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

Y

s awoke him. / / He looked down on the

yard , straight from above: / / carriage-top, horse-backs, backs of st

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

wall, / / but no one. He passed to the

yard within, / / paved, echoing, empty—on to the great hall: / / tab

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

might have gone a mile, / / two, fifty

yards ) awoke to the wide stream. / / He plunged in where the water me

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

shing shining / / in narrow yards, the

yards , even the narrow / / houses, serried and stacked. / / Not only

“Life is sweet, brother”

-wall and the pine. But soon / / a few

yards in under the oaks, he found / / the undergrowth master again. T

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

mselves, washing shining / / in narrow

yards , the yards, even the narrow / / houses, serried and stacked. /

“Life is sweet, brother”

s on into the same seasons / / as last

year and all earlier years spun through. / / God, if there is a god,

ir the sun / / slants. The day and the

year are young, / / and it doesn’t matter that the world / / (or mat

ening winter; / / but unlike any other

year , / / at the dead season, at the silent hour, / / at the still m

Winter Solstice

nd heart filled. / / Poetry? / / This

year … / / beauty is not enough, / / truth too difficult, / / too ma

final peak; but reached his fourteenth

year / / before one summer’s long day saw him there. / / Staring fro

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

st year’s letter, nor / / one from the

year before. / / The last time this intercalary date / / joggled the

year begins again / / —or does another

year begin? / / Nothing can come of nothing, nothing goes / / to not

Winter Solstice

repares to lean / / the other way. Our

year begins again / / —or does another year begin? / / Nothing can c

Winter Solstice

/ / I have hardly seen a swallow this

year / / but today on the high wire / / I count twelve in a row? /

s well invested. The capital / / grows

year by year. Love / / lies in the current account. We spend it piece

hat might / / have filled so many four-

year cycles more. / / And on that twenty-ninth of February / / ninet

ght leaf promises a happy day / / next

year ”. / / Have you tried to catch / / these autumn flutterers? / /

[Golden, red, brown]

s our theme. / / It fell in his fourth

year . He could recall / / all his long age the scene—clear as a dream

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / in the soft air. / / The delayed

year / / is moving into spring / / with leaf-bud, blossom, bird-song

t / Up through the opaque water another

year / / is nosing its way. I seem to see a sharp / / dorsal fin alr

nvested. The capital / / grows year by

year . Love / / lies in the current account. We spend it piecemeal. /

er-meadows. / / Like other things this

year (may, daisies, roses) / / late coming but, now come, here in pro

Year / No last year’s letter, nor / / one from the year before. / /

/ / Recurring wonder. / / For me this

year not you recurring, / / for these our children soon not me. Then

r on the high twigs the green. / / One

year , of course, spring’s power past, / / summer will show the bony t

many lifetimes earlier, / / a fourteen-

year -old countess from proud Spain, / / exchanged letters, friendship

ise, Louise, / / save me”. / / Twelve-

year -old Louise adored / / wicked little Carly Gancher, / / and did

im? / / What could she think, the nine-

year -old princess? / / The circumscription of her small world’s rim /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

name?— / / kept the flock sometimes a

year or two ago— / / how’s she?” “Just had a boy.” “Long life to him.

e bushes star the hedges again. / / My

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

e bushes star the hedges. Again / / my

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

ith flowers / / (seasons are late this

year ): / / pink of campion and wild geranium, / / toad-flax, cow-par

[Late October hedges]

blind-man’s-buff with death. / / Each

year requires another year / / to finish some new thing begun, / / r

Year / “Ring out the old, ring in the new” / / but you can never catc

ut after that / / for less than half a

year . / / Such loss. A life that might / / have filled so many four-

. / / There is no last rose. / / This

year the constellations crowd and wander / / richer, wilder it seems

Five Poems for Roni

hining being enter, / / like any other

year , the darkening winter; / / but unlike any other year, / / at th

Winter Solstice

e years of the rose are done. / / Each

year the flowering briar / / has touched this reach of life / / with

eless, deep into spring, / / and every

year “This is the end. / / The sap has ceased to rise” we think. / /

death. / / Each year requires another

year / / to finish some new thing begun, / / round off some ragged,

om the late autumn on / / till the New

Year to hunt. Those three months gone / / the castle was for nine the

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

s the tides of gain and loss. / / This

year we saw a shining being enter, / / like any other year, the darke

Winter Solstice

year wheels on into the same seasons / / as last year and all earlier

eing time / / till with your hundredth

year your life is done, / / you shall be born the prince for whom tim

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ellied, the still driven poor, / / who

