the princes were
slow of foot and wit.  / / Deep in a curtained window, quite alone, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cked and absurd, / / to stalking gulls
slow -pecking on the sand, / / getting quite close before he loosed th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Five terraced meres / / dammed from a
slow small stream.  / / Black still water images / / every trunk and
Water in a Wood
/ / fast falling of waves regathering
slow / / —so much joy to be seen; / / but the idle spiteful soul sit
Tristi Fummo
leam of heaven’s sending.  / / Summer’s
slow spell is different from / / hers, now from that long purse spend
Dance of the Seasons
quick words to ready thought; / / the
slow , the shy, the dull, the worse than dull, / / whose laughter like
The Party
and along the shore.  / / But all this
slowed him, and his flasks were dry / / before he reached the river. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ from the slothful depressive mud that
slowed / / my way, I owe it you; and more than that.”  / / “And on my
The Black-out
/ like a wood-cut; and there beside us
slowed / / with muted lights but a familiar air / / a car.  “Hullo; g
The Black-out
eturn / / our jaded souls respond more
slowly / / and in the general hurly-burly / / the solid truth no lon
That Way Madness Lies
deed; / / straightened herself, turned
slowly , and still slow / / made her way up the hill again, as though
Pelopia and Thyestes
He laid it among the reeds again, went
slowly back / / to tell the king he had tossed it in the lake.  / / T
Finis
he light across the circled space.  / /
Slowly darkness seeped up out of the sea / / like something palpable,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y cutting across / / all argument; and
slowly ebbed again.  / / Numb, cold and utterly worn out, he found /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / I turned to Hampstead and walked
slowly home.  / /
The Black-out
t Jupiter.  / / We watch them move / /
slowly , inevitably, steadily / / together.  At last the planet’s fire
September Cruise
/ / Round her the house grew old / /
slowly , quietly rotting, / / dustily, gently flaking, / / dropping t
Mariana in Miniature
, and could / / see nothing first, but
slowly the dim light / / shaped me the shadows among which I stood.  /
The Black-out
mud.  He found / / the wide mouth of a
sluggish -seeming river.  / / Beyond, the ribbon stretching out for eve
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ater from her blood-cleared dress, / /
sluiced her own dried blood from the aching place, / / put the wet dr
Pelopia and Thyestes
r.  / / Fled are the open sky, the easy
slumber .  / / Now in a narrowing chamber / / we pace and pace and tur
That Way Madness Lies
ng.  No / / dreams, a deep, sweet, long
slumber .  When the sun / / woke him, he saw by the cold ashes spread /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of age; / / “in my heart and in yours
slumbered a seed / / of great and happy life.  An early page / / clos
The Black-out
nted phial.  / / In canyons of the high-
slummed hill / / sick children sell themselves for food.  / / Song… a
Naples
with fear sounding its gong of boom and
slump / / disaster closed, like madness on a dancer.  / /
The Twenties
iff.  / / Then they gave too, the sails
slumped to the floor.  / / Now he could keep her more into the wind /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tween the long walls, learnt to live in
slums , / / and watched the Spartan soldiers burn their fields, / / a
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
rock endure; / / where now, out of the
slums , Athenian poor / / climb, for love no doubt, demonstrably / /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
/ escaped the plague.  He was not of the
slums , / / but stole, perhaps, and died, they say in gaol.) / / Thei
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
a train into backyards / / of English
slums , but worse (and better, / / as sun-scorched poverty is better /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
/ / Marvellous marble hidden, / / the
slums hidden behind, down in their valley / / one might be far—but fo
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
vening / The quarried rock drops to the
slums , / / like looking from a train into backyards / / of English s
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
on, look down / / where a church sits
small , alone / / on a small promontory / / and the sea-swell swings
September Cruise
osmos / / this our world is infinitely
small / / and in no sense a centre.  / / Yet here we are.  And here’s
Credo
and sad.  The princess sighed / / and a
small bitter wind sighed through the wood / / filling with dusk.  She
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pines at Manly, / / looking across the
small -boat anchorage / / to the sail-flecked harbour.  Clear, still ev
Content
ted the sea.  / / No spot there where a
small boat might be beached?  / / Probably not.  He looked along the pl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he weather changes / / what hope for a
small boat, what hope for him, / / between the wild wind and that wal
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
)—careless insensitive unkindness, / /
small but so painful it cannot be forgotten / / by either party.  “It
Treasure
rry-flowers in the bramble’s room, / /
small -change for a cheapened purchase.  / / The seasons pass, the seas
Dance of the Seasons
build up).  Is our real wealth, / / the
small -change of our love / / which passes hand to hand, / / powerles
Choice
lding, wrapped in private silence, / /
small crystal world within the world of children, / / a castle that w
For Rachel
ignificantly recovered, / / twice that
small dark bird / / breaks the surface of the secretive stream / / t
Yeats and Water-Birds
/ in a dark corner of a corridor / / a
small door somehow missed led to a stair, / / low, narrow, black, and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
f man / / having flatness enough for a
small dwelling, / / hundreds of small dwellings.  / / Here, they say,
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
for a small dwelling, / / hundreds of
small dwellings.  / / Here, they say, / / the poor of Attica, herded
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ell, this park was the campus / / of a
small East Coast college, / / the girls young academics, / / one as
Grace
/ / world on world gone.  / / Spare a
small grief / / for lovely shell or leaf / / that loosed or crushed
Fossils
re at war, and as the stage is set / /
small hope is offered of a happy ending.  / / The world seems more tha
The Black-out
exchanged smile, the small kindness (so
small / / it couldn’t be remembered), joke in a queue / / (a shared
Treasure
ing kind— / / the exchanged smile, the
small kindness (so small / / it couldn’t be remembered), joke in a qu
Treasure
koned) / / bounding the plain, and the
small kingdom too.  / / The mountains and the sea enclosed his world. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ttily formed but plain, / / the sixth (
small like the others) a masterpiece / / of shaping and drawing.  / /
Label
/ (your grandfather’s).  When I was very
small / / my mother used to carry me out there / / to see them, but
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ completed, am more aware / / what a
small number we’re entitled to, / / what a small proportion of those
Swallows
re a church sits small, alone / / on a
small promontory / / and the sea-swell swings its shock / / against
September Cruise
l number we’re entitled to, / / what a
small proportion of those remains / / for me.  Never mind.  / / A full
Swallows
her door.  / / He found the handle.  The
small room dazzled him / / with shafted sunlight falling on a bed.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
terraced meres / / dammed from a slow
small stream.  / / Black still water images / / every trunk and leaf,
Water in a Wood
uck to the hired window / / a coloured
small transparency / / “Have a Rainbow Day” / / One morning you coul
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
igent in peace, / / to hear the still,
small voice.  / / Having insufficiently rendered unto peace / / the p
Prayer to Truth
and and water.  / / Look, on the sand a
small way from the water / / a child is building, wrapped in private
For Rachel
/ / the spirit waits, / / tasting in
small what the true sufferer knows: / / the lonely deaf, the blind /
Waiting
incess?  / / The circumscription of her
small world’s rim / / held spreading riches: peace and happiness / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hivered, watching / / the gondola grow
smaller on the wide / / water—so lose them too?  But the shrammed soul
The Black-out
ntments you have to soothe the personal
smart , / / and though this dark lies on us all, a warning / / of pre
The Black-out
But was it God’s / / wit gave Him that
smart answer?  He was Steward / / of a vast trust, and a far-sighted s
The Betrayal
here.  He stared dully.  Then, late, / /
smarted into himself.  Before him stood / / an old woman in black.  He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
on the white / / slippery track, face
smarting / / in the evening frost / / —this monochrome stillness loo
For Cecil
and hands dripping with gore.  / / Red
smears down her white skirt, the red of shame / / hot in her face, fr
Pelopia and Thyestes
walls were streaked / / with red-brown
smears .  Jesus, what people!”  / / Unhappy women / / caught from their
War-time Anecdote
t / / used to fill Smithfield with the
smell of flesh in fire / / as Protestant, Catholic, turn and turn abo
Betrayals
rouble in a moment gone, / / lost in a
smile as warm as sunlight—“You.”  / / “Ah, you” his heart in answer gl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
icked fairy’s laugh, / / felt the good
smile , began to understand / / the necessary double face of fate, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Merrie England / Don’t
smile in the street / / or someone you meet / / of the opposite sex
Merrie England
uch as in Paradise / / flowed from the
smile of Beatrice / / should fuse them in its white embrace.  / / The
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
glowed upon / / her glowing heart, his
smile on her smile—two / / in one.  She raised her face to his face an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
down the right fork.  He felt the fairy
smile .  / / Over the miles, under the leafy light, / / at fork or cro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
k that they are there).  / / Give him a
smile / / sometimes.  Do not speak / / when he looks your way.  / / D
[Time is a child]
, the fleeting kind— / / the exchanged
smile , the small kindness (so small / / it couldn’t be remembered), j
Treasure
/ her glowing heart, his smile on her
smile —two / / in one.  She raised her face to his face and / / kissed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
And then / / never, it says, he never
smiled again.  / / I doubt it, though; / / or were it so / / that fi
And Then
He loves me.  That boy loves me’ and she
smiled / / alone between the curtain and the moon, / / felt herself
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
shivered and turned back / / home, but
smiled as she turned, and said good night…  / / How can one love and n
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d in his mind, / / pine for in what he
smiled at as our ‘wood’.  / / And yet, I knew, he never would go back.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s / / the keys of this thorn fortress”—
smiled at him.  / / His eyes closed, and he opened them alone.  / / ‘T
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e but for the grace of God go I.  / / I
smiled compassionately, / / walked on complacently.  / / Later a figu
Reflection
the wind, / / dissolve and rest.”  She
smiled : “did I not say / / Anabel sent me?  Do not fear the wind / /
The Black-out
/ / Scolding the mother ran / / up.  I
smiled down / / to reassure, make contact with, the child.  / / Looke
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
g, broken range, through which / / (he
smiled ) his cousins were already travelling.  / / Far ahead still the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
I could step between, / / stopped him,
smiled / / over him at a man / / jumping up from the seat.  / / Scol
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
Ballad / At work she
smiled .  Resting she made / / a bracelet braided from her hair / / to
Ballad
ect is guided / / his way who will.”  I
smiled : “surely from you / / comes my taste for an ivory tower provid
The Black-out
k, but sad.  / / “ ‘But one day’ and he
smiled ‘the prince will come.’  / / “I don’t know what he meant.”  He c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
se grass—pricked him and drew blood.  He
smiled / / thinking of her who now was safe at home.  / / And then sm
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the river to my certain goal.  / / She
smiled : “this is no loss,” she said.  “If you / / had stepped in too,
The Black-out
he seagulls and the wind / / or simply
smiled .  “Well, you’ve been born before, / / young man,” she’d say.  He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
en two stations, two or three words and
smiles .  / / Between woman and child, / / something of two faces in h
Meeting
he bracelet on his arm.  / / Plaited in
smiling love to bind / / his arm in whom her soul had lived, / / she
Ballad
ly.  She frowned, but turned to him / /
smiling :  “You were my kind guide and my friend / / a happy summer I s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rsion of good thought / / used to fill
Smithfield with the smell of flesh in fire / / as Protestant, Catholi
Betrayals
takes delight in the sun, / / secreted
smog within.  / / Now, here, / / under the black, thick tide / / we
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
’s roar, / / it drowses.  Now among the
smoke and stone / / the deadly poor / / settle themselves on steps,
Country and Town
crowd and sacrifice / / with blood and
smoke , movement and noise.  / / The moment’s timeless flame transcends
Delos in Spring
swirling banner / / we bear of smoke,
smoke of factories, / / the factories themselves, washing shining /
“Life is sweet, brother”
rt, the swirling banner / / we bear of
smoke , smoke of factories, / / the factories themselves, washing shin
“Life is sweet, brother”
, nothing further; form / / thins into
smoke , thence into lightless air; / / the soul in the blackness of un
That Way Madness Lies
ur shifting mood, / / a double wall of
smoke , / / to know fully, judge fairly another heart / / is more tha
A Window
; some / / smoulder an age; some flare
smokily up; / / some by a chance blow are untimely over; / / on othe
Lamps
sorb the fumes / / which seep into our
smoky rooms.  / / Yet houses, rooms, these woods too, are, / / no les
The Rift
ves (we know) before tomorrow / / will
smooth back into beach-sand; as shrill calling / / of child or bird l
For Rachel
g life, considering life, behind / / a
smooth forehead, clear, utterly free / / from any mark, almost like a
Two Serenities
/ would be non-entity.  / / Mourn the
smooth hill, the woods / / you love, the fitted words / / you love. 
Change
o, three days and their nights / / the
smooth horizon, the unbroken cliff / / held him as in a dream on eith
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ out of the wind alighting— / / your
smooth -polished lackadaisical perfection / / grates.  I move away / /
Hermes of Olympia
brought him back, / / Delphis (such a
smooth skin) back to my house…  / / The moment I heard his light step
Spells and Love
deep / / round weedy timbers fish / /
smooth -threading pass.  / / Tide out, on bright / / days children spl
A Wreck
/ pushing its sprays out over the dark
smooth water, / / marking my place to turn.  / / I stood beside it.  W
Omens
t the dark reflection— / / bush in the
smooth water, precise but darkened, / / light green leaves dark, and
Omens
rely it must seem to you) / / that all
smooth ways are ways for hate’s advance.  / / The road’s gone now.  Rej
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
rown / / hills about Haworth white and
smooth with snow.  / / House-bound I watched its beauty change—clouds
The Black-out
ed— / / a new thought almost; though a
smoother prince / / had praised her beauty, claimed to worship her, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed in his dreams.  Then a red flame / /
smote him—light on the leaves across a clear / / glade—smote him.  O b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
on the leaves across a clear / / glade—
smote him.  O beauty, delight, love, pain.  / / A violent longing for t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
who now was safe at home.  / / And then
smote on his ears the full, strange sound / / muted before—the breake
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t hold / / a steady balance; some / /
smoulder an age; some flare smokily up; / / some by a chance blow are
Lamps
s the pearled / / water we saw a black
smudge with a gleam / / of metal at the prow.  “A gondola; / / Lauren
The Black-out
to lay up my harvest in the wind.  / /
Smug , you forget the other crop (tare / / in the wheat)—careless inse
Treasure
/ / wipe it down the wall, marking the
snail -course / / of her sentence.  A calendar.  / /
War-time Anecdote
/ at every ladder’s top / / you find a
snake begin.  / /
The Game
keeping their rhythm fairly true, / /
snaking in line or circle, hand in hand / / between temple and altar
Pelopia and Thyestes
w me on.  / / But since the shears must
snap and my time stop / / sometime, might a tolerable month be June? 
Sixtieth Summer
sword broke in my hand, / / the steel
snapped clean in two.  / / A Turkish dog came riding, / / his scimita
A Ballad
Tourist / The old familiar faces / /
snapped in exotic places / / —Katmandu, Campdown Races, / / the Sphi
Tourist
t in their recklessness / / stretch to
snapping communication-lines / / of light, / / are lost.  Night wins.
Holes in Space
nly, dark photograph / / in a blown-up
snapshot of Anne Frank’s wall / / —her pin-ups, marking her strip of
Hermes of Olympia
th) the will to live.  / / Condemned we
snatch at every short reprieve, / / disguising from ourselves how rut
Age
im stood / / an old woman in black.  He
snatched his knife / / and rose at her with all his pain in hate.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / the shrilling and the twang, / /
snatches of what they sang, / / “Goddess, be good to us”, / / knew h
Pelopia and Thyestes
flutterers?  / / Almost all elude your
snatching / / though one may settle on you unawares.  / / Now I don’t
[Golden, red, brown]
o pray.  / / We died by law, but do not
sneer / / at the name of brother from us.  Think / / that not all men
Villon’s Epitaph
.  / / A rare night.  Beach deep / / in
snow .  A ceaseless gale that / / strips it.  Night for you.  / / Warm s
For Cecil
em, lady Moon.  / / —I went colder than
snow all over.  A drenching sweat / / stood on my forehead like dew an
Spells and Love
e clean air is thick / / suddenly with
snow , / / blind in a whirl of shadow / / whose white glints can buil
Exchange
etence.  / / Marble in sun burning like
snow .  / / Green, violet, scarlet, scattered free, / / and blue, shad
Delos in Spring
lls about Haworth white and smooth with
snow .  / / House-bound I watched its beauty change—clouds frown / / o
The Black-out
p / A child standing in a wilderness of
snow / / looking in at my door: / / a face I was in love with long a
Vision Between Waking and Sleep
cied spring.  / / “You felt the crusted
snow melt from your winter, / / the spring’s pulse in the chilled ear
The Black-out
coloured / / mufflings against a white
snow / / slope) tobogganing.  / / Misunderstandings.  / / Can they be
For Cecil
/ two larger valleys.  Wind from distant
snow / / struck deeply chill, but too worn-out for waking / / curled
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s, sharp heather / / black through the
snow —the frozen winter breaking, / / softening, resolving round me, v
The Black-out
/ / broken rock climbing to a point of
snow , / / to the blinding blue of sky; diamond air / / edge to knife
Greece
leave the womb.  / / Moving across the
snow / / towards the sun through bright mist.  / / There is nothing e
For Cecil
as mask, / / closed eyes swollen.  / /
Snow under grey cloud.  / / Monochrome world from Cambridge / / to th
For Cecil
ating body—knew the fiery shock / / of
snow -water, colder than he had thought / / water could be, and sweet,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y reversion of rain?  / / Rain and sun,
snow , wind, / / weather and season, wheeling / / through the melting
Exchange
ake.  / / Does it matter?  / / Aconite,
snowdrop , give place to primrose, / / bluebell to buttercup, dog-rose
Seasons
t, she is slender.  / / His teeth flash
snowy in his wit, / / hers with the laugh that answers it.  / / —Yet
On the Towpath
, / / we shall not tread your turf, or
snuff / / your scents—nor, as from Pisgah, know / / that others afte
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
story says.  But not for long.  / / They
soar to Lucy in the sky / / with diamonds and a new song.  / / I thin
The Sirens
of another willow.  / / Yet fallen and
soaring bough were rich in leaf / / as the solid trunks flanking this
Five Poems for Roni
w plough, / / laid face on arm he wept—
sobbing waves / / of hot tears washing the weight of sin and sorrow /
A Dream
han women or drink / / is laughter, is
sobbing .  / / Who killed Cock Robin?  / / Cromwell, I think.  / / Vict
Merrie England
pe.  / / Once each month / / peeling a
sodden rag from her body she’d / / wipe it down the wall, marking the
War-time Anecdote
hroat hard on the tether, / / the thaw—
soft air one night, and sound on waking / / of water dribbling, drift
The Black-out
linting / / in the new sun / / in the
soft air.  / / The delayed year / / is moving into spring / / with l
Late Spring
/ and everywhere the clear green / / (
soft and strong as a child’s skin) / / of earliest summer.  This is /
Seasons
I took his hand, pulled him down on the
soft bed.  / / Skin to bare skin our bodies flowered, our faces / / w
Spells and Love
incess, / / heard in the stillness her
soft breath, and took / / heart, kissed through hair the brow turned
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the girl / / down among the flowers.  A
soft cloak spread, / / my arm round her neck, I comforted / / her fe
Love Scene
he black-out.  / / The scented aura and
soft ‘hullo, dearie’ / / offered the troubled flesh peace with dishon
The Black-out
River / / weaves in this country / /
soft light for willow / / to spread shade other / / than olive, cypr
Five Poems for Roni
I the willow? / / misty country, / /
soft -light river?  / / Are you the other?  / / Even the shadow / / ca
Five Poems for Roni
im till he bled.  Beyond, below / / the
soft sand, he rejoined the mountain-stream, / / turned and began the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s walking brought him to the sand— / /
soft sand which rose in a long rampart, crowned / / with coarse grass
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / dreams by the river, / / drops a
soft shadow.  / / You, in your other / / land, tread another / / sha
Five Poems for Roni
Revisited / The sun is
soft , soft the blue horizon / / from which a dozen greens melt toward
Revisited
s first day of June / / warm air, / /
soft sun / / take over.  And I come / / suddenly on a briar / / its
Upward Turn
nal longing, / / winter’s bare truths,
soft , sweet strength of spring, / / till chesnut-blossom scattering h
Sixtieth Summer
Revisited / The sun is soft,
soft the blue horizon / / from which a dozen greens melt towards gold
Revisited
e snow—the frozen winter breaking, / /
softening , resolving round me, vanishing; / / but sometimes suddenly
The Black-out
s which reach / / with their spread of
softer -sanded, spear-grassed dunes / / miles away to the rivers of Ba
Bury My Heart
’s light colours on fields / / varying
softly across hedges, between trees, / / away to a low hill.  / / Oth
Gratitude
e night and heard the rain falling / /
softly .  It seemed like weeping.  / / The bright morning glistens on th
News of a Death
rom my heart the black cloud fell; / /
softly the fresh wind moved; the stars were bright, / / before dawn a
The Black-out
om those strong / / contours erode the
softness .  Beautiful / / but not unravaged.  / / Lights fade.  Darkness
In the Audience
/ / strained through the sand and rich
soil of our lives, / / and all those lives of others / / the silt of
Becoming
of a garden (before that house / / was
sold five or six years before) a child / / happy in the long grass, t
Summers
crowned us king and queen thereof / /
sold us to separate benches in war’s galley.  / / Redeem us soon.  But
Prayer to Time
r keep and pay.  / / A man must live.  A
soldier must obey.  / / “Bombers, proceed to London, to Berlin.  / / S
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
r keep and pay.  / / A man must live.  A
soldier must obey.  / / Strontium 90 we need perhaps, to clear / / th
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
r keep and pay.  / / A man must live.  A
soldier must obey.  / / “That not the present only (child, woman, man,
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
r keep and pay.  / / A man must live.  A
soldier must obey.  / / “You to gas-chamber duty at Auschwitz.  You /
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
nk / Orders / Röslein auf der Heiden / “
Soldiers , advance against the enemy.  / / Shoot when you see the white
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
in slums, / / and watched the Spartan
soldiers burn their fields, / / and learnt to steal.  Here the plague
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ear… and in the dark / / against them,
sole and shaking, Love.  / / Then, almost fore-defeated, Love / / sen
Masque
pe?  His own nature.  / / In the dark of
Soledad / / hopeless becomes hopelesser, / / natural goodness goes b
George Jackson
ss a tram-wire mesh, we met a mass / /
solemn in a procession, led by one / / whose fierce, dark look I knew
The Black-out
blished tyranny of his dream, / / more
solid and more hopeless than before.  / / For her, that country deeply
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing bough were rich in leaf / / as the
solid trunks flanking this along the river.  / / How can the sap rise?
Five Poems for Roni
and in the general hurly-burly / / the
solid truth no longer stands alone, / / and anyone may one day come /
That Way Madness Lies
/ Self-made? self-murdered? blank as a
solitary / / prisoner / / she is looking blindly through those lost
Song
shed / / and the stillness of the far
solstice approaches, / / clearer, blacker against the sky are spread
Dance of the Seasons
Winter
Solstice / The tilted earth pauses, prepares to lean / / the other wa
Winter Solstice
ralds again / / the hedge-rose and the
solstice’s return.  / /
Sixtieth Summer
er to out-hurry time.  / / The sea-edge
solution , salty, bloodwarm, / / lay quick with life, with love, with
Full Circle
ld not see / / anything of her but her
sombre wraps.  / / A knife in one hand, in the other perhaps, / / he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
” / / Silence belongs to him, / / but
somebody unknown / / lends unnecessary / / noise to a dead man / /
Tombstone
austed youth / / against the dark, had
somehow been conveyed / / to strike the boy with a full force of trut
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e negatives, / / shadow to light).  And
somehow I believe / / without doubt in the absolute being of / / goo
Credo
placeable loss, / / the truth of love,
somehow , / / is here and never lost.  / /
Credo
n missed kills, / / memory or instinct
somehow kept his way.  / / Utterly weak but unfevered, aware, / / he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
corner of a corridor / / a small door
somehow missed led to a stair, / / low, narrow, black, and twisting t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
day-dreams’ yearning / / whom he must
somehow save.  The vision rose / / blotting the world out with its oth
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ that chance, sown on the wind, might
somehow sprout / / in love.  His love he dare not venture from.  / / F
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
urely should be / / laid there for you
somehow to tread it / / with lightened feet.  / / Hewn from the rock
September Cruise
.  But as for that sister of yours, / /
someone else can have her.  The bloom’s gone—she’s coarse— / / the cha
Love Scene
dead, / / no knock at my door…  There’s
someone else.  Love’s gods / / have drawn his wandering fancy away fro
Spells and Love
es / / of daily changing colours.  / /
Someone had stuck to the hired window / / a coloured small transparen
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
ul: / / don’t weep at the play / / or
someone may say / / “He’s no self-control.”  / / This respectable cur
Merrie England
/ anything put before them, / / till
someone saw the girl / / nibbling a hard green / / cast-out shell.  /
The Green Children of Woolpit
commits / / so lost a crime?  / / But
someone saw the girl / / with her apron-full.  / / They follow her to
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
age of Sydney's death / / is mythical,
someone says.  / / But living he earned this / / beautiful crown of m
Caring
eness seeped to his numbed life / / of
someone there.  He stared dully.  Then, late, / / smarted into himself.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he fixed brown eyes seem to reveal / /
someone within.  / / Self-made? self-murdered? blank as a solitary /
Song
and / Don’t smile in the street / / or
someone you meet / / of the opposite sex / / (or even the same) / /
Merrie England
/ / often enough.  At sixty / / that’s
something all of us can see.  / / For Housman, spring’s whitening / /
[Housman was old beyond his years]
lt himself / / there, somewhere, here,
something at least again.  / / He retched, and felt the salt and bitte
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ve, ephemeral beauty / / does bring us
something / / beyond its loveliness: / / a resharpening, reshining /
Five Poems for Roni
over head / / and out, new-fired.  Then
something caught his eye.  / / A flowered bush, studded among the flow
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / the quiet middle reaches.  / / But
something cries on / / in me, timeless and harsh.  I feel harden / /
Revisited
m pervades today.  / / In some way / /
something does seem / / restored in me…  Innocence through a dream?  /
[Restoration of innocence in a dream]
stillness looks / / like death but is
something else.  / / Venus is burning / / big and low, yellow through
For Cecil
/ / He looked along the sand / / for
something for his love—a love-gift and / / a proof that this new worl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n Luther, dead and gone, / / alive saw
something he must do / / and left it very thoroughly done.  / / A cou
Thoughts on the Lavatory
an I believe it? / / (revelation being
something I neither have nor covet).  / / Without that, can I stand ou
Death
hat.”  / / “And on my side,” she said, “
something is owed.  / / Do not be humble, sad; consider that / / your
The Black-out
lose-leaved trees, green and dark.  / /
Something like an English parkland / / but bigger, wilder, stronger,
Los Altos Hills
s can know and not go all the way / / —
something like that will do.  As for marrying, / / we’ll talk about th
Love Scene
s grateful to him for that too / / and
something made her speak.  “Those summer leaves / / are sunk to mud.  H
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
im to his pain.  He lay awhile, / / but
something made him rouse.  Hardly in him / / the force that made him r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
autumn’s spring-time daughter / / was
something more, and ‘what the fairies brought her’ / / serves at leas
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
your place.  / / Yes, but must still be
something / / more than myself, will be, can.  / / Thorpe white in th
For Cecil
eated, Love / / sensed at his shoulder
something move… / / so whisper-faint… a dream?  / / No—if intangible,
Masque
he bone / / was the moorhen.  / / Like
something not known to be remembered (dream, / / unremarked word) /
Yeats and Water-Birds
les.  / / Between woman and child, / /
something of two faces in her face, / / a dancer and a child, / / lo
Meeting
tly at variance: / / to make ourselves
something / / other than nature made us / / yet not to deny nature;
Caring
yet to dare at a moment / / to follow
something other / / which guides us against reason.  / / But most, su
Caring
ness seeped up out of the sea / / like
something palpable, veiling the meeting / / of sea and sky, thickenin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
had / / even to her mother.  “There was
something sad, / / so sad.  Just what it was I never knew.  / / But he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lling.  Falling implies gravity / / and
something there below at the fall’s end.  / / I am (so far as I am) ra
What am I?
fable, romance…  / / False?  But there’s
something there, / / the beauty’s there.  A kind of dance.  / /
Heron and Gulls
at peace.  / / Primal innocence / / is
something to settle for.  / / Nothingness is at least / / good, thoug
Miscarriage
arned / / each in an earlier day, / /
something which colours them through.  / / We feel such thankfulness /
[Yes, you’re right]
s in a form of prayer / / addressed to
something which may not be there / / and surely cannot hear / / nor,
Prayer
A Dream /
Something withheld him from lifting the spade to strike / / the white
A Dream
s eye / / into the court—but was there
something wrong?  / / A bump, a flurry, and a choked-down cry / / los
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / badly or left undone, / / and if
something’s done well, not knowing at all / / if that can help the sc
Balance Sheet
shears must snap and my time stop / /
sometime , might a tolerable month be June? / / —with the rose light i
Sixtieth Summer
r—what’s her name?— / / kept the flock
sometimes a year or two ago— / / how’s she?”  “Just had a boy.”  “Long
On the Border
in the ear / / startlingly clear, / /
sometimes beautiful, / / sometimes silly, / / sometimes horrible, /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
ed and been loved, two in one, / / yet
sometimes been at board and bed / / sullen and clumsy as the dead.  /
Interrogation
r sky beyond the cloud, / / sun-struck
sometimes , but slate again soon / / under the nearing storm.  The sea,
Varangian in Mickelgard
tamping the ice-puddles, / / dirty and
sometimes deep.  Fountains of muddy / / water are splashing.  Their mot
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
are there).  / / Give him a smile / /
sometimes .  Do not speak / / when he looks your way.  / / Do not inter
[Time is a child]
a path towards peace.  / / Sought, and
sometimes found.  / / Peace is present here, / / as though what some
Villevieille
/ / Time, whose converse imparts, then
sometimes heals / / (not always) the to-be-or-not-to-be / / Weltschm
Prayer to Time
s beautiful, / / sometimes silly, / /
sometimes horrible, / / all to be dismissed / / when we’re right awa
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
nd / / and stumbling blindly fall / /
sometimes into some ditch one and all.  / / Let us at least be kind to
Blind
happiest / / life must settle for / /
sometimes , it’s good to be born.  / / All the same, unborn / / is unt
Miscarriage
your warmth, of your kindness / / —but
sometimes I’m half blinded / / as by a new revelation: / / how, havi
[I have you always in my mind]
way from them, down, towards / / hands
sometimes , more often lower / / to legs, feet, which unaware / / bet
Nadia
—exile and prison,” / / she said, “but
sometimes on the windy hill / / of home I felt no less a prisoner.  /
The Black-out
our of fire.  / / She passed him often,
sometimes paused to speak— / / she liked his thinking (none of those
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y clear, / / sometimes beautiful, / /
sometimes silly, / / sometimes horrible, / / all to be dismissed /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
resolving round me, vanishing; / / but
sometimes suddenly the cold, retaking / / our hills, wiped from the w
The Black-out
/ / That’s what you feel / / often. 
