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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

T

that Delphis is in love.  / / She wasn'
t sure, she said, whether it was a woman / / or a man, but all the ev
Spells and Love
guard-room seemed to wait— / / bench,
table , brazier, weapons on the wall, / / but no one.  He passed to the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oom, 1944 / Riven temper runs along the
table / / like a ladder down a stocking, like flame / / along dry wo
Back Room, 1944
hoing, empty—on to the great hall:  / /
tables , stools, hangings, one great chair, and all / / empty.  The pla
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
whisks on, / / the tip of our own fool
tail .  / /
Curvature of Space
n, / / round off some ragged, trailing
tail .  / / But always there’s another one / / —that plea allowed coul
A Prayer
/ Venus shivering under the Scorpion’s
tail , / / Saturn’s black frost poisoning the sun…  / / Put it as you
“Gale is Dead”
/ or rather (here is west) its lovely
tail / / (the greeks gave temples fronts and backs alike, / / just a
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ne qua non of humanness, / / cannot be
tailored to equality, / / except that we are equally human, and / /
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
y Stone.  / / Or the places alone / / —
Taj Mahal, Parthenon, / / Angkor Wat, Avila, / / Eiffel Tower, Pont
Tourist
ng over the hill, / / it’s a moment to
take a cool / / look in the face, or / / rather at the fact, of deat
[Now of threescore and ten]
n you.  / / Through different worlds we
take a different way, / / but common-coloured threads were woven thro
The Black-out
him in his exiled age, / / but now we
take a new hero—or say / / him rebegotten by the fairy’s word?  / / A
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
be.  / / Elsewhere my road.  But that I
take a road / / I owe to you—if I am partly free / / from the slothf
The Black-out
/ beach on an unknown shore.  / / Then
take an oar, turn your back to the sea / / and walk inland with the o
Odysseus
, my hands cease from their art / / to
take arms, not in this but a just war / / with final victory; even if
The Black-out
ilies of the Field / They think as they
take breath, bearing no trace / / in mind or eye.  / / Glowing, droop
The Lilies of the Field
river but from it still withheld, / /
take by its side their rest.  / / Monks, harnessing the hungers of the
The Embankment
l leave her there for good if you don’t
take care.  / / No, down a bit.  Yes, there—a bit to your right.”  / /
On the Border
presently, son, daughter, / / circle,
take flight / / from ours to outer world, build worlds in / / differ
Out from the Cliff
sced / / too easily in Fate for her to
take .  / / Her higher spirit burned rather to do / / than bear—his se
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
him / / a dozen or a hundred paths to
take .  / / He’d crossed the stream, he could not have said why, / / t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ck of will to live, have let / / death
take him there under the thorns?  Who knows?  / / But the last word is
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
joy / / a little, not keep.  / / He’ll
take it back again / / but then / / you’ll know that you and he are
[Time is a child]
would be / / a bet I’d hardly care to
take , / / love as I do humanity.  / /
Mother’s Malison
which limits Liberty, / / the give-and-
take / / more real than Equality.  / / This indeed is another burning
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
offer?  Not these hands and lips / / to
take my love, but others formed beyond / / the grave.  ‘A sacrifice, m
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cannot have your eaten cake.  / / Then
take , oh take your trip with us.  / / We know the spell of joys that l
The Sirens
June / / warm air, / / soft sun / /
take over.  And I come / / suddenly on a briar / / its early bloom /
Upward Turn
.  / / Sick and weak, / / we feel them
take over / / reality, / / shameful, frightening, / / telling us we
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
ou shall do.  / / Take ship again.  Yes,
take ship again / / and sail distance and days, / / beach on an unkn
Odysseus
assuaged.  / / This you shall do.  / /
Take ship again.  Yes, take ship again / / and sail distance and days,
Odysseus
the time perhaps the sun / / seems to
take ) / / stacked with our miscreations, which by one / / choice, by
Consider
him / / tomorrow.  But now, Thestylis,
take the ashes / / while it’s still night, and knead them into his do
Spells and Love
have to make / / a conscious effort to
take / / the fact that, looking down / / on me from this balcony, /
Climacteric by the Sea
/ Like a bird, like the wind / / they
take their certain, incalculable way, / / and passing lend / / our e
The Lilies of the Field
g, the sperm, be hideously undone, / /
take these bombs to Japan.”  / / We have our orders, and our keep and
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ess morning / / for noon or afternoon. 
Take what may / / come—bright or broken day / / or dull.  Though unre
Joy
stresses with strife / / but those who
take with joy the love of Zeus / / should scarce expect affection fro
To Hera
I failed you, so can only / / fail to
take your place.  / / Yes, but must still be something / / more than
For Cecil
ave your eaten cake.  / / Then take, oh
take your trip with us.  / / We know the spell of joys that last, / /
The Sirens
est was vague.  He knew the lad / / was
taken as a forester, and ever / / a loved friend in the household by
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ave picked on him, / / still less been
taken by him.  Why reach out to her / / at the moment of truth?  / / W
“Tell Lady Byron…”
d nurse and father, near and dear, / /
taken for granted.  Not as yet for her / / painful passion obsessively
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
el / The objects in this case / / were
taken from a grave: / / a pair of ear-rings, gold, simple design; /
Label
nature I was true and kind.  / / It has
taken half my life and more to find / / how I was self-deceived.  / /
Original Sin
Long life to him.”  / / Thanks.  They’ve
taken her man for the army though.”  / / “My brother’s been called and
On the Border
“Are / / all tasks done?”, spells are
taken off / / and happy now lives ever after.  / / All spells but thi
End of Fairy-Story
airy-Story / All tasks done, spells are
taken off / / and happy now lives ever after.  / / Beyond sound of Ti
End of Fairy-Story
g cough / / all tasks done, spells are
taken off / / this shimmering crest which knows no trough.  / / Since
End of Fairy-Story
all our wickedness, / / yet’s as much
taker quite / / as giver—throws upon / / her basic monotone / / sce
Fair Exchange
, / / a lightless cave whose emptiness
takes all in / / and remains empty.  / / Their net of feeling and tho
Where?
“out there / / in the sweet air which
takes delight in the sun, / / secreted smog within.  / / Now, here, /
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
heaven, which like the deep ocean / /
takes everything to itself and remains pure.  / / And if the sea has o
Relax
from ourselves how ruthlessly / / Age
takes everything we hate to give.  / / Huddled in his barbed camp we f
Age
s us in self-despising misery, / / Age
takes everything we hate to give: / / knowledge and strength, to his
Age
nce the golden bowl of memory.  / / Age
takes everything we hate to give, / / leaves us our fee to Death, the
Age
Age / Age
takes everything we hate to give / / not everything we have—in mocker
Age
g.  You’re simple and straight / / —she
takes her meat off anyone’s plate.  / / I’d be afraid if I married her
Love Scene
ly; “each to our own is true; / / each
takes its own home by an absolute right.  / / Here I must leave you.  I
The Black-out
stiff for life’s path, where fate / /
takes like cloud unpredictable shapes.  / /
Uncertain
/ his refuge of unspoken words.  / / It
takes long plotting or a lucky chance / / for two to leave their towe
The Party
Age’s bony knuckle / / (mean fighter)
takes me in the mouth, / / and as I spit another tooth out / / I won
[Age’s bony knuckle]
r storms.  / / The fool’s laughter / /
takes the wind from his sail / / the moment after.  / / Hamlet, falte
Catharsis
I burn.  The leaves crackle as the heat
takes them, / / flare up suddenly and not even ash is left.  / / May
Spells and Love
lways up almost before I was down, / /
taking a pride in that.  This time it took / / a passage of time, an e
The Fall
is way among all possible ways / / and
taking it did not look back again.  / / Behind him walked his brother,
The Black-out
ubles, mind others’ troubles more, / /
taking them seriously / / but not allowing them to be a bore.  / / Th
Two Poems for G
/ / most of us often.  Such as he, / /
taking up their ungrateful task, / / must fix it irremovably, / / ti
H.A.R.P.
ir / / are beautiful— / / sad, an old
tale , / / fable, romance…  / / False?  But there’s something there, /
Heron and Gulls
ars to run / / or four or six; is your
tale like to be / / equal to ours?—oh, feed and fan your flame.”  / /
The Black-out
stretching on and on.  / / The nurse’s
tale ?  Yes, but he felt aware / / of much, much more, than she could e
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ But this was different from her other
tales .  / / Fairies and giants, kings and queens of old, / / princess
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the windy plain.  / / We hold a double
talisman —are free, / / first of as many worlds as books, and then /
The Black-out
at will do.  As for marrying, / / we’ll
talk about that again when your mourning / / is folded away, god will
Love Scene
it was I never knew.  / / But he would
talk about the forest-land / / where he had lived—that’s why he was s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
own plain, / / pursued and pursuer—the
talk at the watercourse— / / the tall son whistled down; the young me
Poetry
leeps above / / the quenched city, and
talk .”  But she: “to-night / / you shall not home so soon; in other pl
The Black-out
/ and gives rise to rumour.  / / Don’t
talk in a train / / unless to complain.  / / Veil up your soul:  / /
Merrie England
some of their wildness, / / learned to
talk — / / the boy less than the girl.  / / The boy did not live, / /
The Green Children of Woolpit
” / / That was what she said but I can
talk too.  / / “Daughter of dear Amphimedo”, I said, / / “(a fine wom
Love Scene
on things remote / / from this search
talked at ease.  And presently / / they from the boat were calling me:
The Black-out
several months too early.”  / / But I’d
talked enough.  I laid the girl / / down among the flowers.  A soft clo
Love Scene
ed, had not been well.  / / The doctors
talked of country peace—she ought, / / they said, to rest in woods an
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
her as his own.  And as she grew / / he
talked to her, more than he ever had / / even to her mother.  “There w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n’s daughter; / / “he is in Cambridge,
talking , sleeping sound, / / O thou of little faith; but we are here.
The Black-out
ain / / great St Paul’s, and before it
tall and still, / / Like a poplar or a cypress, Humfry Payne.  / / Af
The Black-out
Grace / Two
tall beautiful girls / / both in white dresses / / walking in the du
Grace
Buttercups / Low to the grass—
tall , branching—massed together, / / a wash of gold across the water-
Buttercups
valley-head / / he saw the mountain—a
tall flat-topped peak / / between two shadowed cliffs sunlit, which s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
’s and women’s lavatories, / / I saw a
tall girl, and not yet drawn close / / knew Molly and stood still.  “B
The Black-out
On the Towpath / He is
tall , his hair is raven; / / hers is sunbright, she is slender.  / /
On the Towpath
briar.  / / Right was a space, where a
tall pine-tree stood— / / the only conifer he’d seen all day / / amo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he spade to strike / / the white-faced
tall shopkeeper with the black shock-hair / / phoning the police to f
A Dream
oonlight fell / / on her pale face and
tall , slight, angular figure.  / / “And you?”  I said; and she: “you kn
The Black-out
r—the talk at the watercourse— / / the
tall son whistled down; the young men, / / East and West, brothers in
Poetry
he campus was beautiful, / / grass and
tall trees, / / grave colonial buildings.  / / These serious scholars
Grace
father’s kingdom held / / but poor and
tame our forester had found it / / beside the great-treed miles of me
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d parapeted track / / forgetful of the
tamed wildness below / / once-separated worlds long wandered, back /
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
all tongues of the world, / / Gorgias
Tamynis on a sherd / / in a scratched verse, and A.G. on a wall / /
Fossils
a leaf-fan on whorled stalks, above the
tang / / which held it in the handle, doubtless of wood / / (no trac
Label
ot know, / / do not need.  / / Is it a
tangled or an infinitely / / intricately woven skein?  / /
Anniversary
ight patience, picking through / / the
tangles , light at last upon a clue, / / draw one strand clear, even o
Again
For Cecil /
Tankas and haikus / Aldeburgh / Cambridge / The North / They burned dr
For Cecil
retentious monument / / which time has
tanned and broken to harmony).  / / The sky is green.  Hymettus / / mi
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
int, / / too much rain.  / / River and
tap will always run.  / / A little shift in earth and air’s / / metab
Drought
eak.  / / One within, one without, / /
taps on the hollow wood, / / the one communication they admit, / / t
Woodpeckers
orld of life perished and vanished / /
taps us these messages.  / / Hearts flower in words, or works of hand
Fossils
.  / / Smug, you forget the other crop (
tare / / in the wheat)—careless insensitive unkindness, / / small bu
Treasure
h, the will to live, / / outlasts this
tarnished thing, worn to a sieve, / / once the golden bowl of memory.
Age
the instincts (as she judged them) of a
tart , / / a craving to be had by… well, you’ve guessed.  / / His lust
Beyond Measure
er blistered fingers stumbling at their
task / / as time ran short / / yet she completed of her nettlework /
Fairy Story
e his own work good.  / / Each time its
task : cutting the undergrowth, / / keeping down vermin, cherishing th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
as he, / / taking up their ungrateful
task , / / must fix it irremovably, / / till where’s the mask and whe
H.A.R.P.
/ began to cut his way.  He forced the
task / / to be the cutting each thick stem, each string / / of spear
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
knew / / she would feel better with a
task to do, / / a stake in the adventure as it were).  / / Dark throu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rayed by cowardice.  / / “Your delicate
task to keep your power, neither / / thrown to the winds, nor hid as
The Black-out
ing prince cried, laughed “Are / / all
tasks done?”, spells are taken off / / and happy now lives ever after
End of Fairy-Story
End of Fairy-Story / All
tasks done, spells are taken off / / and happy now lives ever after. 
End of Fairy-Story
sound of Time’s warning cough / / all
tasks done, spells are taken off / / this shimmering crest which know
End of Fairy-Story
smiled: “surely from you / / comes my
taste for an ivory tower provided, / / unlike some towers, with windo
The Black-out
water could be, and sweet, sweet to the
taste .  / / He crawled out gasping, sat there in the sun / / and drea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hating herself and it) yet learned the
taste / / of pleasure, found in her bewildered heart / / the instinc
Beyond Measure
that we may give you a name? / / your
tastes , that we may make our house your home?  / / What is your form,
Becoming
ong eclipse / / the spirit waits, / /
tasting in small what the true sufferer knows: / / the lonely deaf, t
Waiting
was always his.  He played with her and
taught her / / and loved her as his own.  And as she grew / / he talk
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l that / / took off into the air, / /
taught itself to fly, / / fly properly like a bird.  / / Twittering l
Bat
bought / / from an eastern pedlar, who
taught me how to use them.  / / But away, Lady, bend your team to Ocea
Spells and Love
emed, in various ways.  / / He had been
taught to hunt and use the bow / / but never practised much, and seve
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / The long-drawn moment, intolerably
taut , / / suddenly loosens to a blessed light: / / a figure by the c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
from.  / / Feeling his neck jerk on the
tautened rope / / he turned again.  Descending, to dree out / / his w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
wrong.  / / No buses passed me and one
taxi , hired.  / / A wind touched me, and a voice clear and strong:  /
The Black-out
horror deny it; / / so now, dead, can
teach / / our doubt and shame—sweet / / day and night, / / cloud an
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
/ / and an old long-shore fisherman to
teach / / the basic skills; those mastered, knew the pride / / of de
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Teach Us…  / / / Have always been too fond of sitting still, / / and
Teach Us…
buildings.  / / These serious scholars,
teachers / / were also beautiful.  / / I felt the presence of grace /
Grace
se them.  / / But away, Lady, bend your
team to Ocean / / now, and I’ll bear my longing as I have borne it.  /
Spells and Love
oven strands / / which yielded only to
tear deeper.  Then, / / dropped in a daze, he bled on the leaf-mould /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / and frightening.  Shaken by a hot
tear -shower / / she turned to the firm shoulder there, a tower / / f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / momently pierce but not disturb or
tear / / the silence of the dark.  / / The town is fevered; but as ni
Country and Town
oast to Love, and he went off / / in a
tearing hurry, to garland that house, he said.  / / That’s what my fri
Spells and Love
near thee.”  How can I / / believe the
tearing of this tie?  / /
Sibling
the seasons, of work, even comfort and
tears / / —a predictable order, if nothing goes wrong, / / to protec
Hymn
enough, / / she broke into a flood of
tears and fled.  / / He half-noticed the room was filled with light, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
on, / / the signal-lights repassed, of
tears / / and happiness, while upward rears / / now the tower, round
Anniversaries
he loved only himself… voice failing in
tears .  / / And now, alone on the fells, companioned only / / by the
A Dream
ain and loss.  / / I swallowed, but the
tears blotted my gaze.  / / “You know,” remarked my guide, “you make a
The Black-out
ay good-bye for good?  / / No, I see no
tears , / / but a sharpening of the senses, heightening, glow, / / ra
What Do They Feel?
s.  / / Not ice or fire, no shrieks, no
tears , / / but hopeless ill yearning for well.  / / Then—music of the
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
nd wept.  / / The blood clotted and the
tears ceased to come, / / the sun climbed and declined, but he lay on
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
broke in my own tears.  / / I woke from
tears / / dry-eyed to the puzzling presence of a dream.  / /
A Dream
ong cold she liked the warm.  / / A few
tears formed but scarcely fell.  / / She bound the bracelet on his arm
Ballad
suing voices / / which broke in my own
tears .  / / I woke from tears / / dry-eyed to the puzzling presence o
A Dream
ea / / running, and swallowed down the
tears of shame.  / / I pulled my hand across my face, weary, / / and
The Black-out
eath.  His lady bent above, / / the hot
tears running down her face, and cried / / ‘My knight, my prince, my
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ended, the nurse said, / / not in the
tears she looked for but in laughter.  / / Later, the boy walked on th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bright morning glistens on the night’s
tears .  / / Time heals and doesn’t heal, / / and nature is no comfort
News of a Death
n arm he wept—sobbing waves / / of hot
tears washing the weight of sin and sorrow / / away from the heart.  /
A Dream
away from the heart.  / / And heart and
tears were mine, / / as hand on spade in the alley-shop was mine, /
A Dream
re than usually wet / / with blood and
tears ; wrongs beyond hope of mending / / lie at the root of every dec
The Black-out
hers also.  / / In tedious winter as in
teasing summer / / patience alone can be my ivory tower.  / / I enter
Patience
/ is informed with so much more, / /
teasing the plaintive self:  / / Look backward down your life / / for
Epoch
others, cares for others also.  / / In
tedious winter as in teasing summer / / patience alone can be my ivor
Patience
cursing diarrhoea, / / bad breath, bad
teeth , bad skin, / / falling or superfluous hair / / or a good crop
Gratitude
love, keeps happiness living in pain’s
teeth .  / / …  But only the real presence brings us that peace.  / /
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
is sunbright, she is slender.  / / His
teeth flash snowy in his wit, / / hers with the laugh that answers it
On the Towpath
n in his breast / / drove him into the
teeth of any pain / / which might distract him.  So with naked hands /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t they pretend? (a / / pair of sets of
teeth so even…?) / / Look round.  His black is thin behind, / / her b
On the Towpath
ng on a bed, / / then changed, merged,
telescoped .  The point was made.  / / The sky-ring sharp, unbroken, rea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ormal row, filament-flowers, / / radio
telescopes with lifted faces / / listening / / to secrets of the uni
Two Cultures?
ell, that again’s a thing we can hardly
tell .  / / But now that we watch ourselves / / contriving against our
What goes up must come down
want her told?  Why indeed / / want to
tell her anything at that late hour?  / / Why her?  / / The whores and
“Tell Lady Byron…”
from thorns and pins / / but dared not
tell her why.  No hint of fear / / clouded her rosy thought of being l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
od / / will have me on the mat / / to
tell Him and myself / / everywhere I went wrong.  / / Then, all the d
A Hot Bath at Bedtime
o Timagetus’s club / / and see him and
tell him off for treating me so.  / / Now, though, fire-spells to bind
Spells and Love
a week’s supply—written a note / / to
tell his mother he was gone, and gone.  / / The sky was clear, the daw
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
“
Tell Lady Byron…”  / What did he want her told?  Why indeed / / want to
“Tell Lady Byron…”
r foot to press on or hand feel / / to
tell me I can count myself a substance still.  / / Am I just my dream,
What am I?
/ Do you remember…?  Did you know…?  / /
Tell me…  This’ll amuse you though…  / / The thought, as natural as bre
Sibling
though they love me.  / / You have (you
tell me, what I’ve no inkling of) / / a temper that flares high on a
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
heart’s misery / / only the heart can
tell / / —mind and tongue break beneath it / / and die in doggerel”
Dialogue
in the reeds at last, go back / / and
tell the king he had tossed it in the lake.  / / But the dying king kn
Finis
e reeds again, went slowly back / / to
tell the king he had tossed it in the lake.  / / The king was not dece
Finis
The Last Oracle /
Tell the King: the intricate fane is fallen.  / / His primitive hut, h
The Last Oracle
What goes up must come down / We can’t
tell what mistake / / it was that wiped out the dinosaurs and their l
What goes up must come down
but love is never lost.  I came / / to
tell you this.  It may seem little enough / / or nothing to you now, b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the light flamed up—of course, / / the
teller of all stories, his old nurse.  / / But this was different from
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / the sharp shock is its own cure,
telling / / how vain are our imaginings, / / and soon our feet are t
That Way Madness Lies
ality, / / shameful, frightening, / /
telling us we / / aren’t who we are, / / hate whom we love.  / / Not
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
/ a measure; Stanley Spencer’s vision
tells / / one need not paint in French exclusively; / / Margot Fonte
The Black-out
They follow her to the fields.  / / She
tells them all, / / leads them by track and tussock, / / finally sto
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
the oar in the ground, / / mark out a
temenos , build an altar, sacrifice / / there to Him of the sea.  / /
Odysseus
poor child makes tracks / / out of the
temenos .  Outside she came / / to silence—or rather to cicada-shrill /
Pelopia and Thyestes
void / / with the little ugly flame of
temper .  / /
Back Room, 1944
Back Room, 1944 / Riven
temper runs along the table / / like a ladder down a stocking, like f
Back Room, 1944
ell me, what I’ve no inkling of) / / a
temper that flares high on a short fuse.  / / A bad combination, one w
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
Greenham Common / / / … of Hyacinth’s
temperament .  Just such a child / / mankind appears: of knowledge insa
Greenham Common
dly, / / hoping faintly that mankind’s
temperament / / might now find itself worked by womankind / / toward
Greenham Common
en all seas were theirs alone.  / / Its
temperate depth sustains / / the coelacanth unchanged / / from years
The Sea
ne or circle, hand in hand / / between
temple and altar and the crowd / / of worshippers, the crowded offeri
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ / of heroes, centaurs, gods from the
temple -gables, / / weight of a winged power / / out of the wind alig
Hermes of Olympia
use them in its white embrace.  / / The
temple -veil rent from his error / / revealed the body’s subtleties /
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
ng / for Lucy / Time threw the columned
temples down / / and broke the features of the god / / and of the li
Delos in Spring
) its lovely tail / / (the greeks gave
temples fronts and backs alike, / / just as to statues generally gave
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
inging gone, / / but shining still the
temples hold / / their broken faces to the dawn.  / /
Acropolis
n us into a life’s short light / / the
temporal earth.  / / Calm shine some, in whom power and deadweight hol
Lamps
Sink into / / the seedy role, laudator
temporis acti?  / / No.  Bad trouble, but even our sick polutions / /
Desert Island?
ved and gutted the gay shell.  / / That
tempted him.  “What are they?”  “Sea-urchins.”  / / “May I…?”  She laughe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
this your land.  / / But still the path
tempted me on.  / / And suddenly I reached a board:  / / “End of Reser
Los Altos Hills
hat I went down with a high fever / / —
ten days and nights I couldn’t get out of bed.  / / These are the spri
Spells and Love
escore and ten] / Now of threescore and
ten / / fewer than twelve remain.  / / Granted, that limit’s set / /
[Now of threescore and ten]
life’s road…” / / half threescore and
ten .  / / Half a lifetime ago / / a thunder-flash put out a glow / /
Anniversary
[Now of threescore and
ten ] / Now of threescore and ten / / fewer than twelve remain.  / / G
[Now of threescore and ten]
eescore and ten or so] / Threescore and
ten or so / / —a reasonable range.  / / But only about ten to go / /
[Threescore and ten or so]
[Threescore and
ten or so] / Threescore and ten or so / / —a reasonable range.  / / B
[Threescore and ten or so]
s likely as they come?  / / Hadn’t I my
ten -palm sword / / and my fathom gun?  / / A likely lad, a bonny figh
A Ballad
e braved the thorns, but later, nine or
ten / / perhaps—another meeting equally good.  / / In the darkness I
The Black-out
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform / Walking I heard the train / / behind
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
a reasonable range.  / / But only about
ten to go / / does feel strange.  / /
[Threescore and ten or so]
mped in the tides, gull-lone, / / gull-
tenanted , and soon / / gull-dropping-white / / on the myth-dark / /
The Sea
Two Poems for G /
Tender and Merry / Lüneburg Heath / Tender and merry.  Other things of
Two Poems for G
G / Tender and Merry / Lüneburg Heath /
Tender and merry.  Other things of course too, / / But these are upper
Two Poems for G
/ / faithless we find a miracle, / /
tender on the high twigs the green.  / / One year, of course, spring’s
Renewal
ecial power to bless: / / laughter and
tenderness .  / / I haven’t seen (only with the mind’s eyes) / / those
Two Poems for G
/ / meaning Time.  / / Enemy indeed he
tends to seem: / / longed-for hours, almost as soon / / as entered,
Two Poems from a New Life
, / / behind the night’s / / spangled
tent , / / an unmoved mover, / / loved not lover, / / indifferent.” 
