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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: LARKIN, PHILIP Matches Found: 348 Larkin, Philip Poet's Biography 348 poems available by this author A STUDY OF READING HABITS Poem Text Recitation First Line: When getting my nose in a book Subject(s): Books; Hate; Reading ABSENCES First Line: Rain patters on a sea that tilts and sighs Last Line: They shift to giant ribbing, sift away. %such attics cleared of me! Such absences! ADMINISTRATION First Line: Day by day your estimation clocks up Last Line: And girls you have to tell to pull their socks up %are those whose pants you'd most like to pull dow AFTER-DINNER REMARKS: 1 First Line: A good meal can somewhat repair Last Line: Instruct and clean, perhaps elide %what evil thought was bearing seed, %and must spring up no more AFTER-DINNER REMARKS: 2 First Line: Pondering reflections as Last Line: She will not teach who will not sing, %and what serves, on the final bank, %our logic and our wit? AFTER-DINNER REMARKS: 3 First Line: Who for events to come to him Last Line: Be neither aaron nor a tess %but ony see, through staling tears, %a quickly-spawning doubt AFTER-DINNER REMARKS: 4 First Line: Choose what you can: I do remain Last Line: The hour that strikes across the town %caresses all and injures none %as sleep approaches them AFTERNOONS First Line: Summer is fading Last Line: Their beauty has thickened. %something is pushing them %to the side of their own lives AGE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: My age fallen away like white swaddling Last Line: Or spoor of pads, or a bird's adept splay Subject(s): Aging AGE First Line: My age fallen away like white swaddling Last Line: To know what prints I leave, whether of feet, %or spoor of pads, or a bird's adept splay Subject(s): Aging ALL CATCHES ALIGHT Last Line: For they are gone from earth ALL CATCHES ALIGHT Last Line: Till centuries of springs %and all their buried men %stand on the earth again. %a drum taps: a wintr AMBULANCES Poem Text First Line: Closed like confessionals, they thread Subject(s): Ambulances AMBULANCES First Line: Closed like confessionals, they thread Last Line: Brings closer what is left to come, %and dulls to distance all we are Subject(s): Ambulances AN ARUNDEL TOMB Poem Text Recitation First Line: Side by side, their faces blurred Subject(s): Cemeteries; Love; Mourning; Graveyards; Bereavement AND NOW THE LEAVES SUDDENLY LOSE STRENGTH Last Line: Villein with mattock, soldiers on their shields, %all silent, watching the winter coming on ANNUS MIRABILIS Poem Text First Line: Sexual intercourse began Subject(s): Bands; Beatles, The; Love - Erotic; Music & Musicians; Orchestras ANNUS MIRABILIS First Line: Sexual intercourse began Last Line: (though just too late for me) - %between the end of the chatterley ban %and the beatles' first lp Subject(s): Bands; Beatles, The; Erotic Love; Music And Musicians APE EXPERIMENT ROOM First Line: Buried among white rooms Last Line: And below, the smaller, eared %head like a grave nut, %and the arms folded round APRIL SUNDAY BRINGS THE SNOW Last Line: Behind the glass, under the cellophane, %remains your final summer - sweet %and meaningless, and not ARRIVAL First Line: Morning, a glass door, flashes Last Line: Till my own life impound it - %slow-falling; grey-veil-hung;a theft, %a style of dying only ARRIVALS, DEPARTURES First Line: This town has docks where channel boats come sidling Last Line: How safely we may disregard their blowing, %or if, this night, happiness too is going ARUNDEL TOMB First Line: Side by side, their faces blurred Last Line: Our almost-instinct almost true: %what will survive of us is love Subject(s): Cemeteries; Love; Mourning AS A WAR IN YEARS OF PEACE Last Line: What, remembered, still seems glowing %as all of you. Indifference? AS BAD AS A MILE First Line: Watching the shied core Last Line: Earlier and earlier, the unraised hand calm, %the apple unbitten in the palm AT GRASS First Line: The eye can hardly pick them out Last Line: Or curious stop-watch prophesies: %only the groom, and the groom's boy, %with bridles in the evening AT THE CHIMING OF LIGHT UPON SLEEP Last Line: On the crest of the sun: unlock %the words and seeds that drove %adam out of his undeciduous grove AT THIRTY-ONE, WHEN SOME ARE RICH Last Line: Of self-contempt, of boredom too, ascends. %what use is an endearment and a joke? AUBADE Poem Text First Line: I work all day, and get half-drunk at night Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers AUBADE First Line: I work all day, and get half-drunk at night Last Line: Work has to be done. %postmen like doctors go from house to house Subject(s): Labor And Laborers AUTOBIOGRAPHY AT AN AIR-STATION Poem Text First Line: Delay, well, travellers must expect Last Line: So much on this assumption. Now it's failed Subject(s): Air Travel AUTOBIOGRAPHY AT AN AIR-STATION First Line: Delay, well, travellers must expect Last Line: Begins to ebb outside, by fear; I set %so much on this assumption. Now it's failed Subject(s): Air Travel AUTUMN Poem Text First Line: The air deals blows: surely too hard, too often? Subject(s): Autumn; Seasons; Fall AUTUMN First Line: The air deals blows: surely too hard, too often? Last Line: And the case of butterflies so rich it looks %as if all summer settled there and died Subject(s): Autumn; Seasons AUTUMN HAS CAUGHT US IN OUR SUMMER WEAR Last Line: Outside, the frost will bite, thaw, then return; %inside, the candle will burn BEST SOCIETY First Line: When I was a child, I thought Last Line: And like a sea-anemone %or simple snail, there cautiously %unfolds, emerges, what I am BORN YESTERDAY Poem Text First Line: Tightly-folded bud, / I have wished you something Subject(s): Birth; Life Change Events; Child Birth; Midwifery BORN YESTERDAY First Line: Tightly-folded bud, %I have wished you something Last Line: If that is what a skilled, %vigilant, flexible, %unemphasised, enthralled %catching of happiness is Subject(s): Birth; Life Change Events BOTTLE IS DRUNK OUT BY ONE Last Line: The first steps going down the unswept street, %voices of girls with scarves around their heads BREADFRUIT First Line: Boys dream of native girls who bring breadfruit Last Line: Maturity falls, when old men sit and dream %of naked native girls who bring breadfruit %whatever the BRIDGE FOR THE LIVING Poem