Sometimes though / / don’t you clearly see / / this lump the faithfu
Body
to earth / / not any heaven.  Do I now
sometimes though / / notice myself, against all I feel and know, / /
Death
hings I don’t believe / / I still like
sometimes to pretend— / / that life doesn’t come to a ragged end / /
Dreams
“And what have left undone?”  / / Have
sometimes upon world and sun / / turned eyes as darkened as the dead.
Interrogation
companion.  More?  Well, lonely / / she
sometimes was; hardly aware, and yet / / glad in the woods to be with
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
fields into the wood, / / we met there
sometimes —we?— / / at dusk, would linger… we?… they?… / / later, eac
From the Air
his neighbours’ seeing?  / / Each of us
sometimes wears a mask, / / most of us often.  Such as he, / / taking
H.A.R.P.
ou’re right.  Misunderstandings may / /
sometimes (we’re human) drift our way / / but surely we shall never l
[Yes, you’re right]
/ / reflected overlays the moon.  / /
Sometimes when the self grows thin / / I am my father or my son.  / /
Shadow and Substance
y we know ourselves / / foolish often,
sometimes wicked as well, / / sharing in guilt, part of the guilty wo
[Our lives are in other hands]
/ as suddenly a reflecting pool, / /
somewhere a tinkling fall / / show that the stream is living too.  /
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
somewhere along the road] / Most of us,
somewhere along the road, / / find the way lost and the dark wood /
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
[Most of us,
somewhere along the road] / Most of us, somewhere along the road, / /
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
Drought / Deserts are
somewhere else.  / / Sahara, Arizona, Gobi, / / back of Australian bu
Drought
, and groaning felt himself / / there,
somewhere , here, something at least again.  / / He retched, and felt t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y.  For he knew beyond a doubt / / that
somewhere in that labyrinth lay his goal.  / / Not for itself the moun
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
od out to sea / / against the sun, but
somewhere round midday / / the wind shifted into the north, and he /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd find your wife waiting for you, your
son / / a man now and a friend, a few old friends.  / / Between you y
Odysseus
lf grows thin / / I am my father or my
son .  / / A mechanist philosophy / / conspires with science to deny /
Shadow and Substance
n, / / a poor young widow with an only
son .  / / A mother’s boy (he never knew his father) / / beloved and l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Spartan mother / / concerning her dead
son .  / / And found in an affirmative answer / / her grief not lessen
Wounds
sped crave your praying / / of Mary’s
Son , by His good willing, / / that we may share in His blessing, / /
Villon’s Epitaph
windling, lost.  / / Fledged presently,
son , daughter, / / circle, take flight / / from ours to outer world,
Out from the Cliff
oon to mourn / / her killed, her only,
son , / / fighting a foreigners’ war in a far country.  / / Darkness. 
Time’s Reach
e not thereby, Himself being God’s / /
son , God Himself, defraud Himself?  Is God’s / / a share only?  They th
The Betrayal
f Christian thought, / / not the slain
Son , / / God in man.  / / The Greek saw / / clearer, truer, / / whe
Divinity
/ returns…  The youngest, not the only
son .  / / He dare not hive off on a gambler’s hope / / that chance, s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hylus’ Epitaph / Aeschylus, Euphorion’s
son / / of Athens, lies under this stone / / dead in Gela among the
Aeschylus’ Epitaph
Pietà / The Mother sat, her dead
Son on her knees, / / white-glowing marble wrought / / to perfect in
Pietà
are made, deeds done.  / / The youngest
son sets out with empty hands, / / harvests a mint of luck in distant
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
wandering traveller / / (the youngest
son , the chosen man) / / at last suddenly across an unmarked border,
Los Altos Hills
/ The forester, the poor court-lady’s
son / / we knew before, could not with a like eye / / view a like wo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
talk at the watercourse— / / the tall
son whistled down; the young men, / / East and West, brothers in bloo
Poetry
Greek Folk
Song / All the girls get married, and likely lads they wed, / / but f
Greek Folk Song
/ / with other forms, compulsive as a
song / / and as incorporeal, sharp as frost or flame: / / the fairie
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
children sell themselves for food.  / /
Song … and blue sea… and on the blue / / distance, Tiberius’s isle.  /
Naples
words, or works of hand and mind, / /
song and colour and stone, / / or in the whispering of two alone; /
Fossils
goes round / / with rattle of dice and
song , and some are thinking / / enviously / / of some at home dead i
Gunnar of Lithend
ing, passion and blood, live on / / in
song .  / / And there’s a further border.  The world of faery / / is on
[The bare, beautiful borders]
and that mine can call / / (bursts of
song ) back to you, and that all / / these gales, miles, months cannot
Two Poems from a New Life
Cassandra’s
Song / Beauty and dreams of beauty flourish.  / / Earth leans and the
Cassandra’s Song
Song / for Thomas / The girl in the train looks out with brown eyes /
Song
Shepherd’s
Song / from a poem attributed to Theocritus / Pelops may rule his coun
Shepherd’s Song
in the sky / / with diamonds and a new
song .  / / I think the Sirens do not die.  / /
The Sirens
arked, we went, Giles leading.  Soon the
song , / / lost for a while, came loud.  The gondola / / shot from ben
The Black-out
pring / / with leaf-bud, blossom, bird-
song , / / nest-building.  / /
Late Spring
ha or Mahomet, God or gods.  / / Paul’s
song of charity I love, in Plato / / the passionate search.  Great spi
The Betrayal
:  / / Catullus, Villon, Aeschylus, The
Song of Roland, / / Leopardi, Theocritus, Palamas, / / Heine, Hoffma
Poetry
/ letting it dull my ears against the
song / / of siren autumn?—which listened to, I’m done, / / caught in
Sixtieth Summer
moving hollow shell.  / / Sigh or high
song of wind in rigging, air / / on rope and wood, in canvas, clap, r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
“What can one build on one / / spring
song ?” she said.  “You never offered me / / relationship—only an inner
The Black-out
counterpointed by the cuckoo / / lark
song strikes out of the sun-paled blue.  / / Pass from the green brill
Two Summer Songs
n / / hangs in the air, an interrupted
song .  / / There is no last rose.  / / This year the constellations cr
Five Poems for Roni
g, / / into the killing, / / into the
song .  / / This border, that border, these kingdoms live on.  / /
[The bare, beautiful borders]
“You fool” fluted “you fool” the liquid
song / / “you fool, you had the love / / of her whose gift, above /
Hebona
Two Summer
Songs / Afternoon / Morning / Summer recurs.  / / Green fields of chil
Two Summer Songs
Two
Songs of a Mercenary / from Archilochus / / / The spear is my rough
Two Songs of a Mercenary
etween the thorn-wall and the pine.  But
soon / / a few yards in under the oaks, he found / / the undergrowth
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
p stream.  / / Giles turned intent, and
soon across the pearled / / water we saw a black smudge with a gleam
The Black-out
/ the tents about the plain.  / / Armed
soon , as before, / / he kissed his wife and said / / “I must go figh
Presage
seem: / / longed-for hours, almost as
soon / / as entered, gone; / / yet drags his feet / / down grey bor
Two Poems from a New Life
h her / / he’d seen a green sea, which
soon , bare and black, / / she’d see again.  She loved this country, so
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
berius’s isle.  / / Blood spurts, dries
soon … but hot blood still / / reliquifies the sun-dried blood.  / /
Naples
benches in war’s galley.  / / Redeem us
soon .  But while you may not so, / / lay on our fever patience’s cool
Prayer to Time
ck, I comforted / / her fear.  The fawn
soon ceased to flee.  / / Over her breasts my hands moved gently, / /
Love Scene
nown.  / / But now (he was, or would be
soon , eighteen) / / restlessness played on him in many shapes.  / / T
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
en the child’s tether / / and to leave
soon enough.  / /
Parenthood
brakes / / and coaxed her to the ford;
soon from the crest / / gazed on his kingdom, standing by its Queen. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
des, gull-lone, / / gull-tenanted, and
soon / / gull-dropping-white / / on the myth-dark / / sea; that is
The Sea
brother’s been called and I’ll be going
soon / / —have to put off getting married.”  “It’s a hard life.  / / W
On the Border
/ / The dim light dimmed further, and
soon he must, / / he thought, drop on the dead-leaf silt, give up, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of the increasing storm.  / / Must she
soon / / heal over, slide into the dark?  / /
England, 1981
e: “to-night / / you shall not home so
soon ; in other places / / you are awaited.  Come.”  To the slow height
The Black-out
en.  Hymettus / / miraculously blushes,
soon / / is grey again.  / /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
/ all springs of earth and life dried
soon , / / leaving a dusty cavernous lump gaping / / at the sun, at t
Stones
rs fed his joy.  / / But unhoped chance
soon made him one with those: / / the princess wished to walk the woo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
twenty or twenty-five / / —but I’d as
soon not live / / (sooner) as long as that, / / if living’s the word
[Now of threescore and ten]
recurring, / / for these our children
soon not me.  Then / / for theirs not them.  / / One day perhaps for n
Credo
/ how vain are our imaginings, / / and
soon our feet are travelling / / accustomed streets.  / / But at the
That Way Madness Lies
se of course / / death may come sooner—
soon / / perhaps, for better or worse, / / as indeed it might have d
[Now of threescore and ten]
e endless dance, / / he struck out and
soon reached the other side.  / / He had the measure of the sands by n
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
st to choke him.  / / He struggled out. 
Soon , rested, cautiously / / tried his fresh-water-swimmer’s limbs ag
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eversed) when first we’re launched.  But
soon / / spiralling on one almost hears / / speeds gather as lives h
Anniversaries
/ / touched me; I shook my head: “meet
soon .”  The boat / / passed down with the already turning tide.  / / T
The Black-out
our and love.’  / / It was her birthday
soon .  The court would come.  / / He’d have no part in that, but fetch
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / embarked, we went, Giles leading. 
Soon the song, / / lost for a while, came loud.  The gondola / / shot
The Black-out
illiant head / / by time’s rough gusts
soon to be tonsured.  / / Spring came, and hardly come had fled / / —
Dance of the Seasons
long, wondering whether I oughtn’t / /
soon to go back, I saw a little ahead / / a single dogrose bush by th
Omens
/ / still, if already half woman, and
soon / / to leave childhood behind—if anyone / / really does that; a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in English Chislehurst, / / widowhood,
soon to mourn / / her killed, her only, son, / / fighting a foreigne
Time’s Reach
nd cold moved stiffly, vaguely on.  / /
Soon to the Spaniards unexpectedly come, / / between the set moon and
The Black-out
/ sun-struck sometimes, but slate again
soon / / under the nearing storm.  The sea, reaching / / its firths r
Varangian in Mickelgard
en, but the answering / / flicker died
soon .”  “What can one build on one / / spring song?” she said.  “You ne
The Black-out
The Ancient Mariner of Kubla Khan.  / /
Soon Yeats—maestro ed autore— / / Eliot, Auden, Ransom, Hopkins, the
Poetry
ve / / —but I’d as soon not live / / (
sooner ) as long as that, / / if living’s the word for it.  / / Contra
[Now of threescore and ten]
trariwise of course / / death may come
sooner —soon / / perhaps, for better or worse, / / as indeed it might
[Now of threescore and ten]
That’s what he thought.  The tests came
sooner , though— / / came all the time, it seemed, in various ways.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ve are free.  / / Ointments you have to
soothe the personal smart, / / and though this dark lies on us all, a
The Black-out
let flood— / / and other hands, quiet,
soothing the head, / / veiling the terrified staring eyes.  / / Hear
Block 21
/ / Things you only just / / missed. 
Sophie of course, and Tom’s / / throwaway, that in / / five years pe
For Cecil
st, / / Alex Morell, Hans Scholl, / /
Sophie Scholl.  / /
Die Weisse Rose
se Rose / Munich, 1942–3 / Hans Scholl,
Sophie Scholl, / / Alex Morell, / / Christl Probst, Willi Graf / /
Die Weisse Rose
/ / (none more than twenty-five, / /
Sophie twenty-one.  / / Kurt Huber was much older / / but name him, p
Die Weisse Rose
of old, / / princesses in the toils of
sorcerers — / / put out for dragons—in some wild distress.  / / And al
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s the dreary circus, / / pit where the
sordid alleys of the poor / / march with the sordid, ill-rich city, o
The Black-out
alleys of the poor / / march with the
sordid , ill-rich city, on / / towards Chancery Lane, but turned once
The Black-out
/ here but to lay some ointment to his
sore ?  / / And yet, what could she do?  By her own spell / / a hundred
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
days trudging.  The prince grew quickly
sore , / / but sensibly took off his shoes and went / / barefoot thro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hot tears washing the weight of sin and
sorrow / / away from the heart.  / / And heart and tears were mine, /
A Dream
come to the show with her, and I to my
sorrow / / did go, wearing my best long linen dress / / and Cleurist
Spells and Love
ge as well as youth’s depressions.  / /
Sorrow I have known, / / unhappiness, / / fear, anxiety / / and wor
Climacteric by the Sea
ricacy of draperies, / / perfection of
sorrow in the flower-face.  / / The young man, knowing the power in hi
Pietà
ld bawd, ugly and thin, / / crying her
sorrow that all his mistresses loved him, / / even the little girls s
A Dream
not lack, delight, / / would be wholly
sorry to have missed life / / on this multifarious earth.  / / Accept
Climacteric by the Sea
the left / / (things at least of that
sort ).  / / We only mean to say, perhaps:  / / Reason’s steps / / are
Uncertain
hange but can’t renew.  / / I am out of
sorts with self and others, when / / experience and patience should k
Again
ith it, / / a path towards peace.  / /
Sought , and sometimes found.  / / Peace is present here, / / as thoug
Villevieille
ea, and sea-like fed / / on hopes that
sought (but found the quag) / / the path across the quaking bog.  / /
Lost
was not really there.  / / Just what he
sought he did not know, or where; / / seek it he did, because he had
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ce his long steps.  “But he” I said, and
sought her / / eyes, “is in Cambridge.”  “I am in the ground, / / col
The Black-out
centuries of love / / and misery have
sought / / here in the blank of loss / / ways to live with it, / /
Villevieille
earth, and water runs by walls.  / / I
sought my guide’s look: “uncorrupted lover / / of earth and air,” I s
The Black-out
/ to her desire, was shocked by it.  He
sought / / the pox at Mistress Overdone’s instead.  / /
Beyond Measure
s, the whole / / dream-treasury of the
soul .  / /
Fair Exchange
he put all his weight and strength and
soul / / against the tiller, he was not holding course / / but sidli
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / That man from Myndus has got me,
soul and body.  / / You go and watch by Timategus’s place / / (that’s
Spells and Love
nce wrecked the mind / / make with the
soul and with the sinews free, / / and all help, all hope far / / bl
Nijinsky
r and strong: / / “trembles the coward
soul ?  But Anabel / / who led you laughing where the thorns were long
The Black-out
nxiety / / and worse corrosions of the
soul , / / but never hunger and cold / / —not real cold, let alone /
Climacteric by the Sea
and bid me seize are / / not mine.  My
soul cries (child) to stay up late—“Oh / / don’t send me to bed yet—I
The Betrayal
/ unless to complain.  / / Veil up your
soul : / / don’t weep at the play / / or someone may say / / “He’s n
Merrie England
ol on brow and hand / / till flesh and
soul flowered / / in those of Ferdinand.”  / / Ophelia to Miranda:  /
Dialogue
g love to bind / / his arm in whom her
soul had lived, / / she gave it now to be a sign / / that all she ha
Ballad
ke, thence into lightless air; / / the
soul in the blackness of uncentred space, / / knowing nothing, sweats
That Way Madness Lies
t force could gather / / you, form and
soul , in this drop, mingled straight / / from love’s well and the fou
Becoming
fray?  / / You thought to breathe your
soul into the wind, / / dissolve and rest.”  She smiled: “did I not sa
The Black-out
/ this lump the faithful image of your
soul ?  / / Is it a prison?  / / Remember then, you / / aren’t only pr
Body
and played at war between them with the
soul of Nijinsky / / in fifty-two pieces like a pack of cards; / / a
Nijinsky
on bended knee, / / blessed God for a
soul rescued / / from Satan’s siege.  / / But the girl of flesh they
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
ater—so lose them too?  But the shrammed
soul / / shrinking contracts against a knot of pride:  / / I felt mys
The Black-out
to be seen; / / but the idle spiteful
soul sits on the beach, / / blind to the bright wind and the sound of
Tristi Fummo
Agony and greasy ash.  / / What did the
soul steal from the flame?  / / New wings for its dream.  / /
Joan of Arc
ohol / / I wash it down with warms the
soul …  / / Sugar and spice…  / / Shatteringly / / clatters back in th
Dinner
hat would she now think / / of me?  my
soul will show its share / / of hurts, but where?  / /
Wounds
ond and the third return / / our jaded
souls respond more slowly / / and in the general hurly-burly / / the
That Way Madness Lies
set a stake in the square / / for her
soul’s good, / / and first of the faggots they laid / / the rose fro
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
shade / / passionately fearing for his
soul’s health (fearing / / for his body’s too, mortally sick) yet sha
Eugénie de Guérin
ard / / myself, I still must be my own
soul’s steward.  / / Reading the story of the unjust steward / / I fi
The Betrayal
ossibly catches the movements and their
sound .  / / Faces express feelings, release words.  / / She looks away
Nadia
not all men have an equal share / / of
sound good sense and reasoning.  / / We who are sped crave your prayin
Villon’s Epitaph
hen smote on his ears the full, strange
sound / / muted before—the breakers.  And the wild / / sea stretched
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
“he is in Cambridge, talking, sleeping
sound , / / O thou of little faith; but we are here.”  / / I listened,
The Black-out
ght, / / on their side was shade.  / /
Sound of church-bells / / was often in the air.  / / It was a Christi
The Green Children of Woolpit
, / / blind to the bright wind and the
sound of the sea, / / throwing stones at a stone.  / /
Tristi Fummo
happy now lives ever after.  / / Beyond
sound of Time’s warning cough / / all tasks done, spells are taken of
End of Fairy-Story
, / / the thaw—soft air one night, and
sound on waking / / of water dribbling, drifting mists, sharp heather
The Black-out
?  These have ears / / tuned to another
sound -range, eyes which focus / / in a different light.  They whisper
Two Cultures?
’s palm— / / The chatterers have their
sound , the beautiful / / their coloured-shining, lacquered shell; /
The Party
/ I listened, and his footsteps left no
sound .  / / The light wind faded out as he came near.  / / “Oh what a
The Black-out
that might be green for him.  / / Huge
sound trembling / / through remote air / / —pile the brooks with muc
Scorched Earth
of the sands by now.  / / His feet were
sounder , and he husbanded / / the life-blood water with more care.  An
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ch the ground.  / / I have found / / a
sounder spell.  Our love.  / / There will be days, not enough— / / rat
[Golden, red, brown]
hter.  / / Later, the boy walked on the
sounding beach / / miles, hours.  He loved to swim, and learned the ti
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eech and fir.  Water—always / / streams
sounding hidden, suddenly leaping / / free from the steep, white in a
Varangian in Mickelgard
ties got a dusty answer: / / with fear
sounding its gong of boom and slump / / disaster closed, like madness
The Twenties
garden at Jesmond Hill / / (not, as it
sounds , in Newcastle / / but above Pangbourne on the middle Thames) /
Bury My Heart
heart; / / and others in whose silence
sounds the roar / / of a remote, fanatic fire.  / / To each a tower: 
The Party
religion riven by hate, / / everything
sour and broken in his heart, / / the old man carved by candlelight /
Pietà
ay / / this glittering skein the light-
source casts you / / … and yet… and yet / / reaching you so, it sure
September Cruise
s breadth / / from their mother’s dark
sources / / past that laboured earth.  / /
The Green Children of Woolpit
s forest-sense)—east, west, / / north,
south , all points were sullenly the same.  / / ’The fairy’s curse’—he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s did / / near-crush him when he came,
south always south / / watching the mountains rise, to where a valley
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / World about us now / / West and
South and East / / all’s not for the best.  / / But that is far away.
Causes
ey-blue sky, / / Low bright sun in the
south , and from the north / / a steady wind blows cold and colourless
[White foam sweeps]
dy travelling.  / / Far ahead still the
south cape’s silhouette, / / darker and hard on the bright water, mar
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o the north, and he / / turned the bow
south .  Dim to the starboard lay / / a thin blue ribbon, merging past
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ally from his deep dream.  / / From the
south -east the squall struck his port beam / / and heeled the boat al
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  At last appeared / / a great wall of
south -facing cliff, which stretched / / west, west to the horizon, st
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ly not.  He looked along the plain.  / /
South from the southern cape lay mystery.  / / Home, he found fuss and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n the sea / / and broadening plain.  To
south , hill crowded hill / / against the shore, and the curved surf-l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ture intrigued his thoughts today.  / /
South up the coast, miles to his left, a second / / and longer cape,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ar-crush him when he came, south always
south / / watching the mountains rise, to where a valley- / / stream
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed along the plain.  / / South from the
southern cape lay mystery.  / / Home, he found fuss and news, a messen
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he reached them he had crossed / / the
southern mountains, steep and bare, with little / / water or vegetati
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
back, / / low down in the quick-faded
southern sunset / / over the ocean rim.  I looked at the moon, / / lo
A Hoard
s black] / Bare trees black against the
south’s cold brightness / / where the sun is climbing from cloud to i
[Bare trees black]
hould hate / / the girls who kept your
sovereign lord amused?  / / They hurl at you unmerited abuse / / beca
To Hera
must grow / / from seed yourself shall
sow / / in your own daughter’s womb.”  / / One horror makes another /
Pelopia and Thyestes
e been, / / perhaps was, / / watered,
sown , / / is dead dust and stone.  / /
Drought
f on a gambler’s hope / / that chance,
sown on the wind, might somehow sprout / / in love.  His love he dare
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ds: / / two men riding through a death-
sown plain, / / pursued and pursuer—the talk at the watercourse— / /
Poetry
/ / and breeds in his own breast, / /
sows incontinently, / / noisomer ill, / / yet pursues / / beauty, a
Beauty
from the stillness of / / this vaulted
space .  / /
Villevieille
nd he was through.  / / Beyond an empty
space a castle-gate / / stood open.  He went in.  No one at all.  / / N
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, long apart, / / each out of time and
space / / ambered in my heart, / / both imaged back in this bone, th
Meeting
ntacts of two worlds.  / / Power out of
space and time / / touches in us into a life’s short light / / the t
Lamps
Curvature of
Space / “Faster, faster” cries the manic queen “faster” / / to obedie
Curvature of Space
Holes in
Space / Galaxies, galleon-bold adventurers, pass / / out through unch
Holes in Space
the soul in the blackness of uncentred
space , / / knowing nothing, sweats with fear.  / / Fled are the open
That Way Madness Lies
a universe).  Or perhaps / / our time,
space , matter are not / / their own reality, are really / / a sectio
Credo
nt too / / escapes dimension, time and
space : / / not interval but interface.  / /
New Year
/ a big loop, and then / / out into a
space of powerful slopes, / / grass long and burnt silver, bounded /
Los Altos Hills
/ / one of uncounted galaxies sailing
space .  / / Perhaps / / these huge galaxies are only atoms / / of a
Credo
its hide-out, in, / / giving obstacles
space , / / sensitive certainty.  / / Honour this radar, this / / con
Bat
levelling the light across the circled
space .  / / Slowly darkness seeped up out of the sea / / like somethi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
se and lane.  / / O secret, o enchanted
space / / thus spell-cast into time and space, / / we shall not trea
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
can do it.  / / Now we begin into clear
space to spew it, / / this speck’s contaminated overspill / / and, p
Man in Nature
pace / / thus spell-cast into time and
space , / / we shall not tread your turf, or snuff / / your scents—no
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
knotted to the briar.  / / Right was a
space , where a tall pine-tree stood— / / the only conifer he’d seen a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
We turned, and left behind the shadowy
spaces / / of Parliament Square, crossed the untrafficked, wide / /
The Black-out
flailing galaxies are fleeing / / from
spaces where light drowns at last, / / an ultimate diaspora.  / /
Entropy
rt and tears were mine, / / as hand on
spade in the alley-shop was mine, / / my feet struggling from my own
A Dream
Something withheld him from lifting the
spade to strike / / the white-faced tall shopkeeper with the black sh
A Dream
d in intersecting circles / / with the
spades and diamonds and clubs and hearts / / night-black and bloody,
Nijinsky
a fourteen-year-old countess from proud
Spain , / / exchanged letters, friendship, with the aging author / /
Time’s Reach
ound his breast on a blood-red field of
Spain ;” / / who saw his way among all possible ways / / and taking i
The Black-out
d man’s an infant still in earth’s life-
span .  / / If he doesn’t burn the house and himself in it / / might h
Greenham Common
cent the cleaned world, / / gem-colour-
spangled .  / / And clear, still, diamond-lit / / by washed stars is n
Exchange
n’s light, / / behind the night’s / /
spangled tent, / / an unmoved mover, / / loved not lover, / / indif
Divinity
d stiffly, vaguely on.  / / Soon to the
Spaniards unexpectedly come, / / between the set moon and the gatheri
The Black-out
e known, / / world on world gone.  / /
Spare a small grief / / for lovely shell or leaf / / that loosed or
Fossils
Hell fall another way.  / / We’re dead. 