Divinity
/ / more beautiful than summer’s green
tent now / / this brown carpet; yet this brown carpet’s not / / that
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the ships along the shore, / / the
tents about the plain.  / / Armed soon, as before, / / he kissed his
Presage
is cramped acres more than a squatter’s
tenure ? / / where the harsh landlord may distrain on all, / / the ho
The West of Ireland
terms, His best friends admit, are long-
term —Plato / / no less than Paul, Buddha no less than Plato.  / / I a
The Betrayal
e trod, / / past and above the tramway
terminus , / / Hampstead Heath, which now low but clear of cloud / /
The Black-out
to sacrifice some bargains.  God’s / /
terms , His best friends admit, are long-term—Plato / / no less than P
The Betrayal
o many questions begged, / / undefined
terms —‘love’.  / / I fall silent.  / / Death one would think is / / a
Another Summer
wed the question / / to be reframed in
terms of God and Caesar / / as equal powers.  So Christians can make C
The Betrayal
o question, / / a copy’s shadow in the
terms of Plato.  / / Yes.  But, though by so answering their question /
The Betrayal
han what we’re made, / / less dome and
terrace than a tree.  / /
Cedar
Water in a Wood / Five
terraced meres / / dammed from a slow small stream.  / / Black still
Water in a Wood
Cedar / The cedar’s sunny
terraces / / extend about a vault of shade / / —inevitable images /
Cedar
nges and goes on, / / hard among these
terraces of vine and thin corn, / / inescapable stone.  / / The lion
September Cruise
il.  / / The noon was darkness, and the
terrible coast / / could not be seen.  Even the clap and roar / / of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
night / / against her, of his long and
terrible fight / / finally won.  The monster dead, he lay / / wounded
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to him / / of autumn.  But he shivered—
terrible / / the thought of ways crook-tunnelled all about / / or no
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oth sides of the screen: / / conscious
terrified eyes and numbed groin; / / white figures, busy hands, flick
Block 21
et, soothing the head, / / veiling the
terrified staring eyes.  / / Hear / / the gentle voice in the common
Block 21
, / / chilled him with horror and with
terror .  / /
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
/ / his heart contracting in a kind of
terror / / at hope out of complete despair reborn.  / / The image of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y and unnecessary death; / / recurring
terror of the unfenced edge, / / meaningless life; and love’s affirmi
Wedding Night
s).  / / Then there are terrorists… but
terrorism’s / / different, isn’t it?  Every terrorist / / seen the ot
Choice
s, / / once a freedom fighter always a
terrorist .  / / Not so different really.  Those we hate, / / we say, h
Choice
orism’s / / different, isn’t it?  Every
terrorist / / seen the other way’s a freedom fighter.  / / And, alas,
Choice
lacks, those Jews).  / / Then there are
terrorists … but terrorism’s / / different, isn’t it?  Every terrorist
Choice
/ / ‘All right’ he thought.  ‘The next
test is the river.’  / / That’s what he thought.  The tests came sooner
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
iver.’  / / That’s what he thought.  The
tests came sooner, though— / / came all the time, it seemed, in vario
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
et endeavour / / to loosen the child’s
tether / / and to leave soon enough.  / /
Parenthood
Then, when I felt my throat hard on the
tether , / / the thaw—soft air one night, and sound on waking / / of
The Black-out
ter and wood / / between the wandering
Thames and the White Horse.  / / A bigger heart that, I think, than an
Bury My Heart
/ / but above Pangbourne on the middle
Thames ) / / dreams across the valley to Sulham woods; / / the second
Bury My Heart
t / / we turned our backs, towards the
Thames our faces.  / / Trafalgar Square, laid empty in the moonlight,
The Black-out
/ One long ago summer midnight in the
Thames valley / / I came on glow-worms.  Years earlier still, at dusk,
A Hoard
Gratitude / I don’t know what to
thank , but grateful I feel, / / not only for affection—for natural be
Gratitude
which is at any rate / / (whomever we
thank for it) ours.  / /
[Late October hedges]
t / / he had so much, so very much, to
thank / / the fairy for, he could not think her good / / would fail
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d guilt.  But our love stands free.  / /
thank you for loving me, letting me love you.  / / We love each other.
[Our lives are in other hands]
oy ourselves).  / / But I am still / /
thankful to know this beauty, as well / / as for those I love and who
Gratitude
colours them through.  / / We feel such
thankfulness / / each to other and to / / chance or fate or God or w
[Yes, you’re right]
rl laughing jumped out: “good-bye, / /
thanks ,” and fled.  Waited at the back the strong / / oarsman, in fron
The Black-out
y tree / / still bare.  Now though give
thanks , be blessed / / in the reviving mystery.  / /
Renewal
Yes, there—a bit to your right.”  / / “
Thanks .  Did you lose a lamb the other day?  / / I found a dead one thi
On the Border
, lady Moon.  / / —“But as it is, I owe
thanks first to the Cyprian / / goddess, and after the Cyprian thanks
Spells and Love
gnant wife—” / / “I hope it’s a boy.”  “
Thanks .  How can she keep the flock?”  / / “My two unmarried sisters ca
On the Border
ian / / goddess, and after the Cyprian
thanks , my dear, / / to you, who brought me here and out of the flame
Spells and Love
comes to Me.”  / / Then all around gave
thanks / / on bended knee, / / blessed God for a soul rescued / / f
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
st had a boy.”  “Long life to him.”  / /
Thanks .  They’ve taken her man for the army though.”  / / “My brother’s
On the Border
rning cold rehardens now; / / but that
thaw showed your earth is on the swing / / of lengthening days.  Be pa
The Black-out
my throat hard on the tether, / / the
thaw —soft air one night, and sound on waking / / of water dribbling,
The Black-out
saken me?”  / / “What have I to do with
thee ?”  / /
Biblical conversation
the fact of death.  / / “One ever near
thee .”  How can I / / believe the tearing of this tie?  / /
Sibling
/ of love, that was his life and is our
theme .  / / It fell in his fourth year.  He could recall / / all his l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ returned we know; but of the deeper
theme / / —spirit, whence formed or fetched here, on what wing / / (
Dulce et Decorum
ng further; form / / thins into smoke,
thence into lightless air; / / the soul in the blackness of uncentred
That Way Madness Lies
lus, The Song of Roland, / / Leopardi,
Theocritus , Palamas, / / Heine, Hoffmann von Hoffmanswaldau, / / Bau
Poetry
herd’s Song / from a poem attributed to
Theocritus / Pelops may rule his country, Croesus count out his money,
Shepherd’s Song
Spells and Love / (
Theocritus’s second Idyll) / My bay-leaves, where are they?  Bring them
Spells and Love
ender unto Caesar,” / / But did He not
thereby , Himself being God’s / / son, God Himself, defraud Himself?  I
The Betrayal
forgotten fairy, but this one not / /
thereby to malice moved or bitterness.  / / To Carabosse all things ar
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and having crowned us king and queen
thereof / / sold us to separate benches in war’s galley.  / / Redeem
Prayer to Time
them, as once in Naxos, they say, / /
Theseus forgot Ariadne for all her beauty.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel,
Spells and Love
eaves, where are they?  Bring them here,
Thestylis , / / and the stuff for spells.  Wind scarlet wool round the
Spells and Love
r, and anything else as stubborn…  / / —
Thestylis , listen!  The dogs in the town are howling.  / / Hecate’s com
Spells and Love
y-grains first shrivel in the fire—why,
Thestylis , / / strew them on then.  Stupid girl, what are you thinking
Spells and Love
l drink for him / / tomorrow.  But now,
Thestylis , take the ashes / / while it’s still night, and knead them
Spells and Love
de my mind up.  I said to my slave / / “
Thestylis , you must find me the cure for this.  / / That man from Mynd
Spells and Love
y love.  Mark them, lady Moon. / / —and
Theumaridas ’ old Thracian nurse (she’s dead now), / / who lived next
Spells and Love
ck scarf over her bent head, black / /
thick gauntlets on her hands.  Most deeply aged / / he could not doubt
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed the task / / to be the cutting each
thick stem, each string / / of spear-thorns.  The vast whole he would
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
veiled / / in black.  The clean air is
thick / / suddenly with snow, / / blind in a whirl of shadow / / wh
Exchange
.  / / Now, here, / / under the black,
thick tide / / we learn / / all about despair.”  / / He ran like tho
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
eiling the meeting / / of sea and sky,
thickening , till only foam / / shone in the black; light imperceptibl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
learn) to make it up; / / learn blood (
thicker than water) / / is not for spilling; / / learn mutual love. 
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
to cicada-shrill / / stillness, where
thickly -bushed steep mountain-side / / broke to a torrent summer had
Pelopia and Thyestes
tiful borders, cruel borders / / where
thieving and loving alike are things of passion / / and every passion
[The bare, beautiful borders]
on the hill, / / reaches out into the
thieving and loving, / / into the killing, / / into the song.  / / T
[The bare, beautiful borders]
/ This child was thrashed to death for
thieving , lying / / and filthy habits which, the father said, / / we
Law Report
Only, it’s not the end: / / loving and
thieving , passion and blood, live on / / in song.  / / And there’s a
[The bare, beautiful borders]
, / / the naked sword across her naked
thighs , / / staring down at it with unseeing eyes.  / / Then she saw
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ this way, that way, of the wind, / /
thimble -pocked by the beaks’ sharp play.  / / Our brotherhood is not w
Villon’s Epitaph
the holding dissipate like sea-spray to
thin air.  / /
The West of Ireland
/ Where are they gone, where?  / / Into
thin air—into thinner far than air, / / into a world where all the wi
Where?
wind-scattered wide, dropped on what’s
thin / / and dry, blaze against the wind again.  / / Mind shakes to s
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
ay be so, / / but the likelihood seems
thin / / and in any case we go / / sure only of our sin.  / /
Living and Dying
sm.  Bareness, / / water runs thin / /
thin as grass.  / / The desert shows through flaking green.  / / Mars
Drought
ht in light blue sky.  / / Everywhere a
thin beauty.  / / Even the glow / / of autumn leaves is mute, palely
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
o even…?) / / Look round.  His black is
thin behind, / / her blonde is mousy at the root.  / / The laugh too,
On the Towpath
l day / / among the beech and oak.  Its
thin black spire / / was sinister, and boded him no good.  / / He tur
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
south.  Dim to the starboard lay / / a
thin blue ribbon, merging past unravelling / / detail of trees and ha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
gend / / but not less magic.  / / Blue
thin brilliant dragon-flies, / / swallows’ acrobatic flawless flight.
Water in a Wood
/ hard among these terraces of vine and
thin corn, / / inescapable stone.  / / The lion lies, is as he always
September Cruise
was the voice of his old bawd, ugly and
thin , / / crying her sorrow that all his mistresses loved him, / / e
A Dream
oon.  / / Sometimes when the self grows
thin / / I am my father or my son.  / / A mechanist philosophy / / c
Shadow and Substance
/ footed in shifting foam, crowned with
thin jade, / / broke down to island-rocks.  One took the shape, / / h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r children’s children think of it?  / /
thin -legged and mocked, in London or in Lyme / / timelessly scraping
La Fontaine et le Déluge
t bird roasted on a stick-fire.  On / /
thin rough grass of a valley-alp he dropped / / his weariness, and sl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y, / / planks rotten, seams uncaulked,
thin sails torn, / / drifts shuddering in the gloom / / of the incre
England, 1981
tibly / / withdrawn from all, to those
thin streaks retreating / / and to the star-pricks of the velvet dome
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ metabolism.  Bareness, / / water runs
thin / / thin as grass.  / / The desert shows through flaking green. 
Drought
its day / / till suddenly / / clouds
thin / / under the sun / / and he’s raring / / to gallop away.  / /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
t can the boy become except / / a sunk
thing , a wrecking wreck?  / / What hope?  His own nature.  / / In the d
George Jackson
e looked awful.  I don’t remember / / a
thing about the procession or how I got home, / / and after that I we
Spells and Love
/ / a picture or a face / / —person,
thing and place, / / though we may love it for / / (it seems) its ow
Fair Exchange
es another year / / to finish some new
thing begun, / / round off some ragged, trailing tail.  / / But alway
A Prayer
ke a bird.  / / Twittering light-scared
thing , / / blind but unfalteringly / / aware of its black way, / /
Bat
e may I see Delphis bolting, / / a mad
thing , breaking away from sport and friend.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel,
Spells and Love
d / / of living day?  / / She laid the
thing in her apron, / / slipped away.  / / The priest comes to the al
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
not the worst, but the next worst / /
thing in his life.  Afraid, afraid went back, / / a dreadful journey,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ular glow / / of lovers’ meeting was a
thing it knew.  / / On days of merrymaking they would strew / / flowe
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
he just lay there / / as an inanimate
thing lies where it’s thrown.  / / And images of violent vividness /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / His arm along the tiller, the live
thing / / moving with him, extension of muscle and bone, / / lightly
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r for this man who’s made me, / / lost
thing , no wife and now no maiden either.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, dr
Spells and Love
ion / / never to hurt / / the other—a
thing our loving natures learned / / each in an earlier day, / / som
[Yes, you’re right]
ht to the final crunch, / / is the one
thing that counts.  / / But as we live ‘No man / / is an island’ or,
Touch
ore he loosed the string, / / the only
thing that mattered—not to miss.  / / Hardly a sport, but he was hungr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
But that’s / / another question.) The
thing / / that strikes me oddly now / / is that I have to make / /
Climacteric by the Sea
surely to you.  / / And that’s a sweet
thing to have knowledge of / / looking back from our love.  / /
Leap Year
o inevitable?  / / Well, that again’s a
thing we can hardly tell.  / / But now that we watch ourselves / / co
What goes up must come down
ind, / / a feeling heart, and one / /
thing which doubles those, / / the gift which makes them known, / /
“Gale is Dead”
l to live, / / outlasts this tarnished
thing , worn to a sieve, / / once the golden bowl of memory.  / / Age
Age
hole) or wind (scattered) whither—not a
thing .  / / Yet peace, that keeps her nest unnoticed in / / hearts ho
Dulce et Decorum
ar / / under some other likely-seeming
thing ; / / you know not even abortive love can be / / called the fir
The Black-out
ton.  / / Between waking and sleep / /
things appear / / sharp in the eye, / / words speak in the ear / /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
/ of wide preventable want, though such
things are / / good causes for unhappiness, does not spring / / from
The Black-out
ed or bitterness.  / / To Carabosse all
things are ground for hate, / / but here we meet the other side—pity
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
love.  Without love / / all those happy
things are mockery.  / / She had to spoil herself, and spoiled die.  /
“Gale is Dead”
Dr Faustus /
Things aren’t what they were.  / / Man, having mastered earth, / / st
Dr Faustus
rossed for a magpie from the left / / (
things at least of that sort).  / / We only mean to say, perhaps:  / /
Uncertain
understand caring?) / / more for other
things (beauty, / / truth), most, like Sydney / / dying, to care for
Caring
t summer.  This is / / life, which live
things by nature / / (their nature, its own) forsake.  / / Does it ma
Seasons
Progress / Many
things have to go.  / / But swept out in that flow / / are others whi
Progress
forget.”  / / He blushed.  The thousand
things he had to say / / went from his mind, water from a cracked pot
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ I’ve bad drugs in my chest, Mistress,
things I bought / / from an eastern pedlar, who taught me how to use
Spells and Love
Dreams / That ghosts come home… 
Things I don’t believe / / I still like sometimes to pretend— / / th
Dreams
o dream,” he said.  / / “Many, many the
things I meant, and few / / I made; and much I dreamed is mine and lo
The Black-out
d of those are you; / / the time to do
things in is short at most; / / why sit like those who listen for the
The Black-out
the outside, can / / love her.  Natural
things in nature are / / blind to her beauty, dumb to sing of her.  /
The Reckoning
my queen and me.  / / I thought of many
things (most if not all / / true) done or left undone to set us wrong
Hebona
Caring / We are here for many
things / / mostly at variance: / / to make ourselves something / /
Caring
üneburg Heath / Tender and merry.  Other
things of course too, / / But these are uppermost in my thoughts of y
Two Poems for G
/ where thieving and loving alike are
things of passion / / and every passion, or nearly, ends in a killing
[The bare, beautiful borders]
not know what to, / / some words, some
things remain.  / / We believe in love and truth / / though not knowi
Winter Recalled
ly, / / while Laurence, Giles and I on
things remote / / from this search talked at ease.  And presently / /
The Black-out
room.  My outrage is as / / yours.  Some
things slip though.  / / Change, knowingly made, all right.  / / Not,
For Cecil
tip one way.  / / There is a balance in
things / / subtle as his, riding those narrow wings.  / /
Ecology
om / / nature—yet wreck the balance of
things , the breath, / / the pulse, the natural interlocking of death
The Reckoning
/ (or death) as an unordered jumble of
things .  / / The fire, brutally quenched, was still a fire / / whose
Question
ross the water-meadows.  / / Like other
things this year (may, daisies, roses) / / late coming but, now come,
Buttercups
arth leans and the leaves turn / / and
things we shall not live to cherish / / others are born to burn.  / /
Cassandra’s Song
in this radiant hour we sense / / all
things we’re meant to do and be.  / / Through season and through circu
Hymn
t-seat / / and hear just what / / the
things we’ve done, the things we’ve not / / are in an absolute cold l
Balance Sheet
st what / / the things we’ve done, the
things we’ve not / / are in an absolute cold light / / to sink or sa
Balance Sheet
wounds / / in front.  She went to face
things .  / / What though I wonder, / / what would she now think / /
Wounds
Betrayal / “To God” He answered “those
things which are God’s, / / and what is Caesar’s render unto Caesar,”
The Betrayal
/ —inevitable images / / forming from
things which man has made, / / but flight and court and hollow dome /
Cedar
th which they’ve no connection, / / of
things whose meaning is in those othernesses, / / outside our time-th
Dimension
ppose morning / / comes bright, washed
things will display / / new beauty, a world singing.  / / Morning did
Exchange
pleased you better as the winner.  / /
Things you only just / / missed.  Sophie of course, and Tom’s / / thr
For Cecil
ess.  / / Too much about me.  / / But I
think about you more / / and better.  Light and / / warmth that irrad
For Cecil
t wasted.  / / The prisoner has time to
think , and learn / / lovely precisions for all future practice / / w
Chrysalis
one to set us wrong.  / / The truths we
think are not the home truths though.  / / A bird sang from a bough /
Hebona
t, can I stand outside time?  / / May I
think , as I need to think, that because one / / existed so strongly,
Death
The Lilies of the Field / They
think as they take breath, bearing no trace / / in mind or eye.  / /
The Lilies of the Field
till / / place affords me room / / to
think as well as feel, / / to study what I owe / / and how it might
Villevieille
s life goes on, or think we do, / / or
think at any rate we can, / / planning and changing as we go, / / li
Cedar
tural goodness goes bad… / / one would
think .  But this man / / can create his own star.  / / Jailbird, kille
George Jackson
orld in half.  / / And whether, as some
think , he howls / / in Hell or, on another view, / / harps it beside
Thoughts on the Lavatory
thank / / the fairy for, he could not
think her good / / would fail him—but the fairy’s curse?—Ah, that.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ I fall silent.  / / Death one would
think is / / a fact one can’t disguise, / / especially violent / /
Another Summer
w.  / / May that be true / / (indeed I
think it may) for you.  / / May you live free / / (as far as love all
Epithalamium
e him / / swayed by prayer; yet do not
think it odd / / to frame some longings in a form of prayer / / addr
Prayer
nd.  / / The sap has ceased to rise” we
think .  / / “Lay an axe to that brittle bole.”  / / Then, one morning,
Renewal
s, clings, / / white, pink, / / and I
think / / lightly sings / / “Beauty is.  / / Accept this.  / / God i
Divinity
n.  / / He loved her, yes.  What did she
think of him?  / / What could she think, the nine-year-old princess?  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / What did their children’s children
think of it? / / thin-legged and mocked, in London or in Lyme / / ti
La Fontaine et le Déluge
hough I wonder, / / what would she now
think / / of me?  my soul will show its share / / of hurts, but wher
Wounds
/ / When I think of that beauty / / I
think of Richard Hughes.  / / I was not young, nor was he old, / / bu
Homage
nlight transfigures marble.  / / When I
think of that beauty / / I think of Richard Hughes.  / / I was not yo
Homage
dead, and each, one, / / dead in pain. 
Think of these first.  / / So, in pain they fell.  But also as fall /
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
ver carcase in the dust.  / / As first,
think of these last: / / this man, this woman, this child.  / /
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
again.  / / With Meredith at eleven, I
think , or twelve / / I fell in love—the only adequate phrase:  / / Lo
Poetry
might it have been meant?  / / I do not
think so.  / / Too much surely to hold you.  / / But if it were, what
For Cecil
hite Horse.  / / A bigger heart that, I
think , than any / / of the rest.  Bury my heart at Sheepstead, then.  /
Bury My Heart
our love’s nature (more, / / don’t you
think ? than of most loves) is the way / / it’s rooted in a deep deter
[Yes, you’re right]
de time?  / / May I think, as I need to
think , that because one / / existed so strongly, warmly, and is now g
Death
er / / at the name of brother from us. 
