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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: STEVENSON, ANNE Matches Found: 379 Stevenson, Anne Poet's Biography 379 poems available by this author A LONDON LETTER Poem Text First Line: Your letter arrived with its letters Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives A MARRIAGE Poem Text First Line: When my mother knew why her treatment wasn't working, Subject(s): Marriage; Family Life; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Relatives A REPORT FROM THE BORDER Poem Text First Line: Wars in peacetime don't behave like wars Last Line: "drowned crops, charred hopes, fear, stupor, prayer. Subject(s): Politics & Politicians; Social Commentaries A RIVER Poem Text First Line: The line between land and water Subject(s): Rivers A SURPRISE ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL Poem Text First Line: They give you a desk with a lid, mother Last Line: You read the words! Subject(s): Schools ABERDEEN First Line: Old daughter with a rich future Last Line: Nobody who loves her wants to save her AFTER FRANCIS BACON: 1. STUDY FOR PORTRAIT ON FOLDING BED First Line: Flesh squirms on the blue folding bed Last Line: Greenlessness -- on that dead step AFTER FRANCIS BACON: 2. STUDY OF A DOG First Line: The last dog Last Line: Onto the burning turf AFTER FRANCIS BACON: 3. THREE FIGURES AND PORTRAIT First Line: Personality, the flesh artist Last Line: In her chittering skull AFTER FRANCIS BACON: 4. SEATED FIGURE First Line: Self-placed Last Line: And everything's lost AFTER FRANCIS BACON: 5. PORTRAIT OF A LADY First Line: I did, of course, consent to it Last Line: Pays for the height of my brow AFTER FRANCIS BACON: 6. TRIPTYCH First Line: In hades Last Line: Has almost %succeeded AFTER FRANCIS BACON: 7. STUDY FOR A PORTRAIT OF VAN GOGH First Line: I paint the rich and the damned Last Line: I lay the whole weight of my gift %on his stooped back AFTER HER DEATH First Line: In the unbelievable days Last Line: Oblivious to the deepening snow, %absorbed in its one story AFTER THE END OF IT First Line: You gave and gave Last Line: Gone in a few bitter minutes AFTER THE FALL First Line: Lady %I've not had a moment's love Last Line: Put me back AH BABEL First Line: Your tower allures me Last Line: All that is known AILANTHUS WITH GHOSTS First Line: Their veins were white Last Line: To be thatched with ghosts ALAS First Line: The way you say the world is what you get Last Line: The absolute's irrelevant. And yet ALL CANAL BOAT CRUISES START HERE First Line: A musk of kittening Last Line: Bowed the pleasure boats through ALL THERE WAS First Line: Bursting into your study, %believing you were there Last Line: Two plastic bags, a slipper- %all that was left of you ALL THOSE ATTEMPTS IN THE CHANGING ROOM! Poem Text First Line: Look for me Subject(s): Ambition; Rembrandt Harmensz Van Riij (1606-1669) ALMOST LIVES First Line: Despite the sharp, perforated edges of its calendars Last Line: Left half a million when he, gently, died AN APRIL EPITHALAMIUM; FOR JOHN AND ANNE HUGHES First Line: I meant to write a poem upon your wedding Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives AND EVEN THEN First Line: There may be a language in which Last Line: Pounding to salt the poisoned cities %of the suicides AND EVEN THEN, THERE MAY BE A LANGUAGE ANGEL First Line: After a long drive west into wales, %as I lay on my bed, waiting Last Line: And through that fluorescent manacle, %the road flowed on through wales ANN ARBOR (A PROFILE) First Line: Neither city nor town, its location Last Line: Is probably about the same APOLOGY Poem Text First Line: Mother, I have taken your boots Subject(s): Mothers; Conduct Of Life APOLOGY First Line: Mother, I have taken your boots Last Line: I do what you say APRIL EPITHALAMIUM; FOR JOHN AND ANNE HUGHES First Line: I meant to write a poem upon your wedding Last Line: Off to your island now! Leave me my cleaning Subject(s): Marriage ARIOSO DOLENTE First Line: Mother, who read and thought and poured herself into me Last Line: Let all the griefs of the world %find keys for that AT THE GRAVE OF EZRA POUND Poem Text First Line: Cimmerian? Anyway, a swart day Last Line: Gather the dark against him? AT THIRTEEN First Line: Woodsmoke %and in those soft legal hollows Last Line: Declaration of fear ATTACKING THE WATERFALL First Line: Curlews long gone from the valley Last Line: Or a fighter plane, maybe, testing the barriers AUBADE First Line: Intervention of chairs at midnight Last Line: That ached our darkness, rocked our weight BALLAD FOR APOTHECARIES First Line: In sixteen-hundred-and-sixteen %(the year will shakespeare died) Last Line: And a welfare state is a sick state %when the dumb are led by the blind BALLAD OF THE MADE MAID First Line: My love is rich and talented Last Line: In eighteen ninety-nine BEACH KITES Poem Text First Line: Is this a new way of being born? Subject(s): Seashore; Kites; Beach; Coast; Shore BINOCULARS IN ARDUDWY First Line: A lean season, march, for ewes Last Line: Y llethr - foel ddu - foel wen BLACK HOLE First Line: I have grown small Last Line: About me left, child BLOODY BLOODY First Line: Who I am? You tell me Last Line: To hear I'm worse, much worse BLUE POOL First Line: It is high summer by the blue pool Last Line: She will think, she thinks, of something intelligent to say BLUNDER RECTIFIED: REUBEN CHANDLER TO HIS RUNAWAY WIFE, 1855 First Line: Nor do I wish to prolong this tired debate Last Line: Now amen to this farce BRANCH LINE First Line: The train is two cars linking Last Line: But here it is BRUEGHEL'S SNOW Poem Text First Line: Here in the snow Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation BRUEGHEL'S SNOW First Line: Here in the snow Last Line: Four hundred winters ago Subject(s): Environment BURNING THE NEWS First Line: Burning last week's hot news %to kindle this cool night's fire Last Line: No bribe to secede can prevail BURNISHED (A RIDDLE) First Line: Walking out of hay in the rain, imagining blake Last Line: Is a breast with a shrivelled nipple, like a dry wound BUZZARD AND ALDER First Line: Buzzard that folds itself into and becomes nude Last Line: Alder, silently glazing us, the dead BY THE BOAT HOUSE, OXFORD First Line: They belong here in their own quenched country Last Line: That living alone, or else lonely in pairs, impairs CAIN First Line: Lord, have mercy upon the angry Last Line: Stamp on small fires they might have seen by CALENDAR Poem Text First Line: The blank days Subject(s): Time CALENDAR First Line: The blank days Last Line: As it dies in its puddle CALL THEM POPPIES First Line: Imagine a reconciliation between Last Line: That the mouth cries the shape of its store CAROL OF THE BIRDS Poem Text Subject(s): Birds CAROL OF THE BIRDS First Line: Feet that could be clawed, but are not Last Line: Stilled by our dazzling anthrocentric mills CASHPOINT CHARLIE First Line: My office, my crouch, is by the piccadilly cashpoint where Last Line: In a wall that spits out money, he'd be envious CELEBRITY First Line: When at last I lie down to sleep Last Line: Along with the cash, and my skilful %wasted art CLAUDE GLASS First Line: Eyes are too close to nature to be nice Last Line: Will recognize -- expensive, sweetened, sure CLOVENHOOF'S S-BANE First Line: Nucleic crystals, pursed in the invisible Last Line: And the love of gain CLYDIE IS DEAD! First Line: Our lar, our little mammal Last Line: Who said so much, yet never spoke a word, %requiescat COLD Poem Text First Line: Snow. No roofs this morning, alps, ominous message Subject(s): Nature COLD First Line: Snow. No roofs this morning, alps, ominous message Last Line: Stealing the emergency away from us, %starving the animals eventually; first, the birds Subject(s): Nature COMET First Line: Bad days end just like good days Last Line: Indelible vs grooved in salt water by wrecked prows COMING BACK TO CAMBRIDGE First Line: Casual, almost unnoticeable Last Line: Into which you never fall without the curious struggle back CONDOLENCES OF A MINISTER TO HIS BEREAVED DAUGHTER, 1829 First Line: My wretched daughter %I have studied your letter with exacting and impartial Last Line: Give you peace, now and in the life everlasting CONFEDERATE SOLDIER MATTHEW CHANDLER (AGE 18) TO MOTHER,1864 First Line: Beloved mother %you have left me too long, all alone Last Line: If I don't make my sweaty horse swim in it %yours from your CRADLE OF FIST First Line: Solidity is a shifting desert Last Line: The face that is mine in heaven' CRAMOND First Line: Remember how in edinburgh Last Line: And slow planes homing over the oil fields %like