Spare us more harrying.  / / We all need mercy, so go pray.  / / Laund
Villon’s Epitaph
h other: / / for life, which that lost
spark has shown as spoiled.  / / This darkness then was visited on the
Law Report
to be / / keel on what un-isled ocean,
spark / / in what / / other-dimension dark?  / /
Holes in Space
ou felt it, never shown, / / no bright
spark in your love that might have started / / an answering flame in
The Black-out
above / / is work and breeding and the
spark of love.  / / A sphere the earth is and the sky a sphere / / —n
Cosmology
/ / circling an only little less tiny
spark , / / one of uncounted millions in a galaxy / / one of uncounte
Credo
/ / Earth is a speck whirling about a
spark / / that dying traces aimlessly an arc / / across the curving
Cosmology
een, dark green, / / sun-shadows and a
sparkle of dew.  / / Light as the air our hair our feed.  / / Love wil
Otherworld
earth of beauty’s end.  / / Among those
sparklers , set like frozen spray, / / are some as cold: all their mut
Macrocosm
the pale sky above, / / the phosphorus
sparkles in the foam below / / like sequins on a dress—where have I s
Wind
e, / / he watched entranced the colour-
sparkling sea: / / the King, the Queen, the court, the foreign throng
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y / / destroy themselves and all.  / /
Sparks ?  A martyr’s blood falls as seed, / / and these, if not in will
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
eads the constellated black.  / / These
sparks , I know, are world or sun / / varyingly vast and from a vast /
Night
n pain they fell.  But also as fall / /
sparks .  The wind blows against the fire / / beating it down, and only
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
it down, and only blows it higher.  / /
Sparks , wind-scattered wide, dropped on what’s thin / / and dry, blaz
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
stness a lost speck.  In each speck / /
sparks without number spin, / / suns.  One bursts in huge radiance.  Th
Holes in Space
s words boil up to war / / —Athens and
Sparta , Paris and Berlin, / / Rome and Carthage, London and Edinburgh
On the Border
l his wounds in front? / / would ask a
Spartan mother / / concerning her dead son.  / / And found in an affi
Wounds
to live in slums, / / and watched the
Spartan soldiers burn their fields, / / and learnt to steal.  Here the
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
gled reputation lies / / stoned, to be
spat on as we pass / / by those who dare not recognise / / that all
H.A.R.P.
within the month.  He asked her, too, to
speak / / a word for him to the head forester / / (partly he hated t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d laid into your grave / / and yet you
speak and groan.  / / Is it the earth that weighs on you, / / that an
A Ballad
ired and cross and so to blame.  / / (I
speak as a fast-dyed contemplative, / / but one not quite without a s
The Two Ways
ppear / / sharp in the eye, / / words
speak in the ear / / startlingly clear, / / sometimes beautiful, /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
/ blinking upwards, / / they did not
speak .  / / It seemed that they must die, / / unable to eat / / anyt
The Green Children of Woolpit
e passed him often, sometimes paused to
speak — / / she liked his thinking (none of those she knew / / were g
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
or that too / / and something made her
speak .  “Those summer leaves / / are sunk to mud.  How should one not b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
another necessary stage.  Go on / / and
speak to her.”  I felt my legs obey, / / and joined her by the pedesta
The Black-out
r form, and seen and formed anew.  / / “
Speak to him,” gravely said my guide; and I / / “many have I honoured
The Black-out
Give him a smile / / sometimes.  Do not
speak / / when he looks your way.  / / Do not interfere.  / / After a
[Time is a child]
/ ‘I am your way’ (if butterflies can
speak , / / why not mountains?).  And from that moment on / / through
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t if you’re of my own blood / / let me
speak with you.”  / / “You’re dead and laid into your grave / / and y
A Ballad
bride.”  / / He fell asleep as she was
speaking .  No / / dreams, a deep, sweet, long slumber.  When the sun /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ with their spread of softer-sanded,
spear -grassed dunes / / miles away to the rivers of Barnstaple.  / /
Bury My Heart
ercenary / from Archilochus / / / The
spear is my rough wine, as it is my bread, / / and even when I’m drin
Two Songs of a Mercenary
ead, / / and even when I’m drinking my
spear is ready.  / / My shield (not its fault) is making some tribesma
Two Songs of a Mercenary
ng each thick stem, each string / / of
spear -thorns.  The vast whole he would not see.  / / Hour after hour, h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing through stiff dune-grass / / which
speared him till he bled.  Beyond, below / / the soft sand, he rejoine
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
wiped from rifles, a new edge ground on
spears / / —a stack of polished shells or polished shields / / catch
On the Border
bore.  / / These make for me / / your
special power to bless: / / laughter and tenderness.  / / I haven’t s
Two Poems for G
e is inexplicably but undeniably / / a
special relation.  It can be destroyed, / / vilified, denied, treated
“Tell Lady Byron…”
Christina, the other Emily / / —trees
specially sacred in the holy grove.  / / You that I’ve named, you that
Poetry
net dying, dead.  / / This planet, tiny
speck / / circling an only little less tiny spark, / / one of uncoun
Credo
ght wins.  / / Swirling vastness a lost
speck .  In each speck / / sparks without number spin, / / suns.  One b
Holes in Space
Swirling vastness a lost speck.  In each
speck / / sparks without number spin, / / suns.  One bursts in huge r
Holes in Space
moves us, through love.  / / Earth is a
speck whirling about a spark / / that dying traces aimlessly an arc /
Cosmology
tle’s love) / / briefly clusters these
specks which we / / have briefer occupation of, / / but gains no wid
Entropy
into clear space to spew it, / / this
speck’s contaminated overspill / / and, part of what we ruin, we shal
Man in Nature
d: all their mutations done, / / their
spectral light’s a lesson to the sun / / on what attends an incandesc
Macrocosm
e.  / / Those who must die, let not the
spectres of / / the lost and missed torment, nor those who live / /
Prayer to Truth
od sense and reasoning.  / / We who are
sped crave your praying / / of Mary’s Son, by His good willing, / /
Villon’s Epitaph
ll his senses flower / / in speechless
speech ; but parted, bird in cage, / / shakes with dumb power, / / bl
Love’s Eyes and Hands
lives behind a wall of glass / / which
speech , touch do not pass.  / / But what she sees lives.  A flat illust
Nadia
e? / / watching his step, watching his
speech , / / watching himself—‘What am I?’  / / Well, but what am I to
H.A.R.P.
hands and all his senses flower / / in
speechless speech; but parted, bird in cage, / / shakes with dumb pow
Love’s Eyes and Hands
galaxies, / / dwindle to pin-points in
speed -gathering flight / / from a lost centre: seeming to press back
Macrocosm
ower, round whose channelled stone / /
speeds gather as lives hurtle down.  / /
Anniversaries
/ spiralling on one almost hears / /
speeds gather as lives hurtle down / / the helter-skelter.  Of the yea
Anniversaries
Anniversaries /
Speeds gather as lives hurtle down / / the helter-skelter of the year
Anniversaries
And yet, what could she do?  By her own
spell / / a hundred years, a hundred years, were laid— / / a hundred
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ir, / / and so…  He went to bed under a
spell / / and lay awake long on the dancing thought / / ‘The princes
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ O secret, o enchanted space / / thus
spell -cast into time and space, / / we shall not tread your turf, or
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
/ to her own place.  Let / / her cruel
spell fade, / / peak away, as / / she would have had / / you do.  Le
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
/ woman.  As though it bore itself the
spell / / he flung it from him in the thorns, and wept.  / / The bloo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the other side—pity / / and love:  “The
spell is cast which must unbless, / / but I can half uncurse it.  Need
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of heaven’s sending.  / / Summer’s slow
spell is different from / / hers, now from that long purse spending /
Dance of the Seasons
spheres, / / light—your Lady broke the
spell / / of eternity in Hell.  / / I had passed thirteen hundred yea
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
ake your trip with us.  / / We know the
spell of joys that last, / / dreams which dissolve Time’s tyrannous /
The Sirens
round.  / / I have found / / a sounder
spell .  Our love.  / / There will be days, not enough— / / rather, not
[Golden, red, brown]
n though unexpressed) / / to break its
spell -rooted defence, and pass / / in, but because the blind pain in
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
or / / all spells but this?  Must this
spell too / / be loosed by Time, the timeless victor?  / /
End of Fairy-Story
er.  / / All spells but this?  Must this
spell too / / be loosed by Time, the timeless victor?  / / We loved T
End of Fairy-Story
ndo / / all spells but this.  Must this
spell too / / his scissor-fingers picking through / / dissolve?  Shal
End of Fairy-Story
’The fairy’s curse’—he knew he fought a
spell …  / / Who knew?  Who fought?  / / A sudden violent blast / / rou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Spells and Love / (Theocritus’s second Idyll) / My bay-leaves, where a
Spells and Love
ed, laughed “Are / / all tasks done?”,
spells are taken off / / and happy now lives ever after.  / / All spe
End of Fairy-Story
End of Fairy-Story / All tasks done,
spells are taken off / / and happy now lives ever after.  / / Beyond
End of Fairy-Story
me’s warning cough / / all tasks done,
spells are taken off / / this shimmering crest which knows no trough.
End of Fairy-Story
icking through / / dissolve?  Shall all
spells be unpicked, or / / all spells but this?  Must this spell too /
End of Fairy-Story
nd happy now lives ever after.  / / All
spells but this?  Must this spell too / / be loosed by Time, the timel
End of Fairy-Story
all all spells be unpicked, or / / all
spells but this?  Must this spell too / / be loosed by Time, the timel
End of Fairy-Story
loved Time, watching him undo / / all
spells but this.  Must this spell too / / his scissor-fingers picking
End of Fairy-Story
I’m forgotten.  / / Now with these love-
spells I’ll bind him.  But if he hurts me / / it’s the door of Death,
Spells and Love
through to the end, / / and make these
spells of mine not a thought less strong / / than were Circe’s or Med
Spells and Love
ought weaves in words its inexpressible
spells ; / / Sickert we may in honesty allow / / a measure; Stanley S
The Black-out
treating me so.  / / Now, though, fire-
spells to bind him.  / / But, O Moon, / / shine out while I croon, to
Spells and Love
here, Thestylis, / / and the stuff for
spells .  Wind scarlet wool round the bowl.  / / I’m going to bind my ma
Spells and Love
n honesty allow / / a measure; Stanley
Spencer’s vision tells / / one need not paint in French exclusively;
The Black-out
ve / / lies in the current account.  We
spend it piecemeal.  / / We love more easily (mostly) than we hate /
Choice
rom / / hers, now from that long purse
spending / / blackberry-flowers in the bramble’s room, / / small-cha
Dance of the Seasons
t off he made the bank just.  Quite / /
spent , he could only drag his feebleness / / to a known woodman’s hut
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ And then his feet.  The forester had
spent / / his days trudging.  The prince grew quickly sore, / / but s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ey chose / / to be her guide (oh, well-
spent years!) the boy.  / / So that summer for seven enchanted weeks /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
chain of life within / / the egg, the
sperm , be hideously undone, / / take these bombs to Japan.”  / / We h
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
.  / / Now we begin into clear space to
spew it, / / this speck’s contaminated overspill / / and, part of wh
Man in Nature
/ A sphere the earth is and the sky a
sphere / / —no, many spheres; and all, the far and near / / wheel in
Cosmology
breeding and the spark of love.  / / A
sphere the earth is and the sky a sphere / / —no, many spheres; and a
Cosmology
is and the sky a sphere / / —no, many
spheres ; and all, the far and near / / wheel in one harmony about us
Cosmology
arning for well.  / / Then—music of the
spheres , / / light—your Lady broke the spell / / of eternity in Hell
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
/ —Katmandu, Campdown Races, / / the
Sphinx , the Blarney Stone.  / / Or the places alone / / —Taj Mahal, P
Tourist
own with warms the soul…  / / Sugar and
spice …  / / Shatteringly / / clatters back in the bleak wind / / an
Dinner
ering their question / / He fooled the
spies and priests, the Christian’s question / / “Should not my life,
The Betrayal
/ and make His answer to the priests’
spies ’ question / / more than a trick answer to a trick question.  /
The Betrayal
unts unquenched, the fumes of brimstone
spill / / from the cities of the plain.  / /
On the Border
eing black.  / / Life’s all one colour,
spilled / / beside whatever carcase in the dust.  / / As first, think
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
od (thicker than water) / / is not for
spilling ; / / learn mutual love.  / / This is the bond / / which lim
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
l her body, the young skin bare, / / I
spilt my white force, just touching her yellow hair.  / /
Love Scene
n each speck / / sparks without number
spin , / / suns.  One bursts in huge radiance.  The wreck / / falls bac
Holes in Space
the clear lamps.  / / Suns burn, worlds
spin unhindered on.  / / This veiling is our earth’s alone, / / The c
Night
ough yourself to paradise.  / / Father,
spin your choking web / / —you will rot there with the flies.  / / In
Royal Family
/ The darkness stirs along its lifting
spine / / in slight but bitter wind.  / / Stir the bare trees, and on
The Embankment
pulsion.  At her side / / a heap of the
spined lumps, by it another / / of rainbow-varied domes which, he saw
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and hearts / / night-black and bloody,
spinning , and in the centre / / hung God Nijinsky, and Diaghilev not.
Nijinsky
, / / clean through the stable-seeming
spinning globe / / —drought-blistered, cyclone-hit, / / quake-riven
Antipodes
last horrible / / reach, among naked,
spiny , treacherous stone, / / no gull’s sad cry for company, alone.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
as spring-green, red fall.  / / Time’s
spiral course through joy and grief / / exacts and justifies it all. 
Hymn
hen first we’re launched.  But soon / /
spiralling on one almost hears / / speeds gather as lives hurtle down
Anniversaries
Sixtieth Summer / Still the
spiralling seasons draw me on.  / / But since the shears must snap and
Sixtieth Summer
change but can’t renew?  / / The tunnel
spirals down?  Is that certain?  / / Or after all might patience, picki
Again
among the beech and oak.  Its thin black
spire / / was sinister, and boded him no good.  / / He turned on to t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mind or eye.  / / Glowing, drooping in
spirit and in face / / momently like a flower / / they touch the abs
The Lilies of the Field
How does the tree live?  / / The living
spirit , as beautiful and strong / / as the living body, has bravery t
Five Poems for Roni
n Fate for her to take.  / / Her higher
spirit burned rather to do / / than bear—his seemed at best a second-
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
by the inner flame / / which sears his
spirit day and night / / they mark his bondage to a dream.  / /
Ballad
the wind / / for all to hear / / “The
spirit is innocent / / and comes to Me.”  / / Then all around gave th
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
cruel Time.  / / Let not our flesh and
spirit , longing-torn, / / grow bitter with the burden of the years.  /
Prayer to Time
nknown knowledge of love, her rare / /
spirit made in the cradle one with it.  / / Out of her thoughts she lo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uch of the time in its own way.  / / My
spirit moves, as over meaningless pebbles / / (which are not air, whi
Black
ack / Under the light fresh day / / my
spirit moves like a black beetle.  No, / / the beetle is black by natu
Black
ce, the whole / / informed by her warm
spirit —only seeing, / / hearing, her life with others fed his joy.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sunk in the dark, I could not move / /
spirit or feet, now I am strong and light.  / / Walk with me home, whe
The Black-out
Tiresias drink / / the old ambivalent
spirit spoke:  / / “You shall win home / / and find your wife waiting
Odysseus
till pass by this long eclipse / / the
spirit waits, / / tasting in small what the true sufferer knows:  / /
Waiting
we know; but of the deeper theme / / —
spirit , whence formed or fetched here, on what wing / / (whole) or wi
Dulce et Decorum
; further I cannot lead.  / / Not I the
spirit whose eyes can brighten through / / your dark sea.  Waits ahead
The Black-out
should know how to / / guide the cross
spirit with a steady rein / / now dogrose bushes star the hedges.  Aga
Again
Plato / / the passionate search.  Great
spirits , Paul and Plato, / / but the long hopes they hold and bid me
The Betrayal
s a rotten / / excuse, doesn’t excuse. 
Spiritual blindness / / is fault not affliction.  What have I laid up?
Treasure
essing the hungers of the flesh / / to
spiritual flights, less cold, less hard / / make their deliberate bed
The Embankment
thquake now and blinding storm / / the
spirit’s eye keeps clear, its footing firm, / / and tune its ear, too
Prayer to Truth
an otherworld of art or dream / / (the
spirit’s two alembics) lies / / built out of frost and mist and level
Early Train
r) takes me in the mouth, / / and as I
spit another tooth out / / I wonder if the lack’ll / / offend you to
[Age’s bony knuckle]
es remain, / / may bear from wounds of
spite and chance / / the scars but be itself again.  / / Grey boughs
Hymn
best’.  / / No, I can’t agree.  / / In
spite of the misery / / even the happiest / / life must settle for /
Miscarriage
ever would).  / / And between those (in
spite of these / / nullifying parentheses) / / is all the difference
Shelved
much joy to be seen; / / but the idle
spiteful soul sits on the beach, / / blind to the bright wind and the
Tristi Fummo
ildren run and shout / / on the beach,
splash and shout / / in the sea.  Grown-ups lounge out / / from the p
Climacteric by the Sea
Tide out, on bright / / days children
splash / / in sea-pools at their base, / / or climb them, sit, / /
A Wreck
deep.  Fountains of muddy / / water are
splashing .  Their mother, I’m afraid / / won’t be amused.  But a good t
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
/ on others / / presses too hard the
splendour of the power; / / glows like a star their mould, but in an
Lamps
after.  / / Hamlet, faltering / / on a
split hair, / / hears the laugh / / of the gravedigger.  / / My thou
Catharsis
rce in our will to virtue.  / / Life is
split like a migraine: / / love it like that and let it hurt you.  /
Responsibility
ppy things are mockery.  / / She had to
spoil herself, and spoiled die.  / /
“Gale is Dead”
ery.  / / She had to spoil herself, and
spoiled die.  / /
“Gale is Dead”
field, / / clotted stream.  / / I have
spoiled my world / / for a bad dream.  / /
Scorched Earth
ife, which that lost spark has shown as
spoiled .  / / This darkness then was visited on the child; / / until
Law Report
.  / / But this distortion of / / self
spoils too much / / —twist induced by the ache / / attendant on the
Touch
nd silence of the country night.  / / I
spoke : “if I did not know, this would seem / / Berkshire.”  “Or Yorksh
The Black-out
owards Camden Town.  / / Suddenly Emily
spoke : “often in winter / / for weeks together I have seen the brown
The Black-out
o sit beside him for her evidence, / /
spoke to her always gently, put a stop / / to any funny stuff by the
Change Places…
as drink / / the old ambivalent spirit
spoke :  / / “You shall win home / / and find your wife waiting for yo
Odysseus
he way on?  / / The words seemed almost
spoken more than thought…  / / ‘The prince’s bride’…  That was a fevere
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cycling, past the hospital.  / / Silver
spoon in the / / bathroom.  My outrage is as / / yours.  Some things s
For Cecil
eat wind-gust caught the water / / and
spooned a pint of brine over his head, / / his chokes and sputters en
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g, / / a mad thing, breaking away from
sport and friend.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him (you know who) t
Spells and Love
hat mattered—not to miss.  / / Hardly a
sport , but he was hungry, and / / hunger is answerable for anything—
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and the far left bank too; and at that
spot / / there seemed a thinning in the trees.  A track?  / / Reached
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
en huge cliffs fronted the sea.  / / No
spot there where a small boat might be beached?  / / Probably not.  He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ce of a story’s pain?  / / How know the
spot’s ahead there, waiting now, / / where these cliffs, those cliffs
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
your creatures, / / your friend, sib,
spouse , child, you and you.  / / I am the sea.  Do not forget me.  / /
The Wave
sion of the sea / / and dreamed escape
sprang back to him.  Still less / / now than before he felt the power
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in these lovers’ / / cries—in all that
sprang / / from Michelangelo’s hand or Homer’s tongue, / / all craft
Fossils
.  About the house / / shall spread and
sprawl a thorny wilderness / / one hundred years—until her fated love
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Among those sparklers, set like frozen
spray , / / are some as cold: all their mutations done, / / their spe
Macrocosm
e buffeting.  / / Half blind with blown
spray , or with the white blaze / / of light on water—dark cloud, swee
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ll, / / the holding dissipate like sea-
spray to thin air.  / /
The West of Ireland
sh by the river’s edge / / pushing its
sprays out over the dark smooth water, / / marking my place to turn. 
Omens
/ / and honeysuckle drooping antlered
sprays / / pink, gold and white, sweetening the light stillness / /
The Grass Road
and on his head.  / / Above his feet is
spread / / a dome studded with unfamiliar / / configurations, star b
Antipodes
nd of death.  About the house / / shall
spread and sprawl a thorny wilderness / / one hundred years—until her
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and clog / / and to our vision’s limit
spread / / flat as the sea, and sea-like fed / / on hopes that sough
Lost
astle’s housekeeper.  / / Far among far-
spread forests half-ringed by hills, / / a distant, lovely, rough and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n / / in one corner he saw a few hides
spread .  / / He did not wait his host—drank and fell to / / on the ha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed streams formed a rock-pool, deep and
spread .  / / He shivered, but he stripped, plunged over head / / and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g him drink—he pushes them away.  / / I
spread him blankets, pillows—“Sit up, your poor old wreck.  / / There.
Greek Folk Song
/ down among the flowers.  A soft cloak
spread , / / my arm round her neck, I comforted / / her fear.  The faw
Love Scene
a ragged end / / resting on the strong
spread of another willow.  / / Yet fallen and soaring bough were rich
Five Poems for Roni
long sands which reach / / with their
spread of softer-sanded, spear-grassed dunes / / miles away to the ri
Bury My Heart
/ The other way the rare-pathed hills
spread on / / till nothing lay beyond them but the sky.  / / Half the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / to peak on peak, and on the right
spread on / / west to a range.  His hope perhaps lay there / / but no
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ clearer, blacker against the sky are
spread / / patterns of twigs, jutting from narrowing branches, / / f
Dance of the Seasons
/ / —harmless?  Look—circles of desert
spread : / / seas and rivers, all water, sap, blood, / / all springs
Stones
ntry / / soft light for willow / / to
spread shade other / / than olive, cypress / / mean by a shadow.  /
Five Poems for Roni
be he’— / / or might be he…  The doubt
spread to eclipse / / the joy.  But no.  The fairy’s word was bond, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / woke him, he saw by the cold ashes
spread / / two water-bottles and a woodman’s bow / / and full quiver
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ care, lingers among / / down, under
spread wing; / / growing, never grows / / wholly away, stays / / li
Parenthood
e loves hurts those that love him, / /
spreading (circles from stone dropped in water) / / pain; and worse (
Stones
tion of her small world’s rim / / held
spreading riches: peace and happiness / / and love—as love comes to a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sh / / in a silky puff.  / / Sweetness
spreads about / / from hawthorn-conquering may.  / / The buttercup’s
Another Summer
Parted / Together, love
spreads bright under the clear / / sky, from our feet laps to eternit
Parted
unnamed wrong / / dispelled, happiness
spreads like a bright spring / / unsummoned, unreasoned, secreted lon
Happiness
and valleys now the gathered night / /
spreads to the open, darkening field and hill.  / / To stars and windo
Country and Town
/ / with us, in the long wait / / for
spring .  / /
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
enewed for others / / white in another
Spring .  / /
[What words are there for Spring?]
Late
Spring / A blackbird on the wire / / has a straw in its beak / / gol
Late Spring
tand / / leafless, lifeless, deep into
spring , / / and every year “This is the end.  / / The sap has ceased
Renewal
/ an answering flame in me.”  “The Paris
spring / / and hope,” I answered, “made me lighter-hearted / / —oran
The Black-out
Dance of the Seasons /
Spring and Summer / Autumn and Winter / The seasons come, the seasons
Dance of the Seasons
s rough gusts soon to be tonsured.  / /
Spring came, and hardly come had fled / / —footloose wanderer, not pr
Dance of the Seasons
ing, / / the wooded clefts and the hot
spring , / / chilled him with horror and with terror.  / /
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
Upward Turn /
Spring , cold and wet, / / moves into summer with no change.  Yet / /
Upward Turn
es.  / / Once more the still-miraculous
spring / / drowns as green summer settles in.  / / Now from the hedge
Man’s Seasons
ne?  Why / / this black frost / / on a
spring face?  She really can’t be said / / a pretty girl / / precisel
Song
Delos in
Spring / for Lucy / Time threw the columned temples down / / and brok
Delos in Spring
/ good causes for unhappiness, does not
spring / / from them.  Unhappiness hides the genuine scar / / under s
The Black-out
th the perished leaf / / are lovely as
spring -green, red fall.  / / Time’s spiral course through joy and grie
Hymn
es.  / / Autumn is off where summer and
spring have strayed, / / scattering as she hurries her coloured riche
Dance of the Seasons
/ become conventional, / / dull.  Yet
Spring is still / / an undimmed miracle, / / season of blossoming, /
[What words are there for Spring?]
For Cecil / Morning’s first light,
spring light, a clear- / / eyed, firm-handed geometer, / / built an
For Cecil
e / / for the deaf world to hear, / /
spring light, spring water, winter, / / wind, death, darkness, fear,
Beethoven
e that seems his own.  / / I love white
spring , love the colours / / of autumn, but / / my sweetheart-flower
[Housman was old beyond his years]
Spring Morning / Across a cold bright air the sun / / slants.  The day
Spring Morning
/ a child too in the old garden.  / / A
spring morning, light green, dark green, / / sun-shadows and a sparkl
Otherworld
ht as of our blood, / / yet raise each
spring new flowers in the garden, / / draw green afresh out of the cr
Prayer to Time
buttercup, / / freshness, clearness of
spring not quite gone / / in the long siesta of summer’s afternoon.  /
Sixtieth Summer
for Spring?] / What words are there for
Spring ?  / / Rubbed, tongue-repeated, all / / become conventional, /
[What words are there for Spring?]
soon.”  “What can one build on one / /
spring song?” she said.  “You never offered me / / relationship—only a
The Black-out
es.  / / Once more the still miraculous
spring , / / summer and autumn…  Man proposes… / / winter’s carved bou
Man’s Seasons
lopia and Thyestes / / / / Under the
spring sun moves the innocent band / / white-dressed, green garlanded
Pelopia and Thyestes
Another
Spring / The field of cloth of gold shines as it shone / / but now wi
Another Spring
’s bare truths, soft, sweet strength of
spring , / / till chesnut-blossom scattering heralds again / / the he
Sixtieth Summer
he / / to win her; but their autumn’s
spring -time daughter / / was something more, and ‘what the fairies br
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pelled, happiness spreads like a bright
spring / / unsummoned, unreasoned, secreted long / / from hours in s
Happiness
r its weakening onsets in retreat; / /
spring warmth is strengthening though you see not how.”  / / Quieted n
The Black-out
deaf world to hear, / / spring light,
spring water, winter, / / wind, death, darkness, fear, / / fire, flo
Beethoven
[What words are there for
Spring ?] / What words are there for Spring?  / / Rubbed, tongue-repeat
[What words are there for Spring?]
