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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

W

umped low under the water-line.  / / He
waded in and took one in his hand / / and knifed it from the stone.  T
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
feet / / down grey boredoms, the grim
wait ; / / always his mocking game / / stacked against us.  / / But n
Two Poems from a New Life
ause, but none the more / / to sit and
wait and lull your powers asleep.  / / You have a sensitive mind and h
The Black-out
No one.  The empty guard-room seemed to
wait — / / bench, table, brazier, weapons on the wall, / / but no one
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ck of shame, / / I watch the world and
wait for happiness.”  / / She sighed: “unhappiness has always reasons;
The Black-out
/ “… but if you’re in a hurry and can’t
wait for me / / there’s another girl in our house who’s quite ready /
Love Scene
concentrating / / with us, in the long
wait / / for spring.  / /
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
unseasoned heart.  Sidelong she saw him
wait , / / gaze patiently.  She frowned, but turned to him / / smiling
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ause to hunt or cook.  Eating / / could
wait .  He drew his knife, and carefully / / began to cut his way.  He f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
regaining strength and learning how to
wait .  / / He watched the river running furiously / / outward, saw th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
saw a few hides spread.  / / He did not
wait his host—drank and fell to / / on the hard victuals (they were f
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
l dance / / ever break out again?  / /
Wait .  If you like, pray.  / / Though you do not know what to, / / som
Winter Recalled
/ Greatness perhaps there is; but I who
wait / / invisibly chained for—what?—to set me free / / am neither g
The Black-out
gions of the fiend / / the fruits that
wait their greed and passion cull, / / once wrecked the mind / / mak
Nijinsky
limit’s set / / loosely—perhaps there
wait / / twenty or twenty-five / / —but I’d as soon not live / / (s
[Now of threescore and ten]
lay, to / / read, finish this…  Can’t I
wait up?”  The question / / falls.  Plato, Paul, ask the (for me) wrong
The Betrayal
out: “good-bye, / / thanks,” and fled. 
Waited at the back the strong / / oarsman, in front the singers silen
The Black-out
Mariana in Miniature / She
waited for him, waited.  / / He did not come.  She waited.  / / Unnotic
Mariana in Miniature
orester’s ignorance / / (inland bred),
waited for the turning tide / / and just at the still moment, when th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
iana in Miniature / She waited for him,
waited .  / / He did not come.  She waited.  / / Unnoticed the formal ga
Mariana in Miniature
/ The statue underneath the stays / /
waited in marble innocence: / / a light such as in Paradise / / flow
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
, who naked / / chained on a sea-rock,
waited / / out of the wave / / a monstrous love / / —but her wind-w
The Sea
him, waited.  / / He did not come.  She
waited .  / / Unnoticed the formal garden / / found itself as a jungle
Mariana in Miniature
under clear aiR / / Is the wide world,
waitinG / / Everything comes with timE / /
[A long steep road to climb]
shall win home / / and find your wife
waiting for you, your son / / a man now and a friend, a few old frien
Odysseus
hend / Riding down to the ship of exile
waiting / / in the firth below / / his horse threw him.  He rose, loo
Gunnar of Lithend
Chrysalis / The chrysalis age of
waiting is not wasted.  / / The prisoner has time to think, and learn
Chrysalis
Waiting / Not yet the necessary word awakes / / nor stir the lips, /
Waiting
?  / / How know the spot’s ahead there,
waiting now, / / where these cliffs, those cliffs, curb that sand-edg
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rom the air, / / note painfully on the
waiting page / / for the deaf world to hear, / / spring light, sprin
Beethoven
ir, and all / / empty.  The play seemed
waiting to begin.  / / Through all the courtyard rooms, up the curled
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
less currents met in you has stood / /
waiting too long.  Oh, do not miss your hour.  / / Deep hoarded in your
The Black-out
rought him home again.  / / His mother,
waiting up, met him in wild— / / reproach?  Not so—excitement.  Messeng
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / She ceased, and I turned from the
waiting water / / and saw my brother moving towards our / / stance h
The Black-out
en / / nightmares or wars, quarrels or
waitings cease.  / / “Martin” she said, “how goes your pilgrimage?”  /
The Black-out
e him a sign, / / then say ‘Simaetha’s
waiting ’, and bring him here.”  / / That’s what I told her.  She went,
Spells and Love
an brighten through / / your dark sea. 
Waits ahead the help you need.”  / / “Anabel,” I thought, and pressing
The Black-out
hire, childhood, Anabel, the flood / /
waits for the turn,” began my helper.  “Each / / of countless currents
The Black-out
hills is laid.”  / / But she: “our way
waits .”  I turned to my father / / and chilled beheld him gone; then w
The Black-out
dreamed is mine and lost, / / but some
waits others, and of those are you; / / the time to do things in is s
The Black-out
ss by this long eclipse / / the spirit
waits , / / tasting in small what the true sufferer knows: / / the lo
Waiting
war is won / / the good we claim to do
waits to begin; / / or lost, an acreage to our hands is laid / / hea
Prayer to Truth
true enough) / / shall force a way and
wake her with a kiss.  / / And it’s to love that, wakened so, she’ll w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ visions half-realised littering his
wake , / / his sublimated loves corroding in him, / / the world of hi
Pietà
/ Now May is here.  The wintered senses
wake / / to rack the celibate and bless the pair.  / / Now evening tr
May Day
d it’s to love that, wakened so, she’ll
waken : / / love is the gift I brought.  I give it now, / / and who ca
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ith a kiss.  / / And it’s to love that,
wakened so, she’ll waken: / / love is the gift I brought.  I give it n
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
grimage?”  / / No remembered, no memory-
wakening voice / / of childhood, but herself set out of age; / / “in
The Black-out
the spring’s pulse in the chilled earth
wakening , / / which to returning cold rehardens now; / / but that th
The Black-out
ging to be where / / whatever day / /
wakes your heart.  / / A pang that’s like the joy / / of being togeth
[The clouds that pressed the air]
Vision Between
Waking and Sleep / A child standing in a wilderness of snow / / looki
Vision Between Waking and Sleep
h / / this poor skeleton.  / / Between
waking and sleep / / things appear / / sharp in the eye, / / words
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
nights were much the worst of it.  / /
Waking before dawn always, stiff with chill, / / still tired, set off
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ruck deeply chill, but too worn-out for
waking / / curled between two boulders he dreamed of love.  / / The s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
opped on the leaf-mould and slept.  / /
Waking , he drank deep from his water-flask / / but would not pause to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n, away from her, and yet was she.  / /
Waking , he knew the pain for what it was / / and knew the supposed ch
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e thaw—soft air one night, and sound on
waking / / of water dribbling, drifting mists, sharp heather / / bla
The Black-out
ng, / / light bodies lightly touching. 
Waking , / / the dream gone you shall keep the sweetness.  / /
Otherworld
and his beyond this last defence.  / /
Waking to water whispering by the bank, / / the dark recesses of the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed.  But a good time’s being had.  / / I
walk apart in our own good other time, / / you beside me.  And for a m
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
in this century / / took her cliff-top
walk at Cap Martin / / with a clever little boy, Kenneth Clark, / /
Time’s Reach
the wide sand gulls fly calling / / or
walk far out by the ripples’ edge, where children / / paddle and shou
For Rachel
his conquered being.  / / Her look, her
walk , her laugh, her voice, the whole / / informed by her warm spirit
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
gic of the outer world, for him / / to
walk in with his world of hidden dreams— / / cold, though, and hungry
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oar, turn your back to the sea / / and
walk inland with the oar on your shoulder.  / / You will meet with men
Odysseus
ime ago, / / walking home, a long cold
walk , past midnight, / / I found the whole world round me suddenly wh
A Hoard
ing of the knife.  / / Beast and bandit
walk the earth / / while the hero, careless, bored, / / hunts the ga
Dark Age
with those: / / the princess wished to
walk the woods; they chose / / to be her guide (oh, well-spent years!
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Young, I thought / / “One day I shall
walk / / these rough woods, / / those hills that climb and part, /
From a Train
r feet, now I am strong and light.  / /
Walk with me home, where Hampstead sleeps above / / the quenched city
The Black-out
, / / we noticed Time / / choosing to
walk with us / / at our shared natural pace, / / and so shared joy i
Two Poems from a New Life
on the wall / / or sit on the beach or
walk , / / young and middle-aged / / and, a class of their own, in pa
Climacteric by the Sea
ise gladness to be still there.  / / He
walked a little way upstream to get / / his bottles full of the near-
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Towards that half-seen enemy / / Love
walked alone, and presently / / found—not indeed Despair / / but, hu
Masque
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / I
walked down Piccadilly in the black-out.  / / The scented aura and sof
The Black-out
l ready for the King’s hunting.  / / He
walked drowned in his dreams.  Then a red flame / / smote him—light on
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
id not look back again.  / / Behind him
walked his brother, and I called him:  / / “Christopher”, and he stepp
The Black-out
ing, but a lonely child, / / timid, he
walked his long dreams with a friend / / who’d share his joy and pain
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
blurted out / / “You looked sad as you
walked .  If I could do…”  / / He stopped; and she flushed too, but angr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd ‘this is Greece’ / / I thought.”  We
walked in silence for a while.  / / At Blackfriars’ Bridge my guide tu
The Black-out
now, and in the other’s care / / they
walked , indeed they rode—at the bank-side / / a trim boat, rigged, pr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
I.  / / I smiled compassionately, / /
walked on complacently.  / / Later a figure caught my eye / / —the sa
Reflection
or but in laughter.  / / Later, the boy
walked on the sounding beach / / miles, hours.  He loved to swim, and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed beyond her word / / her voice, as I
walked on towards Leicester Square.  / / The first tube gate was shut,
The Black-out
/ / They kissed, and hand in hand / /
walked out together through the broken gate.  / / And how did they get
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng dawn, / / I turned to Hampstead and
walked slowly home.  / /
The Black-out
ng, to dree out / / his weird at home,
walked through the black night home.  / / Past two o’clock.  The ball w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
masquerading behind the notice.  / / We
walked together back under the trees.  / /
Los Altos Hills
s a child; where she and I, young, / /
walked together, in love with one another.  / / Our children, grandchi
[White foam sweeps]
, and when we part / / gondola sunk or
walkers not returning / / may turn a casual parting to a last, / / t
The Black-out
rly worn out, he found / / that he was
walking back down the dark road / / and could no more.  He dropped fla
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
slept late, and then / / half a day’s
walking brought him to the sand— / / soft sand which rose in a long r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
again, but still a long time ago, / /
walking home, a long cold walk, past midnight, / / I found the whole
A Hoard
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform /
Walking I heard the train / / behind me coming in.  / / So did the ch
Ten Seconds on a Tube Platform
A Hoard /
Walking in the darkening dusk / / I saw the thinnest sliver of a new
A Hoard
l girls / / both in white dresses / /
walking in the dusk / / under wide trees / / of a well-ordered park.
Grace
er help?  / / Not you.  Us perhaps.  / /
Walking on the white / / slippery track, face smarting / / in the ev
For Cecil
ays, / / cold dew, shelly horns, bulls
walking pastures / / in kingly-flashing coats under burning rays.  /
Poetry
the nearer hills.  Alone long days / /
walking , scrambling, he added mountain-ways / / to his wood-knowledge
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
on the wind-shaved sweep / / of downs,
walking , sitting, now listening, / / looking, hours where the power o
Happiness
He has left the walled garden of Faith,
walks / / anywhere wilful thought may lead.  She looks / / out from t
Eugénie de Guérin
and little matters where / / the body
walks —loved places round us then / / intensify the shuttered heart’s
The Black-out
.  Parthenon glows / / above the shaded
wall , and near at hand / / glows the monument of Philopappos / / (a
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
ncumbered ground / / between the thorn-
wall and the pine.  But soon / / a few yards in under the oaks, he fou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
reland / Gorse and rock and bog lap the
wall / / and wind hurls the sea in the home’s face.  / / Who bred her
The West of Ireland
/ bench, table, brazier, weapons on the
wall , / / but no one.  He passed to the yard within, / / paved, echoi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
each.  / / Easy to live below the built
wall , / / forget the exiled sea.  / / I am the wave that sweeps over
The Wave
in a blown-up snapshot of Anne Frank’s
wall / / —her pin-ups, marking her strip of that confined world / /
Hermes of Olympia
/ in a scratched verse, and A.G. on a
wall / / in chalk R.H.  On the Roman vault / / Adam is made man in on
Fossils
om her body she’d / / wipe it down the
wall , marking the snail-course / / of her sentence.  A calendar.  / /
War-time Anecdote
, to be silent.  / / She lives behind a
wall of glass / / which speech, touch do not pass.  / / But what she
Nadia
im, / / between the wild wind and that
wall of rock?…  / / Suppose he made the shore…  Those barren ranges /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hrough our shifting mood, / / a double
wall of smoke, / / to know fully, judge fairly another heart / / is
A Window
ng rocks.  At last appeared / / a great
wall of south-facing cliff, which stretched / / west, west to the hor
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e out / / from the pub to drink on the
wall / / or sit on the beach or walk, / / young and middle-aged / /
Climacteric by the Sea
o barbary.  / / Hunger burns the palace-
wall , / / robs the revered graves.  We see / / the singer silent at t
Dark Age
/ / I am the wave that sweeps over the
wall , / / sets your houses awash, drowns your creatures, / / your fr
The Wave
ssible, faded from you in / / a narrow
walled alley with no escape.  / / Now, outside hope, / / the late sun
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
away.  And further.  / / He has left the
walled garden of Faith, walks / / anywhere wilful thought may lead.  S
Eugénie de Guérin
/ / loosens the bindings and the close
walls burst, / / but if the strong straining dissolves in weakness /
Chrysalis
moving like a mouse / / in the dusk of
walls , craved scraps of food and love / / —a sweet little girl—hangin
Law Report
/ contours of earth, and water runs by
walls .  / / I sought my guide’s look: “uncorrupted lover / / of earth
The Black-out
Attica, herded in / / between the long
walls , learnt to live in slums, / / and watched the Spartan soldiers
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
the next moment empty.  / / Look on the
walls , lofty and from no empty / / moat upmounting, but straight from
For Rachel
ning dissolves in weakness / / and the
walls stay, distilled knowledge grows black, / / an unbalance, an ach
Chrysalis
been / / under the Italians.  The cell-
walls were streaked / / with red-brown smears.  Jesus, what people!”  /
War-time Anecdote
burn.  / / Clouds of ruinous dust / /
wander in the random winds.  / / We know the father’s sins / / visite
May Day, 1986
This year the constellations crowd and
wander / / richer, wilder it seems than I have seen.  / / No, the sea
Five Poems for Roni
s below / / once-separated worlds long
wandered , back / / and forth.  The trader found his markets grow.  / /
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
r the drips which did not wet her, / /
wandered the woods, or from the hill looked down / / over dank green
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd hardly come had fled / / —footloose
wanderer , not pretending / / to stay us like our daily bread.  / / Sh
Dance of the Seasons
ere first / / crossing huge mountains,
wandering and wild / / ‘full of hope, full of hope’ he told the child
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e else.  Love’s gods / / have drawn his
wandering fancy away from me.  / / I’ll go tomorrow to Timagetus’s clu
Spells and Love
the sword / / stands ever in the water-
wandering stone?”  / / Her face was memory where the cold light poured
The Black-out
ily have remained / / an air-and-water-
wandering swan?  / / Or did he gratefully recover / / mankindness wit
Fairy Story
ntry of water and wood / / between the
wandering Thames and the White Horse.  / / A bigger heart that, I thin
Bury My Heart
in a ballad or a story / / leading the
wandering traveller / / (the youngest son, the chosen man) / / at la
Los Altos Hills
loved known dead.  How much does memory
wane ? / / figure and face and voice I thought I had, / / but now wit
The Black-out
al cold, let alone / / real hunger—not
want / / and the consequent / / stress and distress, / / miseries,
Climacteric by the Sea
“Tell Lady Byron…”  / What did he
want her told?  Why indeed / / want to tell her anything at that late
“Tell Lady Byron…”
capable of,” / / I said, “but what you
want I cannot be.  / / Elsewhere my road.  But that I take a road / /
The Black-out
where all the winds are fallen / / for
want of anything to keep them up, / / a lightless cave whose emptines
Where?
/ won’t, can’t / / keep the pace you
want .  / / Rein slack / / on sunk neck, / / let him amble home / /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
that, warmer than this / / the word I
want , the feeling is / / affection, which need not arise / / from be
Love…  No
e—dead).  / / In car, bus, train I / /
want the journey not to end / / even when the end / / is wanted.  I d
For Cecil
n the disgrace / / of wide preventable
want , though such things are / / good causes for unhappiness, does no
The Black-out
in which I threw it away.  / / I didn’t
want to, but I saved my skin.  Good-bye / / that shield.  I shall get o
Two Songs of a Mercenary
below.  / / This is my country I do not
want to leave.  / / But brood on that is stupid, self-defeative.  / /
Two Summer Songs
/ is wanted.  I didn’t, I / / suppose,
want to leave the womb.  / / Moving across the snow / / towards the s
For Cecil
ate—“Oh / / don’t send me to bed yet—I
want to play, to / / read, finish this…  Can’t I wait up?”  The questio
The Betrayal
t did he want her told?  Why indeed / /
want to tell her anything at that late hour?  / / Why her?  / / The wh
“Tell Lady Byron…”
t to end / / even when the end / / is
wanted .  I didn’t, I / / suppose, want to leave the womb.  / / Moving
For Cecil
beckoning threateningly.  / / Often he
wanted , once or twice essayed / / its final peak; but reached his fou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Mercury?”  / / “I would” I said.  “I’ve
wanted to all my life, / / which is quite a long time now.”  / / “At
A Hoard
ery particle, it was Lady Byron / / he
wanted told… what?  / /
“Tell Lady Byron…”
swan.  / / Troopers shot the fawn, / /
Wanton brutality / / by all ages of man / / in every age works on.  /
Headline
y love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / —“He
wantonly crazes the maiden out of her bower, / / and the bride from h
Spells and Love
tumn-born).  / / Why here?  The princess
wants it so.  The boy’s / / heart leapt—‘She loves…’—then dropped agai
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / no choice is left us but to render
war / / all glory and all power.  / / War is a pit of horror; and def
Prayer to Truth
ll more doubtful season: / / we are at
war , and as the stage is set / / small hope is offered of a happy end
The Black-out
pable dark / / seemed the blackness of
war and love misfired, / / the concentration of my brooded wrong.  /
The Black-out
/ Behind in the cities words boil up to
war / / —Athens and Sparta, Paris and Berlin, / / Rome and Carthage,
On the Border
ung the face of God, / / and played at
war between them with the soul of Nijinsky / / in fifty-two pieces li
Nijinsky
only, son, / / fighting a foreigners’
war in a far country.  / / Darkness.  / / But Time has tricks.  / / Th
Time’s Reach
war / / all glory and all power.  / /
War is a pit of horror; and defeat / / by these might sink us even de
Prayer to Truth
all bravery, but not pretend / / that
war is grand.  / / Make us remember that if this war is won / / the g
Prayer to Truth
ompatible / / with reason, can imagine
war is still / / (if it ever really was) a viable / / way of settlin
Consider
and.  / / Make us remember that if this
war is won / / the good we claim to do waits to begin; / / or lost,
Prayer to Truth
e.  / / The heaviness you father on the
war , / / preventable slaughter, and on the disgrace / / of wide prev
The Black-out
e second darkness falls,” he said, “the
war / / recurring like a nightmare or a fever.  / / Yet while our per
The Black-out
War -time Anecdote / “After they caught me behind their desert lines /
War-time Anecdote
The Twenties / The
war was over and the world was all / / before them.  Never mind the re
The Twenties
of barbed wire / / these prisoners of
war .”  / / We have our orders, and our keep and pay.  / / A man must l
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
s / / (our comfortable backs) thunders
war / / with all those deaths of others.  / / And that huge violence
Back Room, 1944
/ to take arms, not in this but a just
war / / with final victory; even if the best / / must fall, the hour
The Black-out
en, you / / aren’t only prisoner / / —
warder , Governor too, / / responsible for what / / conditions prevai
Body
ell.  / / After long cold she liked the
warm .  / / A few tears formed but scarcely fell.  / / She bound the br
Ballad
e, / / and this first day of June / /
warm air, / / soft sun / / take over.  And I come / / suddenly on a
Upward Turn
and was she gave.  / / Alas, honest and
warm and brave / / she lost them both by one mistake.  / / Oneself is
Ballad
a moment gone, / / lost in a smile as
warm as sunlight—“You.”  / / “Ah, you” his heart in answer glowed upon
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / “Blow this way, that way, cool or
warm .  Be still.”  / / Nature is much to wreck, but man can do it.  / /
Man in Nature
deep in the living breath / / of this
warm , beautiful / / —and cold, and horrible / / —but felt whatever w
[Now of threescore and ten]
body’s subtleties / / flushed from the
warm blood’s quickening.  / / The yielding and the stiffening, / / th
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
grumbling storm, / / and through this
warm / / clear air / / gooseflesh me with fear.  / /
Antipodes
kes an adolescent dream all day / / of
warm companionship, friendship and love, / / but when some actual com
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ of her whose gift, above / / all her
warm gifts, is loving.  / / You fool, how could you lose / / her love
Hebona
from her husband’s bed while it’s still
warm .”  / / He’d the gift of the gab.  And I didn’t need persuading.  /
Spells and Love
to the old / / infinitely distant lost
warm hum and glow.  / / The long-drawn moment, intolerably taut, / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
him with delight.  / / “Come here.  Get
warm .  I’ve got all that you’ll need / / if you’ve the courage for the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s pain and more peace.  / / And you, my
warm love now, it’s our love that melts / / the ice-cap on that love—
[White foam sweeps]
tally sick) yet sharing / / still with
warm loving pride / / his thoughts and hopes, sharing with him her ho
Eugénie de Guérin
am?  / / No—if intangible, / / still a
warm presence at his side / / to second him: unjustified, / / unsumm
Masque
r voice, the whole / / informed by her
warm spirit—only seeing, / / hearing, her life with others fed his jo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hat / / strips it.  Night for you.  / /
Warm summer cycle / / ride.  Home, in the garden found / / you dying.
For Cecil
rms around one another, / / two bodies
warm together.  / / …  Yes, in the end love, / / when we’re really put
Touch
beach / / raised you a bonfire / / to
warm us, be you, burn off / / the chill crematorium.  / / To one each
For Cecil
the coastal plain.  / / That night was
warmer .  He slept late, and then / / half a day’s walking brought him
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t we owe mankind.  / / Wider than that,
warmer than this / / the word I want, the feeling is / / affection,
Love…  No
ts best time, here, now is / / with me
warmly ; and in that glow I find / / the image of you with less pain a
[White foam sweeps]
t because one / / existed so strongly,
warmly , and is now gone, / / her existence is more real still, now an
Death
ghosts the memory of the dead / / but
warmly help and guide.  / / Flash on our groping a recurring vision /
Prayer to Truth
/ / whose high flame, even remembered,
warms and sings.  / / Man’s acts and sufferings seem / / equally drea
Question
l…  The alcohol / / I wash it down with
warms the soul…  / / Sugar and spice…  / / Shatteringly / / clatters
Dinner
ghten over it, and though / / my heart
warms to the first of winter weather / / I could have cried at last f
The Black-out
me darkness strangely growing / / with
warmth and light and the returning sun / / another being.  / / And lo
Winter Solstice
ather, deep / / and long, with all the
warmth / / I have—look? rather, dip / / deep in the living breath /
[Now of threescore and ten]
eakening onsets in retreat; / / spring
warmth is strengthening though you see not how.”  / / Quieted now I mo
The Black-out
ime comes to be free.  / / Good, if new
warmth new-quickening his straining / / loosens the bindings and the
Chrysalis
/ but not my bus.  / / Comforting glow,
warmth of drink, food / / begin to fade.  / / Lovers close, held toge
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
ur image came to mind it brought / / a
warmth of innocent pleasure, / / as mine surely to you.  / / And that
Leap Year
/ / Then darkness.  / / Rest and faint
warmth of the sun / / revived him to his pain.  He lay awhile, / / bu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
all but palpable presence / / of your
warmth , of your kindness / / —but sometimes I’m half blinded / / as
[I have you always in my mind]
ou more / / and better.  Light and / /
warmth that irradiated / / us.  Bonfire on the night beach.  / /
For Cecil
ep.  / / Up early, off—a letter left to
warn / / his mother—hoped perhaps within a week / / or two or three,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ever after.  / / Beyond sound of Time’s
warning cough / / all tasks done, spells are taken off / / this shim
End of Fairy-Story
and though this dark lies on us all, a
warning / / of present trouble worse, and when we part / / gondola s
The Black-out
ything’s arse-up, blast it.  Blast them! 