yearly add to what they would forget, / / feel in stale blood renewed

hirteen hundred years / / of paralysed

yearning . All fell / / away in action, hopes, fears / / for you. Ete

Virgil’s Farewell to Dante

th, died / / into a handsgrasp for the

yearning boy. / / And then a patch of doubt formed suddenly / / ‘How

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hrieks, no tears, / / but hopeless ill

yearning for well. / / Then—music of the spheres, / / light—your Lad

Virgil’s Farewell to Dante

/ the fated child of many day-dreams’

yearning / / whom he must somehow save. The vision rose / / blotting

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

she do? By her own spell / / a hundred

years , a hundred years, were laid— / / a hundred years to lay him in

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

tle down / / the helter-skelter of the

years — / / a tower whose far base disappears / / in cloud (like Brue

d by the season’s need. / / Then, four

years after the princess’s visit / / (the boy a gangling woodman of e

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / English (not, heaven help us, many

years ago / / —five hundred years and more gone / / since we burned

face, eyes shut, remembering / / sixty

years ago I suppose it was / / lying in long grass, eyes shut, sun on

the hours formed in days, / / days in

years , and a pattern took shape in our ways. / / Certain rhythms repe

p us, many years ago / / —five hundred

years and more gone / / since we burned the maid at Rouen) / / drenc

mark— / / her fated prince, a hundred

years away. / / The rains of summer’s draggled end dragged on / / wa

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

, suddenly known / / her guide of four

years back—and understood. / / ‘He loves me. That boy loves me’ and s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

re that house / / was sold five or six

years before) a child / / happy in the long grass, the hot sun. / /

hames valley / / I came on glow-worms.

Years earlier still, at dusk, / / fireflies flickered beside the Ioni

/ / the coelacanth unchanged / / from

years ere light, / / that falls now caught / / in the wide dew-pond

or shrink as we move through miles and

years , / / establishing unchallenged supremacy, / / Shakespeare stan

/ / promised, unfulfilled / / years,

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

Die Weisse Rose

rown carpet’s not / / that summer four

years gone—that’s gone to rot / / in yielding featureless black mould

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

burst of blood. / / Yet, against lost

years / / gone with the white rose / / horribly lopped, / / the man

Die Weisse Rose

/ catches the sun across two thousand

years . / / “Good-bye.” “Good luck.” “But you can’t trust them. He may

nd the sea enclosed his world. / / For

years he’d sailed the bay and the bare reaches / / clear of the heads

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

[Housman was old beyond his

years ] / Housman was old beyond his years / / knowing at twenty / /

[Housman was old beyond his years]

uite well, from youth; / / years, many

years . / / How does it feel when they say good-bye for good? / / No,

What Do They Feel?

his years] / Housman was old beyond his

years / / knowing at twenty / / the fleeting seasons in their beauty

[Housman was old beyond his years]

and buttercup. / / Love the revolving

years / / knowing they will defeat us / / (one revolution’s low / /

Two Summer Songs

is belt drawn tight. / / The next four

years lent him less time to dream / / being apprenticed to a tough ol

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hristl Probst, Willi Graf / / —so many

years lost / / (none more than twenty-five, / / Sophie twenty-one. /

Die Weisse Rose

/ / grow bitter with the burden of the

years . / / Make viable our hopes and truths, stillborn / / the basta

ther well, quite well, from youth; / /

years , many years. / / How does it feel when they say good-bye for go

What Do They Feel?

whose making and being are. / / Days,

years , man’s time-notes, are / / always perishing. Time / / (man’s m

[Time is enough]