/ The delayed year / / is moving into
spring / / with leaf-bud, blossom, bird-song, / / nest-building.  /
Late Spring
es of Greece: which flowered in her own
spring , / / withered through the dog-days of Macedon, / / through Ro
Greece
grotesque / / where a man’s arm should
spring .  / / Would he then, / / since he could never wholly be a man,
Fairy Story
hills, wiped from the world my fancied
spring .  / / “You felt the crusted snow melt from your winter, / / th
The Black-out
birds / / pipe up.  Be / / the year’s
spring / / yours.  Fill / / out again your young, / / your beautiful
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
he mountains there would surely be / /
springs —and oh, mountains! what a blessed change / / from the flat ri
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rivers, all water, sap, blood, / / all
springs of earth and life dried soon, / / leaving a dusty cavernous l
Stones
rowed to set it off.  / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / About half way, near Ly
Spells and Love
th crimson ribbon.”— / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / —“And if you had let me
Spells and Love
ls, even a lioness)— / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon. / / —and Theumaridas’ old T
Spells and Love
and lounge about)”— / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon. / / —“and when you see he’s
Spells and Love
hing changed at all.  / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / At last I made my mind
Spells and Love
ith torch and axe.”— / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / —“But as it is, I owe t
Spells and Love
ody stiff as a doll.  / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / He looked at me, the ra
Spells and Love
aestus under Etna.”— / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / —“He wantonly crazes th
Spells and Love
he wrestling-school.  / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / I saw him, and my wits
Spells and Love
hilinus in a race.”— / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / —“I was coming, by swee
Spells and Love
tep through my door— / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / —I went colder than sno
Spells and Love
dn’t get out of bed.  / / These are the
springs of my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / My colour faded—sallow
Spells and Love
unresponding grave, / / are changed in
spring’s breath.  / / Stripped trees put green on.  / / Not the felled
The Difference
sing autumn, black-boughed winter, / /
spring’s green-and-white return: / / another beauty flowers into / /
Cassandra’s Song
gs the green.  / / One year, of course,
spring’s power past, / / summer will show the bony tree / / still ba
Renewal
ed snow melt from your winter, / / the
spring’s pulse in the chilled earth wakening, / / which to returning
The Black-out
ng all of us can see.  / / For Housman,
spring’s whitening / / —fair enough.  / / One can’t do better for a l
[Housman was old beyond his years]
chance, sown on the wind, might somehow
sprout / / in love.  His love he dare not venture from.  / / Feeling h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
thing in plant or tree / / cares if it
sprout or wither.  / / Nestling and cub go free / / of the uncaring f
Parenthood
ht, but not to extend / / divine order
spun from the thoughts of men.  / / The dry moon hangs, skull to a Mag
Macrocosm
ast / / difference of age and distance
spun / / out of the chasm of depth and past— / / but surely no less
Night
/ / as last year and all earlier years
spun through.  / / God, if there is a god, may have his reasons / / f
Question
/ distance, Tiberius’s isle.  / / Blood
spurts , dries soon… but hot blood still / / reliquifies the sun-dried
Naples
rine over his head, / / his chokes and
sputters ended, the nurse said, / / not in the tears she looked for b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ly / / (how dare this stuttering yokel
spy on me!) / / Yet she was grateful to him for that too / / and som
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ze intent on her again— / / loitering,
spying on her high griefs—coarse, rude— / / crossly she turned her lo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
gh nineteenth-century / / Paris.  Rich,
squalid , whirling Paris:  / / Winterhalter, Gounod, Offenbach, Guys, /
Time’s Reach
eep dream.  / / From the south-east the
squall struck his port beam / / and heeled the boat all but under a w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
h / / black with that chimney’s cloud. 
Squalor and pain / / reek under the clear sky round your birth.  / /
Two Poems for G
d the shadowy spaces / / of Parliament
Square , crossed the untrafficked, wide / / Embankment to the bridge,
The Black-out
bristling rock / / one stumbles in the
square -cut marks of man / / having flatness enough for a small dwelli
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
must die.  / / They set a stake in the
square / / for her soul’s good, / / and first of the faggots they la
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
y dream] / The municipal building stood
square in my dream: / / a white stone façade of Edwardian baroque.  /
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
[The municipal building stood
square in my dream] / The municipal building stood square in my dream:
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
The Game / Back to square one, or some
square in / / the bottom row.  / / Another throw, / / but what you t
The Game
ds the Thames our faces.  / / Trafalgar
Square , laid empty in the moonlight, / / and long Whitehall received
The Black-out
The Game / Back to
square one, or some square in / / the bottom row.  / / Another throw,
The Game
k on a white handkerchief— / / a plain
square plainly hemmed, but she would fill, / / she thought, the centr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
voice, as I walked on towards Leicester
Square .  / / The first tube gate was shut, but not the second.  / / Do
The Black-out
s / / of his cramped acres more than a
squatter’s tenure? / / where the harsh landlord may distrain on all,
The West of Ireland
free the block.  This is his place.  / /
Squatting on waterskis, a golden boy / / ploughs with his rump a furr
September Cruise
Naples /
St . Januarius’s blood / / froths cold in its gold-mounted phial.  / /
Naples
it, I saw the portico / / beside us of
St . Pancras’ Church, whose sane / / classical stillness calmed the ai
The Black-out
mettus.  Suddenly stood plain / / great
St Paul’s, and before it tall and still, / / Like a poplar or a cypre
The Black-out
h Emily.  The noble mountain stood, / /
St Paul’s, in pale and shadow-moulded stone, / / and stilled, emptied
The Black-out
up, points home, / / clean through the
stable -seeming spinning globe / / —drought-blistered, cyclone-hit, /
Antipodes
arried a young groom / / in the King’s
stables .  To their eldest daughter / / the forester stood godfather.  T
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, child.  (The dying can be made / / to
stack and burn the dead.)” / / We have our orders, and our keep and p
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
es, a new edge ground on spears / / —a
stack of polished shells or polished shields / / catches the sun acro
On the Border
wait; / / always his mocking game / /
stacked against us.  / / But no, not always.  / / These two days, / /
Two Poems from a New Life
ven the narrow / / houses, serried and
stacked .  / / Not only in the eye of the beholder.  / / Beauty is more
“Life is sweet, brother”
erhaps the sun / / seems to take) / /
stacked with our miscreations, which by one / / choice, by one mistak
Consider
rn / / the badger, yield some insolent
stag her joys.  / / It was October.  Work was traversing / / the fores
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tasy.  / / The hind mates only with the
stag .  Plain truth / / placed him no better than a badger here— / / r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and on your way / / another necessary
stage .  Go on / / and speak to her.”  I felt my legs obey, / / and joi
The Black-out
ple?  Well, not quite imperial— / / our
stage is not so wide—but born a prince.  / / No doubt compounded of th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
season: / / we are at war, and as the
stage is set / / small hope is offered of a happy ending.  / / The wo
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And under them a fire was lit.  / / He
staggered , crawled, dragged himself to the fire.  / / A hunched black
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
at last, and that be all.  / / The boat
staggered under a gathered blow / / reeling and cracking, and the til
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
on the sand / / where my steps now are
staid and heavy.  / / Not that I was ever / / a competent cartwheeler
Climacteric by the Sea
hic fane, / / burst in (uncleansed his
stain ) / / crying on the Lord of Light / / not to be purified / / b
Pelopia and Thyestes
nced with high barbs, eyed from towers,
stain / / earth and sky with their stench, sky and earth / / black w
Two Poems for G
/ before them.  Never mind the rent and
stain .  / / Enjoy life as it was before the fall: / / sleep easy and
The Twenties
long love now and its grief / / these
stains are being washed away / / by the strong stream of our love, wh
[Feelings of guilt]
oung.’  / / That floor was empty—up the
stair again, / / he found himself out on the ramparts.  Down, / / sea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ a small door somehow missed led to a
stair , / / low, narrow, black, and twisting to its end / / his finge
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed in their beauty down, stepped up the
stair , / / the moment’s shadow vanished.  / / So it was / / that jus
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
all the courtyard rooms, up the curled
stair , / / through bedrooms, boudoirs, everywhere he went / / furnis
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d feel better with a task to do, / / a
stake in the adventure as it were).  / / Dark through the woods, he re
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and the girl must die.  / / They set a
stake in the square / / for her soul’s good, / / and first of the fa
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
under the vaulted dark, / / the still,
stale air.  / / Would not God be in His world / / of living day?  / /
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
to what they would forget, / / feel in
stale blood renewed a prick of hate / / and press towards a hope.  The
May Day
ery / / puzzled him of the empty room,
stale food / / but other thoughts took over.  Combed and cleaned / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
xed into feeding / / with raw husk and
stalk / / they lost some of their wildness, / / learned to talk— /
The Green Children of Woolpit
feeling both wicked and absurd, / / to
stalking gulls slow-pecking on the sand, / / getting quite close befo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ately lined, / / a leaf-fan on whorled
stalks , above the tang / / which held it in the handle, doubtless of
Label
acock sea.  / / And here and there like
stalks of asphodel, / / few and broken but straight, gold in the sun,
Greece
his own time; / / dream, keep / / the
stall , sleep, / / dream, eat.  / / Let the day-dream / / have its da
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
ncess turned away.  / / Then, blushing,
stammering , he blurted out / / “You looked sad as you walked.  If I co
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
You / / to herd the beasts in Belsen. 
Stamp out the Jew, / / man, woman, child.  (The dying can be made / /
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
fulfilled its being, nor / / vanishing
stamped its image on / / the less ephemeral stone.  / /
Fossils
ell, I think.  / / Victoria busily / /
stamped the grave Wesley / / and others had filled; / / but Cromwell
Merrie England
the ice-puddles] / My grandchildren are
stamping the ice-puddles, / / dirty and sometimes deep.  Fountains of
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
[My grandchildren are
stamping the ice-puddles] / My grandchildren are stamping the ice-pudd
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
/ its vaulted ways.  Suddenly the firm
stance / / falters, joined banks are sundered anew.  / / But dance, d
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
not heed / / precise feature, upright
stance .  He is here in the block, / / itself still rooted in the quarr
September Cruise
saw my brother moving towards our / /
stance his long steps.  “But he” I said, and sought her / / eyes, “is
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/ / The prostitutes along the pavement
stand / / abstracted, still, like trees.  / /
Country and Town
s hand / / they did not care to make a
stand / / against so huge an enemy.  / / Towards that half-seen enemy
Masque
known before.  / / Under that free sky
stand / / alleys of huts.  Crowded miseries / / fenced with high barb
Two Poems for G
ogether, feud / / against wind.  / / I
stand alone, shiver.  But not alone / / ever again.  / / Apart we are,
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
/ / bruised, hungry—but at least could
stand and move.  / / He took the bow.  A gull perched on the cliff.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / of shamblers, saying “how can you
stand apart, / / if you have ever let the reasoning brain / / come i
The Black-out
hat can help the scalepan fall.  / / To
stand before a judgement-seat / / and hear just what / / the things
Balance Sheet
fear and to guide us along.  / / Yet we
stand here today, not two selves but a pair, / / half dissolved in ea
Hymn
Renewal / Racked bones of the acacia
stand / / leafless, lifeless, deep into spring, / / and every year “
Renewal
comes from them / / naturally.  / / I
stand on the balcony.  / / Children run and shout / / on the beach, s
Climacteric by the Sea
ve nor covet).  / / Without that, can I
stand outside time?  / / May I think, as I need to think, that because
Death
ot think?  Well satisfied, the five / /
stand round and look down at the gifted bud.  / / The little boy, wrap
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
all divine / / Piero’s great frescoes
stand .”  “Your Italy,” / / I said, “your frescoes, all through you are
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nchallenged supremacy, / / Shakespeare
standing above all appears, / / until I looked beyond the lands of my
Poetry
om the crest / / gazed on his kingdom,
standing by its Queen.  / / He loved her, yes.  What did she think of h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sion Between Waking and Sleep / A child
standing in a wilderness of snow / / looking in at my door: / / a fa
Vision Between Waking and Sleep
Letters / The pool of love
standing in / / my heart deep and clear / / turns the dull thoughts
Letters
ee and paused, straining my sight, / /
standing within the dark tree’s edge, and could / / see nothing first
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ly-burly / / the solid truth no longer
stands alone, / / and anyone may one day come / / to see the truth i
That Way Madness Lies
owers at once.  / / One, heart in hand,
stands at another’s door, / / but she is busy with her hair.  / / One
The Party
/ / torso, tilted on a clay foot, / /
stands crowned with gold and is mankind.  / /
On the Towpath
sheath still empty, and the sword / /
stands ever in the water-wandering stone?”  / / Her face was memory wh
The Black-out
/ / is that shared guilt.  But our love
stands free. / / thank you for loving me, letting me love you.  / / W
[Our lives are in other hands]
y—an exile to desire,” I said.  / / “So
stands the moon over Vathý, and bright / / the harbour under the dark
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we may in honesty allow / / a measure;
Stanley Spencer’s vision tells / / one need not paint in French exclu
The Black-out
the ship drive through the keyhole of a
star .  / /
Voyage
/ The cloud is climbing on my sky.  / /
Star after loved star vanishes, / / and these no breeze shall by and
Night
d / / drowns scattered voices.  / / By
star and compass these as one / / kept their fixed course—where does
Shipwreck
Bronte, / / so many years my constant
star and love?  / / There must too be many darlings of a season, / /
Poetry
l, valley formed his zigzag way / / by
star and sun bent truly to his goal, / / and on the afternoon of the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ell, Donne / / (Go and catch a falling
star ), Border Ballads, / / Campion, Wyatt.  A little later on / / Lyc
Poetry
ty.  / / This indeed is another burning
star / / brightest of all, but a nearer flame too: / / fire on the h
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
ed with unfamiliar / / configurations,
star by alien star.  / / Meanwhile my body, through my feet / / while
Antipodes
lute, beyond / / our reach, Freedom, a
star .  / / Equality.  / / That’s more difficult still / / if not impo
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
hat dies quickly but has gleamed first (
star -fall).  / / I like to lay up my harvest in the wind.  / / Smug, y
Treasure
a child / / is cheated of its natural
star , / / forefailed / / through odds of brutal, hopeless circumstan
Dinner
ht.  / / Again night’s vaulting / / is
star -frosted.  And, alone, / / a god’s nail-paring, / / a silver sliv
Exchange
lpha Centauri (faster), of some guessed
star / / in Andromeda’s nebula.  / / The goal whisks on, / / the tip
Curvature of Space
k.  But this man / / can create his own
star .  / / Jailbird, killer?… martyr-saint?  / / Just such fatal polar
George Jackson
liar / / configurations, star by alien
star .  / / Meanwhile my body, through my feet / / while I look up, po
Antipodes
thin streaks retreating / / and to the
star -pricks of the velvet dome.  / / Dazzle of sun out of the sea, lou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t attends an incandescent day.  / / The
star -swarms, the vast-wheeling galaxies, / / dwindle to pin-points in
Macrocosm
of this skein, / / now dogrose bushes
star the hedges again?  / /
Again
Again / Now dogrose bushes
star the hedges again.  / / My year passing must change but can’t rene
Again
h a steady rein / / now dogrose bushes
star the hedges.  Again / / my year passing must change but can’t rene
Again
lendour of the power; / / glows like a
star their mould, but in an hour / / burns out.  / /
Lamps
imbing on my sky.  / / Star after loved
star vanishes, / / and these no breeze shall by and by / / uncurtain
Night
ronger counterblast.  / / Each unstable
star / / wears towards unbeing.  / / The flailing galaxies are fleein
Entropy
e / / turned the bow south.  Dim to the
starboard lay / / a thin blue ribbon, merging past unravelling / / d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
k, / / lifts the heart / / to a still
starburst / / in the night of thought.  / /
Summer Vision
wollen belly, hollowed eyes, / / blank
stare , / / where once a day or once perhaps in three / / hands of ca
Dinner
s numbed life / / of someone there.  He
stared dully.  Then, late, / / smarted into himself.  Before him stood
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ked sword across her naked thighs, / /
staring down at it with unseeing eyes.  / / Then she saw it, and knew
Pelopia and Thyestes
ng the head, / / veiling the terrified
staring eyes.  / / Hear / / the gentle voice in the common foreign to
Block 21
e summer’s long day saw him there.  / /
Staring from it, not back but far ahead, / / he glimpsed remote betwe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ coming in their place.  Still, though,
starred with beauty.  / / I leaned out, looking down at the dark refle
Omens
eered into the west / / then died.  The
starry dark was utterly still.  / / He dropped the sails and lashed th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
had stopped, / / as stood against the
starry donors—loss, / / negation, new-moon darkness—Carabosse!  / / A
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
raised my head / / and saw a few faint
stars across the loose / / network of twigs, and knew that all was sa
The Black-out
d at the moon, / / looked up searching
stars .  And I thought I heard / / “Would you like to see the planet Me
A Hoard
open, darkening field and hill.  / / To
stars and window-panes withdraws the light.  / / Hunched to the chill
Country and Town
Wind / The
stars are faint on the pale sky above, / / the phosphorus sparkles in
Wind
darkness, hangs the moon.  / / Frosted
stars are veiled / / in black.  The clean air is thick / / suddenly w
Exchange
im with beauty—or the early night, / /
stars contouring a high black mountain’s rim.  / / But often mind forg
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sea wrinkle, / / suddenly kindles / /
stars , firefruits fallen / / from the sun’s high tree.  / / Today the
September Cruise
, this too burns among / / our guiding
stars .  / / Fraternity.  / / That at least (at last) is easy.  / / Not
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
lear, still, diamond-lit / / by washed
stars is now the night.  / / Again night’s vaulting / / is star-frost
Exchange
shining throne.  Good-bye / / you other
stars that ride with the quiet night.  / /
Spells and Love
She hung out of her window to watch the
stars .  / / They hustled her back to bed with cries and prayers / / a
Eugénie de Guérin
be content / / with a cruel pattern of
stars , / / Venus shivering under the Scorpion’s tail, / / Saturn’s b
“Gale is Dead”
; / / softly the fresh wind moved; the
stars were bright, / / before dawn and the moon behind the hill.  / /
The Black-out
tter / / now, nor under cloud or clear
stars / / what wind casts on what shore / / these baulks to which th
Shipwreck
/ / day and night, / / cloud and sun,
stars , / / wind on the heath.  / /
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ell it down the river, and make another
start .  / /
Problem
rs perhaps, working at / / home, “We’d
start a family”.  / / After grassed acres, / / here you chose stone t
For Cecil
, / / find a fixed point from which to
start again?  / / I am not falling.  Falling implies gravity / / and s
What am I?
n / / breaks down in discord.  God must
start again.  / / Larch, gorse, rough grass, / / heather, bracken, mo
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
did this love begin?  / / Where shall I
start ?  / / Eubulus’s girl, Anaxo, / / was picked to carry a basket f
Spells and Love
ry kill / / the natural unpremeditated
start / / of happiness welling suddenly within, / / secreted from a
And Then
never heard before.  / / It didn’t even
start with ‘Once upon / / a time’ but “When my mother was a girl”— /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Not much, not enough, / / but make a
start with these / / breathed from the stillness of / / this vaulted
Villevieille
ight spark in your love that might have
started / / an answering flame in me.”  “The Paris spring / / and hop
The Black-out
house here”—it was a long time getting
started , / / but the child’s straying fancy was alerted / / suddenly
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Ballad / from the Greek / That time we
started drinking / / early on Saturday / / and went on over Sunday /
A Ballad
time / / moves to our meeting with the
starting , slow, / / hesitant, eager, delicate approach / / of a chil
Separation
/ / just when your innocent steps were
starting there.  / /
Two Poems for G
e eye, / / words speak in the ear / /
startlingly clear, / / sometimes beautiful, / / sometimes silly, /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
ry, down / / beside the river where it
starts to curl / / among the fields, after it leaves the wood.  / / “
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd, / / starved and poisoned must / /
starve and poison him / / —unless rather his first / / but still wil
Dr Faustus
oesn’t do.  / / Land, ocean, wind, / /
starved and poisoned must / / starve and poison him / / —unless rath
Dr Faustus
.  / / Man, having mastered earth, / /
starves and poisons her; / / extends his firman further: / / water a
Dr Faustus
the deliberate knife.  / / Between the
starving North and war’s dull flame, / / distressed only by the knowl
The Black-out
ith the feeling heart?  / / Knowing men
starving while the rank cigar / / perfumes the Ritz, my hands cease f
The Black-out
tation and less game, / / footsore and
starving , worn out, nearly lost.  / / The girl grew up and married a y
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hrough our lives.  / / The natural good
state is anarchy / / —would be, if human nature let it be, / / but h
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
this, / / we can suppose it is / / a
state of being that’s compatible / / with reason, can imagine war is
Consider
be good to us”, / / knew his polluted
state / / (the cloud a moment thinning) / / —for that unwitting sinn
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ at first, a servant—one whose natural
state / / was being at her bidding.  Then at most / / at moments a co
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lley- / / stream turned the dunes, his
state was radically / / better than when he’d reached the river-mouth
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
h the city, / / struck Pericles, whose
statesmanship / / had brought them there, had raised the Parthenon.  /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
faint lies mother earth.  / / Above the
station of our birth / / we ride the sunlight, swift and proud.  / /
From the Air
Meeting / Between two
stations , two or three words and smiles.  / / Between woman and child,
Meeting
/ (Naxos harbour, 12 September, 1983) /
Statue at Apollona, Naxos / Thomas auf Naxos / Siphnos, Kastro / Trave
September Cruise
Guildford Place, where London’s nicest
statue / / kneels with her pitcher and her broken nose / / between t
The Black-out
ock, / / stood back from the perfected
statue , thought / / “Still, this is not, / / not quite, the image of
Pietà
ll he dared to dream in woman.  / / The
statue underneath the stays / / waited in marble innocence: / / a li
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
fronts and backs alike, / / just as to
statues generally gave faces / / no more expressive than their lovely
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
orshippers, the crowded offerings, / /
statues , tripods, the rest, to ringing strings / / and high pipe, pre
Pelopia and Thyestes
oad.  / / But moonlit on the bridge the
statues were / / like a wood-cut; and there beside us slowed / / wit
The Black-out
issolves in weakness / / and the walls
stay , distilled knowledge grows black, / / an unbalance, an ache, /
Chrysalis
/ / Don’t be hard, darling.  Truly I’ll
stay / / out on the garden-grass, not force the doorway / / —just tr
Love Scene
they will be stronger.  Come, we cannot
stay .”  / / She turned towards the sea her quiet brow.  / / Down the s
The Black-out
/ / not mine.  My soul cries (child) to
stay up late—“Oh / / don’t send me to bed yet—I want to play, to / /
The Betrayal
tloose wanderer, not pretending / / to
stay us like our daily bread.  / / She’s the wild gleam of heaven’s se
Dance of the Seasons
phen and Judith / Love you have.  May he
stay / / with you all the way, / / though not exactly as he is today
Epithalamium
reaping.  / / I will not go.”  / / And
stayed , and in a little while was dead.  / / On marble and gilded bron
Gunnar of Lithend
n throng / / of princes—the princesses
stayed at home.  / / He did not miss them, heart more than content /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ked it—would / / gladly have fled, but
stayed from stubbornness.  / / Next time with bleeding hands he harves
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
flow / / are others which should have
stayed : / / what passion and labour made / / perfect, what even chan
Progress
growing, never grows / / wholly away,
stays / / linked still to parents / / by fibres, filaments / / char
Parenthood
The shutter flicks; the fleeting moment
stays / / pinned on time like a butterfly on a board, / / dead.  / /
Moment and Memory
shrieked against the straining mast and
stays .  / / The water whitening under the black gale / / was scooped
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n woman.  / / The statue underneath the
stays / / waited in marble innocence: / / a light such as in Paradis
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
with greater love, of Christ, / / but
stays with her father / / who needs her, loves her, whom she loves to
Eugénie de Guérin
eds her, loves her, whom she loves too;
stays / / with sister and brother she loves too in their ways / / bu
Eugénie de Guérin
he sea.  He heaved up on his hands, / /
steadied his swimming head, saw it was night, / / a moon—behind, the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ward.  The hag, nothing said / / worked
steadily , but as he left, again / / lifted her eyes on him and laughe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
atch them move / / slowly, inevitably,
steadily / / together.  At last the planet’s fire / / begins to weake
September Cruise
n whom power and deadweight hold / / a
steady balance; some / / smoulder an age; some flare smokily up; / /
Lamps
/ Odd chills are chance.  Destined the
steady glow / / our loving knows.  / /
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
er / / a competent cartwheeler / / or
steady in a handstand / / —ran like another though / / barefoot alon
Climacteric by the Sea
hich shifted presently / / and settled
steady in the old good quarter.  / / He was abreast now, nearly, of th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
w to / / guide the cross spirit with a
steady rein / / now dogrose bushes star the hedges.  Again / / my yea
Again
in the south, and from the north / / a
steady wind blows cold and colourlessly.  / / A child’s children play
[White foam sweeps]
and greasy ash.  / / What did the soul
steal from the flame?  / / New wings for its dream.  / /
Joan of Arc
s burn their fields, / / and learnt to
steal .  Here the plague / / struck them, thousands; struck through the
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
, / / legend and life, by sail / / or
steam or dream driven, / / criss-cross the seas.  / / The sea remains
The Sea
/ (And out of what depth, fingered on a
steamed -up pane, / / can that loud trumpeter charge again?) / /
Nadia
/ white figures, busy hands, flicker of
steel / / at the roots of life, a scarlet flood— / / and other hands
Block 21
all sheared by a fall / / of slanting
steel , / / gone in a burst of blood.  / / Yet, against lost years /
Die Weisse Rose
en the sword broke in my hand, / / the
steel snapped clean in two.  / / A Turkish dog came riding, / / his s
A Ballad
, thinned / / into a thousand thousand
steely rays / / which whipped his body with their scalding flail.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the rocks to left and right climbed
steep and bare / / to peak on peak, and on the right spread on / / w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ad crossed / / the southern mountains,
steep and bare, with little / / water or vegetation and less game, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oken falls / / and rough growth of the
steep / / difficult slope.  / / People have scrambled up.  / / I try
[The track up the wild stream]
to be attained / / by climbing now.  A
steep glen at his feet / / falling away, told him to follow it, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
own / / white to blindness clothes its
steep / / hill under the wrecked keep.  / / At the white alley’s end
September Cruise
ll / / stillness, where thickly-bushed
steep mountain-side / / broke to a torrent summer had not yet dried. 