Wars !”  / / Behind in the cities words boil up to war / / —Athens and
On the Border
s increase / / (and outsoars too these
wars no one can win), / / is for them also, knowing or nothing, peace
Dulce et Decorum
ve her there as when / / nightmares or
wars , quarrels or waitings cease.  / / “Martin” she said, “how goes yo
The Black-out
fe.  / / Between the starving North and
war’s dull flame, / / distressed only by the knowledge of distress, /
The Black-out
eof / / sold us to separate benches in
war’s galley.  / / Redeem us soon.  But while you may not so, / / lay
Prayer to Time
s course, next meal…  The alcohol / / I
wash it down with warms the soul…  / / Sugar and spice…  / / Shatterin
Dinner
tall, branching—massed together, / / a
wash of gold across the water-meadows.  / / Like other things this yea
Buttercups
to that?—or else the other one?  / / He
washed and patched and looted.  Clean and clad, / / his bow restrung,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d its grief / / these stains are being
washed away / / by the strong stream of our love, which flows / / cl
[Feelings of guilt]
woods; / / the second at Saunton—wind-
washed pink thrift / / in short grass on low sandstone cliffs, / / l
Bury My Heart
wn / / up, a clear image: miles of sea-
washed sand, / / miles, days—crossed by a river hard to cross, / / a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ And clear, still, diamond-lit / / by
washed stars is now the night.  / / Again night’s vaulting / / is sta
Exchange
d the beech its red / / but winds have
washed the gold from the white birches.  / / Autumn is off where summe
Dance of the Seasons
Preferment’s chancy flow / / at court
washed the poor widow far away / / to be a hunting-castle’s housekeep
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
But suppose morning / / comes bright,
washed things will display / / new beauty, a world singing.  / / Morn
Exchange
Green fields of childhood greet us / /
washed with yellow and white, / / daisy and buttercup.  / / Love the
Two Summer Songs
before pronouncing the fatal word, / /
washing his hands remembers Pilate.  / / Could anything be more absurd
Responsibility
ctories, / / the factories themselves,
washing shining / / in narrow yards, the yards, even the narrow / /
“Life is sweet, brother”
f summer’s draggled end dragged on / /
washing the autumn out of leaves and grass / / till a hard winter cla
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he wept—sobbing waves / / of hot tears
washing the weight of sin and sorrow / / away from the heart.  / / An
A Dream
s—and that Delphis is in love.  / / She
wasn 't sure, she said, whether it was a woman / / or a man, but all t
Spells and Love
loveliest / / is disposed of with the
waste .  / /
Progress
n the rock) and in them / / the recent
waste .  / / Climbing among pines / / the Parthenon lifts again its lo
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
e, / / can leave an uninhabitable / /
waste , humanity gone / / and all our dream.  / / If, considering this
Consider
grudged all such delays, the daylight’s
waste — / / not that he had a real reason for haste / / but challenge
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n ash is left.  / / May Delphis’s flesh
waste so in consuming fire.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him (you k
Spells and Love
river / / is another country.  / / The
waste , the loss we said.  / / Yes, but how bright and brave / / the f
Five Poems for Roni
n; and worse (last / / worst twist and
waste ) / / transmutation of love to cruelty.  / / I see / / the fina
Stones
ss) / / may this Myndian, this Delphis
waste with love, / / and as I whirl Aphrodite’s brazen hummer / / so
Spells and Love
s / The chrysalis age of waiting is not
wasted .  / / The prisoner has time to think, and learn / / lovely pre
Chrysalis
/ / —Taj Mahal, Parthenon, / / Angkor
Wat , Avila, / / Eiffel Tower, Pont due Gard…  / / …  Remove the camera
Tourist
eat freely, and again / / travel, and
watch again Nijinsky jump.  / / But the gay twenties got a dusty answe
The Twenties
extraordinarily, man.  / / But we must
watch at last our self-made image, / / when the sun leaves it, gather
Dream under a Carob-tree
got me, soul and body.  / / You go and
watch by Timategus’s place / / (that’s where he likes to practise and
Spells and Love
e can hardly tell.  / / But now that we
watch ourselves / / contriving against our wills / / a no less inelu
What goes up must come down
silence.  / / You, though, reader, must
watch outside the silence / / with me, since after-knowledge sets tom
For Rachel
that Cecil can’t hear, see, / / can’t
watch the change, the growth.  But after all / / it won’t be long befo
A poem you may like to see
/ have sunk towards the ships.  / / We
watch the crescent set, / / know her concealed companion setting too.
September Cruise
till he was) / / but must do more than
watch the seasons pass, / / must in their passage make his own work g
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
The scar-lips of the wounded wood / /
watch the sleek sweep of the road.  / / The exposed trees absorb the f
The Rift
Guérin / She hung out of her window to
watch the stars.  / / They hustled her back to bed with cries and pray
Eugénie de Guérin
t stirred by the prick of shame, / / I
watch the world and wait for happiness.”  / / She sighed: “unhappiness
The Black-out
just beside her bright Jupiter.  / / We
watch them move / / slowly, inevitably, steadily / / together.  At la
September Cruise
ay / / under the hot, bright day, / /
watched bright, cool water flow, / / drowsing (he had not slept / /
Pelopia and Thyestes
h a still height I looked down / / and
watched detached my weary body go / / with Emily on towards Camden To
The Black-out
lights, against gold and white, / / he
watched entranced the colour-sparkling sea: / / the King, the Queen,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ined.  And dreamed of the princess.  / /
Watched , heard, the water churning round a rock / / or falling whitel
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
light, / / lovely and unaware, / / he
watched her kneel and bend.  / / She turned her face.  It all / / —hor
Pelopia and Thyestes
nd smooth with snow.  / / House-bound I
watched its beauty change—clouds frown / / or cold sun brighten over
The Black-out
He breathed the air’s brightness, / /
watched light changing on broken rock, as day / / climbed and decline
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and when death came among us / / we
watched our brothers die.  / / But as we watched, our singing / / die
[We lived and sang, my brother]
atched our brothers die.  / / But as we
watched , our singing / / died too upon our breath, / / for dying kil
[We lived and sang, my brother]
We lived and sang, my brother, / / and
watched the days go by, / / and when death came among us / / we watc
[We lived and sang, my brother]
ength and learning how to wait.  / / He
watched the river running furiously / / outward, saw the forester’s i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n / / and dreamed of the princess, and
watched the root / / of a green tree grappling the rock.  And dressed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
alls, learnt to live in slums, / / and
watched the Spartan soldiers burn their fields, / / and learnt to ste
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
om the high-tide mark.  / / He ate, and
watched the sun change on the wave, / / and in a dream was home again
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed and fan your flame.”  / / I bent and
watched the waters to the sea / / running, and swallowed down the tea
The Black-out
sh and bracken?”  / / Silent the throng
watched the white sisters go, / / each on his silent thoughts alone,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
wn / / on me from this balcony, / / a
watcher would see me / / simply one of the old.  / /
Climacteric by the Sea
ock / / huge he lies, / / relaxed and
watchful , / / serene over the centuries.  / / Pirates and empires pas
September Cruise
he timeless victor?  / / We loved Time,
watching him undo / / all spells but this.  Must this spell too / / h
End of Fairy-Story
ing his step, watching his speech, / /
watching himself—‘What am I?’  / / Well, but what am I to preach?  / /
H.A.R.P.
tor live a lie? / / watching his step,
watching his speech, / / watching himself—‘What am I?’  / / Well, but
H.A.R.P.
How could this traitor live a lie?  / /
watching his step, watching his speech, / / watching himself—‘What am
H.A.R.P.
r this rock singing, my arms about you,
watching / / our two flocks cropping together against the Sicilian se
Shepherd’s Song
A poem you may like to see /
Watching the children shouting in the pool / / a powerful hurt hits m
A poem you may like to see
/ The wind was up and cold; I shivered,
watching / / the gondola grow smaller on the wide / / water—so lose
The Black-out
m when he came, south always south / /
watching the mountains rise, to where a valley- / / stream turned the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n we notice / / how far, while we were
watching them, these two / / have sunk towards the ships.  / / We wat
September Cruise
Look, on the sand a small way from the
water / / a child is building, wrapped in private silence, / / small
For Rachel
, silence.  The beach is empty, / / and
water , advancing, renews it for tomorrow.  / /
For Rachel
e from the steep, white in a long fall. 
Water / / —always rain, rough in a storm, dripping / / gently, a clo
Varangian in Mickelgard
n in Mickelgard / Woods, beech and fir. 
Water —always / / streams sounding hidden, suddenly leaping / / free
Varangian in Mickelgard
a storm, dripping / / gently, a cloud. 
Water —always the sea, / / dark slate under a nearing storm, silver /
Varangian in Mickelgard
en our sick polutions / / of earth and
water and air may be contained, / / may yield a possible future.  / /
Desert Island?
; / / extends his firman further:  / /
water and air / / suffer his mandate too.  / / He’ll find it doesn’t
Dr Faustus
e ceased, and I turned from the waiting
water / / and saw my brother moving towards our / / stance his long
The Black-out
once when a great wind-gust caught the
water / / and spooned a pint of brine over his head, / / his chokes
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
world, where bird and child exist like
water / / and today is yesterday and is tomorrow.  / / Unaware, at le
For Rachel
ot / / at Sheepstead, quiet country of
water and wood / / between the wandering Thames and the White Horse. 
Bury My Heart
Advent / Up through the opaque
water another year / / is nosing its way.  I seem to see a sharp / /
Advent
sometimes deep.  Fountains of muddy / /
water are splashing.  Their mother, I’m afraid / / won’t be amused.  Bu
[My grandchildren are stamping the ice-puddles]
sharper love that lovers share.  / / As
water at the wedding-feast / / endured a look and glowed to wine, /
Hymn
/ of the overcast day / / on the dark
water .  / / Back in a quiet country / / whose understated beauty / /
Return
Yeats and
Water -Birds / He chose the symbol of the swan / / and that of the gre
Yeats and Water-Birds
deep in the mountains stopped, / / his
water -bottle filled at a cold stream, / / a shot bird roasted on a st
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e saw by the cold ashes spread / / two
water -bottles and a woodman’s bow / / and full quiver.  But he was qui
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t upmounting, but straight from shining
water / / bravely bridged—flagged battlements recalling / / story an
For Rachel
and through my limbs like wine through
water came / / my father pulling his hand across his face / / —perha
The Black-out
the princess.  / / Watched, heard, the
water churning round a rock / / or falling whitely in a widening pool
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
body—knew the fiery shock / / of snow-
water , colder than he had thought / / water could be, and sweet, swee
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
-water, colder than he had thought / /
water could be, and sweet, sweet to the taste.  / / He crawled out gas
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r with the white blaze / / of light on
water —dark cloud, sweeping showers— / / or the whole ring an unflawed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ck / / were cheese and bread, a jug of
water .  Down / / in one corner he saw a few hides spread.  / / He did
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
one night, and sound on waking / / of
water dribbling, drifting mists, sharp heather / / black through the
The Black-out
t all but under a wave.  / / The lifted
water driving over him / / he fought the tiller’s will.  At last it ga
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
wind ruckles gulls’ feathers, wrinkles
water , / / drops, still.  Break from above into this silence / / out
For Rachel
hite / / fan, scattering wide over the
water , / / dwindling, lost.  / / Fledged presently, son, daughter, /
Out from the Cliff
-ridged beach / / through the frothing
water -edges / / that came and went, that come and go.  / / Do I make
Climacteric by the Sea
sh.  / / We are growth, greenness, / /
water falling, flowing.  / / Not enough sun / / is our complaint, /
Drought
pt.  / / Waking, he drank deep from his
water -flask / / but would not pause to hunt or cook.  Eating / / coul
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, bright day, / / watched bright, cool
water flow, / / drowsing (he had not slept / / nights, days) saw—in
Pelopia and Thyestes
he had to say / / went from his mind,
water from a cracked pot.  / / Pitying but irked the princess turned a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  Trembling and cold / / she wrung the
water from her blood-cleared dress, / / sluiced her own dried blood f
Pelopia and Thyestes
d with oaks, / / out over grey shining
water , grey / / shining mud of an East-coast estuary.  / / The last,
Bury My Heart
be seen.  Even the clap and roar / / of
water heaved and hurled on rock was lost / / in general clamour and d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
are lost to Apollo, lost the chatter of
water .  / / His chattering fountain’s dry.  / /
The Last Oracle
m a slow small stream.  / / Black still
water images / / every trunk and leaf, dark but clear, / / a Claude,
Water in a Wood
Water in a Wood / Five terraced meres / / dammed from a slow small st
Water in a Wood
deeply am.  / / Yet look just now:  / /
water in patterns under the wind’s touch, / / fast falling of waves r
Tristi Fummo
these baulks to which they cling, this
water / / in which they drown.  / /
Shipwreck
/ of sun in a child’s hair / / turns
water into wine.  / / Here is the absolute.  / / Neglect the planned r
Glimpse
e it up; / / learn blood (thicker than
water ) / / is not for spilling; / / learn mutual love.  / / This is
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
ings round the hard land / / but other
water is rare, rare as trees.  / / The sun, the hard master, brooks no
Varangian in Mickelgard
/ glimpsed them, clumped low under the
water -line.  / / He waded in and took one in his hand / / and knifed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ as gull to gull across the sand and
water .  / / Look, on the sand a small way from the water / / a child
For Rachel
tte, / / darker and hard on the bright
water , marked / / the end of seen and known.  His eyelids dropping /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing its sprays out over the dark smooth
water , / / marking my place to turn.  / / I stood beside it.  Wrinklin
Omens
ddenly / / across the greenness of the
water -meadow / / a grey steeple against a blue-black / / cloud mount
[Released from cloud the low sun at my back]
ogether, / / a wash of gold across the
water -meadows.  / / Like other things this year (may, daisies, roses)
Buttercups
de stream.  / / He plunged in where the
water met the sand, / / dropped in the shallows—kneeling, drank and d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / Gurgle and clop and slap and hiss,
water / / moving along the moving hollow shell.  / / Sigh or high son
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ke currents traced in foam / / on fast
water .  / / My thoughts / / lift from the stream, dance upon / / the
How not to listen to music
lost control.  Then he / / was fighting
water .  Nothing he could do / / was anything.  The water sucked and str
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r a beginning?  Can you cut flowing / /
water , or mark the moments of the wind?  / / Is it the wind, is it lov
Winter Solstice
tains, steep and bare, with little / /
water or vegetation and less game, / / footsore and starving, worn ou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
preading (circles from stone dropped in
water ) / / pain; and worse (last / / worst twist and waste) / / tra
Stones
ark reflection— / / bush in the smooth
water , precise but darkened, / / light green leaves dark, and strange
Omens
ow / / and then / / another light was
water -quenched.  / / Life goes on, finished lives recede / / and rema
Anniversary
ur feet always / / a light-path on the
water reaches / / towards sun, moon, / / fisher’s lamp, recurring fl
September Cruise
and a view.”  / / My eyes followed the
water running faster, / / fast to the sea—and sudden I saw new, / /
The Black-out
ouses cover / / contours of earth, and
water runs by walls.  / / I sought my guide’s look: “uncorrupted lover
The Black-out
d air’s / / metabolism.  Bareness, / /
water runs thin / / thin as grass.  / / The desert shows through flak
Drought
esert spread: / / seas and rivers, all
water , sap, blood, / / all springs of earth and life dried soon, / /
Stones
e gondola grow smaller on the wide / /
water —so lose them too?  But the shrammed soul / / shrinking contracts
The Black-out
hing he could do / / was anything.  The
water sucked and struck / / and hurled him down.  Life sang from a far
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
brackish marsh- / / water—the mountain-
water , sweet and clean, / / was gone before.  “I asked him what he ate
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rested, cautiously / / tried his fresh-
water -swimmer’s limbs again / / in this new element to master.  Then /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
le at last back on the stream, / / the
water swirling under them, / / sure on its own course, unaware.  / /
How not to listen to music
/ throw back the wild / / inconstant
water that cries against the shore.  / / Yet that sea shall endure /
The Sea
ng, swooping over / / the white, noisy
water .  / / The call comes from them / / naturally.  / / I stand on t
Climacteric by the Sea
s full of the near-brackish marsh- / /
water —the mountain-water, sweet and clean, / / was gone before.  “I as
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
s driven deep through summer-slack / /
water , through mud; winter’s boisterous flow / / broken by stone pier
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ky promontory / / looks over blue gulf-
water to the blue / / mountains of Achaea, and through / / the eye o
Bury My Heart
ther to see some trove dredged from the
water , / / unaware as waves almost, the sanded children / / dot like
For Rachel
, and the sword / / stands ever in the
water -wandering stone?”  / / Her face was memory where the cold light
The Black-out
/ happily have remained / / an air-and-
water -wandering swan?  / / Or did he gratefully recover / / mankindne
Fairy Story
-faced range— / / mountains!  The river-
water was nearly gone / / and in the mountains there would surely be
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ntent, and soon across the pearled / /
water we saw a black smudge with a gleam / / of metal at the prow.  “A
The Black-out
play by the shifting run / / of white
water , where children played their mother / / played as a child; wher
[White foam sweeps]
eyond this last defence.  / / Waking to
water whispering by the bank, / / the dark recesses of the sunstruck
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the straining mast and stays.  / / The
water whitening under the black gale / / was scooped up, shaken, brok
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
orld to hear, / / spring light, spring
water , winter, / / wind, death, darkness, fear, / / fire, flowers, /
Beethoven
r, and he husbanded / / the life-blood
water with more care.  And though / / extreme exhaustion and thirst-si
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ the summer dawn brightening above the
water / / woke him—and woke, after the sun was high, / / a faint sea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ pursued and pursuer—the talk at the
watercourse — / / the tall son whistled down; the young men, / / East
Poetry
might have been, / / perhaps was, / /
watered , sown, / / is dead dust and stone.  / /
Drought
ically / / into the night of his third
waterless day.  / / He shuffled on under the darkening air / / hardly
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ty / / yet both intense; the cranes on
Waterloo / / Bridge, angled black against the fainter sky, / / seen
The Black-out
well and the fountain of delight?  / /
Waters distilled, secreted, / / strained through the sand and rich so
Becoming
s.  / / But now the net’s cast in other
waters / / more gleaming wonders leap from the mass:  / / Catullus, V
Poetry
ng from air to eye / / across brimming
waters of misery, / / no less beautiful for that, more beautiful, /
“Life is sweet, brother”
our flame.”  / / I bent and watched the
waters to the sea / / running, and swallowed down the tears of shame.
The Black-out
k.  This is his place.  / / Squatting on
waterskis , a golden boy / / ploughs with his rump a furrow in the blu
September Cruise
s not quite where the others said.  / /
Watery mud-holes suck and clog / / and to our vision’s limit spread /
Lost
the mast head / / goes last under the
wave .  / /
Five Poems for Roni
d on a sea-rock, waited / / out of the
wave / / a monstrous love / / —but her wind-wooer struck him to a st
The Sea
ate, and watched the sun change on the
wave , / / and in a dream was home again, and boasted / / to the prin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
The
Wave / Easy to live in the lands above the sea, / / claim nothing wit
The Wave
/ forget the exiled sea.  / / I am the
wave that sweeps over the wall, / / sets your houses awash, drowns yo
The Wave
/ and heeled the boat all but under a
wave .  / / The lifted water driving over him / / he fought the tiller
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
dredged from the water, / / unaware as
waves almost, the sanded children / / dot like sea-birds, sea-shells,
For Rachel
Shipwreck / The
waves move on uncharted courses / / to lose themselves, or break on s
Shipwreck
, / / laid face on arm he wept—sobbing
waves / / of hot tears washing the weight of sin and sorrow / / away
A Dream
the wind’s touch, / / fast falling of
waves regathering slow / / —so much joy to be seen; / / but the idle
Tristi Fummo
ere children / / paddle and shout.  The
waves rustle.  Yet silence / / encloses all in crystal.  This is an emp
For Rachel
e world of children, / / a castle that
waves (we know) before tomorrow / / will smooth back into beach-sand;
For Rachel
my house.  / / As the flame melts this
wax (O help me, goddess) / / may this Myndian, this Delphis waste wit
Spells and Love
/ / do, but in our own, our different
way .  / /
Swallows
the grey / / of dawn met on the lonely
way / / a man I knew but could not name.  / / He said “Good morning”,
Quo Vadis
t, there fronted him / / no choice, no
way —a mountainous barrier / / of thorn, lost in the woods each side. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
y second day in Greece / / we lost our
way about the twentieth mile / / where hills broke to the sea, and ‘t
The Black-out
urns / / on the quarry-face.  The other
way , / / above this bare hill and a pine-green hill, / / from the Ac
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
Anniversary / “Half-
way along life’s road…” / / half threescore and ten.  / / Half a life
Anniversary
t / / through which they dreamed their
way along that stream, / / learning to know each other and their love
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d-red field of Spain;” / / who saw his
way among all possible ways / / and taking it did not look back again
The Black-out
plaster painted for marble.  These gave
way / / and gold and ivory shatter in the fall.  / /
Against Pedestals
each was grim / / but was the way, one
way and no mistake.  / / Now, though, the gathering of the valley-clef
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ they take their certain, incalculable
way , / / and passing lend / / our eyes perception of a clearer air /
The Lilies of the Field
ccumb to an unreasoned gloom?  / / This
way and that I love and am loved; happy / / I—could not help being? r
Tristi Fummo
ave and true enough) / / shall force a
way and wake her with a kiss.  / / And it’s to love that, wakened so,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
She is not here; yet here, and on your
way / / another necessary stage.  Go on / / and speak to her.”  I felt
The Black-out
/ / Work along for a gap.  Left of the
way / / bushes and scrub were knotted to the briar.  / / Right was a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
gh different worlds we take a different
way , / / but common-coloured threads were woven through / / our mind
The Black-out
made itself known / / certainly for a
way .  But long neglect / / had left it more a guide-line than a road. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / sometimes (we’re human) drift our
way / / but surely we shall never let them build / / into a barrier.