I forgotten Emily Bronte, / / so many

years my constant star and love? / / There must too be many darlings

Hell / / I had passed thirteen hundred

years . / / Not ice or fire, no shrieks, no tears, / / but hopeless i

Virgil’s Farewell to Dante

/ / years of trouble, good / / years,

years of dream / / and doing, thought and love, / / all sheared by a

Die Weisse Rose

ell. / / I had passed thirteen hundred

years / / of paralysed yearning. All fell / / away in action, hopes,

Virgil’s Farewell to Dante

/ the hedges lit with roses. / / The

years of the rose are done. / / Each year the flowering briar / / ha

ain rhythms repeat in the weeks and the

years , / / of the seasons, of work, even comfort and tears / / —a pr

lfilled / / years, years for fun, / /

years of trouble, good / / years, years of dream / / and doing, thou

Die Weisse Rose

se other eyes, / / the boy’s a hundred

years perhaps away / / heavily travelling. And saw one day / / beyon

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Tom’s / / throwaway, that in / / five

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

asons / / as last year and all earlier

years spun through. / / God, if there is a god, may have his reasons

se / / to be her guide (oh, well-spent

years !) the boy. / / So that summer for seven enchanted weeks / / th

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

as such / / but my companion (all the

years , / / the experience, shared) / / and now, piercingly, you. /

[Living alone is lonely]

/ / expected daily. / / Always, other

years , / / the King and the male court alone had come, / / with prin

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

m a wheel had crushed / / died. Eighty

years , they said, and more he’d been / / about the place, coming a st

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

d breath, / / getting through days and

years till one is dead. / / To see both sides is good; always to keep

t you can never catch the changing / /

years . Time flows unbroken through. / / What of that clearer frontier

st. A minute or an hour, / / a hundred

years … Time, it seemed, had stopped, / / as stood against the starry

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

undred years, were laid— / / a hundred

years to lay him in the grave / / and raise a prince to rouse the bri

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

she, / / Humfry Payne thirty-four—two

years to run / / or four or six; is your tale like to be / / equal t

wl a thorny wilderness / / one hundred

years —until her fated love / / (if, when he come, he’s brave and true

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

the love. Now, from that day, / / nine

years went on without the boy once more / / seeing the girl. Preferme

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

in perpetuity. / / The seasons in the

years went round by rote, / / each month for work or less work docket

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

n spell / / a hundred years, a hundred

years , were laid— / / a hundred years to lay him in the grave / / an

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

well), / / promised, unfulfilled / /

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

Die Weisse Rose

r fun, / / years of trouble, good / /

years , years of dream / / and doing, thought and love, / / all shear

Die Weisse Rose

to a voice. She said / / “The hundred

years ’ sleep was not all I gave. / / “My gift was love. And where lov

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

se the bride. The knell / / ‘a hundred

years ’ turned to a voice. She said / / “The hundred years’ sleep was

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ove, saying / / “The year’s end is the

year’s beginning, / / one in time—pain and joy are one in love”? / /

Winter Solstice

ing this will be so / / love more this

year’s delight. / / Cows lounge among buttercups and dew / / while c

Two Summer Songs

the wind, is it love, saying / / “The

year’s end is the year’s beginning, / / one in time—pain and joy are

Winter Solstice

Leap Year / No last

year’s letter, nor / / one from the year before. / / The last time t

le down / / the helter-skelter. Of the

year’s / / pattern we mark flash off, flash on, / / the signal-light

e quiet birds / / pipe up. Be / / the

year’s spring / / yours. Fill / / out again your young, / / your be

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

are beautiful, but now / / I find the

year’s wheel / / move faster—more than sixty turns / / completed, am

Yeats and Water-Birds / He chose the symbol of the swan / / and that

Yeats and Water-Birds

I felt the presence of grace / / like

Yeats at Lissadell. / /

y. / / Greatness I think we lack since

Yeats is dead; / / yet we have Eliot, for whom in Auden now / / our

ncient Mariner of Kubla Khan. / / Soon

Yeats —maestro ed autore— / / Eliot, Auden, Ransom, Hopkins, the rest

well-ordered park. / / Like a poem by

Yeats . / / Well, this park was the campus / / of a small East Coast

of childhood greet us / / washed with

yellow and white, / / daisy and buttercup. / / Love the revolving ye

Two Summer Songs

es in sheets over the green grass, / /

yellow cowslip-balls of flowering fennel, / / yellow mimosa. Other fl

Yellow daisies in sheets over the green grass, / / yellow cowslip-bal

yellow. The plain / / is streaked with

yellow flame / / which licks the lower hills. As we mount higher / /

spilt my white force, just touching her

yellow hair. / /

cowslip-balls of flowering fennel, / /

yellow mimosa. Other flowers, white and red, / / pink, mauve, blue, b

geranium, / / toad-flax, cow-parsley,

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

[Late October hedges]

d red, / / pink, mauve, blue, but most

yellow . The plain / / is streaked with yellow flame / / which licks

/ / Venus is burning / / big and low,

yellow through the / / haze which hides the rest. / / A young man in

th Eudamippos. / / Their beards curled

yellower than goldenrod / / and their chests shone brighter than you

Spells and Love

w / / of autumn leaves is mute, palely

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

[Noon. But the sun is low]