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ from the unknown coast by the unknown
steep / / mountains, most rarely dared by any from / / the forest, f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ness point, / / no return.  / / Down a
steep place / / with the possessed herd / / to sink without trace.  /
This Time
[A long
steep road to climb] / for Anna / A long steep road to climB / / Near
[A long steep road to climb]
teep road to climb] / for Anna / A long
steep road to climB / / Nears the top.  Turn.  TherE / / Now, look, un
[A long steep road to climb]
/ to where the beach-curve ended at the
steep / / rock.  There dossed down, at first uneasily / / but later i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
up.  / / I try to follow, but / / too
steep , rough, hard / / for this old / / body.  I yield, / / a little
[The track up the wild stream]
ollowed it, / / lost and recovered, up
steep valleys and down, / / until, five days’ hard going from the coa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
en, suddenly leaping / / free from the
steep , white in a long fall.  Water / / —always rain, rough in a storm
Varangian in Mickelgard
eenness of the water-meadow / / a grey
steeple against a blue-black / / cloud mounting blue sky.  / / I look
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
ur may be done / / duly to deity, fine
steers are brought; / / and by the altar where they slashed the throa
Pelopia and Thyestes
task / / to be the cutting each thick
stem , each string / / of spear-thorns.  The vast whole he would not se
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ crimson and green-gold / / the bare-
stemmed bushes glow, / / just as though / / against the day’s gloom
Winter Garden
with greater care, / / severing tough
stems and more than Gordion-tied / / knots.  It was almost in his hand
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
m 90 we need perhaps, to clear / / the
stench of Belsen from the atmosphere.  / / The diapason closing full i
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
rs, stain / / earth and sky with their
stench , sky and earth / / black with that chimney’s cloud.  Squalor an
Two Poems for G
e— / / crossly she turned her look and
step aside.  / / But felt at once her natural kindness chide / / her
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ straight for the line.  / / I could
step between, / / stopped him, smiled / / over him at a man / / jum
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
ouse…  / / The moment I heard his light
step through my door— / / These are the springs of my love.  Mark them
Spells and Love
s traitor live a lie? / / watching his
step , watching his speech, / / watching himself—‘What am I?’  / / Wel
H.A.R.P.
ry burns, / / seeming so near / / one
step will set / / them home in it, / / their home—those golden shore
[Some exiles know]
Epithalamium /
Stephen and Judith / Love you have.  May he stay / / with you all the
Epithalamium
Rocks.  / / For me, you.  For you, / /
Stephen .  I wish I thought you / / were listening together.  / / Alway
For Cecil
eauteous youth doth cruelly enjoy.  / /
Stepped and corridored the town / / white to blindness clothes its st
September Cruise
/ I thought, and the door closed as I
stepped in.  / /
The Grass Road
w still, and out the welcomed pair / /
stepped in their beauty down, stepped up the stair, / / the moment’s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is no loss,” she said.  “If you / / had
stepped in too, you would have lost your way; / / their course your d
The Black-out
called him:  / / “Christopher”, and he
stepped out of a train / / of shamblers, saying “how can you stand ap
The Black-out
The Grass Road / I
stepped out of my thoughts / / and saw the grass road straight betwee
The Grass Road
pair / / stepped in their beauty down,
stepped up the stair, / / the moment’s shadow vanished.  / / So it wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
end you look / / straight on sea.  / /
Stepping further on, look down / / where a church sits small, alone /
September Cruise
on threw Eros’ shadow on her.  / / She,
stepping suddenly where the light was thrown, / / cried:  “Hangs the s
The Black-out
nly mean to say, perhaps:  / / Reason’s
steps / / are too stiff for life’s path, where fate / / takes like c
Uncertain
Happiness / Between two
steps , between two thoughts, breaking / / like sunlight in the breast
Happiness
moving towards our / / stance his long
steps .  “But he” I said, and sought her / / eyes, “is in Cambridge.”  “
The Black-out
elf the mountain had commanded / / his
steps , but that hence he might recognise / / the field of his last fi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e deadly poor / / settle themselves on
steps , by hunger and / / no hope reduced to peace.  / / The prostitut
Country and Town
s the sea her quiet brow.  / / Down the
steps from the sloping road above us / / a form, my mother, came.  “Fr
The Black-out
ght of entrance there.  / / Back up the
steps I groped into the murk.  / / The moon was clouded, I was deadly
The Black-out
the second.  / / Down sandbag-narrowed
steps I reached the glare, / / but swift a sanded figure from his wor
The Black-out
twheels by me on the sand / / where my
steps now are staid and heavy.  / / Not that I was ever / / a compete
Climacteric by the Sea
notched rock.  / / Oh, the subtle / /
steps of the couple / / on the high wire!  / / Death-wish dances / /
Sea Cliff
o that air / / just when your innocent
steps were starting there.  / /
Two Poems for G
Wreck / These posts which stud / / the
sterile sand / / were a ship once, / / as swift and beautiful / / a
A Wreck
thwish, / / slip to lasting sleep in a
sterile slime.  / /
Full Circle
ght.  / / Not, that’s not so good.  / /
Steve Davis knocked out / / of the semi-final.  You / / would have li
For Cecil
apegoat.  Might we, though, construe the
steward / / (a clever thought) as double-crossing Caesar?  / / No.  Th
The Betrayal
d might both throw light on the praised
steward / / and make His answer to the priests’ spies’ question / /
The Betrayal
e friends with Mammon, make Mammon your
steward .”  / / But who serves whom?…  Well, there’s the jackpot questio
The Betrayal
who wins such commendation, because as
steward / / he tried to cheat his master?  Were I God’s / / (if I bel
The Betrayal
d.  / / Reading the story of the unjust
steward / / I find myself a world away from Plato / / and in a most
The Betrayal
on / / such a betrayal of His trust as
Steward ?  / / It was, when all is said, a cheating question.  / / The
The Betrayal
/ / of a vast trust, and a far-sighted
steward / / may have to sacrifice some bargains.  God’s / / terms, Hi
The Betrayal
ato?  / / So much for me—an ineffective
steward / / myself, I still must be my own soul’s steward.  / / Readi
The Betrayal
wit gave Him that smart answer?  He was
Steward / / of a vast trust, and a far-sighted steward / / may have
The Betrayal
/ myself, I still must be my own soul’s
steward .  / / Reading the story of the unjust steward / / I find myse
The Betrayal
/ / Perhaps there’s some thought links
steward to Caesar / / which glimpsed might both throw light on the pr
The Betrayal
would He have me use tricks on Him this
steward / / tried on his master?…  Render unto Caesar…  / / Perhaps th
The Betrayal
d in a most strange world.  What is this
steward / / who wins such commendation, because as steward / / he tr
The Betrayal
/ / (if I believed in God), were I His
steward / / would He have me use tricks on Him this steward / / trie
The Betrayal
as double-crossing Caesar?  / / No.  The
steward’s master is God, not Caesar.  / / From the good city bravely b
The Betrayal
d stream, / / a shot bird roasted on a
stick -fire.  On / / thin rough grass of a valley-alp he dropped / / h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
—brothers and cousins, I suppose, / /
sticking by one another, / / but one was at a distance, / / separate
A Ballad
seemed to drain it of all power.  / / A
stiff , a frozen silence settled down / / like a sea-mist.  A minute or
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sleep.  / / I lay there, my living body
stiff as a doll.  / / These are the springs of my love.  Mark them, lad
Spells and Love
/ He picked himself up.  He was cold and
stiff , / / bruised, hungry—but at least could stand and move.  / / He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ He turned inland, thrusting through
stiff dune-grass / / which speared him till he bled.  Beyond, below /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rhaps:  / / Reason’s steps / / are too
stiff for life’s path, where fate / / takes like cloud unpredictable
Uncertain
e he wrenched at the sheets, salted and
stiff .  / / Then they gave too, the sails slumped to the floor.  / / N
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of it.  / / Waking before dawn always,
stiff with chill, / / still tired, set off simply to stir some heat. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s quickening.  / / The yielding and the
stiffening , / / the wooded clefts and the hot spring, / / chilled hi
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
er shade, / / and tired and cold moved
stiffly , vaguely on.  / / Soon to the Spaniards unexpectedly come, /
The Black-out
ty, / / beauty is ours and the earth’s
still .  / /
Beauty
our gifts are good and time is with you
still .  / / A careful house of cards has fallen flat: / / turn to a f
The Black-out
.  / / The fire, brutally quenched, was
still a fire / / whose high flame, even remembered, warms and sings. 
Question
Aurora Borealis.  / / Later again, but
still a long time ago, / / walking home, a long cold walk, past midni
A Hoard
t… a dream?  / / No—if intangible, / /
still a warm presence at his side / / to second him: unjustified, /
Masque
of the light.  / / Ripples are quickly
still .  Again seen / / in the mirror’s tinted grey—leaf-greens, / / w
Water in a Wood
— / / the ground-floor too, but he was
still alone…  / / The fairy’s curse—a shocking fear possessed him / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tell me I can count myself a substance
still .  / / Am I just my dream, in daylight dissipating?  / /
What am I?
conventional, / / dull.  Yet Spring is
still / / an undimmed miracle, / / season of blossoming, / / season
[What words are there for Spring?]
/ Have always been too fond of sitting
still , / / and having painfully learned how not to care / / find how
Teach Us…
of the domestic mass / / as they drew
still , and out the welcomed pair / / stepped in their beauty down, st
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
omes to the same.  Free? we are all bond
still / / and, part of what we ruin, we shall rue it.  / / He cracks
Man in Nature
f every decent life; / / those who sit
still , and those who fall defending / / justice, seem equally guilty
The Black-out
, rare / / new day.  / / You and I are
still apart, / / only the sullen grey / / grieving’s not there / /
[The clouds that pressed the air]
alone.  Delight he could / / stumble on
still (as dreamer still he was) / / but must do more than watch the s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ I came on glow-worms.  Years earlier
still , at dusk, / / fireflies flickered beside the Ionian Sea.  / / I
A Hoard
/ summer will show the bony tree / /
still bare.  Now though give thanks, be blessed / / in the reviving my
Renewal
to take your place.  / / Yes, but must
still be something / / more than myself, will be, can.  / / Thorpe wh
For Cecil
eam, / / is now no longer a what-might-
still - / / be (though you know it never will) / / but just a what-on
Shelved
’ feathers, wrinkles water, / / drops,
still .  Break from above into this silence / / out of the outer world
For Rachel
d lose their power, / / but on his arm
still burning bright / / as though lit by the inner flame / / which
Ballad
e.  / / Leaf and shell / / are with us
still / / but delicately other than these; / / a world of life peris
Fossils
t drawn close / / knew Molly and stood
still .  “But this once more is / / truth but not flesh,” my guide said
The Black-out
ossing once, twice and, again; / / but
still by personal intellect is guided / / his way who will.”  I smiled
The Black-out
has been delight, / / even if it end,
still by that miracle is”— / / and then he thought of a pricked finge
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ht, / / at fork or cross-track he went
still by whim, / / rejecting reason’s query ‘Which is right?’  / / Ti
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd half my mind in Greece, among rocks,
still / / clambered Hymettus.  Suddenly stood plain / / great St Paul
The Black-out
y hate the tower of loneliness / / but
still cleave to the tower of peace.  / /
The Party
s on his rotting age, / / yet he could
still coax from the air, / / note painfully on the waiting page / /
Beethoven
a roughened green / / but on the back
still , delicately lined, / / a leaf-fan on whorled stalks, above the
Label
/ gem-colour-spangled.  / / And clear,
still , diamond-lit / / by washed stars is now the night.  / / Again n
Exchange
t late, but late afternoon / / dry and
still drew her down a forest-track.  / / The trunks rose black out of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
arted fret.  / / The empty-bellied, the
still driven poor, / / who yearly add to what they would forget, / /
May Day
s thrown, / / cried:  “Hangs the sheath
still empty, and the sword / / stands ever in the water-wandering sto
The Black-out
ed girl.  That thought caressed / / him
still , even while he limped mechanically / / into the night of his th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ to the sail-flecked harbour.  Clear,
still evening light.  / / Stillness undisturbed by the minuscule / /
Content
” / / to obedient Alice.  / / The goal
still flies ahead.  / / Faster, faster, to keep up with the Joneses, /
Curvature of Space
/ and six cygnets, full grown / / but
still grey.  Silver / / rather than grey.  / / Silver and white, / /
Return
in, then suddenly deadly sick.  / / But
still he dragged and hacked, hour after hour.  / / Forced by exhaustio
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
then died.  The starry dark was utterly
still .  / / He dropped the sails and lashed the tiller.  Dressed / / a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
track—or if a track, so overgrown…  / /
Still , he pushed in, and once in the deep shade / / the overgrowth wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
could / / stumble on still (as dreamer
still he was) / / but must do more than watch the seasons pass, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aimless flow / / of gall.  From such a
still height I looked down / / and watched detached my weary body go
The Black-out
/ joggled the calendar / / Cecil was
still here, / / breathing the air, / / looking across the light, /
Leap Year
nter puts out the torches.  / / The oak
still holds its rust and the beech its red / / but winds have washed
Dance of the Seasons
/ If nothing—she would give it to him
still — / / how dare she lecture him so priggishly?  / / He gazed unse
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, laughed ‘Oh how nice’—half child / /
still , if already half woman, and soon / / to leave childhood behind—
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
le / / with reason, can imagine war is
still / / (if it ever really was) a viable / / way of settling anyth
Consider
/ Equality.  / / That’s more difficult
still / / if not impossible / / —rather, meaningless.  / / All are (
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
s a child yet, / / and man’s an infant
still in earth’s life-span.  / / If he doesn’t burn the house and hims
Greenham Common
on / / her ripe, her bearing age.  / /
Still in his cloud of rage / / he came to Sicyon.  / / He heard the h
Pelopia and Thyestes
nd a handkerchief.  / / And he, finding
still in his other hand / / the shell “And this is yours.”  She looked
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ It had to end / / but, lived fully,
still is.  / / Time, this time, / / shows himself a friend.  / / Lark
Two Poems from a New Life
at through all shadows cast / / shines
still is yours, and mine through you,” I said,    / / “with memory th
The Black-out
ed and re-formed before we were / / as
still it will be when we’re gone.  / / Decay, corruption foster life. 
Change
son who should have picked on him, / /
still less been taken by him.  Why reach out to her / / at the moment
“Tell Lady Byron…”
’t believe in God, and yet I pray; / /
still less in magic, but I practise it.  / / At least I do not let /
Uncertain
and dreamed escape sprang back to him. 
Still less / / now than before he felt the power of / / breaking awa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
great St Paul’s, and before it tall and
still , / / Like a poplar or a cypress, Humfry Payne.  / / After loved
The Black-out
ome home…  Things I don’t believe / / I
still like sometimes to pretend— / / that life doesn’t come to a ragg
Dreams
ong the pavement stand / / abstracted,
still , like trees.  / /
Country and Town
esert island then.  / / …  Yes, there is
still love.  / / Loving, being loved, save / / from total withering. 
Touch
ill, he will.  / / But love be with you
still .  / / Love may be, I suppose, / / as some have said, born blind
Epithalamium
e-robber.  / / Not without reason.  / /
Still , might perhaps the master potter-painter / / like to have known
Label
ur, the poem closes.  / / Once more the
still -miraculous spring / / drowns as green summer settles in.  / / N
Man’s Seasons
ur, the poem closes.  / / Once more the
still miraculous spring, / / summer and autumn…  Man proposes… / / wi
Man’s Seasons
season, at the silent hour, / / at the
still moment of the absent sun / / cease, be gone.  / / And saw begin
Winter Solstice
r the turning tide / / and just at the
still moment, when the sea / / moved again upwards in the endless dan
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
kely to be great.  / / “For happiness a
still more doubtful season: / / we are at war, and as the stage is se
The Black-out
“How can I understand?  / / Life was a
still morning / / cool on brow and hand / / till flesh and soul flow
Dialogue
Two Serenities /
Still morning.  Milky sea / / under a haze of pearl.  / / A girl’s gaz
Two Serenities
ulders he dreamed of love.  / / The sun
still mountain-hidden in high day, / / cramped and cold he stood look
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e—an ineffective steward / / myself, I
still must be my own soul’s steward.  / / Reading the story of the unj
The Betrayal
ow this way, that way, cool or warm.  Be
still .”  / / Nature is much to wreck, but man can do it.  / / Barbaria
Man in Nature
estylis, take the ashes / / while it’s
still night, and knead them into his door-sill / / and as you do, whi
Spells and Love
w gone, / / her existence is more real
still , now and here, / / than this meaningless cessation I do not sha
Death
/ / betraying a shark / / (yet dream
still of a shapely / / innocent form, a dolphin curving clear, / / s
Advent
g, wrinkled flashes—held his gaze.  / /
Still on the sand he sat, in the cool wind, / / while time passed and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is won, though, from / / effort.  This
still / / place affords me room / / to think as well as feel, / / t
Villevieille
in, / / irreversibly packed / / to a
still point.  Matter and energy / / funnelled through a point of not-
Holes in Space
he brown moor is out of bloom / / that
still pricks to the bone.  / /
Another Spring
Blood spurts, dries soon… but hot blood
still / / reliquifies the sun-dried blood.  / /
Naples
e.  He is here in the block, / / itself
still rooted in the quarry rock, / / the marble mountain.  He lies bel
September Cruise
trapped, pinned on the rough bank; yet
still she fought, / / biting him, scratching him, and suddenly / / t
Pelopia and Thyestes
traightened herself, turned slowly, and
still slow / / made her way up the hill again, as though / / heavy a
Pelopia and Thyestes
oo negligent in peace, / / to hear the
still , small voice.  / / Having insufficiently rendered unto peace /
Prayer to Truth
e / / under the vaulted dark, / / the
still , stale air.  / / Would not God be in His world / / of living da
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
he look, / / lifts the heart / / to a
still starburst / / in the night of thought.  / /
Summer Vision
e may destroy ourselves).  / / But I am
still / / thankful to know this beauty, as well / / as for those I l
Gratitude
/ / Beyond sadness and anger, / / but
still the king, his master to be obeyed.  / / “Toss it in the lake,” H
Finis
at my side in this your land.  / / But
still the path tempted me on.  / / And suddenly I reached a board:  /
Los Altos Hills
were already travelling.  / / Far ahead
still the south cape’s silhouette, / / darker and hard on the bright
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Sixtieth Summer /
Still the spiralling seasons draw me on.  / / But since the shears mus
Sixtieth Summer
and the singing gone, / / but shining
still the temples hold / / their broken faces to the dawn.  / /
Acropolis
ows Time has closed that door.  / / But
still the untaught heart / / would, half believes, / / half persuade
From a Train
/ / felt with surprise gladness to be
still there.  / / He walked a little way upstream to get / / his bott
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rom the perfected statue, thought / / “
Still , this is not, / / not quite, the image of my dream.”  / / Lifet
Pietà
ew new ones / / coming in their place. 
Still , though, starred with beauty.  / / I leaned out, looking down at
Omens
thought that it could have no end.  / /
Still through the hostile growth he pressed and thrust, / / clothes t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ore dawn always, stiff with chill, / /
still tired, set off simply to stir some heat.  / / Some afternoons he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
earch your heart—there you will find us
still / / to help and guide, only departing should / / the heart rej
The Black-out
not yet bare / / concealed the castle
still .  To one not knowing / / this might have been an uninhabited wil
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ows / / wholly away, stays / / linked
still to parents / / by fibres, filaments / / charged with subtle cu
Parenthood
ed, the unique scene, / / canopied the
still trolley, trundled in / / with girl or boy.  Boy or girl lying /
Block 21
Villevieille / The church is very
still .  / / True, I don’t believe, / / but after all / / centuries o
Villevieille
the thorn-bastion only, which stretched
still / / unbroken, unthinned, quite without change, until / / he al
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bride from her husband’s bed while it’s
still warm.”  / / He’d the gift of the gab.  And I didn’t need persuadi
Spells and Love
ed from a slow small stream.  / / Black
still water images / / every trunk and leaf, dark but clear, / / a C
Water in a Wood
/ / —unless rather his first / / but
still wildest, least biddable slave, fire / / twist in his hand / /
Dr Faustus
’s too, mortally sick) yet sharing / /
still with warm loving pride / / his thoughts and hopes, sharing with
Eugénie de Guérin
ld, / / drawn to the river but from it
still withheld, / / take by its side their rest.  / / Monks, harnessi
The Embankment
soned, secreted long / / from hours in
still woods, on the wind-shaved sweep / / of downs, walking, sitting,
Happiness
In the Audience /
Still young that unknown face; yet not quite young: / / working in ti
In the Audience
/ / Make viable our hopes and truths,
stillborn / / the bastard misconcepts, falsehoods and fears.  / / And
Prayer to Time
pale and shadow-moulded stone, / / and
stilled , emptied my mind; and then what should / / unlikely cross its
The Black-out
straight.  The fairy’s rancour / / was
stilled for now, and in the other’s care / / they walked, indeed they
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hen what should / / unlikely cross its
stillness but the phrase / / of Queen Victoria:  ‘I will be good.’?  /
The Black-out
k, gold and white, sweetening the light
stillness / / by bird-notes pierced but not dispersed / / while easy
The Grass Road
cras’ Church, whose sane / / classical
stillness calmed the aimless flow / / of gall.  From such a still heig
The Black-out
last by his princess, / / heard in the
stillness her soft breath, and took / / heart, kissed through hair th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the evening frost / / —this monochrome
stillness looks / / like death but is something else.  / / Venus is b
For Cecil
/ After the others—struggle or charged
stillness / / of heroes, centaurs, gods from the temple-gables, / /
Hermes of Olympia
/ / knotted, shrunk.  This / / is not
stillness of peace / / but that movement is pain.  / / Can the natura
Winter Recalled
leaves are loosed and shed / / and the
stillness of the far solstice approaches, / / clearer, blacker agains
Dance of the Seasons
start with these / / breathed from the
stillness of / / this vaulted space.  / /
Villevieille
rbour.  Clear, still evening light.  / /
Stillness undisturbed by the minuscule / / Fun Pier (‘Famed for fun s
Content
silence—or rather to cicada-shrill / /
stillness , where thickly-bushed steep mountain-side / / broke to a to
Pelopia and Thyestes
cropolis, the Parthenon / / burns back
stilly at the setting sun.  / / Crossing the thistle-bristling rock /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
lled the first cause, however sharp its
sting .  / / You are unhappy because you dare not free / / your self-b
The Black-out
ep / / (sink that searching gaze) / /
stinking jetsam lies.  / / Here.  Now.  No escape.  / /
Causes
Stir the bare trees, and on the benches
stir / / against the deepened chill the worse than poor, / / the dri
The Embankment
ll, / / still tired, set off simply to
stir some heat.  / / Some afternoons he slept, utterly done, / / but
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ne / / in slight but bitter wind.  / /
Stir the bare trees, and on the benches stir / / against the deepened
The Embankment
yet the necessary word awakes / / nor
stir the lips, / / but helpless till pass by this long eclipse / / t
Waiting
r the brow turned off beneath.  / / She
stirred and turned her flower-face—that face.  / / He kissed her on th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
dge of distress, / / disturbed but not
stirred by the prick of shame, / / I watch the world and wait for hap
The Black-out
Becoming / Curled up you sleep, or
stirring / / kick in the darkness of an imageless dream, / / trying
Becoming
e the insidious tide.  / / The darkness
stirs along its lifting spine / / in slight but bitter wind.  / / Sti
The Embankment
ong the table / / like a ladder down a
stocking , like flame / / along dry wood.  But flame is beautiful / /
Back Room, 1944
tiful / / —more like the ladder in the
stocking , wrecking / / the firm silk.  He’s a fool / / and she’s hyst
Back Room, 1944
/ The stocks of hate build up / / (and
stocks of armaments / / build up).  Is our real wealth, / / the small
Choice
/ But what good can hate do?  / / The
stocks of hate build up / / (and stocks of armaments / / build up). 
Choice
ional / Your freedom, which our fathers
stole / / in careless, unregenerate days, / / and we enjoyed, we han
Recessional
ague.  He was not of the slums, / / but
stole , perhaps, and died, they say in gaol.) / / Their Parthenon endu
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
you can’t trust them.  He may / / have
stolen that lamb—too many of them get lost.”  / / “Why does he keep hi
On the Border
d of the sea, / / throwing stones at a
stone .  / /
Tristi Fummo
ed its image on / / the less ephemeral
stone .  / /
Fossils
the sword) / / rot unclaimed under the
stone .  / /
Dark Age
/ watered, sown, / / is dead dust and
stone .  / /
Drought
o a dead man / / by marks on this dumb
stone .  / /
Tombstone
Headline / Children
stone a swan.  / / Troopers shot the fawn, / / Wanton brutality / /
Headline
ging light, / / birdsong and trees, to
stone / / and a half-light.  / / God’s body lay on the altar.  / / Sh
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
/ St Paul’s, in pale and shadow-moulded
stone , / / and stilled, emptied my mind; and then what should / / un
The Black-out
ch is so much more than pain.  / / Sea,
stone , cypress, / / sharp-cornered shadow, / / wrenched olive (willo
Five Poems for Roni
n’s son / / of Athens, lies under this
stone / / dead in Gela among the white / / wheatlands; a man at need
Aeschylus’ Epitaph
love him, / / spreading (circles from
stone dropped in water) / / pain; and worse (last / / worst twist an
Stones
stood square in my dream: / / a white
stone façade of Edwardian baroque.  / / In letters of gold from an arc
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
him.  / / But in the whittled, bruised
stone he left caught / / that straight flame.  / /
Pietà
fe.  / / Even the fossil forming in the
stone / / helped build a shape which was not there before.  / / Thoug
Change
/ / stands ever in the water-wandering
stone ?”  / / Her face was memory where the cold light poured / / and
The Black-out
/ —but her wind-wooer struck him to a
stone / / humped in the tides, gull-lone, / / gull-tenanted, and soo
The Sea
weighs on you, / / that and your heavy
stone ?”  / / “It’s not the earth that weighs on me / / nor yet my hea
A Ballad
reach, among naked, spiny, treacherous
stone , / / no gull’s sad cry for company, alone.  / / No game, no str
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed skeleton, / / desolation of shining
stone .  / / No past throws up against the sense / / a reek of crowd a
Delos in Spring
hand and mind, / / song and colour and
stone , / / or in the whispering of two alone; / / melting mist / /
Fossils
own Races, / / the Sphinx, the Blarney
Stone .  / / Or the places alone / / —Taj Mahal, Parthenon, / / Angko
Tourist
winter’s boisterous flow / / broken by
stone piers, its attack / / turned, its wild movement mastered—so /
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
/ now the tower, round whose channelled
stone / / speeds gather as lives hurtle down.  / /
Anniversaries
s near to blossom.  / / But the thunder-
stone / / struck my world and left me / / broken and alone.”  / / Mi
Dialogue
/ it drowses.  Now among the smoke and
stone / / the deadly poor / / settle themselves on steps, by hunger
Country and Town
r to the sea / / yields, slides up the
stone the insidious tide.  / / The darkness stirs along its lifting sp
The Embankment
stood in puddles, slopped on grass and
stone .  / / The leader skirts these hazards.  Several more / / follow
Pelopia and Thyestes
of vine and thin corn, / / inescapable
stone .  / / The lion lies, is as he always was.  / / High on the preci
September Cruise
in his hand / / and knifed it from the
stone .  The pricks drew blood, / / and this time too he thought of the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
fter grassed acres, / / here you chose
stone to raise / / your lovely garden round.  / / Did you suffer much
For Cecil
that weighs on me / / nor yet my heavy
stone .  / / Was there nowhere for you to tread / / but on my head alo
A Ballad
Sea Cliff / A jutting
stone / / yields, is gone / / down into air / / But foot is home /
Sea Cliff
?  / / The mangled reputation lies / /
stoned , to be spat on as we pass / / by those who dare not recognise
H.A.R.P.
and the sound of the sea, / / throwing
stones at a stone.  / /
Tristi Fummo
Stones / One hurt by one he loves hurts those that love him, / / spre
Stones
s gone.  / / She sat a long time on the
stony ground, / / the naked sword across her naked thighs, / / stari
Pelopia and Thyestes
Fossils / Here in this rock lie
stony semblances / / of shells—here was the sea; / / and in this coa
Fossils
the dreamed ideal / / hardened into a
stony tyranny?  / / Just such a vile perversion of good thought / / u
Betrayals
ned the door.  And there, she said, / /
stood a young forester.  Utterly worn out / / he looked, and foreign i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
…  Time, it seemed, had stopped, / / as
stood against the starry donors—loss, / / negation, new-moon darkness
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / smarted into himself.  Before him
stood / / an old woman in black.  He snatched his knife / / and rose
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lovely form / / was all his dream.  He
stood and fought his heart / / within the door, and mastering it in p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
could no more.  He dropped flat where he
stood / / and slept like death on the uneven ground.  / / Like death,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ake,” He went back to the lake / / and
stood and turned the bright sword in his hands / / then tossed it fla
Finis
h she met so often in the wood / / who
stood aside and fixed her with his gaze / / troubling her faintly…  No
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rt again, to breathe, / / trembling he
stood at last by his princess, / / heard in the stillness her soft br
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ knowing the vision in the block, / /
stood back from the perfected statue, thought / / “Still, this is not
Pietà
, / / marking my place to turn.  / / I
stood beside it.  Wrinkling fading petals / / dropping from old flower
Omens
Finis / Under the grey sky / / he
stood by the grey lake / / and turned the sword in his hands.  / / Th
Finis
their eldest daughter / / the forester
stood godfather.  Their home / / was always his.  He played with her an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
here they slashed the throat / / blood
stood in puddles, slopped on grass and stone.  / / The leader skirts t
Pelopia and Thyestes
n in high day, / / cramped and cold he
stood looking up along / / the two valleys, each climbing its own way
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n snow all over.  A drenching sweat / /
stood on my forehead like dew and trickled down.  / / I couldn’t utter
Spells and Love
to con her, / / but in the pale Circus
stood one alone / / just where the moon threw Eros’ shadow on her.  /
The Black-out
eyond an empty space a castle-gate / /
stood open.  He went in.  No one at all.  / / No one.  The empty guard-ro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oaded boat.  / / Most of the morning he
stood out to sea / / against the sun, but somewhere round midday / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d me then.  / / To left the plane-trees
stood / / part lit; to right the shadowed parapet / / where leaned a
The Black-out
still / / clambered Hymettus.  Suddenly
stood plain / / great St Paul’s, and before it tall and still, / / L
The Black-out
/ shaped me the shadows among which I
stood .  / / She sat there on a low bough, her legs hanging, / / swing
The Black-out
e in my dream] / The municipal building
stood square in my dream: / / a white stone façade of Edwardian baroq
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
[The municipal building
stood square in my dream] / The municipal building stood square in my
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
one / / with Emily.  The noble mountain
stood , / / St Paul’s, in pale and shadow-moulded stone, / / and stil
The Black-out
not yet drawn close / / knew Molly and
stood still.  “But this once more is / / truth but not flesh,” my guid
The Black-out
nd there of course against a dark trunk
stood / / that boy, his gaze intent on her again— / / loitering, spy
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ght was a space, where a tall pine-tree
stood — / / the only conifer he’d seen all day / / among the beech an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ of countless currents met in you has
stood / / waiting too long.  Oh, do not miss your hour.  / / Deep hoar
The Black-out
mpty—on to the great hall: / / tables,
stools , hangings, one great chair, and all / / empty.  The play seemed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y voice, and I was glad to hear.  / / I
stooped , hand on the open door, but drew / / back as another voice sa
The Black-out
/ carriage-top, horse-backs, backs of
stooping men— / / one face: hers, lifted sleeping.  So she took him /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e Sea / for Lucy, by request / The land
stoops to the sea.  / / Cliff, rock, sand, pebble beach, / / yielding
The Sea
e.  / / No one can win, / / no one can
stop , / / for in this game / / at every ladder’s top / / you find a
The Game
hes torn, skin bloody, but he could not
stop .  / / He gained much ground—but was such ground a gain?  / / The
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s not honest / / to prophesy to a full
stop .  Ours the open / / grace of a question mark.  / /
Desert Island?
since the shears must snap and my time
stop / / sometime, might a tolerable month be June? / / —with the ro
Sixtieth Summer
/ / spoke to her always gently, put a
stop / / to any funny stuff by the defence.  / / The deadly knife-edg
Change Places…
and went on over Sunday / / and never
stopped all day.  / / Monday morning early / / we found the drink was
A Ballad
as you walked.  If I could do…”  / / He
stopped ; and she flushed too, but angrily / / (how dare this stutteri
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ a hundred years…  Time, it seemed, had
stopped , / / as stood against the starry donors—loss, / / negation,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e line.  / / I could step between, / /
stopped him, smiled / / over him at a man / / jumping up from the se
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
when night came, deep in the mountains
stopped , / / his water-bottle filled at a cold stream, / / a shot bi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
withdrawn and lost as where he would be
stopping .  / / The wind at evening veered into the west / / then died
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
them by track and tussock, / / finally
stops / / where a wild rose-bush flowers / / at the edge of a copse.