[Yes, you’re right]
/ Valley, col, valley formed his zigzag
way / / by star and sun bent truly to his goal, / / and on the after
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ust subdue it / / “Blow this way, that
way , cool or warm.  Be still.”  / / Nature is much to wreck, but man ca
Man in Nature
s.  Do not speak / / when he looks your
way .  / / Do not interfere.  / / After a little while / / (or longer)
[Time is a child]
ys crook-tunnelled all about / / or no
way .  For he knew beyond a doubt / / that somewhere in that labyrinth
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
row / / of tyranny / / will clear the
way / / for their return.  Too old, / / their thoughts dwell in a van
[Some exiles know]
d water.  / / Look, on the sand a small
way from the water / / a child is building, wrapped in private silenc
For Rachel
fe, and carefully / / began to cut his
way .  He forced the task / / to be the cutting each thick stem, each s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ that after the hard victories of the
way / / he might, when all seemed won, yet lose the day, / / defeate
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and a rock-naked promontory.  / / That
way he trudged, and suddenly—check and chill— / / knew himself not al
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the cloven and cliffed / / wind-naked
way .  He went peaceful to sleep.  / / Up early, off—a letter left to wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d drive to go / / on down the same old
way , / / hell-bent to destroy / / himself and her.  / / If I could p
Antipodes
/ / found the night-slow / / familiar
way / / home to the lit farmsteads…  Who?  / /
From the Air
lay.  / / A bow, eleven arrows.  And the
way / / home was the grim mountains…  But the way on?  / / The words s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ stumbling, shaking, took the familiar
way , / / hungry for bed, home, mother, like a child.  / / Hungry too
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
behind a bolted door.  / / From my lone
way I could not turn aside, / / yet wrote of love, and what I wrote w
The Black-out
r me, please / / keep me with you that
way .  / / I don’t say / / don’t grieve.  Of course you will.  But share
A poem you may like to see
hful depressive mud that slowed / / my
way , I owe it you; and more than that.”  / / “And on my side,” she sai
The Black-out
e water another year / / is nosing its
way .  I seem to see a sharp / / dorsal fin already cutting the air, /
Advent
r host and so themselves) / / cuts its
way into mother earth / / till all is empty quarries, shells / / riv
Mother’s Malison
Be with me both,” I answered, “long.  My
way / / is lost or never found.  Life, that should fill / / my days w
The Black-out
t you think? than of most loves) is the
way / / it’s rooted in a deep determination / / never to hurt / / t
[Yes, you’re right]
e / / with love parted, which is in no
way less / / itself for that, but can’t show all it is.  / /
[Bare trees black]
/ / I answered, sad; then heard: “our
way lies on,” / / turned, saw my guide, and turned again.  The chill /
The Black-out
somewhere along the road, / / find the
way lost and the dark wood / / a fear.  / / I, already old, / / succ
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
That
Way Madness Lies / / / / When first ghosts of our own begetting /
That Way Madness Lies
enjoys life much of the time in its own
way .  / / My spirit moves, as over meaningless pebbles / / (which are
Black
.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / About half
way , near Lycon’s, who should pass us / / but Delphis, strolling alon
Spells and Love
und strength about, / / that way, this
way , no way out of its trouble.  / /
Black
hich dissolve Time’s tyrannous / / one-
way of future, present, past.  / / Beach on our lotus-strand, and be /
The Sirens
se I love and leave.  / / And any other
way of living on / / I can as little wish for as conceive.  / /
Survival
/ (if it ever really was) a viable / /
way of settling anything, we must be / / stupid over the edge of idio
Consider
shed by the varying / / this way, that
way , of the wind, / / thimble-pocked by the beaks’ sharp play.  / / O
Villon’s Epitaph
a dream?  / / I turned and saw a little
way off a bench, / / a man and a woman sitting on it, elderly, / / (
A Hoard
/ home was the grim mountains…  But the
way on?  / / The words seemed almost spoken more than thought…  / / ‘T
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ff from the freed grains.  One time, one
way .  / / One image.  All man’s images of man / / have him at work or
Dream under a Carob-tree
the two valleys, each climbing its own
way .  / / One must be right, he knew, the other wrong, / / but nothin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
desert-beach was grim / / but was the
way , one way and no mistake.  / / Now, though, the gathering of the va
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
“Why does he keep his flock so far this
way ?  / / Or has he an eye on the strength of the Twelve-Mile Post?”  /
On the Border
ve fared so long on the aimless ordered
way , / / our planks are rotten, our sails are gossamer…  / / But dark
Voyage
pauses, prepares to lean / / the other
way .  Our year begins again / / —or does another year begin?  / / Noth
Winter Solstice
t unfalteringly / / aware of its black
way , / / out from its hide-out, in, / / giving obstacles space, / /
Bat
ngth about, / / that way, this way, no
way out of its trouble.  / /
Black
ss impasse.  No / / answer, no possible
way out to the old / / infinitely distant lost warm hum and glow.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / outside our time-thought’s three-
way recognizing?  / /
Dimension
g surely to say / / the traffic is one-
way .  / / Sex lends her delight / / to every joy, her stress / / to
Fair Exchange
the dream pervades today.  / / In some
way / / something does seem / / restored in me…  Innocence through a
[Restoration of innocence in a dream]
n and girls can know and not go all the
way / / —something like that will do.  As for marrying, / / we’ll tal
Love Scene
rong? we must subdue it / / “Blow this
way , that way, cool or warm.  Be still.”  / / Nature is much to wreck,
Man in Nature
elessly pushed by the varying / / this
way , that way, of the wind, / / thimble-pocked by the beaks’ sharp pl
Villon’s Epitaph
o the same beach.  Then trudged, a weary
way , / / the narrow ribbon of the flatland shore / / stretching on e
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and limbs were learning.  / / The other
way the rare-pathed hills spread on / / till nothing lay beyond them
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ heaven and earth to keep out of its
way ?  / / The young prince liked his cousins well enough, / / but nev
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tepped in too, you would have lost your
way ; / / their course your drifting—and that brings no true / / peac
The Black-out
living hard for once, / / to make his
way there and for once be free…  / / Supper, bed, mother brought him h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e to prey / / the scales would tip one
way .  / / There is a balance in things / / subtle as his, riding thos
Ecology
d, and horrible / / —but felt whatever
way / / this endlessly absorbing love, earth.  / / Observe, absorb he
[Now of threescore and ten]
its oil-bound strength about, / / that
way , this way, no way out of its trouble.  / /
Black
tch another lot.  / / I didn’t know the
way , though / / —a stranger in these parts.  / / The roads I took tur
A Ballad
have.  May he stay / / with you all the
way , / / though not exactly as he is today / / —that would be out of
Epithalamium
easy dream.  / / How can a hero find a
way to fight / / needle or thorn?  The fact would come to him / / and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
For him it was not so.  / / He made his
way to the head forester’s house / / and found it, as he guessed, emp
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to be purified / / but to be shown the
way / / to vengeance—how repay?  / / The oracle replied:  / / “Vengea
Pelopia and Thyestes
from the last impulse on…  / / So.  This
way too…  Suppose the weather changes / / what hope for a small boat,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hopeless dream / / he looked the other
way , towards the sea, / / and once again a longing heaved in him / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd certainly / / knew this was not his
way .  Turned from the plain, / / plunged straight in, and the unpredic
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed slowly, and still slow / / made her
way up the hill again, as though / / heavy already with the vengeful
Pelopia and Thyestes
be still there.  / / He walked a little
way upstream to get / / his bottles full of the near-brackish marsh-
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / from the hedge-top / / hooks its
way upwards, / / on and up, / / hangs its constellations / / improb
Summer Vision
/ memory or instinct somehow kept his
way .  / / Utterly weak but unfevered, aware, / / he lay on the home-r
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
dark hills is laid.”  / / But she: “our
way waits.”  I turned to my father / / and chilled beheld him gone; th
The Black-out
ss, and slept without a dream.  / / The
way was harsh but he was viable.  / / Wind-bitter nights were much the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sing, / / thunder of Hell fall another
way .  / / We’re dead.  Spare us more harrying.  / / We all need mercy,
Villon’s Epitaph
y personal intellect is guided / / his
way who will.”  I smiled: “surely from you / / comes my taste for an i
The Black-out
eir own good, / / and its own good the
way you took instead.”  / / The bridge shadow, darker than a night woo
The Black-out
/ / who saw his way among all possible
ways / / and taking it did not look back again.  / / Behind him walke
The Black-out
must seem to you) / / that all smooth
ways are ways for hate’s advance.  / / The road’s gone now.  Rejoice wi
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ster and brother she loves too in their
ways / / but not with the brother / / she loves above all the world,
Eugénie de Guérin
years, and a pattern took shape in our
ways .  / / Certain rhythms repeat in the weeks and the years, / / of
Hymn
/ Truth, find us strength to make our
ways confirm / / and not deface its form.  / /
Prayer to Truth
e shivered—terrible / / the thought of
ways crook-tunnelled all about / / or no way.  For he knew beyond a do
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ack whole, / / improved indeed in many
ways , / / encrusted with the interest / / of road and parliament and
Recessional
m to you) / / that all smooth ways are
ways for hate’s advance.  / / The road’s gone now.  Rejoice with us the
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
ame all the time, it seemed, in various
ways .  / / He had been taught to hunt and use the bow / / but never p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
The Two
Ways / Jesus, digesting the meal Martha served, / / pronounced that M
The Two Ways
a world / / wider than that, till our
ways seemed to lie / / always together.”  From the darkness curled /
The Black-out
ling to white, through / / its vaulted
ways .  Suddenly the firm stance / / falters, joined banks are sundered
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
r world, build worlds in / / differing
ways their own.  When we fold / / fond revisiting loves, cheek will be
Out from the Cliff
laughed at that and, clever, / / found
ways to circumvent them which they never / / guessed.  She was sempstr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
walking, scrambling, he added mountain-
ways / / to his wood-knowledge.  The forest-plain below / / stretched
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ght / / here in the blank of loss / /
ways to live with it, / / a path towards peace.  / / Sought, and some
Villevieille
art strangely at peace.  / / ‘I know my
way ’ he thought.  ‘As it has been / / all through my life, for all my
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
iffs sunlit, which said / / ‘I am your
way ’ (if butterflies can speak, / / why not mountains?).  And from tha
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
it?  Every terrorist / / seen the other
way’s a freedom fighter.  / / And, alas, / / once a freedom fighter a
Choice
inct somehow kept his way.  / / Utterly
weak but unfevered, aware, / / he lay on the home-ridge.  The leaves w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rength and purpose flowed and ebbed—now
weak , / / now firm again, then suddenly deadly sick.  / / But still h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ress our longing thought in dream, / /
weak tissue woven / / of past and hope, of echo left on eye, / / on
Separation
e, dark look I knew; who never was / /
weak to regret, but followed his few days / / his light, until “he wr
The Black-out
.  / / Normally, that is.  / / Sick and
weak , / / we feel them take over / / reality, / / shameful, frighte
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
t last the planet’s fire / / begins to
weaken , flicker, vanishes / / in night, marking the unseen edge, / /
September Cruise
s.  Be patient and allow / / winter its
weakening onsets in retreat; / / spring warmth is strengthening thoug
The Black-out
ut if the strong straining dissolves in
weakness / / and the walls stay, distilled knowledge grows black, /
Chrysalis
the princess.  / / But at the ford his
weakness frightened him— / / all but swept off he made the bank just.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hour.  / / Deep hoarded in your heart a
wealth of good / / observed, absorbed, lies ready.  Give it power.  /
The Black-out
f armaments / / build up).  Is our real
wealth , / / the small-change of our love / / which passes hand to ha
Choice
Machismo / Man’s sex is a
weapon , woman’s a wound.  / / The whale was created to be harpooned.  /
Machismo
ed to wait— / / bench, table, brazier,
weapons on the wall, / / but no one.  He passed to the yard within, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ass of a valley-alp he dropped / / his
weariness , and slept without a dream.  / / The way was harsh but he wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he river.  Feverish / / with thirst and
weariness , he felt the wish / / to rest torture, having no wish to di
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
-circle fool.  He wept, / / knowing his
weariness , knowing his goal / / here, here, within the circle.  Oh foo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
th her, and I to my sorrow / / did go,
wearing my best long linen dress / / and Cleurista’s wrap borrowed to
Spells and Love
nds in its broken sleep / / despair so
wearisome / / that it is forced to hope.  / /
[Why do I dream this pause]
ours’ seeing?  / / Each of us sometimes
wears a mask, / / most of us often.  Such as he, / / taking up their
H.A.R.P.
/ / The town is fevered; but as night
wears on, / / blood cooler, quieted the pulse’s roar, / / it drowses
Country and Town
nterblast.  / / Each unstable star / /
wears towards unbeing.  / / The flailing galaxies are fleeing / / fro
Entropy
.  / / I pulled my hand across my face,
weary , / / and through my limbs like wine through water came / / my
The Black-out
ooked down / / and watched detached my
weary body go / / with Emily on towards Camden Town.  / / Suddenly Em
The Black-out
ngerous appeasement, till the mind grew
weary .  / / I passed by each and did not pause to con her, / / but in
The Black-out
/ / to the same beach.  Then trudged, a
weary way, / / the narrow ribbon of the flatland shore / / stretchin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in?  / / Rain and sun, snow, wind, / /
weather and season, wheeling / / through the melting now / / in chan
Exchange
on…  / / So.  This way too…  Suppose the
weather changes / / what hope for a small boat, what hope for him, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ saw with surprise that it was lovely
weather , / / felt with surprise gladness to be still there.  / / He w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ my heart warms to the first of winter
weather / / I could have cried at last for it to go.  / / Then, when
The Black-out
ds to be with one friend lost.  / / The
weather worsened and the Queen got better / / or bored, and took her
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
arper shadow / / than ever willow / /
weaves in this country / / —olive, straight cypress, / / sea and no
Five Poems for Roni
river, / / harsh sea-light.  River / /
weaves in this country / / soft light for willow / / to spread shade
Five Poems for Roni
nd Virginia Woolf know how / / thought
weaves in words its inexpressible spells; / / Sickert we may in hones
The Black-out
e is music: / / the heart’s dream / /
weaves with what we see / / and beguiles us.  / / Nature is nothing,
Music is Landscape
at gets done.  / / And yet those silent
weavings in the air / / are beautiful— / / sad, an old tale, / / fa
Heron and Gulls
aradise.  / / Father, spin your choking
web / / —you will rot there with the flies.  / / Insult-tinselling fl
Royal Family
girls get married, and likely lads they
wed , / / but for me, pretty Janet, the sick man on his bed.  / / I si
Greek Folk Song
page / / and meet his parents on their
wedding -day.  / / Down the white hill-road, high above the sea / / th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
that lovers share.  / / As water at the
wedding -feast / / endured a look and glowed to wine, / / our two hum
Hymn
Stray Thoughts at a
Wedding / Glance lifts to a crucifix.  / / Form of the sacrificial Man
Stray Thoughts at a Wedding
Wedding Night / Considers, musing at the sleeper’s side, / / the init
Wedding Night
John Ruskin’s
Wedding Night / Quick to beauty more than is common / / but reared in
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
Hymn / for the
wedding of Dominick and Jo / Through untimed fields of childhood the s
Hymn
Hymn / for the
wedding of Lucy and Garth / To make a world all kinds aspire, / / all
Hymn
past (they the same) / / eel, dolphin,
weed , / / coral, as when all seas were theirs alone.  / / Its tempera
The Sea
p.  / / When tide flows deep / / round
weedy timbers fish / / smooth-threading pass.  / / Tide out, on brigh
A Wreck
/ / his mother—hoped perhaps within a
week / / or two or three, at least he would return / / within the mo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ays.  / / Certain rhythms repeat in the
weeks and the years, / / of the seasons, of work, even comfort and te
Hymn
/ / So that summer for seven enchanted
weeks / / they were together in the green forest.  / / Nettles or bra
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Emily spoke: “often in winter / / for
weeks together I have seen the brown / / hills about Haworth white an
The Black-out
kitchens, wine and food / / at least a
week’s supply—written a note / / to tell his mother he was gone, and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ain.  / / Veil up your soul: / / don’t
weep at the play / / or someone may say / / “He’s no self-control.” 
Merrie England
’re a christened man, / / weep for me,
weep for me.”  / /
A Ballad
/ Friend, you’re a christened man, / /
weep for me, weep for me.”  / /
A Ballad
ertainty / / of an infinity more.  / /
Weep for that trust betrayed, / / for brief despairing pain / / of t
Whom the Gods Love
pain / / of these untimely dead.  / /
Weep more for who remain.  / /
Whom the Gods Love
ave thrown ourselves away.  / / We must
weep / / our follies and our wickednesses, our failure; / / not leas
Buttercups
” She clung to him with this moan, / /
weeping and trembling.  And he held her close / / and called aloud, de
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ter, / / who died before my birth, was
weeping sent / / away, when he as I perhaps was young.’  / / That flo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ain falling / / softly.  It seemed like
weeping .  / / The bright morning glistens on the night’s tears.  / / T
News of a Death
the fairy’s truth, he led her on, / /
weighed anchor, set sail.  Many days are lost / / through which they d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
their darker tone / / on the dull sky
weighed on me as I moved / / and thought about my life and little don
The Black-out
prehension of grief.  / / Our gratitude
weighs no less than our care.  / /
May Day, 1986
y stone?”  / / “It’s not the earth that
weighs on me / / nor yet my heavy stone.  / / Was there nowhere for y
A Ballad
ak and groan.  / / Is it the earth that
weighs on you, / / that and your heavy stone?”  / / “It’s not the ear
A Ballad
he was sure / / though he put all his
weight and strength and soul / / against the tiller, he was not holdi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing the handle of my heavy bag, / / my
weight behind me grinding my raw knuckles / / in the rough black Lond
The Fall
aurs, gods from the temple-gables, / /
weight of a winged power / / out of the wind alighting— / / your smo
Hermes of Olympia
ing waves / / of hot tears washing the
weight of sin and sorrow / / away from the heart.  / / And heart and
A Dream
s / / on hands and knees in dark, / /
weight of the roped truck / / cutting naked loins.  / / But that was
Causes
g to his lean, or thrown / / his whole
weight’s strength against the buffeting.  / / Half blind with blown sp
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
again.  Descending, to dree out / / his
weird at home, walked through the black night home.  / / Past two o’cl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Die
Weisse Rose / Munich, 1942–3 / Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, / / Alex M
Die Weisse Rose
Gregory Afxendióu / / —here, where now
welcomed I admire / / the lovely Cyprus hills, raised that sacrificia
Makherás
ss / / as they drew still, and out the
welcomed pair / / stepped in their beauty down, stepped up the stair,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
block / / PUBLIC LIBRARY winked with a
welcoming gleam.  / / Within, book in hand, I looked down at a page /
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
sharp play.  / / Our brotherhood is not
welcoming .  / / We all need mercy, so go pray.  / / Prince Jesus, Mast
Villon’s Epitaph
unpremeditated start / / of happiness
welling suddenly within, / / secreted from a life-time, and released
And Then
, / / the ravage and the face.  Faintly
wells / / a pale returning light whose kindness veils / / jut and fu
In the Audience
/ / Margot Fonteyn dances at Sadler’s
Wells / / and Sally Gilmour at the Mercury.  / / Greatness perhaps th
The Black-out
not always) the to-be-or-not-to-be / /
Weltschmerz , virginity, and all the ills / / that youth is heir to an
Prayer to Time
here.”  / / That’s what I told her.  She
went , and brought him back, / / Delphis (such a smooth skin) back to
Spells and Love
ht, then have been eight or nine) / / “
went and opened the door.  And there, she said, / / stood a young fore
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
“Au revoir.”  I shut the door.  / / They
went as might in fairy-story go / / some magic castle, leaving a blea
The Black-out
/ / thing in his life.  Afraid, afraid
went back, / / a dreadful journey, sick and almost mad, / / across t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
obeyed.  / / “Toss it in the lake,” He
went back to the lake / / and stood and turned the bright sword in hi
Finis
/ but sensibly took off his shoes and
went / / barefoot through the surf and along the shore.  / / But all
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ each phrase expected where it always
went .  / / But once (he now remembered clearly) when / / he asked her
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
my love.  Mark them, lady Moon.  / / —I
went colder than snow all over.  A drenching sweat / / stood on my for
Spells and Love
e girl.  / / The boy did not live, / /
went down where they came from / / through the pit of the grave, / /
The Green Children of Woolpit
r how I got home, / / and after that I
went down with a high fever / / —ten days and nights I couldn’t get o
Spells and Love
The thousand things he had to say / /
went from his mind, water from a cracked pot.  / / Pitying but irked t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rough bedrooms, boudoirs, everywhere he
went / / furnished and empty, and—the sense grew strong— / / empty a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rained current shall go.  / / And so it
went , gentle, reflective, blue / / or swelling black boiling to white
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
urt and Greenwich are / / embarked, we
went , Giles leading.  Soon the song, / / lost for a while, came loud. 
The Black-out
on the darkening track.  / / The court
went home.  The seasons settled him / / into their timeless round of b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
space a castle-gate / / stood open.  He
went in.  No one at all.  / / No one.  The empty guard-room seemed to wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ind, / / while time passed and the sun
went low behind / / levelling the light across the circled space.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nmixed wine for a toast to Love, and he
went off / / in a tearing hurry, to garland that house, he said.  / /
Spells and Love
in miles I didn’t visit.  / / But time
went on and nothing changed at all.  / / These are the springs of my l
Spells and Love
t home.  / / Past two o’clock.  The ball
went on and on.  / / All the princes were slow of foot and wit.  / / D
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ronger, / / unearthlier.  / / The path
went on and on / / irresistibly leading / / like a path in a ballad
Los Altos Hills
not my guide.  My purpose froze.  / / We
went on, but I felt as we turned West / / that I was trying to turn f
The Black-out
rinking / / early on Saturday / / and
went on over Sunday / / and never stopped all day.  / / Monday mornin
A Ballad
ve.  Now, from that day, / / nine years
went on without the boy once more / / seeing the girl.  Preferment’s c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ven and cliffed / / wind-naked way.  He
went peaceful to sleep.  / / Up early, off—a letter left to warn / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rpetuity.  / / The seasons in the years
went round by rote, / / each month for work or less work docketed, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
replenishment impossible.  / / The boy
went shivering, his belt drawn tight.  / / The next four years lent hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / He laid it among the reeds again,
went slowly back / / to tell the king he had tossed it in the lake.  /
Finis
y light, / / at fork or cross-track he
went still by whim, / / rejecting reason’s query ‘Which is right?’  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
frothing water-edges / / that came and
went , that come and go.  / / Do I make too much of not liking to be ol
Climacteric by the Sea
n woods and upland air, / / and so…  He
went to bed under a spell / / and lay awake long on the dancing thoug
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and their / / children.  He scowled and
went to bed.  What is it / / that makes an adolescent dream all day /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
other had her wounds / / in front.  She
went to face things.  / / What though I wonder, / / what would she no
Wounds
o tell Him and myself / / everywhere I
went wrong.  / / Then, all the dirt out, / / admit me to the furnace.
A Hot Bath at Bedtime
rting / / against her wider fears.  She
wept a bit, / / then, feeling better, dried her eyes—as well / / she
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ and never came again to her.  / / She
wept a little time alone, / / alone much longer moved and sat.  / / I
Ballad
d love in loss, not understanding, / /
wept —and love blessed sang—and both were love.  / / Was there an end? 