/ / meant for him, sent for him—omen,

yes , and guide. / / The birds, the ruffled sea, changelessly changing

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ching on and on. / / The nurse’s tale?

Yes , but he felt aware / / of much, much more, than she could ever ha

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / The waste, the loss we said. / /

Yes , but how bright and brave / / the flag at the mast head / / goes

Five Poems for Roni

only / / fail to take your place. / /

Yes , but must still be something / / more than myself, will be, can.

py’s shadow in the terms of Plato. / /

Yes . But, though by so answering their question / / He fooled the spi

, / / two bodies warm together. / / …

Yes , in the end love, / / when we’re really put to it, / / brought t

[Living alone is lonely] /

Yes , / / living alone is lonely, but loneliness / / itself’s not har

[Living alone is lonely]

his you shall do. / / Take ship again.

Yes , take ship again / / and sail distance and days, / / beach on an

u don’t take care. / / No, down a bit.

Yes , there—a bit to your right.” / / “Thanks. Did you lose a lamb the

ance, / / a desert island then. / / …

Yes , there is still love. / / Loving, being loved, save / / from tot

anding by its Queen. / / He loved her,

yes . What did she think of him? / / What could she think, the nine-ye

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

[Yes, you’re right] /

Yes , you’re right. Misunderstandings may / / sometimes (we’re human)

[Yes, you’re right]

Yes , you’re right] / Yes, you’re right. Misunderstandings may / / som

[Yes, you’re right]

hild exist like water / / and today is

yesterday and is tomorrow. / / Unaware, at least, as birds of the pas

-knowledge sets tomorrow / / to mirror

yesterday —images which empty / / the moment’s brimming being. Not us

ral course / / following simply out of

yesterday / / through a pillar of fire. / / Tonight; intrusive memor

ge / / / Blood seeps from a womb / /

yesterday . Today / / that sickly stream / / carries away / / the kn

stories, alike but different, / / told

yet again and asked for yet again, / / each phrase expected where it

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rent, / / told yet again and asked for

yet again, / / each phrase expected where it always went. / / But on

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

el, / / gone in a burst of blood. / /

Yet , against lost years / / gone with the white rose / / horribly lo

Die Weisse Rose

mpossible Hyacinth, though, was a child

yet , / / and man’s an infant still in earth’s life-span. / / If he d

Greenham Common

get up again. / / No, he would not die

yet . And to turn back / / was meaningless. He must go on. And then /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

n the light-source casts you / / … and

yet … and yet / / reaching you so, it surely should be / / laid there

September Cruise

s with the laugh that answers it. / / —

Yet are they all that they pretend? (a / / pair of sets of teeth so e

from the brown wood, but the boughs not

yet bare / / concealed the castle still. To one not knowing / / this

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

it—then the triumph of the light, / /

yet blackness not annulled. Must that long night / / divide the princ

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ntellectual truth or visual beauty / /

yet both intense; the cranes on Waterloo / / Bridge, angled black aga

eating Him, our serving Caesar / / may

yet bring Caesar back with us to God’s / / service—what’s Caesar’s in

summer already past / / but winter not

yet come, / / what this death blasted / / was her autumn. / /

itable) / / yet he was frightening too—

yet comforting / / against her wider fears. She wept a bit, / / then

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

g inevitable). / / Help it, honour it.