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
ou have a sensitive mind and heart, and
store / / flashes of truth which pass and many miss, / / but sensibi
The Black-out
re.  / / The old remember and the happy
store / / their memories up.  The empty-hearted fret.  / / The empty-b
May Day
nd food, wine and more food.  The castle
store / / was low, replenishment impossible.  / / The boy went shiver
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s, win the sweet princess.  / / The old
stories , alike but different, / / told yet again and asked for yet ag
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Dawn pink in the sky, / / with lots of
stories —and that Delphis is in love.  / / She wasn't sure, she said, w
Spells and Love
ed up—of course, / / the teller of all
stories , his old nurse.  / / But this was different from her other tal
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ which nicely rounds so many wishful
stories , / / where boy meets girl again, and what has been / / wrong
The Black-out
he sea— / / oh for the sea! the sea in
storm and calm / / raised for him in a wren’s-nest mockery.  / / A ne
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
).  And from that moment on / / through
storm and sun, ice-nights and sweating heat / / of shadeless, windles
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
it play / / flickers of the grumbling
storm , / / and through this warm / / clear air / / gooseflesh me wi
Antipodes
ll.  Water / / —always rain, rough in a
storm , dripping / / gently, a cloud.  Water—always the sea, / / dark
Varangian in Mickelgard
ime lost) closed in fever’s bewildering
storm .  / / His arrows one by one lost on missed kills, / / memory or
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing in the gloom / / of the increasing
storm .  / / Must she soon / / heal over, slide into the dark?  / /
England, 1981
ainst the black earth; lost in / / the
storm now; now here / / too the sleet-wind darkens down.  / / Without
For Cecil
he sea, / / dark slate under a nearing
storm , silver / / out under lighter sky beyond the cloud, / / sun-st
Varangian in Mickelgard
slate again soon / / under the nearing
storm .  The sea, reaching / / its firths round us, embracing rock and
Varangian in Mickelgard
See that in earthquake now and blinding
storm / / the spirit’s eye keeps clear, its footing firm, / / and tu
Prayer to Truth
shall endure / / its round of calm and
storm / / when all we see / / of land shall cease / / to be, or cha
The Sea
Catharsis / Lear
storms .  / / The fool’s laughter / / takes the wind from his sail /
Catharsis
/ pain deeply felt.  And yet, this was a
story .  / / A story.  What, whose story?  And why, how / / this deep ac
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
End of Fairy-
Story / All tasks done, spells are taken off / / and happy now lives
End of Fairy-Story
dged—flagged battlements recalling / /
story and dream…  A sadness in your silence / / recalls me to mounded
For Rachel
princess from her womanhood?…  / / The
story and the vision.  Latent, though, / / later to flower, the love. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
was a story.  / / A story.  What, whose
story ?  And why, how / / this deep acceptance of a story’s pain?  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
alone, adrift.  / / Told and retold the
story , botched, refined, / / was with him all his childhood.  He never
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e answer, though, / / leads to another
story ; but, I know, / / how they got home really belongs to this.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ory / / of that country faded / / the
story does not say, / / nor whether her children / / were common gir
The Green Children of Woolpit
dren?…  Dozens / / of questions where a
story finishes / / follow of course.  Mostly the answer, though, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
door.  / / They went as might in fairy-
story go / / some magic castle, leaving a bleak moor.  / / We followe
The Black-out
ld him, to his shocked surprise, / / a
story he had never heard before.  / / It didn’t even start with ‘Once
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Fairy
Story / Her blistered fingers stumbling at their task / / as time ran
Fairy Story
en by a Caesarian birth.  / / The fairy-
story hero’s cake / / was eaten with his mother’s curse.  / / He won
Mother’s Malison
d clearly) when / / he asked her for a
story —‘just one more’— / / a look he didn’t know came in her eyes, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ading / / like a path in a ballad or a
story / / leading the wandering traveller / / (the youngest son, the
Los Altos Hills
honey.  / / And not to make too long a
story of it, dear Moon, / / we achieved it all, came both to our desi
Spells and Love
my own soul’s steward.  / / Reading the
story of the unjust steward / / I find myself a world away from Plato
The Betrayal
he Sirens dropped and drowned, / / the
story says.  But not for long.  / / They soar to Lucy in the sky / / w
The Sirens
life and set him at her side?  / / The
story shifted like the shifting mist.  / / Robbers and dragons make an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ller, the boy recalled / / the nurse’s
story told him long ago.  / / But sharper than the image of her old /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is not with Carabosse, / / or in this
story was not, or not yet.  / / Dusk was already filling up the wood /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
felt.  And yet, this was a story.  / / A
story .  What, whose story?  And why, how / / this deep acceptance of a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
why, how / / this deep acceptance of a
story’s pain?  / / How know the spot’s ahead there, waiting now, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ting from narrowing branches, / / from
stout , straight trunks—the armature where they laid / / their fugitiv
Dance of the Seasons
um, / / toad-flax, cow-parsley, yellow
stragglers , / / a single honeysuckle.  / / The bushes though are berr
[Late October hedges]
my thoughts / / and saw the grass road
straight between dark hedges / / patchworked with green and grey / /
The Grass Road
ruly won.  / / Northwards the dunes ran
straight between the sea / / and broadening plain.  To south, hill cro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ weaves in this country / / —olive,
straight cypress, / / sea and no river, / / harsh sea-light.  River /
Five Poems for Roni
bruised stone he left caught / / that
straight flame.  / /
Pietà
/ / jumped from his seat and ran / /
straight for the line.  / / I could step between, / / stopped him, sm
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
e him.  / / He looked down on the yard,
straight from above: / / carriage-top, horse-backs, backs of stooping
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
u, form and soul, in this drop, mingled
straight / / from love’s well and the fountain of delight?  / / Water
Becoming
from no empty / / moat upmounting, but
straight from shining water / / bravely bridged—flagged battlements r
For Rachel
ks of asphodel, / / few and broken but
straight , gold in the sun, / / the cities of Greece: which flowered i
Greece
ay.  Turned from the plain, / / plunged
straight in, and the unpredictable / / current caught him and forced
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
At the white alley’s end you look / /
straight on sea.  / / Stepping further on, look down / / where a chur
September Cruise
on.  / / The guttering candle flared up
straight .  Out.  / / Night claimed him.  / / But in the whittled, bruis
Pietà
e all right, darling.  You’re simple and
straight / / —she takes her meat off anyone’s plate.  / / I’d be afra
Love Scene
track they tried / / led to the river
straight .  The fairy’s rancour / / was stilled for now, and in the oth
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
straight to an olive-pearly plain, / /
straight to a blinding or a peacock sea.  / / And here and there like
Greece
in a pine-torrent of green / / or rock
straight to an olive-pearly plain, / / straight to a blinding or a pe
Greece
om narrowing branches, / / from stout,
straight trunks—the armature where they laid / / their fugitive creat
Dance of the Seasons
o hide her knowledge and his deed; / /
straightened herself, turned slowly, and still slow / / made her way
Pelopia and Thyestes
retched / / west, west to the horizon,
straightly sheared / / from grass to surf, golden against the noon, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / Out of the black a figure moved,
strained face / / raised to the curtained room, white in the moon— /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
?  / / Waters distilled, secreted, / /
strained through the sand and rich soil of our lives, / / and all tho
Becoming
ose walls burst, / / but if the strong
straining dissolves in weakness / / and the walls stay, distilled kno
Chrysalis
Good, if new warmth new-quickening his
straining / / loosens the bindings and the close walls burst, / / bu
Chrysalis
he wind / / which shrieked against the
straining mast and stays.  / / The water whitening under the black gal
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ll.  / / I reached the tree and paused,
straining my sight, / / standing within the dark tree’s edge, and cou
The Black-out
y this moon.  / / By moon-heaped ocean,
strait / / and firth where the tides race, / / Leif Ericsson, / / M
The Sea
present, past.  / / Beach on our lotus-
strand , and be / / happy.”  The wily hero, bound / / tight by his ear
The Sirens
ight at last upon a clue, / / draw one
strand clear, even out of this skein, / / now dogrose bushes star the
Again
s.  It was almost in his hand—a few / /
strands now.  He took it.  / / A clotted mass fell clear, / / a natura
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
music parts and joins, parts / / like
strands of hair under a comb, / / like currents traced in foam / / o
How not to listen to music
/ he tore at the barbed tightly-woven
strands / / which yielded only to tear deeper.  Then, / / dropped in
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
But only about ten to go / / does feel
strange .  / /
[Threescore and ten or so]
his marriage / / should make her life. 
Strange , and most beautiful, / / and frightening.  Shaken by a hot tea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mother was a girl”— / / particularity,
strange and not good— / / her parents lived out in the country, down
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ile and the kind / / are facets of one
strange , barbarian heart.  / / Their bonds remain, but you shall to th
Waiting
out / / he looked, and foreign in his
strange -cut green.”  / / The image of the strange exhausted youth / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
range-cut green.”  / / The image of the
strange exhausted youth / / against the dark, had somehow been convey
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ And then smote on his ears the full,
strange sound / / muted before—the breakers.  And the wild / / sea st
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / remember Brussels.  Can you find it
strange / / there should be times this city sits me ill?”  / / “Bruss
The Black-out
to behind, / / thud of finality.  / /
Strange town at closing-time, / / the street-cold world lies wide /
Freedom
orld away from Plato / / and in a most
strange world.  What is this steward / / who wins such commendation, b
The Betrayal
ind.  / / His head was clear, his heart
strangely at peace.  / / ‘I know my way’ he thought.  ‘As it has been /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
saw begin / / out of the same darkness
strangely growing / / with warmth and light and the returning sun /
Winter Solstice
ened, / / light green leaves dark, and
strangely the flowers / / (the light bright white and pink) invisible
Omens
e’d been / / about the place, coming a
stranger boy.  / / They closed his eyes.  Now the palace was hushed.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ I didn’t know the way, though / / —a
stranger in these parts.  / / The roads I took turned into lanes, / /
A Ballad
dream, / / trying your strength.  Rapt
stranger / / what is your sex, that we may give you a name? / / your
Becoming
aughter, sent away / / (the hospitable
stranger / / would hold her out of danger / / against a happier day)
Pelopia and Thyestes
nd silent some / / whose thought seems
strangled in the womb, / / whose nails are broken picking at the knot
The Party
ur’s love / / before Struwwelpeter and
straw -gold vanish / / in a silky puff.  / / Sweetness spreads about /
Another Summer
ng / A blackbird on the wire / / has a
straw in its beak / / gold-glinting / / in the new sun / / in the s
Late Spring
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding / Glance lifts to a crucifix.  / / Form of
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
umn is off where summer and spring have
strayed , / / scattering as she hurries her coloured riches.  / / Day
Dance of the Seasons
e getting started, / / but the child’s
straying fancy was alerted / / suddenly by “a knocking at the door /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oaming in cow-parsley and may, / / sun-
streaked with dandelion and buttercup.  / / Light air lifts the silted
Relax
under the Italians.  The cell-walls were
streaked / / with red-brown smears.  Jesus, what people!”  / / Unhappy
War-time Anecdote
lue, but most yellow.  The plain / / is
streaked with yellow flame / / which licks the lower hills.  As we mou
Makherás
/ is unsubtle, unkempt; / / distant,
streaks a field / / with clear puddles of gold.  / / Two truths to ac
Another Summer
/ / withdrawn from all, to those thin
streaks retreating / / and to the star-pricks of the velvet dome.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t.  / / Issuing to sunlight from an icy
stream , / / a dark bush jewelled with flowers and butterflies / / sh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / his water-bottle filled at a cold
stream , / / a shot bird roasted on a stick-fire.  On / / thin rough g
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aw—in a dream?— / / a girl come to the
stream / / and strip herself.  He leapt / / awake.  The girl was there
Pelopia and Thyestes
ht and pain.  / / “We know this shining
stream bears London’s refuse / / from railway, gasworks, factory and
The Black-out
ced meres / / dammed from a slow small
stream .  / / Black still water images / / every trunk and leaf, dark
Water in a Wood
he wild stream] / The track up the wild
stream , / / blocked by a fallen tree, / / beyond it fades and fails
[The track up the wild stream]
/ / yesterday.  Today / / that sickly
stream / / carries away / / the knot of tissue and nerve, / / struc
Miscarriage
er.  / / My thoughts / / lift from the
stream , dance upon / / the secret motions of the air, / / there and
How not to listen to music
led / / a faint rhythm of music far up
stream .  / / Giles turned intent, and soon across the pearled / / wat
The Black-out
ed paths to take.  / / He’d crossed the
stream , he could not have said why, / / to where the beach-curve ende
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ two, fifty yards) awoke to the wide
stream .  / / He plunged in where the water met the sand, / / dropped
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
clear.  / / Charred field, / / clotted
stream .  / / I have spoiled my world / / for a bad dream.  / /
Scorched Earth
here a tinkling fall / / show that the
stream is living too.  / /
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
/ / melts to a skyline, / / dips to a
stream .  / / Landscape is music: / / the heart’s dream / / weaves wi
Music is Landscape
which they dreamed their way along that
stream , / / learning to know each other and their love.  / / Later, i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
re being washed away / / by the strong
stream of our love, which flows / / clean of those.  / / A further bl
[Feelings of guilt]
/ For the first time Time’s inescapable
stream / / sensed in that truth, her heart cried out in fear / / for
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rld.  / / Daffodils on this side of the
stream , / / the other side a strip of ragged wood, / / glimpsed thro
Green World
[The track up the wild
stream ] / The track up the wild stream, / / blocked by a fallen tree,
[The track up the wild stream]
, down, / / settle at last back on the
stream , / / the water swirling under them, / / sure on its own cours
How not to listen to music
/ to a known woodman’s hut there by the
stream / / to beg food and a shelter for the night.  / / The hut was
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ breaks the surface of the secretive
stream / / to make a great poem.  / /
Yeats and Water-Birds
the soft sand, he rejoined the mountain-
stream , / / turned and began the climb towards the pass.  / / The mou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mountains rise, to where a valley- / /
stream turned the dunes, his state was radically / / better than when
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s / / city receded; crossing slope and
stream / / we lost all trace of habitation—house / / and street gone
The Black-out
master, brooks no mist.  / / Where are
streams and drenched woods?  Where is the rain?  / /
Varangian in Mickelgard
which.  Below, close by, / / the joined
streams formed a rock-pool, deep and spread.  / / He shivered, but he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ry for company, alone.  / / No game, no
streams , hardly a rain-puddle; / / and worst a hard blank grey sky ov
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Woods, beech and fir.  Water—always / /
streams sounding hidden, suddenly leaping / / free from the steep, wh
Varangian in Mickelgard
Strange town at closing-time, / / the
street -cold world lies wide / / before the prisoner free.  / / What n
Freedom
all trace of habitation—house / / and
street gone from the fresh earth like a dream; / / freshness and sile
The Black-out
Merrie England / Don’t smile in the
street / / or someone you meet / / of the opposite sex / / (or even
Merrie England
way, far…  / / But look across / / the
street , or two or three streets.  Know / / featureless faces ground by
Dinner
rned with the tramlines along Ferdinand
Street , / / the Malden Road, and on until we trod, / / past and abov
The Black-out
the rest.  / / A young man in the / /
street was humming, whistling not / / very tunefully / / a tune, fam
For Cecil
harply through / / me hate to be where
streets and houses cover / / contours of earth, and water runs by wal
The Black-out
our feet are travelling / / accustomed
streets .  / / But at the second and the third return / / our jaded so
That Way Madness Lies
across / / the street, or two or three
streets .  Know / / featureless faces ground by gross / / poverty, in
Dinner
/ Follows the fall: / / strong in the
streets the legions of the fiend / / the fruits that wait their greed
Nijinsky
t / / more than gently this slackening
strength .  / /
[The track up the wild stream]
ot sea) / / a gull jerks its oil-bound
strength about, / / that way, this way, no way out of its trouble.  /
Black
lean, or thrown / / his whole weight’s
strength against the buffeting.  / / Half blind with blown spray, or w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
w / / the link, when choice can muster
strength and chance.  / / Yet, while the arch is down, what should we
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ed bride / / cycle of seed and growth,
strength and decay; / / tomorrow’s natural course / / following simp
Wedding Night
e question how to cross, / / regaining
strength and learning how to wait.  / / He watched the river running f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bad was rousing all her power.  / / His
strength and purpose flowed and ebbed—now weak, / / now firm again, t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e / / though he put all his weight and
strength and soul / / against the tiller, he was not holding course /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / the bonds of love; but in your own
strength now / / they will be stronger.  Come, we cannot stay.”  / / S
The Black-out
/ / winter’s bare truths, soft, sweet
strength of spring, / / till chesnut-blossom scattering heralds again
Sixtieth Summer
this way?  / / Or has he an eye on the
strength of the Twelve-Mile Post?”  / / Billowing, settling, over wood
On the Border
of an imageless dream, / / trying your
strength .  Rapt stranger / / what is your sex, that we may give you a
Becoming
ing we hate to give: / / knowledge and
strength , to his imperative / / obedient, love, hope—each successivel
Age
ough the confusion.  / / Truth, find us
strength to make our ways confirm / / and not deface its form.  / /
Prayer to Truth
little done / / —sensibility dumb and
strength unproved, / / the treacherous laziness of hand and brain, /
The Black-out
/ / A gust bellied the sail, and then
strengthened .  / / He moved the tiller automatically / / to make the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nsets in retreat; / / spring warmth is
strengthening though you see not how.”  / / Quieted now I moved with l
The Black-out
/ / though in the heart sits pinioned,
strengthless , dumb / / the natural angel now.  / /
Waiting
r—not want / / and the consequent / /
stress and distress, / / miseries, misery.  / / This being so / / ha
Climacteric by the Sea
ends her delight / / to every joy, her
stress / / to all our wickedness, / / yet’s as much taker quite / /
Fair Exchange
g being.  But in their recklessness / /
stretch to snapping communication-lines / / of light, / / are lost. 
Holes in Space
est.  / / Acres of leafage unbelievably
stretched / / almost past sight—only a faint blue rim, / / another r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cling, fish-plunging, woke him.  / / He
stretched and stripped, plunged too.  The fire-in-ice / / and the hars
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of childhood the shadows and light / /
stretched far out but changed quickly between night and night, / / ti
Hymn
through the opening day, / / the light
stretched long across the dewy land / / and you unheeded, to whom now
Prayer to Time
e godhead, Leda’s lover.  / / That long-
stretched neck, those purposeful / / pinions, legend is lifted on.  /
Bicycle Ride
ng to a mountain, to a range, / / sand
stretched out from the flat green plain.  The change / / in land-struc
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d / / by the thorn-bastion only, which
stretched still / / unbroken, unthinned, quite without change, until
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er it, / / and calm.  Miles to his left
stretched the cold sands.  / / With painful care he worked round to hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
-knowledge.  The forest-plain below / /
stretched to the farther slopes; far beyond those / / he knew the cit
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ore—the breakers.  And the wild / / sea
stretched to the horizon.  He was come.  / / The even roar, compact of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
great wall of south-facing cliff, which
stretched / / west, west to the horizon, straightly sheared / / from
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ewildered, the old well-known road / /
stretched where he’d come—but turning again, grew / / a monstrous hil
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
efore / / the wind, aslant towards the
stretching cliff, / / while he wrenched at the sheets, salted and sti
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lessed change / / from the flat ribbon
stretching on and on.  / / The nurse’s tale?  Yes, but he felt aware /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
arrow ribbon of the flatland shore / /
stretching on endlessly.  Until one day / / it curved off, merging int
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
-seeming river.  / / Beyond, the ribbon
stretching out for ever / / hardly beckoned; and he’d been nearly dro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / On days of merrymaking they would
strew / / flowers in the road.  Who gave fear a glance?  / / All this
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
a joke of me now, dirty creature?  / /
Strew them on, and say “These are Delphis’s bones I’m strewing”.  / /
Spells and Love
hrivel in the fire—why, Thestylis, / /
strew them on then.  Stupid girl, what are you thinking of?  / / Would
Spells and Love
and say “These are Delphis’s bones I’m
strewing ”.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him (you know who) to my ho
Spells and Love
y in the King’s hunting-season not / /
strictly determined by the season’s need.  / / Then, four years after
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ because you met his mistresses with
strife / / but those who take with joy the love of Zeus / / should s
To Hera
/ justice, seem equally guilty of the
strife / / with gangsters and with gamblers on the game, / / whetter
The Black-out
mitar he drew, / / he swung it high to
strike me / / —I caught and held it high, / / but he pulled out his
A Ballad
dark, had somehow been conveyed / / to
strike the boy with a full force of truth, / / through time and two d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
withheld him from lifting the spade to
strike / / the white-faced tall shopkeeper with the black shock-hair
A Dream
another question.) The thing / / that
strikes me oddly now / / is that I have to make / / a conscious effo
Climacteric by the Sea
terpointed by the cuckoo / / lark song
strikes out of the sun-paled blue.  / / Pass from the green brilliance
Two Summer Songs
to be the cutting each thick stem, each
string / / of spear-thorns.  The vast whole he would not see.  / / Hou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
etting quite close before he loosed the
string , / / the only thing that mattered—not to miss.  / / Hardly a s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
statues, tripods, the rest, to ringing
strings / / and high pipe, pretty and innocently proud.  / / But at s
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ / a girl come to the stream / / and
strip herself.  He leapt / / awake.  The girl was there.  / / Slender a
Pelopia and Thyestes
de of the stream, / / the other side a
strip of ragged wood, / / glimpsed through it sheep grazing in a fiel
Green World
k’s wall / / —her pin-ups, marking her
strip of that confined world / / the house behind the house in Prinse
Hermes of Olympia
d do not use it least for this: / / to
strip your own inaction’s false excuse.”  / / A wind shook through the
The Black-out
ening pool / / from the next cliff.  He
stripped and plunged to cool / / his sweating body—knew the fiery sho
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ep and spread.  / / He shivered, but he
stripped , plunged over head / / and out, new-fired.  Then something ca
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
unging, woke him.  / / He stretched and
stripped , plunged too.  The fire-in-ice / / and the harsh salt combine
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ are changed in spring’s breath.  / /
Stripped trees put green on.  / / Not the felled one.  / /
The Difference
/ in snow.  A ceaseless gale that / /
strips it.  Night for you.  / / Warm summer cycle / / ride.  Home, in t
For Cecil
/ Yet, inevitably and eagerly / / we
strive towards that absolute, beyond / / our reach, Freedom, a star. 
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
/ his reason’s helpless wondering, and
strode / / down the right fork.  He felt the fairy smile.  / / Over th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
courage for the land-journey.”  / / She
stroked his hair, his head laid on her knee.  / / “The fairy’s promise
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s, who should pass us / / but Delphis,
strolling along with Eudamippos.  / / Their beards curled yellower tha
Spells and Love
ked and unnecessary.  / / Though not so
strong / / a light as Freedom, this too burns among / / our guiding
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
youngest brother one swan’s wing / / —
strong and beautiful / / but powerless and grotesque / / where a man
Fairy Story
not move / / spirit or feet, now I am
strong and light.  / / Walk with me home, where Hampstead sleeps above
The Black-out
erywhere the clear green / / (soft and
strong as a child’s skin) / / of earliest summer.  This is / / life,
Seasons
/ The living spirit, as beautiful and
strong / / as the living body, has bravery to transcend / / the dyin
Five Poems for Roni
could grave those channels, from those
strong / / contours erode the softness.  Beautiful / / but not unrava
In the Audience
furnished and empty, and—the sense grew
strong — / / empty an age—‘When that old forester, / / who died befor
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
king, hours where the power of quiet is
strong , / / hours when the earth can cradle thought asleep, / / cont
Happiness
s the seen.  / / Follows the fall:  / /
strong in the streets the legions of the fiend / / the fruits that wa
Nijinsky
anks,” and fled.  Waited at the back the
strong / / oarsman, in front the singers silently, / / while Laurenc
The Black-out
ture is not ready to go under.  / / How
strong she is.  The decimations, distortions / / we are inflicting she
Buttercups
l from a ragged end / / resting on the
strong spread of another willow.  / / Yet fallen and soaring bough wer
Five Poems for Roni
the close walls burst, / / but if the
strong straining dissolves in weakness / / and the walls stay, distil
Chrysalis
tains are being washed away / / by the
strong stream of our love, which flows / / clean of those.  / / A fur
[Feelings of guilt]
these spells of mine not a thought less
strong / / than were Circe’s or Medea’s or blonde Perimede’s.  / / Dr
Spells and Love
e wind’s vigour / / bred me secret and
strong .  The wind, the moor / / and my own heart sufficed.  Three times
The Black-out
wind touched me, and a voice clear and
strong : / / “trembles the coward soul?  But Anabel / / who led you la
The Black-out
shall rue it.  / / Is the wind free and
strong ? we must subdue it / / “Blow this way, that way, cool or warm.
