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

U

at / / struck by a trick of light from

ugliness / / even for one / / for whom that ugliness holds nothing d

“Life is sweet, brother”

ss / / even for one / / for whom that

ugliness holds nothing dear. / / I remember / / beauty just so shini

“Life is sweet, brother”

ice / / was the voice of his old bawd,

ugly and thin, / / crying her sorrow that all his mistresses loved hi

/ of beauty and good (also of bad and

ugly , / / but those are negatives, / / shadow to light). And somehow

/ / sealed in the amber past. / / The

ugly duckling flowered into a swan; / / and if this child’s beauty, e

ckers in that void / / with the little

ugly flame of temper. / /

Back Room, 1944

bells / / ring out of time. / / What

ugly villain commits / / so lost a crime? / / But someone saw the gi

The Shepherdess of Cahuzac

ces where light drowns at last, / / an

ultimate diaspora. / /

ed what? where? to be / / keel on what

un -isled ocean, spark / / in what / / other-dimension dark? / /

n the common foreign tongue / / Encore

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

/ / It seemed that they must die, / /

unable to eat / / anything put before them, / / till someone saw the

The Green Children of Woolpit

t, reading this, do not resent / / the

unacceptable words ‘mankind’, ‘man’, ‘he’. / / I use them in this ins

Greenham Common

forward questioned: / / “Anabel?” and

unanswered turned my head. / / I know what Orpheus felt when turning

/ Behind the images we come / / to the

unarchitected tree. / / We plan a life, and change the plan, / / as

nder them, / / sure on its own course,

unaware . / /

How not to listen to music

some trove dredged from the water, / /

unaware as waves almost, the sanded children / / dot like sea-birds,

oday is yesterday and is tomorrow. / /

Unaware , at least, as birds of the past or morrow, / / at work alone

e often lower / / to legs, feet, which

unaware / / betray so much. / / These too her pencil catches, / / t

ied, nor then. / / Awake she took (all

unaware ) control / / of her new love-kingdom, his conquered being. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ed for a man’s delight, / / lovely and

unaware , / / he watched her kneel and bend. / / She turned her face.

Pelopia and Thyestes

ur sails are gossamer… / / But dark is

unaware of the truths of day. / / Let the ship drive through the keyh

ching / / though one may settle on you

unawares . / / Now I don’t need / / such magic fancies. / / Any leaf

[Golden, red, brown]

istilled knowledge grows black, / / an

unbalance , an ache, / / breeds nightmares and throws dark veils on th

/ Each unstable star / / wears towards

unbeing . / / The flailing galaxies are fleeing / / from spaces where

oving hope’s a kind of prayer. / / The

unbelievable gift / / of our late love should not be, cannot be / /

inbows the forest-acred mountains, / /

unbelievable ranges / / of daily changing colours. / / Someone had s

[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]

the great forest. / / Acres of leafage

unbelievably stretched / / almost past sight—only a faint blue rim, /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ my answers to the mystery. / / Good

unbelieved -in God, why should you care / / to show a kindness to an a

, in whom I have no faith, / / hear my

unbelieving prayer: / / not to play blind-man’s-buff with death. / /

and love: “The spell is cast which must

unbless , / / but I can half uncurse it. Needling fate / / shall pier

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

t’s good to be born. / / All the same,

unborn / / is untroubled, at peace. / / Primal innocence / / is som

eir nights / / the smooth horizon, the

unbroken cliff / / held him as in a dream on either side. / / And ev

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

beyond. / / Do not trespass”. / / The

unbroken path whispered, but I did not trespass, / / turned back, won

Los Altos Hills

e harvested / / nine, cleaned up three

unbroken , placed them in / / his pouch, turned homeward. The hag, not

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

oint was made. / / The sky-ring sharp,

unbroken , reached and reached / / behind the piling rocks. At last ap

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

tch the changing / / years. Time flows

unbroken through. / / What of that clearer frontier, ranging / / lif

astion only, which stretched still / /

unbroken , unthinned, quite without change, until / / he almost though

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ Nestling and cub go free / / of the