Winter Solstice
/ A pine…  Oh, fool—full-circle fool.  He
wept , / / knowing his weariness, knowing his goal / / here, here, wi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
om new plough, / / laid face on arm he
wept —sobbing waves / / of hot tears washing the weight of sin and sor
A Dream
he flung it from him in the thorns, and
wept .  / / The blood clotted and the tears ceased to come, / / the su
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Victoria busily / / stamped the grave
Wesley / / and others had filled; / / but Cromwell (and Charles / /
Merrie England
th by a dark road.  / / North, and then
West again by the Old Bailey / / towards High Holborn, tired, a drear
The Black-out
hite flights / / fanning out, wheeling
west , ahead, as if / / meant for him, sent for him—omen, yes, and gui
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
past too.  / / World about us now / /
West and South and East / / all’s not for the best.  / / But that is
Causes
tled down; the young men, / / East and
West , brothers in blood; / / two men riding out again.  / / With Mere
Poetry
t constricted, narrowly hedged in.  / /
West , his mother’s tramontane kingdom reached / / leagues north, she
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
its lovely head / / or rather (here is
west ) its lovely tail / / (the greeks gave temples fronts and backs a
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
trees to guide his forest-sense)—east,
west , / / north, south, all points were sullenly the same.  / / ’The
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
The
West of Ireland / Gorse and rock and bog lap the wall / / and wind hu
The West of Ireland
de.  / / “East from the sea and Greece,
west out of beech- / / woods, Berkshire, childhood, Anabel, the flood
The Black-out
/ We went on, but I felt as we turned
West / / that I was trying to turn from the world’s woes.  / / In Gui
The Black-out
/ The wind at evening veered into the
west / / then died.  The starry dark was utterly still.  / / He droppe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n peak, and on the right spread on / /
west to a range.  His hope perhaps lay there / / but not, that seemed
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ol, / / the priceless blessings of the
West / / to make your future viable, / / your ordered future.  / / H
Recessional
acing cliff, which stretched / / west,
west to the horizon, straightly sheared / / from grass to surf, golde
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ven / / surprised at.  / / North-north-
west / / we are all mad.  / / Don’t fret / / that the tired nag / /
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
outh-facing cliff, which stretched / /
west , west to the horizon, straightly sheared / / from grass to surf,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ht cloud, and flew / / together up the
westering fork.  The powers / / he trusted had not failed him but had
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sky / / saw in the broken, brightening
western cloud / / and shared with me / / the faintest brief arc of a
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
ng, / / a silver sliver caught on / /
western darkness, hangs the moon.  / / Frosted stars are veiled / / i
Exchange
int guitar.  / / Down to the quay below
Westminster Bridge, / / where trips for Hampton Court and Greenwich a
The Black-out
orks, factory and drain / / past wordy
Westminster to the mined sea, / / who know Scamander and the windy pl
The Black-out
white birds, wheeled over the boat / /
westward , ahead, bright, dwindling.  Were they not / / a guide?  At lea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ood from the aching place, / / put the
wet dress back on.  She hid the sword, / / seeming to hide her knowled
Pelopia and Thyestes
The boy, under the drips which did not
wet her, / / wandered the woods, or from the hill looked down / / ov
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Upward Turn / Spring, cold and
wet , / / moves into summer with no change.  Yet / / the brave blossom
Upward Turn
rained his life to themselves: a river,
wet , / / shining against a forest.  Then, clearer yet, / / her form,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / The world seems more than usually
wet / / with blood and tears; wrongs beyond hope of mending / / lie
The Black-out
Another grows / / in the far corner of
Weymouth Bay, at Ringstead, / / looks out to Portland or up to Whiten
Bury My Heart
e / / seeking a golden fleece, a white
whale , / / legend and life, by sail / / or steam or dream driven, /
The Sea
is a weapon, woman’s a wound.  / / The
whale was created to be harpooned.  / /
Machismo
nds, nor hid as now it is.  / / Turn to
whatever calls you, only use / / your power, and do not use it least
The Black-out
e’s all one colour, spilled / / beside
whatever carcase in the dust.  / / As first, think of these last:  / /
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
/ but piercing longing to be where / /
whatever day / / wakes your heart.  / / A pang that’s like the joy /
[The clouds that pressed the air]
g me love you.  / / We love each other. 
Whatever happens now / / our love is pure, is absolute, is ours, / /
[Our lives are in other hands]
/ (far longer than man has done).  / /
Whatever it was it was irreparable.  / / Also inevitable?  / / Well, t
What goes up must come down
ut each of us to bless him / / has, in
whatever season, / / a flower-love that seems his own.  / / I love wh
[Housman was old beyond his years]
—and cold, and horrible / / —but felt
whatever way / / this endlessly absorbing love, earth.  / / Observe,
[Now of threescore and ten]
forget the other crop (tare / / in the
wheat )—careless insensitive unkindness, / / small but so painful it c
Treasure
long that same roadway would blow.  / /
Wheatfields fired, a pleasant city’s sack / / —these in the other sca
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
/ / dead in Gela among the white / /
wheatlands ; a man at need / / good in fight / / —witness the hallowe
Aeschylus’ Epitaph
/ where the even motion of the Ferris
wheel / / contrasts with the Octopus whose tilted axis / / and epicy
Content
w no maiden either.  / / Draw him, bird-
wheel , draw him (you know who) to my house.  / / As the flame melts th
Spells and Love
blonde Perimede’s.  / / Draw him, bird-
wheel , draw him (you know who) to my house.  / / Barley-grains first s
Spells and Love
in consuming fire.  / / Draw him, bird-
wheel , draw him (you know who) to my house.  / / Bran goes on next.  Ar
Spells and Love
ones I’m strewing”.  / / Draw him, bird-
wheel , draw him (you know who) to my house.  / / Delphis hurts me.  And
Spells and Love
rk blood out of me.  / / Draw him, bird-
wheel , draw him (you know who) to my house.  / / I’ll pound a lizard a
Spells and Love
ones I’m kneading”.  / / Draw him, bird-
wheel , draw him (you know who) to my house.  / / Now I’m alone.  / / H
Spells and Love
sh the brass quick!  / / Draw him, bird-
wheel , draw him (you know who) to my house.  / / The sea is quiet now,
Spells and Love
m sport and friend.  / / Draw him, bird-
wheel , draw him (you know who) to my house.  / / This fringe from Delp
Spells and Love
for all her beauty.  / / Draw him, bird-
wheel , draw him (you know who) to my house.  / / This maresbane grows
Spells and Love
turn about my door.  / / Draw him, bird-
wheel , draw him (you know who) to my house.  / / Three libations to yo
Spells and Love
erness prevail / / to free us from the
wheel …  / / Either of these.  But these and anything / / like these li
Balance Sheet
tion’s joy, / / an old forester whom a
wheel had crushed / / died.  Eighty years, they said, and more he’d be
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
spheres; and all, the far and near / /
wheel in one harmony about us here.  / / Pure light of the last sky th
Cosmology
autiful, but now / / I find the year’s
wheel / / move faster—more than sixty turns / / completed, am more a
Swallows
om the Cliff / Out from the cliff birds
wheel wild, a white / / fan, scattering wide over the water, / / dwi
Out from the Cliff
s in scores, which suddenly moved, / /
wheeled in the air, a sun-caught cloud, and flew / / together up the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ace swept / / a flight of white birds,
wheeled over the boat / / westward, ahead, bright, dwindling.  Were th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ent day.  / / The star-swarms, the vast-
wheeling galaxies, / / dwindle to pin-points in speed-gathering fligh
Macrocosm
n, snow, wind, / / weather and season,
wheeling / / through the melting now / / in changing unchanging roun
Exchange
ame the white flights / / fanning out,
wheeling west, ahead, as if / / meant for him, sent for him—omen, yes
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / Next morning hooves and grinding
wheels awoke him.  / / He looked down on the yard, straight from above
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Question / The year
wheels on into the same seasons / / as last year and all earlier year
Question
; but of the deeper theme / / —spirit,
whence formed or fetched here, on what wing / / (whole) or wind (scat
Dulce et Decorum
lf dreaming yet / / guiding the tiller—
whence he had embarked / / withdrawn and lost as where he would be st
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a firm dome bounding earth’s plain / /
whence the inconstant gods send dearth and rain / / and playfully all
Cosmology
uther broke the world in half.  / / And
whether , as some think, he howls / / in Hell or, on another view, /
Thoughts on the Lavatory
d / / the story does not say, / / nor
whether her children / / were common girls and boys / / or brought s
The Green Children of Woolpit
Omens / Idling along, wondering
whether I oughtn’t / / soon to go back, I saw a little ahead / / a s
Omens
n love.  / / She wasn't sure, she said,
whether it was a woman / / or a man, but all the evening he kept call
Spells and Love
t first mistake, / / but only just—and
whether we / / have left ourselves a chance to make / / a second cho
Mother’s Malison
married / / a man from Lynn.  / / But
whether with the green / / the memory / / of that country faded / /
The Green Children of Woolpit
ers and with gamblers on the game, / /
whetters and users of the deliberate knife.  / / Between the starving
The Black-out
at fork or cross-track he went still by
whim , / / rejecting reason’s query ‘Which is right?’  / / Till, about
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n’t utter, no more than a baby can / /
whimpering for his mother in his sleep.  / / I lay there, my living bo
Spells and Love
housand thousand steely rays / / which
whipped his body with their scalding flail.  / / The noon was darkness
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t, n’aie pas peur. / / … but the knife
whips out manhood, womanhood…  / / Was she an angel?  Can angels be wit
Block 21
Delphis waste with love, / / and as I
whirl Aphrodite’s brazen hummer / / so may he turn and turn about my
Spells and Love
/ suddenly with snow, / / blind in a
whirl of shadow / / whose white glints can build no world.  / / Under
Exchange
ike a pack of cards; / / and the faces
whirled in intersecting circles / / with the spades and diamonds and
Nijinsky
ld fresh wind; the rest / / is lifted,
whirled up in the wind of love; / / I open my arms and close them on
Wind
us, through love.  / / Earth is a speck
whirling about a spark / / that dying traces aimlessly an arc / / ac
Cosmology
enth-century / / Paris.  Rich, squalid,
whirling Paris:  / / Winterhalter, Gounod, Offenbach, Guys, / / Violl
Time’s Reach
master’s face / / while the grey horse
whirls through wolf-wild passes, / / brings fear to the Tuscan market
Poetry
/ in Andromeda’s nebula.  / / The goal
whisks on, / / the tip of our own fool tail.  / /
Curvature of Space
at his shoulder something move… / / so
whisper -faint… a dream?  / / No—if intangible, / / still a warm prese
Masque
into his door-sill / / and as you do,
whisper “It’s Delphis’s bones I’m kneading”.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel
Spells and Love
h focus / / in a different light.  They
whisper / / to man’s mind half-intelligible truths / / from inconcei
Two Cultures?
o not trespass”.  / / The unbroken path
whispered , but I did not trespass, / / turned back, wondering / / if
Los Altos Hills
this last defence.  / / Waking to water
whispering by the bank, / / the dark recesses of the sunstruck wood /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ng and colour and stone, / / or in the
whispering of two alone; / / melting mist / / or tough to outlast /
Fossils
ing to an ear / / an empty shell which
whispers of the sea.  / /
Parted
d, our faces / / were on fire, and our
whispers were as sweet as honey.  / / And not to make too long a story
Spells and Love
k at the watercourse— / / the tall son
whistled down; the young men, / / East and West, brothers in blood; /
Poetry
ung man in the / / street was humming,
whistling not / / very tunefully / / a tune, familiar…  Then I / / r
For Cecil
/ grass, brambles, everything around is
white .  / /
Magic
lue, breaking / / to greys, to silver,
white .  A light wind makes / / the flat sea wrinkle, / / suddenly kin
September Cruise
ill under the wrecked keep.  / / At the
white alley’s end you look / / straight on sea.  / / Stepping further
September Cruise
gely the flowers / / (the light bright
white and pink) invisible.  / / The dark unflowered bush was beautiful
Omens
nel, / / yellow mimosa.  Other flowers,
white and red, / / pink, mauve, blue, but most yellow.  The plain / /
Makherás
in his thumb, and bled, / / red on the
white .  And she cried out, upset, / / and dropped the shell, which bro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
seen the brown / / hills about Haworth
white and smooth with snow.  / / House-bound I watched its beauty chan
The Black-out
o change.  Yet / / the brave blossom is
white , / / and this first day of June / / warm air, / / soft sun /
Upward Turn
mirror’s tinted grey—leaf-greens, / /
white birch-trunks, blue sky caught, / / hide darkness where that fis
Water in a Wood
but winds have washed the gold from the
white birches.  / / Autumn is off where summer and spring have strayed
Dance of the Seasons
t of the sea, loud cries / / of fierce
white birds circling, fish-plunging, woke him.  / / He stretched and s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
m the cliff-face swept / / a flight of
white birds, wheeled over the boat / / westward, ahead, bright, dwind
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
alf blind with blown spray, or with the
white blaze / / of light on water—dark cloud, sweeping showers— / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lling beam / / illuminates against it,
white , / / brilliant, one swan high in flight / / across the flat fe
Bicycle Ride
sed light: / / a figure by the cradle,
white by white— / / one more forgotten fairy, but this one not / / t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing for the grand event.  / / A crowned
white cradlehood, and under it / / a pink sleep, while the dowerers b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r the grey cold / / redder than brown,
white / / crimson and green-gold / / the bare-stemmed bushes glow, /
Winter Garden
od greet us / / washed with yellow and
white , / / daisy and buttercup.  / / Love the revolving years / / kn
Two Summer Songs
flawed glory of Paradise Lost) / / The
White Devil and the Duchess of Malfi, / / Byron’s Juan and Marlowe’s
Poetry
spring sun moves the innocent band / /
white -dressed, green garlanded, under the blue / / bright sky, keepin
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ Two tall beautiful girls / / both in
white dresses / / walking in the dusk / / under wide trees / / of a
Grace
/ / rather than grey.  / / Silver and
white , / / embodied light / / of the overcast day / / on the dark w
Return
f Beatrice / / should fuse them in its
white embrace.  / / The temple-veil rent from his error / / revealed
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
om lifting the spade to strike / / the
white -faced tall shopkeeper with the black shock-hair / / phoning the
A Dream
Out from the cliff birds wheel wild, a
white / / fan, scattering wide over the water, / / dwindling, lost. 
Out from the Cliff
s terrified eyes and numbed groin; / /
white figures, busy hands, flicker of steel / / at the roots of life,
Block 21
de.  / / And every day at noon came the
white flights / / fanning out, wheeling west, ahead, as if / / meant
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
[White foam sweeps] /
White foam sweeps along the grey-brown shore / / from grey-green sea
[White foam sweeps]
[
White foam sweeps] / White foam sweeps along the grey-brown shore / /
[White foam sweeps]
y, the young skin bare, / / I spilt my
white force, just touching her yellow hair.  / /
Love Scene
rl was there.  / / Slender and firm and
white , / / formed for a man’s delight, / / lovely and unaware, / /
Pelopia and Thyestes
e have I seen / / shining sequins on a
white gauze dress?  / / I do not know— / / old, old, infinitely old a
Wind
/ blind in a whirl of shadow / / whose
white glints can build no world.  / / Under bright sun, whole / / the
Exchange
er sat, her dead Son on her knees, / /
white -glowing marble wrought / / to perfect intricacy of draperies, /
Pietà
children, Elsa’s brothers, / / and the
white godhead, Leda’s lover.  / / That long-stretched neck, those purp
Bicycle Ride
nd competent.  / / She was at work on a
white handkerchief— / / a plain square plainly hemmed, but she would
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
der the bright lights, against gold and
white , / / he watched entranced the colour-sparkling sea: / / the Ki
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nts on their wedding-day.  / / Down the
white hill-road, high above the sea / / the six white horses swept th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ between the wandering Thames and the
White Horse.  / / A bigger heart that, I think, than any / / of the r
Bury My Heart
l-road, high above the sea / / the six
white horses swept the golden carriage.  / / The young queen looked, a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
denly leaping / / free from the steep,
white in a long fall.  Water / / —always rain, rough in a storm, dripp
Varangian in Mickelgard
l / / from us, renewed for others / /
white in another Spring.  / /
[What words are there for Spring?]
face / / raised to the curtained room,
white in the moon— / / that youth she met so often in the wood / / w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
than myself, will be, can.  / / Thorpe
white in the sun / / against the black earth; lost in / / the storm
For Cecil
Bend your mind back / / to these whom
white men shot for being black.  / / Life’s all one colour, spilled /
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
montory / / dark trees gather, and the
white monastery / / looks east over the sea.  / / East we fare, and t
September Cruise
y / / circling, swooping over / / the
white , noisy water.  / / The call comes from them / / naturally.  / /
Climacteric by the Sea
the enemy.  / / Shoot when you see the
white of a man’s eye.  / / If more of you can kill your man than die,
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
th green and grey / / and flecked with
white of large convolvulus caught / / among blackberry-flowers with t
The Grass Road
l-tenanted, and soon / / gull-dropping-
white / / on the myth-dark / / sea; that is yet this sea, moved by t
The Sea
: / / a figure by the cradle, white by
white — / / one more forgotten fairy, but this one not / / thereby to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rifting on partial wind / / petal from
white petal: / / image of everything / / lovely, ephemeral / / —chi
[What words are there for Spring?]
he hedge-rose, / / sways, clings, / /
white , pink, / / and I think / / lightly sings / / “Beauty is.  / /
Divinity
s with me / / and worn a wreath of the
white poplar, the holy / / tree of Herakles, wound with crimson ribbo
Spells and Love
boughed winter, / / spring’s green-and-
white return: / / another beauty flowers into / / the wilderness we
Cassandra’s Song
s, / / and suddenly among those / / a
white rose, and another white rose.  / / The wild rose was my flower. 
[Late October hedges]
, against lost years / / gone with the
white rose / / horribly lopped, / / the manner of the loss / / and
Die Weisse Rose
ng those / / a white rose, and another
white rose.  / / The wild rose was my flower.  Good that these late flo
[Late October hedges]
he young prince enspelled— / / but the
white shore, the wide horizon round it: / / action and dream were cen
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
en?”  / / Silent the throng watched the
white sisters go, / / each on his silent thoughts alone, adrift.  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing with gore.  / / Red smears down her
white skirt, the red of shame / / hot in her face, friends giggling,
Pelopia and Thyestes
ot you.  Us perhaps.  / / Walking on the
white / / slippery track, face smarting / / in the evening frost /
For Cecil
right-coloured / / mufflings against a
white snow / / slope) tobogganing.  / / Misunderstandings.  / / Can t
For Cecil
er-love that seems his own.  / / I love
white spring, love the colours / / of autumn, but / / my sweetheart-
[Housman was old beyond his years]
ilding stood square in my dream: / / a
white stone façade of Edwardian baroque.  / / In letters of gold from
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
Return / On a curve of the river / / a
white swan / / and then another / / and six cygnets, full grown / /
Return
ing antlered sprays / / pink, gold and
white , sweetening the light stillness / / by bird-notes pierced but n
The Grass Road
blue / / or swelling black boiling to
white , through / / its vaulted ways.  Suddenly the firm stance / / fa
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
/ Stepped and corridored the town / /
white to blindness clothes its steep / / hill under the wrecked keep.
September Cruise
aid / / “Beautiful are the cornfields,
white to reaping.  / / I will not go.”  / / And stayed, and in a littl
Gunnar of Lithend
, / / season of blossom’s fall.  / / A
white tree at the full; / / whiteness loosening, falling, / / drifti
[What words are there for Spring?]
less image, far more true, / / his own
white vision burned—and the dark flood / / engulfed it—then the trium
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ildren play by the shifting run / / of
white water, where children played their mother / / played as a child
[White foam sweeps]
an, one / / seeking a golden fleece, a
white whale, / / legend and life, by sail / / or steam or dream driv
The Sea
this stone / / dead in Gela among the
white / / wheatlands; a man at need / / good in fight / / —witness
Aeschylus’ Epitaph
tumn, all but vanished / / in the long
white winter of Byzantium.  / /
Greece
d empty in the moonlight, / / and long
Whitehall received my echoing paces, / / the noiseless passage of my
The Black-out
r churning round a rock / / or falling
whitely in a widening pool / / from the next cliff.  He stripped and p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
found the whole world round me suddenly
whiten .  / / In memory’s chest a drawer full of certain treasures.  /
A Hoard
clear of cloud / / the eleven day moon
whitened in front of us.  / / Over the short grass my feet too were si
The Black-out
ll.  / / A white tree at the full; / /
whiteness loosening, falling, / / drifting on partial wind / / petal
[What words are there for Spring?]
e in it.  / / Hush.  Do you not see / /
whiteness pocked, dissolving in / / commonness, muddy? / / shimmerin
Exchange
us can see.  / / For Housman, spring’s
whitening / / —fair enough.  / / One can’t do better for a love, / /
[Housman was old beyond his years]
training mast and stays.  / / The water
whitening under the black gale / / was scooped up, shaken, broken, sh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ad, / / looks out to Portland or up to
Whitenothe’s / / high chalk head.  / / A fifth in Ithaca, from the en
Bury My Heart
t wing / / (whole) or wind (scattered)
whither —not a thing.  / / Yet peace, that keeps her nest unnoticed in
Dulce et Decorum
/ / Night claimed him.  / / But in the
whittled , bruised stone he left caught / / that straight flame.  / /
Pietà
een finger and thumb, / / whittles and
whittles and there is nothing there.  / / The bodily earth about us, l
That Way Madness Lies
r hands, between finger and thumb, / /
whittles and whittles and there is nothing there.  / / The bodily eart
That Way Madness Lies
door, hitting / / recalcitrant marble,
whittling / / the brute block back towards the palpable vision.  / /
Pietà
which we live / / one moment shows as
whole and healed.  / / Accept the vision.  Let it give / / a form on w
Hymn
/ I felt myself shrunk in the cold, but
whole / / and me; and turned to Emily, ready to / / move like the ri
The Black-out
hty-four / / you, I suppose, and I the
whole day through / / probably never thought / / once one of the oth
Leap Year
notone / / scents, colours, notes, the
whole / / dream-treasury of the soul.  / /
Fair Exchange
h string / / of spear-thorns.  The vast
whole he would not see.  / / Hour after hour, hacking and dragging cle
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
days, / / and we enjoyed, we hand back
whole , / / improved indeed in many ways, / / encrusted with the inte
Recessional
ok, her walk, her laugh, her voice, the
whole / / informed by her warm spirit—only seeing, / / hearing, her
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ped to a kind of heaven, / / loves the
whole lot.  So long as he’s alive / / this vision is the image of his
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
med or fetched here, on what wing / / (
whole ) or wind (scattered) whither—not a thing.  / / Yet peace, that k
Dulce et Decorum
rk cloud, sweeping showers— / / or the
whole ring an unflawed clarity— / / he learnt the infinite variation
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
build no world.  / / Under bright sun,
whole / / the world lies, dazzling, bridal, / / incorruptible.  / /
Exchange
he one and other half / / which made a
whole .  / / They kissed, and hand in hand / / walked out together thr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tion sliced through our world; an outer
whole / / through which our world’s an imperceptible section.  / / Mi
Dimension
/ / for me.  Never mind.  / / A full, a
whole time, / / a time shared.  / / Wish the gathered swallows joy of
Swallows
(she had it)—now she’s on heat / / the
whole time, can’t keep away from it— / / damn her, don’t let anyone s
Love Scene
Entropy / The universe is not a
whole .  / / Valiant centripetality / / (Dante’s and Aristotle’s love)
Entropy
ponding to his lean, or thrown / / his
whole weight’s strength against the buffeting.  / / Half blind with bl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
our sensibility and sense / / into one
whole which will not crack apart; / / you brought us to the promised
Prayer to Time
d walk, past midnight, / / I found the
whole world round me suddenly whiten.  / / In memory’s chest a drawer
A Hoard
ad wing; / / growing, never grows / /
wholly away, stays / / linked still to parents / / by fibres, filame
Parenthood
ould he then, / / since he could never
wholly be a man, / / happily have remained / / an air-and-water-wand
Fairy Story
s?” / / by this gets answered “No.  Not
wholly God’s.  / / If Caesar give you arms, yours not to question / /
The Betrayal
ndered if the girl were faked / / too,
wholly real as form and face had been.  / / But here, just so, the riv
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed, do not lack, delight, / / would be
wholly sorry to have missed life / / on this multifarious earth.  / /
Climacteric by the Sea
s giving us, which is at any rate / / (
whomever we thank for it) ours.  / /
[Late October hedges]
that late hour?  / / Why her?  / / The
whores and the boys of course were nothing / / —and Caroline, he may
“Tell Lady Byron…”
l, delicately lined, / / a leaf-fan on
whorled stalks, above the tang / / which held it in the handle, doubt
Label
those lives of others / / the silt of
whose brief or eternal loves / / now beds the wood where ours are now
Becoming
upward rears / / now the tower, round
whose channelled stone / / speeds gather as lives hurtle down.  / /
Anniversaries
p into that eye, eye without sight / /
whose circle gathered both sides of the screen: / / conscious terrifi
Block 21
heeded, to whom now we pray; / / Time,
whose converse imparts, then sometimes heals / / (not always) the to-
Prayer to Time
/ / than olive.  Cypress / / are you?—
whose country / / is without willow.  / / Am I the willow? / / misty
Five Poems for Roni
to keep them up, / / a lightless cave
whose emptiness takes all in / / and remains empty.  / / Their net of
Where?
er I cannot lead.  / / Not I the spirit
whose eyes can brighten through / / your dark sea.  Waits ahead the he
The Black-out
lter-skelter of the years— / / a tower
whose far base disappears / / in cloud (like Brueghel’s Babylon / /
Anniversaries
solemn in a procession, led by one / /
whose fierce, dark look I knew; who never was / / weak to regret, but
The Black-out
, / / do not be too sad / / for those
whose flame was blown out while they had / / unflawed happiness of th
Whom the Gods Love
“you fool, you had the love / / of her
whose gift, above / / all her warm gifts, is loving.  / / You fool, h
Hebona
Prayer to Time / O Time,
whose hand about our childhood’s hand / / led us delighted through th
Prayer to Time
/ of this deeper existence we know, at
whose heart / / is our love, and the love of which ours is a part.  /
Hymn
/ one kindling only for the fire / /
whose heat can forge a world from dreams: / / love—love of God, since
Hymn
rutally quenched, was still a fire / /
whose high flame, even remembered, warms and sings.  / / Man’s acts an
Question
udges of appeal are Love and Truth / /
whose jurisdiction is eternity.  / /
Prayer to Time
intly wells / / a pale returning light
whose kindness veils / / jut and furrow, restoring innocence, / / re
In the Audience
hy, the dull, the worse than dull, / /
whose laughter like a leper’s bell / / falls in its own silence; and
The Party
dy.  Give it power.  / / “Consider those
whose lives have kindled your life / / and bring your torch out of th
The Black-out
to the bleak and harsh / / night here;
whose lives, which life has tried to quench, / / seem shrunk now to t
The Embankment
time, / / perish) creates a world / /
whose making and being are.  / / Days, years, man’s time-notes, are /
[Time is enough]
h they’ve no connection, / / of things
whose meaning is in those othernesses, / / outside our time-thought’s
Dimension
ought seems strangled in the womb, / /
whose nails are broken picking at the knot / / of Gordian anguish in
The Party
was only, / / at first, a servant—one
whose natural state / / was being at her bidding.  Then at most / / a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
climb.  Let me not lose / / the flame,
whose power I feel of work and love, / / in ashes of self-pity and ab
The Black-out
/ / beside us of St. Pancras’ Church,
whose sane / / classical stillness calmed the aimless flow / / of ga
The Black-out
nguish in the heart; / / and others in
whose silence sounds the roar / / of a remote, fanatic fire.  / / To
The Party
/ who almost seem immune from all, / /
whose skin and breath alike sing of the rose.  / / Petals we know must
Gratitude
through the city, / / struck Pericles,
whose statesmanship / / had brought them there, had raised the Parthe
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
, this was a story.  / / A story.  What,
whose story?  And why, how / / this deep acceptance of a story’s pain?