Think / / that not all men have an equal share / / of sound good sen
Villon’s Epitaph
d she think of him?  / / What could she
think , the nine-year-old princess?  / / The circumscription of her sma
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ with diamonds and a new song.  / / I
think the Sirens do not die.  / /
The Sirens
ne?”  / / I drank his voice and did not
think to answer / / but looked and looked; and then I was alone / /
The Black-out
ke again?  / / Well, that’s too much, I
think , to hope.  / / And yet her death-throes give me pain.  / /
Great Britain
/ of the parasitic clutter.  But do not
think / / to live in peace.  The angry sea-god / / is not assuaged.  /
Odysseus
Like Luther (whom I do not love) / / I
think too much about my bowels.  / / But Luther broke the world in hal
Thoughts on the Lavatory
Who killed Cock Robin?  / / Cromwell, I
think .  / / Victoria busily / / stamped the grave Wesley / / and oth
Merrie England
ange the plan, / / as life goes on, or
think we do, / / or think at any rate we can, / / planning and chang
Cedar
to be great or happy.  / / Greatness I
think we lack since Yeats is dead; / / yet we have Eliot, for whom in
The Black-out
and need not be given?  / / Or did not
think ?  Well satisfied, the five / / stand round and look down at the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
te sex / / (or even the same) / / may
think you mean them.  / / England Suspects.  / / If seized with a laug
Merrie England
am.  / / You love the princess, and you
think your love / / is lost, but love is never lost.  I came / / to t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d much good may it do you.  / / I don’t
think you’ll get home a second time.”  / /
Odysseus
h rattle of dice and song, and some are
thinking / / enviously / / of some at home dead in the ice-hard grou
Gunnar of Lithend
mes paused to speak— / / she liked his
thinking (none of those she knew / / were given to thought), but his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
cked him and drew blood.  He smiled / /
thinking of her who now was safe at home.  / / And then smote on his e
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
no notion where the river ran, / / but
thinking of the mountains and the coast, / / trusting the fairy’s tru
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
them on then.  Stupid girl, what are you
thinking of?  / / Would even you make a joke of me now, dirty creature
Spells and Love
against my skin.  / / Why are we always
thinking / / since being is so pleasant?  / / I thought, and the door
The Grass Road
value of each hour / / where lightly,
thinly lie / / the veils of memory, of hope and fear.  / / Like a bir
The Lilies of the Field
leaf.  / / My hair fell out and my body
thinned away / / to skin and bone.  I tried everything.  There isn’t /
Spells and Love
s scooped up, shaken, broken, shredded,
thinned / / into a thousand thousand steely rays / / which whipped h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e moon broke through cloud / / despair
thinned on my heart.  The moonlight fell / / on her pale face and tall
The Black-out
, though, and hungry.  These bad seasons
thinned / / the woods of game.  The hunting being poor / / the prince
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the deep shade / / the overgrowth was
thinner , and he made / / progress along what now made itself known /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ey gone, where?  / / Into thin air—into
thinner far than air, / / into a world where all the winds are fallen
Where?
ng in the darkening dusk / / I saw the
thinnest sliver of a new moon, / / a day or two only, tilted on its b
A Hoard
polluted state / / (the cloud a moment
thinning ) / / —for that unwitting sinning / / dared not approach the
Pelopia and Thyestes
o; and at that spot / / there seemed a
thinning in the trees.  A track?  / / Reached by a ford?  The ford he fo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
efore his face / / just where a sudden
thinning of the wood / / should mark him near the castle.  Then he kne
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the senses, nothing further; form / /
thins into smoke, thence into lightless air; / / the soul in the blac
That Way Madness Lies
streets.  / / But at the second and the
third return / / our jaded souls respond more slowly / / and in the
That Way Madness Lies
h the fairy who had blessed him.  / / A
third time frantically round the bare / / ground-floor, a third time
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lly round the bare / / ground-floor, a
third time round the upper, and / / in a dark corner of a corridor /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mechanically / / into the night of his
third waterless day.  / / He shuffled on under the darkening air / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e reached the river.  Feverish / / with
thirst and weariness, he felt the wish / / to rest torture, having no
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
And though / / extreme exhaustion and
thirst -sickness did / / near-crush him when he came, south always sou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
before.  / / The other river, once his
thirst was slaked, / / he’d recognised quite different from that in /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r / / died, when he was eight, she was
thirteen .  / / And now the loved brother lives in Babylon, / / Paris,
Eugénie de Guérin
/ Of eternity in Hell / / I had passed
thirteen hundred years.  / / Not ice or fire, no shrieks, no tears, /
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
of eternity in Hell.  / / I had passed
thirteen hundred years / / of paralysed yearning.  All fell / / away
Virgil’s Farewell to Dante
died, at thirty she, / / Humfry Payne
thirty -four—two years to run / / or four or six; is your tale like to
The Black-out
tle done? / / at thirty-two I died, at
thirty she, / / Humfry Payne thirty-four—two years to run / / or fou
The Black-out
ng us, have you so little done? / / at
thirty -two I died, at thirty she, / / Humfry Payne thirty-four—two ye
The Black-out
y at the setting sun.  / / Crossing the
thistle -bristling rock / / one stumbles in the square-cut marks of ma
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
remember…?  Did you know…?  / / Tell me… 
This’ll amuse you though…  / / The thought, as natural as breath, / /
Sibling
er, 1983) / Statue at Apollona, Naxos /
Thomas auf Naxos / Siphnos, Kastro / Traverse the beach, from your fee
September Cruise
Song / for
Thomas / The girl in the train looks out with brown eyes / / fixed an
Song
le.  / / He gave up.  / / Deeper in the
thorn , a nest / / he thought, an odd one, hung.  His dull mind played
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
this.  / / The castle ruined, the great
thorn -barrier / / was breached and withered too.  The track they tried
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is direction was maintained / / by the
thorn -bastion only, which stretched still / / unbroken, unthinned, qu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng again, grew / / a monstrous hill of
thorn before his face / / just where a sudden thinning of the wood /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ough bushes out on to a track…  / / But
thorn -crossed like the last.  He looked again.  / / A pine…  Oh, fool—fu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r whom time keeps / / the keys of this
thorn fortress”—smiled at him.  / / His eyes closed, and he opened the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ropped the knife and backed against the
thorn / / his heart contracting in a kind of terror / / at hope out
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e, no way—a mountainous barrier / / of
thorn , lost in the woods each side.  ‘Go through’ / / he heard his hea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hero find a way to fight / / needle or
thorn ?  The fact would come to him / / and put his painted fantasies t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he unencumbered ground / / between the
thorn -wall and the pine.  But soon / / a few yards in under the oaks,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / They hoped to keep her hands from
thorns and pins / / but dared not tell her why.  No hint of fear / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
spell / / he flung it from him in the
thorns , and wept.  / / The blood clotted and the tears ceased to come,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
not as in the wood / / she braved the
thorns , but later, nine or ten / / perhaps—another meeting equally go
The Black-out
h thick stem, each string / / of spear-
thorns .  The vast whole he would not see.  / / Hour after hour, hacking
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bel / / who led you laughing where the
thorns were long / / sends me here now to comfort you through Hell.” 
The Black-out
let / / death take him there under the
thorns ?  Who knows?  / / But the last word is not with Carabosse, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in / / but he feared Carabosse in the
thorny brakes / / and coaxed her to the ford; soon from the crest /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he house / / shall spread and sprawl a
thorny wilderness / / one hundred years—until her fated love / / (if
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ething he must do / / and left it very
thoroughly done.  / / A course of life, dear self, which you / / at s
Thoughts on the Lavatory
/ more than myself, will be, can.  / /
Thorpe white in the sun / / against the black earth; lost in / / the
For Cecil
bridge, talking, sleeping sound, / / O
thou of little faith; but we are here.”  / / I listened, and his foots
The Black-out
ence in a dream…  / / I woke happy, and
though / / a backwash of regret / / (a dream is a dream, no / / mor
[Restoration of innocence in a dream]
truths we think are not the home truths
though .  / / A bird sang from a bough / / and drowsing I began / / t
Hebona
being loved— / / a new thought almost;
though a smoother prince / / had praised her beauty, claimed to worsh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nother lot.  / / I didn’t know the way,
though / / —a stranger in these parts.  / / The roads I took turned i
A Ballad
bare-stemmed bushes glow, / / just as
though / / against the day’s gloom / / they make their own light.  /
Winter Garden
his world of hidden dreams— / / cold,
though , and hungry.  These bad seasons thinned / / the woods of game. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ a single honeysuckle.  / / The bushes
though are berried—hawthorn, blackthorn / / (remnants of blackberry-f
[Late October hedges]
y.  More punishment.  / / They loved her
though (as she loved them) and meant / / well.  She grew up dévote /
Eugénie de Guérin
y in a handstand / / —ran like another
though / / barefoot along the bare / / ripple-ridged beach / / thro
Climacteric by the Sea
w in the terms of Plato.  / / Yes.  But,
though by so answering their question / / He fooled the spies and pri
The Betrayal
what he thought.  The tests came sooner,
though — / / came all the time, it seemed, in various ways.  / / He ha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rage is as / / yours.  Some things slip
though .  / / Change, knowingly made, all right.  / / Not, that’s not s
For Cecil
shape which was not there before.  / /
Though change offend and hurt, / / immutability / / would be non-ent
Change
.  Does He (like Plato?) / / hope that,
though cheating Him, our serving Caesar / / may yet bring Caesar back
The Betrayal
Caesar / / their scapegoat.  Might we,
though , construe the steward / / (a clever thought) as double-crossin
The Betrayal
’s what you feel / / often.  Sometimes
though / / don’t you clearly see / / this lump the faithful image of
Body
nce it blazed to heaven, this hillside,
though .  / / English (not, heaven help us, many years ago / / —five h
Makherás
he life-blood water with more care.  And
though / / extreme exhaustion and thirst-sickness did / / near-crush
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l him off for treating me so.  / / Now,
though , fire-spells to bind him.  / / But, O Moon, / / shine out whil
Spells and Love
Biblical conversation / “Why hast
though forsaken me?”  / / “What have I to do with thee?”  / /
Biblical conversation
/ informs this air / / Peace is won,
though , from / / effort.  This still / / place affords me room / / t
Villevieille
show the bony tree / / still bare.  Now
though give thanks, be blessed / / in the reviving mystery.  / /
Renewal
s pawed and paddled night and day; and (
though / / hating herself and it) yet learned the taste / / of pleas
Beyond Measure
eeply aged / / he could not doubt her,
though he could not see / / anything of her but her sombre wraps.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l clamour and din.  But he was sure / /
though he put all his weight and strength and soul / / against the ti
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / made her way up the hill again, as
though / / heavy already with the vengeful seed.  / /
Pelopia and Thyestes
cyclone-hit, / / quake-riven earth, as
though / / herself were in despair / / at man’s failure to care, /
Antipodes
-final.  You / / would have liked that,
though / / Hurricane Higgins would have / / pleased you better as th
For Cecil
nothing’s enough.  / / I feel so dirty
though , / / I should like to believe God / / will have me on the mat
A Hot Bath at Bedtime
ont.  She went to face things.  / / What
though I wonder, / / what would she now think / / of me?  my soul wi
Wounds
vow / / and the fulfilment come, / /
though in the heart sits pinioned, strengthless, dumb / / the natural
Waiting
this is today and I am I.  / / No swan,
though , is just a swan.  / / A loaded image: birds of Coole, / / Lir’
Bicycle Ride
e lives / / of those we love.  Our love
though is our own.  / / Our lives are subject to wickedness and folly
[Our lives are in other hands]
for what she was the old / / woman.  As
though it bore itself the spell / / he flung it from him in the thorn
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
do the same for yours.  / / But death,
though it froze the guilts, the resentments, / / is easier accepted t
[White foam sweeps]
neself is not one’s own to give / / as
though it were a braided lock.  / / The scissors left a little gap /
Ballad
/ / what matters with me (you will) as
though I’m there.  / /
A poem you may like to see
/ / The story and the vision.  Latent,
though , / / later to flower, the love.  Now, from that day, / / nine
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ follow of course.  Mostly the answer,
though , / / leads to another story; but, I know, / / how they got ho
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and hark, how sing…  / / Man’s seasons,
though , link in no ring / / but join two points as Time disposes.  /
Man’s Seasons
on his arm still burning bright / / as
though lit by the inner flame / / which sears his spirit day and nigh
Ballad
ld / / death’s); but man in time / / (
though man, and with man his time, / / perish) creates a world / / w
[Time is enough]
ivering pool.  / / It was a love-match (
though most suitable) / / yet he was frightening too—yet comforting /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
urely—not all but partly— / / and true
though much of it is, need that be final?  / / Green trees flourish un
Desert Island?
nks.  They’ve taken her man for the army
though .”  / / “My brother’s been called and I’ll be going soon / / —h
On the Border
/ / or cold sun brighten over it, and
though / / my heart warms to the first of winter weather / / I could
The Black-out
her / / she loves above all the world,
though not above / / God—God for her is truly Love— / / but above al
Eugénie de Guérin
age-bed / / any more than his own; and
though not blind / / to her desire, was shocked by it.  He sought / /
Beyond Measure
he stay / / with you all the way, / /
though not exactly as he is today / / —that would be out of reason.  /
Epithalamium
/ / We believe in love and truth / /
though not knowing what they mean.  / / If our love can keep its faith
Winter Recalled
ee / / is wicked and unnecessary.  / /
Though not so strong / / a light as Freedom, this too burns among /
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
/ / Nothingness is at least / / good,
though not the best.  / /
Miscarriage
/ / not any heaven.  Do I now sometimes
though / / notice myself, against all I feel and know, / / covet the
Death
e of his arrows landed in the sea / / (
though one he did get back); and presently / / he took, feeling both
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Almost all elude your snatching / /
though one may settle on you unawares.  / / Now I don’t need / / such
[Golden, red, brown]
he never smiled again.  / / I doubt it,
though ; / / or were it so / / that fixed face was not moulded on his
And Then
point I know / / —have I ever really,
though , / / quite grown up?  But that’s / / another question.) The th
Climacteric by the Sea
ies into its crystal silence.  / / You,
though , reader, must watch outside the silence / / with me, since aft
For Rachel
e another one / / who loved her dearly
though so late.  / / She liked his love.  She liked him well.  / / Afte
Ballad
ones / / coming in their place.  Still,
though , starred with beauty.  / / I leaned out, looking down at the da
Omens
disgrace / / of wide preventable want,
though such things are / / good causes for unhappiness, does not spri
The Black-out
.  Trees fall but not the wood.  / / And
though the forest perish, it has been.”  / / “But what’s the comfort t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
way, one way and no mistake.  / / Now,
though , the gathering of the valley-cleft / / mountains beleaguered h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y turn a casual parting to a last, / /
though the night be deprived of moon and morning, / / day was before
The Black-out
know…?  / / Tell me…  This’ll amuse you
though …  / / The thought, as natural as breath, / / falls dead agains
Sibling
d loss allow, / / harsh in its lasting
though their pain must be, / / and wide, wide the horizon of the hear
The Black-out
ng irritation to those I love / / even
though they love me.  / / You have (you tell me, what I’ve no inkling
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
to soothe the personal smart, / / and
though this dark lies on us all, a warning / / of present trouble wor
The Black-out
armoured mass / / hardly in hope (even
though unexpressed) / / to break its spell-rooted defence, and pass /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
come—bright or broken day / / or dull. 
Though unreturning / / this clear brilliance, it will live unlost /
Joy
race of that.  / / Impossible Hyacinth,
though , was a child yet, / / and man’s an infant still in earth’s lif
Greenham Common
hem but the sky.  / / Half their sweep,
though , was blotted out by one / / which towered towards him, beckoni
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ace / / —person, thing and place, / /
though we may love it for / / (it seems) its own unique / / self—yet
Fair Exchange
nd.  / / Peace is present here, / / as
though what some have gained / / informs this air / / Peace is won,
Villevieille
oncepts, falsehoods and fears.  / / And
though with age’s oncoming you harden / / the channels of our thought
Prayer to Time
/ / Rooted and green / / these seem (
though without roots, / / without sap, / / their greenness not their
A Wreck
r beauty, dumb to sing of her.  / / We,
though wrecked nature ruin us in the fall / / we forced, have had our
The Reckoning
ain?  / / Wait.  If you like, pray.  / /
Though you do not know what to, / / some words, some things remain.  /
Winter Recalled
no longer a what-might-still- / / be (
though you know it never will) / / but just a what-once-might-have-be
Shelved
at; / / spring warmth is strengthening
though you see not how.”  / / Quieted now I moved with lighter feet.  /
The Black-out
my neck, / / my silver body.  Touch me,
though your hands are dry.  / / Hands seek flowers in April, hands see
Greek Folk Song
a still starburst / / in the night of
thought .  / /
Summer Vision
hat fish is moving / / like an escaped
thought .  / /
Water in a Wood
one hand, in the other perhaps, / / he
thought , a hedgehog.  Curiosity / / drove him against repulsion.  At he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l sky weighed on me as I moved / / and
thought about my life and little done / / —sensibility dumb and stren
The Black-out
nd or Homer’s tongue, / / all craft or
thought / / achieves with heart; / / a little known, / / world on w
Fossils
ew / / were given to thought), but his
thought acquiesced / / too easily in Fate for her to take.  / / Her h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
others said.  / / (The seaman casts his
thought ahead, / / but sandbanks shift under the fog / / giving the
Lost
rosy thought of being loved— / / a new
thought almost; though a smoother prince / / had praised her beauty,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ninvolved as tombs.  / / The night, she
thought , alone is beautiful.  / / Out of the black a figure moved, str
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Deeper in the thorn, a nest / / he
thought , an odd one, hung.  His dull mind played / / with its likeness
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ years, years of dream / / and doing,
thought and love, / / all sheared by a fall / / of slanting steel, /
Die Weisse Rose
ad the help you need.”  / / “Anabel,” I
thought , and pressing forward questioned:  / / “Anabel?” and unanswere
The Black-out
the two sisters.  ‘Little bores’ / / he
thought .  And suddenly laid plans to go.  / / His elder cousin was by n
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / since being is so pleasant?  / / I
thought , and the door closed as I stepped in.  / /
The Grass Road
now at his desk doing the same?  / / I
thought , and turned my head.  In the same place / / I saw him lean whe
The Black-out
gh, construe the steward / / (a clever
thought ) as double-crossing Caesar?  / / No.  The steward’s master is G
The Betrayal
ngely at peace.  / / ‘I know my way’ he
thought .  ‘As it has been / / all through my life, for all my life it
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
me…  This’ll amuse you though…  / / The
thought , as natural as breath, / / falls dead against the fact of dea
Sibling
ing you harden / / the channels of our
thought as of our blood, / / yet raise each spring new flowers in the
Prayer to Time
g, / / hours when the earth can cradle
thought asleep, / / content that those we love have lived, knowing /
Happiness
ne of those she knew / / were given to
thought ), but his thought acquiesced / / too easily in Fate for her t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mself?  Is God’s / / a share only?  They
thought by a trick question / / to have Him on the horns.  It was big
The Betrayal
lay / / the fairy-promised girl.  That
thought caressed / / him still, even while he limped mechanically /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ns empty.  / / Their net of feeling and
thought / / compassed the cosmos once, now let drop / / is seemingly
Where?
mmed further, and soon he must, / / he
thought , drop on the dead-leaf silt, give up, / / give in, lie down a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g / / —and Caroline, he may have had a
thought for her / / but one would not expect him to try and communica
“Tell Lady Byron…”
ife your own.”  / / He sighed.  Easy, he
thought , for her to say.  / / She does not know (he thought she did no
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
wane? / / figure and face and voice I
thought I had, / / but now with inexpressible joy and pain / / from
The Black-out
, / / looked up searching stars.  And I
thought I heard / / “Would you like to see the planet Mercury?”  / /
A Hoard
t know / / —can only dress our longing
thought in dream, / / weak tissue woven / / of past and hope, of ech
Separation
ke her; and knew drowned / / his brave
thought in the pain of powerless love, / / and was silent and sad.  Th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oughts and dreams.  / / More dream than
thought , inconsequently ranging / / from lunch to love, from the futu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
one no longer cares / / to put a rough
thought into kinder words / / or keep it silent.  And at all our sides
Back Room, 1944
wer of / / breaking away for good, but
thought ‘I’ll make / / the difficult traverse to that bourne and back
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ve her power / / to love.  Better, they
thought , keep fancy free?  / / Or thought, that’s in her and need not
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and make these spells of mine not a
thought less strong / / than were Circe’s or Medea’s or blonde Perime
Spells and Love
unto Caesar…  / / Perhaps there’s some
thought links steward to Caesar / / which glimpsed might both throw l
The Betrayal
en of Faith, walks / / anywhere wilful
thought may lead.  She looks / / out from the green shade / / passion
Eugénie de Guérin
tre’s gone.  / / I am haunted by / / a
thought : might it have been meant?  / / I do not think so.  / / Too mu
For Cecil
/ / —not the Father / / of Christian
thought , / / not the slain Son, / / God in man.  / / The Greek saw /
Divinity
land-rocks.  One took the shape, / / he
thought , of a girl sleeping on a bed, / / then changed, merged, teles
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l by that miracle is”— / / and then he
thought of a pricked finger, of / / a sleep that must see him into th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  No hint of fear / / clouded her rosy
thought of being loved— / / a new thought almost; though a smoother p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ll / / between my queen and me.  / / I
thought of many things (most if not all / / true) done or left undone
Hebona
s drew blood, / / and this time too he
thought of the princess / / but in cold fear.  He sat down on the sand
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ envy beings empty / / of memory and
thought , / / of threaded mind and heart?  / / No.  Knowledge of self /
Parenthood
tumn.  But he shivered—terrible / / the
thought of ways crook-tunnelled all about / / or no way.  For he knew
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e whole day through / / probably never
thought / / once one of the other.  But if we did / / the thought wil
Leap Year
From a Train / Young, I
thought / / “One day I shall walk / / these rough woods, / / those
From a Train
in every age works on.  / / Vision and
thought , seduced / / to serve that violent lust, / / crack.  Drifts o
Headline
own silence; and silent some / / whose
thought seems strangled in the womb, / / whose nails are broken picki
The Party
her to say.  / / She does not know (he
thought she did not know) / / the bond that holds me without hope.  To
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ My thoughts posture, / / but a rude
thought / / sits in the corner / / and laughs them out.  / / Only Ot
Catharsis
/ stood back from the perfected statue,
thought / / “Still, this is not, / / not quite, the image of my drea
Pietà
te without change, until / / he almost
thought that it could have no end.  / / Still through the hostile grow
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
they thought, keep fancy free?  / / Or
thought , that’s in her and need not be given?  / / Or did not think?  W
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ly hemmed, but she would fill, / / she
thought , the centre with embroidery.  / / She’d meant it for the young
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
had been given him.  / / ‘All right’ he
thought .  ‘The next test is the river.’  / / That’s what he thought.  Th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / and lay awake long on the dancing
thought / / ‘The princess, my princess, is coming here.’  / / The fai
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he words seemed almost spoken more than
thought …  / / ‘The prince’s bride’…  That was a fevered dream.  / / He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ight, / / putting quick words to ready
thought ; / / the slow, the shy, the dull, the worse than dull, / / w
The Party
test is the river.’  / / That’s what he
thought .  The tests came sooner, though— / / came all the time, it see
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
our age, just about—” / / (he must, he
thought , then have been eight or nine) / / “went and opened the door.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ich is right?’  / / Till, about noon he
thought , there fronted him / / no choice, no way—a mountainous barrie
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nor the offered avatar / / guided his
thought to a deliberate choice / / of dedication.  The offering of his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
what brings you into my fray?  / / You
thought to breathe your soul into the wind, / / dissolve and rest.”  S
The Black-out
/ Just such a vile perversion of good
thought / / used to fill Smithfield with the smell of flesh in fire /
Betrayals
/ / of snow-water, colder than he had
thought / / water could be, and sweet, sweet to the taste.  / / He cr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to the sea, and ‘this is Greece’ / / I
thought .”  We walked in silence for a while.  / / At Blackfriars’ Bridg
The Black-out
Joyce and Virginia Woolf know how / /
thought weaves in words its inexpressible spells; / / Sickert we may
The Black-out
/ that love may know the object of its
thought ? / / what secret force could gather / / you, form and soul,
Becoming
ne of the other.  But if we did / / the
thought will have been good.  / / I know, if ever / / your image came
Leap Year
e, you.  For you, / / Stephen.  I wish I
thought you / / were listening together.  / / Always returns the / /
For Cecil
/ / feet and hands, tongue, thoughts,
thoughtlessness / / are fretting, working on, / / reshaping the inhe
Change
ite sisters go, / / each on his silent
thoughts alone, adrift.  / / Told and retold the story, botched, refin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the changing changeless cliffs, and
thoughts and dreams.  / / More dream than thought, inconsequently rang
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ still with warm loving pride / / his
thoughts and hopes, sharing with him her hopes / / (few in this world
Eugénie de Guérin
The Grass Road / I stepped out of my
thoughts / / and saw the grass road straight between dark hedges / /
The Grass Road
/ and drowsing I began / / to lose my
thoughts , and then / / “You fool” fluted “you fool” the liquid song /
Hebona
Stray
Thoughts at a Wedding / Glance lifts to a crucifix.  / / Form of the s
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
piness / Between two steps, between two
thoughts , breaking / / like sunlight in the breast, the unnamed wrong
Happiness
back into black unglimpsed / / as some
thoughts dive out of the light.  / / Ripples are quickly still.  Again
Water in a Wood
/ for their return.  Too old, / / their
thoughts dwell in a vanished world.  / / But clear, how clear / / its
[Some exiles know]
her hopes / / (few in this world), her
thoughts , giving them shape / / in clear, beautiful words.  / / For t
Eugénie de Guérin
here and now about me / / between two
thoughts I see / / a sleeping beauty’s kingdom / / that was and is t
Other World
here and now about me / / between two
thoughts I see / / a Sleeping Beauty’s kingdom / / that was and is t
[Today we feel behind us]
ced in foam / / on fast water.  / / My
thoughts / / lift from the stream, dance upon / / the secret motions
How not to listen to music
eart deep and clear / / turns the dull
thoughts lying there / / to shining jewels.  But when / / I pick them
Letters
extend / / divine order spun from the
thoughts of men.  / / The dry moon hangs, skull to a Magdalen, / / a
Macrocosm
too, / / But these are uppermost in my
thoughts of you.  / / Funny and kind.  / / You know bad trouble, mind
Two Poems for G
Thoughts on the Lavatory / Like Luther (whom I do not love) / / I thi
Thoughts on the Lavatory
laugh / / of the gravedigger.  / / My
thoughts posture, / / but a rude thought / / sits in the corner / /
Catharsis
the cradle one with it.  / / Out of her
thoughts she looked into the wood, / / feeling its foredoomed beauty
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
me our own / / feet and hands, tongue,
thoughts , thoughtlessness / / are fretting, working on, / / reshapin
Change
ge / / in land-structure intrigued his
thoughts today.  / / South up the coast, miles to his left, a second /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e empty room, stale food / / but other
thoughts took over.  Combed and cleaned / / he threw out two shells (b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hose othernesses, / / outside our time-
thought’s three-way recognizing?  / /
Dimension
shredded, thinned / / into a thousand
thousand steely rays / / which whipped his body with their scalding f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
shall not forget.”  / / He blushed.  The
thousand things he had to say / / went from his mind, water from a cr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, broken, shredded, thinned / / into a
thousand thousand steely rays / / which whipped his body with their s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
shields / / catches the sun across two
thousand years.  / / “Good-bye.”  “Good luck.”  “But you can’t trust the
On the Border
teal.  Here the plague / / struck them,
thousands ; struck through the city, / / struck Pericles, whose states
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ng out of bed, / / saw under the three-
thousandth day / / the ships along the shore, / / the tents about th
Presage
, lady Moon. / / —and Theumaridas’ old
Thracian nurse (she’s dead now), / / who lived next door, came and ke
Spells and Love
uddenly across an unmarked border, / /
thralled by a hand / / beautiful, inhuman, / / the Queen of fair Elf
Los Altos Hills
Law Report / This child was
thrashed to death for thieving, lying / / and filthy habits which, th
Law Report
themselves.  She to her room to ply her
thread / / in secret—work forbidden her, not for / / any good reason
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pty / / of memory and thought, / / of
threaded mind and heart?  / / No.  Knowledge of self / / compels knowl
Parenthood
/ round weedy timbers fish / / smooth-
threading pass.  / / Tide out, on bright / / days children splash /
A Wreck
ed long ago by growth, and now / / the
threads she wove in love and hope / / grow dim to her and lose their
Ballad
, / / the golden boat) the Zodiac / /
threads the constellated black.  / / These sparks, I know, are world o
Night
different way, / / but common-coloured
threads were woven through / / our minds.  But what brings you into my
The Black-out
m cape and cliff…  He felt the grim / /
threat , shivered in the sun.  So what?  Go back?  / / A gust bellied the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
her in the cradle’s overcome— / / the
threat which burdens all but her alone.  / / They hoped to keep her ha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
re the dark army / / pursuing me.  / /
Threatening shadow / / on the horizon’s rim / / —burn every blade of
Scorched Earth
ther / / more often be led through the
threatening wild / / by him, the brave one, to some happy end.  / / T
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ which towered towards him, beckoning
threateningly .  / / Often he wanted, once or twice essayed / / its fi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ow, darker than a night wood, / / took
three and rendered two; what I must yet      / / feel, brushed me the
The Black-out
ed perhaps within a week / / or two or
three , at least he would return / / within the month.  He asked her, t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oaded image: birds of Coole, / / Lir’s
three children, Elsa’s brothers, / / and the white godhead, Leda’s lo
Bicycle Ride
n.  ‘I accept.’  / / A day, a night—two,
three days and their nights / / the smooth horizon, the unbroken clif
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / for a proper serenade, with two or
three friends.  / / I’d have brought the apples of Dionysus with me /
Spells and Love
/ where once a day or once perhaps in
three / / hands of careful kindness count / / into the bowl the grai
Dinner
aw him (you know who) to my house.  / /
Three libations to you, lady, and with each I cry / / “Be it a woman
Spells and Love
n / / till the New Year to hunt.  Those
three months gone / / the castle was for nine their quiet home.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ter / / by nights without a moon.  / /
Three nights and days together / / two-score Turks I killed, / / and
A Ballad
idn’t manage to bring down a bird.  / /
Three of his arrows landed in the sea / / (though one he did get back
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hy.  / / And indeed he would come to me
three or four times a day / / and would even leave his precious oil-f
Spells and Love
look across / / the street, or two or
three streets.  Know / / featureless faces ground by gross / / povert
Dinner
places near the root / / so that only
three struts of worn wood / / held up the tree.  One branch from the m
Five Poems for Roni
laid / / their fugitive creations, the
three sweet witches.  / / The strongest beauty of all when all is said
Dance of the Seasons
heaving out of bed, / / saw under the
three -thousandth day / / the ships along the shore, / / the tents ab
Presage
he moor / / and my own heart sufficed. 