Yet / / do not fear to regret / / what best and loveliest / / is di

ld I imagine him / / swayed by prayer;

yet do not think it odd / / to frame some longings in a form of praye

ost as soon / / as entered, gone; / /

yet drags his feet / / down grey boredoms, the grim wait; / / always

Two Poems from a New Life

tories, / / I saw a tall girl, and not

yet drawn close / / knew Molly and stood still. “But this once more i

g the air, / / betraying a shark / / (

yet dream still of a shapely / / innocent form, a dolphin curving cle

/ / broke to a torrent summer had not

yet dried. / / On hard bare feet she hurried down the hill. / / The

Pelopia and Thyestes

, / / or in this story was not, or not

yet . / / Dusk was already filling up the wood / / when an awareness

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

compels love. / / Love makes us. / /

Yet endeavour / / to loosen the child’s tether / / and to leave soon

e strong spread of another willow. / /

Yet fallen and soaring bough were rich in leaf / / as the solid trunk

Five Poems for Roni

ook three and rendered two; what I must

yet / / feel, brushed me then. / / To left the plane-trees stoo

nd dear, / / taken for granted. Not as

yet for her / / painful passion obsessively distilled. / / Child, ha

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ she sometimes was; hardly aware, and

yet / / glad in the woods to be with one friend lost. / / The weathe

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

st the glare, he drowsed, half dreaming

yet / / guiding the tiller—whence he had embarked / / withdrawn and

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

be’: / / Their not being, having been;

yet , having been, / / being. Loss love as love makes loss more keen:

Dulce et Decorum

ging / / rags on his rotting age, / /

yet he could still coax from the air, / / note painfully on the waiti

ught his forebodings back in force. And

yet / / he had so much, so very much, to thank / / the fairy for, he

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

love-match (though most suitable) / /

yet he was frightening too—yet comforting / / against her wider fears

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

’s too much, I think, to hope. / / And

yet her death-throes give me pain. / /

shining against a forest. Then, clearer

yet , / / her form, her face, the dear unknown princess. / / Then dar

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

hered / / into a monstrous shape. / /

Yet here and now about me / / between two thoughts I see / / a sleep

hered / / into a monstrous shape; / /

yet here and now about me / / between two thoughts I see / / a Sleep

[Today we feel behind us]

fresh and green. / / She is not here;

yet here, and on your way / / another necessary stage. Go on / / and

all / / and in no sense a centre. / /

Yet here we are. And here’s our apprehension / / of beauty and good (

/ which seep into our smoky rooms. / /

Yet houses, rooms, these woods too, are, / / no less than cigarette a

o deny / / the existence of a me. / /

Yet I believe it constantly. / /

Shadow and Substance

h / / or life as acts of god. / / And

yet I can’t envisage life either / / (or death) as an unordered jumbl

at he smiled at as our ‘wood’. / / And

yet , I knew, he never would go back.” / / And one day (they were sitt

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

sufferings seem / / equally dreadful,

yet / / I love man and his dream. / /

Uncertain / I don’t believe in God, and

yet I pray; / / still less in magic, but I practise it. / / At least

y up late—“Oh / / don’t send me to bed

yet —I want to play, to / / read, finish this… Can’t I wait up?” The q

ms. / / And, once met, one or both may

yet in fear, / / or bored, slip in and slam the door, / / for we may

n share / / nurture of the young, / /

yet in that loving care / / yield themselves to no / / oneness, will

Moore / / for burning Byron’s journal—

yet in the end / / admit that he destroyed it as Byron’s friend: / /

[I find it difficult to forgive Tom Moore]

self / / by acceptance of a bond. / /

Yet , inevitably and eagerly / / we strive towards that absolute, beyo

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

and (though / / hating herself and it)

yet learned the taste / / of pleasure, found in her bewildered heart

t help being? rather, I deeply am. / /

Yet look just now: / / water in patterns under the wind’s touch, / /

way / / he might, when all seemed won,

yet lose the day, / / defeated with the fairy who had blessed him. /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ by these might sink us even deeper.