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n its own silence; and silent some / /
whose thought seems strangled in the womb, / / whose nails are broken
The Party
s wheel / / contrasts with the Octopus
whose tilted axis / / and epicycles were designed to illustrate / /
Content
ater.  / / Back in a quiet country / /
whose understated beauty / / I seem to have remembered / / but had,
Return
w, / / blind in a whirl of shadow / /
whose white glints can build no world.  / / Under bright sun, whole /
Exchange
iend / / who’d share his joy and pain,
who’d lead, or rather / / more often be led through the threatening w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lked his long dreams with a friend / /
who’d share his joy and pain, who’d lead, or rather / / more often be
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd presently / / he took, feeling both
wicked and absurd, / / to stalking gulls slow-pecking on the sand, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ty / / both in kind and degree / / is
wicked and unnecessary.  / / Though not so strong / / a light as Free
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
ourselves / / foolish often, sometimes
wicked as well, / / sharing in guilt, part of the guilty world.  / /
[Our lives are in other hands]
’s own.”  / / He heard, they heard, the
wicked fairy’s laugh, / / felt the good smile, began to understand /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / Twelve-year-old Louise adored / /
wicked little Carly Gancher, / / and did just that.  / /
Vignette
rs and a good many more, / / master of
wickedness .  / / After working some really evil twist / / against the
Vignette
our own.  / / Our lives are subject to
wickedness and folly / / in others.  Harder to bear, our children’s li
[Our lives are in other hands]
beauty, and is blest.  / / For all our
wickedness , / / our blank stupidity, / / beauty is ours and the eart
Beauty
o every joy, her stress / / to all our
wickedness , / / yet’s as much taker quite / / as giver—throws upon /
Fair Exchange
/ We must weep / / our follies and our
wickednesses , our failure; / / not least, for our own sake, / / what
Buttercups
g penned / / in distant corners of the
wide / / acreage that is ours.  Surely we / / in the end / / shall f
[The grass in the next field]
t me home.  I lived and died / / in the
wide air, behind a bolted door.  / / From my lone way I could not turn
The Black-out
this that word won’t do, / / alike too
wide and too confined— / / the incandescent one in two, / / the kind
Love…  No
g-time, / / the street-cold world lies
wide / / before the prisoner free.  / / What now?  Follow the wind /
Freedom
uite imperial— / / our stage is not so
wide —but born a prince.  / / No doubt compounded of the same material
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / that falls now caught / / in the
wide dew-pond of Mount Palomar, / / leapt from some galaxy, far / /
The Sea
it higher.  / / Sparks, wind-scattered
wide , dropped on what’s thin / / and dry, blaze against the wind agai
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
ament Square, crossed the untrafficked,
wide / / Embankment to the bridge, and saw the reach / / of river, s
The Black-out
is Landscape / Music is landscape:  / /
wide grass / / melts to a skyline, / / dips to a stream.  / / Landsc
Music is Landscape
front of me: / / a heron, lifting its
wide grey angled wings, / / its long neck out, rising into slow fligh
Omens
ough, her legs hanging, / / swinging a
wide hat, not as in the wood / / she braved the thorns, but later, ni
The Black-out
nspelled— / / but the white shore, the
wide horizon round it: / / action and dream were centred on the sea. 
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ty.  / / I see / / the final bomb fall
wide in open ocean / / —harmless?  Look—circles of desert spread:  / /
Stones
ff, merging into mud.  He found / / the
wide mouth of a sluggish-seeming river.  / / Beyond, the ribbon stretc
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
riefer occupation of, / / but gains no
wide or long control / / against the stronger counterblast.  / / Each
Entropy
heel wild, a white / / fan, scattering
wide over the water, / / dwindling, lost.  / / Fledged presently, son
Out from the Cliff
slaughter, and on the disgrace / / of
wide preventable want, though such things are / / good causes for unh
The Black-out
For Rachel / Above the sea and the
wide sand gulls fly calling / / or walk far out by the ripples’ edge,
For Rachel
, / / under a bright, a grey, always a
wide sky, / / your riding country, where you played as a child / / g
Two Poems for G
le, / / two, fifty yards) awoke to the
wide stream.  / / He plunged in where the water met the sand, / / dro
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ough their pain must be, / / and wide,
wide the horizon of the heart / / where natural beauty, mutual love a
The Black-out
ur hands is laid / / heavier if not so
wide .  / / Those who must die, let not the spectres of / / the lost a
Prayer to Truth
ses / / walking in the dusk / / under
wide trees / / of a well-ordered park.  / / Like a poem by Yeats.  /
Grace
ng / / the gondola grow smaller on the
wide / / water—so lose them too?  But the shrammed soul / / shrinking
The Black-out
ing though their pain must be, / / and
wide , wide the horizon of the heart / / where natural beauty, mutual
The Black-out
Now, look, under clear aiR / / Is the
wide world, waitinG / / Everything comes with timE / /
[A long steep road to climb]
ry muscle aching, / / where the cleeve
widened to the junction of / / two larger valleys.  Wind from distant
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
oundaries, / / lose one another in the
widening black.  / / Look down into your life and know the night.  / /
Macrocosm
coasts lost down bare horizons.  / / In
widening intervals the wind / / drowns scattered voices.  / / By star
Shipwreck
und a rock / / or falling whitely in a
widening pool / / from the next cliff.  He stripped and plunged to coo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing too—yet comforting / / against her
wider fears.  She wept a bit, / / then, feeling better, dried her eyes
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
truth.  And we have shared a world / /
wider than that, till our ways seemed to lie / / always together.”  Fr
The Black-out
the kindness that we owe mankind.  / /
Wider than that, warmer than this / / the word I want, the feeling is
Love…  No
proot the rich hedges that roads may be
wider / / that more cars may carry more carcase-ladings / / farther,
Full Circle
ancy flow / / at court washed the poor
widow far away / / to be a hunting-castle’s housekeeper.  / / Far amo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
to a King and Queen, / / a poor young
widow with an only son.  / / A mother’s boy (he never knew his father)
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e, chilled in English Chislehurst, / /
widowhood , soon to mourn / / her killed, her only, son, / / fighting
Time’s Reach
should scarce expect affection from his
wife .  / /
To Hera
moment of truth?  / / Well, she was his
wife , / / and marriage is inexplicably but undeniably / / a special
“Tell Lady Byron…”
man who’s made me, / / lost thing, no
wife and now no maiden either.  / / Draw him, bird-wheel, draw him (yo
Spells and Love
med soon, as before, / / he kissed his
wife and said / / “I must go fight again, / / who once believed they
Presage
visit / / of his king-uncle, with his
wife and their / / children.  He scowled and went to bed.  What is it /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
andings?  / / That New Yorker joke:  “My
wife / / does understand me.”  / / I failed you living / / and what
For Cecil
Ruined if I go—there’s only my pregnant
wife —” / / “I hope it’s a boy.”  “Thanks.  How can she keep the flock?”
On the Border
anyone saddle me with that.  / / With a
wife like she is I shouldn’t half / / give the nice neighbours a bell
Love Scene
ice / / in a new land in a new love, a
wife / / perhaps, children.  For him it was not so.  / / He made his w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
“You shall win home / / and find your
wife waiting for you, your son / / a man now and a friend, a few old
Odysseus
oves children, could have been a loving
wife .  / / Would have been bride, with greater love, of Christ, / / b
Eugénie de Guérin
ar.  / / ‘She is my lady and a prince’s
wife .’  / / He stumbled, looked up, did not know the place.  / / Turni
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Cliff / Out from the cliff birds wheel
wild , a white / / fan, scattering wide over the water, / / dwindling
Out from the Cliff
re often be led through the threatening
wild / / by him, the brave one, to some happy end.  / / Thus was the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / Wind is a sword of / / ice, under
wild colours in / / sun-touched or dark cloud.  / / A rare night.  Bea
For Cecil
erers— / / put out for dragons—in some
wild distress.  / / And always at the fatal hour, the bold / / prince
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in my face and shouts “Love”, / / the
wild fresh wind; the rest / / is lifted, whirled up in the wind of lo
Wind
crossing huge mountains, wandering and
wild / / ‘full of hope, full of hope’ he told the child— / / and fou
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
te this year): / / pink of campion and
wild geranium, / / toad-flax, cow-parsley, yellow stragglers, / / a
[Late October hedges]
us like our daily bread.  / / She’s the
wild gleam of heaven’s sending.  / / Summer’s slow spell is different
Dance of the Seasons
/ yielding or hard / / throw back the
wild / / inconstant water that cries against the shore.  / / Yet that
The Sea
tone piers, its attack / / turned, its
wild movement mastered—so / / there, not there, the trained current s
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
/ this might have been an uninhabited
wild .  / / Now, down the mountain through the closing day, / / stumbl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hile the grey horse whirls through wolf-
wild passes, / / brings fear to the Tuscan market-place.  / / A littl
Poetry
the rose / / scentless, ephemeral and
wild / / prodigal to all passing throws / / the unstable beauty of a
Summer
/ / His mother, waiting up, met him in
wild — / / reproach?  Not so—excitement.  Messengers / / hot from the C
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ussock, / / finally stops / / where a
wild rose-bush flowers / / at the edge of a copse.  / / Monstrance an
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
Summer Vision / A
wild rose lifting / / from the hedge-top / / hooks its way upwards,
Summer Vision
rass, / / heather, bracken, moss, / /
wild rose on the heath / / —bare from bony feet, / / fouled, burned—
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
rose, and another white rose.  / / The
wild rose was my flower.  Good that these late flowers / / are here fo
[Late October hedges]
/ / muted before—the breakers.  And the
wild / / sea stretched to the horizon.  He was come.  / / The even roa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
up the wild stream] / The track up the
wild stream, / / blocked by a fallen tree, / / beyond it fades and f
[The track up the wild stream]
[The track up the
wild stream] / The track up the wild stream, / / blocked by a fallen
[The track up the wild stream]
those acres of heath and wook, free and
wild , / / under a bright, a grey, always a wide sky, / / your riding
Two Poems for G
at, what hope for him, / / between the
wild wind and that wall of rock?…  / / Suppose he made the shore…  Thos
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd.  / / Larks with difficulty into the
wild wind / / wing, singing against it as they lift / / and their tr
Two Poems from a New Life
ellations crowd and wander / / richer,
wilder it seems than I have seen.  / / No, the seasons offer / / no a
Five Poems for Roni
ke an English parkland / / but bigger,
wilder , stronger, / / unearthlier.  / / The path went on and on / /
Los Altos Hills
, we shall rue it.  / / The world’s our
wilderness .  Man fumbles through it, / / blind Oedipus constrained to
Man in Nature
aking and Sleep / A child standing in a
wilderness of snow / / looking in at my door: / / a face I was in lo
Vision Between Waking and Sleep
e / / shall spread and sprawl a thorny
wilderness / / one hundred years—until her fated love / / (if, when
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ another beauty flowers into / / the
wilderness we mourn.  / /
Cassandra’s Song
—unless rather his first / / but still
wildest , least biddable slave, fire / / twist in his hand / / and ma
Dr Faustus
peted track / / forgetful of the tamed
wildness below / / once-separated worlds long wandered, back / / and
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
and stalk / / they lost some of their
wildness , / / learned to talk— / / the boy less than the girl.  / /
The Green Children of Woolpit
ed garden of Faith, walks / / anywhere
wilful thought may lead.  She looks / / out from the green shade / /
Eugénie de Guérin
/ / Kurt Huber and his children:  / /
Willi Graf, Christl Probst, / / Alex Morell, Hans Scholl, / / Sophie
Die Weisse Rose
/ / Alex Morell, / / Christl Probst,
Willi Graf / / —so many years lost / / (none more than twenty-five,
Die Weisse Rose
your mourning / / is folded away, god
willing .  But now / / I’ll be good, I promise—I do know how.  / / Don’
Love Scene
praying / / of Mary’s Son, by His good
willing , / / that we may share in His blessing, / / thunder of Hell
Villon’s Epitaph
are you?—whose country / / is without
willow .  / / Am I the willow? / / misty country, / / soft-light rive
Five Poems for Roni
try, / / flares no cypress.  / / Misty
willow / / dreams by the river, / / drops a soft shadow.  / / You, i
Five Poems for Roni
p-cornered shadow, / / wrenched olive (
willow - / / grey, but no river, / / no mist)—another / / harsher co
Five Poems for Roni
y / / is without willow.  / / Am I the
willow ? / / misty country, / / soft-light river?  / / Are you the ot
Five Poems for Roni
cypress / / is cypress.  Shadow / / of
willow on river / / is another country.  / / The waste, the loss we s
Five Poems for Roni
hadow / / beside the river? / / —grey
willow , other / / than olive.  Cypress / / are you?—whose country /
Five Poems for Roni
ves in this country / / soft light for
willow / / to spread shade other / / than olive, cypress / / mean b
Five Poems for Roni
i / / / / / / One full half of the
willow was riven away, / / the other half hollowed back almost to the
Five Poems for Roni
ther / / sharper shadow / / than ever
willow / / weaves in this country / / —olive, straight cypress, / /
Five Poems for Roni
resting on the strong spread of another
willow .  / / Yet fallen and soaring bough were rich in leaf / / as th
Five Poems for Roni
h ourselves / / contriving against our
wills / / a no less ineluctably certain end / / for triumphant human
What goes up must come down
r lotus-strand, and be / / happy.”  The
wily hero, bound / / tight by his ear-blocked company, / / sailed on
The Sirens
d been worthy to be won, and he / / to
win her; but their autumn’s spring-time daughter / / was something mo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
mbivalent spirit spoke:  / / “You shall
win home / / and find your wife waiting for you, your son / / a man
Odysseus
(and outsoars too these wars no one can
win ), / / is for them also, knowing or nothing, peace.  / /
Dulce et Decorum
throw is all the same.  / / No one can
win , / / no one can stop, / / for in this game / / at every ladder’
The Game
/ “He had to fight the fairy’s curse to
win / / the fairy’s promise—that was what he said.  / / I don’t know
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n their lairs, / / outwit the witches,
win the sweet princess.  / / The old stories, alike but different, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
er of innocence and guilt / / we can’t
win .  We’re all guilty always.  / / Can only keep / / as to guilt, a c
Judgement
/ I open my arms and close them on the
wind .  / /
Wind
cheek will be cold, / / salt from sea-
wind .  / /
Out from the Cliff
s / / rang on each other in the bitter
wind .  / / A magic of the outer world, for him / / to walk in with hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
’s thin / / and dry, blaze against the
wind again.  / / Mind shakes to see / / how fighting wind and fire ca
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
eight of a winged power / / out of the
wind alighting— / / your smooth-polished lackadaisical perfection /
Hermes of Olympia
eringly / / clatters back in the bleak
wind / / an ill-latched shutter of the mind.  / / I glimpse out there
Dinner
/ Mind shakes to see / / how fighting
wind and fire can absolutely / / destroy themselves and all.  / / Spa
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
Scheme / A word, a gust / / of
wind , and our delightful plan is dust.  / / The loved, the long worked
Scheme
l.  What else?”  / / Have seen under the
wind and sun / / the world in infinite beauty laid.  / / “What else? 
Interrogation
hat hope for him, / / between the wild
wind and that wall of rock?…  / / Suppose he made the shore…  Those bar
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
on the beach, / / blind to the bright
wind and the sound of the sea, / / throwing stones at a stone.  / /
Tristi Fummo
he righted boat running before / / the
wind , aslant towards the stretching cliff, / / while he wrenched at t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
as where he would be stopping.  / / The
wind at evening veered into the west / / then died.  The starry dark w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
risoner free.  / / What now?  Follow the
wind / / away, follow your will.  / / To what joys will it lead?  / /
Freedom
e way was harsh but he was viable.  / /
Wind -bitter nights were much the worst of it.  / / Waking before dawn
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
settling, over wood and hill, / / now
wind -blown clear, now eddying round again, / / the founts unquenched,
On the Border
fell.  But also as fall / / sparks.  The
wind blows against the fire / / beating it down, and only blows it hi
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
south, and from the north / / a steady
wind blows cold and colourlessly.  / / A child’s children play by the
[White foam sweeps]
, infinitely old and long ago.  / / The
wind blows in my face and shouts “Love”, / / the wild fresh wind; the
Wind
m her deep dream, / / but any love’s a
wind -break when gales bend / / the unseasoned heart.  Sidelong she saw
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
or under cloud or clear stars / / what
wind casts on what shore / / these baulks to which they cling, this w
Shipwreck
storm now; now here / / too the sleet-
wind darkens down.  / / Without you your winter shore.  / / Wind is a
For Cecil
pring light, spring water, winter, / /
wind , death, darkness, fear, / / fire, flowers, / / pain, angels sin
Beethoven
u thought to breathe your soul into the
wind , / / dissolve and rest.”  She smiled: “did I not say / / Anabel
The Black-out
orizons.  / / In widening intervals the
wind / / drowns scattered voices.  / / By star and compass these as o
Shipwreck
footsteps left no sound.  / / The light
wind faded out as he came near.  / / “Oh what a moon,” he said.  “By su
The Black-out
et air / / and a voice came out of the
wind / / for all to hear / / “The spirit is innocent / / and comes
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
t we ruin, we shall rue it.  / / Is the
wind free and strong? we must subdue it / / “Blow this way, that way,
Man in Nature
he junction of / / two larger valleys. 
Wind from distant snow / / struck deeply chill, but too worn-out for
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / The fool’s laughter / / takes the
wind from his sail / / the moment after.  / / Hamlet, faltering / /
Catharsis
and grinned.  / / And once when a great
wind -gust caught the water / / and spooned a pint of brine over his h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ay / / Anabel sent me?  Do not fear the
wind / / has failed me of my peace, or her the wood.  / / She is of t
The Black-out
s-skirted poppy-dancer / / dips to the
wind her brilliant head / / by time’s rough gusts soon to be tonsured
Dance of the Seasons
and rock and bog lap the wall / / and
wind hurls the sea in the home’s face.  / / Who bred here could suppos
The West of Ireland
close, held together, feud / / against
wind .  / / I stand alone, shiver.  But not alone / / ever again.  / /
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
hollow shell.  / / Sigh or high song of
wind in rigging, air / / on rope and wood, in canvas, clap, rattle.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Without you your winter shore.  / /
Wind is a sword of / / ice, under wild colours in / / sun-touched or
For Cecil
[Wind is chilly on shoulders] /
Wind is chilly on shoulders.  Buses pass / / but not my bus.  / / Comf
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
[
Wind is chilly on shoulders] / Wind is chilly on shoulders.  Buses pass
[Wind is chilly on shoulders]
the moments of the wind?  / / Is it the
wind , is it love, saying / / “The year’s end is the year’s beginning,
Winter Solstice
/ / water, or mark the moments of the
wind ?  / / Is it the wind, is it love, saying / / “The year’s end is
Winter Solstice
gone.  / / The sky was clear, the dawn-
wind light but good, / / as he moved outwards in his loaded boat.  /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ to greys, to silver, white.  A light
wind makes / / the flat sea wrinkle, / / suddenly kindles / / stars
September Cruise
er’s hope / / that chance, sown on the
wind , might somehow sprout / / in love.  His love he dare not venture
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
black cloud fell; / / softly the fresh
wind moved; the stars were bright, / / before dawn and the moon behin
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fearful of the cloven and cliffed / /
wind -naked way.  He went peaceful to sleep.  / / Up early, off—a letter
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Like music heard in / / the mindless
wind / / nerve-ends murmur / / of a lost limb… / / fingers supple /
Lopped
/ / She is of the wood and I am of the
wind / / now, each resolved to earth and our own good.  / / But searc
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rest / / is lifted, whirled up in the
wind of love; / / I open my arms and close them on the wind.  / /
Wind
, lest / / the proud procession should
wind on for ever:  / / I have been, am ever, in your converse blest /
Poetry
night, / / cloud and sun, stars, / /
wind on the heath.  / /
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
He crowed against the seagulls and the
wind / / or simply smiled.  “Well, you’ve been born before, / / young
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ning, falling, / / drifting on partial
wind / / petal from white petal: / / image of everything / / lovely
[What words are there for Spring?]
ing’s awareness of tomorrow.  / / Brief
wind ruckles gulls’ feathers, wrinkles water, / / drops, still.  Break
For Rachel
estylis, / / and the stuff for spells. 