Three times the rigour / / of exile had me dying, but the poor / / f
The Black-out
ands he harvested / / nine, cleaned up
three unbroken, placed them in / / his pouch, turned homeward.  The ha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nesses, / / outside our time-thought’s
three -way recognizing?  / /
Dimension
Meeting / Between two stations, two or
three words and smiles.  / / Between woman and child, / / something o
Meeting
he threw out two shells (broken) of the
three , / / wrapped up the last in red leaves from the wood / / and t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
[Now of threescore and ten] / Now of
threescore and ten / / fewer than twelve remain.  / / Granted, that l
[Now of threescore and ten]
“Half-way along life’s road…” / / half
threescore and ten.  / / Half a lifetime ago / / a thunder-flash put
Anniversary
[Now of
threescore and ten] / Now of threescore and ten / / fewer than twelve
[Now of threescore and ten]
[Threescore and ten or so] /
Threescore and ten or so / / —a reasonable range.  / / But only about
[Threescore and ten or so]
[
Threescore and ten or so] / Threescore and ten or so / / —a reasonabl
[Threescore and ten or so]
/ at any time before.  / / Anyhow, with
threescore / / lifting over the hill, / / it’s a moment to take a co
[Now of threescore and ten]
hs them out.  / / Only Othello / / who
threw away the pearl / / has no laughing shadow / / —poor lost fool.
Catharsis
tood one alone / / just where the moon
threw Eros’ shadow on her.  / / She, stepping suddenly where the light
The Black-out
/ / in the firth below / / his horse
threw him.  He rose, looked round, and said / / “Beautiful are the cor
Gunnar of Lithend
/ / they built the city.  Far away—’ he
threw / / his right arm out.  That beach.  He’d been there first / / c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y, / / picked from the bush in which I
threw it away.  / / I didn’t want to, but I saved my skin.  Good-bye /
Two Songs of a Mercenary
s took over.  Combed and cleaned / / he
threw out two shells (broken) of the three, / / wrapped up the last i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Delos in Spring / for Lucy / Time
threw the columned temples down / / and broke the features of the god
Delos in Spring
the second at Saunton—wind-washed pink
thrift / / in short grass on low sandstone cliffs, / / long low blac
Bury My Heart
nd bitter gulf / / get him hard by the
throat again.  He retched / / again, and brought up more of the foul b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and by the altar where they slashed the
throat / / blood stood in puddles, slopped on grass and stone.  / / T
Pelopia and Thyestes
for it to go.  / / Then, when I felt my
throat hard on the tether, / / the thaw—soft air one night, and sound
The Black-out
wards a hope.  The exile’s scar / / now
throbs to agony.  Now kiss and play / / couched where they can the lov
May Day
think, to hope.  / / And yet her death-
throes give me pain.  / /
Great Britain
it.  / / Good-bye, Moon on your shining
throne .  Good-bye / / you other stars that ride with the quiet night. 
Spells and Love
view, / / harps it beside the highest
throne / / (or both these judgements are untrue) / / this Martin Lut
Thoughts on the Lavatory
ll fall / / if she can once ascend the
throne .  / / Peaky brother at your books, / / cough yourself to parad
Royal Family
King, the Queen, the court, the foreign
throng / / of princes—the princesses stayed at home.  / / He did not
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the bush and bracken?”  / / Silent the
throng watched the white sisters go, / / each on his silent thoughts
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ebble beach, / / yielding or hard / /
throw back the wild / / inconstant water that cries against the shore
The Sea
re in / / the bottom row.  / / Another
throw , / / but what you throw is all the same.  / / No one can win, /
The Game
he glance, dance of / / the beams they
throw / / crystals glisten in answer / / which could not know / / t
Music is Landscape
.  / / Another throw, / / but what you
throw is all the same.  / / No one can win, / / no one can stop, / /
The Game
o Caesar / / which glimpsed might both
throw light on the praised steward / / and make His answer to the pri
The Betrayal
—these in the other scale-pan you must
throw .  / / Record, since you’re recording, all you know, / / and the
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
issed.  Sophie of course, and Tom’s / /
throwaway , that in / / five years perhaps, working at / / home, “We’
For Cecil
ght wind and the sound of the sea, / /
throwing stones at a stone.  / /
Tristi Fummo
/ as an inanimate thing lies where it’s
thrown .  / / And images of violent vividness / / drained his life to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, stepping suddenly where the light was
thrown , / / cried:  “Hangs the sheath still empty, and the sword / /
The Black-out
/ / lightly responding to his lean, or
thrown / / his whole weight’s strength against the buffeting.  / / Ha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
at her own pace / / long after we have
thrown ourselves away.  / / We must weep / / our follies and our wick
Buttercups
e task to keep your power, neither / /
thrown to the winds, nor hid as now it is.  / / Turn to whatever calls
The Black-out
ldhood.  / / From a deep layer suddenly
thrown / / up, a clear image: miles of sea-washed sand, / / miles, d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ce, an ache, / / breeds nightmares and
throws dark veils on the day.  / /
Chrysalis
l and wild / / prodigal to all passing
throws / / the unstable beauty of a child.  / /
Summer
solation of shining stone.  / / No past
throws up against the sense / / a reek of crowd and sacrifice / / wi
Delos in Spring
yet’s as much taker quite / / as giver—
throws upon / / her basic monotone / / scents, colours, notes, the w
Fair Exchange
lls, / / the shimmering chandeliers of
Thrushcross Grange.”  / / But I: “remember Roe Head and Law Hill, / /
The Black-out
rough the hostile growth he pressed and
thrust , / / clothes torn, skin bloody, but he could not stop.  / / He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, drank and drank / / (the fresh river
thrusting the ebb-tide) and / / crawled out again, heavy and dizzy, s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a guide for him.  / / He turned inland,
thrusting through stiff dune-grass / / which speared him till he bled
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eedom / The gate groans to behind, / /
thud of finality.  / / Strange town at closing-time, / / the street-c
Freedom
to the flower, she shall prick / / her
thumb , and all these heavenly qualities / / shall die into a little b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
stuff, / / ran the needle deep in his
thumb , and bled, / / red on the white.  And she cried out, upset, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ between our hands, between finger and
thumb , / / whittles and whittles and there is nothing there.  / / The
That Way Madness Lies
/ One at a sill sighs, but the inmate
thumbs / / absorbed the book of his own dreams.  / / And, once met, o
The Party
nd ten.  / / Half a lifetime ago / / a
thunder -flash put out a glow / / and then / / another light was wate
Anniversary
that we may share in His blessing, / /
thunder of Hell fall another way.  / / We’re dead.  Spare us more harry
Villon’s Epitaph
y bud was near to blossom.  / / But the
thunder -stone / / struck my world and left me / / broken and alone.”
Dialogue
our backs / / (our comfortable backs)
thunders war / / with all those deaths of others.  / / And that huge
Back Room, 1944
ss more keen: / / in us they live, and
thus more living we / / …  But what for them?  A sleep without a dream?
Dulce et Decorum
aol.) / / Their Parthenon endures; and
thus shall, sad, / / crowded cuttings in the rock endure; / / where
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
.  / / O secret, o enchanted space / /
thus spell-cast into time and space, / / we shall not tread your turf
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
at we choose / / to call it, for being
thus unforehopedly blest / / in the late radiance of / / this encomp
[Yes, you’re right]
the brave one, to some happy end.  / /
Thus was the field ploughed for the seed to fall / / of love, that wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Pelopia and
Thyestes / / / / Under the spring sun moves the innocent band / /
Pelopia and Thyestes
h birthday:  / / Horatius breasting the
Tiber race, / / Mamilius and Herminius dead—Black Auster / / gazing
Poetry
lue sea… and on the blue / / distance,
Tiberius’s isle.  / / Blood spurts, dries soon… but hot blood still /
Naples
/ / (the fresh river thrusting the ebb-
tide ) and / / crawled out again, heavy and dizzy, sank / / down on t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ (inland bred), waited for the turning
tide / / and just at the still moment, when the sea / / moved again
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ours.  He loved to swim, and learned the
tide , / / coaxed from his parents early a trim boat / / and an old l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ch / / of river, silver at the full of
tide .  / / “East from the sea and Greece, west out of beech- / / wood
The Black-out
clear pools and foaming / / firths of
tide , fencing / / the cowrie beach— / / looks out to Lundy or along
Bury My Heart
hore.  / / These are no ship.  / / When
tide flows deep / / round weedy timbers fish / / smooth-threading pa
A Wreck
/ / on old dry driftwood from the high-
tide mark.  / / He ate, and watched the sun change on the wave, / / a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
finger hourly creeps / / stronger the
tide of cold.  / /
The Embankment
s fish / / smooth-threading pass.  / /
Tide out, on bright / / days children splash / / in sea-pools at the
A Wreck
elds, slides up the stone the insidious
tide .  / / The darkness stirs along its lifting spine / / in slight b
The Embankment
cture, form.  / / Within this same salt
tide / / the other end of time / / saw life begin.  / / Beetle and m
The Sea
/ passed down with the already turning
tide .  / / The wind was up and cold; I shivered, watching / / the gon
The Black-out
ats under burning rays.  / / By now the
tide was running:  Keats, Housman, / / Milton (L’Allegro), Marvell, Do
Poetry
Now, here, / / under the black, thick
tide / / we learn / / all about despair.”  / / He ran like those who
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
truck him to a stone / / humped in the
tides , gull-lone, / / gull-tenanted, and soon / / gull-dropping-whit
The Sea
are; / / and most, to make those love-
tides move, / / the sharper love that lovers share.  / / As water at
Hymn
t not quite young: / / working in time
tides of experience / / alone could grave those channels, from those
In the Audience
nnot see the cause / / which moves the
tides of gain and loss.  / / This year we saw a shining being enter, /
Winter Solstice
ocean, strait / / and firth where the
tides race, / / Leif Ericsson, / / Magellan, one / / seeking a gold
The Sea
can I / / believe the tearing of this
tie ?  / /
Sibling
ering tough stems and more than Gordion-
tied / / knots.  It was almost in his hand—a few / / strands now.  He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, lacquered shell; / / even the tongue-
tied struggler jealous guards / / his refuge of unspoken words.  / /
The Party
g unnaturally / / shrivelling on their
ties , / / dying as the tree dies.  / / Autumn’s little death, / / wi
The Difference
/ / happy.”  The wily hero, bound / /
tight by his ear-blocked company, / / sailed on.  The Sirens dropped a
The Sirens
awn / / about the isolated brain grows
tight .  / / Roads closed, wires cut, / / he sees no more the known no
Nijinsky
The boy went shivering, his belt drawn
tight .  / / The next four years lent him less time to dream / / being
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
your goats is caught in a bush, caught
tight .  / / You’ll leave her there for good if you don’t take care.  /
On the Border
naked hands / / he tore at the barbed
tightly -woven strands / / which yielded only to tear deeper.  Then, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the autumn out of leaves and grass / /
till a hard winter clamped suddenly down / / in frost and ice.  The bl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g reason’s query ‘Which is right?’  / /
Till , about noon he thought, there fronted him / / no choice, no way—
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ cuts its way into mother earth / /
till all is empty quarries, shells / / riven by a Caesarian birth.  /
Mother’s Malison
/ / Nature is nothing, / / unformed,
till an eye / / prints an image / / on a prepared brain.  / / Heart’
Music is Landscape
s, soft, sweet strength of spring, / /
till chesnut-blossom scattering heralds again / / the hedge-rose and
Sixtieth Summer
morning / / cool on brow and hand / /
till flesh and soul flowered / / in those of Ferdinand.”  / / Ophelia
Dialogue
stiff dune-grass / / which speared him
till he bled.  Beyond, below / / the soft sand, he rejoined the mounta
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
m in love / / that would not leave him
till he died, nor then.  / / Awake she took (all unaware) control / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ay the rare-pathed hills spread on / /
till nothing lay beyond them but the sky.  / / Half their sweep, thoug
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
th, / / getting through days and years
till one is dead.  / / To see both sides is good; always to keep / /
The Black-out
eeting / / of sea and sky, thickening,
till only foam / / shone in the black; light imperceptibly / / withd
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ve shared a world / / wider than that,
till our ways seemed to lie / / always together.”  From the darkness c
The Black-out
/ nor stir the lips, / / but helpless
till pass by this long eclipse / / the spirit waits, / / tasting in
Waiting
eat / / anything put before them, / /
till someone saw the girl / / nibbling a hard green / / cast-out she
The Green Children of Woolpit
et the day-dream / / have its day / /
till suddenly / / clouds thin / / under the sun / / and he’s raring
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
avery to transcend / / the dying body,
till the body dies.  / / Then / / hangs in the air, an interrupted so
Five Poems for Roni
d quickly between night and night, / /
till the field reached a hedge and the hours formed in days, / / days
Hymn
dishonour, / / dangerous appeasement,
till the mind grew weary.  / / I passed by each and did not pause to c
The Black-out
ly guests, from the late autumn on / /
till the New Year to hunt.  Those three months gone / / the castle was
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d it all, came both to our desire.  / /
Till the other day he’d no fault to find with me / / any more than I
Spells and Love
n answer / / which could not know / /
till then they were other / / than the other rock.  / /
Music is Landscape
ir can blast / / and beauty in the air
till we are dead.  / / The convent and the court have their own good,
The Black-out
done / / always from that first party
till we parted / / —your pleasure, if you felt it, never shown, / /
The Black-out
ask, / / must fix it irremovably, / /
till where’s the mask and where’s the face?  / / Yet, turning to ourse
H.A.R.P.
youth, love on through ageing time / /
till with your hundredth year your life is done, / / you shall be bor
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd then strengthened.  / / He moved the
tiller automatically / / to make the most of the recovered wind.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ He dropped the sails and lashed the
tiller .  Dressed / / and wrapped up in a rug he slept until / / the s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and strength and soul / / against the
tiller , he was not holding course / / but sidling always closer, must
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ife he’d seen.  / / So, drowsing at the
tiller , the boy recalled / / the nurse’s story told him long ago.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s, clap, rattle.  / / His arm along the
tiller , the live thing / / moving with him, extension of muscle and b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sed, half dreaming yet / / guiding the
tiller —whence he had embarked / / withdrawn and lost as where he woul
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
blow / / reeling and cracking, and the
tiller’s kick / / hurled him aside.  He lost control.  Then he / / was
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ter driving over him / / he fought the
tiller’s will.  At last it gave / / and set the righted boat running b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l / / contrasts with the Octopus whose
tilted axis / / and epicycles were designed to illustrate / / princi
Content
Winter Solstice / The
tilted earth pauses, prepares to lean / / the other way.  Our year beg
Winter Solstice
—The image with the cracked / / torso,
tilted on a clay foot, / / stands crowned with gold and is mankind.  /
On the Towpath
of a new moon, / / a day or two only,
tilted on its back, / / low down in the quick-faded southern sunset /
A Hoard
away from me.  / / I’ll go tomorrow to
Timagetus’s club / / and see him and tell him off for treating me so.
Spells and Love
soul and body.  / / You go and watch by
Timategus’s place / / (that’s where he likes to practise and lounge a
Spells and Love
Sur le Pont d’Avignon /
Timbers driven deep through summer-slack / / water, through mud; wint
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
/ When tide flows deep / / round weedy
timbers fish / / smooth-threading pass.  / / Tide out, on bright / /
A Wreck
I don’t think you’ll get home a second
time .”  / /
Odysseus
rld, waitinG / / Everything comes with
timE / /
[A long steep road to climb]
or me.  Never mind.  / / A full, a whole
time , / / a time shared.  / / Wish the gathered swallows joy of their
Swallows
lis.  / / Later again, but still a long
time ago, / / walking home, a long cold walk, past midnight, / / I f
A Hoard
me again to her.  / / She wept a little
time alone, / / alone much longer moved and sat.  / / In time there c
Ballad
at.  This time it took / / a passage of
time , an effort of conscious will, / / to heave my heaviness off my h
The Fall
/ You will meet with men from time to
time , / / and after you do not know how many miles / / and after you
Odysseus
le here, and probable.  / / I am out of
time , and for the time content.  / /
Content
’ but slipped another / / phrase in in
time “and make some life your own.”  / / He sighed.  Easy, he thought,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Time’s Reach / Who so firmly set in
time and place / / as the Empress Eugénie?  / / High nineteenth-centu
Time’s Reach
denly within, / / secreted from a life-
time , and released / / if not by nothing, at least / / in its own mo
And Then
long ago, long apart, / / each out of
time and space / / ambered in my heart, / / both imaged back in this
Meeting
rtal moment too / / escapes dimension,
time and space: / / not interval but interface.  / /
New Year
chanted space / / thus spell-cast into
time and space, / / we shall not tread your turf, or snuff / / your
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
ith a full force of truth, / / through
time and two discursive tongues relayed.  / / Much of the rest was vag
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
War-
time Anecdote / “After they caught me behind their desert lines / / I
War-time Anecdote
s indeed it might have done / / at any
time before.  / / Anyhow, with threescore / / lifting over the hill,
[Now of threescore and ten]
f the creaking wood.  / / Yet not, deaf
Time , before your doubtful ruth / / in the last instance do we lay ou
Prayer to Time
d with unreasoning joy.  / / The age of
time between, life and death, died / / into a handsgrasp for the year
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y to exist, / / move us in others.  Has
time brought up a mist / / or blown the cloud-cap from a point of tru
In the Audience
ad it)—now she’s on heat / / the whole
time , can’t keep away from it— / / damn her, don’t let anyone saddle
Love Scene
ened its cactus-flower, / / we noticed
Time / / choosing to walk with us / / at our shared natural pace, /
Two Poems from a New Life
sions for all future practice / / when
time comes to be free.  / / Good, if new warmth new-quickening his str
Chrysalis
ble.  / / I am out of time, and for the
time content.  / /
Content
/ to win her; but their autumn’s spring-
time daughter / / was something more, and ‘what the fairies brought h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in no ring / / but join two points as
Time disposes.  / / The lines recur, the poem closes.  / /
Man’s Seasons
Two Poems from a New Life /
Time / Distance / ‘The enemy’ / / people say, / / meaning Time.  / /
Two Poems from a New Life
/ / let him amble home / / in his own
time ; / / dream, keep / / the stall, sleep, / / dream, eat.  / / Le
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
Death / / / Does
time embrace existence or existence time?  / / Revelation implies the
Death
he enemy’ / / people say, / / meaning
Time .  / / Enemy indeed he tends to seem: / / longed-for hours, almos
Two Poems from a New Life
ived, knowing / / our narrow length of
time eternal deep.  / /
Happiness
an never catch the changing / / years. 