Yet , / / losing or winning, keep us from the pit / / of a complacent

Prayer to Truth

to Death. The will to live / / (which

yet loves nothing like a sedative) / / traps us in self-despising mis

to you / / but is a hope to which you

yet may come. / / If you dare live on, while the princess sleeps / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

es and blinds. / / Open your eyes, and

yet may come to pass / / your unschemed hope, as the new morning find

illed / / through stunted generations;

yet moving in it / / a blindworm urge to love makes for a minute / /

ot the earth that weighs on me / / nor

yet my heavy stone. / / Was there nowhere for you to tread / / but o

uppose, / / a recipe for trouble. / /

Yet / / neither of us really believes that. / / Less because of our

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

/ / than this cartwheeling child) / /

yet never lacked, do not lack, delight, / / would be wholly sorry to

Climacteric by the Sea

n afresh out of the creaking wood. / /

Yet not, deaf Time, before your doubtful ruth / / in the last instanc

dience / Still young that unknown face;

yet not quite young: / / working in time tides of experience / / alo

In the Audience

ing / / other than nature made us / /

yet not to deny nature; / / to divine and follow reason / / yet to d

ht, break nature, defy her, defeat her.

Yet / / only we, seeing her from the outside, can / / love her. Natu

and fear / / the natural world, that’s

yet our dear / / mother and love. This paradox / / (a rift in the fi

d (scattered) whither—not a thing. / /

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

Dulce et Decorum

incontinently, / / noisomer ill, / /

yet pursues / / beauty, and is blest. / / For all our wickedness, /

ls of our thought as of our blood, / /

yet raise each spring new flowers in the garden, / / draw green afres

ht-source casts you / / … and yet… and

yet / / reaching you so, it surely should be / / laid there for you

September Cruise

/ / for his body’s too, mortally sick)

yet sharing / / still with warm loving pride / / his thoughts and ho

Eugénie de Guérin

their task / / as time ran short / /

yet she completed of her nettlework / / all but the second sleeve of

g fate / / shall pierce her youth, and

yet she shall not die. / / “The prick shall bring not death but a lon

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

this stuttering yokel spy on me!) / /

Yet she was grateful to him for that too / / and something made her s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / looks like the primal curse, / /

yet should he cease to prey / / the scales would tip one way. / / Th

/ paddle and shout. The waves rustle.

Yet silence / / encloses all in crystal. This is an empty / / world,

loved and been loved, two in one, / /

yet sometimes been at board and bed / / sullen and clumsy as the dead

ll / / become conventional, / / dull.

Yet Spring is still / / an undimmed miracle, / / season of blossomin

[What words are there for Spring?]

/ / trapped, pinned on the rough bank;

yet still she fought, / / biting him, scratching him, and suddenly /

Pelopia and Thyestes

as a child / / growing the you I love.

Yet that land / / I move through in your words, love through your eye

Two Poems for G

/ / discontinuity, estranging / / and

yet that mortal moment too / / escapes dimension, time and space: /

ater that cries against the shore. / /

Yet that sea shall endure / / its round of calm and storm / / when a

/ / moves into summer with no change.

Yet / / the brave blossom is white, / / and this first day of June /

ream is a dream, no / / more) remains,

yet / / the dream pervades today. / / In some way / / something doe

[Restoration of innocence in a dream]

yet the necessary word awakes / / nor stir the lips, / / but helples

. / / You name it, we’ve the lot. / /

Yet there are those / / who almost seem immune from all, / / whose s

f the same material / / as others are,

yet there’s a difference. / / The forester, the poor court-lady’s son

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ (it seems) its own unique / / self—

yet they partake / / of one another and / / the others of their kind

green tent now / / this brown carpet;

yet this brown carpet’s not / / that summer four years gone—that’s go

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ / on the myth-dark / / sea; that is

yet this sea, moved by this moon. / / By moon-heaped ocean, strait /

ns offer / / no analogy for loss. / /

Yet , this untamed recurring / / of brave, ephemeral beauty / / does

Five Poems for Roni

nse of loss, / / pain deeply felt. And

yet , this was a story. / / A story. What, whose story? And why, how /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

scourge, to injured innocence aid. And

yet / / those kindly features now in her bad dreams / / merge with t

Change Places…

naked image of what gets done. / / And

yet those silent weavings in the air / / are beautiful— / / sad, an

Heron and Gulls

; / / to divine and follow reason / /

yet to dare at a moment / / to follow something other / / which guid

e’s the mask and where’s the face? / /

Yet , turning to ourselves again, / / is there so huge an otherness /

e loved / / lay on, away from her, and

yet was she. / / Waking, he knew the pain for what it was / / and kn

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

think we lack since Yeats is dead; / /

yet we have Eliot, for whom in Auden now / / our long debt to America

Lies, no. The dark aspect is true, / /

yet we must pledge our lifeblood to renew / / the link, when choice c

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

Could anything be more absurd? / / And

yet , we need a sense of sin / / to put force in our will to virtue. /

s from fear and to guide us along. / /

Yet we stand here today, not two selves but a pair, / / half dissolve

lay some ointment to his sore? / / And

yet , what could she do? By her own spell / / a hundred years, a hundr

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

bond, / / should he love out his life.