metal pigeo DAUGHTER'S DIFFICULTIES AS WIFE: MRS REUBEN CHANDLER TO MAMA First Line: Sept. 1840 %ow that I've been married for almost four weeks, mama Last Line: Oceans of hugs and kisses for you, too %and for precious papring and loving daughter DEAR LADIES OF CINCINNATI First Line: Life is what you make it,' my half-italian Last Line: While the city eats and breathes for them in the distance, %and the river grows ugly in their perpet DEMOLITION First Line: They have blown up the old brick bridge Last Line: Good job it's at home, not away on the telly DIVORCING First Line: I am I because my little dog knows me Last Line: Poor little dog. Poor little dog DOCTOR First Line: I am the doctor Last Line: He gets well. He decides to grow up Subject(s): Physicians DREAM OF STONES First Line: I dreamed a summer's labour Last Line: Too alive to be left unburied %under common years DREAMING OF IMMORTALITY IN A THATCHED HUT First Line: Drowsing over his verses or drifting Last Line: And the books stacked neatly out of the way of the rain DREAMING OF THE DEAD First Line: I believe, but what is belief Last Line: On my weaker grief DRENCH Poem Text First Line: You sleep with a dream of summer weather, Subject(s): Rain DROUGHT First Line: After the exhilaration of the peaks Last Line: Gripping the green of live and rooted matters EARLY RAIN First Line: Imagine a city rooted in its reflections Last Line: But buried beneath the cornerstone all the same EARTH STATION First Line: Tumuli, not hills. Cold earthheaps Last Line: Purr goes the receiver %purr purr. Purr purr EDEN ANN WHITLAW TO HER SISTER KAY BOYD IN LONDON First Line: Dear kay. So - a summer Last Line: Come help me keep her alive a little longer ELEGY Poem Text Subject(s): Fathers; Aging ELEGY First Line: Whenever my father was left with nothing to do Last Line: His audible image returns to my humming ears ELEGY: IN COHERENT LIGHT Poem Text Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Death; Dead, The END OF SUMMER'S DAY. FRM JOURNAL OF RUTH ARBEITER, 1968 First Line: Dreaming or dying? The room as usual Last Line: Usual earth strange to take leave of ENGLAND First Line: Without nostalgia who could love england Last Line: That the trees are only falling asleep ENOUGH OF GREEN Last Line: To take my hand EPILOGUE: KAY BOYD TO FATHER, PROFESSOR ARBEITER, 1972 First Line: Dearest father %this is the anniversary of our loss Last Line: Do justice to the living, to the dead EPITAPH FOR A GOOD MOUSER First Line: Take, lord, this soul of furred unblemished worth Last Line: I die into the mercy of thy claws EROS First Line: I call for love Last Line: Or left to rot EXHIBITION First Line: The exhibition is of Last Line: Changing things at all by making connections EXPERIMENTAL First Line: Could be day Last Line: Communication %does it work FAIRY TALE First Line: The ladies sit at the table Last Line: The children dream in their beds FALSE FLOWERS Poem Text First Line: They were to have been a love gift, Subject(s): Gifts & Giving; Flowers, Artificial; Relationships FALSE FLOWERS First Line: They were to have been a love gift, %but when she lit the paper funnel Last Line: Everything that had to be was understood FAMILY BLUNDER: ELIZABETH C. BOYD TO BROTHER REUBEN, 1838 First Line: In truth, beloved brother Last Line: For the pain you have brought to others %from your loving an FEN PEOPLE First Line: They are already old when the fen makes them Last Line: And leaves them glazed and lost in their houses FICTION-MAKERS First Line: We were the wrecked elect Last Line: We think we are laughing now, %but we are laughing then FIGURE IN THE CARPET First Line: Might be human Last Line: When I melt into the plan %without description FIRE AND THE TIDE First Line: Fire struggles in the chimney like an animal Last Line: You're pulled between now and the way you will not escape FISH ARE ALL SICK First Line: The fish are all sick, the great whales dead Last Line: And closing its grip, and closing its grip Subject(s): Environment FIVE POEMS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE: OLD SCHOLARS First Line: They have written it Last Line: The work of it FIVE POEMS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE: THE AFFAIR First Line: He moves off at dawn Last Line: Of the night beneath them FIVE