uncaring father, / / the season-sloughing mother. / / Child of man a

a daze, he bled on the leaf-mould / /

uncaring , when his eye lit on the shell / / dropped there unharmed. V

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ose or unity, / / planks rotten, seams

uncaulked , thin sails torn, / / drifts shuddering in the gloom / / o

ssly an arc / / across the curving but

uncentred dark. / / Beyond forgets its meaning like above, / / nor a

air; / / the soul in the blackness of

uncentred space, / / knowing nothing, sweats with fear. / / Fled are

That Way Madness Lies

Uncertain / I don’t believe in God, and yet I pray; / / still less in

ough miles and years, / / establishing

unchallenged supremacy, / / Shakespeare standing above all appears, /

rate depth sustains / / the coelacanth

unchanged / / from years ere light, / / that falls now caught / / i

o breeze shall by and by / / uncurtain

unchanged to my gaze, / / since they are dead and I am old. / / The

ing quite well that then, as then, / /

unchanged , unmagic we shall find / / the common ground we left behind

[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]

hrough the melting now / / in changing

unchanging round, / / build the world where we must build. / /

Shipwreck / The waves move on

uncharted courses / / to lose themselves, or break on sand, / / rock

bold adventurers, pass / / out through

uncharted night, / / extending being. But in their recklessness / /

p, the sandals, and the sword) / / rot

unclaimed under the stone. / /

usehold by the river / / and favourite

uncle to the child who had / / first opened to him. But he told them

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ng the immediate visit / / of his king-

uncle , with his wife and their / / children. He scowled and went to b

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ame to the Delphic fane, / / burst in (

uncleansed his stain) / / crying on the Lord of Light / / not to be

Pelopia and Thyestes

rn blind, / / but when his kitten-eyes

unclose / / some people find / / they have chosen even better than t

from their open world into a cell, / /

uncomprehending , lost, / / illiterate most likely, no resources / /

War-time Anecdote

light, / / and hurrying down saw half-

unconsciously / / the castle ruined. But she was there in sight. / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

walls. / / I sought my guide’s look: “

uncorrupted lover / / of earth and air,” I said, “the grime that pall

ounted millions in a galaxy / / one of

uncounted galaxies sailing space. / / Perhaps / / these huge galaxie

nly little less tiny spark, / / one of

uncounted millions in a galaxy / / one of uncounted galaxies sailing

which must unbless, / / but I can half

uncurse it. Needling fate / / shall pierce her youth, and yet she sha

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

nd these no breeze shall by and by / /

uncurtain unchanged to my gaze, / / since they are dead and I am old.

t, / / too many questions begged, / /

undefined terms—‘love’. / / I fall silent. / / Death one would think

, / / and marriage is inexplicably but

undeniably / / a special relation. It can be destroyed, / / vilified

“Tell Lady Byron…”

d. / / Each time its task: cutting the

undergrowth , / / keeping down vermin, cherishing the deer. / / His d

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ds in under the oaks, he found / / the

undergrowth master again. The noon / / was hidden. His direction was

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ared to dream in woman. / / The statue

underneath the stays / / waited in marble innocence: / / a light suc

John Ruskin’s Wedding Night

are for ourselves (how else / / can we

understand caring?) / / more for other things (beauty, / / truth), m

/ Miranda to Ophelia: / / “How can I

understand ? / / Life was a still morning / / cool on brow and hand /

hat New Yorker joke: “My wife / / does

understand me.” / / I failed you living / / and what I do can’t help

ve our children live, / / do more than

understand , more than forgive, / / more than love our enemies. Trust

Against Deterrents

ugh, / / felt the good smile, began to

understand / / the necessary double face of fate, / / the two in one

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

other being. / / And love in loss, not

understanding , / / wept—and love blessed sang—and both were love. /

Winter Solstice

/ / Back in a quiet country / / whose

understated beauty / / I seem to have remembered / / but had, truly,

night… / / How can one love and not be

understood ? / / He brooded long, there on the darkening track. / / T

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

n / / her guide of four years back—and

understood . / / ‘He loves me. That boy loves me’ and she smiled / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