Text First Line: Isolate city spread alongside water Subject(s): Bridges BRIDGE FOR THE LIVING First Line: Isolate city spread alongside water Last Line: The best of what we are and hold as true: %always it is by bridges that we live Subject(s): Bridges BROADCAST First Line: Giant whispering and coughing from Last Line: Leaving me desperate to pick out %your hands, tiny in all that air, applauding BUILDING First Line: Higher than the handsomest hotel Last Line: The coming dark, though crowds each evening try %with wasteful, weak, propitiatory flowers BY DAY, A LIFTED STUDY-STOREHOUSE First Line: By day, a lifted study-storehouse; night Last Line: Whichever's shown, the symbol is the same: %knowledge; a university; a name CARD-PLAYERS First Line: Jan van hogspeuw staggers to the door Last Line: Gobs at the grate, and hits the queen of hearts. %rain, wind and fire! The secret, bestial peace! CHURCH GOING Poem Text First Line: Once I am sure there's nothing going on Subject(s): Churches; Religion; Cathedrals; Theology CHURCH GOING First Line: Once I am sure there's nothing going on Last Line: If only that so many dead lie round Subject(s): Churches; Religion CLIMBING THE HILL WITHIN THE DEAFENING WIND Last Line: The heart in its own endless silence kneeling CLIMBING THE HILL WITHIN THE DEAFENING WIND Last Line: The walking of girls' vulnerable feet, %the heart in its own endless silence kneeling COME THEN TO PRAYERS Last Line: And the waves sing because they are moving. %and the waves sing above a cemetery of waters COMING Poem Text First Line: On longer evenings Subject(s): Spring COMING First Line: On longer evenings Last Line: And can understand nothing %but the unusual laughter, %and starts to be happy Subject(s): Spring COMING AT LAST TO NIGHT'S MOST THANKFUL SPRINGS Last Line: Not worth the carrying, when held before %the full moon trav elling through her shepherdless fields COMPLINE First Line: Behind the radio's altarlight Last Line: Better that endless notes beseech %as many nights, as many dawns, %if finally god grants the wish CONSCRIPT First Line: The ego's county he inherited Last Line: Which would not give him time to follow further %the details of his own defeat and murder CONTINUING TO LIVE First Line: Continuing to live - that is, repeat Last Line: Just what it was, is hardly satisfying, %since it applied only to one man once, %and that one dying COUNTING First Line: Thinking in terms of one Last Line: But counting up to two %is harder to do; %for one must be denied %before it's tried CUT GRASS Poem Text First Line: Cut grass lies frail: Subject(s): Mowing & Mowers; Grass; Transience; Lawn Mowers; Impermanence CUT GRASS First Line: Cut grass lies frail Last Line: White lilac bowed, %lost lanes of queen anne's lace, %and that high-builded cloud %moving at summer' DAILY THINGS WE DO Last Line: The circumstance we cause %in time gives rise to us, %becomes our memory DANCE First Line: Drink, sex and jazz - all sweet things, brother: far Last Line: Endless receding saturdays, their dense %and spot-light-fingered glut %of never-resting hair-dos; un DANCER First Line: Butterfly %or fallen leaf Last Line: The moon, the anchorless %moon go swerving %down at the earth for a catastrophic kiss DAWN First Line: To wake, and hear a cock Last Line: How strange it is %for the heart to be loveless, and as cold as these DAYS Poem Text First Line: What are days for? Subject(s): Day; Time DAYS First Line: What are days for? Last Line: Brings the priest and the doctor %in their long coats %running over the fields Subject(s): Day; Time DEAR CHARLES, MY MUSE, ASLEEP OR DEAD Last Line: Admiration; friendship too; %and hope that in the future you%reap ever richer revenue Subject(s): Causley, Charles (1917-2003) DECEPTIONS First Line: Even so distant, I can taste the grief Last Line: Than he was, stumbling up the breathless stair %to burst into fulfilment's desolate attic DEDICATED First Line: Some must employ the scythe Last Line: Perch once, and then depart %their knowledge. After, they wait %only the colder advent, %the quenchi DEEP ANALYSIS First Line: I am a woman lying on a leaf Last Line: Having only your grief under my mouth %because of the darkness DISINTEGRATION First Line: Time running beneath the pillow wakes Last Line: Time points the simian camera in the head %upon confusion to be seen and seen DOCKERY AND SON Poem Text Subject(s): Relationships; Disappointment; Ancestors & Ancestry; Middle Age' Universities And Colleges; Youth; Heritage; Heredity DOCKERY AND SON First Line: Dockery was junior to you Last Line: And leaves what something hidden from us chose, %and age, and then the only end of age DUBLINESQUE Poem Text First Line: Down stucco sidestreets, Subject(s): Dublin, Ireland; Funerals; Burials DUBLINESQUE First Line: Down stucco sidestreets Last Line: As they wend away %a voice is heard singing %of kitty, or katy, %as if the name meant once %all love ESSENTIAL BEAUTY First Line: In frames as large as rooms that face all ways Last Line: No match lit up, nor drag ever brought near, %who now stands newly clear, %smiling, and recognising, EXPLOSION First Line: On the day of the explosion Last Line: Somehow from the sun towards them, %one showing the eggs unbroken Subject(s): Disasters; Mines And Miners FAITH HEALING Poem Text First Line: Slowly the women file to where he stands Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Theology FAITH HEALING First Line: Slowly the women file to where he stands Last Line: Spreads slowly through them - that, and the voice above %saying dear child, and all time has disprov Subject(s): Bible; Religion FAR OUT First Line: Beyond the bright cartoons Last Line: For such evasive dust %can make so little clear: %much less is known than not, %more far than near FICTION AND THE READING PUBLIC Poem Text First Line: Give me a thrill, says the reader Subject(s): Books; Reading FICTION AND THE READING PUBLIC First Line: Give me a thrill, says the reader Last Line: Just please me for two generations - %you'll be 'truly great' Subject(s): Books FIRST SIGHT First Line: Lambs that learn to walk in snow Last Line: They could not grasp it if they knew, %what so soon will wake and grow %utterly unlike the snow FOR SIDNEY BECHET Poem Text Recitation First Line: That note you hold, narrowing and rising, shakes Subject(s): Bechet, Sidney Joseph (1897-1959); Jazz; Music & Musicians FOR SIDNEY BECHET First Line: That note you hold, narrowing and rising, shakes Last Line: And greeted as the natural noise of good, %scattering long-haired grief and scored pity Subject(s): Bechet, Sidney Joseph (1897-1959); Jazz; Music And Musicians FORGET WHAT DID First Line: Stopping the diary Last Line: Celestial recurrences, %the day the flowers come, %and when the birds go FRAGMENT FROM MAY First Line: Stands the spring! - heralded by its bright-clothed Last Line: Of fresh youth's cheek; they lightly throw their charms %into the fragrance of the deep, wet grass FRIDAY NIGHT IN THE ROYAL STATION HOTEL First Line: Light spreads darkly downwards from the high Last Line: (if home existed) letters of exile: now %night comes on. Waves fold behind villages GATHERING WOOD First Line: On short, still days Last Line: Soon air-frosts haze %snow-thickened shires; %o short, stilldays! %o burrow fires! GOING First Line: There is an evening coming in Last Line: What loads my hands down? Variant Title(s): Dying Da GOING, GOING First Line: I thought it would last my time Last Line: I just think it will happen, soon GOOD FOR YOU, GAVIN First Line: It's easy to write when you've nothing to write about Last Line: Your riotous road-show's like glenlivet nightly, %a warming to us all HAVING GROWN UP IN SHADE OF CHURCH AND STATE Last Line: A graceful player! True? Perhaps. Benign, %we diagnose a case of good old sex HE HEARS THAT HIS BELOVED HAS BECOME ENGAGED Poem Text First Line: When she came on, you couldn't keep your seat Last Line: You'll only change her. Till, I'm sure you're right Subject(s): Love - Loss Of HE HEARS THAT HIS BELOVED HAS BECOME ENGAGED First Line: When she came on, you couldn't keep your seat Last Line: In saying love, but meaning interference? %you'll only change her. Still, I'm sure you're right Subject(s): Love - Loss Of HEADS IN THE WOMEN'S WARD Poem Text First Line: On pillow after pillow lies Subject(s): Old Age; Women HEADS IN THE WOMEN'S WARD First Line: On pillow after pillow lies Last Line: Smiles are for youth. For old age come %death's terror and delirium Subject(s): Old Age; Women HEAVIEST OF FLOWERS, THE HEAD Last Line: And then decay HEAVIEST OF FLOWERS, THE HEAD Last Line: Like fallen apples, they will lose %their sweetness at the bruise, %and then decay HERE First Line: Swerving east, from rich industrial shadows Last Line: Of shapes and shingle. Here is unfenced existence: %facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach HIGH WINDOWS Poem Text First Line: When I see a couple of kids Subject(s): Sin HIGH WINDOWS First Line: When I see a couple of kids Last Line: And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows %nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless Subject(s): Sin HIGH WINDOWS First Line: When I see a couple of kids Last Line: Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless HILLS IN THEIR RECUMBENT POSTURES Last Line: If one should fall among these farms, %would not the lake reflect the sky?' HOMAGE TO A GOVERNMENT First Line: Next year we are to bring the soldiers home Last Line: Our children will not know it's a different country. %all we can hope to leave them now is money HOMAGE TO A GOVERNMENT First Line: Next year we are to bring the soldiers home Last Line: All we can hope to leave them now is money HOME IS SO SAD Poem Text First Line: Home is so sad. It stays as it was left Subject(s): Home HOME IS SO SAD First Line: Home is so sad. It stays as it was left Last Line: Look at the pictures and the cutlery. %the music in the piano stool. That vase HORNS OF THE MORNING Last Line: Earth grown before HORNS OF THE MORNING Last Line: For never so brilliant, %neither so silent %nor so unearthly, has %earth grown before HOSPITAL VISITS First Line: At length to hospital Last Line: This meant (since it was begun &weeks back) he died again as she came away HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE SERIOUS WOOD Last Line: Where weakness was part of the ordinary landscape %and the friendly road knew his footstep, his foot HOW First Line: How high they build hospitals! Last Line: How few people are, %held apart by acres %of housing, and children %with their shallow violent eyes HOW DISTANT First Line: How distant, the departure of young men Last Line: The huge decisions printed out by feet %inventing where theytread, %the random windows conjuring a s HOW TO SLEEP Poem Text First Line: Child in the womb Last Line: And a loss of stature Subject(s): Sleep HOW TO SLEEP First Line: Child in the womb Last Line: Must be won without pride, %with a nod from nature, %with a lack of strain, %and a loss of stature Subject(s): Sleep I AM WASHED UPON A ROCK Last Line: That to a milder shore might come %and, years ahead, erect a crop I DREAMED OF AN OUT-THRUST ARM OF LAND Last Line: And a cold hill of stars I DREAMED OF AN OUT-THRUST ARM OF LAND Last Line: And I was empty of tears, %on the edge of a bricked and streeted sea %and a cold hill of stars I HAVE STARTED TO SAY Last Line: All that's left to happen %is some deaths (my own included).%their order, and their manner, %remain I PUT MY MOUTH Last Line: You have no death to come I PUT MY MOUTH Last Line: Crying for stillness, you have no mind %trembling with seraphim, %you have no death to come I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER Poem Text First Line: Coming up england by a different line Subject(s): Nostalgia I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER First Line: Coming up england by a different line Last Line: I suppose it's not the place's fault,' I said. %'nothing, like something, happens anywhere.' Subject(s): Nostalgia I SEE A GIRL DRAGGED BY THE WRISTS Last Line: Then as I pray it may for sanctuary %descend at last to me, %and put into my hand its golden horn IF GRIEF COULD BURN OUT Poem Text IF GRIEF COULD BURN OUT Last Line: Heart lies impotent IF GRIEF COULD BURN OUT Last Line: The flames have left, %and grief stirs, and the deft %heart lies impotent Subject(s): Grief IF HANDS COULD FREE YOU, HEART Last Line: To rest my head IF HANDS COULD FREE YOU, HEART Last Line: All beauty under the sun - %still end in loss: %I should find no bent arm, no bed %to rest my head IF, MY DARLING Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: If my darling were once to decide Last Line: Might knock my darling off her