Time flows unbroken through.  / / What of that clearer frontier, rangi
New Year
fairy who had blessed him.  / / A third
time frantically round the bare / / ground-floor, a third time round
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e at our / / house here”—it was a long
time getting started, / / but the child’s straying fancy was alerted
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r shore.”  / / No more.  / / Mind knows
Time has closed that door.  / / But still the untaught heart / / woul
From a Train
rather pretentious monument / / which
time has tanned and broken to harmony).  / / The sky is green.  Hymettu
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
a far country.  / / Darkness.  / / But
Time has tricks.  / / The old lady / / who in this century / / took
Time’s Reach
possible to’ / / came reason—and this
time he bowed to her.  / / Work along for a gap.  Left of the way / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
all his childhood.  He never knew / / a
time he did not know it; and behind / / those words, a wordless image
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing glistens on the night’s tears.  / /
Time heals and doesn’t heal, / / and nature is no comfort but is beau
News of a Death
ur land; / / our good love in its best
time , here, now is / / with me warmly; and in that glow I find / / t
[White foam sweeps]
d no doubt / / enjoys life much of the
time in its own way.  / / My spirit moves, as over meaningless pebbles
Black
generations gone— / / but once upon a
time , in some demesne, / / there lived, in service to a King and Quee
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
uld not lift a finger / / with all the
time in the world.  / / “Oh God, I’m tired” she said.  / / “I wish I w
Mariana in Miniature
/ / searched the first floor a second
time in vain— / / the ground-floor too, but he was still alone…  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
[Time is a child] /
Time is a child / / busy with his own play, / / glancing occasionall
[Time is a child]
[
Time is a child] / Time is a child / / busy with his own play, / / g
[Time is a child]
me / / (when nobody measures time / /
time is dead, and the world / / death’s); but man in time / / (thoug
[Time is enough]
[Time is enough] /
Time is enough.  Death / / has dominion outside time / / (when nobody
[Time is enough]
[
Time is enough] / Time is enough.  Death / / has dominion outside time
[Time is enough]
Dimension / ‘
Time is the fourth dimension’?  Isn’t it more / / a medium? peculiar m
Dimension
sider that / / your gifts are good and
time is with you still.  / / A careful house of cards has fallen flat:
The Black-out
inute or an hour, / / a hundred years… 
Time , it seemed, had stopped, / / as stood against the starry donors—
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
came sooner, though— / / came all the
time , it seemed, in various ways.  / / He had been taught to hunt and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
down, / / taking a pride in that.  This
time it took / / a passage of time, an effort of conscious will, / /
The Fall
ssage make his own work good.  / / Each
time its task: cutting the undergrowth, / / keeping down vermin, cher
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ you shall be born the prince for whom
time keeps / / the keys of this thorn fortress”—smiled at him.  / / H
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
beak.  / / Hangs heavy on my neck / /
Time killed.  / /
Albatross
w / / kinder by your unkindness, cruel
Time .  / / Let not our flesh and spirit, longing-torn, / / grow bitte
Prayer to Time
he fleeting moment stays / / pinned on
time like a butterfly on a board, / / dead.  / / But passing moments
Moment and Memory
long drag.  Day and night and day / / (
time lost) closed in fever’s bewildering storm.  / / His arrows one by
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
time-notes, are / / always perishing. 
Time / / (man’s making) is outside death.  / /
[Time is enough]
/ / Without that, can I stand outside
time ?  / / May I think, as I need to think, that because one / / exis
Death
/ moments of dream are moments passing—
time / / moves to our meeting with the starting, slow, / / hesitant,
Separation
and being are.  / / Days, years, man’s
time -notes, are / / always perishing.  Time / / (man’s making) is out
[Time is enough]
/ matured ineluctably / / to fall any
time now.  / /
In my beginning is my end
all my life, / / which is quite a long
time now.”  / / “At its brightest this month” he said, and showed me h
A Hoard
Prayer to
Time / O Time, whose hand about our childhood’s hand / / led us delig
Prayer to Time
iness and was gone.  / / She sat a long
time on the stony ground, / / the naked sword across her naked thighs
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ the chaff from the freed grains.  One
time , one way.  / / One image.  All man’s images of man / / have him a
Dream under a Carob-tree
we dream we’re conserving, / / all the
time our own / / feet and hands, tongue, thoughts, thoughtlessness /
Change
eive / / what mediates their being, as
Time our own.  / / Suppose they’re here: an imperceptible / / section
Dimension
nd is the year’s beginning, / / one in
time —pain and joy are one in love”?  / /
Winter Solstice
nd he sat, in the cool wind, / / while
time passed and the sun went low behind / / levelling the light acros
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in seconds, you and I / / in twice the
time perhaps the sun / / seems to take) / / stacked with our miscrea
Consider
time / / (though man, and with man his
time , / / perish) creates a world / / whose making and being are.  /
[Time is enough]
fingers stumbling at their task / / as
time ran short / / yet she completed of her nettlework / / all but t
Fairy Story
oes time embrace existence or existence
time ?  / / Revelation implies the latter, but can I believe it?  / / (
Death
und the bare / / ground-floor, a third
time round the upper, and / / in a dark corner of a corridor / / a s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is same salt tide / / the other end of
time / / saw life begin.  / / Beetle and man, / / grass and cedar, c
The Sea
mind.  / / A full, a whole time, / / a
time shared.  / / Wish the gathered swallows joy of their far journey
Swallows
lived fully, still is.  / / Time, this
time , / / shows himself a friend.  / / Larks with difficulty into the
Two Poems from a New Life
t hold a universe).  Or perhaps / / our
time , space, matter are not / / their own reality, are really / / a
Credo
/ But since the shears must snap and my
time stop / / sometime, might a tolerable month be June? / / —with t
Sixtieth Summer
n) / / came news again: this Christmas-
time the Queen / / comes with the court, and the princess.  What is it
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
en, / / heartblank hunger to out-hurry
time .  / / The sea-edge solution, salty, bloodwarm, / / lay quick wit
Full Circle
finality.  / / Strange town at closing-
time , / / the street-cold world lies wide / / before the prisoner fr
Freedom
?  Must this spell too / / be loosed by
Time , the timeless victor?  / /
End of Fairy-Story
?  Must this spell too / / be loosed by
Time , the timeless victor?  / / We loved Time, watching him undo / /
End of Fairy-Story
e one communication they admit, / / to
time their exit and their entrance so / / they may not meet.  / / Bea
Woodpeckers
ist / / or tough to outlast / / their
time , their race—perhaps mankind, / / featureless in a swarming desol
Fossils
lone much longer moved and sat.  / / In
time there came another one / / who loved her dearly though so late. 
Ballad
one from the year before.  / / The last
time this intercalary date / / joggled the calendar / / Cecil was st
Leap Year
d / / but, lived fully, still is.  / /
Time , this time, / / shows himself a friend.  / / Larks with difficul
Two Poems from a New Life
and the world / / death’s); but man in
time / / (though man, and with man his time, / / perish) creates a w
[Time is enough]
in those othernesses, / / outside our
time -thought’s three-way recognizing?  / /
Dimension
Delos in Spring / for Lucy /
Time threw the columned temples down / / and broke the features of th
Delos in Spring
e; yet not quite young: / / working in
time tides of experience / / alone could grave those channels, from t
In the Audience
timeless youth, love on through ageing
time / / till with your hundredth year your life is done, / / you sh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
outside time / / (when nobody measures
time / / time is dead, and the world / / death’s); but man in time /
[Time is enough]
s black mould below.  / / For the first
time Time’s inescapable stream / / sensed in that truth, her heart cr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
es yours read?”  / / I laughed: “a hard
time to be great or happy.  / / Greatness I think we lack since Yeats
The Black-out
others, and of those are you; / / the
time to do things in is short at most; / / why sit like those who lis
The Black-out
/ / The next four years lent him less
time to dream / / being apprenticed to a tough old man, / / huntsman
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
re is more to do / / than any life has
time to dream,” he said.  / / “Many, many the things I meant, and few
The Black-out
e / / timelessly scraping gay unheeded
time / / to guide in draughts and grease (rooms over shops) / / rude
La Fontaine et le Déluge
ng is not wasted.  / / The prisoner has
time to think, and learn / / lovely precisions for all future practic
Chrysalis
ulder.  / / You will meet with men from
time to time, / / and after you do not know how many miles / / and a
Odysseus
e.  The pricks drew blood, / / and this
time too he thought of the princess / / but in cold fear.  He sat down
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
two worlds.  / / Power out of space and
time / / touches in us into a life’s short light / / the temporal ea
Lamps
ime, the timeless victor?  / / We loved
Time , watching him undo / / all spells but this.  Must this spell too
End of Fairy-Story
A Ballad / from the Greek / That
time we started drinking / / early on Saturday / / and went on over
A Ballad
house in miles I didn’t visit.  / / But
time went on and nothing changed at all.  / / These are the springs of
Spells and Love
ders gather, the bells / / ring out of
time .  / / What ugly villain commits / / so lost a crime?  / / But so
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
enough.  Death / / has dominion outside
time / / (when nobody measures time / / time is dead, and the world
[Time is enough]
heir to and bears awkwardly; / / you,
Time , who heal the wounds of violence / / but leave their scar, who w
Prayer to Time
you unheeded, to whom now we pray; / /
Time , whose converse imparts, then sometimes heals / / (not always) t
Prayer to Time
Prayer to Time / O
Time , whose hand about our childhood’s hand / / led us delighted thro
Prayer to Time
but stayed from stubbornness.  / / Next
time with bleeding hands he harvested / / nine, cleaned up three unbr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
This
Time / Worse than out of joint.  / / Perhaps lemming-men / / have rea
This Time
chance to make / / a second choice in
time , would be / / a bet I’d hardly care to take, / / love as I do h
Mother’s Malison
/ / I walk apart in our own good other
time , / / you beside me.  And for a moment I’m / / sure of your actua
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
e repeating season / / and change with
time you will, he will.  / / But love be with you still.  / / Love may
Epithalamium
/ / But something cries on / / in me,
timeless and harsh.  I feel harden / / here in my chest that lump of c
Revisited
, movement and noise.  / / The moment’s
timeless flame transcends / / imagination’s competence.  / / Marble i
Delos in Spring
o seems / / immutably the same, / / a
timeless heritage / / for us to hand down pure / / as we received it
Change
Purgatory / Heaven I don’t covet.  / /
Timeless nothing’s enough.  / / I feel so dirty though, / / I should
A Hot Bath at Bedtime
The seasons settled him / / into their
timeless round of beauty and chore / / and the established tyranny of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s spell too / / be loosed by Time, the
timeless victor?  / /
End of Fairy-Story
s spell too / / be loosed by Time, the
timeless victor?  / / We loved Time, watching him undo / / all spells
End of Fairy-Story
e on, while the princess sleeps / / in
timeless youth, love on through ageing time / / till with your hundre
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d and mocked, in London or in Lyme / /
timelessly scraping gay unheeded time / / to guide in draughts and gr
La Fontaine et le Déluge
ndeed he would come to me three or four
times a day / / and would even leave his precious oil-flask with me,
Spells and Love
es, / / away to a low hill.  / / Other
times it can be / / forest, mountain, sea.  / / Stupidity is powerful
Gratitude
r / / and my own heart sufficed.  Three
times the rigour / / of exile had me dying, but the poor / / flesh w
The Black-out
ou find it strange / / there should be
times this city sits me ill?”  / / “Brussels, Roe Head, Law Hill—exile
The Black-out
/ / drained of urgency and pain, / /
timeworn image, will not fix / / the shifting look.  / / Lift it agai
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
idn’t even start with ‘Once upon / / a
time ’ but “When my mother was a girl”— / / particularity, strange and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
afraid / / won’t be amused.  But a good
time’s being had.  / / I walk apart in our own good other time, / / y
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
ck mould below.  / / For the first time
Time’s inescapable stream / / sensed in that truth, her heart cried o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Time’s Reach / Who so firmly set in time and place / / as the Empress
Time’s Reach
to the wind her brilliant head / / by
time’s rough gusts soon to be tonsured.  / / Spring came, and hardly c
Dance of the Seasons
lovely as spring-green, red fall.  / /
Time’s spiral course through joy and grief / / exacts and justifies i
Hymn
s that last, / / dreams which dissolve
Time’s tyrannous / / one-way of future, present, past.  / / Beach on
The Sirens
lives ever after.  / / Beyond sound of
Time’s warning cough / / all tasks done, spells are taken off / / th
End of Fairy-Story
ed and loving, but a lonely child, / /
timid , he walked his long dreams with a friend / / who’d share his jo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nly a reflecting pool, / / somewhere a
tinkling fall / / show that the stream is living too.  / /
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
l rot there with the flies.  / / Insult-
tinselling flattery, / / cat-and-mouse of proffered hope, / / preten
Royal Family
still.  Again seen / / in the mirror’s
tinted grey—leaf-greens, / / white birch-trunks, blue sky caught, /
Water in a Wood
speck / / circling an only little less
tiny spark, / / one of uncounted millions in a galaxy / / one of unc
Credo
e planet dying, dead.  / / This planet,
tiny speck / / circling an only little less tiny spark, / / one of u
Credo
bula.  / / The goal whisks on, / / the
tip of our own fool tail.  / /
Curvature of Space
he cease to prey / / the scales would
tip one way.  / / There is a balance in things / / subtle as his, rid
Ecology
rk circle / / which joins her crescent-
tips .  / / Then we notice / / how far, while we were watching them, t
September Cruise
e Old Bailey / / towards High Holborn,
tired , a dreary road.  / / But moonlit on the bridge the statues were
The Black-out
ivering left the deeper shade, / / and
tired and cold moved stiffly, vaguely on.  / / Soon to the Spaniards u
The Black-out
rank all he could give.  / / Martha was
tired and cross and so to blame.  / / (I speak as a fast-dyed contempl
The Two Ways
to see the planet Mercury?”  / / I was
tired , jet-lagged, half dreaming.  Is it a dream?  / / I turned and saw
A Hoard
all mad.  / / Don’t fret / / that the
tired nag / / stumbles, drags / / rambling feet, / / won’t, can’t /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
wn always, stiff with chill, / / still
tired , set off simply to stir some heat.  / / Some afternoons he slept
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he time in the world.  / / “Oh God, I’m
tired ” she said.  / / “I wish I were dead.”  / /
Mariana in Miniature
/ / The moon was clouded, I was deadly
tired .  / / This defeat and the inescapable dark / / seemed the black
The Black-out
/ / to the blood.  / / When he had let
Tiresias drink / / the old ambivalent spirit spoke:  / / “You shall w
Odysseus
ream / / carries away / / the knot of
tissue and nerve, / / structurally / / a sentient person, personalit
Miscarriage
our longing thought in dream, / / weak
tissue woven / / of past and hope, of echo left on eye, / / on ear,
Separation
pink of campion and wild geranium, / /
toad -flax, cow-parsley, yellow stragglers, / / a single honeysuckle. 
[Late October hedges]
ept calling / / for unmixed wine for a
toast to Love, and he went off / / in a tearing hurry, to garland tha
Spells and Love
flings against a white snow / / slope)
tobogganing .  / / Misunderstandings.  / / Can they be sloughed in the
For Cecil
he flat fenland.  No dream— / / this is
today and I am I.  / / No swan, though, is just a swan.  / / A loaded
Bicycle Ride
me, in the garden found / / you dying. 
Today , / / bitter beautiful winter / / cycling, past the hospital.  /
For Cecil
ness played on him in many shapes.  / /
Today he eyed the coast between the capes / / and felt constricted, n
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rding to our mood / / and mine was sad
today .  / / I turned away / / and another omen rose in front of me:  /
Omens
e) remains, yet / / the dream pervades
today .  / / In some way / / something does seem / / restored in me… 
[Restoration of innocence in a dream]
e upper air / / mortal contaminations,
today is lovely.  / / Enjoy today’s beauty and forget care.  / /
Relax
ird and child exist like water / / and
today is yesterday and is tomorrow.  / / Unaware, at least, as birds o
For Rachel
perhaps, certainly disliking.  / / But
today / / meeting your face suddenly, dark photograph / / in a blown
Hermes of Olympia
guide us along.  / / Yet we stand here
today , not two selves but a pair, / / half dissolved in each other, a
Hymn
ardly seen a swallow this year / / but
today on the high wire / / I count twelve in a row? / / circling, tw
Swallows
h me / / any more than I with him.  But
today Philista’s / / mother (the flute-girl’s) and Melixo’s came / /
Spells and Love
n land-structure intrigued his thoughts
today .  / / South up the coast, miles to his left, a second / / and l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Blood seeps from a womb / / yesterday. 
Today / / that sickly stream / / carries away / / the knot of tissu
Miscarriage
e way, / / though not exactly as he is
today / / —that would be out of reason.  / / The hour repeats in the
Epithalamium
len / / from the sun’s high tree.  / /
Today the sea is milk, milky blue / / hardly lined off from the milky
September Cruise
ped, dreamt, / / tomorrow there behind
today .  / / To get it ordered, rounded, kempt / / would be to die bef
A Prayer
ppy / / again when wrong is dead.  / /
Today we feel behind us / / the struggle of the ape.  / / The future’
Other World
[Today we feel behind us] /
Today we feel behind us / / the struggle of the ape; / / the future’
[Today we feel behind us]
[
Today we feel behind us] / Today we feel behind us / / the struggle o
[Today we feel behind us]
heron always lifts my heart, / / even
today when the heart might seem too heavy / / even for a heron’s wing
Omens
aminations, today is lovely.  / / Enjoy
today’s beauty and forget care.  / /
Relax
Low to the grass—tall, branching—massed
together , / / a wash of gold across the water-meadows.  / / Like othe
Buttercups
, watching / / our two flocks cropping
together against the Sicilian sea.  / /
Shepherd’s Song
wish I thought you / / were listening
together .  / / Always returns the / / image of your face as mask, /
For Cecil
d aloud, defying Carabosse / / “We are
together and each other’s own.”  / / He heard, they heard, the wicked
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / slowly, inevitably, steadily / /
together .  At last the planet’s fire / / begins to weaken, flicker, va
September Cruise
ading behind the notice.  / / We walked
together back under the trees.  / /
Los Altos Hills
: how seldom can we go / / cropping it
together , being penned / / in distant corners of the wide / / acreag
[The grass in the next field]
cannot find / / anyone / / else, and
together , / / blind with blind is better / / than going alone.  / /
Blind
hurch, with few graves / / lying close
together / / —brothers and cousins, I suppose, / / sticking by one a
A Ballad
begin to fade.  / / Lovers close, held
together , feud / / against wind.  / / I stand alone, shiver.  But not
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
till our ways seemed to lie / / always
together .”  From the darkness curled / / a faint rhythm of music far u
The Black-out
spoke: “often in winter / / for weeks
together I have seen the brown / / hills about Haworth white and smoo
The Black-out
jealous of, / / but they were knitted
together in lasting love / / before their mother / / died, when he w
Eugénie de Guérin
ld; where she and I, young, / / walked
together , in love with one another.  / / Our children, grandchildren;
[White foam sweeps]
or seven enchanted weeks / / they were
together in the green forest.  / / Nettles or brambles, she plunged ga
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pang that’s like the joy / / of being
together , / / its double, its true counterpart.  / /
[The clouds that pressed the air]
Parted /
Together , love spreads bright under the clear / / sky, from our feet
Parted
t.  / / Less because of our partedness (
together / / only in fragments of a honeymoon).  / / Much more becaus
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
/ came to himself, and pulled himself
together , / / saw with surprise that it was lovely weather, / / felt
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
issed, and hand in hand / / walked out
together through the broken gate.  / / And how did they get home?  And
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
it, as he guessed, empty—all gone / /
together to the castle?  Carabosse / / had seen to that?—or else the o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hout a moon.  / / Three nights and days
together / / two-score Turks I killed, / / and two-score more took p
A Ballad
air, a sun-caught cloud, and flew / /
together up the westering fork.  The powers / / he trusted had not fai
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
round one another, / / two bodies warm
together .  / / …  Yes, in the end love, / / when we’re really put to i
Touch
gorge, rough cliffs above, / / shared
toil and danger made part of their dream.  / / Then the hills parted,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rincess bending intent to mark / / the
toils and triumphs of her slighted slave.  / / How could such little l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d queens of old, / / princesses in the
toils of sorcerers— / / put out for dragons—in some wild distress.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t bourne and back, / / bring back some
token of my labour and love.’  / / It was her birthday soon.  The court
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
unts the gamy hills alone, / / and the
tokens of his birth / / (the cap, the sandals, and the sword) / / ro
Dark Age
his silent thoughts alone, adrift.  / /
Told and retold the story, botched, refined, / / was with him all his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
they were sitting on the shore) / / he
told her of another beach he knew, / / empty—‘Much as this must have
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and bring him here.”  / / That’s what I
told her.  She went, and brought him back, / / Delphis (such a smooth
Spells and Love
the boy recalled / / the nurse’s story
told him long ago.  / / But sharper than the image of her old / / fac
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eep glen at his feet / / falling away,
told him to follow it, / / descending to climb further in the end.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
now came in her eyes, / / and then she
told him, to his shocked surprise, / / a story he had never heard bef
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
kingdom reached / / leagues north, she
told him, to the sea again / / and all between huge cliffs fronted th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
knew, the other wrong, / / but nothing
told him which.  Below, close by, / / the joined streams formed a rock
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
se, he said.  / / That’s what my friend
told me, and she’s trustworthy.  / / And indeed he would come to me th
Spells and Love
ld / / ‘full of hope, full of hope’ he
told the child— / / and found there, not the worst, but the next wors
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ho had / / first opened to him.  But he
told them little / / of who he was or where he had come from, / / ex
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ticle, it was Lady Byron / / he wanted
told … what?  / /
“Tell Lady Byron…”
ell Lady Byron…”  / What did he want her
told ?  Why indeed / / want to tell her anything at that late hour?  /
“Tell Lady Byron…”
old stories, alike but different, / /
told yet again and asked for yet again, / / each phrase expected wher
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and my time stop / / sometime, might a
tolerable month be June? / / —with the rose light in the hedges to li
Sixtieth Summer
September Cruise / (for
Tom , Les, Cecil) / Aegean / Kea Lion / Leaving Kea / Syros to Naxos /
September Cruise
Moore] / I find it difficult to forgive
Tom Moore / / for burning Byron’s journal—yet in the end / / admit t
[I find it difficult to forgive Tom Moore]
[I find it difficult to forgive
Tom Moore] / I find it difficult to forgive Tom Moore / / for burning
[I find it difficult to forgive Tom Moore]
Two Cultures? / (for
Tom ) / Planted along the old line of the railway / / a formal row, fi
Two Cultures?
hestnuts flowering, / / red mullet and
tomato sauce, and sun; / / my love burned high then, but the answerin
The Black-out
bewildered, dead, / / breathe from the
tomb . / / to hover on the chill / / of fury and hate / / a fugitive
What Hope?