Man in Nature
your own strength now / / they will be
stronger .  Come, we cannot stay.”  / / She turned towards the sea her q
The Black-out
o wide or long control / / against the
stronger counterblast.  / / Each unstable star / / wears towards unbe
Entropy
from foot and finger hourly creeps / /
stronger the tide of cold.  / /
The Embankment
glish parkland / / but bigger, wilder,
stronger , / / unearthlier.  / / The path went on and on / / irresist
Los Altos Hills
ions, the three sweet witches.  / / The
strongest beauty of all when all is said.  / /
Dance of the Seasons
think, that because one / / existed so
strongly , warmly, and is now gone, / / her existence is more real sti
Death
an must live.  A soldier must obey.  / /
Strontium 90 we need perhaps, to clear / / the stench of Belsen from
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
his knock.  / / He pushed the door and
struck a light.  No one.  / / Empty the single room.  On a rough block /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / was anything.  The water sucked and
struck / / and hurled him down.  Life sang from a far tree.  / / Horri
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
not the same continually.  / / The sun
struck as it lifted from the sea / / flat on the climbing land, flat
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e, a breach of faith.”  / / Hurt home I
struck back:  “I have not committed / / the cowardice or treachery of
The Black-out
through the air.  / / What summer noon
struck blankly on, / / obliterated and dissolved, / / autumn and eve
For Cecil
eauty is more mysterious than that / /
struck by a trick of light from ugliness / / even for one / / for wh
“Life is sweet, brother”
er valleys.  Wind from distant snow / /
struck deeply chill, but too worn-out for waking / / curled between t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
monstrous love / / —but her wind-wooer
struck him to a stone / / humped in the tides, gull-lone, / / gull-t
The Sea
am.  / / From the south-east the squall
struck his port beam / / and heeled the boat all but under a wave.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lossom.  / / But the thunder-stone / /
struck my world and left me / / broken and alone.”  / / Miranda to Op
Dialogue
n upwards in the endless dance, / / he
struck out and soon reached the other side.  / / He had the measure of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
housands; struck through the city, / /
struck Pericles, whose statesmanship / / had brought them there, had
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
lighter sky beyond the cloud, / / sun-
struck sometimes, but slate again soon / / under the nearing storm.  T
Varangian in Mickelgard
d learnt to steal.  Here the plague / /
struck them, thousands; struck through the city, / / struck Pericles,
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
the plague / / struck them, thousands;
struck through the city, / / struck Pericles, whose statesmanship /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
/ / the knot of tissue and nerve, / /
structurally / / a sentient person, personality / / who will not now
Miscarriage
cease / / to be, or change its nature,
structure , form.  / / Within this same salt tide / / the other end of
The Sea
at green plain.  The change / / in land-
structure intrigued his thoughts today.  / / South up the coast, miles
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / Today we feel behind us / / the
struggle of the ape.  / / The future’s cloud is gathered / / into a m
Other World
us] / Today we feel behind us / / the
struggle of the ape; / / the future’s cloud is gathered / / into a m
[Today we feel behind us]
m / / the force that made him rise and
struggle on.  / / Then his glazed eyes (he might have gone a mile, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Hermes of Olympia / After the others—
struggle or charged stillness / / of heroes, centaurs, gods from the
Hermes of Olympia
t combined almost to choke him.  / / He
struggled out.  Soon, rested, cautiously / / tried his fresh-water-swi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
quered shell; / / even the tongue-tied
struggler jealous guards / / his refuge of unspoken words.  / / It ta
The Party
n the alley-shop was mine, / / my feet
struggling from my own pursuing voices / / which broke in my own tear
A Dream
s near the root / / so that only three
struts of worn wood / / held up the tree.  One branch from the main fo
Five Poems for Roni
a crooked neighbour’s love / / before
Struwwelpeter and straw-gold vanish / / in a silky puff.  / / Sweetne
Another Summer
th’s adamant door, and anything else as
stubborn …  / / —Thestylis, listen!  The dogs in the town are howling.  /
Spells and Love
/ / gladly have fled, but stayed from
stubbornness .  / / Next time with bleeding hands he harvested / / nin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aily changing colours.  / / Someone had
stuck to the hired window / / a coloured small transparency / / “Hav
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
A Wreck / These posts which
stud / / the sterile sand / / were a ship once, / / as swift and be
A Wreck
g caught his eye.  / / A flowered bush,
studded among the flowers / / with butterflies in scores, which sudde
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n, damps / / then blots the sword, the
studded belt, / / Betelgeuse and the clear lamps.  / / Suns burn, wor
Night
/ Above his feet is spread / / a dome
studded with unfamiliar / / configurations, star by alien star.  / /
Antipodes
/ / to think as well as feel, / / to
study what I owe / / and how it might be paid / / in part—a penny in
Villevieille
/ / to see the truth itself in ghostly
stuff , / / and then the void beyond the cliff / / will swing him dow
That Way Madness Lies
ys gently, put a stop / / to any funny
stuff by the defence.  / / The deadly knife-edge of his tongue and loo
Change Places…
ring them here, Thestylis, / / and the
stuff for spells.  Wind scarlet wool round the bowl.  / / I’m going to
Spells and Love
wondering.  He, lifting the half-worked
stuff , / / ran the needle deep in his thumb, and bled, / / red on th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
then, judging, / / shall pity you.  We
stuffed our skin / / —it hangs in rags, and the bones within / / (we
Villon’s Epitaph
rs and bright faces, / / sinks in dark
stuffs and secret looks, and shows / / the simple to the curious.  /
The Party
or delight alone.  Delight he could / /
stumble on still (as dreamer still he was) / / but must do more than
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s my lady and a prince’s wife.’  / / He
stumbled , looked up, did not know the place.  / / Turning bewildered,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aware that he dared not lie down, / /
stumbled , tumbled, and then he just lay there / / as an inanimate thi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Don’t fret / / that the tired nag / /
stumbles , drags / / rambling feet, / / won’t, can’t / / keep the pa
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
ing the thistle-bristling rock / / one
stumbles in the square-cut marks of man / / having flatness enough fo
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
Fairy Story / Her blistered fingers
stumbling at their task / / as time ran short / / yet she completed
Fairy Story
g alone.  / / We are all blind / / and
stumbling blindly fall / / sometimes into some ditch one and all.  /
Blind
mountain through the closing day, / /
stumbling , shaking, took the familiar way, / / hungry for bed, home,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
heared nerves mutter / / in the sealed
stump .  / /
Lopped
do / / but dance, dance on the jutting
stump , dance?  / /
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
w.  / / But dance, dance on the jutting
stump , dance.  / / Along the paved and parapeted track / / forgetful
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ho / / but dance, dance on the jutting
stump , dance.”  / / Prince of Lies, no.  The dark aspect is true, / /
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ew / / but dance, dance on the jutting
stump , dance.  / / “Why do you paint the past so rosy?  Wrack / / and
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ew of stupidity, distilled / / through
stunted generations; yet moving in it / / a blindworm urge to love ma
Law Report
er cousin was by no means plain / / or
stupid , and was not averse to him, / / but—princesse insufficiently l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hy, Thestylis, / / strew them on then. 
Stupid girl, what are you thinking of?  / / Would even you make a joke
Spells and Love
y of settling anything, we must be / /
stupid over the edge of idiocy.  / /
Consider
ant to leave.  / / But brood on that is
stupid , self-defeative.  / / Be content with its being and your love. 
Two Summer Songs
For all our wickedness, / / our blank
stupidity , / / beauty is ours and the earth’s still.  / /
Beauty
ess of that house?  / / A black brew of
stupidity , distilled / / through stunted generations; yet moving in i
Law Report
can be / / forest, mountain, sea.  / /
Stupidity is powerful, and ill will.  / / Destroying each other we may
Gratitude
ed too, but angrily / / (how dare this
stuttering yokel spy on me!) / / Yet she was grateful to him for that
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Is the wind free and strong? we must
subdue it / / “Blow this way, that way, cool or warm.  Be still.”  / /
Man in Nature
id blue / / offers all colours equally
subdued .  / / Winter beauty’s in tune / / with love parted, which is
[Bare trees black]
e though is our own.  / / Our lives are
subject to wickedness and folly / / in others.  Harder to bear, our ch
[Our lives are in other hands]
to bear, our children’s lives / / are
subject too.  And sadly we know ourselves / / foolish often, sometimes
[Our lives are in other hands]
f-realised littering his wake, / / his
sublimated loves corroding in him, / / the world of his religion rive
Pietà
el / / to tell me I can count myself a
substance still.  / / Am I just my dream, in daylight dissipating?  /
What am I?
Shadow and
Substance / The lamp in the translucent pane / / reflected overlays t
Shadow and Substance
Touch / No, there’s no
substitute / / for arms around one another, / / two bodies warm toge
Touch
ay prove a substitute for peace, / / a
substitute for passion, for all perfection / / dreamed and unwon: the
Patience
lack of peace, / / itself may prove a
substitute for peace, / / a substitute for passion, for all perfectio
Patience
s and cries “I knew it!  / / Nothing so
subtle as escapes my skill.”  / / Nature is much to wreck, but man can
Man in Nature
/ / There is a balance in things / /
subtle as his, riding those narrow wings.  / /
Ecology
by fibres, filaments / / charged with
subtle currents. / / which must flow on to others.  / / Must we then,
Parenthood
firm / / on notched rock.  / / Oh, the
subtle / / steps of the couple / / on the high wire!  / / Death-wish
Sea Cliff
n—or else took refuge in a new / / and
subtler one.  You’ve guessed it: cannot true / / love fore-defeat the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
from his error / / revealed the body’s
subtleties / / flushed from the warm blood’s quickening.  / / The yie
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
other / / with a kind of masonry, / /
subtly apart, the old.  / / I know I am not a child.  / / (Up to a poi
Climacteric by the Sea
/ / blot out what were surely our / /
successes , our happiness.  / / Too much about me.  / / But I think abo
For Cecil
/ / a fear.  / / I, already old, / /
successful , happy, mourned / / a hollow failure of the heart.  / / Yo
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
perative / / obedient, love, hope—each
successively / / leaves us.  Our fee to Death, the will to live, / /
Age
ave happiness, see beauty, / / can you
succumb to an unreasoned gloom?  / / This way and that I love and am l
Tristi Fummo
the others said.  / / Watery mud-holes
suck and clog / / and to our vision’s limit spread / / flat as the s
Lost
e could do / / was anything.  The water
sucked and struck / / and hurled him down.  Life sang from a far tree.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
do you cling so hard? / / —pond-leech,
sucking the dark blood out of me.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him
Spells and Love
ack to the precipice / / and empty air
sucks suddenly / / under our heels, / / the sharp shock is its own c
That Way Madness Lies
fire.  / / Tonight; intrusive memory’s
sudden force: / / chastity and desire, / / acts of childhood, parent
Wedding Night
unning faster, / / fast to the sea—and
sudden I saw new, / / as out of cloud, the moon; as hanging over / /
The Black-out
thorn before his face / / just where a
sudden thinning of the wood / / should mark him near the castle.  Then
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pell…  / / Who knew?  Who fought?  / / A
sudden violent blast / / roused the prince brutally from his deep dre
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / twist in his hand / / and make a
suddener end.  / /
Dr Faustus
/ / touching the shade to life / / as
suddenly a reflecting pool, / / somewhere a tinkling fall / / show t
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
ngest son, the chosen man) / / at last
suddenly across an unmarked border, / / thralled by a hand / / beaut
Los Altos Hills
d the low sun at my back / / brightens
suddenly / / across the greenness of the water-meadow / / a grey ste
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
-bushes burning with red hips, / / and
suddenly among those / / a white rose, and another white rose.  / / T
[Late October hedges]
e as the heat takes them, / / flare up
suddenly and not even ash is left.  / / May Delphis’s flesh waste so i
Spells and Love
child’s straying fancy was alerted / /
suddenly by “a knocking at the door / / one dark night late when they
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
omontory.  / / That way he trudged, and
suddenly —check and chill— / / knew himself not alone upon this coast.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e day-dream / / have its day / / till
suddenly / / clouds thin / / under the sun / / and he’s raring / /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
.  / / But today / / meeting your face
suddenly , dark photograph / / in a blown-up snapshot of Anne Frank’s
Hermes of Olympia
bed—now weak, / / now firm again, then
suddenly deadly sick.  / / But still he dragged and hacked, hour after
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d grass / / till a hard winter clamped
suddenly down / / in frost and ice.  The black twigs cased in glass /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
with Emily on towards Camden Town.  / /
Suddenly Emily spoke: “often in winter / / for weeks together I have
The Black-out
ed, miles to the east, / / the sea.  He
suddenly felt alone and lost, / / homesick, afraid; but turned back,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng forward on the sea, / / purposeful. 
Suddenly from the cliff-face swept / / a flight of white birds, wheel
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ The young queen looked, and a curve
suddenly / / gave her the sea-lapped city where this marriage / / sh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / And then a patch of doubt formed
suddenly / / ‘How will the young price know that he is I?  / / Or wil
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
still the path tempted me on.  / / And
suddenly I reached a board:  / / “End of Reserve.  Private land beyond.
Los Altos Hills
‘I will be good.’?  / / I laughed, and
suddenly in cloud and blaze / / rolled back across my heart the gain
The Black-out
d makes / / the flat sea wrinkle, / /
suddenly kindles / / stars, firefruits fallen / / from the sun’s hig
September Cruise
armed.  Vaguely he touched it—leapt / /
suddenly , knowing for what she was the old / / woman.  As though it bo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s gaze / / troubling her faintly…  Now,
suddenly known / / her guide of four years back—and understood.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rs.  ‘Little bores’ / / he thought.  And
suddenly laid plans to go.  / / His elder cousin was by no means plain
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er—always / / streams sounding hidden,
suddenly leaping / / free from the steep, white in a long fall.  Water
Varangian in Mickelgard
ng-drawn moment, intolerably taut, / /
suddenly loosens to a blessed light: / / a figure by the cradle, whit
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / with butterflies in scores, which
suddenly moved, / / wheeled in the air, a sun-caught cloud, and flew
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oft sun / / take over.  And I come / /
suddenly on a briar / / its early bloom / / offering cups of light. 
Upward Turn
descended, / / foothills.  And evening
suddenly showed his eyes / / the river of his vision days before.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ered (dream, / / unremarked word) / /
suddenly significantly recovered, / / twice that small dark bird / /
Yeats and Water-Birds
g rocks, still / / clambered Hymettus. 
Suddenly stood plain / / great St Paul’s, and before it tall and stil
The Black-out
f, his love, his hopelessness.  / / And
suddenly that vision of the sea / / and dreamed escape sprang back to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
round me, vanishing; / / but sometimes
suddenly the cold, retaking / / our hills, wiped from the world my fa
The Black-out
o white, through / / its vaulted ways. 
Suddenly the firm stance / / falters, joined banks are sundered anew.
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
t, / / biting him, scratching him, and
suddenly / / this was a hilt her fingers fastened on.  / / Twisted, n
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ / childhood.  / / From a deep layer
suddenly thrown / / up, a clear image: miles of sea-washed sand, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the precipice / / and empty air sucks
suddenly / / under our heels, / / the sharp shock is its own cure, t
That Way Madness Lies
Eros’ shadow on her.  / / She, stepping
suddenly where the light was thrown, / / cried:  “Hangs the sheath sti
The Black-out
, / / I found the whole world round me
suddenly whiten.  / / In memory’s chest a drawer full of certain treas
A Hoard
/ in black.  The clean air is thick / /
suddenly with snow, / / blind in a whirl of shadow / / whose white g
Exchange
ditated start / / of happiness welling
suddenly within, / / secreted from a life-time, and released / / if
And Then
dren to come unto me.  / / I come.  They
suffer .  / /
Haiku:  Paedophilia
firman further: / / water and air / /
suffer his mandate too.  / / He’ll find it doesn’t do.  / / Land, ocea
Dr Faustus
your lovely garden round.  / / Did you
suffer much?  / / Would to know the answer help?  / / Not you.  Us perh
For Cecil
s and pains, / / even proud perhaps to
suffer / / the flaunting symbol of a difference?  / /
Fairy Story
Haiku:  Paedophilia /
Suffer the little / / children to come unto me.  / / I come.  They suf
Haiku:  Paedophilia
ts, / / tasting in small what the true
sufferer knows: / / the lonely deaf, the blind / / who fumbling in t
Waiting
brutal lamps, / / fine Jewish features
suffering -sunk / / down on the collarbone, hangs / / the drawn body
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
) fritter away.  / / Never laugh at our
suffering .  / / We all need mercy, so go pray.  / / We died by law, bu
Villon’s Epitaph
d, warms and sings.  / / Man’s acts and
sufferings seem / / equally dreadful, yet / / I love man and his dre
Question
he wind, the moor / / and my own heart
sufficed .  Three times the rigour / / of exile had me dying, but the p
The Black-out
e how we ever could / / renege on such
suffusing gratitude.  / /
[Yes, you’re right]
wash it down with warms the soul…  / /
Sugar and spice…  / / Shatteringly / / clatters back in the bleak win
Dinner
.  / / It was a love-match (though most
suitable ) / / yet he was frightening too—yet comforting / / against
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hames) / / dreams across the valley to
Sulham woods; / / the second at Saunton—wind-washed pink thrift / /
Bury My Heart
et sometimes been at board and bed / /
sullen and clumsy as the dead.  / /
Interrogation
ou and I are still apart, / / only the
sullen grey / / grieving’s not there / / but piercing longing to be
[The clouds that pressed the air]
est, / / north, south, all points were
sullenly the same.  / / ’The fairy’s curse’—he knew he fought a spell…
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Another
Summer / / / A dandelion examined / / is unsubtle, unkempt; / / di
Another Summer
summer, this autumn lost.  / / Her own
summer already past / / but winter not yet come, / / what this death
Death
more the still miraculous spring, / /
summer and autumn…  Man proposes… / / winter’s carved boughs… and hark
Man’s Seasons
a dozen greens melt towards gold.  / /
Summer and I are neither young nor old, / / the quiet middle reaches.
Revisited
white birches.  / / Autumn is off where
summer and spring have strayed, / / scattering as she hurries her col
Dance of the Seasons
Dance of the Seasons / Spring and
Summer / Autumn and Winter / The seasons come, the seasons pass.  / /
Dance of the Seasons
/ strips it.  Night for you.  / / Warm
summer cycle / / ride.  Home, in the garden found / / you dying.  Toda
For Cecil
ped up in a rug he slept until / / the
summer dawn brightening above the water / / woke him—and woke, after
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ell-spent years!) the boy.  / / So that
summer for seven enchanted weeks / / they were together in the green
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
; yet this brown carpet’s not / / that
summer four years gone—that’s gone to rot / / in yielding featureless
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Summer / From every hedge lightly the rose / / scentless, ephemeral a
Summer
elax / Clouds roll off.  Summer is truly
summer , / / green sea foaming in cow-parsley and may, / / sun-streak
Relax
p mountain-side / / broke to a torrent
summer had not yet dried.  / / On hard bare feet she hurried down the
Pelopia and Thyestes
ty.”  / / “Why?  What did you do / / in
summer ?”  / / “I sang.”  / / “Then dance the winter through.”  / / The
La Fontaine et le Déluge
y kind guide and my friend / / a happy
summer I shall not forget.”  / / He blushed.  The thousand things he ha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Relax / Clouds roll off. 
Summer is truly summer, / / green sea foaming in cow-parsley and may,
Relax
/ and something made her speak.  “Those
summer leaves / / are sunk to mud.  How should one not be sad / / sin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Mercury last night.  / / One long ago
summer midnight in the Thames valley / / I came on glow-worms.  Years
A Hoard
comes level through the air.  / / What
summer noon struck blankly on, / / obliterated and dissolved, / / au
For Cecil
o.  / / In tedious winter as in teasing
summer / / patience alone can be my ivory tower.  / / I enter middle
Patience
wo Summer Songs / Afternoon / Morning /
Summer recurs.  / / Green fields of childhood greet us / / washed wit
Two Summer Songs
Another
Summer / Roses in the hedge / / scattered prodigally, / / eye and he
Another Summer
-miraculous spring / / drowns as green
summer settles in.  / / Now from the hedges drop the roses, / / and n
Man’s Seasons
d’Avignon / Timbers driven deep through
summer -slack / / water, through mud; winter’s boisterous flow / / br
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
Two
Summer Songs / Afternoon / Morning / Summer recurs.  / / Green fields
Two Summer Songs
Sixtieth
Summer / Still the spiralling seasons draw me on.  / / But since the s
Sixtieth Summer
twist that she should die / / in high
summer , this autumn lost.  / / Her own summer already past / / but wi
Death
ong as a child’s skin) / / of earliest
summer .  This is / / life, which live things by nature / / (their nat
Seasons
Summer Vision / A wild rose lifting / / from the hedge-top / / hooks
Summer Vision
us now in this late / / out-of-season
summer / / we are giving each other / / or fate is giving us, which
[Late October hedges]
r, of course, spring’s power past, / /
summer will show the bony tree / / still bare.  Now though give thanks
Renewal
/ Spring, cold and wet, / / moves into
summer with no change.  Yet / / the brave blossom is white, / / and t
Upward Turn
World / Green world outside the window,
summer world.  / / Daffodils on this side of the stream, / / the othe
Green World
y eyes, heart.  Other summers, / / last
summer , your world too.  / / Where are now / / the coloured worlds yo
Green World
/ Green world in my eyes, heart.  Other
summers , / / last summer, your world too.  / / Where are now / / the
Green World
Summers / This afternoon lying in the long grass / / sun on my face,
Summers
t quite gone / / in the long siesta of
summer’s afternoon.  / / With that ahead, might I be content to sink,
Sixtieth Summer
a hundred years away.  / / The rains of
summer’s draggled end dragged on / / washing the autumn out of leaves
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng in the clear / / after-heat dusk of
summer’s first decline.  / / “By such a moon we quarrelled at Arezzo /
The Black-out
gs were black; / / more beautiful than
summer’s green tent now / / this brown carpet; yet this brown carpet’
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hed his fourteenth year / / before one
summer’s long day saw him there.  / / Staring from it, not back but fa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he wild gleam of heaven’s sending.  / /
Summer’s slow spell is different from / / hers, now from that long pu
Dance of the Seasons
ered in the bewildering night / / Love
summoned Dignity to fight, / / and Pride, against Despair; / / but P
Masque
ls or polished shields / / catches the
sun across two thousand years.  / / “Good-bye.”  “Good luck.”  “But you
On the Border
will be, can.  / / Thorpe white in the
sun / / against the black earth; lost in / / the storm now; now here
For Cecil
e crawled out gasping, sat there in the
sun / / and dreamed of the princess, and watched the root / / of a g
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uddenly / / clouds thin / / under the
sun / / and he’s raring / / to gallop away.  / /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
with warmth and light and the returning
sun / / another being.  / / And love in loss, not understanding, / /
Winter Solstice
my back] / Released from cloud the low
sun at my back / / brightens suddenly / / across the greenness of th
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
[Released from cloud the low
sun at my back] / Released from cloud the low sun at my back / / brig
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
dusty cavernous lump gaping / / at the
sun , at the dead moon, dead as the moon.  / /
Stones
formed his zigzag way / / by star and
sun bent truly to his goal, / / and on the afternoon of the fifth day
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / Now, outside hope, / / the late
sun breaks through / / and round us, me and you / / touching, the fa
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
Los Altos Hills / On the high hill, in
sun -bright scrub, / / the path wound under trees / / a big loop, and
Los Altos Hills
beauty change—clouds frown / / or cold
sun brighten over it, and though / / my heart warms to the first of w
The Black-out
magination’s competence.  / / Marble in
sun burning like snow.  / / Green, violet, scarlet, scattered free, /
Delos in Spring
ter / / than rain-logged poverty).  The
sun burns / / on the quarry-face.  The other way, / / above this bare
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ng he stood out to sea / / against the
sun , but somewhere round midday / / the wind shifted into the north,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
denly moved, / / wheeled in the air, a
sun -caught cloud, and flew / / together up the westering fork.  The po
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / at the still moment of the absent
sun / / cease, be gone.  / / And saw begin / / out of the same darkn
Winter Solstice
tide mark.  / / He ate, and watched the
sun change on the wave, / / and in a dream was home again, and boaste
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and the tears ceased to come, / / the
sun climbed and declined, but he lay on— / / the princess and his mot
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n / / burns back stilly at the setting
sun .  / / Crossing the thistle-bristling rock / / one stumbles in the
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
h Admetus, / / colour luminous through
sun -drenched days, / / cold dew, shelly horns, bulls walking pastures
Poetry
ut hot blood still / / reliquifies the
sun -dried blood.  / /
Naples
er through.”  / / The courtiers of King
Sun enjoyed the wit.  / / What did their children’s children think of
La Fontaine et le Déluge
han their lovely bottoms).  / / Now the
sun goes down.  Parthenon glows / / above the shaded wall, and near at
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
om him, but the head / / bright in the
sun .  Her slight and lovely form / / was all his dream.  He stood and f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
m that moment on / / through storm and
sun , ice-nights and sweating heat / / of shadeless, windless noon, he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r, / / colour and music.  Shine / / of
sun in a child’s hair / / turns water into wine.  / / Here is the abs
Glimpse
beak / / gold-glinting / / in the new
sun / / in the soft air.  / / The delayed year / / is moving into sp
Late Spring
under a grey-blue sky, / / Low bright
sun in the south, and from the north / / a steady wind blows cold and
[White foam sweeps]
d.  / / On marble and gilded bronze the
sun is burning / / by the laughing sea.  / / Among the emperor’s guar
Gunnar of Lithend
south’s cold brightness / / where the
sun is climbing from cloud to its low noon.  / / The wind-swept flat h
[Bare trees black]
on.  But the sun is low] / Noon.  But the
sun is low, / / coldly bright in light blue sky.  / / Everywhere a th
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
[Noon.  But the
sun is low] / Noon.  But the sun is low, / / coldly bright in light bl
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
water falling, flowing.  / / Not enough
sun / / is our complaint, / / too much rain.  / / River and tap will
Drought
Revisited / The
sun is soft, soft the blue horizon / / from which a dozen greens melt
Revisited
last our self-made image, / / when the
sun leaves it, gather its own shadow / / into itself, itself into its
Dream under a Carob-tree
-path on the water reaches / / towards
sun , moon, / / fisher’s lamp, recurring flashes / / of lighthouse be
September Cruise
nd Thyestes / / / / Under the spring
sun moves the innocent band / / white-dressed, green garlanded, under
Pelopia and Thyestes
, / / red mullet and tomato sauce, and
sun ; / / my love burned high then, but the answering / / flicker die
The Black-out
as / / lying in long grass, eyes shut,
sun on face, / / imagining—no, pretending rather— / / this isn’t the
Summers
afternoon lying in the long grass / /
sun on my face, eyes shut, remembering / / sixty years ago I suppose
Summers
their spectral light’s a lesson to the
sun / / on what attends an incandescent day.  / / The star-swarms, th
Macrocosm
d / / happy in the long grass, the hot
sun .  / / Open my eyes now on what afternoon?  / /
Summers
icks of the velvet dome.  / / Dazzle of
sun out of the sea, loud cries / / of fierce white birds circling, fi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uckoo / / lark song strikes out of the
sun -paled blue.  / / Pass from the green brilliance of the meadow / /
Two Summer Songs
/ / Saturn’s black frost poisoning the
sun …  / / Put it as you will, / / the christening-sisters meant / /
“Gale is Dead”
ness.  / / Rest and faint warmth of the
sun / / revived him to his pain.  He lay awhile, / / but something ma
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
h slums, but worse (and better, / / as
sun -scorched poverty is better / / than rain-logged poverty).  The sun
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
he sweet air which takes delight in the
sun , / / secreted smog within.  / / Now, here, / / under the black,
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
nd I / / in twice the time perhaps the
sun / / seems to take) / / stacked with our miscreations, which by o
Consider
morning, light green, dark green, / /
sun -shadows and a sparkle of dew.  / / Light as the air our hair our f
Otherworld
Morning / Across a cold bright air the
sun / / slants.  The day and the year are young, / / and it doesn’t m
Spring Morning
n grey reversion of rain?  / / Rain and
sun , snow, wind, / / weather and season, wheeling / / through the me
Exchange
t the grim / / threat, shivered in the
sun .  So what?  Go back?  / / A gust bellied the sail, and then strength
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
weet / / day and night, / / cloud and
sun , stars, / / wind on the heath.  / /
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
o boulders he dreamed of love.  / / The
sun still mountain-hidden in high day, / / cramped and cold he stood
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ea foaming in cow-parsley and may, / /
sun -streaked with dandelion and buttercup.  / / Light air lifts the si
Relax
and not the same continually.  / / The
sun struck as it lifted from the sea / / flat on the climbing land, f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nder lighter sky beyond the cloud, / /
sun -struck sometimes, but slate again soon / / under the nearing stor
Varangian in Mickelgard
st day of June / / warm air, / / soft
sun / / take over.  And I come / / suddenly on a briar / / its early
Upward Turn
ew and broken but straight, gold in the
sun , / / the cities of Greece: which flowered in her own spring, / /
Greece
water is rare, rare as trees.  / / The
sun , the hard master, brooks no mist.  / / Where are streams and drenc
Varangian in Mickelgard
lse?”  / / Have seen under the wind and
sun / / the world in infinite beauty laid.  / / “What else?  What else
Interrogation
Moving across the snow / / towards the
sun through bright mist.  / / There is nothing else.  / / Luckily I am
For Cecil
of / / ice, under wild colours in / /
sun -touched or dark cloud.  / / A rare night.  Beach deep / / in snow.