she had got for him, / / loved him and

understood him, she loved him herself, / / but he loved only himself…

/ / dull. Yet Spring is still / / an

undimmed miracle, / / season of blossoming, / / season of blossom’s

[What words are there for Spring?]

ar, still evening light. / / Stillness

undisturbed by the minuscule / / Fun Pier (‘Famed for fun since 31’,

ictor? / / We loved Time, watching him

undo / / all spells but this. Must this spell too / / his scissor-fi

End of Fairy-Story

wing so much is done / / badly or left

undone , / / and if something’s done well, not knowing at all / / if

lse?” / / Nothing. “And what have left

undone ?” / / Have sometimes upon world and sun / / turned eyes as da

n / / the egg, the sperm, be hideously

undone , / / take these bombs to Japan.” / / We have our orders, and

Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank

most if not all / / true) done or left

undone to set us wrong. / / The truths we think are not the home trut

/ puts the dandelion out, / / Children

undress to bathe. / / My crooked heart grows old. / /

lending / / a kind of sweetness to an

undulled pang. / /

“Life is sweet, brother”

/ / but bigger, wilder, stronger, / /

unearthlier . / / The path went on and on / / irresistibly leading /

Los Altos Hills

/ / rock. There dossed down, at first

uneasily / / but later in a long untroubled sleep. / / Awaking in th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d him no good. / / He turned on to the

unencumbered ground / / between the thorn-wall and the pine. But soon

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

stood / / and slept like death on the

uneven ground. / / Like death, but in the dawn touched by a dream /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

vaguely on. / / Soon to the Spaniards

unexpectedly come, / / between the set moon and the gathering dawn, /

d mass / / hardly in hope (even though

unexpressed ) / / to break its spell-rooted defence, and pass / / in,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s / / or in none, here’s a truth which

unfailingly is. / / Love is hard, love is here, not beyond or above,

ring light-scared thing, / / blind but

unfalteringly / / aware of its black way, / / out from its hide-out,

feet is spread / / a dome studded with

unfamiliar / / configurations, star by alien star. / / Meanwhile my

ary death; / / recurring terror of the

unfenced edge, / / meaningless life; and love’s affirming faith. / /

how kept his way. / / Utterly weak but

unfevered , aware, / / he lay on the home-ridge. The leaves were blowi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

appy life. An early page / / closed my

unfinished book; how does yours read?” / / I laughed: “a hard time to

olds a mirror / / to human doing, / /

unflattering / / comparison / / to shame us, but no error— / / nake

Heron and Gulls

ping showers— / / or the whole ring an

unflawed clarity— / / he learnt the infinite variation of days, / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

flame was blown out while they had / /

unflawed happiness of the hour, / / unquestioned certainty / / of an

Whom the Gods Love

hite and pink) invisible. / / The dark

unflowered bush was beautiful / / but we read omens according to our

choose / / to call it, for being thus

unforehopedly blest / / in the late radiance of / / this encompassin

[Yes, you’re right]

a certain sense of proportion; / / an

unforgetting longing for innocence. / /

guiles us. / / Nature is nothing, / /

unformed , till an eye / / prints an image / / on a prepared brain. /

Music is Landscape

ed or crushed before its hour / / left

unfulfilled its being, nor / / vanishing stamped its image on / / th

im, praise him as well), / / promised,

unfulfilled / / years, years for fun, / / years of trouble, good /

Die Weisse Rose

corner of my eye, / / back into black

unglimpsed / / as some thoughts dive out of the light. / / Ripples a

Water in a Wood

often. Such as he, / / taking up their

ungrateful task, / / must fix it irremovably, / / till where’s the m

gh such things are / / good causes for

unhappiness , does not spring / / from them. Unhappiness hides the gen

essions. / / Sorrow I have known, / /

unhappiness , / / fear, anxiety / / and worse corrosions of the soul,

Climacteric by the Sea

wait for happiness.” / / She sighed: “

unhappiness has always reasons; / / fences about the truth, veils on

piness, does not spring / / from them.