Wind scarlet wool round the bowl.  / / I’m going to bind my man to me,
Spells and Love
ched here, on what wing / / (whole) or
wind (scattered) whither—not a thing.  / / Yet peace, that keeps her n
Dulce et Decorum
and only blows it higher.  / / Sparks,
wind -scattered wide, dropped on what’s thin / / and dry, blaze agains
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
guide, and turned again.  The chill / /
wind seemed among my bones.  Molly was gone.  / / The sky was clouded o
The Black-out
/ / from hours in still woods, on the
wind -shaved sweep / / of downs, walking, sitting, now listening, / /
Happiness
un, but somewhere round midday / / the
wind shifted into the north, and he / / turned the bow south.  Dim to
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ur own inaction’s false excuse.”  / / A
wind shook through the tree; I raised my head / / and saw a few faint
The Black-out
princess sighed / / and a small bitter
wind sighed through the wood / / filling with dusk.  She shivered and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / I like to lay up my harvest in the
wind .  / / Smug, you forget the other crop (tare / / in the wheat)—ca
Treasure
l find it doesn’t do.  / / Land, ocean,
wind , / / starved and poisoned must / / starve and poison him / / —
Dr Faustus
lifting spine / / in slight but bitter
wind .  / / Stir the bare trees, and on the benches stir / / against t
The Embankment
ng from cloud to its low noon.  / / The
wind -swept flat horizon / / under the high-cloud-mottled pallid blue
[Bare trees black]
/ / to make the most of the recovered
wind .  / / The boat moved rippling forward on the sea, / / purposeful
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
our / / bred me secret and strong.  The
wind , the moor / / and my own heart sufficed.  Three times the rigour
The Black-out
and shouts “Love”, / / the wild fresh
wind ; the rest / / is lifted, whirled up in the wind of love; / / I
Wind
Wind / The stars are faint on the pale sky above, / / the phosphorus
Wind
pe and fear.  / / Like a bird, like the
wind / / they take their certain, incalculable way, / / and passing
The Lilies of the Field
varying / / this way, that way, of the
wind , / / thimble-pocked by the beaks’ sharp play.  / / Our brotherho
Villon’s Epitaph
/ colder than sea-pearl.  / / Cold the
wind too / / and I, as I was young, am now old.  / /
Night-piece
s passed me and one taxi, hired.  / / A
wind touched me, and a voice clear and strong: / / “trembles the cowa
The Black-out
with the already turning tide.  / / The
wind was up and cold; I shivered, watching / / the gondola grow small
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ulham woods; / / the second at Saunton—
wind -washed pink thrift / / in short grass on low sandstone cliffs, /
Bury My Heart
rsion of rain?  / / Rain and sun, snow,
wind , / / weather and season, wheeling / / through the melting now /
Exchange
/ Now he could keep her more into the
wind / / which shrieked against the straining mast and stays.  / / Th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Still on the sand he sat, in the cool
wind , / / while time passed and the sun went low behind / / levellin
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Larks with difficulty into the wild
wind / / wing, singing against it as they lift / / and their trillin
Two Poems from a New Life
ave / / a monstrous love / / —but her
wind -wooer struck him to a stone / / humped in the tides, gull-lone,
The Sea
ts and sweating heat / / of shadeless,
windless noon, he followed it, / / lost and recovered, up steep valle
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rs.  / / Someone had stuck to the hired
window / / a coloured small transparency / / “Have a Rainbow Day” /
[Fall rainbows the forest-acred mountains]
ening field and hill.  / / To stars and
window -panes withdraws the light.  / / Hunched to the chill / / hushe
Country and Town
foot and wit.  / / Deep in a curtained
window , quite alone, / / the princess drank a moment’s peace from it.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
A
Window / Shown through the shadow of action, word and look, / / seen
A Window
h cries and prayers / / and nailed the
window shut.  / / A man in the woven hanging reached for a nest.  / /
Eugénie de Guérin
Green World / Green world outside the
window , summer world.  / / Daffodils on this side of the stream, / /
Green World
Eugénie de Guérin / She hung out of her
window to watch the stars.  / / They hustled her back to bed with crie
Eugénie de Guérin
fe) how, out of the night, / / without
window , without path, / / without ladder, he found himself, / / clim
George Jackson
provided, / / unlike some towers, with
windows and a view.”  / / My eyes followed the water running faster, /
The Black-out
he opposite rooms / / showed lightless
windows , uninvolved as tombs.  / / The night, she thought, alone is be
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
an air, / / into a world where all the
winds are fallen / / for want of anything to keep them up, / / a lig
Where?
y house.  / / The sea is quiet now, the
winds are quiet, / / but in my body the anguish is never quiet, / /
Spells and Love
its rust and the beech its red / / but
winds have washed the gold from the white birches.  / / Autumn is off
Dance of the Seasons
your power, neither / / thrown to the
winds , nor hid as now it is.  / / Turn to whatever calls you, only use
The Black-out
ut his money, / / Achilles outrace the
winds , since those are their fancies.  Me, / / I’ll sit under this roc
Shepherd’s Song
ruinous dust / / wander in the random
winds .  / / We know the father’s sins / / visited always on the child
May Day, 1986
,” / / she said, “but sometimes on the
windy hill / / of home I felt no less a prisoner.  / / Of itself exil
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ence / / recalls me to mounded sand.  A
windy morrow / / shakes the crystal bubble about the children.  / / L
For Rachel
ed sea, / / who know Scamander and the
windy plain.  / / We hold a double talisman—are free, / / first of as
The Black-out
t now: / / water in patterns under the
wind’s touch, / / fast falling of waves regathering slow / / —so muc
Tristi Fummo
ell.  / / The moor’s loneliness and the
wind’s vigour / / bred me secret and strong.  The wind, the moor / /
The Black-out
n / / he’d foraged round the kitchens,
wine and food / / at least a week’s supply—written a note / / to tel
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d on the fire, for light / / and food,
wine and more food.  The castle store / / was low, replenishment impos
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
chilochus / / / The spear is my rough
wine , as it is my bread, / / and even when I’m drinking my spear is r
Two Songs of a Mercenary
vening he kept calling / / for unmixed
wine for a toast to Love, and he went off / / in a tearing hurry, to
Spells and Love
sea.  / / Among the emperor’s guard the
wine goes round / / with rattle of dice and song, and some are thinki
Gunnar of Lithend
in a child’s hair / / turns water into
wine .  / / Here is the absolute.  / / Neglect the planned return / /
Glimpse
feast / / endured a look and glowed to
wine , / / our two humanities, increased / / by love to one, burn hal
Hymn
, weary, / / and through my limbs like
wine through water came / / my father pulling his hand across his fac
The Black-out
is radar, this / / contrived effective
wing .  / /
Bat
, lingers among / / down, under spread
wing ; / / growing, never grows / / wholly away, stays / / linked st
Parenthood
the sunlight, swift and proud.  / / The
wing -heeled boots, the crooked knife / / lent us to hunt a monster wi
From the Air
with difficulty into the wild wind / /
wing , singing against it as they lift / / and their trilling is mostl
Two Poems from a New Life
leaving her youngest brother one swan’s
wing / / —strong and beautiful / / but powerless and grotesque / /
Fairy Story
whence formed or fetched here, on what
wing / / (whole) or wind (scattered) whither—not a thing.  / / Yet pe
Dulce et Decorum
k, / / as the attack / / of the quick-
winged hounds, / / sharp-circling sloops, prevails / / forcing it fr
Heron and Gulls
rom the temple-gables, / / weight of a
winged power / / out of the wind alighting— / / your smooth-polished
Hermes of Olympia
/ / subtle as his, riding those narrow
wings .  / /
Ecology
the soul steal from the flame?  / / New
wings for its dream.  / /
Joan of Arc
/ a heron, lifting its wide grey angled
wings , / / its long neck out, rising into slow flight.  / / The sight
Omens
seem too heavy / / even for a heron’s
wings , lifts it a little.  / / Accept the omen, heart.  / / Rejoice in
Omens
/ Monstrance and Host in the grass / /
wink at the sky.  / / They must home to the church / / and the girl m
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
an architrave block / / PUBLIC LIBRARY
winked with a welcoming gleam.  / / Within, book in hand, I looked dow
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
elting in each other, fretted / / with
winking , wrinkled flashes—held his gaze.  / / Still on the sand he sat
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ not to be one of the losers, but the
winner .  / /
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
uld have / / pleased you better as the
winner .  / / Things you only just / / missed.  Sophie of course, and T
For Cecil
ink us even deeper.  Yet, / / losing or
winning , keep us from the pit / / of a complacent hate.  / / Let not
Prayer to Truth
n / / who says “That’s a funny kind of
winnowing -fan.”  / / Plant the oar in the ground, / / mark out a teme
Odysseus
ge world.  What is this steward / / who
wins such commendation, because as steward / / he tried to cheat his
The Betrayal
nes / / of light, / / are lost.  Night
wins .  / / Swirling vastness a lost speck.  In each speck / / sparks w
Holes in Space
cares for others also.  / / In tedious
winter as in teasing summer / / patience alone can be my ivory tower.
Patience
more full, / / he set out through the
winter -beautiful / / woods for the hills.  And there we leave the lad.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ffers all colours equally subdued.  / /
Winter beauty’s in tune / / with love parted, which is in no way less
[Bare trees black]
/ / black through the snow—the frozen
winter breaking, / / softening, resolving round me, vanishing; / / b
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/ / like any other year, the darkening
winter ; / / but unlike any other year, / / at the dead season, at th
Winter Solstice
ut of leaves and grass / / till a hard
winter clamped suddenly down / / in frost and ice.  The black twigs ca
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ney / / and ourselves prepare / / for
winter coming, as they / / do, but in our own, our different way.  /
Swallows
you dying.  Today, / / bitter beautiful
winter / / cycling, past the hospital.  / / Silver spoon in the / /
For Cecil
/ / In that same far past, a Cambridge
winter evening / / gave me, amazed, the Aurora Borealis.  / / Later a
A Hoard
is mute, palely yellowing / / towards
winter .  Everything / / is withdrawing, concentrating / / with us, in
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
n.  / / Suddenly Emily spoke: “often in
winter / / for weeks together I have seen the brown / / hills about
The Black-out
Winter Garden / Under the grey cold / / redder than brown, white / /
Winter Garden
as it shone / / but now within under a
winter gloom / / the gorse on the brown moor is out of bloom / / tha
Another Spring
thening days.  Be patient and allow / /
winter its weakening onsets in retreat; / / spring warmth is strength
The Black-out
“Life is sweet, brother” /
Winter morning.  / / This clear level light makes beautiful / / all t
“Life is sweet, brother”
Magic / Late in a
winter night, / / a round high moon lighting the field path home.  /
Magic
/ Her own summer already past / / but
winter not yet come, / / what this death blasted / / was her autumn.
Death
all but vanished / / in the long white
winter of Byzantium.  / /
Greece
pass, the seasons come.  / / One by one
winter puts out the torches.  / / The oak still holds its rust and the
Dance of the Seasons
Winter Recalled / for Dominick / Wrist locked over wrist, / / wrung h
Winter Recalled
ind darkens down.  / / Without you your
winter shore.  / / Wind is a sword of / / ice, under wild colours in
For Cecil
Winter Solstice / The tilted earth pauses, prepares to lean / / the o
Winter Solstice
/ / Fire-raising autumn, black-boughed
winter , / / spring’s green-and-white return: / / another beauty flow
Cassandra’s Song
easons / Spring and Summer / Autumn and
Winter / The seasons come, the seasons pass.  / / Dog-rose in the hedg
Dance of the Seasons
ou felt the crusted snow melt from your
winter , / / the spring’s pulse in the chilled earth wakening, / / wh
The Black-out
r?”  / / “I sang.”  / / “Then dance the
winter through.”  / / The courtiers of King Sun enjoyed the wit.  / /
La Fontaine et le Déluge
ugh / / my heart warms to the first of
winter weather / / I could have cried at last for it to go.  / / Then
The Black-out
hear, / / spring light, spring water,
winter , / / wind, death, darkness, fear, / / fire, flowers, / / pai
Beethoven
May Day / Now May is here.  The
wintered senses wake / / to rack the celibate and bless the pair.  /
May Day
is.  Rich, squalid, whirling Paris:  / /
Winterhalter , Gounod, Offenbach, Guys, / / Viollet-le-Duc, Dumas fils
Time’s Reach
e cycle again of seasonal longing, / /
winter’s bare truths, soft, sweet strength of spring, / / till chesnu
Sixtieth Summer
h summer-slack / / water, through mud;
winter’s boisterous flow / / broken by stone piers, its attack / / t
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
/ summer and autumn…  Man proposes…  / /
winter’s carved boughs… and hark, how sing…  / / Man’s seasons, though
Man’s Seasons
dies.  / / Autumn’s little death, / /
winter’s image of / / the unresponding grave, / / are changed in spr
The Difference
g a sodden rag from her body she’d / /
wipe it down the wall, marking the snail-course / / of her sentence. 
War-time Anecdote
g each other we may quite probably / /
wipe out nature with us (or else / / ruining nature we may destroy ou
Gratitude
nd the women to the fields, / / grease
wiped from rifles, a new edge ground on spears / / —a stack of polish
On the Border
enly the cold, retaking / / our hills,
wiped from the world my fancied spring.  / / “You felt the crusted sno
The Black-out
an’t tell what mistake / / it was that
wiped out the dinosaurs and their like / / after lording it so long /
What goes up must come down
/ steps of the couple / / on the high
wire !  / / Death-wish dances / / with Life-enhancement / / cheek to
Sea Cliff
Late Spring / A blackbird on the
wire / / has a straw in its beak / / gold-glinting / / in the new s
Late Spring
ow this year / / but today on the high
wire / / I count twelve in a row? / / circling, twittering, sitting
Swallows
Where the moon shone / / across a tram-
wire mesh, we met a mass / / solemn in a procession, led by one / /
The Black-out
e crave in their cat’s-cradle of barbed
wire / / these prisoners of war.”  / / We have our orders, and our ke
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
d brain grows tight.  / / Roads closed,
wires cut, / / he sees no more the known nor knows the seen.  / / Fol
Nijinsky
patience’s cool rime.  / / Let us learn
wisdom at the oar, and grow / / kinder by your unkindness, cruel Time
Prayer to Time
young, nor was he old, / / but he had
wisdom / / I felt, good wisdom.  / / I sat contented at his feet / /
Homage
/ but he had wisdom / / I felt, good
wisdom .  / / I sat contented at his feet / / on the midnight Acropoli
Homage
dévote / / but kind and wise, with the
wisdom of innocence, / / total faith in an ordered universe / / brea
Eugénie de Guérin
to bless?  Amen!  She shall be brave and
wise / / and beautiful and happy, and as the bud / / is dying into t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he end be God’s?  / / “Only the worldly-
wise can manage God’s / / affairs.  Go down into the cave with Plato. 
The Betrayal
m / / too often too silly to / / be a
wise old man.  / / Misunderstandings?  / / That New Yorker joke:  “My w
For Cecil
l.  She grew up dévote / / but kind and
wise , with the wisdom of innocence, / / total faith in an ordered uni
Eugénie de Guérin
I tried everything.  There isn’t / / a
wise -woman’s house in miles I didn’t visit.  / / But time went on and
Spells and Love
mself in it / / might he mature into a
wiser man?  / / Feminist, reading this, do not resent / / the unaccep
Greenham Common
ouple / / on the high wire!  / / Death-
wish dances / / with Life-enhancement / / cheek to cheek.  / /
Sea Cliff
r way of living on / / I can as little
wish for as conceive.  / /
Survival
/ For me, you.  For you, / / Stephen.  I
wish I thought you / / were listening together.  / / Always returns t
For Cecil
/ “Oh God, I’m tired” she said.  / / “I
wish I were dead.”  / /
Mariana in Miniature
a whole time, / / a time shared.  / /
Wish the gathered swallows joy of their far journey / / and ourselves
Swallows
he wish / / to rest torture, having no
wish to die.  / / Home howled for him behind.  But he was pressed / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
with thirst and weariness, he felt the
wish / / to rest torture, having no wish to die.  / / Home howled for
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e?  Here it was, a fact, / / a sea-gift
wished him in this forest-hell.  / / He found himself again, with grea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
es that; and if, for her, the doom / /
wished on her in the cradle’s overcome— / / the threat which burdens
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
e him one with those: / / the princess
wished to walk the woods; they chose / / to be her guide (oh, well-sp
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
scene / / which nicely rounds so many
wishful stories, / / where boy meets girl again, and what has been /
The Black-out
uty one gave her; another kindness; and
wit ; / / charm; and a true heart.  They did not give love.  / / Love w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ All the princes were slow of foot and
wit .  / / Deep in a curtained window, quite alone, / / the princess d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
is twisting free.  But was it God’s / /
wit gave Him that smart answer?  He was Steward / / of a vast trust, a
The Betrayal
nder.  / / His teeth flash snowy in his
wit , / / hers with the laugh that answers it.  / / —Yet are they all
On the Towpath
/ The courtiers of King Sun enjoyed the
wit .  / / What did their children’s children think of it? / / thin-le
La Fontaine et le Déluge
he earth, / / done all in order as the
witch had said, / / and now, sitting over the blood-filled trench, /
Odysseus
eir fugitive creations, the three sweet
witches .  / / The strongest beauty of all when all is said.  / /
Dance of the Seasons
onsters in their lairs, / / outwit the
witches , win the sweet princess.  / / The old stories, alike but diffe
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / towards winter.  Everything / / is
withdrawing , concentrating / / with us, in the long wait / / for spr
[Noon.  But the sun is low]
ing, the bright circle was broken, / /
withdrawn all brightness to this brightness of a sword / / He laid it
Finis
the tiller—whence he had embarked / /
withdrawn and lost as where he would be stopping.  / / The wind at eve
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in the black; light imperceptibly / /
withdrawn from all, to those thin streaks retreating / / and to the s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nd hill.  / / To stars and window-panes
withdraws the light.  / / Hunched to the chill / / hushed birds on bo
Country and Town
lant or tree / / cares if it sprout or
wither .  / / Nestling and cub go free / / of the uncaring father, /
Parenthood
which flowered in her own spring, / /
withered through the dog-days of Macedon, / / through Rome’s opulent
Greece
eat thorn-barrier / / was breached and
withered too.  The track they tried / / led to the river straight.  The
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ving, being loved, save / / from total
withering .  / / But this distortion of / / self spoils too much / /
Touch
irl again, and what has been / / wrong
withers inexplicably away / / leaving behind love’s garden fresh and
The Black-out
A Dream / Something
withheld him from lifting the spade to strike / / the white-faced tal
A Dream
/ drawn to the river but from it still
withheld , / / take by its side their rest.  / / Monks, harnessing the
The Embankment
t to warn / / his mother—hoped perhaps
within a week / / or two or three, at least he would return / / with
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ARY winked with a welcoming gleam.  / /
Within , book in hand, I looked down at a page / / which sang to me li
[The municipal building stood square in my dream]
delight in the sun, / / secreted smog
within .  / / Now, here, / / under the black, thick tide / / we learn
Two Glimpses from Dante’s Hell
e, / / passing, beak to beak.  / / One
within , one without, / / taps on the hollow wood, / / the one commun
Woodpeckers
ween our eyes and brain, / / and bound
within our private senses quiver / / all possibilities of delight and
The Black-out
faint nebula / / remotest ranged / /
within our sense / / behind the jewels of Andromeda.  / / Andromeda,
The Sea
/ / but no one.  He passed to the yard
within , / / paved, echoing, empty—on to the great hall: / / tables,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tart / / of happiness welling suddenly
within , / / secreted from a life-time, and released / / if not by no
And Then
brown eyes seem to reveal / / someone
within .  / / Self-made? self-murdered? blank as a solitary / / prison
Song
ness, knowing his goal / / here, here,
within the circle.  Oh fool, fool.  / / Worn out he dropped on the leaf
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Not us they’re calling / / but others
within the crystal, child to children / / as gull to gull across the
For Rachel
used, straining my sight, / / standing
within the dark tree’s edge, and could / / see nothing first, but slo
The Black-out
eam.  He stood and fought his heart / /
within the door, and mastering it in part / / moved, hesitated, afrai
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ womb-child) but all the chain of life
within / / the egg, the sperm, be hideously undone, / / take these b
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
or three, at least he would return / /
within the month.  He asked her, too, to speak / / a word for him to t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
lands above the sea, / / claim nothing
within the sea’s reach.  / / Easy to live below the built wall, / / f
The Wave
then, perhaps a quarter of a mile / /
within the wood, it forked.  He paused, but checked / / his reason’s h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ivate silence, / / small crystal world
within the world of children, / / a castle that waves (we know) befor
For Rachel
hange its nature, structure, form.  / /
Within this same salt tide / / the other end of time / / saw life be
The Sea
ath of exile, fold.  / / Who happy kiss
within / / to passers jealous, cold, / / cast on the blind the silho
A Window
of gold shines as it shone / / but now
within under a winter gloom / / the gorse on the brown moor is out of
Another Spring
n / / —it hangs in rags, and the bones
within / / (we, the bones) fritter away.  / / Never laugh at our suff
Villon’s Epitaph
ng we / / …  But what for them?  A sleep
without a dream?  / / Rather, without a dreamer.  They do not sleep.  /
Dulce et Decorum
e dropped / / his weariness, and slept
without a dream.  / / The way was harsh but he was viable.  / / Wind-b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
?  A sleep without a dream?  / / Rather,
without a dreamer.  They do not sleep.  / / Body, borrowed from matter,
Dulce et Decorum
ely lad, a bonny fighter / / by nights
without a moon.  / / Three nights and days together / / two-score Tur
A Ballad
d contemplative, / / but one not quite
without a sense of shame.) / /
The Two Ways
d still / / unbroken, unthinned, quite
without change, until / / he almost thought that it could have no end
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
w to light).  And somehow I believe / /
without doubt in the absolute being of / / good, beauty, love, / / a
Credo
ct of sight.  / / Sight is silence / /
without feeling mind.  / / We bring our own lights / / into this dark
Music is Landscape
d not know) / / the bond that holds me
without hope.  To lose / / my prison and my peace by going away…  / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / without window, without path, / /
without ladder, he found himself, / / climbed into his own light.  /
George Jackson
rise to catch it.  / / This is a place
without legend / / but not less magic.  / / Blue thin brilliant drago
Water in a Wood
t no one gave / / this child was love. 
Without love / / all those happy things are mockery.  / / She had to
“Gale is Dead”
a lost speck.  In each speck / / sparks
without number spin, / / suns.  One bursts in huge radiance.  The wreck
Holes in Space
out of the night, / / without window,
without path, / / without ladder, he found himself, / / climbed into
George Jackson
y with the rest, and like the rest / /
without power, / / can only love and hope—and pray?  / / Well, perhap
May Day, 1986
e / / hate them.  And that hatred’s not
without reason / / often, on either side.  / / But what good can hate
Choice
eologist / / is grave-robber.  / / Not
without reason.  / / Still, might perhaps the master potter-painter /
Label
ooted and green / / these seem (though
without roots, / / without sap, / / their greenness not their own),
A Wreck
these seem (though without roots, / /
without sap, / / their greenness not their own), / / seem the trees,
A Wreck
lying / / looked up into that eye, eye
without sight / / whose circle gathered both sides of the screen:  /
Block 21
ing, beak to beak.  / / One within, one
without , / / taps on the hollow wood, / / the one communication they
Woodpeckers
mething I neither have nor covet).  / /
Without that, can I stand outside time?  / / May I think, as I need to
Death
from that day, / / nine years went on
without the boy once more / / seeing the girl.  Preferment’s chancy fl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ with the possessed herd / / to sink
without trace.  / / Man and his dreams dead.  / /
This Time
/ / (one revolution’s low / / roll on
without us up).  / / Knowing this will be so / / love more this year’
Two Summer Songs
ess / / are you?—whose country / / is
without willow.  / / Am I the willow? / / misty country, / / soft-li
Five Poems for Roni
that life) how, out of the night, / /
without window, without path, / / without ladder, he found himself, /
George Jackson
/ too the sleet-wind darkens down.  / /
Without you your winter shore.  / / Wind is a sword of / / ice, under
For Cecil
a man at need / / good in fight / / —
witness the hallowed field of Marathon, / / witness the long-haired M
Aeschylus’ Epitaph
ss the hallowed field of Marathon, / /
witness the long-haired Mede.  / /
Aeschylus’ Epitaph
them, lady Moon.  / / I saw him, and my
wits left me.  My wretched heart / / caught fire.  I must have looked a
Spells and Love
t I was trying to turn from the world’s
woes .  / / In Guildford Place, where London’s nicest statue / / kneel
The Black-out
ening above the water / / woke him—and
woke , after the sun was high, / / a faint sea-breeze, which shifted p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ which broke in my own tears.  / / I
woke from tears / / dry-eyed to the puzzling presence of a dream.  /
A Dream
oration of innocence in a dream…  / / I
woke happy, and though / / a backwash of regret / / (a dream is a dr
[Restoration of innocence in a dream]
by a dream / / half apprehended as he
woke .  He moved / / through the mountains towards the untrammelled sea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
him into the ground / / before another
woke her; and knew drowned / / his brave thought in the pain of power
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r dawn brightening above the water / /
woke him—and woke, after the sun was high, / / a faint sea-breeze, wh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
sweet, long slumber.  When the sun / /
woke him, he saw by the cold ashes spread / / two water-bottles and a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ce white birds circling, fish-plunging,
woke him.  / / He stretched and stripped, plunged too.  The fire-in-ice
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
News of a Death / I
woke in the night and heard the rain falling / / softly.  It seemed li
News of a Death
for a nest.  / / Each morning when she
woke she could bear it less / / —found scissors and cut / / the offe
Eugénie de Guérin
Nature’s cyclic sleep long curled) / /
woke to ourselves and to the world / / we have been forced to fight a
The Rift
/ while the grey horse whirls through
wolf -wild passes, / / brings fear to the Tuscan market-place.  / / A
Poetry
or three words and smiles.  / / Between
woman and child, / / something of two faces in her face, / / a dance
Meeting
—half child / / still, if already half
woman , and soon / / to leave childhood behind—if anyone / / really d
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, knowing for what she was the old / /
woman .  As though it bore itself the spell / / he flung it from him in
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed against the rock, / / an old, bowed
woman , busily engaged.  / / Black dress, black scarf over her bent hea
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in Belsen.  Stamp out the Jew, / / man,
woman , child.  (The dying can be made / / to stack and burn the dead.)