showed lightless windows, uninvolved as
tombs .  / / The night, she thought, alone is beautiful.  / / Out of th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Tombstone / “In memoriam…”  / / Silence belongs to him, / / but someb
Tombstone
lin.  / / Sentries, patrol with dog and
tommy -gun / / where crave in their cat’s-cradle of barbed wire / / t
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
/ and water, advancing, renews it for
tomorrow .  / /
For Rachel
ty / / sand, in evening’s awareness of
tomorrow .  / / Brief wind ruckles gulls’ feathers, wrinkles water, /
For Rachel
izard and mix an ill drink for him / /
tomorrow .  But now, Thestylis, take the ashes / / while it’s still nig
Spells and Love
nished, half-begun, hoped, dreamt, / /
tomorrow there behind today.  / / To get it ordered, rounded, kempt /
A Prayer
/ with me, since after-knowledge sets
tomorrow / / to mirror yesterday—images which empty / / the moment’s
For Rachel
dering fancy away from me.  / / I’ll go
tomorrow to Timagetus’s club / / and see him and tell him off for tre
Spells and Love
ater / / and today is yesterday and is
tomorrow .  / / Unaware, at least, as birds of the past or morrow, / /
For Rachel
/ a castle that waves (we know) before
tomorrow / / will smooth back into beach-sand; as shrill calling / /
For Rachel
ed and growth, strength and decay; / /
tomorrow’s natural course / / following simply out of yesterday / /
Wedding Night
ase (rooms over shops) / / rude Master
Tom’s and prim Miss Betty’s hops.  / /
La Fontaine et le Déluge
just / / missed.  Sophie of course, and
Tom’s / / throwaway, that in / / five years perhaps, working at / /
For Cecil
houses and trees printing their darker
tone / / on the dull sky weighed on me as I moved / / and thought ab
The Black-out
/ from Michelangelo’s hand or Homer’s
tongue , / / all craft or thought / / achieves with heart; / / a lit
Fossils
ence.  / / The deadly knife-edge of his
tongue and look, / / feared by so many, he concealed from her.  / / (
Change Places…
only the heart can tell / / —mind and
tongue break beneath it / / and die in doggerel” / / Miranda to Ophe
Dialogue
the gentle voice in the common foreign
tongue / / Encore un peu, mon enfant.  Mon enfant, n’aie pas peur.  /
Block 21
ords are there for Spring?  / / Rubbed,
tongue -repeated, all / / become conventional, / / dull.  Yet Spring i
[What words are there for Spring?]
l the time our own / / feet and hands,
tongue , thoughts, thoughtlessness / / are fretting, working on, / /
Change
shining, lacquered shell; / / even the
tongue -tied struggler jealous guards / / his refuge of unspoken words
The Party
he blind.  / / Paris loves Helen in all
tongues of the world, / / Gorgias Tamynis on a sherd / / in a scratc
Fossils
h, / / through time and two discursive
tongues relayed.  / / Much of the rest was vague.  He knew the lad / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
day / / through a pillar of fire.  / /
Tonight ; intrusive memory’s sudden force: / / chastity and desire, /
Wedding Night
d / / by time’s rough gusts soon to be
tonsured .  / / Spring came, and hardly come had fled / / —footloose w
Dance of the Seasons
/ taking a pride in that.  This time it
took / / a passage of time, an effort of conscious will, / / to heav
The Fall
till he died, nor then.  / / Awake she
took (all unaware) control / / of her new love-kingdom, his conquered
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ry.  / / The last, dropped more lately,
took deep root / / at Sheepstead, quiet country of water and wood /
Bury My Heart
he did get back); and presently / / he
took , feeling both wicked and absurd, / / to stalking gulls slow-peck
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d in the stillness her soft breath, and
took / / heart, kissed through hair the brow turned off beneath.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
old lady / / who in this century / /
took her cliff-top walk at Cap Martin / / with a clever little boy, K
Time’s Reach
the Queen got better / / or bored, and
took her daughter back to town.  / / The boy, under the drips which di
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
took him / / once more a child asleep,
took him in love / / that would not leave him till he died, nor then.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
one face: hers, lifted sleeping.  So she
took him / / once more a child asleep, took him in love / / that wou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
b.  And I didn’t need persuading.  / / I
took his hand, pulled him down on the soft bed.  / / Skin to bare skin
Spells and Love
good, / / and its own good the way you
took instead.”  / / The bridge shadow, darker than a night wood, / /
The Black-out
in his hand—a few / / strands now.  He
took it.  / / A clotted mass fell clear, / / a natural tunnel from th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ce grew quickly sore, / / but sensibly
took off his shoes and went / / barefoot through the surf and along t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
fully) / / here’s one mammal that / /
took off into the air, / / taught itself to fly, / / fly properly li
Bat
er the water-line.  / / He waded in and
took one in his hand / / and knifed it from the stone.  The pricks dre
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ until they killed her, and the police
took over.  / /
Law Report
oom, stale food / / but other thoughts
took over.  Combed and cleaned / / he threw out two shells (broken) of
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er) but she felt there too that he / /
took passively the fact of love, instead / / of making it a life or b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Turks I killed, / / and two-score more
took prisoner / / fighting in the hills.  / / But then the sword brok
A Ballad
ntil he fled to them / / again—or else
took refuge in a new / / and subtler one.  You’ve guessed it: cannot t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
days, / / days in years, and a pattern
took shape in our ways.  / / Certain rhythms repeat in the weeks and t
Hymn
at least could stand and move.  / / He
took the bow.  A gull perched on the cliff.  / / He aimed and loosed, b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lighter feet.  / / Past Camden Town we
took the Chalk Farm Road, / / turned with the tramlines along Ferdina
The Black-out
e closing day, / / stumbling, shaking,
took the familiar way, / / hungry for bed, home, mother, like a child
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e, / / broke down to island-rocks.  One
took the shape, / / he thought, of a girl sleeping on a bed, / / the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
st in red leaves from the wood / / and
took the track he could have followed blind.  / / His head was clear,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
shadow, darker than a night wood, / /
took three and rendered two; what I must yet      / / feel, brushed m
The Black-out
ranger in these parts.  / / The roads I
took turned into lanes, / / lanes dwindled into paths, / / and where
A Ballad
aughter’s innocence / / perverted to a
tool / / of irresistible / / perpetual revenge.  / / His daughter, s
Pelopia and Thyestes
n the mouth, / / and as I spit another
tooth out / / I wonder if the lack’ll / / offend you to see.  / / Ne
[Age’s bony knuckle]
/ / long for you, love you. / / … but
toothless old?  / / Hard not to be repelled.  / /
[Age’s bony knuckle]
he reached it.  Just before he made the
top / / he turned, looked back, and glimpsed, miles to the east, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
A wild rose lifting / / from the hedge-
top / / hooks its way upwards, / / on and up, / / hangs its constel
Summer Vision
ard, straight from above: / / carriage-
top , horse-backs, backs of stooping men— / / one face: hers, lifted s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
long steep road to climB / / Nears the
top .  Turn.  TherE / / Now, look, under clear aiR / / Is the wide worl
[A long steep road to climb]
who in this century / / took her cliff-
top walk at Cap Martin / / with a clever little boy, Kenneth Clark, /
Time’s Reach
for in this game / / at every ladder’s
top / / you find a snake begin.  / /
The Game
ad / / he saw the mountain—a tall flat-
topped peak / / between two shadowed cliffs sunlit, which said / / ‘
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ from a low cliff, like Saunton’s but
topped with oaks, / / out over grey shining water, grey / / shining
Bury My Heart
d / / be sure I’d have come again with
torch and axe.”— / / These are the springs of my love.  Mark them, lad
Spells and Love
lame too: / / fire on the hearth, / /
torch in the hand, / / glow in the heart.  / /
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
e kindled your life / / and bring your
torch out of the ivory tower.”  / / She ceased, and I turned from the
The Black-out
me.  / / One by one winter puts out the
torches .  / / The oak still holds its rust and the beech its red / /
Dance of the Seasons
stract him.  So with naked hands / / he
tore at the barbed tightly-woven strands / / which yielded only to te
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he spectres of / / the lost and missed
torment , nor those who live / / haunt as cold ghosts the memory of th
Prayer to Truth
, dropped, picked up, interminably / /
tormenting as he moved along the shore.  / / His fingers’ festering pa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nks rotten, seams uncaulked, thin sails
torn , / / drifts shuddering in the gloom / / of the increasing storm
England, 1981
ught / / among blackberry-flowers with
torn edges / / and honeysuckle drooping antlered sprays / / pink, go
The Grass Road
/ Let not our flesh and spirit, longing-
torn , / / grow bitter with the burden of the years.  / / Make viable
Prayer to Time
wth he pressed and thrust, / / clothes
torn , skin bloody, but he could not stop.  / / He gained much ground—b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
naked rock / / breaking down in a pine-
torrent of green / / or rock straight to an olive-pearly plain, / /
Greece
hed steep mountain-side / / broke to a
torrent summer had not yet dried.  / / On hard bare feet she hurried d
Pelopia and Thyestes
o what?—The image with the cracked / /
torso , tilted on a clay foot, / / stands crowned with gold and is man
On the Towpath
e but chains?”  So why / / slave-camps,
torture (body, mind) to compel / / blind, obedient conformity, the dr
Betrayals
eariness, he felt the wish / / to rest
torture , having no wish to die.  / / Home howled for him behind.  But h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he king, his master to be obeyed.  / / “
Toss it in the lake,” He went back to the lake / / and stood and turn
Finis
ak he lost, and I / / now shred it and
toss the shreds on the savage fire.  / / …O Love, harsh Eros, why do y
Spells and Love
Claude, a dream.  / / A sword was never
tossed in here, / / and if it were / / no hand would rise to catch i
Water in a Wood
the bright sword in his hands / / then
tossed it flashing towards the middle of the lake.  / / A hand came up
Finis
, go back / / and tell the king he had
tossed it in the lake.  / / But the dying king knew better / / and se
Finis
lowly back / / to tell the king he had
tossed it in the lake.  / / The king was not deceived.  / / Angry?  No.
Finis
e’d half so longed for was now his / /
total and dead.  The world before him laid / / was his and nothing.  No
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ise, with the wisdom of innocence, / /
total faith in an ordered universe / / breathed from the will of God
Eugénie de Guérin
is age, / / how do I deserve / / this
total , this untroubled love?  / /
[I have you always in my mind]
/ Loving, being loved, save / / from
total withering.  / / But this distortion of / / self spoils too much
Touch
dant on the lack / / of loving, mutual
touch .  / /
Touch
hind a wall of glass / / which speech,
touch do not pass.  / / But what she sees lives.  A flat illustration /
Nadia
/ / water in patterns under the wind’s
touch , / / fast falling of waves regathering slow / / —so much joy t
Tristi Fummo
my hair, my neck, / / my silver body. 
Touch me, though your hands are dry.  / / Hands seek flowers in April,
Greek Folk Song
Touch / No, there’s no substitute / / for arms around one another, /
Touch
e / / momently like a flower / / they
touch the absolute value of each hour / / where lightly, thinly lie /
The Lilies of the Field
lures and gains, / / let us never lose
touch with the joys and the pains / / of this deeper existence we kno
Hymn
round.  / / Like death, but in the dawn
touched by a dream / / half apprehended as he woke.  He moved / / thr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
what Orpheus felt when turning he / /
touched emptiness.  What Emily had said / / of hope seemed nothing to
The Black-out
/ / dropped there unharmed.  Vaguely he
touched it—leapt / / suddenly, knowing for what she was the old / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sed me and one taxi, hired.  / / A wind
touched me, and a voice clear and strong: / / “trembles the coward so
The Black-out
s too?  Come with us.”  But my guide / /
touched me; I shook my head: “meet soon.”  The boat / / passed down wi
The Black-out
/ ice, under wild colours in / / sun-
touched or dark cloud.  / / A rare night.  Beach deep / / in snow.  A c
For Cecil
s the Duke.  While Angelo / / nevermore
touched poor Mariana’s skin, / / nun Isabella, curdling from the sin,
Beyond Measure
ir; / / but Pride and Dignity / / had
touched so little at Love’s hand / / they did not care to make a stan
Masque
Each year the flowering briar / / has
touched this reach of life / / with a singular character.  / / The be
Epoch
.  / / Power out of space and time / /
touches in us into a life’s short light / / the temporal earth.  / /
Lamps
dily earth about us, loud and lit, / /
touches the senses, nothing further; form / / thins into smoke, thenc
That Way Madness Lies
bare, / / I spilt my white force, just
touching her yellow hair.  / /
Love Scene
ough / / and round us, me and you / /
touching , the fairy world, flowers / / and birdsong, is again ours.  /
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
ut broken brilliance drips through / /
touching the shade to life / / as suddenly a reflecting pool, / / so
[High boughs arch over the half-dry creek]
need making, / / light bodies lightly
touching .  Waking, / / the dream gone you shall keep the sweetness.  /
Otherworld
me to dream / / being apprenticed to a
tough old man, / / huntsman and wood-ranger.  Not quite the same / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
again, with greater care, / / severing
tough stems and more than Gordion-tied / / knots.  It was almost in hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
of two alone; / / melting mist / / or
tough to outlast / / their time, their race—perhaps mankind, / / fea
Fossils
Tourist / The old familiar faces / / snapped in exotic places / / —K
Tourist
ow find itself worked by womankind / /
towards a better-knowing humankind.  / /
Greenham Common
renewed a prick of hate / / and press
towards a hope.  The exile’s scar / / now throbs to agony.  Now kiss an
May Day
hed my weary body go / / with Emily on
towards Camden Town.  / / Suddenly Emily spoke: “often in winter / /
The Black-out
with the sordid, ill-rich city, on / /
towards Chancery Lane, but turned once more / / north up the Grays In
The Black-out
lead / / (and a man’s framework croaks
towards death, in bed / / above the scavenged garden).  / /
Revisited
zon / / from which a dozen greens melt
towards gold.  / / Summer and I are neither young nor old, / / the qu
Revisited
s.  / / She looks away from them, down,
towards / / hands sometimes, more often lower / / to legs, feet, whi
Nadia
/ the rider reins his galloping horse
towards here, blows / / his trumpet over her head.  The cock crows /
Nadia
then West again by the Old Bailey / /
towards High Holborn, tired, a dreary road.  / / But moonlit on the br
The Black-out
s blotted out by one / / which towered
towards him, beckoning threateningly.  / / Often he wanted, once or tw
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
her word / / her voice, as I walked on
towards Leicester Square.  / / The first tube gate was shut, but not t
The Black-out
r by the pedestal alone.  / / “You came
towards me sad,” she said, “with flapping / / aimlessly certain feet,
The Black-out
ng water / / and saw my brother moving
towards our / / stance his long steps.  “But he” I said, and sought he
The Black-out
/ / ways to live with it, / / a path
towards peace.  / / Sought, and sometimes found.  / / Peace is present
Villevieille
a light-path on the water reaches / /
towards sun, moon, / / fisher’s lamp, recurring flashes / / of light
September Cruise
, inevitably and eagerly / / we strive
towards that absolute, beyond / / our reach, Freedom, a star.  / / Eq
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
and / / against so huge an enemy.  / /
Towards that half-seen enemy / / Love walked alone, and presently /
Masque
n play, / / glancing occasionally / /
towards the grown-ups / / (to check that they are there).  / / Give h
[Time is a child]
Through the Looking-Glass /
Towards the hill would Alice go / / it slipped away from her.  / / At
Through the Looking-Glass
his arm.  / / Almost blindly he turned
towards the hills, / / began the long drag.  Day and night and day /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
his hands / / then tossed it flashing
towards the middle of the lake.  / / A hand came up and caught it, swu
Finis
le, whittling / / the brute block back
towards the palpable vision.  / / The guttering candle flared up strai
Pietà
stream, / / turned and began the climb
towards the pass.  / / The mountains brought new muscles into play /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ess dream / / he looked the other way,
towards the sea, / / and once again a longing heaved in him / / to k
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Come, we cannot stay.”  / / She turned
towards the sea her quiet brow.  / / Down the steps from the sloping r
The Black-out
watching them, these two / / have sunk
towards the ships.  / / We watch the crescent set, / / know her conce
September Cruise
at running before / / the wind, aslant
towards the stretching cliff, / / while he wrenched at the sheets, sa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
womb.  / / Moving across the snow / /
towards the sun through bright mist.  / / There is nothing else.  / /
For Cecil
e slow height / / we turned our backs,
towards the Thames our faces.  / / Trafalgar Square, laid empty in the
The Black-out
ke.  He moved / / through the mountains
towards the untrammelled sea / / but heard his mother calling, callin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ast.  / / Each unstable star / / wears
towards unbeing.  / / The flailing galaxies are fleeing / / from spac
Entropy
n leaves is mute, palely yellowing / /
towards winter.  Everything / / is withdrawing, concentrating / / wit
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
a remote, fanatic fire.  / / To each a
tower : fanatics have their dream / / —Utopia or the martyr’s palm— /
The Party
he turned to the firm shoulder there, a
tower / / founded on rock above her quivering pool.  / / It was a lov
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mer / / patience alone can be my ivory
tower .  / / I enter middle age.  / /
Patience
slam the door, / / for we may hate the
tower of loneliness / / but still cleave to the tower of peace.  / /
The Party
loneliness / / but still cleave to the
tower of peace.  / /
The Party
on, / / Angkor Wat, Avila, / / Eiffel
Tower , Pont due Gard…  / / …  Remove the camera / / and the eyes behin
Tourist
om you / / comes my taste for an ivory
tower provided, / / unlike some towers, with windows and a view.”  /
The Black-out
piness, while upward rears / / now the
tower , round whose channelled stone / / speeds gather as lives hurtle
Anniversaries
/ and bring your torch out of the ivory
tower .”  / / She ceased, and I turned from the waiting water / / and
The Black-out
/ / dreamed and unwon: the only ivory
tower / / to build for middle age.  / / Being no fortress, neither is
Patience
the helter-skelter of the years— / / a
tower whose far base disappears / / in cloud (like Brueghel’s Babylon
Anniversaries
ough, was blotted out by one / / which
towered towards him, beckoning threateningly.  / / Often he wanted, on
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ucky chance / / for two to leave their
towers at once.  / / One, heart in hand, stands at another’s door, /
The Party
/ / fenced with high barbs, eyed from
towers , stain / / earth and sky with their stench, sky and earth / /
Two Poems for G
ivory tower provided, / / unlike some
towers , with windows and a view.”  / / My eyes followed the water runn
The Black-out
/ —Thestylis, listen!  The dogs in the
town are howling.  / / Hecate’s come to the cross-roads!  Clash the bra
Spells and Love
nd, / / thud of finality.  / / Strange
town at closing-time, / / the street-cold world lies wide / / before
Freedom
Country and
Town / From woods and valleys now the gathered night / / spreads to t
Country and Town
/ / the silence of the dark.  / / The
town is fevered; but as night wears on, / / blood cooler, quieted the
Country and Town
I said, “the grime that palls / / this
town must choke you more than me.”  “A change,” / / she laughed: “reme
The Black-out
dy go / / with Emily on towards Camden
Town .  / / Suddenly Emily spoke: “often in winter / / for weeks toget
The Black-out
or bored, and took her daughter back to
town .  / / The boy, under the drips which did not wet her, / / wander
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ved with lighter feet.  / / Past Camden
Town we took the Chalk Farm Road, / / turned with the tramlines along
The Black-out
enjoy.  / / Stepped and corridored the
town / / white to blindness clothes its steep / / hill under the wre
September Cruise
On the
Towpath / He is tall, his hair is raven; / / hers is sunbright, she i
On the Towpath
/ gently in your lap / / his favourite
toy / / for you to enjoy / / a little, not keep.  / / He’ll take it
[Time is a child]
good.  / / In the darkness I could not
trace again / / each feature’s line, and scarcely tried; such peace /
The Black-out
y think as they take breath, bearing no
trace / / in mind or eye.  / / Glowing, drooping in spirit and in fac
The Lilies of the Field
the possessed herd / / to sink without
trace .  / / Man and his dreams dead.  / /
This Time
ssing slope and stream / / we lost all
trace of habitation—house / / and street gone from the fresh earth li
The Black-out
iled.  / / But knowing better?  Hardly a
trace of that.  / / Impossible Hyacinth, though, was a child yet, / /
Greenham Common
the handle, doubtless of wood / / (no
trace of that remained); / / two jointed dolls of clay; / / likewise
Label
f hair under a comb, / / like currents
traced in foam / / on fast water.  / / My thoughts / / lift from the
How not to listen to music
but surely no less truthfully / / age-
traced patterns on a domed sky?  / / A heavier darkness, dull as felt,
Night
whirling about a spark / / that dying
traces aimlessly an arc / / across the curving but uncentred dark.  /
Cosmology
ing heaved in him / / to kick over the
traces and be free.  / / The world is round, fortunes are made, deeds
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
She tells them all, / / leads them by
track and tussock, / / finally stops / / where a wild rose-bush flow
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
/ he broke through bushes out on to a
track …  / / But thorn-crossed like the last.  He looked again.  / / A p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / Walking on the white / / slippery
track , face smarting / / in the evening frost / / —this monochrome s
For Cecil
nce.  / / Along the paved and parapeted
track / / forgetful of the tamed wildness below / / once-separated w
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
leaves from the wood / / and took the
track he could have followed blind.  / / His head was clear, his heart
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
at all that craft—there wasn’t tree or
track / / he didn’t love and have mapped in his mind, / / pine for i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the leafy light, / / at fork or cross-
track he went still by whim, / / rejecting reason’s query ‘Which is r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d found the worst.  Returned on the same
track , / / not hopeful or afraid or sick, but sad.  / / “ ‘But one da
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rd?  The ford he found, but not / / the
track —or if a track, so overgrown…  / / Still, he pushed in, and once
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
there seemed a thinning in the trees.  A
track ?  / / Reached by a ford?  The ford he found, but not / / the tra
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e found, but not / / the track—or if a
track , so overgrown…  / / Still, he pushed in, and once in the deep sh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
He brooded long, there on the darkening
track .  / / The court went home.  The seasons settled him / / into the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ dry and still drew her down a forest-
track .  / / The trunks rose black out of the level brown; / / against
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / was breached and withered too.  The
track they tried / / led to the river straight.  The fairy’s rancour /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
[The track up the wild stream] / The
track up the wild stream, / / blocked by a fallen tree, / / beyond i
[The track up the wild stream]
[The
track up the wild stream] / The track up the wild stream, / / blocked
[The track up the wild stream]
c men, / / self-seeking or at sea, one-
tracked , one-sided / / or double-crossing once, twice and, again; /
The Black-out
lonely miles, / / he knew at last the
tracked woods like his hand.  / / Later he learned the fords of the br
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
re dead and I am old.  / / The night is
trackless , deep and cold.  / /
Night
barking about her, the poor child makes
tracks / / out of the temenos.  Outside she came / / to silence—or ra
Pelopia and Thyestes
long wandered, back / / and forth.  The
trader found his markets grow.  / / Friendship joined hands there.  And
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ts likeness to a sea-urchin shell.  / /
Traditional ornament and lucky charm / / in every house…  A sea-people
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ ‘This clumsy creature conceals, / /
traduces the true me’ / / That’s what you feel / / often.  Sometimes
Body
cks, towards the Thames our faces.  / /
Trafalgar Square, laid empty in the moonlight, / / and long Whitehall
The Black-out
t / / but wrong surely to say / / the
traffic is one-way.  / / Sex lends her delight / / to every joy, her
Fair Exchange
after the last leaf follows its crooked
trail / / to carpet the bare wood, / / days in any season of them al
[Golden, red, brown]
f the children / / parting, gathering,
trailing across the empty / / sand, in evening’s awareness of tomorro
For Rachel
hing begun, / / round off some ragged,
trailing tail.  / / But always there’s another one / / —that plea all
A Prayer
n a Tube Platform / Walking I heard the
train / / behind me coming in.  / / So did the child, / / jumped fro
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
elation? (live—dead).  / / In car, bus,
train I / / want the journey not to end / / even when the end / / i
For Cecil
to the slums, / / like looking from a
train into backyards / / of English slums, but worse (and better, /
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
Song / for Thomas / The girl in the
train looks out with brown eyes / / fixed and lost.  / / What is she
Song
Or / / from here to eternity.  / / The
train moves.  Nothing changes.  / / What in this city / / do we share?