POEMS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE: THE CRUSH First Line: Handsome as d'artagnan Last Line: Like a dangerous possession FIVE POEMS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE: THE DEMOLITION First Line: They have lived in each other so long Last Line: She cries on his stairs FIVE POEMS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE: THE MARRIAGE First Line: They will fit, she thinks Last Line: In the same direction FORGOTTEN OF THE FOOT Poem Text First Line: Equisetum, horsetail, railway weed Subject(s): Coal Mines & Miners FOUR AND A HALF DANCING MEN First Line: She knows how to fold Last Line: Four blind men, and a half %unafraid, unafraid FREEING LIZZIE First Line: Don't mistake it for a camera snapping day Last Line: Who will have to be shown off, chuckled over, noisily passed around FROM AN UNFINISHED POEM First Line: The idea of event is horizontal Last Line: To a fiction of its having happened FROM ASYLUM: KATHY CHATTLE TO MOTHER RUTH ARBEITER, 1954 First Line: Mother %if I am where I am Last Line: Mother, what more? What more? FROM MAURA CHANDLER BOYD TO DAUGHTER RUTH ARBEITER, 1930 First Line: Dear ruth %with the wedding six weeks behind Last Line: And be proud you're a free american FROM MAURA CHANDLER JOURNAL ON EVE OF MARRIAGE, 1900 First Line: Without false pride Last Line: This new year. My life in marriage FROM MY STUDY First Line: With the hot sun palming my back Last Line: People call their lives FROM THE MEN OF LETTERS First Line: How lucky we are Last Line: Forgive our tall books FROM THE MOTORWAY First Line: Everywhere up and down the island Last Line: Nowhere anyone would like to get to GALES First Line: Weather buffets our houses in armour all night Last Line: And no roof that is not between light and light GANNETS DIVING First Line: The sea is dark Last Line: To you in the speared fish GARDEN First Line: She feeds it like a shoulder of hair Last Line: In the gored, delicate, perfectly balanced skeleton GARDEN OF INTELLECT First Line: It's too big to begin with Last Line: For having neither name nor substance GENERATIONS First Line: Know this mother by her three smiles Last Line: By the fabulous lies she cooks GIVING RABBIT TO MY CAT BONNIE Poem Text First Line: Pretty bonnie, you are quick as a rabbit Subject(s): Animals; Cats GIVING RABBIT TO MY CAT BONNIE First Line: Pretty bonnie, you are quick as a rabbit Last Line: Bonnie. What are you eating? Dear bonnie, consider Subject(s): Animals; Cats GOING BACK First Line: It hazes over, %blurred by forty years Last Line: Foundering in sadness I crossed %to get away from, mister blake? GOING BACK TO ANN ARBOR First Line: It hazes over Last Line: Foundering in unhappiness I used to be %so scared of, dr. Blake GRANNY SCARECROW First Line: Tears flowed at the chapel funeral Last Line: With the farm sold, none found a cross to fit their clothes when %emily and marjorie died GRANNY'S SCARECROW Poem Text First Line: Tears flowed at the chapel funeral Last Line: "with the farm sold, none found a cross to fit their clothes when / Subject(s): Scarecrows GREEN MOUNTAIN, BLACK MOUNTAIN First Line: White pine, sifter of sunlight Last Line: Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms GREY LAND First Line: I must have been there Last Line: What to regret or forgive %in what they show HANDS First Line: Made up in death as never in life Last Line: White bone under raw thin skin HANS MEMLING'S SIBYLLA SAMBETHA (1480) First Line: I had forgotten the weight of her Last Line: Makes visible innocence or venom HARVARD First Line: We have seen ghosts of the once green peacocks Last Line: Of their sickly feathers, of their dim beaks HAUNTED First Line: It's not when you walk through my sleep Last Line: And my own ghost HE AND IT First Line: This world is not it, he felt Last Line: He likes their eyes HEARING WITH MY FINGERS First Line: A house with a six-foot rosewood piano, too grand Last Line: Growing from staves my clumsy fingers read HIMALAYAN BALSAM First Line: Orchid-lipped, loose-jointed, purplish, indolent flowers Last Line: That says 'yes' to the coming winter and summoning odour of balsam HOLLY AND THE IVY First Line: Where have you been? She said Last Line: How do you know HOT NIGHT IN NEW YORK First Line: Midnight air's unbreathing steam Last Line: From sibilant liquorice and