Unhappiness hides the genuine scar / / under some other likely-seemin

uch of love? / / Why narrow, cerebral,

unhappy Annabel? / / the last person who should have picked on him, /

“Tell Lady Byron…”

, however sharp its sting. / / You are

unhappy because you dare not free / / your self-bound life, but sit w

brown smears. Jesus, what people!” / /

Unhappy women / / caught from their open world into a cell, / / unco

War-time Anecdote

eye lit on the shell / / dropped there

unharmed . Vaguely he touched it—leapt / / suddenly, knowing for what

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

or in Lyme / / timelessly scraping gay

unheeded time / / to guide in draughts and grease (rooms over shops)

La Fontaine et le Déluge

long across the dewy land / / and you

unheeded , to whom now we pray; / / Time, whose converse imparts, then

lear lamps. / / Suns burn, worlds spin

unhindered on. / / This veiling is our earth’s alone, / / The cloud

life with others fed his joy. / / But

unhoped chance soon made him one with those: / / the princess wished

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

world I knew.” / / “Prophet and guide,

unhoped for helper sent me,” / / I said, “I would of all have chosen

oice, by one mistake, / / can leave an

uninhabitable / / waste, humanity gone / / and all our dream. / / I

ot knowing / / this might have been an

uninhabited wild. / / Now, down the mountain through the closing day,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

te rooms / / showed lightless windows,

uninvolved as tombs. / / The night, she thought, alone is beautiful.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

g light / / repeated the repeated, the

unique scene, / / canopied the still trolley, trundled in / / with g

may love it for / / (it seems) its own

unique / / self—yet they partake / / of one another and / / the oth

mutiny / / but bound in no purpose or

unity , / / planks rotten, seams uncaulked, thin sails torn, / / drif

nocence, / / total faith in an ordered

universe / / breathed from the will of God / / which set the peasant

Eugénie de Guérin

universe is not a whole. / / Valiant centripetality / / (Dante’s and

s / / listening / / to secrets of the

universe … / / Listening? These have ears / / tuned to another sound-

the electron’s charge / / might hold a

universe ). Or perhaps / / our time, space, matter are not / / their

steward. / / Reading the story of the

unjust steward / / I find myself a world away from Plato / / and in

resence at his side / / to second him:

unjustified , / / unsummoned, Hope, the loyal fool. / /

A dandelion examined / / is unsubtle,

unkempt ; / / distant, streaks a field / / with clear puddles of gold

t the oar, and grow / / kinder by your

unkindness , cruel Time. / / Let not our flesh and spirit, longing-tor

/ / in the wheat)—careless insensitive

unkindness , / / small but so painful it cannot be forgotten / / by e

h seems / / so full and so eternal, so

unknown / / behind all dreamed impossible precisions) / / to the oth

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

in that, but fetch a gift / / from the

unknown coast by the unknown steep / / mountains, most rarely dared b

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

cypress, Humfry Payne. / / After loved

unknown dead and loved known living / / the loved known dead. How muc

In the Audience / Still young that

unknown face; yet not quite young: / / working in time tides of exper

In the Audience

-child’s romantic dream: / / some deep

unknown knowledge of love, her rare / / spirit made in the cradle one

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

lence belongs to him, / / but somebody

unknown / / lends unnecessary / / noise to a dead man / / by marks

yet, / / her form, her face, the dear

unknown princess. / / Then darkness. / / Rest and faint warmth of th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ail distance and days, / / beach on an