For Cecil
“Christopher”, and he stepped out of a
train / / of shamblers, saying “how can you stand apart, / / if you
The Black-out
Early
Train / These fields and trees / / would, if grey clouds were even on
Early Train
es rise to rumour.  / / Don’t talk in a
train / / unless to complain.  / / Veil up your soul: / / don’t weep
Merrie England
From a
Train / Young, I thought / / “One day I shall walk / / these rough w
From a Train
mastered—so / / there, not there, the
trained current shall go.  / / And so it went, gentle, reflective, blu
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
H.A.R.P.  / How could this
traitor live a lie? / / watching his step, watching his speech, / /
H.A.R.P.
oad.  Where the moon shone / / across a
tram -wire mesh, we met a mass / / solemn in a procession, led by one
The Black-out
e Chalk Farm Road, / / turned with the
tramlines along Ferdinand Street, / / the Malden Road, and on until w
The Black-out
owly hedged in.  / / West, his mother’s
tramontane kingdom reached / / leagues north, she told him, to the se
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
groaned, and said / / “Are you a Turk? 
Trample me then, / / foul me if you’re a Jew, / / but if you’re of m
A Ballad
until we trod, / / past and above the
tramway terminus, / / Hampstead Heath, which now low but clear of clo
The Black-out
/ / as the living body, has bravery to
transcend / / the dying body, till the body dies.  / / Then / / hang
Five Poems for Roni
noise.  / / The moment’s timeless flame
transcends / / imagination’s competence.  / / Marble in sun burning l
Delos in Spring
epared brain.  / / Heart’s feeling / /
transfigures again / / that transposed vision / / of actuality.  / /
Music is Landscape
Homage / Moonlight
transfigures marble.  / / When I think of that beauty / / I think of
Homage
rejoice in happiness, / / accept their
transience / / and never mourn their passing until they’re past.  / /
Omens
Shadow and Substance / The lamp in the
translucent pane / / reflected overlays the moon.  / / Sometimes when
Shadow and Substance
(last / / worst twist and waste) / /
transmutation of love to cruelty.  / / I see / / the final bomb fall
Stones
the hired window / / a coloured small
transparency / / “Have a Rainbow Day” / / One morning you couldn’t b
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
eling / / transfigures again / / that
transposed vision / / of actuality.  / / What is real?  / / Nature is
Music is Landscape
d not glimpse; but she was caught, / /
trapped , pinned on the rough bank; yet still she fought, / / biting h
Pelopia and Thyestes
yet loves nothing like a sedative) / /
traps us in self-despising misery, / / Age takes everything we hate t
Age
eep easy and eat freely, and again / /
travel , and watch again Nijinsky jump.  / / But the gay twenties got a
The Twenties
d or a story / / leading the wandering
traveller / / (the youngest son, the chosen man) / / at last suddenl
Los Altos Hills
imaginings, / / and soon our feet are
travelling / / accustomed streets.  / / But at the second and the thi
That Way Madness Lies
hundred years perhaps away / / heavily
travelling .  And saw one day / / beyond the ribbon a faint shadow rise
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ (he smiled) his cousins were already
travelling .  / / Far ahead still the south cape’s silhouette, / / dar
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Thomas auf Naxos / Siphnos, Kastro /
Traverse the beach, from your feet always / / a light-path on the wat
September Cruise
t thought ‘I’ll make / / the difficult
traverse to that bourne and back, / / bring back some token of my lab
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
her joys.  / / It was October.  Work was
traversing / / the forest, marking movements of the game, / / making
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ty dumb and strength unproved, / / the
treacherous laziness of hand and brain, / / and love making no contac
The Black-out
orrible / / reach, among naked, spiny,
treacherous stone, / / no gull’s sad cry for company, alone.  / / No
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ave not committed / / the cowardice or
treachery of death.”  / / “Death is itself and asks no more,” she said
The Black-out
ed breath / / —a kind of cowardice and
treachery / / to all you ought to be, a breach of faith.”  / / Hurt h
The Black-out
labour and not question / / and her to
tread , and equally not question, / / her narrow barren road.  / / Lov
Eugénie de Guérin
dow.  / / You, in your other / / land,
tread another / / sharper shadow / / than ever willow / / weaves in
Five Poems for Roni
tone.  / / Was there nowhere for you to
tread / / but on my head alone?  / / Wasn’t I a lad too once, / / as
A Ballad
s always / / there, and your own.  / /
Tread it…  No.  No bodily pathway / / this glittering skein the light-s
September Cruise
d be / / laid there for you somehow to
tread it / / with lightened feet.  / / Hewn from the rock / / huge h
September Cruise
log.) / / We must be careful where we
tread : / / the path across the quaking bog / / lies not quite where
Lost
into time and space, / / we shall not
tread your turf, or snuff / / your scents—nor, as from Pisgah, know /
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
skill.  One, dreaming after these, / /
treads in the slippery mess, skids to her knees, / / gets up, her dre
Pelopia and Thyestes
Treasure / / /
Treasure in heaven?  Rather, the fleeting kind— / / the exchanged smil
Treasure
Treasure / / / Treasure in heaven?  Rather, the fleeting kind— / / t
Treasure
memory’s chest a drawer full of certain
treasures .  / /
A Hoard
s, colours, notes, the whole / / dream-
treasury of the soul.  / /
Fair Exchange
an be destroyed, / / vilified, denied,
treated as not being there, / / but it was, so is.  Even that marriage
“Tell Lady Byron…”
To Hera / Great Hera, much ill-
treated by your mate / / most human of the gods and most abused / /
To Hera
b / / and see him and tell him off for
treating me so.  / / Now, though, fire-spells to bind him.  / / But, O
Spells and Love
made, / / less dome and terrace than a
tree .  / /
Cedar
pair of little breasts, two lemons on a
tree .”  / /
Greek Folk Song
oon behind the hill.  / / I reached the
tree and paused, straining my sight, / / standing within the dark tre
The Black-out
season of blossom’s fall.  / / A white
tree at the full; / / whiteness loosening, falling, / / drifting on
[What words are there for Spring?]
e wild stream, / / blocked by a fallen
tree , / / beyond it fades and fails / / between rock-broken falls /
[The track up the wild stream]
/ / when “Martin” from the shadow of a
tree / / came clear.  Clean from my heart the black cloud fell; / / s
The Black-out
m the seed / / and nothing in plant or
tree / / cares if it sprout or wither.  / / Nestling and cub go free
Parenthood
the light-fingered green / / of an ash-
tree , / / catches the look, / / lifts the heart / / to a still star
Summer Vision
elling on their ties, / / dying as the
tree dies.  / / Autumn’s little death, / / winter’s image of / / the
The Difference
The Difference / Leaves on a felled
tree / / do not drift away / / to earth and slow decay— / / cling u
The Difference
haunter, nailed to die / / on the dry
tree , failed love.  / /
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
/ / Any leaf which dances / / off its
tree for me may reach the ground.  / / I have found / / a sounder spe
[Golden, red, brown]
s, and watched the root / / of a green
tree grappling the rock.  And dressed / / and clambered nimbly up the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ly?  / / He gazed unseeing at a glowing
tree / / hating himself, his love, his hopelessness.  / / And suddenl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d hurled him down.  Life sang from a far
tree .  / / Horrible pain, sickness and horrible pain / / ground him. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
excuse.”  / / A wind shook through the
tree ; I raised my head / / and saw a few faint stars across the loose
The Black-out
/ / and in this coal a leaf—this was a
tree .  / / Leaf and shell / / are with us still / / but delicately o
Fossils
How can the sap rise?  / / How does the
tree live?  / / The living spirit, as beautiful and strong / / as the
Five Poems for Roni
Words found him—“The leaves die but the
tree lives / / to leaf again.  Trees fall but not the wood.  / / And t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e bough, / / last-fruits of the primal
tree / / matured ineluctably / / to fall any time now.  / /
In my beginning is my end
eath of the white poplar, the holy / /
tree of Herakles, wound with crimson ribbon.”— / / These are the spri
Spells and Love
ee struts of worn wood / / held up the
tree .  One branch from the main fork / / was broken and lay level from
Five Poems for Roni
ood / / at all that craft—there wasn’t
tree or track / / he didn’t love and have mapped in his mind, / / pi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er past, / / summer will show the bony
tree / / still bare.  Now though give thanks, be blessed / / in the r
Renewal
/ Right was a space, where a tall pine-
tree stood— / / the only conifer he’d seen all day / / among the bee
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
green up again, buds / / plump on the
tree , / / the quiet birds / / pipe up.  Be / / the year’s spring /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
Dream under a Carob-
tree / They dance in rings, dancing, a ring of women, / / a ring of m
Dream under a Carob-tree
efruits fallen / / from the sun’s high
tree .  / / Today the sea is milk, milky blue / / hardly lined off fro
September Cruise
mages we come / / to the unarchitected
tree .  / / We plan a life, and change the plan, / / as life goes on,
Cedar
ster had found it / / beside the great-
treed miles of memory.  / / Seldom by that was the young prince enspel
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ment stand / / abstracted, still, like
trees .  / /
Country and Town
/ / We walked together back under the
trees .  / /
Los Altos Hills
bright scrub, / / the path wound under
trees / / a big loop, and then / / out into a space of powerful slop
Los Altos Hills
pot / / there seemed a thinning in the
trees .  A track?  / / Reached by a ford?  The ford he found, but not /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eek sweep of the road.  / / The exposed
trees absorb the fumes / / which seep into our smoky rooms.  / / Yet
The Rift
greenness not their own), / / seem the
trees , almost, / / that were before the ship, / /
A Wreck
merging past unravelling / / detail of
trees and harbour, city and beach, / / against the rising, broken ran
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ght but bitter wind.  / / Stir the bare
trees , and on the benches stir / / against the deepened chill the wor
The Embankment
/ varying softly across hedges, between
trees , / / away to a low hill.  / / Other times it can be / / forest
Gratitude
[Bare trees black] / Bare
trees black against the south’s cold brightness / / where the sun is
[Bare trees black]
[Bare
trees black] / Bare trees black against the south’s cold brightness /
[Bare trees black]
but the tree lives / / to leaf again. 
Trees fall but not the wood.  / / And though the forest perish, it has
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
f it is, need that be final?  / / Green
trees flourish unstricken.  Some recover / / from anorexia, and shine.
Desert Island?
on the precipitous promontory / / dark
trees gather, and the white monastery / / looks east over the sea.  /
September Cruise
mpus was beautiful, / / grass and tall
trees , / / grave colonial buildings.  / / These serious scholars, tea
Grace
nded / / by clumped, huge close-leaved
trees , green and dark.  / / Something like an English parkland / / bu
Los Altos Hills
/ walking in the dusk / / under wide
trees / / of a well-ordered park.  / / Like a poem by Yeats.  / / Wel
Grace
er; my feet were heavy; / / houses and
trees printing their darker tone / / on the dull sky weighed on me as
The Black-out
anged in spring’s breath.  / / Stripped
trees put green on.  / / Not the felled one.  / /
The Difference
Seasons / The bare trunks of the beech-
trees / / rise out of the bluebell-lake, / / and everywhere the clea
Seasons
early, Christina, the other Emily / / —
trees specially sacred in the holy grove.  / / You that I’ve named, yo
Poetry
brushed me then.  / / To left the plane-
trees stood / / part lit; to right the shadowed parapet / / where le
The Black-out
d / / but other water is rare, rare as
trees .  / / The sun, the hard master, brooks no mist.  / / Where are s
Varangian in Mickelgard
a hard blank grey sky over all / / (no
trees to guide his forest-sense)—east, west, / / north, south, all po
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
from changing light, / / birdsong and
trees , to stone / / and a half-light.  / / God’s body lay on the alta
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
Early Train / These fields and
trees / / would, if grey clouds were even on the sky / / or if the s
Early Train
my sight, / / standing within the dark
tree’s edge, and could / / see nothing first, but slowly the dim ligh
The Black-out
me, and a voice clear and strong:  / / “
trembles the coward soul?  But Anabel / / who led you laughing where t
The Black-out
e found / / a truth she dare not meet. 
Trembling and cold / / she wrung the water from her blood-cleared dre
Pelopia and Thyestes
to him with this moan, / / weeping and
trembling .  And he held her close / / and called aloud, defying Carabo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
quell his heart again, to breathe, / /
trembling he stood at last by his princess, / / heard in the stillnes
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
might be green for him.  / / Huge sound
trembling / / through remote air / / —pile the brooks with muck / /
Scorched Earth
and now, sitting over the blood-filled
trench , / / the hero peered into the opening shadows / / and held hi
Odysseus
serve.  Private land beyond.  / / Do not
trespass ”.  / / The unbroken path whispered, but I did not trespass, /
Los Altos Hills
unbroken path whispered, but I did not
trespass , / / turned back, wondering / / if this perhaps were the bo
Los Altos Hills
y shield (not its fault) is making some
tribesman’s day, / / picked from the bush in which I threw it away.  /
Two Songs of a Mercenary
iests’ spies’ question / / more than a
trick answer to a trick question.  / / Why do I feel that answer to th
The Betrayal
e mysterious than that / / struck by a
trick of light from ugliness / / even for one / / for whom that ugli
“Life is sweet, brother”
’s / / a share only?  They thought by a
trick question / / to have Him on the horns.  It was big odds / / aga
The Betrayal
tion / / more than a trick answer to a
trick question.  / / Why do I feel that answer to that question / / s
The Betrayal
/ / stood on my forehead like dew and
trickled down.  / / I couldn’t utter, no more than a baby can / / whi
Spells and Love
I His steward / / would He have me use
tricks on Him this steward / / tried on his master?…  Render unto Caes
The Betrayal
untry.  / / Darkness.  / / But Time has
tricks .  / / The old lady / / who in this century / / took her cliff
Time’s Reach
ium? peculiar means by which alone / /
tridimensionality can realize / / a world?  Mentally we can hypothetiz
Dimension
y thinned away / / to skin and bone.  I
tried everything.  There isn’t / / a wise-woman’s house in miles I did
Spells and Love
gled out.  Soon, rested, cautiously / /
tried his fresh-water-swimmer’s limbs again / / in this new element t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eached and withered too.  The track they
tried / / led to the river straight.  The fairy’s rancour / / was sti
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
me use tricks on Him this steward / /
tried on his master?…  Render unto Caesar…  / / Perhaps there’s some th
The Betrayal
/ / each feature’s line, and scarcely
tried ; such peace / / flowed over me to have her there as when / / n
The Black-out
George Jackson / George Jackson
tried to break jail / / —a few friends (brothers)—gun and knife— / /
George Jackson
appy day / / next year”.  / / Have you
tried to catch / / these autumn flutterers?  / / Almost all elude you
[Golden, red, brown]
ommendation, because as steward / / he
tried to cheat his master?  Were I God’s / / (if I believed in God), w
The Betrayal
old fear.  He sat down on the sand, / /
tried to clean out the shell but cracked it—would / / gladly have fle
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
night here; whose lives, which life has
tried to quench, / / seem shrunk now to their end; / / who here not
The Embankment
against it as they lift / / and their
trilling is mostly scattered, lost in / / defeating gusts, but comes
Two Poems from a New Life
in (and they say I’m handsome / / and
trim as any young man) that would have been lovely.  / / And if I’d go
Spells and Love
e, / / coaxed from his parents early a
trim boat / / and an old long-shore fisherman to teach / / the basic
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ndeed they rode—at the bank-side / / a
trim boat, rigged, provisioned, lay at anchor.  / / They had no notion
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aten cake.  / / Then take, oh take your
trip with us.  / / We know the spell of joys that last, / / dreams wh
The Sirens
s, the crowded offerings, / / statues,
tripods , the rest, to ringing strings / / and high pipe, pretty and i
Pelopia and Thyestes
The Fall / I
tripped and fell, heavy on knees and knuckles, / / gripping the handl
The Fall
ay below Westminster Bridge, / / where
trips for Hampton Court and Greenwich are / / embarked, we went, Gile
The Black-out
Tristi Fummo / How / / how, when you have happiness, see beauty, / /
Tristi Fummo
if the best / / must fall, the hour of
triumph is not far.”  / / He to the ranks; and I too, half possessed,
The Black-out
he dark flood / / engulfed it—then the
triumph of the light, / / yet blackness not annulled.  Must that long
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
o less ineluctably certain end / / for
triumphant humankind, / / it does look probable / / that the drive
What goes up must come down
mpet over her head.  The cock crows / /
triumphant in her face.  / / Not seeing only.  Her untaught child-hand
Nadia
nding intent to mark / / the toils and
triumphs of her slighted slave.  / / How could such little liberty sen
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / the Malden Road, and on until we
trod , / / past and above the tramway terminus, / / Hampstead Heath,
The Black-out
made.  / / Before I even saw it / / I
trod right on the head, / / and then I heard the dead man / / how he
A Ballad
e unique scene, / / canopied the still
trolley , trundled in / / with girl or boy.  Boy or girl lying / / loo
Block 21
Headline / Children stone a swan.  / /
Troopers shot the fawn, / / Wanton brutality / / by all ages of man
Headline
/ that way, this way, no way out of its
trouble .  / /
Black
nd she to me: / / “countless the hours
trouble and loss allow, / / harsh in its lasting though their pain mu
The Black-out
e, laudator temporis acti?  / / No.  Bad
trouble , but even our sick polutions / / of earth and water and air m
Desert Island?
/ years, years for fun, / / years of
trouble , good / / years, years of dream / / and doing, thought and l
Die Weisse Rose
, / / is easier accepted than a living
trouble .  / / I don’t know how to help you, but our intent / / is fir
[White foam sweeps]
uth and she awoke.  / / “You?…” a faint
trouble in a moment gone, / / lost in a smile as warm as sunlight—“Yo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / Funny and kind.  / / You know bad
trouble , mind / / your troubles, mind others’ troubles more, / / tak
Two Poems for G
the head forester / / (partly he hated
trouble ; more, he knew / / she would feel better with a task to do, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e’d reached the river-mouth.  / / A new
trouble : the choice of right or left, / / of wrong or right.  The dese
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
es on us all, a warning / / of present
trouble worse, and when we part / / gondola sunk or walkers not retur
The Black-out
n, one would suppose, / / a recipe for
trouble .  / / Yet / / neither of us really believes that.  / / Less b
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
d soft ‘hullo, dearie’ / / offered the
troubled flesh peace with dishonour, / / dangerous appeasement, till
The Black-out
/ Yours, Troubled in Middle Age.”  / /
Troubled in Middle Age—Did you really hope / / to find an answer to t
Problem
ith an intransigeant heart?  / / Yours,
Troubled in Middle Age.”  / / Troubled in Middle Age—Did you really ho
Problem
/ You know bad trouble, mind / / your
troubles , mind others’ troubles more, / / taking them seriously / /
Two Poems for G
, mind / / your troubles, mind others’
troubles more, / / taking them seriously / / but not allowing them t
Two Poems for G
aside and fixed her with his gaze / /
troubling her faintly…  Now, suddenly known / / her guide of four year
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ this shimmering crest which knows no
trough .  / / Since princess meeting prince cried, laughed “Are / / al
End of Fairy-Story
le, or calling / / another to see some
trove dredged from the water, / / unaware as waves almost, the sanded
For Rachel
Presage / Cassandra screamed that
Troy would fall / / and no one noticed her at all.  / / But Hector, h
Presage
knees in dark, / / weight of the roped
truck / / cutting naked loins.  / / But that was long ago, / / long
Causes
once more / / to the same beach.  Then
trudged , a weary way, / / the narrow ribbon of the flatland shore /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rock-naked promontory.  / / That way he
trudged , and suddenly—check and chill— / / knew himself not alone upo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t.  The forester had spent / / his days
trudging .  The prince grew quickly sore, / / but sensibly took off his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n made captive by the image of / / was
true , and his beyond this last defence.  / / Waking to water whisperin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
I believed / / that in my nature I was
true and kind.  / / It has taken half my life and more to find / / ho
Original Sin
man being / / not only to his own self
true / / but shown so to his neighbours’ seeing?  / / Each of us some
H.A.R.P.
of being together, / / its double, its
true counterpart.  / /
[The clouds that pressed the air]
nging / / life against death? surely a
true / / discontinuity, estranging / / and yet that mortal moment to
New Year
ht of many things (most if not all / /
true ) done or left undone to set us wrong.  / / The truths we think ar
Hebona
t / / laugh Emily; “each to our own is
true ; / / each takes its own home by an absolute right.  / / Here I m
The Black-out
/ / (if, when he come, he’s brave and
true enough) / / shall force a way and wake her with a kiss.  / / And
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r hair is gold, / / all we believed is
true , except the old / / pretence that they were gods.  We have to kno
Against Pedestals
er kindness; and wit; / / charm; and a
true heart.  They did not give love.  / / Love would follow the others
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
those words, a wordless image, far more
true , / / his own white vision burned—and the dark flood / / engulfe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ieille / The church is very still.  / /
True , I don’t believe, / / but after all / / centuries of love / /
Villevieille
better than they knew.  / / May that be
true / / (indeed I think it may) for you.  / / May you live free / /
Epithalamium
lived through, / / the too good to be
true , / / is nothing, and we bear / / self-pitying now our anger and
Scheme
/ themselves to him, as he to them was,
true .  / / It was that morning from that valley-head / / he saw the m
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
subtler one.  You’ve guessed it: cannot
true / / love fore-defeat the devil’s monstrous game?  / / Love’s gra
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sy creature conceals, / / traduces the
true me’ / / That’s what you feel / / often.  Sometimes though / /
Body
heart-life, since to the old he must be
true .  / / Not courage nor the offered avatar / / guided his thought
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
yet wrote of love, and what I wrote was
true .  / / Passion and loneliness, despair and pride / / peopled my m
The Black-out
course your drifting—and that brings no
true / / peace, but slow fretting which is bound to fray / / the bon
The Black-out
bright sky, keeping their rhythm fairly
true , / / snaking in line or circle, hand in hand / / between temple
Pelopia and Thyestes
t waits, / / tasting in small what the
true sufferer knows: / / the lonely deaf, the blind / / who fumbling
Waiting
s / / after all, and its ruts are less
true than our dreams.  / / In the business of living, its failures and
Hymn
/ there isn’t room for him.”  And it was
true ; / / there was no room for me if she said so.  / / “Au revoir.” 
The Black-out
th, surely—not all but partly— / / and
true though much of it is, need that be final?  / / Green trees flouri
Desert Island?
Prince of Lies, no.  The dark aspect is
true , / / yet we must pledge our lifeblood to renew / / the link, wh
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
n man.  / / The Greek saw / / clearer,
truer , / / when he knew / / long ago / / in sun’s light, / / behin
Divinity
I seem to have remembered / / but had,
truly , forgotten, / / after initial numbness, / / blankness, unrecog
Return
know how.  / / Don’t be hard, darling. 
Truly I’ll stay / / out on the garden-grass, not force the doorway /
Love Scene
hough not above / / God—God for her is
truly Love— / / but above all others: / / the baby brother she first
Eugénie de Guérin
Relax / Clouds roll off.  Summer is
truly summer, / / green sea foaming in cow-parsley and may, / / sun-
Relax
, / / hate whom we love.  / / Nothing,
truly , / / to be ashamed of, / / frightened by, even / / surprised
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
is zigzag way / / by star and sun bent
truly to his goal, / / and on the afternoon of the fifth day / / he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd / / a proof that this new world was
truly won.  / / Northwards the dunes ran straight between the sea / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ping horse towards here, blows / / his
trumpet over her head.  The cock crows / / triumphant in her face.  /
Nadia
n a steamed-up pane, / / can that loud
trumpeter charge again?) / /
Nadia
scene, / / canopied the still trolley,
trundled in / / with girl or boy.  Boy or girl lying / / looked up in
Block 21
/ Black still water images / / every
trunk and leaf, dark but clear, / / a Claude, a dream.  / / A sword w
Water in a Wood
/ / And there of course against a dark
trunk stood / / that boy, his gaze intent on her again— / / loiterin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nted grey—leaf-greens, / / white birch-
trunks , blue sky caught, / / hide darkness where that fish is moving
Water in a Wood
ugh were rich in leaf / / as the solid
trunks flanking this along the river.  / / How can the sap rise?  / /
Five Poems for Roni
Seasons / The bare
trunks of the beech-trees / / rise out of the bluebell-lake, / / and
Seasons
drew her down a forest-track.  / / The
trunks rose black out of the level brown; / / against the blue the pa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing branches, / / from stout, straight
trunks —the armature where they laid / / their fugitive creations, the
Dance of the Seasons
t answer?  He was Steward / / of a vast
trust , and a far-sighted steward / / may have to sacrifice some barga
The Betrayal
at question / / such a betrayal of His
trust as Steward?  / / It was, when all is said, a cheating question. 