light HOT WIND, HARD RAIN First Line: The joy of the rowan is to redden Last Line: Who sifts the saving from the killing terrors %o my dear HOUSEHOLD GODS First Line: The room is silent except for the two hearth spirits Last Line: In hell, nothing you have done will be not watched ICON Poem Text First Line: The scene they play Subject(s): Birth; Child Birth; Midwifery ICON First Line: The scene they play Last Line: That claws her face %catches her tear IF I COULD PAINT ESSENCES First Line: Another day in march. Late Last Line: On the other side of the window IN MARCH First Line: The snow melts Last Line: Yellow mackintoshes %for the mud IN MEMORY Poem Text First Line: Long summer shadows calm the grass Variant Title(s): The White Room Subject(s): Family Life; Past; Relatives IN MIDDLE ENGLAND First Line: For bungalows Last Line: The desolate neatness? The despair IN PASSING First Line: Suppose I had paused a few seconds Last Line: It has lost itself in common day IN THE HOUSE First Line: Among others it is the same. It is repeated Last Line: There is neither an exit nor a reason for getting out IN THE NURSERY First Line: I lift the seven months baby from his crib Last Line: He's blossoming in a bowl of arms IN THE ORCHARD Poem Text First Line: Black bird, black voice Last Line: You can never choose away from Subject(s): Blackbirds; Orchards IN THE ORCHARD First Line: Black bird, black voice Last Line: You can never choose away from IN THE TUNNEL OF SUMMERS Poem Text First Line: Moving from day into day Subject(s): Life; Summer; Mortality IN THE TUNNEL OF SUMMERS First Line: Moving from day into day Last Line: Where my granddaughter's daughter has been born and buried IN WINTER First Line: The sooner ends the old man's day Last Line: And hide their heads INCIDENT First Line: She must have been about %twelve in 1942 Last Line: Nowhere to go. %nothing to do INHERITING MY GRANDMOTHER'S NIGHTMARE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Consider the adhesiveness of things Subject(s): Grandparents; Conduct Of Life; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers INN First Line: It appeared to be an inn for actors, so our boss Last Line: Of seasoned faith and uncorrupted trust INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE Poem Text First Line: I laid myself down as a woman Subject(s): War; Childhood Memories; Death; Dead, The INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE First Line: I laid myself down as a woman Last Line: Dead, you're dead, wherever you are! INQUIT DEUS First Line: The world is the world Last Line: And its love is blind Variant Title(s): Wound INVERKIRKAIG First Line: Bloodshed cries ai ai Last Line: A late rain erases in pitiless mercy %home, story, arterial berry INVOCATION AND INTERRUPTION [IN MEMORIAM TED HUGHES] Poem Text First Line: Gigantic iron hawk Subject(s): Death; Future Life; Life; Poetry & Poets; Dead, The; Retribution; Eternity; After Life INVOCATION AND INTERRUPTION [IN MEMORIAM TED HUGHES] First Line: Gigantic iron hawk Last Line: I had the last word first remember %I'm going to keep things like this Subject(s): Death; Future Life; Life; Poetry And Poets JACOB CHANDLER TO FATHER REUBEN CHANDLER, COLORADO, 18K67 First Line: So we struck across the mountains, travelling for two days Last Line: Set of proper english china JARROW First Line: Would want to paint them Last Line: Be a brushstroke. Talis vita in terris JOHN KEATS, 1821-1950 First Line: Keats was miss mckinney's class, 12th grade english Last Line: And how the fierce gnats' wailing was oracular JOURNAL ENTRY: IMPROMPTU IN C MINOR First Line: After weeks of october drench Last Line: With a helix, a hinge of survival KOSOVO SURPRISED BY MOZART First Line: Lovely chromatic mozart, talk to me %in your language of intimate, arithmetical Last Line: Simplified, rarefied, perfectionist as ever, %punish us in the key of f major LATE First Line: Hauntng me at midnight Last Line: In the knot that's now the harvested fly LEAVING First Line: Habits the hands have, reaching for this and that Last Line: Home in its shadowy silence and stone space LETTER TO GOD FROM ETHAN AMOS BOYD, TROY, NY, 1929 First Line: Dear lord / I am ill, I know Subject(s): Troy LETTER TO GOD FROM ETHAN AMOS BOYD, TROY, NY, 1929 First Line: Dear lord %I am ill, I know Last Line: To keep one from the strength of the other Subject(s): Troy LETTER TO SYLVIA PLATH First Line: They are great healers, english springs Last Line: In accents of a private rage LEVEL CAMBRIDGESHIRE First Line: Its islands of england Last Line: God pleased to make %the city safe again for commerce %and superior minds Variant Title(s): A Tourists' Guide To The Fen Subject(s): Nature LITTLE PAUL AND THE SEA First Line: Hi yi hee yippee Last Line: Stamping on the sea LIVING IN AMERICA Poem Text First Line: Living in america,' / the intelligent people at harvard say, Subject(s): United States; America LIVING IN AMERICA Last Line: Pray to the mountains and deserts to keep them apart LOCKKEEPER'S ISLAND First Line: It is late, but as usual Last Line: To the sacrament of sleep LONDON LETTER. KEY BOYD TO SISTER IN CLEARFIELD, 1968 First Line: Your letter arrived with its letters Last Line: Where at last she sleeps %plentifully LOSS First Line: Alive in the slippery moonlight Last Line: Your image which lives in my mind LOST First Line: Stone-age, stone-grey eyes Last Line: She stuns our pity, even LOVE First Line: If not necessary, is essential Last Line: Is fact. And tomorrow the fair will be gone LOVE LETTER: RUTH ARBEITER TO MAJ. PAUL MAXWELL, 1945 First Line: Dearest %you must know that I think of you continually Last Line: Where, as you know, I am waiting for you continually LOVE SEQUENCE First Line: All day, all night Last Line: What are they trying to tell us %about thaw LOVE STORIES AND A BED OF SAND' First Line: In flood, familiar footpaths and %childhood cycle ways, heel-trodden mud Last Line: By flood, by fire, by straining human hand, %love stories and a bed of sand LUXURY First Line: No, trilobites didn't %discuss %the future of fossils Last Line: The cerebral mix %that makes us great %tells nature to undo us MAKING POETRY Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: You have to inhabit poetry Subject(s): Human Rights; Poetry & Poets MAKING POETRY First Line: You have to inhabit poetry Last Line: One of those haunted, undefendable, unpoetic %crosses we have to find Subject(s): Human Rights; Poetry And Poets MAN IN THE WIND Last Line: That will not end after the end MARKET First Line: I am your host Last Line: I turn flesh into cash MARRIAGE First Line: When my mother knew why her treatment wasn't working Last Line: For all his philosophy and all her common sense MASS First Line: The hydra in his ruff of heads Last Line: More must never be enough MAXIMS OF CHRISTIAN BUSINESSMAN: FROM JACOB CHANDLER, 1895 First Line: Work is next to godliness; a man should keep books Last Line: Smiles are roses along the way MAY BLUEBELLS, COED ABER ARTRO First Line: No greek self-pitying hetairos Last Line: One more summer out of hazy veins MEDIA First Line: The decent into hades Last Line: Everything's real MENISCUS First Line: The moon at its two extremes Last Line: From the necessity of falling MINISTER First Line: We're going to need the minister Last Line: Without anywhere to rest MINISTER'S WIFE TO BELOVED SISTER, JANUARY STORM, 1830 First Line: My dear eliza %your letter came to hand in good time Last Line: Keep well and god bless you MIRACLE OF CAMP 60 First Line: Amici d'arti, amici dei fiori, amici d' amore Last Line: Where there is darkness, light, %where there is sadness...Gioia, la gioia MOONRISE First Line: While my anxiety stood phoning you last evening Last Line: As no one else had seen her. Or might see that MORDEN ANGEL First Line: My sideways smile Last Line: If only my smile could talk MORNING First Line: You lie in sleep Last Line: As smoke swept into the air MORNING EXERCISE First Line: Like? Like what, that rare morning mist %peeling off the morfa? Last Line: Slipping a vein of cloud over iron brown peat MOTHER First Line: Of course I love them, they are my children Last Line: It has never been used. Keep it safe, pass it on MRS LILLIAN CULICK, DIVORCEE, TO DR FRANK CHATTLE, 1954 First Line: Darling %or may I still frank Last Line: Let's try to meet soon. Ok? MRS. REUBEN CHANDLER TO HUSBAND, CHOLERA EPIDEMIC, 1849 Poem Text First Line: Two weeks aboard the general wayne Subject(s): Cholera; Epidemics MRS. REUBEN CHANDLER TO HUSBAND, CHOLERA EPIDEMIC, 1849 First Line: Two weeks aboard the general wayne Last Line: Why you have left me without support