unknown shore. / / Then take an oar, turn your back to the sea / / a

gift / / from the unknown coast by the

unknown steep / / mountains, most rarely dared by any from / / the f

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

fool, how could you lose / / her love,

unless because, / / you fool, you fool, of having / / simply become,

d must / / starve and poison him / / —

unless rather his first / / but still wildest, least biddable slave,

rumour. / / Don’t talk in a train / /

unless to complain. / / Veil up your soul: / / don’t weep at the pla

er year, the darkening winter; / / but

unlike any other year, / / at the dead season, at the silent hour, /

Winter Solstice

taste for an ivory tower provided, / /

unlike some towers, with windows and a view.” / / My eyes followed th

tied my mind; and then what should / /

unlikely cross its stillness but the phrase / / of Queen Victoria: ‘I

/ this clear brilliance, it will live

unlost / / sealed in the amber past. / / The ugly duckling flowered

simply become, you fool, / / you fool,

unlovable ? / / Fool, fool, fool, fool.” / /

“To buy and sell / / love-presents is

unlucky ” (that laugh again). / / “Get one yourself”, she nodded at th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ell that then, as then, / / unchanged,

unmagic we shall find / / the common ground we left behind / / matte

[Seen from the hill the hazy plain]

en man) / / at last suddenly across an

unmarked border, / / thralled by a hand / / beautiful, inhuman, / /

Los Altos Hills

w can she keep the flock?” / / “My two

unmarried sisters can manage ours.” / / “You’re lucky.” “What about d

eign lord amused? / / They hurl at you

unmerited abuse / / because you met his mistresses with strife / / b

ll the evening he kept calling / / for

unmixed wine for a toast to Love, and he went off / / in a tearing hu

Spells and Love

the night’s / / spangled tent, / / an

unmoved mover, / / loved not lover, / / indifferent.” / /

g / / like sunlight in the breast, the

unnamed wrong / / dispelled, happiness spreads like a bright spring /

ocking of death / / and life, with our

unnatural “I am”. / / The extraordinary process of becoming man / /

I can. I am her forester.’ / / It came

unnaturally calm and clear. / / ‘She is my lady and a prince’s wife.’

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ to earth and slow decay— / / cling

unnaturally / / shrivelling on their ties, / / dying as the tree die

nts, affection, age; / / necessary and

unnecessary death; / / recurring terror of the unfenced edge, / / me

m, / / but somebody unknown / / lends

unnecessary / / noise to a dead man / / by marks on this dumb stone.

h in kind and degree / / is wicked and

unnecessary . / / Though not so strong / / a light as Freedom, this t

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

ng. / / Yet peace, that keeps her nest

unnoticed in / / hearts holding memory along life’s increase / / (an

Dulce et Decorum

/ / He did not come. She waited. / /

Unnoticed the formal garden / / found itself as a jungle. / / Round

Mariana in Miniature

isage life either / / (or death) as an

unordered jumble of things. / / The fire, brutally quenched, was stil

ough / / dissolve? Shall all spells be

unpicked , or / / all spells but this? Must this spell too / / be loo

End of Fairy-Story

lain, / / plunged straight in, and the

unpredictable / / current caught him and forced him out to sea. / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