The Betrayal
of an infinity more.  / / Weep for that
trust betrayed, / / for brief despairing pain / / of these untimely
Whom the Gods Love
/ you would be worse and sillier.  / /
Trust , no.  But part of me prays, part keeps / / fingers crossed for a
Uncertain
“Good-bye.”  “Good luck.”  “But you can’t
trust them.  He may / / have stolen that lamb—too many of them get los
On the Border
rgive, / / more than love our enemies. 
Trust them.  / / “Put up your bright swords, for the dew will rust the
Against Deterrents
Dark power / / of formula and rune, to
trust / / you would be worse and sillier.  / / Trust, no.  But part of
Uncertain
the westering fork.  The powers / / he
trusted had not failed him but had proved / / themselves to him, as h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng of the mountains and the coast, / /
trusting the fairy’s truth, he led her on, / / weighed anchor, set sa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hat’s what my friend told me, and she’s
trustworthy .  / / And indeed he would come to me three or four times a
Spells and Love
or blown the cloud-cap from a point of
truth ?  / /
In the Audience
ful crown of myth, / / this parable of
truth .  / /
Caring
such as I have, an eye / / for visual
truth .  And we have shared a world / / wider than that, till our ways
The Black-out
tood still.  “But this once more is / /
truth but not flesh,” my guide said; “not the scene / / which nicely
The Black-out
/ mathematical symbol, artist’s vision—
Truth , / / compel the twisting mind and (what is harder) / / the twi
Prayer to Truth
attern laid through the confusion.  / /
Truth , find us strength to make our ways confirm / / and not deface i
Prayer to Truth
ts had worked—if what they gave / / in
truth had made her what she was in truth.  / / The Queen was beautiful
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ould he love out his life.  Yet what, in
truth , / / had she to offer?  Not these hands and lips / / to take my
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd the coast, / / trusting the fairy’s
truth , he led her on, / / weighed anchor, set sail.  Many days are los
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
inescapable stream / / sensed in that
truth , her heart cried out in fear / / for some firm rock, rose circl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
anyone may one day come / / to see the
truth itself in ghostly stuff, / / and then the void beyond the cliff
That Way Madness Lies
/ more for other things (beauty, / /
truth ), most, like Sydney / / dying, to care for others.  / / The ima
Caring
the general hurly-burly / / the solid
truth no longer stands alone, / / and anyone may one day come / / to
That Way Madness Lies
, / / the irreplaceable loss, / / the
truth of love, somehow, / / is here and never lost.  / /
Credo
ped master knew.  / / Past intellectual
truth or visual beauty / / yet both intense; the cranes on Waterloo /
The Black-out
he hind mates only with the stag.  Plain
truth / / placed him no better than a badger here— / / rough-handed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
it, and knew it, and there found / / a
truth she dare not meet.  Trembling and cold / / she wrung the water f
Pelopia and Thyestes
ce, / / determine beauty, / / explore
truth …  / / Sheared nerves mutter / / in the sealed stump.  / /
Lopped
he other melting images, / / is less a
truth than a disguise.  / / Life makes our life, for all we said; / /
Cedar
/ in truth had made her what she was in
truth .  / / The Queen was beautiful, the King was brave— / / when the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ngs remain.  / / We believe in love and
truth / / though not knowing what they mean.  / / If our love can kee
Winter Recalled
to strike the boy with a full force of
truth , / / through time and two discursive tongues relayed.  / / Much
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s year… / / beauty is not enough, / /
truth too difficult, / / too many questions begged, / / undefined te
Another Summer
s always reasons; / / fences about the
truth , veils on her face.  / / The heaviness you father on the war, /
The Black-out
reach out to her / / at the moment of
truth ?  / / Well, she was his wife, / / and marriage is inexplicably
“Tell Lady Byron…”
nd and heart, and store / / flashes of
truth which pass and many miss, / / but sensibility locked behind a d
The Black-out
ed or in this / / or in none, here’s a
truth which unfailingly is.  / / Love is hard, love is here, not beyon
Hymn
/ / our judges of appeal are Love and
Truth / / whose jurisdiction is eternity.  / /
Prayer to Time
Prayer to
Truth / You who are manifest in reason and faith, / / mathematical sy
Prayer to Truth
depth and past— / / but surely no less
truthfully / / age-traced patterns on a domed sky?  / / A heavier dar
Night
er / / to man’s mind half-intelligible
truths / / from inconceivable distances.  / / Not so different / / f
Two Cultures?
ssamer…  / / But dark is unaware of the
truths of day.  / / Let the ship drive through the keyhole of a star. 
Voyage
of seasonal longing, / / winter’s bare
truths , soft, sweet strength of spring, / / till chesnut-blossom scat
Sixtieth Summer
e years.  / / Make viable our hopes and
truths , stillborn / / the bastard misconcepts, falsehoods and fears. 
Prayer to Time
/ The truths we think are not the home
truths though.  / / A bird sang from a bough / / and drowsing I began
Hebona
/ with clear puddles of gold.  / / Two
truths to accept / / with a crooked neighbour’s love / / before Stru
Another Summer
r left undone to set us wrong.  / / The
truths we think are not the home truths though.  / / A bird sang from
Hebona
ears memorial shadows fade / / in the
truth’s presence.  “There is more to do / / than any life has time to
The Black-out
er / / but one would not expect him to
try and communicate.  / / But what about the Guiccioli? about Augusta?
“Tell Lady Byron…”
grass, not force the doorway / / —just
try .  But as for that sister of yours, / / someone else can have her. 
Love Scene
.  / / People have scrambled up.  / / I
try to follow, but / / too steep, rough, hard / / for this old / /
[The track up the wild stream]
felt as we turned West / / that I was
trying to turn from the world’s woes.  / / In Guildford Place, where L
The Black-out
he darkness of an imageless dream, / /
trying your strength.  Rapt stranger / / what is your sex, that we may
Becoming
te and bless the pair.  / / Now evening
trysts in orchards reach their peak / / and penances in convents.  May
May Day
owards Leicester Square.  / / The first
tube gate was shut, but not the second.  / / Down sandbag-narrowed ste
The Black-out
Ten Seconds on a
Tube Platform / Walking I heard the train / / behind me coming in.  /
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
ened on.  / / Twisted, no purchase, she
tugged pitifully, / / and then at last the naked blade came free…  /
Pelopia and Thyestes
t he dared not lie down, / / stumbled,
tumbled , and then he just lay there / / as an inanimate thing lies wh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
histling not / / very tunefully / / a
tune , familiar…  Then I / / realized:  Hyperactive.  / / I don’t believ
For Cecil
/ we feel our chords so faultlessly in
tune / / how can there be / / the makings here of a disharmony?  / /
[I have (what seemingly you do not see)]
the air, relays / / for those who will
tune in / / a pattern partially apprehensible.  / /
Two Cultures?
keeps clear, its footing firm, / / and
tune its ear, too negligent in peace, / / to hear the still, small vo
Prayer to Truth
qually subdued.  / / Winter beauty’s in
tune / / with love parted, which is in no way less / / itself for th
[Bare trees black]
e…  / / Listening?  These have ears / /
tuned to another sound-range, eyes which focus / / in a different lig
Two Cultures?
et was humming, whistling not / / very
tunefully / / a tune, familiar…  Then I / / realized:  Hyperactive.  /
For Cecil
clotted mass fell clear, / / a natural
tunnel from the other side / / opened to join his own, and he was thr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a moment’s rest / / he saw the little
tunnel he had made / / in the vast mass.  It was impossible.  / / He g
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
g must change but can’t renew?  / / The
tunnel spirals down?  Is that certain?  / / Or after all might patience
Again
terrible / / the thought of ways crook-
tunnelled all about / / or no way.  For he knew beyond a doubt / / th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and space, / / we shall not tread your
turf , or snuff / / your scents—nor, as from Pisgah, know / / that ot
[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]
ow he groaned, and said / / “Are you a
Turk ?  Trample me then, / / foul me if you’re a Jew, / / but if you’r
A Ballad
the steel snapped clean in two.  / / A
Turkish dog came riding, / / his scimitar he drew, / / he swung it h
A Ballad
nights and days together / / two-score
Turks I killed, / / and two-score more took prisoner / / fighting in
A Ballad
Love and mourn, / / but the world must
turn .  / /
Change
sunk or walkers not returning / / may
turn a casual parting to a last, / / though the night be deprived of
The Black-out
/ / as Protestant, Catholic, turn and
turn about / / burned one another in the name of / / the same God, w
Betrayals
s brazen hummer / / so may he turn and
turn about my door.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him (you know who)
Spells and Love
e and turn, and pace and turn, / / and
turn again.  / /
That Way Madness Lies
pair.  / / From London’s prison now you
turn again / / to Dorset, Devon, Berkshire, Greece, and quite / / fo
The Black-out
owing chamber / / we pace and pace and
turn , and pace and turn, / / and turn again.  / /
That Way Madness Lies
ourish.  / / Earth leans and the leaves
turn / / and things we shall not live to cherish / / others are born
Cassandra’s Song
h in fire / / as Protestant, Catholic,
turn and turn about / / burned one another in the name of / / the sa
Betrayals
phrodite’s brazen hummer / / so may he
turn and turn about my door.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him (you
Spells and Love
we pace and pace and turn, and pace and
turn , / / and turn again.  / /
That Way Madness Lies
door.  / / From my lone way I could not
turn aside, / / yet wrote of love, and what I wrote was true.  / / Pa
The Black-out
.  / / No, he would not die yet.  And to
turn back / / was meaningless.  He must go on.  And then / / he broke
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d, Anabel, the flood / / waits for the
turn ,” began my helper.  “Each / / of countless currents met in you ha
The Black-out
fear a glance?  / / All this now in its
turn forgotten, few / / but dance, dance on the jutting stump, dance.
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
e turned West / / that I was trying to
turn from the world’s woes.  / / In Guildford Place, where London’s ni
The Black-out
smooth water, / / marking my place to
turn .  / / I stood beside it.  Wrinkling fading petals / / dropping fr
Omens
ys on the children.  Must / / the final
turn / / of the irreversible screw / / fix the coffin-lid down / /
May Day, 1986
Upward
Turn / Spring, cold and wet, / / moves into summer with no change.  Ye
Upward Turn
d?  / / A prince—the same or not?  Well,
turn the page / / and meet his parents on their wedding-day.  / / Dow
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
steep road to climB / / Nears the top. 
Turn .  TherE / / Now, look, under clear aiR / / Is the wide world, wa
[A long steep road to climb]
ul house of cards has fallen flat:  / /
turn to a firmer building now.”  “I will” / / I answered, sad; then he
The Black-out
stortions / / we are inflicting she’ll
turn to her own ends / / and run the world’s course at her own pace /
Buttercups
o the winds, nor hid as now it is.  / /
Turn to whatever calls you, only use / / your power, and do not use i
The Black-out
n unknown shore.  / / Then take an oar,
turn your back to the sea / / and walk inland with the oar on your sh
Odysseus
neck jerk on the tautened rope / / he
turned again.  Descending, to dree out / / his weird at home, walked t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ies on,” / / turned, saw my guide, and
turned again.  The chill / / wind seemed among my bones.  Molly was gon
The Black-out
crossing a river he knew well.  / / He
turned along the bank, and certainly / / knew this was not his way.  T
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, he rejoined the mountain-stream, / /
turned and began the climb towards the pass.  / / The mountains brough
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
wift a sanded figure from his work / /
turned and forbade me right of entrance there.  / / Back up the steps
The Black-out
passage of my friend and guide.  / / We
turned , and left behind the shadowy spaces / / of Parliament Square,
The Black-out
urned back / / home, but smiled as she
turned , and said good night…  / / How can one love and not be understo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d, half dreaming.  Is it a dream?  / / I
turned and saw a little way off a bench, / / a man and a woman sittin
A Hoard
ood / / and mine was sad today.  / / I
turned away / / and another omen rose in front of me: / / a heron, l
Omens
ot.  / / Pitying but irked the princess
turned away.  / / Then, blushing, stammering, he blurted out / / “You
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ filling with dusk.  She shivered and
turned back / / home, but smiled as she turned, and said good night… 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ne and lost, / / homesick, afraid; but
turned back, pressed on up.  / / And there below him lay the great for
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
whispered, but I did not trespass, / /
turned back, wondering / / if this perhaps were the border of the wor
Los Altos Hills
s; and I too, half possessed, / / half
turned ; but not my guide.  My purpose froze.  / / We went on, but I fel
The Black-out
Have sometimes upon world and sun / /
turned eyes as darkened as the dead.  / / “What else?”  / / Have loved
Interrogation
rtainly / / knew this was not his way. 
Turned from the plain, / / plunged straight in, and the unpredictable
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he ivory tower.”  / / She ceased, and I
turned from the waiting water / / and saw my brother moving towards o
The Black-out
slipped away from her.  / / At last she
turned her back, and so / / drew quickly near.  / / That was a dream
Through the Looking-Glass
he watched her kneel and bend.  / / She
turned her face.  It all / / —horror, lust, oracle— / / flared to one
Pelopia and Thyestes
urned off beneath.  / / She stirred and
turned her flower-face—that face.  / / He kissed her on the mouth and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
h griefs—coarse, rude— / / crossly she
turned her look and step aside.  / / But felt at once her natural kind
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
re.  / / He gazed to the blue rim.  Then
turned his back.  / / Sick with the knowledge of a hopeless dream / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nbroken, placed them in / / his pouch,
turned homeward.  The hag, nothing said / / worked steadily, but as he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
eve she’d make a guide for him.  / / He
turned inland, thrusting through stiff dune-grass / / which speared h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ythm of music far up stream.  / / Giles
turned intent, and soon across the pearled / / water we saw a black s
The Black-out
r in these parts.  / / The roads I took
turned into lanes, / / lanes dwindled into paths, / / and where shou
A Ballad
broken by stone piers, its attack / /
turned , its wild movement mastered—so / / there, not there, the train
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
it.  Just before he made the top / / he
turned , looked back, and glimpsed, miles to the east, / / the sea.  He
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
estioned:  / / “Anabel?” and unanswered
turned my head.  / / I know what Orpheus felt when turning he / / tou
The Black-out
esk doing the same?  / / I thought, and
turned my head.  In the same place / / I saw him lean where Seurat lea
The Black-out
no contact with the loved.  / / We had
turned North, for when I rose again / / out of the pit, I saw the por
The Black-out
/ heart, kissed through hair the brow
turned off beneath.  / / She stirred and turned her flower-face—that f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
inister, and boded him no good.  / / He
turned on to the unencumbered ground / / between the thorn-wall and t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ity, on / / towards Chancery Lane, but
turned once more / / north up the Grays Inn Road.  Where the moon shon
The Black-out
ited.  Come.”  To the slow height / / we
turned our backs, towards the Thames our faces.  / / Trafalgar Square,
The Black-out
ad; then heard: “our way lies on,” / /
turned , saw my guide, and turned again.  The chill / / wind seemed amo
The Black-out
nd his deed; / / straightened herself,
turned slowly, and still slow / / made her way up the hill again, as
Pelopia and Thyestes
ind shifted into the north, and he / /
turned the bow south.  Dim to the starboard lay / / a thin blue ribbon
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ent back to the lake / / and stood and
turned the bright sword in his hands / / then tossed it flashing towa
Finis
ns rise, to where a valley- / / stream
turned the dunes, his state was radically / / better than when he’d r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and sent him back to the lake.  / / He
turned the sword in his hands.  / / The king his master was dying, thi
Finis
/ / he stood by the grey lake / / and
turned the sword in his hands.  / / There were gems in the gold hilt,
Finis
o many, he concealed from her.  / / (He
turned them on the raper in the dock / / of course, but only when she
Change Places…
bride.  The knell / / ‘a hundred years’
turned to a voice.  She said / / “The hundred years’ sleep was not all
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in the cold, but whole / / and me; and
turned to Emily, ready to / / move like the river to my certain goal.
The Black-out
set moon and the gathering dawn, / / I
turned to Hampstead and walked slowly home.  / /
The Black-out
, / / gaze patiently.  She frowned, but
turned to him / / smiling:  “You were my kind guide and my friend / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
laid.”  / / But she: “our way waits.”  I
turned to my father / / and chilled beheld him gone; then where she l
The Black-out
g.  Shaken by a hot tear-shower / / she
turned to the firm shoulder there, a tower / / founded on rock above
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rned up his arm.  / / Almost blindly he
turned towards the hills, / / began the long drag.  Day and night and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ronger.  Come, we cannot stay.”  / / She
turned towards the sea her quiet brow.  / / Down the steps from the sl
The Black-out
e.  / / At Blackfriars’ Bridge my guide
turned up the hill / / by narrow alleys where the houses pile, / / a
The Black-out
roze.  / / We went on, but I felt as we
turned West / / that I was trying to turn from the world’s woes.  / /
The Black-out
s mother calling, calling him, / / and
turned —with dreadful pain, for what he loved / / lay on, away from he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Town we took the Chalk Farm Road, / /
turned with the tramlines along Ferdinand Street, / / the Malden Road
The Black-out
road / / stretched where he’d come—but
turning again, grew / / a monstrous hill of thorn before his face /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
looked up, did not know the place.  / /
Turning bewildered, the old well-known road / / stretched where he’d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ead.  / / I know what Orpheus felt when
turning he / / touched emptiness.  What Emily had said / / of hope se
The Black-out
ance / / (inland bred), waited for the
turning tide / / and just at the still moment, when the sea / / move
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
boat / / passed down with the already
turning tide.  / / The wind was up and cold; I shivered, watching / /
The Black-out
he mask and where’s the face?  / / Yet,
turning to ourselves again, / / is there so huge an otherness / / be
H.A.R.P.
the chill crematorium.  / / To one each
turns , as / / to a natural centre.  / / Now my centre’s gone.  / / I
For Cecil
wheel / / move faster—more than sixty
turns / / completed, am more aware / / what a small number we’re ent
Swallows
.  / / That corner where the road / /
turns from the fields into the wood, / / we met there sometimes—we?—
From the Air
ng in / / my heart deep and clear / /
turns the dull thoughts lying there / / to shining jewels.  But when /
Letters
hine / / of sun in a child’s hair / /
turns water into wine.  / / Here is the absolute.  / / Neglect the pla
Glimpse
lf-wild passes, / / brings fear to the
Tuscan market-place.  / / A little later came Kipling’s ballads:  / /
Poetry
them all, / / leads them by track and
tussock , / / finally stops / / where a wild rose-bush flowers / / a
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
um and buzz, / / the shrilling and the
twang , / / snatches of what they sang, / / “Goddess, be good to us”,
Pelopia and Thyestes
k / / all but the second sleeve of the
twelfth shirt, / / leaving her youngest brother one swan’s wing / /
Fairy Story
/ With Meredith at eleven, I think, or
twelve / / I fell in love—the only adequate phrase:  / / Love in the
Poetry
but today on the high wire / / I count
twelve in a row? / / circling, twittering, sitting again there, / /
Swallows
Or has he an eye on the strength of the
Twelve -Mile Post?”  / / Billowing, settling, over wood and hill, / /
On the Border
w of threescore and ten / / fewer than
twelve remain.  / / Granted, that limit’s set / / loosely—perhaps the
[Now of threescore and ten]
ut “Louise, Louise, / / save me”.  / /
Twelve -year-old Louise adored / / wicked little Carly Gancher, / / a
Vignette
h again Nijinsky jump.  / / But the gay
twenties got a dusty answer: / / with fear sounding its gong of boom
The Twenties
The
Twenties / The war was over and the world was all / / before them.  Ne
The Twenties
n Greece / / we lost our way about the
twentieth mile / / where hills broke to the sea, and ‘this is Greece’
The Black-out
osely—perhaps there wait / / twenty or
twenty -five / / —but I’d as soon not live / / (sooner) as long as th
[Now of threescore and ten]
so many years lost / / (none more than
twenty -five, / / Sophie twenty-one.  / / Kurt Huber was much older /
Die Weisse Rose
, cooked and ate / / and slept.  He let
twenty -four hours pass / / before he faced the question how to cross,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
four-year cycles more.  / / And on that
twenty -ninth of February / / nineteen-eighty-four / / you, I suppose
Leap Year
none more than twenty-five, / / Sophie
twenty -one.  / / Kurt Huber was much older / / but name him, praise h
Die Weisse Rose
et / / loosely—perhaps there wait / /
twenty or twenty-five / / —but I’d as soon not live / / (sooner) as
[Now of threescore and ten]
as old beyond his years / / knowing at
twenty / / the fleeting seasons in their beauty / / would not again
[Housman was old beyond his years]
one-sided / / or double-crossing once,
twice and, again; / / but still by personal intellect is guided / /
The Black-out
teningly.  / / Often he wanted, once or
twice essayed / / its final peak; but reached his fourteenth year /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
suddenly significantly recovered, / /
twice that small dark bird / / breaks the surface of the secretive st
Yeats and Water-Birds
circle it in seconds, you and I / / in
twice the time perhaps the sun / / seems to take) / / stacked with o
Consider
stars across the loose / / network of
twigs , and knew that all was said.  / / Before I looked again I knew h
The Black-out
y down / / in frost and ice.  The black
twigs cased in glass / / rang on each other in the bitter wind.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hs crouch, deep in grass the hare.  / /
Twigs cracking, one dog’s bark, / / momently pierce but not disturb o
Country and Town
nst the sky are spread / / patterns of
twigs , jutting from narrowing branches, / / from stout, straight trun
Dance of the Seasons
find a miracle, / / tender on the high
twigs the green.  / / One year, of course, spring’s power past, / / s
Renewal
wn; / / against the blue the patterned
twigs were black; / / more beautiful than summer’s green tent now /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ss.  / / After working some really evil
twist / / against the older boys / / would rush through the camp-sit
Vignette
) / / pain; and worse (last / / worst
twist and waste) / / transmutation of love to cruelty.  / / I see /
Stones
ildest, least biddable slave, fire / /
twist in his hand / / and make a suddener end.  / /
Dr Faustus
deserved / / better than such a knife-
twist in the heart.  / / Rapt Mary sat and drank all he could give.  /
The Two Ways
tion of / / self spoils too much / / —
twist induced by the ache / / attendant on the lack / / of loving, m
Touch
he season she loved most.  / / An extra
twist that she should die / / in high summer, this autumn lost.  / /
Death
as a hilt her fingers fastened on.  / /
Twisted , no purchase, she tugged pitifully, / / and then at last the
Pelopia and Thyestes
horns.  It was big odds / / against His
twisting free.  But was it God’s / / wit gave Him that smart answer?  H
The Betrayal
ting mind and (what is harder) / / the
twisting heart.  / / See that in earthquake now and blinding storm /
Prayer to Truth
artist’s vision—Truth, / / compel the
twisting mind and (what is harder) / / the twisting heart.  / / See t
Prayer to Truth
o a stair, / / low, narrow, black, and
twisting to its end / / his fingers groping felt another door.  / / H
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ly, / / fly properly like a bird.  / /
Twittering light-scared thing, / / blind but unfalteringly / / aware
Bat
I count twelve in a row? / / circling,
twittering , sitting again there, / / gathering themselves to go.  / /
Swallows
last, / / dreams which dissolve Time’s
tyrannous / / one-way of future, present, past.  / / Beach on our lot
The Sirens
reamed ideal / / hardened into a stony
tyranny ?  / / Just such a vile perversion of good thought / / used to
Betrayals
auty and chore / / and the established
tyranny of his dream, / / more solid and more hopeless than before.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
be recalled.  / / No overthrow / / of
tyranny / / will clear the way / / for their return.  Too old, / / t
[Some exiles know]