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
Gratitude / Man and
woman constantly (are we not?) / / are constipated or cursing diarrho
Gratitude
e man in one image, Eve / / in another
woman , for love.  / / Love is the heart’s flower / / not only in thes
Fossils
lady, and with each I cry / / “Be it a
woman he lies by, be it a man, / / may he quite forget them, as once
Spells and Love
o himself.  Before him stood / / an old
woman in black.  He snatched his knife / / and rose at her with all hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / “That not the present only (child,
woman , man, / / womb-child) but all the chain of life within / / the
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
wasn't sure, she said, whether it was a
woman / / or a man, but all the evening he kept calling / / for unmi
Spells and Love
dear Amphimedo”, I said, / / “(a fine
woman she was—pity she’s dead), / / there are plenty of kinds of pret
Love Scene
ittle way off a bench, / / a man and a
woman sitting on it, elderly, / / (my age) and the man again  “Would
A Hoard
sloughing mother.  / / Child of man and
woman , / / slow from the womb coming, / / sleeping curled up long, /
Parenthood
ands / / were all he dared to dream in
woman .  / / The statue underneath the stays / / waited in marble inno
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
hink of these last: / / this man, this
woman , this child.  / /
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
legy for the Dead at Sharpeville / This
woman , this child, this man; / / and there; and here; these many in t
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
night / / divide the princess from her
womanhood ?…  / / The story and the vision.  Latent, though, / / later
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / … but the knife whips out manhood,
womanhood …  / / Was she an angel?  Can angels be with devils?  / / Was
Block 21
nt / / might now find itself worked by
womankind / / towards a better-knowing humankind.  / /
Greenham Common
Machismo / Man’s sex is a weapon,
woman’s a wound.  / / The whale was created to be harpooned.  / /
Machismo
ied everything.  There isn’t / / a wise-
woman’s house in miles I didn’t visit.  / / But time went on and nothi
Spells and Love
e present only (child, woman, man, / /
womb -child) but all the chain of life within / / the egg, the sperm,
Two Poems in Memory of Anne Frank
ld of man and woman, / / slow from the
womb coming, / / sleeping curled up long, / / awake netted in human
Parenthood
dn’t, I / / suppose, want to leave the
womb .  / / Moving across the snow / / towards the sun through bright
For Cecil
f shall sow / / in your own daughter’s
womb .”  / / One horror makes another / / easy, makes heart and mind /
Pelopia and Thyestes
/ whose thought seems strangled in the
womb , / / whose nails are broken picking at the knot / / of Gordian
The Party
Miscarriage / / / Blood seeps from a
womb / / yesterday.  Today / / that sickly stream / / carries away /
Miscarriage
They dance in rings, dancing, a ring of
women , / / a ring of men dancing on the marble circle / / where they
Dream under a Carob-tree
ears.  Jesus, what people!”  / / Unhappy
women / / caught from their open world into a cell, / / uncomprehend
War-time Anecdote
he will to flourish perished in men and
women .  / / How have we come to this?  / / Or have we?  / / In part a
Desert Island?
rse / / is laid on us: worse / / than
women or drink / / is laughter, is sobbing.  / / Who killed Cock Robi
Merrie England
nned.  / / The men to the ranks and the
women to the fields, / / grease wiped from rifles, a new edge ground
On the Border
broken nose / / between the men’s and
women’s lavatories, / / I saw a tall girl, and not yet drawn close /
The Black-out
heir desert lines / / I was in gaol, a
women’s prison it had been / / under the Italians.  The cell-walls wer
War-time Anecdote
e had me dying, but the poor / / flesh
won and brought me home.  I lived and died / / in the wide air, behind
The Black-out
ir youth / / she had been worthy to be
won , and he / / to win her; but their autumn’s spring-time daughter /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ I don’t know what he meant.”  When he
won in / / at last to land, he lay as good as dead / / he didn’t kno
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ a proof that this new world was truly
won .  / / Northwards the dunes ran straight between the sea / / and b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Make us remember that if this war is
won / / the good we claim to do waits to begin; / / or lost, an acre
Prayer to Truth
is long and terrible fight / / finally
won .  The monster dead, he lay / / wounded to death.  His lady bent abo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ned / / informs this air / / Peace is
won , though, from / / effort.  This still / / place affords me room /
Villevieille
eaten with his mother’s curse.  / / He
won through from that first mistake, / / but only just—and whether we
Mother’s Malison
the way / / he might, when all seemed
won , yet lose the day, / / defeated with the fairy who had blessed hi
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ Blossom and greening.  / / Recurring
wonder .  / / For me this year not you recurring, / / for these our ch
Credo
and as I spit another tooth out / / I
wonder if the lack’ll / / offend you to see.  / / Never doubting that
[Age’s bony knuckle]
The Sirens / You
wonder what the sirens sang?  / / “Once the delicious sexual ache / /
The Sirens
went to face things.  / / What though I
wonder , / / what would she now think / / of me?  my soul will show i
Wounds
different from that in / / the vision—
wondered if the girl were faked / / too, wholly real as form and face
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
but it was not that / / —the work was
wonderful , and the much-used blade / / marvellously fresh and keen—it
Finis
but checked / / his reason’s helpless
wondering , and strode / / down the right fork.  He felt the fairy smil
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d this is yours.”  She looked at it / /
wondering .  He, lifting the half-worked stuff, / / ran the needle deep
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t I did not trespass, / / turned back,
wondering / / if this perhaps were the border of the worlds / / masq
Los Altos Hills
Omens / Idling along,
wondering whether I oughtn’t / / soon to go back, I saw a little ahea
Omens
cast in other waters / / more gleaming
wonders leap from the mass:  / / Catullus, Villon, Aeschylus, The Song
Poetry
ould / / do, as the car-road rives the
wood .  / /
The Rift
ad, / / find the way lost and the dark
wood / / a fear.  / / I, already old, / / successful, happy, mourned
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
e Post?”  / / Billowing, settling, over
wood and hill, / / now wind-blown clear, now eddying round again, /
On the Border
ce, or her the wood.  / / She is of the
wood and I am of the wind / / now, each resolved to earth and our own
The Black-out
/ to leaf again.  Trees fall but not the
wood .  / / And though the forest perish, it has been.”  / / “But what’
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pped up the last in red leaves from the
wood / / and took the track he could have followed blind.  / / His he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Sheepstead, quiet country of water and
wood / / between the wandering Thames and the White Horse.  / / A big
Bury My Heart
/ / the dark recesses of the sunstruck
wood / / brought his forebodings back in force.  And yet / / he had s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
n a stocking, like flame / / along dry
wood .  But flame is beautiful / / —more like the ladder in the stockin
Back Room, 1944
leaves were blowing / / from the brown
wood , but the boughs not yet bare / / concealed the castle still.  To
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
the bridge the statues were / / like a
wood -cut; and there beside us slowed / / with muted lights but a fami
The Black-out
s crooked trail / / to carpet the bare
wood , / / days in any season of them all / / when you and I shall /
[Golden, red, brown]
Out of her thoughts she looked into the
wood , / / feeling its foredoomed beauty like a pain.  / / And there o
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
a small bitter wind sighed through the
wood / / filling with dusk.  She shivered and turned back / / home, b
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Water in a
Wood / Five terraced meres / / dammed from a slow small stream.  / /
Water in a Wood
, / / the other side a strip of ragged
wood , / / glimpsed through it sheep grazing in a field.  / / Green wo
Green World
/ among the fields, after it leaves the
wood .  / / “Grandfather was the old King’s forester / / (your grandfa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / so that only three struts of worn
wood / / held up the tree.  One branch from the main fork / / was bro
Five Poems for Roni
rld was a different one.  / / A hunting-
wood his father’s kingdom held / / but poor and tame our forester had
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
f wind in rigging, air / / on rope and
wood , in canvas, clap, rattle.  / / His arm along the tiller, the live
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aps a quarter of a mile / / within the
wood , it forked.  He paused, but checked / / his reason’s helpless won
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ing, he added mountain-ways / / to his
wood -knowledge.  The forest-plain below / / stretched to the farther s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ich held it in the handle, doubtless of
wood / / (no trace of that remained); / / two jointed dolls of clay;
Label
he draughty hall / / shouting for more
wood on the fire, for light / / and food, wine and more food.  The cas
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
dery.  / / She’d meant it for the young
wood -ranger, if…  / / If nothing—she would give it to him still— / /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d to a tough old man, / / huntsman and
wood -ranger.  Not quite the same / / he found the woods of his day’s w
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / swinging a wide hat, not as in the
wood / / she braved the thorns, but later, nine or ten / / perhaps—a
The Black-out
/ has failed me of my peace, or her the
wood .  / / She is of the wood and I am of the wind / / now, each reso
The Black-out
/ just where a sudden thinning of the
wood / / should mark him near the castle.  Then he knew.  / / He hurle
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
aggots they laid / / the rose from the
wood .  / / Shriven, she raised her face / / to the sweet air / / and
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
n, one without, / / taps on the hollow
wood , / / the one communication they admit, / / to time their exit a
Woodpeckers
The bridge shadow, darker than a night
wood , / / took three and rendered two; what I must yet      / / feel
The Black-out
Matthew / The scar-lips of the wounded
wood / / watch the sleek sweep of the road.  / / The exposed trees ab
The Rift
ad / / turns from the fields into the
wood , / / we met there sometimes—we?— / / at dusk, would linger… we?
From the Air
t.  / / Dusk was already filling up the
wood / / when an awareness seeped to his numbed life / / of someone
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rief or eternal loves / / now beds the
wood where ours are now the leaves.  / /
Becoming
/ / that youth she met so often in the
wood / / who stood aside and fixed her with his gaze / / troubling h
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ draw green afresh out of the creaking
wood .  / / Yet not, deaf Time, before your doubtful ruth / / in the l
Prayer to Time
e yielding and the stiffening, / / the
wooded clefts and the hot spring, / / chilled him with horror and wit
John Ruskin’s Wedding Night
r home—those golden shores, / / flower-
wooded hills, which loved them once.  / /
[Some exiles know]
a— / / and longed to lose for once the
wooded plain / / and, lying hard and living hard for once, / / to ma
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
incess’s visit / / (the boy a gangling
woodman of eighteen) / / came news again: this Christmas-time the Que
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
hes spread / / two water-bottles and a
woodman’s bow / / and full quiver.  But he was quite alone.  / / Then
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
nly drag his feebleness / / to a known
woodman’s hut there by the stream / / to beg food and a shelter for t
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Woodpeckers / They bear no company / / beyond their own, / / cannot
Woodpeckers
e—she ought, / / they said, to rest in
woods and upland air, / / and so…  He went to bed under a spell / / a
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Country and Town / From
woods and valleys now the gathered night / / spreads to the open, dar
Country and Town
Varangian in Mickelgard /
Woods , beech and fir.  Water—always / / streams sounding hidden, sudde
Varangian in Mickelgard
sea and Greece, west out of beech- / /
woods , Berkshire, childhood, Anabel, the flood / / waits for the turn
The Black-out
nous barrier / / of thorn, lost in the
woods each side.  ‘Go through’ / / he heard his heart.  But ‘It’s not p
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t out through the winter-beautiful / /
woods for the hills.  And there we leave the lad.  / / Later there’s mo
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ture as it were).  / / Dark through the
woods , he reached the ford with dawn, / / and when night came, deep i
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
miles, / / he knew at last the tracked
woods like his hand.  / / Later he learned the fords of the broad flow
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
gry.  These bad seasons thinned / / the
woods of game.  The hunting being poor / / the princes lolled about th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
r.  Not quite the same / / he found the
woods of his day’s work, as when / / ranged for delight alone.  Deligh
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
secreted long / / from hours in still
woods , on the wind-shaved sweep / / of downs, walking, sitting, now l
Happiness
hich did not wet her, / / wandered the
woods , or from the hill looked down / / over dank green dissolving in
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / dreams across the valley to Sulham
woods ; / / the second at Saunton—wind-washed pink thrift / / in shor
Bury My Heart
e: / / the princess wished to walk the
woods ; they chose / / to be her guide (oh, well-spent years!) the boy
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
“One day I shall walk / / these rough
woods , / / those hills that climb and part, / / this clear shore.”  /
From a Train
hardly aware, and yet / / glad in the
woods to be with one friend lost.  / / The weather worsened and the Qu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ky rooms.  / / Yet houses, rooms, these
woods too, are, / / no less than cigarette and car / / creations of
The Rift
st.  / / Where are streams and drenched
woods ?  Where is the rain?  / /
Varangian in Mickelgard
entity.  / / Mourn the smooth hill, the
woods / / you love, the fitted words / / you love.  Love and mourn, /
Change
e gone / / away from here, my father’s
woods , your mother” / / she almost said ‘and me’ but slipped another
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ pine for in what he smiled at as our ‘
wood ’.  / / And yet, I knew, he never would go back.”  / / And one day
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he meadow / / into graver green of the
wood’s shadow / / sky-chinked above, bluebell-pooled below.  / / This
Two Summer Songs
/ a monstrous love / / —but her wind-
wooer struck him to a stone / / humped in the tides, gull-lone, / /
The Sea
d’s eyes) / / those acres of heath and
wook , free and wild, / / under a bright, a grey, always a wide sky, /
Two Poems for G
and the stuff for spells.  Wind scarlet
wool round the bowl.  / / I’m going to bind my man to me, my hard love
Spells and Love
aid; / / both James Joyce and Virginia
Woolf know how / / thought weaves in words its inexpressible spells;
The Black-out
The Green Children of
Woolpit / Over beyond the river / / the children said / / was the sh
The Green Children of Woolpit
Scheme / A
word , a gust / / of wind, and our delightful plan is dust.  / / The l
Scheme
say / / him rebegotten by the fairy’s
word ?  / / A prince—the same or not?  Well, turn the page / / and meet
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
w / Shown through the shadow of action,
word and look, / / seen through our shifting mood, / / a double wall
A Window
Waiting / Not yet the necessary
word awakes / / nor stir the lips, / / but helpless till pass by thi
Waiting
nth.  He asked her, too, to speak / / a
word for him to the head forester / / (partly he hated trouble; more,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
) as long as that, / / if living’s the
word for it.  / / Contrariwise of course / / death may come sooner—so
[Now of threescore and ten]
, / / and in my ears echoed beyond her
word / / her voice, as I walked on towards Leicester Square.  / / The
The Black-out
ed.  / / I sit by him and chatter—not a
word he’ll say.  / / I bring him food, I bring him drink—he pushes the
Greek Folk Song
er than that, warmer than this / / the
word I want, the feeling is / / affection, which need not arise / /
Love…  No
he thorns?  Who knows?  / / But the last
word is not with Carabosse, / / or in this story was not, or not yet.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
econd-best.  / / She liked his love (no
word of love was said / / by either) but she felt there too that he /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
love / / of the expressive, the living
word , of / / poetry.  She made / / —of sewing, cooking, correspondenc
Eugénie de Guérin
o be remembered (dream, / / unremarked
word ) / / suddenly significantly recovered, / / twice that small dar
Yeats and Water-Birds
lipse / / the joy.  But no.  The fairy’s
word was bond, / / should he love out his life.  Yet what, in truth, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tion, / / before pronouncing the fatal
word , / / washing his hands remembers Pilate.  / / Could anything be
Responsibility
No / (for L) / Love… no, for this that
word won’t do, / / alike too wide and too confined— / / the incandes
Love…  No
know it; and behind / / those words, a
wordless image, far more true, / / his own white vision burned—and th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
did not know it; and behind / / those
words , a wordless image, far more true, / / his own white vision burn
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
in the papery air / / colourless dull
words again.  / / But drop them in your heart, see / / how brilliant
Letters
ng / Between two stations, two or three
words and smiles.  / / Between woman and child, / / something of two
Meeting
hat words are there for Spring?] / What
words are there for Spring?  / / Rubbed, tongue-repeated, all / / bec
[What words are there for Spring?]
[What
words are there for Spring?] / What words are there for Spring?  / / R
[What words are there for Spring?]
t in deed.  / / …  Fire… martyrdom…  Fine
words .  Bend your mind back / / to these whom white men shot for being
Elegy for the Dead at Sharpeville
them!  Wars!”  / / Behind in the cities
words boil up to war / / —Athens and Sparta, Paris and Berlin, / / R
On the Border
sider / Consider this shrunk ball / / (
words circle it in seconds, you and I / / in twice the time perhaps t
Consider
urgh.  / / The world goes round and the
words come round again.  / / Down in the plain Napoleon or Pericles /
On the Border
/ / What is a hollow field?  / / Dream-
words do not allow / / analysis, or yield / / meaning to the clever,
Words from a Dream
ing them shape / / in clear, beautiful
words .  / / For this they share, as well as their love: love / / of t
Eugénie de Guérin
must all go under with the green?”  / /
Words found him—“The leaves die but the tree lives / / to leaf again.
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Words from a Dream /
Words from a dream ‘For ever / / the field is hollow now’.  / / What
Words from a Dream
Words from a Dream / Words from a dream ‘For ever / / the field is ho
Words from a Dream
lous guards / / his refuge of unspoken
words .  / / It takes long plotting or a lucky chance / / for two to l
The Party
a Woolf know how / / thought weaves in
words its inexpressible spells; / / Sickert we may in honesty allow /
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, new-moon darkness—Carabosse!  / / And
words like cave-drips from her cold mouth dropped:  / / “All remembere
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
t that land / / I move through in your
words , love through your eyes, / / I’ve known before.  / / Under that
Two Poems for G
es, pulls her to people.  / / Caresses,
words , make occasional contact.  / / And now the vision begins to mist
Nadia
is, do not resent / / the unacceptable
words ‘mankind’, ‘man’, ‘he’.  / / I use them in this instance advised
Greenham Common
/ / to put a rough thought into kinder
words / / or keep it silent.  And at all our sides / / sits the empty
Back Room, 1944
s these messages.  / / Hearts flower in
words , or works of hand and mind, / / song and colour and stone, / /
Fossils
rim mountains…  But the way on?  / / The
words seemed almost spoken more than thought…  / / ‘The prince’s bride
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d.  / / Faces express feelings, release
words .  / / She looks away from them, down, towards / / hands sometim
Nadia
ough you do not know what to, / / some
words , some things remain.  / / We believe in love and truth / / thou
Winter Recalled
ings appear / / sharp in the eye, / /
words speak in the ear / / startlingly clear, / / sometimes beautifu
Against Anorexia:  For Cathy
e, my love, my youth.’  / / Among these
words the bleak fact of his loss, / / dropped sharp as new, contorted
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
easy and the bright, / / putting quick
words to ready thought; / / the slow, the shy, the dull, the worse th
The Party
/ Dress it how you may; / / in plain
words , what no one gave / / this child was love.  Without love / / al
“Gale is Dead”
ll, the woods / / you love, the fitted
words / / you love.  Love and mourn, / / but the world must turn.  /
Change
, gasworks, factory and drain / / past
wordy Westminster to the mined sea, / / who know Scamander and the wi
The Black-out
no fares but an old hat / / he bought,
wore to a première.  / / Clear, bright, very cold.  / / A hard landsca
For Cecil
as birds of the past or morrow, / / at
work alone on a sand-castle, or calling / / another to see some trove
For Rachel
son—and this time he bowed to her.  / /
Work along for a gap.  Left of the way / / bushes and scrub were knott
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
tween earth below and sky above / / is
work and breeding and the spark of love.  / / A sphere the earth is an
Cosmology
e / / the flame, whose power I feel of
work and love, / / in ashes of self-pity and abuse.  / / Just now, su
The Black-out
had happened, but was / / release from
work , and that was / / (you said) relief.  We made plans.  / / You fel
For Cecil
me / / he found the woods of his day’s
work , as when / / ranged for delight alone.  Delight he could / / stu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rote, / / each month for work or less
work docketed, / / only in the King’s hunting-season not / / strictl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and the years, / / of the seasons, of
work , even comfort and tears / / —a predictable order, if nothing goe
Hymn
r room to ply her thread / / in secret—
work forbidden her, not for / / any good reason but because, they sai
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / must in their passage make his own
work good.  / / Each time its task: cutting the undergrowth, / / keep
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
his I see / / there for me to do, / /
work I owe to love / / and might achieve.  / / Not much, not enough,
Villevieille
ver us to Hell’s king / / —not his our
work , not ours his pay.  / / Brother men, mockery here’s nothing.  / /
Villon’s Epitaph
ess now, and competent.  / / She was at
work on a white handkerchief— / / a plain square plainly hemmed, but
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
violence / / but leave their scar, who
work on brain and heart / / to fuse our sensibility and sense / / in
Prayer to Time
ll man’s images of man / / have him at
work or at play.  Man labours and dances, / / images himself at labour
Dream under a Carob-tree
went round by rote, / / each month for
work or less work docketed, / / only in the King’s hunting-season not
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Ballad / At
work she smiled.  Resting she made / / a bracelet braided from her hai
Ballad
is arm, and having set / / eyes on the
work , the worshipped master knew.  / / Past intellectual truth or visu
The Black-out
/ / but swift a sanded figure from his
work / / turned and forbade me right of entrance there.  / / Back up
The Black-out
ent stag her joys.  / / It was October. 