unpriceable pivot Subject(s): Fairy Tales; Man-woman Relationships; Reality; Male-female Relations IGNORANCE First Line: Strange to know nothing, never to be sure Last Line: And yet spend all our life on imprecisions, %that when we start to die %have no idea why IMPORTANCE OF ELSEWHERE First Line: Lonely in ireland, since it was not home Last Line: Here no elsewhere underwrites my existence IN TIMES WHEN NOTHING STOOD Last Line: There was one constant good: %she did not change IS IT FOR NOW OR FOR ALWAYS Last Line: I take you now and for always, %for always is always now Subject(s): Love - Marital KICK UP THE FIRE First Line: Kick up the fire, and let the flames break loose Last Line: Across the mind of this prolific plant, %dumb idleness KICK UP THE FIRE, AND LET THE FLAMES BREAK LOOSE Last Line: Or watch the sad increase %across the mind of this prolific plant, %dumb idleness? LARGE COOL STORE First Line: The large cool store selling cheap clothes Last Line: Or in our young unreal wishes %seem to be: synthetic, new, %and natureless in ecstasies LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT First Line: Anxious to publicise and pay our dues Last Line: Herewith we close, with time's apology %for the ephemeral injury, %on this 26th of july, 1940 LATEST FACE Poem Text First Line: Latest face, so effortless Last Line: And murder and not understand? Subject(s): Beauty LATEST FACE First Line: Latest face, so effortless Last Line: Stay out of sight and double round, %leap from the sun with mask and brand %and murder and not under LETTER TO A FRIEND ABOUT GIRLS First Line: After comparing lives with you for years Last Line: What makes you be so lucky in your ratio %one of those 'morethings', could it be? Horatio LIFE WITH A HOLE IN IT First Line: When I throw back my head and howl Last Line: They strain round a hollow stasis %of havings-to, fear, faces. %days sift down it constantly. Years LIFT THROUGH THE BREAKING DAY Last Line: Till all's beyond death's reach, %and empty shells reply %that all things flourish LIKE THE TRAIN'S BEAT Last Line: In a bird's throat, issuing meaningless %through written skies; a voice %watering a stony place LIKE THE TRAIN'S HEAT Last Line: Watering a stony place LIMERICK (1) First Line: There was an old fellow of kaber Last Line: He replied, 'I refuse,' %but charles called, 'you must love your neighbour' LIMERICK (2) First Line: There was an old fellow of kaber Last Line: He cried, 'god, I must run,' %but charles called, 'you must love your neighbour' LINES ON A YOUNG LADY'S PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM Poem Text Recitation First Line: At last you yielded up the album, which Subject(s): Love LINES ON A YOUNG LADY'S PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM First Line: At last you yielded up the album, which Last Line: Unvariably lovely there, %smaller and clearer as the years go by Subject(s): Love LITERARY WORLD: 1 First Line: My dear kafka Last Line: Then you'll know about depression Subject(s): Kafka, Franz (1883-1924) LITERARY WORLD: 2 First Line: Mrs alfred tennyson Last Line: While all this was going on %mister alfred tennyson sat like a baby %doing his poetic business Subject(s): Tennyson, Alfred (1809-1892) LITTLE LIVES OF EARTH AND FORM Last Line: I see the rock, the clay, the chalk, %the flattened grass, the swaying stalk, %and it is you I see LIVINGS: 1 First Line: I deal with farmers, things like dips and feed Last Line: He used to but the business now is mine. %it's time for change, in nineteen twenty-nine LIVINGS: 2 First Line: Seventy feet down Last Line: I set plate and spoon, %and after, divining-cards. %lit shelved liners %grope like mad worlds westwa LIVINGS: 3 First Line: Tonight we dine without the master Last Line: Dusty shelves hold prayers and proofs: %above, chaldean constellations %sparkle over crowded roofs LOCAL SNIVELS THROUGH THE FIELDS Last Line: Death will be such another thing, %all we have done not mattering LONG LAST First Line: Suddenly, not long before Last Line: What can it do each day %but hunt that imminent door %through which all that understood %has hidden LONG LION DAYS Last Line: Whatever conceived %now fully leaved, %abounding, ablaze - %o long lion days! LONG ROOTS MOOR SUMMER TO OUR SIDE OF EARTH Last Line: Reply can the vast flowering strike from us, %unless it be the one %you make today in london: to be LONG SIGHT IN AGE Poem Text First Line: They say eyes clear with age Subject(s): Time LONG SIGHT IN AGE First Line: They say eyes clear with age Last Line: Wrinkling away the gold %wind-ridden waves - all these, %they say, come back to focus %as we grow ol Subject(s): Time LOVE Poem Text First Line: The difficult part of love Subject(s): Love LOVE First Line: The difficult part of love Last Line: Is ever wholly rebuffed, %and he can get stuffed Subject(s): Love LOVE AGAIN Poem Text First Line: Love again: wanking at ten past three Subject(s): Love - Lost LOVE AGAIN First Line: Love again: wanking at ten past three Last Line: Something to do with violence %a long way back, and wrong rewards, %and arrogant eternity LOVE SONGS IN AGE First Line: She kept her songs, they took so little space Last Line: To pile them back, to cry, %was hard, without lamely admitting how %it had not done so then, and cou LOVE WE MUST PART Poem Text First Line: Love, we must part now: do not let it be Subject(s): Love; Farewell; Parting LOVE, WE MUST PART NOW First Line: Love, we must part now: do not let it be Last Line: Break from an estuary with their courses set, %and waving part, and waving drop from sight Variant Title(s): Love, We Must Part Now: Do Not Let It B MAIDEN NAME Poem Text First Line: Marrying left your maiden name disused Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives MAIDEN NAME First Line: Marrying left your maiden name disused Last Line: Instead of losing shape and meaning less %with your depreciating luggage laden Subject(s): Marriage MANY FAMOUS FEET HAVE TROD Last Line: Cannot keep silence. What else should magnetize %our drudging, hypocritical, ecstatic life? MARCH PAST First Line: The march interrupted the light afternoon Last Line: So light they can awake and occupy %an absent mind when any march goes by MARRIAGES First Line: When those of us who seem Last Line: Whether they forget %what they wanted first or not %they tarnish at quiet anchor Subject(s): Love - Marital; Marriage MATURITY First Line: A stationary sense...As, I suppose Last Line: This pantomime %of compensating act and counter-act, %defeatand counterfeit, makes up, in fact, %my MAY WEATHER First Line: A month ago in fields Last Line: Summer's impressive lie - %upon whose every day %so many ruined are %may could not make aware MCMXIV [1914] Poem Text First Line: Those long uneven lines Subject(s): World War I; First World War MCMXIV [1914] First Line: Those long uneven lines Last Line: The thousands of marriages %lasting a little while longer: %never such innocence again Subject(s): World War I MIDSUMMER NIGHT, 1940 First Line: The sun falls behind wales; the towns and hills Last Line: Alternate shows of dynamite and rain; %and choosing forced on free will: fire or ice MIDWINTER WAKING First Line: Paws there. Snout there as well. Mustiness. Mould Last Line: Morning, perhaps; but not a proper one. %turn. Sleep will unshell us, but not yet MODESTIES First Line: Words as plain as hen-birds' wings Last Line: Weeds are not supposed to grow, %but by degrees %some achieve a flower, although %no one sees MONEY Poem Text First Line: Quarterly, is it, money reproaches me Subject(s): Money MONEY First Line: Quarterly, is it, money reproaches me Last Line: The slums, the canal, the churches ornate and mad %in the evening sun. It is intensely sad Subject(s): Money MOON IS FULL TONIGHT Last Line: Wherewith to fill its cup, %or mint a second moon, a paradise? - %for they are gone from earth MORNING AT LAST: THERE IN THE SNOW Last Line: But when they vanish with the rain %what morning woke to will remain, %whether as happiness or pain MORNING HAS SPREAD AGAIN Last Line: More times than I can number on one hand MORNING HAS SPREAD AGAIN Last Line: I wonder love can have already set %in dreams, when we've not met %more times than I can number on o MOTHER, SUMMER, I Poem Text First Line: My mother, who hates thunderstorms Subject(s): Mothers MOTHER, SUMMER, I First Line: My mother, who hates thunderstorms Last Line: I can't confront: I must await %a time less bold, less rich,less clear: an autumn more appropriate Subject(s): Mothers MOWER First Line: The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found Last Line: Of each other, we should be kind %while there is still time MR. BLEANEY Poem Text Recitation First Line: This was mr. Bleaney's room. He stayed Subject(s): Christmas; Holidays; Nativity, The MR. BLEANEY First Line: This was mr. Bleaney's room. He stayed Last Line: Than one hired box should make him pretty sure %he warranted no better, I don't know Subject(s): Christmas; Holidays MYTHOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION First Line: A white girl lay on the grass Last Line: And spread her arms wide; %and the webbed earth where she had lain %had eaten away her side MYXOMATOSIS Poem Text First Line: Caught in the centre of a soundless field Subject(s): Animals; Disease; Rabbits; Hares MYXOMATOSIS First Line: Caught in the centre of a soundless field Last Line: You may have thought things would come right again %if you could only keep quite still and wait Subject(s): Animals; Disease; Rabbits NATURALLY THE FOUNDATION WILL BEAR YOUR EXPENSES First Line: Hurrying to catch my comet Last Line: And dwindle off down auster %to greet professor lal %(he once met morgan forster), %my contact and m NEGATIVE INDICATIVE First Line: Never to walk from the station's lamps and laurels Last Line: And remember the year has turned, and feel the air %alive with the emblematic sound of water NEUROTICS First Line: No one gives you a thought, as day by day Last Line: And skirts locked rooms where a hired darkness ends %your long defence against the non-existent NEW EYES EACH YEAR Last Line: So youth and age %like ink and page %in this house join, %minting new coin NEW YEAR POEM Poem Text First Line: The short afternoon ends, and the year is over Subject(s): Christmas; Holidays; New Year; Nativity, The NEW YEAR POEM First Line: The short afternoon ends, and the year is over Last Line: Us who need you, and are affected by your fortune; %us you should love and to whom you should give y Subject(s): Christmas; Holidays; New Year NEXT, PLEASE Poem Text Recitation First Line: Always too eager for the future, we Subject(s): Death; Dead, The NEXT, PLEASE First Line: Always too eager for the future, we Last Line: A huge and birdless silence. In her wake %no waters breed or break Subject(s): Death NIGHT-MUSIC First Line: At one the wind rose Last Line: The stars sang in their sockets through the night: %'blow bright, blow bright %the coal of this unqu NO ROAD First Line: Since we agreed to let the road between us %fall to disuse Last Line: Rewarding others, is my liberty. %not to prevent it is my will's fulfulment. %willing it, my ailment NONE OF THE BOOKS HAVE TIME Last Line: Selfishness is like listening to good jazz %with drinks for further orders and a huge fire NORTH SHIP First Line: I saw three ships go sailing by Last Line: Into an unforgiving sea %under a fire-spilling star, %and it was rigged for a long journey Subject(s): Sea; Ships And Shipping NOTHING SIGNIFICANT WAS REALLY SAID Last Line: What was the rock my gliding childhood struck, %and what bright unreal path has led me here?' NOTHING TO BE SAID First Line: For nations vague as weed Last Line: And saying so to some %means nothing; others it leaves %nothing to be said NOTHING TO BE SAID First Line: For nations vague as weed %for monads among stones Last Line: Means nothing; others it leaves %nothing to be said NURSERY TALE First Line: All I remember is Last Line: So every journey I begin foretells %a weariness of daybreak,spread %with carrion kisses, carrion far OBSERVATION First Line: Only in books the flat and final happens Last Line: Where much is picturesque but nothing good, %and nothing can be found for poor men's fires OLD FOOLS First Line: What do they think has happened, the old fools Last Line: Not when the strangers come? Never, throughout %the whole hideous inverted childhood? Well, %we shal Subject(s): Aging ON BEING TWENTY-SIX First Line: I feared these present years Last Line: All grist to me %except devaluing dichotomies: %nothing, and paradise ONE MAN WALKING A DESERTED PLATFORM Last Line: Love sink a grave round the still-sleeping head ONE MAN WALKING A DESERTED PLATFORM Last Line: On to the next desert, lest %love sink a grave round the still-sleeping head? Variant Title(s): Getawa OUT IN THE LANE I PAUSE First Line: Out in the lane I pause: the night Last Line: This must everybody learn %for mutual happiness; that trust %alone is best.' PARTY POLITICS Poem Text First Line: I never remember holding a full drink Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse PARTY POLITICS First Line: I never remember holding a full drink Last Line: You may get drunk, or dry half-hours may pass. %it seems to turn on where you are. Or who Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism PAST DAYS OF GALES Last Line: And death seems like long hills, a range %we ride each day towards, and never reach PIGEONS Poem Text First Line: On shallow slates the pigeons shift together Last Line: Shows them, black as their shadows, sleeping so Subject(s): Pigeons PIGEONS First Line: On shallow slates the pigeons shift together Last Line: Light from a small intense lopsided moon %shows them, black as their shadows, sleeping so Subject(s): Pigeons PLACES, LOVED ONES First Line: No, I have never found Last Line: And wiser to keep away %from thinking you still might trace %uncalled-for to this day %your person, PLYMOUTH First Line: A box of teak, a box of sandalwood Last Line: To split chance lives across, that had not dreamed %such coasts had echoed, or such seabirds screame POEM ABOUT OXFORD First Line: City we shared without knowing Last Line: It holds us, like that fleae we read about %in the depths of the second world war Subject(s): Oxford University POETRY OF DEPARTURES Poem Text Recitation First Line: Sometimes you hear, fifth-hand Subject(s): Wandering & Wanderers; Wanderlust; Vagabonds; Tramps; Hoboes POETRY OF DEPARTURES First Line: Sometimes you hear, fifth-hand Last Line: Books; china; a life %reprehensibly perfect Subject(s): Wanderers And Wandering PORTRAIT First Line: Her hands intend no harm Last Line: Her hands are not strong enough %her hands will fall to her sides %and no wind will trouble to break Variant Title(s): The Quiet On POSTERITY First Line: Jake balokowsky, my biographer Last Line: Not out of kicks or something happening - %one of those old-type natural fouled-up guys.' POUR AWAY THAT YOUTH Last Line: For fear of death POUR AWAY THAT YOUTH Last Line: Throw away that youth %that jewel in the head %that bronze in the breath; %walk with the dead %for f REASONS FOR ATTENDANCE First Line: The trumpet's voice, loud and authoritative Last Line: Believing that; and both are satisfied, %if no one has misjudged himself. Or lied REFERENCE BACK Poem Text First Line: That was a pretty one, I heard you call Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Time REFERENCE BACK First Line: That was a pretty one, I heard you call Last Line: Blindingly undiminished, just as though %by acting differently we could have kept it so SAD STEPS Poem Text First Line: Groping back to bed after a piss Subject(s): Youth SAD STEPS First Line: Groping back to bed after a piss Last Line: That it can't come again, %but is for others undiminished somewhere Subject(s): Youth SCHOOL IN AUGUST First Line: The cloakroom pegs are empty now Last Line: And seniors grow tomorrow %from the juniors today, %and even swimming groups can fade, %games mistre SCHOOLMASTER First Line: He sighed with relief. He had got the job. He was safe Last Line: For though he never realised it, he %dissolved. (like sugar in a cup of tea.) Subject(s): Schools SCRATCH ON THE SCRATCH PAD Last Line: Much we buy each market day, %more still obtain: %all, all is carried home %by slow evening train SELF'S THE MAN Poem Text First Line: Oh, no one can deny Subject(s): Self SELF'S THE MAN First Line: Oh, no one can deny Last Line: At knowing what I can stand %without them sending a van - %or I suppose I can Subject(s): Self SEND NO MONEY Poem Text First Line: Standing under the fobbed Subject(s): Hate SEND NO MONEY First Line: Standing under the fobbed Last Line: In this way I spent youth, %tracing the trite untransferable%truss-advertisement, truth Subject(s): Hate SHOW SATURDAY First Line: Grey day for the show, but cars jam the narrow lanes Last Line: That breaks ancestrally each year into %regenerate union. Let it always be there SINCE THE MAJORITY OF ME Last Line: They want renewed. They never learn SINCE THE MAJORITY OF ME Last Line: Each night with cancelled promises %they want renewed. They never learn SINKING LIKE SEDIMENT THROUGH THE DAY Last Line: Embrace me, and I shall be beautiful' - %'be beautiful, and I will embrace you' - %we argue for hour SKIN Poem Text First Line: Obedient daily dress Last Line: Till the fashion changes Subject(s): Skin; Clothing & Dress SKIN First Line: Obedient daily dress Last Line: No brash festivity %to wear you at, such as %clothes are entitled to %till the fashion changes SLIGHT RELAX OF AIR WHERE COLD WAS Last Line: Wing to the corporation rubbish ground. %a slight relax of air. All is not dead SO THROUGH THAT UNRIPE DAY YOU BORE YOUR HEAD Last Line: Cut, gummed; pastime of a provincial winter SO THROUGH THAT UNRIPE DAY YOU BORE YOUR HEAD Last Line: Indoors. This is your last, meticulous hour, %cut, gummed; pastime of a provincial winter SO YOU HAVE BEEN, DESPITE PARENTAL BAN Last Line: Boys wish to imitate who hear of it - %but will you tell them to repeat your act? SOLAR First Line: Suspended lion face Last Line: Our needs hourly %climb and return like angels. %unclosing like a hand, %you give for ever SONG: 65 DEGREES N First Line: My sleep is made cold Last Line: I grow afraid, %now the bargain is made, %that dream draws close SONG: 70 DEGREES. FORTUNETELLING First Line: You will go a long journey Last Line: Knowing it is the same %as one who long since died %under a different name.' SONG: 75 DEGREES. BLIZZARD First Line: Suddenly clouds of snow Last Line: A girl is standing there %who will take no lovers %till she winds me in her hair SONG: ABOVE 80 DEGREES First Line: A woman has ten claws,' Last Line: The star flames on the ocean; %'a woman has ten claws,' %sang the drunken boatswain SPIRIT WOOED First Line: Once I believed in you Last Line: Was that the cause %you daily came less near - a pause %longer than life, if you decide it so? SPRING Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Green-shadowed people sit, or walk in rings Subject(s): Spring SPRING First Line: Green-shadowed people sit, or