Yet what, in truth, / / had she to offer? Not these hands and lips /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

rring like a nightmare or a fever. / /

Yet while our personal intellects endure / / we remain masters of our

ce can muster strength and chance. / /

Yet , while the arch is down, what should we do / / but dance, dance o

Sur le Pont d’Avignon

s. / / Our goal’s before us, and / / —

yet “Who would find his life…” Is this / / too mirror-land? / /

Through the Looking-Glass

re. At least, we issue from / / nature—

yet wreck the balance of things, the breath, / / the pulse, the natur

y lone way I could not turn aside, / /

yet wrote of love, and what I wrote was true. / / Passion and lonelin

dead and laid into your grave / / and

yet you speak and groan. / / Is it the earth that weighs on you, / /

stress / / to all our wickedness, / /

yet’s as much taker quite / / as giver—throws upon / / her basic mon

gh, hard / / for this old / / body. I

yield , / / a little sad. / / Not very. I’ve had / / a good day; now

[The track up the wild stream]

ater and air may be contained, / / may

yield a possible future. / / Open-ended / / our future lies. That is

am-words do not allow / / analysis, or

yield / / meaning to the clever, / / but even awake I seem / / from

Words from a Dream

hind could only scorn / / the badger,

yield some insolent stag her joys. / / It was October. Work was trave

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

oung, / / yet in that loving care / /

yield themselves to no / / oneness, will not even come, / / passing,

barbed tightly-woven strands / / which

yielded only to tear deeper. Then, / / dropped in a daze, he bled on

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

m the warm blood’s quickening. / / The

yielding and the stiffening, / / the wooded clefts and the hot spring

John Ruskin’s Wedding Night

r years gone—that’s gone to rot / / in

yielding featureless black mould below. / / For the first time Time’s

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ Cliff, rock, sand, pebble beach, / /

yielding or hard / / throw back the wild / / inconstant water that c

Sea Cliff / A jutting stone / /

yields , is gone / / down into air / / But foot is home / / and hand

Embankment / The river to the sea / /

yields , slides up the stone the insidious tide. / / The darkness stir

angrily / / (how dare this stuttering

yokel spy on me!) / / Yet she was grateful to him for that too / / a

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

avements / Dog-shit in London; / / New

York , chewed gum. / / To each culture-surface / / its proper scum. /

. / / Misunderstandings? / / That New

Yorker joke: “My wife / / does understand me.” / / I failed you livi

w, this would seem / / Berkshire.” “Or

Yorkshire ,” answered with a light / / laugh Emily; “each to our own i

mall East Coast college, / / the girls

young academics, / / one as it happens Greek, / / the other one Ital

Cold the wind too / / and I, as I was

young , am now old. / /

n / / slants. The day and the year are

young , / / and it doesn’t matter that the world / / (or matter much)

/ / or sit on the beach or walk, / /

young and middle-aged / / and, a class of their own, in pairs / / or

Climacteric by the Sea

he other seat. / / Dirty old men dream

young and sweet. / /

door. And there, she said, / / stood a

young forester. Utterly worn out / / he looked, and foreign in his st

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

larbone, hangs / / the drawn body of a

young / / girl. / / I see Anne Frank / / on the cross, offering of

Stray Thoughts at a Wedding

st. / / The girl grew up and married a

young groom / / in the King’s stables. To their eldest daughter / /

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

Young , I thought / / “One day I shall walk / / these rough woods, /

etters of gold / / “If it’s hell to be

young it’s the end being old / / so gather the roses of ripe middle a

[The municipal building stood square in my dream]