Work was traversing / / the forest, marking movements of the game, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
old hilt, but it was not that / / —the
work was wonderful, and the much-used blade / / marvellously fresh an
Finis
at last) is easy.  / / Not easy to make
work (we are all human) / / but easy to agree necessity of.  / / All
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
temperament / / might now find itself
worked by womankind / / towards a better-knowing humankind.  / /
Greenham Common
devils?  / / Was he a devil because he
worked for devils?  / / And what should we have been?  / / What, under
Block 21
coming here.’  / / The fairy gifts had
worked —if what they gave / / in truth had made her what she was in tr
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
plan is dust.  / / The loved, the long
worked -over, the lived through, / / the too good to be true, / / is
Scheme
e cold sands.  / / With painful care he
worked round to his right.  / / The cliffs.  And under them a fire was
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ed homeward.  The hag, nothing said / /
worked steadily, but as he left, again / / lifted her eyes on him and
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
it / / wondering.  He, lifting the half-
worked stuff, / / ran the needle deep in his thumb, and bled, / / re
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
waway, that in / / five years perhaps,
working at / / home, “We’d start a family”.  / / After grassed acres,
For Cecil
unknown face; yet not quite young:  / /
working in time tides of experience / / alone could grave those chann
In the Audience
hts, thoughtlessness / / are fretting,
working on, / / reshaping the inheritance / / formed and re-formed b
Change
, / / master of wickedness.  / / After
working some really evil twist / / against the older boys / / would
Vignette
month” he said, and showed me how / /
working up from the moon, off to the right, / / I could find it.  I fo
A Hoard
ssages.  / / Hearts flower in words, or
works of hand and mind, / / song and colour and stone, / / or in the
Fossils
/ by all ages of man / / in every age
works on.  / / Vision and thought, seduced / / to serve that violent
Headline
coming, to drain all colour from a cold
world .  / /
What Do They Feel?
eses) / / is all the difference in the
world .  / /
Shelved
Other
World / A golden age, an Eden / / before the growth of wrong / / has
Other World
to gas.  / / And that is past too.  / /
World about us now / / West and South and East / / all’s not for the
Causes
e wedding of Lucy and Garth / To make a
world all kinds aspire, / / all kinds are needed, but there seems /
Hymn
/ a section through an other-dimension
world , / / all seeming happenings here a chance effect / / of happen
Credo
eptible / / section sliced through our
world ; an outer whole / / through which our world’s an imperceptible
Dimension
ld not with a like eye / / view a like
world .  And incidentally / / the prince’s child-world was a different
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ But the thunder-stone / / struck my
world and left me / / broken and alone.”  / / Miranda to Ophelia:  /
Dialogue
left undone?”  / / Have sometimes upon
world and sun / / turned eyes as darkened as the dead.  / / “What els
Interrogation
by the prick of shame, / / I watch the
world and wait for happiness.”  / / She sighed: “unhappiness has alway
The Black-out
the unjust steward / / I find myself a
world away from Plato / / and in a most strange world.  What is this s
The Betrayal
raise a fiery cross and sweep / / the
world before a cause, but none the more / / to sit and wait and lull
The Black-out
or was now his / / total and dead.  The
world before him laid / / was his and nothing.  Now he’d journey far /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
le, take flight / / from ours to outer
world , build worlds in / / differing ways their own.  When we fold /
Out from the Cliff
/ / their thoughts dwell in a vanished
world .  / / But clear, how clear / / its beauty in their memory burns
[Some exiles know]
from which you rouse / / to your known
world , but sleep so long, so deep, / / almost a kind of death.  About
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Green world outside the window, summer
world .  / / Daffodils on this side of the stream, / / the other side
Green World
easures time / / time is dead, and the
world / / death’s); but man in time / / (though man, and with man hi
[Time is enough]
/ who cast or crushed out of the casual
world , / / drawn to the river but from it still withheld, / / take b
The Embankment
us, me and you / / touching, the fairy
world , flowers / / and birdsong, is again ours.  / /
[Most of us, somewhere along the road]
clotted stream.  / / I have spoiled my
world / / for a bad dream.  / /
Scorched Earth
bitter wind.  / / A magic of the outer
world , for him / / to walk in with his world of hidden dreams— / / c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
The mountains and the sea enclosed his
world .  / / For years he’d sailed the bay and the bare reaches / / cl
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Snow under grey cloud.  / / Monochrome
world from Cambridge / / to the Border.  Or / / from here to eternity
For Cecil
or the fire / / whose heat can forge a
world from dreams: / / love—love of God, since God is love; / / and
Hymn
ome bright.  / / Iridescent the cleaned
world , / / gem-colour-spangled.  / / And clear, still, diamond-lit /
Exchange
arthage, London and Edinburgh.  / / The
world goes round and the words come round again.  / / Down in the plai
On the Border
art; / / a little known, / / world on
world gone.  / / Spare a small grief / / for lovely shell or leaf /
Fossils
Paris loves Helen in all tongues of the
world , / / Gorgias Tamynis on a sherd / / in a scratched verse, and
Fossils
Green
World / Green world outside the window, summer world.  / / Daffodils o
Green World
ng with him her hopes / / (few in this
world ), her thoughts, giving them shape / / in clear, beautiful words
Eugénie de Guérin
ide / / peopled my moor and heart—that
world I knew.”  / / “Prophet and guide, unhoped for helper sent me,” /
The Black-out
Great Britain / Once she held half the
world in fee; / / for evil and for good, a power.  / / But nothing la
Great Britain
ut my bowels.  / / But Luther broke the
world in half.  / / And whether, as some think, he howls / / in Hell
Thoughts on the Lavatory
ve seen under the wind and sun / / the
world in infinite beauty laid.  / / “What else?  What else?”  / / Nothi
Interrogation
it sheep grazing in a field.  / / Green
world in my eyes, heart.  Other summers, / / last summer, your world t
Green World
s and justifies it all.  / / This riven
world in which we live / / one moment shows as whole and healed.  / /
Hymn
happy women / / caught from their open
world into a cell, / / uncomprehending, lost, / / illiterate most li
War-time Anecdote
plest model of the cosmos / / this our
world is infinitely small / / and in no sense a centre.  / / Yet here
Credo
slands / / rise half perceptibly.  / /
World is numberless shades of blue, breaking / / to greys, to silver,
September Cruise
k over the traces and be free.  / / The
world is round, fortunes are made, deeds done.  / / The youngest son s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / Under bright sun, whole / / the
world lies, dazzling, bridal, / / incorruptible.  / / All confusion l
Exchange
n at closing-time, / / the street-cold
world lies wide / / before the prisoner free.  / / What now?  Follow t
Freedom
on on Orion’s shoulder / / lays on the
world light / / colder than sea-pearl.  / / Cold the wind too / / an
Night-piece
into this silence / / out of the outer
world loud voices calling.  / / Authority breaks, calling, the world o
For Rachel
/ tridimensionality can realize / / a
world ?  Mentally we can hypothetize / / existence in two dimensions or
Dimension
you love.  Love and mourn, / / but the
world must turn.  / /
Change
retaking / / our hills, wiped from the
world my fancied spring.  / / “You felt the crusted snow melt from you
The Black-out
ce, / / small crystal world within the
world of children, / / a castle that waves (we know) before tomorrow
For Rachel
ng.  / / Authority breaks, calling, the
world of children.  / / Gone the seagulls, silence.  The beach is empty
For Rachel
/ / And there’s a further border.  The
world of faery / / is on the other side of the short grass on the hil
[The bare, beautiful borders]
world, for him / / to walk in with his
world of hidden dreams— / / cold, though, and hungry.  These bad seaso
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
imated loves corroding in him, / / the
world of his religion riven by hate, / / everything sour and broken i
Pietà
but delicately other than these; / / a
world of life perished and vanished / / taps us these messages.  / /
Fossils
stale air.  / / Would not God be in His
world / / of living day?  / / She laid the thing in her apron, / / s
The Shepherdess of Cahuzac
ed geometer, / / built an intelligible
world / / of surfaced shapes.  / / Now, as then, / / the beam comes
For Cecil
a finger / / with all the time in the
world .  / / “Oh God, I’m tired” she said.  / / “I wish I were dead.”  /
Mariana in Miniature
s with heart; / / a little known, / /
world on world gone.  / / Spare a small grief / / for lovely shell or
Fossils
ng, / / and it doesn’t matter that the
world / / (or matter much) and I are old.  / /
Spring Morning
d black.  / / These sparks, I know, are
world or sun / / varyingly vast and from a vast / / difference of ag
Night
save.  The vision rose / / blotting the
world out with its otherness.  / / But while he dreamed senses and lim
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
Green World / Green
world outside the window, summer world.  / / Daffodils on this side of
Green World
othing: by having been has put / / the
world , rather, in debt.  / /
Joy
, past midnight, / / I found the whole
world round me suddenly whiten.  / / In memory’s chest a drawer full o
A Hoard
is offered of a happy ending.  / / The
world seems more than usually wet / / with blood and tears; wrongs be
The Black-out
things will display / / new beauty, a
world singing.  / / Morning did come bright.  / / Iridescent the clean
Exchange
rced to fight and fear / / the natural
world , that’s yet our dear / / mother and love.  This paradox / / (a
The Rift
ups, marking her strip of that confined
world / / the house behind the house in Prinsengracht— / / I find it
Hermes of Olympia
he brother / / she loves above all the
world , though not above / / God—God for her is truly Love— / / but a
Eugénie de Guérin
y on the waiting page / / for the deaf
world to hear, / / spring light, spring water, winter, / / wind, dea
Beethoven
.  Other summers, / / last summer, your
world too.  / / Where are now / / the coloured worlds your eyes fed t
Green World
ow / / whose white glints can build no
world .  / / Under bright sun, whole / / the world lies, dazzling, bri
Exchange
/ sharing in guilt, part of the guilty
world .  / / Visited on our children…  Part of the pain, / / the sickes
[Our lives are in other hands]
look, under clear aiR / / Is the wide
world , waitinG / / Everything comes with timE / /
[A long steep road to climb]
nd incidentally / / the prince’s child-
world was a different one.  / / A hunting-wood his father’s kingdom he
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
The Twenties / The war was over and the
world was all / / before them.  Never mind the rent and stain.  / / En
The Twenties
ove-gift and / / a proof that this new
world was truly won.  / / Northwards the dunes ran straight between th
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
rled) / / woke to ourselves and to the
world / / we have been forced to fight and fear / / the natural worl
The Rift
y from Plato / / and in a most strange
world .  What is this steward / / who wins such commendation, because a
The Betrayal
—into thinner far than air, / / into a
world where all the winds are fallen / / for want of anything to keep
Where?
s all in crystal.  This is an empty / /
world , where bird and child exist like water / / and today is yesterd
For Rachel
anging unchanging round, / / build the
world where we must build.  / /
Exchange
th man his time, / / perish) creates a
world / / whose making and being are.  / / Days, years, man’s time-no
[Time is enough]
for visual truth.  And we have shared a
world / / wider than that, till our ways seemed to lie / / always to
The Black-out
ng, be the mere slicing / / across our
world , with which they’ve no connection, / / of things whose meaning
Dimension
in private silence, / / small crystal
world within the world of children, / / a castle that waves (we know)
For Rachel
r’s in the end be God’s?  / / “Only the
worldly -wise can manage God’s / / affairs.  Go down into the cave with
The Betrayal
alisman—are free, / / first of as many
worlds as books, and then / / have learnt from them a view of history
The Black-out
ht / / from ours to outer world, build
worlds in / / differing ways their own.  When we fold / / fond revisi
Out from the Cliff
amed wildness below / / once-separated
worlds long wandered, back / / and forth.  The trader found his market
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
if this perhaps were the border of the
worlds / / masquerading behind the notice.  / / We walked together ba
Los Altos Hills
ps / We are the passing contacts of two
worlds .  / / Power out of space and time / / touches in us into a lif
Lamps
se and the clear lamps.  / / Suns burn,
worlds spin unhindered on.  / / This veiling is our earth’s alone, /
Night
ts endure / / we remain masters of our
worlds ; the river / / reflects the moon between our eyes and brain, /
The Black-out
have chosen you.  / / Through different
worlds we take a different way, / / but common-coloured threads were
The Black-out
o.  / / Where are now / / the coloured
worlds your eyes fed to your heart?  / /
Green World
; an outer whole / / through which our
world’s an imperceptible section.  / / Might seeming happenings here,
Dimension
l turn to her own ends / / and run the
world’s course at her own pace / / long after we have thrown ourselve
Buttercups
what we ruin, we shall rue it.  / / The
world’s our wilderness.  Man fumbles through it, / / blind Oedipus con
Man in Nature
?  / / The circumscription of her small
world’s rim / / held spreading riches: peace and happiness / / and l
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / that I was trying to turn from the
world’s woes.  / / In Guildford Place, where London’s nicest statue /
The Black-out
n the Thames valley / / I came on glow-
worms .  Years earlier still, at dusk, / / fireflies flickered beside t
A Hoard
the apples of Dionysus with me / / and
worn a wreath of the white poplar, the holy / / tree of Herakles, wou
Spells and Love
snow / / struck deeply chill, but too
worn -out for waking / / curled between two boulders he dreamed of lov
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
within the circle.  Oh fool, fool.  / /
Worn out he dropped on the leaf-mould and slept.  / / Waking, he drank
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
bbed again.  / / Numb, cold and utterly
worn out, he found / / that he was walking back down the dark road /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d, / / stood a young forester.  Utterly
worn out / / he looked, and foreign in his strange-cut green.”  / / T
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
less game, / / footsore and starving,
worn out, nearly lost.  / / The girl grew up and married a young groom
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ve, / / outlasts this tarnished thing,
worn to a sieve, / / once the golden bowl of memory.  / / Age takes e
Age
root / / so that only three struts of
worn wood / / held up the tree.  One branch from the main fork / / wa
Five Poems for Roni
eed not in a longer view, I fancy, / /
worry that we have hurt her.  / /
Buttercups
to backyards / / of English slums, but
worse (and better, / / as sun-scorched poverty is better / / than ra
Athens, Hill of the Muses; Evening
la and rune, to trust / / you would be
worse and sillier.  / / Trust, no.  But part of me prays, part keeps /
Uncertain
all, a warning / / of present trouble
worse , and when we part / / gondola sunk or walkers not returning /
The Black-out
sooner—soon / / perhaps, for better or
worse , / / as indeed it might have done / / at any time before.  / /
[Now of threescore and ten]
nhappiness, / / fear, anxiety / / and
worse corrosions of the soul, / / but never hunger and cold / / —not
Climacteric by the Sea
aving muddled through my life, / / for
worse , for better, to this age, / / how do I deserve / / this total,
[I have you always in my mind]
stone dropped in water) / / pain; and
worse (last / / worst twist and waste) / / transmutation of love to
Stones
feelings of resentment / / (resentment
worse perhaps, but hard to say / / since each carries the other at it
[Feelings of guilt]
ye / / that shield.  I shall get one no
worse quite easily.  / /
Two Songs of a Mercenary
; / / the slow, the shy, the dull, the
worse than dull, / / whose laughter like a leper’s bell / / falls in
The Party
This Time /
Worse than out of joint.  / / Perhaps lemming-men / / have reached th
This Time
tir / / against the deepened chill the
worse than poor, / / the driven and lost, / / who cast or crushed ou
The Embankment
s respectable curse / / is laid on us: 
worse / / than women or drink / / is laughter, is sobbing.  / / Who
Merrie England
with one friend lost.  / / The weather
worsened and the Queen got better / / or bored, and took her daughter
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ / had praised her beauty, claimed to
worship her, / / and made a pass; but left her little moved.  / / Nex
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
d having set / / eyes on the work, the
worshipped master knew.  / / Past intellectual truth or visual beauty
The Black-out
temple and altar and the crowd / / of
worshippers , the crowded offerings, / / statues, tripods, the rest, t
Pelopia and Thyestes
more than you.”  He answered: “why / /
worshipping us, have you so little done? / / at thirty-two I died, at
The Black-out
streams, hardly a rain-puddle; / / and
worst a hard blank grey sky over all / / (no trees to guide his fores
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
he child— / / and found there, not the
worst , but the next worst / / thing in his life.  Afraid, afraid went
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
.  / / Wind-bitter nights were much the
worst of it.  / / Waking before dawn always, stiff with chill, / / st
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ountains to his home / / and found the
worst .  Returned on the same track, / / not hopeful or afraid or sick,
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ound there, not the worst, but the next
worst / / thing in his life.  Afraid, afraid went back, / / a dreadfu
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
water) / / pain; and worse (last / /
worst twist and waste) / / transmutation of love to cruelty.  / / I s
Stones
now nature.  I believe / / our game was
worth her candle after all.  / /
The Reckoning
incess in their youth / / she had been
worthy to be won, and he / / to win her; but their autumn’s spring-ti
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ismo / Man’s sex is a weapon, woman’s a
wound .  / / The whale was created to be harpooned.  / /
Machismo
ill, in sun-bright scrub, / / the path
wound under trees / / a big loop, and then / / out into a space of p
Los Altos Hills
poplar, the holy / / tree of Herakles,
wound with crimson ribbon.”— / / These are the springs of my love.  Ma
Spells and Love
ally won.  The monster dead, he lay / /
wounded to death.  His lady bent above, / / the hot tears running down
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ft / for Matthew / The scar-lips of the
wounded wood / / watch the sleek sweep of the road.  / / The exposed
The Rift
ide to help her.  / / My mother had her
wounds / / in front.  She went to face things.  / / What though I wond
Wounds
Wounds / Were all his
wounds in front? / / would ask a Spartan mother / / concerning her d
Wounds
ged but does remain, / / may bear from
wounds of spite and chance / / the scars but be itself again.  / / Gr
Hymn
awkwardly; / / you, Time, who heal the
wounds of violence / / but leave their scar, who work on brain and he
Prayer to Time
Wounds / Were all his wounds in front? / / would ask a Spartan mother
Wounds
by growth, and now / / the threads she
wove in love and hope / / grow dim to her and lose their power, / /
Ballad
iled the window shut.  / / A man in the
woven hanging reached for a nest.  / / Each morning when she woke she
Eugénie de Guérin
ging thought in dream, / / weak tissue
woven / / of past and hope, of echo left on eye, / / on ear, on part
Separation
ngled or an infinitely / / intricately
woven skein?  / /
Anniversary
ands / / he tore at the barbed tightly-
woven strands / / which yielded only to tear deeper.  Then, / / dropp
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
, / / but common-coloured threads were
woven through / / our minds.  But what brings you into my fray?  / / Y
The Black-out
/ “Why do you paint the past so rosy? 
Wrack / / and doom along that same roadway would blow.  / / Wheatfiel
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
t long linen dress / / and Cleurista’s
wrap borrowed to set it off.  / / These are the springs of my love.  Ma
Spells and Love
his few days / / his light, until “he
wrapped his colours” as / / Felicia Dorothea Hemans says / / “round
The Black-out
rom the water / / a child is building,
wrapped in private silence, / / small crystal world within the world
For Rachel
at the gifted bud.  / / The little boy,
wrapped to a kind of heaven, / / loves the whole lot.  So long as he’s
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
and lashed the tiller.  Dressed / / and
wrapped up in a rug he slept until / / the summer dawn brightening ab
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
two shells (broken) of the three, / /
wrapped up the last in red leaves from the wood / / and took the trac
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
see / / anything of her but her sombre
wraps .  / / A knife in one hand, in the other perhaps, / / he thought
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
les of Dionysus with me / / and worn a
wreath of the white poplar, the holy / / tree of Herakles, wound with
Spells and Love
o rape and kill.  / / Nature is much to
wreck , but man can do it / / and, part of what we ruin, we shall rue
Man in Nature
warm.  Be still.”  / / Nature is much to
wreck , but man can do it.  / / Barbarian or Greek, Gentile or Jew, it
Man in Nature
/ for Judith Wright / Nature is much to
wreck , but man can do it— / / his greatest and last proof of power an
Man in Nature
capes my skill.”  / / Nature is much to
wreck , but man can do it.  / / Now we begin into clear space to spew i
Man in Nature
suns.  One bursts in huge radiance.  The
wreck / / falls back on itself, contracting back, / / down, in, / /
Holes in Space
At least, we issue from / / nature—yet
wreck the balance of things, the breath, / / the pulse, the natural i
The Reckoning
lankets, pillows—“Sit up, your poor old
wreck .  / / There.  Lie down again.  So.  Here’s my hair, my neck, / / m
Greek Folk Song
A
Wreck / These posts which stud / / the sterile sand / / were a ship
A Wreck
me except / / a sunk thing, a wrecking
wreck ?  / / What hope?  His own nature.  / / In the dark of Soledad /
George Jackson
s clothes its steep / / hill under the
wrecked keep.  / / At the white alley’s end you look / / straight on
September Cruise
y, dumb to sing of her.  / / We, though
wrecked nature ruin us in the fall / / we forced, have had our vision
The Reckoning
their greed and passion cull, / / once
wrecked the mind / / make with the soul and with the sinews free, /
Nijinsky
—more like the ladder in the stocking,
wrecking / / the firm silk.  He’s a fool / / and she’s hysterical /
Back Room, 1944
boy become except / / a sunk thing, a
wrecking wreck?  / / What hope?  His own nature.  / / In the dark of So
George Jackson
rds the stretching cliff, / / while he
wrenched at the sheets, salted and stiff.  / / Then they gave too, the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
press, / / sharp-cornered shadow, / /
wrenched olive (willow- / / grey, but no river, / / no mist)—another
Five Poems for Roni
storm and calm / / raised for him in a
wren’s -nest mockery.  / / A nest?  He peered harder.  It was a shell, /
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
resh-oiled from a round of bouts in the
wrestling -school.  / / These are the springs of my love.  Mark them, la
Spells and Love
om what musician, poet, any artist / /
wrests from the air, relays / / for those who will tune in / / a pat
Two Cultures?
/ / I saw him, and my wits left me.  My
wretched heart / / caught fire.  I must have looked awful.  I don’t rem
Spells and Love
Man in Nature / for Judith
Wright / Nature is much to wreck, but man can do it— / / his greatest
Man in Nature
e.  A light wind makes / / the flat sea
wrinkle , / / suddenly kindles / / stars, firefruits fallen / / from
September Cruise
each other, fretted / / with winking,
wrinkled flashes—held his gaze.  / / Still on the sand he sat, in the
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
pity and surprise:  / / “What are those
wrinkles on your brow / / those rings about your eyes?  / / Surely li
Dialogue
/ Brief wind ruckles gulls’ feathers,
wrinkles water, / / drops, still.  Break from above into this silence
For Rachel
place to turn.  / / I stood beside it. 
Wrinkling fading petals / / dropping from old flowers, only a few new
Omens
Winter Recalled / for Dominick /
Wrist locked over wrist, / / wrung hands between knees, / / hunched
Winter Recalled
lled / for Dominick / Wrist locked over
wrist , / / wrung hands between knees, / / hunched shoulders closing
Winter Recalled
manoeuvres its slow galleon-sails, / /
writhes its proud neck, / / as the attack / / of the quick-winged ho
Heron and Gulls
and food / / at least a week’s supply—
written a note / / to tell his mother he was gone, and gone.  / / The
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
into the court—but was there something
wrong ?  / / A bump, a flurry, and a choked-down cry / / lost in the c
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ One must be right, he knew, the other
wrong , / / but nothing told him which.  Below, close by, / / the join
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
ike sunlight in the breast, the unnamed
wrong / / dispelled, happiness spreads like a bright spring / / unsu
Happiness
age, an Eden / / before the growth of
wrong / / has haunted human fancy / / indissolubly long / / and cas
Other World
/ a heaven to be happy / / again when
wrong is dead.  / / Today we feel behind us / / the struggle of the a
Other World
d, / / the concentration of my brooded
wrong .  / / No buses passed me and one taxi, hired.  / / A wind touche
The Black-out
e: the choice of right or left, / / of
wrong or right.  The desert-beach was grim / / but was the way, one wa
The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince
/ falls.  Plato, Paul, ask the (for me)
wrong question, / / find me no answer.  So much for Paul and Plato?  /
The Betrayal
, / / and he was surely right / / but
wrong surely to say / / the traffic is one-way.  / / Sex lends her de
Fair Exchange
/ true) done or left undone to set us
wrong .  / / The truths we think are not the home truths though.  / / A
Hebona
l Him and myself / / everywhere I went
wrong .  / / Then, all the dirt out, / / admit me to the furnace.  / /
A Hot Bath at Bedtime
/ —a predictable order, if nothing goes
wrong , / / to protect us from fear and to guide us along.  / / Yet we
Hymn
eets girl again, and what has been / /
wrong withers inexplicably away / / leaving behind love’s garden fres
The Black-out
usually wet / / with blood and tears;
wrongs beyond hope of mending / / lie at the root of every decent lif
The Black-out
ne way I could not turn aside, / / yet
wrote of love, and what I wrote was true.  / / Passion and loneliness,
The Black-out
ide, / / yet wrote of love, and what I
wrote was true.  / / Passion and loneliness, despair and pride / / pe
The Black-out
on her knees, / / white-glowing marble
wrought / / to perfect intricacy of draperies, / / perfection of sor
Pietà
ominick / Wrist locked over wrist, / /
wrung hands between knees, / / hunched shoulders closing / / across
Winter Recalled
e not meet.  Trembling and cold / / she
wrung the water from her blood-cleared dress, / / sluiced her own dri
Pelopia and Thyestes
ng star), Border Ballads, / / Campion,
Wyatt .  A little later on / / Lycidas draws ahead of L’Allegro / / as
Poetry