walk in rings Last Line: Their paths grown cravan and circuitous, %their visions mountain-clear, their needs immodest Subject(s): Spring SPRING WARNING First Line: And the walker sees the sunlit battlefield Last Line: The muffled boy, with his compelling badge, %on his serious errand riding to the gorge STONE CHURCH DAMAGED BY A BOMB First Line: Planted deeper than roots Last Line: As coral is set budding under seas, %though none, o none sees what patterns it is making? STORY First Line: Tired of a landscape known too well when young Last Line: If the children and the rocks were still the same. %but he forgot all this as he grew older STRANGERS First Line: The eyes of strangers Last Line: Keeping the soul unjostled, %the pocket unpicked, %the fancies lurid, %and the treasure buried STREET LAMPS First Line: When night slinks, like a puma, down the sky Last Line: And, leering pallid though its use was done, %tried to cast shadows contrary to the sun STUDY OF READING HABITS First Line: When getting my nose in a book Last Line: Who's yellow and keeps the store, %seem far too familiar. Get stewed: %books are load of crap Subject(s): Books; Hate SUCCESS STORY First Line: To fail (transitive and intransitive) Last Line: Clean past it now at hardly any price - %just some pretence about the other thing SUMMER NOCTURNE First Line: Now night perfumes lie upon the air Last Line: But no! For in a few white-misted hours %the east must yellow with to-morrow's sun SUNNY PRESTATYN Poem Text First Line: Come to sunny prestatyn Subject(s): Graffiti SUNNY PRESTATYN First Line: Come to sunny prestatyn Last Line: Very soon, a great transverse tear %left only a hand and some blue. %now fight cancer is there Subject(s): Graffiti SYMPATHY IN WHITE MAJOR First Line: When I drop four cubes of ice Last Line: Here's to the whitest man I know - %though white is not my favourite colour TAKE ONE HOME FOR THE KIDDIES First Line: On shallow straw, in shadeless glass Last Line: Fetch the shoebox, fetch the shovel - %mam, we're playing funerals now TALKING IN BED Poem Text First Line: Talking in bed ought to be easiest Subject(s): Love TALKING IN BED First Line: Talking in bed ought to be easiest Last Line: Words at once true and kind, %or not untrue and not unkind Subject(s): Love THAW First Line: Tiny immortal streams are on the move Last Line: On the surface of morning feathers of self-reproach: %how easily I disperse the scolding of snow THE EXPLOSION Poem Text First Line: On the day of the explosion Subject(s): Disasters; Mines & Miners THE LITERARY WORLD: 1 Poem Text First Line: My dear kafka Subject(s): Kafka, Franz (1883-1924) THE LITERARY WORLD: 2 Poem Text First Line: Mrs alfred tennyson Subject(s): Tennyson, Alfred (1809-1892); Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron THE MOWER Poem Text First Line: The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found Subject(s): Mowing & Mowers; Death - Animals; Hedgehogs; Lawn Mowers THE NORTH SHIP Poem Text First Line: I saw three ships go sailing by Last Line: And it was rigged for a long journey Subject(s): Sea; Ships & Shipping; Ocean THE OLD FOOLS Poem Text First Line: What do they think has happened, the old fools Subject(s): Aging THE TREES Poem Text Recitation First Line: The trees are coming into leaf Subject(s): Environment; Trees; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation THE WHITSUN WEDDINGS Poem Text First Line: That whitsun, I was late getting away Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives THE WINTER PALACE Poem Text First Line: Most people know more as they get older Subject(s): Aging THERE IS NO LANGUAGE OF DESTRUCTION First Line: There is no language of destruction for Last Line: Nor will the lovely, gay as any leaf, %assuage his anguish. And the lions laugh THIS BE THE VERSE Poem Text First Line: They fuck you up, your mum and dad Subject(s): Parents; Parenthood THIS BE THE VERSE First Line: They fuck you up, your mum and dad Last Line: Get out as early as you can, %and don't have any kids yourself Subject(s): Parents THIS IS THE FIRST THING Last Line: Within a wood THIS IS THE FIRST THING Last Line: Time is the echo of an axe %within a wood THIS WAS YOUR PLACE OF BIRTH, THIS DAYTIME PALACE Last Line: The game is finished when he plays his ace, %and overturn the table and go into the next room? TIME AND SPACE WERE ONLY THEIR DISGUISES Last Line: Time in his little cinema of the heart %giving a premiere to hate and pain; %and space urbanely keep TO A VERY SLOW AIR First Line: The golden sheep are feeding, and Last Line: Upon the forehead, on the hands and feet, %that all air is appointed %our candid clothing, our elaps TO FAILURE First Line: You do not come dramatically, with dragons Last Line: Smell staler too. And once they fall behind %they look like ruin. You have been here some time TO MY WIFE Poem Text First Line: Choice of you shuts up that peacock-fan Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives TO MY WIFE First Line: Choice of you shuts up that peacock-fan Last Line: Now you become my boredom and my failure, %another way of suffering, a risk, %a heavier-than-air hyp Subject(s): Marriage TO PUT ONE BRICK UPON ANOTHER Last Line: Weighing what you should or can do %leaves no doubt of it at all TO THE SEA First Line: To step over the low wall that divides Last Line: Yearly; teaching their children by a sort %of clowning; helping the old, too, as they ought TO WRITE ONE SONG, I SAID Last Line: As some vast seven-piled wave, %mane-flinging, manifold, %streams at an endless shore TOADS Poem Text First Line: Why should I let the toad work Subject(s): Toads; Bourgeoisie; Toads; Middle Class TOADS First Line: Why should I let the toad work Last Line: I don't say, one bodies the other %one's spiritual truth; %but I do say it's hard to lose either, %w Subject(s): Bourgeoisie; Toads TOADS First Line: Why should I let the toad work Last Line: When you have both TOADS REVISITED Poem Text Recitation First Line: Walking around in the park Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Toads; Work; Workers TOADS REVISITED First Line: Walking around in the park Last Line: Give me your arm, old toad; %help me down cemetery road Subject(s): Labor And Laborers; Toads TOPS First Line: Tops heel and yaw Last Line: We know beyond doubt %they have almost run out %and are starting to die TRAUMEREI First Line: In this dream that dogs me I am part Last Line: The walls of my room rise, it is still night, %I have woken again before the word was spelt TREES First Line: The trees are coming into leaf Last Line: Last year is dead, they seem to say, %begin afresh, afresh, afresh Subject(s): Environment; Trees TRIPLE TIME First Line: This empty street, this sky to blandness scoured Last Line: On this we blame our last %threadbare perspectives, seasonal decrease TWO GUITAR PIECES: 1 First Line: The tin-roofed shack by the railroad Last Line: No one from these parts. Anyone could tell %not even the wagon aims to go anywhere TWO GUITAR PIECES: 2 First Line: I roll a cigarette, and light Last Line: Spreading me over the evening like a cloud, %drifting, darkening: unable to bring rain TWO PORTRAITS OF SEX: 1. OILS First Line: Sun. Tree. Beginning. God in a thicket. Crown Last Line: Apart from your tribe, there is only the dead, %and even them you grip and begin to use TWO PORTRAITS OF SEX: 2. DRY-POINT First Line: Endlessly, time-honoured irritant Last Line: We neither define nor prove, %where you, we dream, obtain no right of entry Variant Title(s): Etchin UGLY SISTER First Line: I will climb thirty steps to my room Last Line: I will attend to the trees and their gracious silence, %to winds that move ULTIMATUM First Line: But we must build our walls, for what we are Last Line: His knife, treetrunk, and lianas - for now %you must escape,or perish saying no UNDER A SPLENDID CHESTNUT TREE Last Line: One plate, one cup, laid in the same position %for the departed lodger, innocence UNFINISHED POEM First Line: I squeezed up the last stair to the room in the roof Last Line: Why are your feet bare? Was not death to come? %why is he not here? What summer have you broken from VERS DE SOCI??T?? Poem Text First Line: My wife and I have asked a crowd of craps Subject(s): Nothingness; Nihilism; Voids VERS DE SOCIETE First Line: My wife and I have asked a crowd of craps Last Line: Beyond the light stand failure and remorse %whispering dear warlock-williams: why, of course VIEW First Line: The view is fine from fifty Last Line: Unchilded and unwifed, I'm %able to view that clear: %so final. And so near WAITING FOR BREAKFAST, WHILE SHE BRUSHED HER HAIR Last Line: Part invalid, part baby, and part saint WAITING FOR BREAKFAST, WHILE SHE BRUSHED HER HAIR Last Line: Will you refuse to come till I have sent %her terribly away,importantly live %part invalid, part bab WANTS First Line: Beyond all this, the wish to be alone Last Line: The costly aversion of the eyes from death - %beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs WATER First Line: If I were called in Last Line: And I should raise in the east %a glass of water %where any-angled light %would congregate endlessly WATER First Line: If I were called in %to construct a religion Last Line: Where any-angled light %would congregate endlessly WE MET AT THE END OF THE PARTY Last Line: Of june, and the guests arriving, %and I not there WE SEE THE SPRING BREAKING ACROSS ROUGH STONE Last Line: Or not, we are sure to hear the rain %chanting its ancient litany, half-aloud WEDDING-WIND Poem Text Recitation First Line: The wind blew all my wedding-day Subject(s): Love; Love - Marital; Marriage; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Weddings; Husbands; Wives WEDDING-WIND First Line: The wind blew all my wedding-day Last Line: These new delighted lakes, conclude %our kneeling as cattle by all-generous waters? Subject(s): Love; Love - Marital; Marriage WHATEVER HAPPENED? First Line: At once whatever happened starts receding Last Line: Curses? The dark? Struggling? Where's the source %of these yarns now (except in nightmares, of cours WHEN FIRST WE FACED, AND TOUCHING SHOWED Last Line: No past, no people else at all - %only what meeting made us feel, %so new, and gentle-sharp, and str WHEN THE NIGHT PUTS TWENTY VEILS Last Line: Myself the circumstances' tennis-ball: %we'll bounce; together %or not, whether %either, let no tear WHEN THE RUSSIAN TANKS ROLL WESTWARD First Line: When the russian tanks roll westward, what defence for you Last Line: Colonel sloman's essex rifles? The light horse of l.S.E.? WHITSUN WEDDINGS First Line: That whitsun, I was late getting away Last Line: A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower %sent out of sight,somewhere becoming rain Subject(s): Marriage WHO CALLED LOVE CONQUERING Last Line: Grapple the sun down %by three o'clock %when the dire cloak of dark %stiffens the town WHO WHISTLED FOR THE WIND, THAT IT SHOULD BREAK Last Line: (all winds crying for that unbroken field, %day having lifted) %black flowers burst out wherever the WHY DID I DREAM OF YOU LAST NIGHT? Last Line: - like letters that arrive addressed to someone %who left t he house so many years ago WILD OATS Poem Text First Line: About twenty years ago Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Disappointment; Time; Male-female Relations WILD OATS First Line: About twenty years ago Last Line: In my wallet are still two snaps %of bosomy rose with fur gloves on. %unlucky charms, perhaps WINTER Poem Text First Line: In the field, two horses Subject(s): Winter WINTER First Line: In the field, two horses Last Line: That to the static %gold winter sun throws back %endless and cloudless pride Subject(s): Winter WINTER NOCTURNE First Line: Mantled in grey, the dusk steals slowly in Last Line: The rain falls still: bowing, the woods bemoan; %dark night creeps in, and leaves the world alone WINTER PALACE First Line: Most people know more as they get older Last Line: Then there will be nothing I know. %my mind will fold into itself, like fields, like snow Subject(s): Aging WIRES First Line: The widest prairies have electric fences Last Line: Young steers become old cattle from that day, %electric limits to their widest senses WITHIN THE DREAM YOU SAID Last Line: As cold as my heart WITHIN THE DREAM YOU SAID Last Line: There was no lambing-night, %no gale-driven bird %nor frost-encircled root %as cold as my heart WITHIN THE DREAM YOU SAID WOMEN OF THE T2 First Line: Wait at every bus stop Last Line: They have been waiting a long time WRITER First Line: Interesting, but futile,' said his diary Last Line: It was a gift that he possessed alone: %to look the world directly in the face; %the face he did not |
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