/ / haze which hides the rest. / / A

young man in the / / street was humming, whistling not / / very tune

long that flat edge of flat land / / a

young man journeying. A sense of loss, / / pain deeply felt. And yet,

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

of sorrow in the flower-face. / / The

young man, knowing the power in his fingers, / / knowing the vision i

d. “Well, you’ve been born before, / /

young man,” she’d say. He crowed again and grinned. / / And once when

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

y say I’m handsome / / and trim as any

young man) that would have been lovely. / / And if I’d got a kiss of

Spells and Love

are plenty of kinds of pretty play / /

young men and girls can know and not go all the way / / —something li

e— / / the tall son whistled down; the

young men, / / East and West, brothers in blood; / / two men riding

rds gold. / / Summer and I are neither

young nor old, / / the quiet middle reaches. / / But something cries

think of Richard Hughes. / / I was not

young , nor was he old, / / but he had wisdom / / I felt, good wisdom

oubt formed suddenly / / ‘How will the

young price know that he is I? / / Or will he know? He will not, cert

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

of memory. / / Seldom by that was the

young prince enspelled— / / but the white shore, the wide horizon rou

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

earth to keep out of its way? / / The

young prince liked his cousins well enough, / / but never had the sea

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ses swept the golden carriage. / / The

young queen looked, and a curve suddenly / / gave her the sea-lapped

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

red for me; / / over all her body, the

young skin bare, / / I spilt my white force, just touching her yellow

In the Audience / Still

young that unknown face; yet not quite young: / / working in time tid

In the Audience

ld? / / After all, I didn’t like being

young too much / / (not after I was younger / / than this cartwheeli

Climacteric by the Sea

/ played as a child; where she and I,

young , / / walked together, in love with one another. / / Our childr

[White foam sweeps]

ervice to a King and Queen, / / a poor

young widow with an only son. / / A mother’s boy (he never knew his f

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

embroidery. / / She’d meant it for the

young wood-ranger, if… / / If nothing—she would give it to him still—

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

young that unknown face; yet not quite

young : / / working in time tides of experience / / alone could grave

In the Audience

to mate, then share / / nurture of the

young , / / yet in that loving care / / yield themselves to no / / o

ng / / yours. Fill / / out again your

young , / / your beautiful / / body’s emptiness. / / Clothe again /

Against Anorexia: For Cathy

ent / / away, when he as I perhaps was

young .’ / / That floor was empty—up the stair again, / / he found hi

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ng young too much / / (not after I was

younger / / than this cartwheeling child) / / yet never lacked, do n

Climacteric by the Sea

of the twelfth shirt, / / leaving her

youngest brother one swan’s wing / / —strong and beautiful / / but p

uck in distant lands, / / returns… The

youngest , not the only son. / / He dare not hive off on a gambler’s h

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

fortunes are made, deeds done. / / The

youngest son sets out with empty hands, / / harvests a mint of luck i

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ading the wandering traveller / / (the

youngest son, the chosen man) / / at last suddenly across an unmarked

Los Altos Hills

/ / The image of the strange exhausted

youth / / against the dark, had somehow been conveyed / / to strike

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

it. Needling fate / / shall pierce her

youth , and yet she shall not die. / / “The prick shall bring not deat

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ce (chance?) / / the frost will break,

youth / / break to its natural dance. / /

Winter Recalled

kindled by the view, / / the beauteous

youth doth cruelly enjoy. / / Stepped and corridored the town / / wh

September Cruise

ow, restoring innocence, / / restoring

youth . / / Innocence and youth, / / which ours seemed painful or har

In the Audience

, virginity, and all the ills / / that

youth is heir to and bears awkwardly; / / you, Time, who heal the wou

le the princess sleeps / / in timeless

youth , love on through ageing time / / till with your hundredth year

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

el and know, / / covet the fountain of

youth or a new birth? / /

they were prince and princess in their

youth / / she had been worthy to be won, and he / / to win her; but

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

ined room, white in the moon— / / that

youth she met so often in the wood / / who stood aside and fixed her

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

/ restoring youth. / / Innocence and

youth , / / which ours seemed painful or hardly to exist, / / move us

In the Audience

known each other well, quite well, from

youth ; / / years, many years. / / How does it feel when they say goo

What Do They Feel?

/ the grave. ‘A sacrifice, my love, my

youth .’ / / Among these words the bleak fact of his loss, / / droppe

The Sleeping Beauty’s Prince

irth, / / of depressing age as well as

youth’s depressions. / / Sorrow I have known, / / unhappiness, / /

Climacteric by the Sea