path, where fate / / takes like cloud

unpredictable shapes. / /

/ Can any misery kill / / the natural

unpremeditated start / / of happiness welling suddenly within, / / s

one / / —sensibility dumb and strength

unproved , / / the treacherous laziness of hand and brain, / / and lo

ow eddying round again, / / the founts

unquenched , the fumes of brimstone spill / / from the cities of the p

/ unflawed happiness of the hour, / /

unquestioned certainty / / of an infinity more. / / Weep for that tr

Whom the Gods Love

de the softness. Beautiful / / but not

unravaged . / / Lights fade. Darkness blots all, / / the ravage and t

In the Audience

rs supple / / to caress or grasp, / /

unravel muddle, / / adapt chance, / / determine beauty, / / explore

y / / a thin blue ribbon, merging past

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

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

y hope. / / Oh plan no more the exact,

unreal scheme, / / no more live by the dream, / / the light that lie

see beauty, / / can you succumb to an

unreasoned gloom? / / This way and that I love and am loved; happy /

s like a bright spring / / unsummoned,

unreasoned , secreted long / / from hours in still woods, on the wind-

bride’ / / his heart was flooded with

unreasoning joy. / / The age of time between, life and death, died /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

after initial numbness, / / blankness,

unrecognition , / / I feel my eyes adjusting, / / frozen memory / /

uld we have been? / / What, under that

unrecording eye, / / have done? / /

ich our fathers stole / / in careless,

unregenerate days, / / and we enjoyed, we hand back whole, / / impro

not known to be remembered (dream, / /

unremarked word) / / suddenly significantly recovered, / / twice tha

Yeats and Water-Birds

death, / / winter’s image of / / the

unresponding grave, / / are changed in spring’s breath. / / Stripped

must imply at least / / an absence of

unrest ) / / not so much fear… rather distress / / knowing so much is

ight or broken day / / or dull. Though

unreturning / / this clear brilliance, it will live unlost / / seale

he seems, / / is just, is Justice, to

unrighteousness / / a scourge, to injured innocence aid. And yet / /

Change Places…

yes, and yet may come to pass / / your

unschemed hope, as the new morning finds / / dew on the grass. / /

s a wind-break when gales bend / / the

unseasoned heart. Sidelong she saw him wait, / / gaze patiently. She

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ecture him so priggishly? / / He gazed

unseeing at a glowing tree / / hating himself, his love, his hopeless

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ed thighs, / / staring down at it with