For Cecil
ne?”  / / Have sometimes upon world and
sun / / turned eyes as darkened as the dead.  / / “What else?”  / / H
Interrogation
/ / These sparks, I know, are world or
sun / / varyingly vast and from a vast / / difference of age and dis
Night
water / / woke him—and woke, after the
sun was high, / / a faint sea-breeze, which shifted presently / / an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ol wind, / / while time passed and the
sun went low behind / / levelling the light across the circled space.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uds were even on the sky / / or if the
sun were bold and high, / / an ordinary landscape seem; / / where no
Early Train
eyed / / him hard.  He shivered in the
sun .  What other / / such frozen gaze frighted him long ago?  / / He d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s can build no world.  / / Under bright
sun , whole / / the world lies, dazzling, bridal, / / incorruptible. 
Exchange
, a deep, sweet, long slumber.  When the
sun / / woke him, he saw by the cold ashes spread / / two water-bott
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s tall, his hair is raven; / / hers is
sunbright , she is slender.  / / His teeth flash snowy in his wit, / /
On the Towpath
early on Saturday / / and went on over
Sunday / / and never stopped all day.  / / Monday morning early / /
A Ballad
m stance / / falters, joined banks are
sundered anew.  / / But dance, dance on the jutting stump, dance.  / /
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
g children / / cheated by a feud, / /
sundered , bewildered, dead, / / breathe from the tomb. / / to hover
What Hope?
ps, / / fine Jewish features suffering-
sunk / / down on the collarbone, hangs / / the drawn body of a young
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
nched shoulders closing / / across the
sunk glance, / / knotted, shrunk.  This / / is not stillness of peace
Winter Recalled
, a second / / and longer cape, almost
sunk in the blue, / / reached out from a remoter range, which curled
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of self-pity and abuse.  / / Just now,
sunk in the dark, I could not move / / spirit or feet, now I am stron
The Black-out
pace you want.  / / Rein slack / / on
sunk neck, / / let him amble home / / in his own time; / / dream, k
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
le worse, and when we part / / gondola
sunk or walkers not returning / / may turn a casual parting to a last
The Black-out
/ What can the boy become except / / a
sunk thing, a wrecking wreck?  / / What hope?  His own nature.  / / In
George Jackson
er speak.  “Those summer leaves / / are
sunk to mud.  How should one not be sad / / since we must all go under
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
were watching them, these two / / have
sunk towards the ships.  / / We watch the crescent set, / / know her
September Cruise
mall room dazzled him / / with shafted
sunlight falling on a bed.  / / She seemed to have lain down, dropped
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed him of some delight.  / / Issuing to
sunlight from an icy stream, / / a dark bush jewelled with flowers an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
etween two thoughts, breaking / / like
sunlight in the breast, the unnamed wrong / / dispelled, happiness sp
Happiness
the children said / / was the shine of
sunlight , / / on their side was shade.  / / Sound of church-bells /
The Green Children of Woolpit
e station of our birth / / we ride the
sunlight , swift and proud.  / / The wing-heeled boots, the crooked kni
From the Air
t gone, / / lost in a smile as warm as
sunlight —“You.”  / / “Ah, you” his heart in answer glowed upon / / he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d peak / / between two shadowed cliffs
sunlit , which said / / ‘I am your way’ (if butterflies can speak, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Cedar / The cedar’s
sunny terraces / / extend about a vault of shade / / —inevitable ima
Cedar
/ Betelgeuse and the clear lamps.  / /
Suns burn, worlds spin unhindered on.  / / This veiling is our earth’s
Night
k / / sparks without number spin, / /
suns .  One bursts in huge radiance.  The wreck / / falls back on itself
Holes in Space
heightening, glow, / / ray from a red
sunset , deepening / / the colours in the hangings of memory.  / / Not
What Do They Feel?
/ low down in the quick-faded southern
sunset / / over the ocean rim.  I looked at the moon, / / looked up s
A Hoard
the bank, / / the dark recesses of the
sunstruck wood / / brought his forebodings back in force.  And yet /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
by rain we are pegged here / / for the
sun’s drying and blackening.  / / Crows, pies have picked our eye-hole
Villon’s Epitaph
stars, firefruits fallen / / from the
sun’s high tree.  / / Today the sea is milk, milky blue / / hardly li
September Cruise
cloud masks the sky.  / / Behind me the
sun’s levelling beam / / illuminates against it, white, / / brillian
Bicycle Ride
/ / when he knew / / long ago / / in
sun’s light, / / behind the night’s / / spangled tent, / / an unmov
Divinity
is blind / / —blank blackness / / the
sun’s light / / until kindled / / by act of sight.  / / Sight is sil
Music is Landscape
h, bad teeth, bad skin, / / falling or
superfluous hair / / or a good crop has dandruff in.  / / You name it
Gratitude
is way there and for once be free…  / /
Supper , bed, mother brought him home again.  / / His mother, waiting u
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
urmur / / of a lost limb… / / fingers
supple / / to caress or grasp, / / unravel muddle, / / adapt chance
Lopped
mastered by an inner law, / / a narrow
supple vixen on quick black pads.  / /
Lady into Fox
s, wine and food / / at least a week’s
supply —written a note / / to tell his mother he was gone, and gone.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
fuse.  / / A bad combination, one would
suppose , / / a recipe for trouble.  / / Yet / / neither of us really
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
y / / nineteen-eighty-four / / you, I
suppose , and I the whole day through / / probably never thought / /
Leap Year
be with you still.  / / Love may be, I
suppose , / / as some have said, born blind, / / but when his kitten-
Epithalamium
wild wind and that wall of rock?…  / /
Suppose he made the shore…  Those barren ranges / / climbing from cape
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e home’s face.  / / Who bred here could
suppose himself to possess / / of his cramped acres more than a squat
The West of Ireland
/ / If, considering this, / / we can
suppose it is / / a state of being that’s compatible / / with reason
Consider
hut, remembering / / sixty years ago I
suppose it was / / lying in long grass, eyes shut, sun on face, / /
Summers
all night the rain is falling.  / / But
suppose morning / / comes bright, washed things will display / / new
Exchange
Survival / I don’t
suppose out of the grave / / any of me will last, to grieve / / and
Survival
together / / —brothers and cousins, I
suppose , / / sticking by one another, / / but one was at a distance,
A Ballad
last impulse on…  / / So.  This way too… 
Suppose the weather changes / / what hope for a small boat, what hope
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ates their being, as Time our own.  / /
Suppose they’re here: an imperceptible / / section sliced through our
Dimension
elf, more easily / / than I could ever
suppose / / to my empty house.  / / I miss… not so much / / a compan
[Living alone is lonely]
he end / / is wanted.  I didn’t, I / /
suppose , want to leave the womb.  / / Moving across the snow / / towa
For Cecil
pain for what it was / / and knew the
supposed choice already made.  / / Freedom he’d half so longed for was
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d years, / / establishing unchallenged
supremacy , / / Shakespeare standing above all appears, / / until I l
Poetry
Sur le Pont d’Avignon / Timbers driven deep through summer-slack / /
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
/ / glowing picked up his bow and with
sure eye / / shot down a seagull for his breakfast, roasted / / on o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ut if your door had been barred / / be
sure I’d have come again with torch and axe.”— / / These are the spri
Spells and Love
ou beside me.  And for a moment I’m / /
sure of your actual presence, and the peace / / floods me that’s alwa
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
/ the water swirling under them, / /
sure on its own course, unaware.  / /
How not to listen to music
ms thin / / and in any case we go / /
sure only of our sin.  / /
Living and Dying
hat Delphis is in love.  / / She wasn't
sure , she said, whether it was a woman / / or a man, but all the even
Spells and Love
ristian country, / / of that they were
sure .  / / This came later.  / / When they were found / / at the bott
The Green Children of Woolpit
in general clamour and din.  But he was
sure / / though he put all his weight and strength and soul / / agai
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ntier, ranging / / life against death? 
surely a true / / discontinuity, estranging / / and yet that mortal
New Year
t unspoiled.  / / Advance / / is good,
surely (as well / / as being inevitable).  / / Help it, honour it.  Ye
Progress
e / / and in the mountains there would
surely be / / springs—and oh, mountains! what a blessed change / / f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mething which may not be there / / and
surely cannot hear / / nor, if it could, be moved by them.  / /
Prayer
ided / / his way who will.”  I smiled:  “
surely from you / / comes my taste for an ivory tower provided, / /
The Black-out
hat to an honest view / / it seems (as
surely it must seem to you) / / that all smooth ways are ways for hat
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
/ / those rings about your eyes?  / /
Surely life is only love / / and love is paradise.”  / / Ophelia to M
Dialogue
me.  / / I was almost burnt up already. 
Surely Love / / builds a hotter fire than Hephaestus under Etna.”— /
Spells and Love
f the chasm of depth and past— / / but
surely no less truthfully / / age-traced patterns on a domed sky?  /
Night
?  / / Or have we?  / / In part a myth,
surely —not all but partly— / / and true though much of it is, need th
Desert Island?
st not let that / / blot out what were
surely our / / successes, our happiness.  / / Too much about me.  / /
For Cecil
as Freud made us aware, / / and he was
surely right / / but wrong surely to say / / the traffic is one-way.
Fair Exchange
d yet… and yet / / reaching you so, it
surely should be / / laid there for you somehow to tread it / / with
September Cruise
uides us against reason.  / / But most,
surely , to care.  / / Care for ourselves (how else / / can we underst
Caring
?  / / I do not think so.  / / Too much
surely to hold you.  / / But if it were, what courage.  / / I am old,
For Cecil
and he was surely right / / but wrong
surely to say / / the traffic is one-way.  / / Sex lends her delight
Fair Exchange
rmth of innocent pleasure, / / as mine
surely to you.  / / And that’s a sweet thing to have knowledge of / /
Leap Year
of the wide / / acreage that is ours. 
Surely we / / in the end / / shall find ourselves made free / / to
[The grass in the next field]
es (we’re human) drift our way / / but
surely we shall never let them build / / into a barrier.  / / We know
[Yes, you’re right]
Joy / Ask no
surety of this flawless morning / / for noon or afternoon.  Take what
Joy
hoes and went / / barefoot through the
surf and along the shore.  / / But all this slowed him, and his flasks
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, straightly sheared / / from grass to
surf , golden against the noon, / / lovely, inhospitable.  In the lee /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / against the shore, and the curved
surf -line closed / / in cliffs and a rock-naked promontory.  / / That
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
…  / / But between me and mine / / the
surface curves away, away / / and all across it play / / flickers of
Antipodes
York, chewed gum.  / / To each culture-
surface / / its proper scum.  / /
Pavements
ce that small dark bird / / breaks the
surface of the secretive stream / / to make a great poem.  / /
Yeats and Water-Birds
/ built an intelligible world / / of
surfaced shapes.  / / Now, as then, / / the beam comes level through
For Cecil
/ and then she told him, to his shocked
surprise , / / a story he had never heard before.  / / It didn’t even
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t it was lovely weather, / / felt with
surprise gladness to be still there.  / / He walked a little way upstr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pulled himself together, / / saw with
surprise that it was lovely weather, / / felt with surprise gladness
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e / Miranda to Ophelia / / in pity and
surprise :  / / “What are those wrinkles on your brow / / those rings
Dialogue
hamed of, / / frightened by, even / /
surprised at.  / / North-north-west / / we are all mad.  / / Don’t fr
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
” he said.  No more than in a dream / /
surprised , I listened to the faint guitar.  / / Down to the quay below
The Black-out
Survival / I don’t suppose out of the grave / / any of me will last,
Survival
/ may think you mean them.  / / England
Suspects .  / / If seized with a laugh / / conceal it in cough.  / / O
Merrie England
theirs alone.  / / Its temperate depth
sustains / / the coelacanth unchanged / / from years ere light, / /
The Sea
the cliff / / will swing him down and
swallow him.  / / Life narrows down between our closing arms, / / bet
That Way Madness Lies
se have not: / / childheart (while the
swallow / / settles down, the cuckoo’s / / voice breaks) hedge-rebor
[Housman was old beyond his years]
ome that here / / I have hardly seen a
swallow this year / / but today on the high wire / / I count twelve
Swallows
ross my heart the gain and loss.  / / I
swallowed , but the tears blotted my gaze.  / / “You know,” remarked my
The Black-out
the waters to the sea / / running, and
swallowed down the tears of shame.  / / I pulled my hand across my fac
The Black-out
Swallows / How does it come that here / / I have hardly seen a swallo
Swallows
ar away and long ago— / / farther than
swallows in the autumn fly, / / I cannot count the generations gone—
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ a time shared.  / / Wish the gathered
swallows joy of their far journey / / and ourselves prepare / / for
Swallows
Blue thin brilliant dragon-flies, / /
swallows ’ acrobatic flawless flight.  / / A fish jumps at the corner o
Water in a Wood
I am I.  / / No swan, though, is just a
swan .  / / A loaded image: birds of Coole, / / Lir’s three children,
Bicycle Ride
/ / The ugly duckling flowered into a
swan ; / / and if this child’s beauty, ephemeral, fade / / rebuke no
Joy
ater-Birds / He chose the symbol of the
swan / / and that of the grey gull.  Nearer the bone / / was the moor
Yeats and Water-Birds
/ On a curve of the river / / a white
swan / / and then another / / and six cygnets, full grown / / but s
Return
against it, white, / / brilliant, one
swan high in flight / / across the flat fenland.  No dream— / / this
Bicycle Ride
emained / / an air-and-water-wandering
swan ?  / / Or did he gratefully recover / / mankindness with its gift
Fairy Story
/ / this is today and I am I.  / / No
swan , though, is just a swan.  / / A loaded image: birds of Coole, /
Bicycle Ride
Headline / Children stone a
swan .  / / Troopers shot the fawn, / / Wanton brutality / / by all a
Headline
, / / leaving her youngest brother one
swan’s wing / / —strong and beautiful / / but powerless and grotesqu
Fairy Story
—perhaps mankind, / / featureless in a
swarming desolation / / as light falls on the blind.  / / Paris loves
Fossils
ends an incandescent day.  / / The star-
swarms , the vast-wheeling galaxies, / / dwindle to pin-points in spee
Macrocosm
nor, if I had, could I imagine him / /
swayed by prayer; yet do not think it odd / / to frame some longings
Prayer
Lightly blows / / the hedge-rose, / /
sways , clings, / / white, pink, / / and I think / / lightly sings /
Divinity
—“I was coming, by sweet Love’s self I
swear I was coming / / for a proper serenade, with two or three frien
Spells and Love
/ breathing hard, head swimming, while
sweat and blood / / ran down his face, he fought a mounting fear.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
colder than snow all over.  A drenching
sweat / / stood on my forehead like dew and trickled down.  / / I cou
Spells and Love
e stripped and plunged to cool / / his
sweating body—knew the fiery shock / / of snow-water, colder than he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ through storm and sun, ice-nights and
sweating heat / / of shadeless, windless noon, he followed it, / / l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uncentred space, / / knowing nothing,
sweats with fear.  / / Fled are the open sky, the easy slumber.  / / N
That Way Madness Lies
s foreshortened vision lost.  / / Their
sweep enclosed the harbour-city’s bay— / / rock rising to a mountain,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ours in still woods, on the wind-shaved
sweep / / of downs, walking, sitting, now listening, / / looking, ho
Happiness
f the wounded wood / / watch the sleek
sweep of the road.  / / The exposed trees absorb the fumes / / which
The Rift
/ Not yours to raise a fiery cross and
sweep / / the world before a cause, but none the more / / to sit and
The Black-out
eyond them but the sky.  / / Half their
sweep , though, was blotted out by one / / which towered towards him,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
laze / / of light on water—dark cloud,
sweeping showers— / / or the whole ring an unflawed clarity— / / he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
[White foam sweeps] / White foam
sweeps along the grey-brown shore / / from grey-green sea under a gre
[White foam sweeps]
the exiled sea.  / / I am the wave that
sweeps over the wall, / / sets your houses awash, drowns your creatur
The Wave
[White foam
sweeps ] / White foam sweeps along the grey-brown shore / / from grey-
[White foam sweeps]
eat.  / / Dirty old men dream young and
sweet .  / /
Meeting
hriven, she raised her face / / to the
sweet air / / and a voice came out of the wind / / for all to hear /
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
tter in the mud, “out there / / in the
sweet air which takes delight in the sun, / / secreted smog within.  /
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
h marsh- / / water—the mountain-water,
sweet and clean, / / was gone before.  “I asked him what he ate— / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
were on fire, and our whispers were as
sweet as honey.  / / And not to make too long a story of it, dear Moon
Spells and Love
/ / and larch, Hell was.  / / Life is
sweet , / / as you did not forget / / living, never let / / fear or
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
“Life is
sweet , brother” / Winter morning.  / / This clear level light makes be
“Life is sweet, brother”
ead, can teach / / our doubt and shame—
sweet / / day and night, / / cloud and sun, stars, / / wind on the
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
craved scraps of food and love / / —a
sweet little girl—hanging’s not bad enough— / / But who can know the
Law Report
e was speaking.  No / / dreams, a deep,
sweet , long slumber.  When the sun / / woke him, he saw by the cold as
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hem, lady Moon.  / / —“I was coming, by
sweet Love’s self I swear I was coming / / for a proper serenade, wit
Spells and Love
lairs, / / outwit the witches, win the
sweet princess.  / / The old stories, alike but different, / / told y
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nging, / / winter’s bare truths, soft,
sweet strength of spring, / / till chesnut-blossom scattering heralds
Sixtieth Summer
he had thought / / water could be, and
sweet , sweet to the taste.  / / He crawled out gasping, sat there in t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
promised land of love / / (garden more
sweet than childhood’s happy valley) / / and having crowned us king a
Prayer to Time
s mine surely to you.  / / And that’s a
sweet thing to have knowledge of / / looking back from our love.  / /
Leap Year
thought / / water could be, and sweet,
sweet to the taste.  / / He crawled out gasping, sat there in the sun
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ their fugitive creations, the three
sweet witches.  / / The strongest beauty of all when all is said.  / /
Dance of the Seasons
lered sprays / / pink, gold and white,
sweetening the light stillness / / by bird-notes pierced but not disp
The Grass Road
the colours / / of autumn, but / / my
sweetheart -flower these have not: / / childheart (while the swallow /
[Housman was old beyond his years]
/ / the dream gone you shall keep the
sweetness .  / /
Otherworld
-gold vanish / / in a silky puff.  / /
Sweetness spreads about / / from hawthorn-conquering may.  / / The bu
Another Summer
beautiful, / / lending / / a kind of
sweetness to an undulled pang.  / /
“Life is sweet, brother”
on a small promontory / / and the sea-
swell swings its shock / / against rough rock.  / /
September Cruise
/ in loved places.  / / Two such buds
swelled , / / Dropped from my child-heart, grow / / there where they
Bury My Heart
went, gentle, reflective, blue / / or
swelling black boiling to white, through / / its vaulted ways.  Sudden
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
urposeful.  Suddenly from the cliff-face
swept / / a flight of white birds, wheeled over the boat / / westwar
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
om cloud to its low noon.  / / The wind-
swept flat horizon / / under the high-cloud-mottled pallid blue / /
[Bare trees black]
s weakness frightened him— / / all but
swept off he made the bank just.  Quite / / spent, he could only drag
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ress / Many things have to go.  / / But
swept out in that flow / / are others which should have stayed:  / /
Progress
above the sea / / the six white horses
swept the golden carriage.  / / The young queen looked, and a curve su
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ueen.”  So, this was it.  / / The horses
swerved as the skilled driver swung / / the heeling coach home throug
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
wed steps I reached the glare, / / but
swift a sanded figure from his work / / turned and forbade me right o
The Black-out
ile sand / / were a ship once, / / as
swift and beautiful / / at least as all ships are, / / but caught by
A Wreck
of our birth / / we ride the sunlight,
swift and proud.  / / The wing-heeled boots, the crooked knife / / le
From the Air
other and their love.  / / Later, in a
swift gorge, rough cliffs above, / / shared toil and danger made part
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng beach / / miles, hours.  He loved to
swim , and learned the tide, / / coaxed from his parents early a trim
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, cautiously / / tried his fresh-water-
swimmer’s limbs again / / in this new element to master.  Then / / gl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aved up on his hands, / / steadied his
swimming head, saw it was night, / / a moon—behind, the bright sea un
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
agging clear, / / breathing hard, head
swimming , while sweat and blood / / ran down his face, he fought a mo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
air, / / who pass counting us where we
swing , / / do not hate us for what we were, / / pity us.  Come your r
Villon’s Epitaph
hen the void beyond the cliff / / will
swing him down and swallow him.  / / Life narrows down between our clo
That Way Madness Lies
t that thaw showed your earth is on the
swing / / of lengthening days.  Be patient and allow / / winter its w
The Black-out
on a low bough, her legs hanging, / /
swinging a wide hat, not as in the wood / / she braved the thorns, bu
The Black-out
small promontory / / and the sea-swell
swings its shock / / against rough rock.  / /
September Cruise
ful / / all the brick-grey desert, the
swirling banner / / we bear of smoke, smoke of factories, / / the fa
“Life is sweet, brother”
last back on the stream, / / the water
swirling under them, / / sure on its own course, unaware.  / /
How not to listen to music
light, / / are lost.  Night wins.  / /
Swirling vastness a lost speck.  In each speck / / sparks without numb
Holes in Space
as come.  / / The even roar, compact of
swish and slap / / innumerably varied and repeated, / / entranced hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e mind.  / / I glimpse out there / / a
swollen belly, hollowed eyes, / / blank stare, / / where once a day
Dinner
of your face as mask, / / closed eyes
swollen .  / / Snow under grey cloud.  / / Monochrome world from Cambri
For Cecil
lp it.  / / Seagulls cry / / circling,
swooping over / / the white, noisy water.  / / The call comes from th
Climacteric by the Sea
ime on the stony ground, / / the naked
sword across her naked thighs, / / staring down at it with unseeing e
Pelopia and Thyestes
o the opening shadows / / and held his
sword against the shades crowding / / to the blood.  / / When he had
Odysseus
as they come?  / / Hadn’t I my ten-palm
sword / / and my fathom gun?  / / A likely lad, a bonny fighter / /
A Ballad
ighting in the hills.  / / But then the
sword broke in my hand, / / the steel snapped clean in two.  / / A Tu
A Ballad
/ / horror-blunt, horror-blind / / —a
sword drawn on a mother, / / a daughter’s innocence / / perverted to
Pelopia and Thyestes
all brightness to this brightness of a
sword / / He laid it among the reeds again, went slowly back / / to
Finis
im back to the lake.  / / He turned the
sword in his hands.  / / The king his master was dying, this was his s
Finis
ke / / and stood and turned the bright
sword in his hands / / then tossed it flashing towards the middle of
Finis
od by the grey lake / / and turned the
sword in his hands.  / / There were gems in the gold hilt, but it was
Finis
t you your winter shore.  / / Wind is a
sword of / / ice, under wild colours in / / sun-touched or dark clou
For Cecil
rth / / (the cap, the sandals, and the
sword ) / / rot unclaimed under the stone.  / /
Dark Age
put the wet dress back on.  She hid the
sword , / / seeming to hide her knowledge and his deed; / / straighte
Pelopia and Thyestes
“Hangs the sheath still empty, and the
sword / / stands ever in the water-wandering stone?”  / / Her face wa
The Black-out
the pattern, damps / / then blots the
sword , the studded belt, / / Betelgeuse and the clear lamps.  / / Sun
Night
king his master was dying, this was his
sword , / / the sword was beautiful and it was his master’s, / / his
Finis
was dying, this was his sword, / / the
sword was beautiful and it was his master’s, / / his master was dying
Finis
t clear, / / a Claude, a dream.  / / A
sword was never tossed in here, / / and if it were / / no hand would
Water in a Wood
s.  Trust them.  / / “Put up your bright
swords , for the dew will rust them.”  / /
Against Deterrents
ake.  / / A hand came up and caught it,
swung it, a bright circle / / in the last light, before it sank in th
Finis
ing, / / his scimitar he drew, / / he
swung it high to strike me / / —I caught and held it high, / / but h
A Ballad
he horses swerved as the skilled driver
swung / / the heeling coach home through a needle’s eye / / into the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
things (beauty, / / truth), most, like
Sydney / / dying, to care for others.  / / The image of Sydney's deat
Caring
, to care for others.  / / The image of
Sydney 's death / / is mythical, someone says.  / / But living he earn
Caring
in reason and faith, / / mathematical
symbol , artist’s vision—Truth, / / compel the twisting mind and (what
Prayer to Truth
ud perhaps to suffer / / the flaunting
symbol of a difference?  / /
Fairy Story
Yeats and Water-Birds / He chose the
symbol of the swan / / and that of the grey gull.  Nearer the bone /
Yeats and Water-Birds
the child.  / / Looked into Down’s / /
Syndrome features.  / / A happening.  / / Why ask what it can mean?  /
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
ows the monument of Philopappos / / (a
Syrian princeling of the Roman age / / honoured by rich Athenians of
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
il) / Aegean / Kea Lion / Leaving Kea /
Syros to Naxos / Occultation of Jupiter / (Naxos harbour, 12 September
September Cruise