unseeing eyes. / / Then she saw it, and knew it, and there found / /

Pelopia and Thyestes

er, vanishes / / in night, marking the

unseen edge, / / the moon’s dark circle / / which joins her crescent

September Cruise

gross / / poverty, in common loss / /

unsingular . / / Here a pittance- / / pension gives the ailing old /

/ perfect, what even chance / / left

unspoiled . / / Advance / / is good, surely (as well / / as being in

ggler jealous guards / / his refuge of

unspoken words. / / It takes long plotting or a lucky chance / / for

prodigal to all passing throws / / the

unstable beauty of a child. / /

st the stronger counterblast. / / Each

unstable star / / wears towards unbeing. / / The flailing galaxies a

hat be final? / / Green trees flourish

unstricken . Some recover / / from anorexia, and shine. / / Sink into

/ Flute with no reed, violin / / left

unstringed . / / Instrument evolved, built / / with loving skill, /

er / / / A dandelion examined / / is

unsubtle , unkempt; / / distant, streaks a field / / with clear puddl

e / / to second him: unjustified, / /

unsummoned , Hope, the loyal fool. / /

iness spreads like a bright spring / /

unsummoned , unreasoned, secreted long / / from hours in still woods,

/ no analogy for loss. / / Yet, this

untamed recurring / / of brave, ephemeral beauty / / does bring us s

Five Poems for Roni

in her face. / / Not seeing only. Her

untaught child-hand / / impossibly catches the movements and their so

as closed that door. / / But still the

untaught heart / / would, half believes, / / half persuades me even,

y, which stretched still / / unbroken,

unthinned , quite without change, until / / he almost thought that it

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

he wedding of Dominick and Jo / Through

untimed fields of childhood the shadows and light / / stretched far o

for brief despairing pain / / of these

untimely dead. / / Weep more for who remain. / /

Whom the Gods Love

kily up; / / some by a chance blow are

untimely over; / / on others / / presses too hard the splendour of t

God’s, / / and what is Caesar’s render

unto Caesar,” / / But did He not thereby, Himself being God’s / / so

eward / / tried on his master?… Render

unto Caesar… / / Perhaps there’s some thought links steward to Caesar

stion / / when he gives orders. Render

unto Caesar / / your armed and ordered self, and cry Hail Caesar.” /

Suffer the little / / children to come

unto me. / / I come. They suffer. / /

Haiku: Paedophilia

ce. / / Having insufficiently rendered

unto peace / / the power and glory she would have shared with us, /

Prayer to Truth

/ / of Parliament Square, crossed the

untrafficked , wide / / Embankment to the bridge, and saw the reach /

/ / through the mountains towards the

untrammelled sea / / but heard his mother calling, calling him, / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

born. / / All the same, unborn / / is

untroubled , at peace. / / Primal innocence / / is something to settl

how do I deserve / / this total, this

untroubled love? / /

[I have you always in my mind]

late radiance of / / this encompassing

untroubled love, / / I don’t see how we ever could / / renege on suc

[Yes, you’re right]

first uneasily / / but later in a long

untroubled sleep. / / Awaking in the morning he perceived / / the di

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rone / / (or both these judgements are

untrue ) / / this Martin Luther, dead and gone, / / alive saw somethi

Thoughts on the Lavatory

im so coaxingly. He sensed also / / an

unvoiced elders’ plot to pair him off / / with one of the two sisters

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

cloud a moment thinning) / / —for that

unwitting sinning / / dared not approach the fête, / / crept in the

Pelopia and Thyestes

on, for all perfection / / dreamed and

unwon : the only ivory tower / / to build for middle age. / / Being n

of knowledge insatiate, / / secret on

unwrapped secret greedily piled. / / But knowing better? Hardly a tra

Greenham Common

t, / / they said, to rest in woods and

upland air, / / and so… He went to bed under a spell / / and lay awa

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

alls, lofty and from no empty / / moat

upmounting , but straight from shining water / / bravely bridged—flagg

through / / the tangles, light at last

upon a clue, / / draw one strand clear, even out of this skein, / /

unt the generations gone— / / but once

upon a time, in some demesne, / / there lived, in service to a King a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

e. / / It didn’t even start with ‘Once

upon / / a time’ but “When my mother was a girl”— / / particularity,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s much taker quite / / as giver—throws

upon / / her basic monotone / / scents, colours, notes, the whole /

/ “Ah, you” his heart in answer glowed

upon / / her glowing heart, his smile on her smile—two / / in one. S

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s we watched, our singing / / died too

upon our breath, / / for dying kills, my brother, / / as certainly a

[We lived and sang, my brother]

love and hate, / / would sail perforce

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

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

oughts / / lift from the stream, dance

upon / / the secret motions of the air, / / there and here, up, down

How not to listen to music

and chill— / / knew himself not alone

upon this coast. / / She sat where the sand ceased against the rock,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

all in a mist of blood is hid. / / Not

upon us our fathers’ sin / / but on your children visited. / /

have left undone?” / / Have sometimes

upon world and sun / / turned eyes as darkened as the dead. / / “Wha

/ / And if the sea has oil-slicks, the

upper air / / mortal contaminations, today is lovely. / / Enjoy toda

/ ground-floor, a third time round the

upper , and / / in a dark corner of a corridor / / a small door someh

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hings of course too, / / But these are

uppermost in my thoughts of you. / / Funny and kind. / / You know ba

Two Poems for G

He does not heed / / precise feature,

upright stance. He is here in the block, / / itself still rooted in t

September Cruise

Uproot the rich hedges that roads may be wider / / that more cars may

splash and shout / / in the sea. Grown-

ups lounge out / / from the pub to drink on the wall / / or sit on t

Climacteric by the Sea

shot of Anne Frank’s wall / / —her pin-

ups , marking her strip of that confined world / / the house behind th

Hermes of Olympia

ing occasionally / / towards the grown-

ups / / (to check that they are there). / / Give him a smile / / so

[Time is a child]

/ red on the white. And she cried out,

upset , / / and dropped the shell, which broke. It was enough, / / sh

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ng man / / forces us out of nature, to

upset , / / fight, break nature, defy her, defeat her. Yet / / only w

till there. / / He walked a little way

upstream to get / / his bottles full of the near-brackish marsh- / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

sed, of tears / / and happiness, while

upward rears / / now the tower, round whose channelled stone / / spe

Upward Turn / Spring, cold and wet, / / moves into summer with no cha

l moment, when the sea / / moved again

upwards in the endless dance, / / he struck out and soon reached the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ from the hedge-top / / hooks its way

upwards , / / on and up, / / hangs its constellations / / improbably

the pit / / hand in hand / / blinking

upwards , / / they did not speak. / / It seemed that they must die, /

The Green Children of Woolpit

played / / with its likeness to a sea-

urchin shell. / / Traditional ornament and lucky charm / / in every

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

That tempted him. “What are they?” “Sea-

urchins .” / / “May I…?” She laughed (gull’s cry) “To buy and sell /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ions; yet moving in it / / a blindworm

urge to love makes for a minute / / contact, perhaps; lost that, sink

of the sacrificial Man, / / drained of

urgency and pain, / / timeworn image, will not fix / / the shifting

Stray Thoughts at a Wedding

h. / / What do I see? / / Chiefly the

urgency / / of looking, rather, deep / / and long, with all the warm

[Now of threescore and ten]

/ misborn into a crueller myth / / we

use against our mother’s life. / / That corner where the road / / t

se she shall have. But they shall be no

use .” / / Dress it how you may; / / in plain words, what no one gave

“Gale is Dead”

u, only use / / your power, and do not

use it least for this: / / to strip your own inaction’s false excuse.

ys. / / He had been taught to hunt and

use the bow / / but never practised much, and several days / / he di

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

an eastern pedlar, who taught me how to

use them. / / But away, Lady, bend your team to Ocean / / now, and I

Spells and Love

le words ‘mankind’, ‘man’, ‘he’. / / I

use them in this instance advisedly, / / hoping faintly that mankind’

Greenham Common

ere I His steward / / would He have me

use tricks on Him this steward / / tried on his master?… Render unto

. / / Turn to whatever calls you, only

use / / your power, and do not use it least for this: / / to strip y

/ —the work was wonderful, and the much-

used blade / / marvellously fresh and keen—it was not that, / / not

). When I was very small / / my mother

used to carry me out there / / to see them, but old granny had a fall

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

a vile perversion of good thought / /

used to fill Smithfield with the smell of flesh in fire / / as Protes

gamblers on the game, / / whetters and

users of the deliberate knife. / / Between the starving North and war

ending. / / The world seems more than

usually wet / / with blood and tears; wrongs beyond hope of mending /

tower: fanatics have their dream / / —

Utopia or the martyr’s palm— / / The chatterers have their sound, the

dew and trickled down. / / I couldn’t

utter , no more than a baby can / / whimpering for his mother in his s

Spells and Love

me heat. / / Some afternoons he slept,

utterly done, / / but grudged all such delays, the daylight’s waste—

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

, behind / / a smooth forehead, clear,

utterly free / / from any mark, almost like a child’s. / /

est / / then died. The starry dark was

utterly still. / / He dropped the sails and lashed the tiller. Dresse

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

or instinct somehow kept his way. / /

Utterly weak but unfevered, aware, / / he lay on the home-ridge. The

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

slowly ebbed again. / / Numb, cold and

utterly worn out, he found / / that he was walking back down the dark

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

she said, / / stood a young forester.

Utterly worn out / / he looked, and foreign in his strange-cut green.

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Beyond Measure /

Uxorious the Duke. While Angelo / / nevermore touched poor Mariana’s