Subject(s): Cholera; Epidemics MUDTOWER First Line: And again, without snow, a new year Last Line: Now high flocks of sandpipers, wings made of sunlight, %flicker as snow flickers, blown from those I MUSICIAN'S WIDOW First Line: Plants she loved, all growing things Last Line: The life behind her gaping like a seed NAME OF THE WORM First Line: Oh, hallo, good of you to come. Sorry I can't get up Last Line: Then in bewilderment, do you not also long to be a soldier? NAMING THE FLOWERS First Line: Makes no difference to the flowers Last Line: Names, all alone, are seeds NEGATIVES First Line: Condensed stillness lit meanly Last Line: Now we must learn to swim in their oily rainbows NEW YORK First Line: This addiction Last Line: Is the only green in the jungle NEW YORK IS CRYING First Line: Halfmast new york is crying for her children Last Line: Those ragged children scuttling here and there %are very small and far away, but crying NICK ARBEITER WRITES POEMS ON ROAD TO WYOMING, 1968 First Line: West, man, west Last Line: So that there be peace among the animals NIGHT THOUGHTS AND FALSE CONFESSIONS First Line: How uneasily I live Last Line: On the gourmet's plate NIGHT WALKING WITH SHADOWS First Line: Night walking the dog through the hollow village Last Line: The moon cuts a dead black track NIGHT WIND, DUNDEE First Line: At sundown, a seaforce that gulls rode or fell through Last Line: Barbarian orion crucified in god's heaven NIGHTMARE IN NORTH CAROLINA First Line: Arriving in north carolina after midnight Last Line: Shuffling behind the counter with the keys NIGHTMARES, DAYMOTHS Poem Text First Line: A glass jar rattles its split peas and pasta Subject(s): Plath, Sylvia (1932-1963) NIGHTMARES, DAYMOTHS First Line: A glass jar rattles its split peas and pasta Last Line: Xyz, not to infinity NORTH EASTER: APRIL, 1986 First Line: That daffodil trumpets its gaudia Last Line: Jewels also five drowned black tyres NORTH SEA OFF CARNOUSTIE (FOR JAN RUBENS) First Line: You know it by the northern look of the shore Last Line: But to anyone returning from the planet ocean, %candles in the windows of a safe earth NOVEMBER First Line: All saints and all souls Last Line: Where the coke works were NUNS First Line: With their transparent black veils Last Line: What is renounced, what is decided upon OLD WIFE'S TALE First Line: Well then, goodbye,' she said coldly, %'hot men must mate' Last Line: But the energy of injury- %oh, it hurts like hate ON GOING DEAF Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I've lost a sense. Why should I care? Subject(s): Deafness; Hearing Aids ON GOING DEAF First Line: I've lost a sense. Why should I care? Last Line: And set it deftly, like a snare ON NOT BEING ABLE TO LOOK AT THE MOON First Line: There may be a moon Last Line: Painted on the sky ON REFLECTION Poem Text Subject(s): Fire; Reality ON THE EDGE OF THE ISLAND First Line: Wherever there is land breaking and an ocean begins Last Line: White birds without names call and call ON WATCHING A COLD WOMAN WADE INTO A COLD SEA First Line: The way that wintry woman Last Line: Is as kindness to hers OPERA PIECE First Line: Why %do these Last Line: Huge, plumed %bosoms ORCOP Poem Text First Line: Driving south from hereford one day in march Subject(s): Horovitz, Frances (1938-1983) OTHER HOUSE First Line: In the house of childhood Last Line: I tell my children all I know %of the word gone OYSTERS First Line: The fat man laughed because %the restaurant told him to Last Line: Steamy tureen %of barely detectable %radioactive garbage? PAINTING IT IN Poem Text First Line: Wake up at six o'clock. We're out to sea Subject(s): Nature PAINTING IT IN First Line: Wake up at six o'clock. We're out to sea Last Line: And when things are unmade, being also feels less alone Subject(s): Nature PARABLE FOR NORMAN First Line: Three vast unavoidable ladies, %time, fate and boredom Last Line: But she's gone. Or she just doesn't answer PARSON AND THE ROMANY First Line: A parson went out one stormy day Last Line: They danced in the weather of the sun PASSIFLORACEAE First Line: And then gordon was so beautiful Last Line: Esoteric and erect amid wild, predictable %filaments of glory PASSING HER HOUSE First Line: The house she nested in Last Line: Before I pass %forgetting to remember? PATH First Line: Aged by rains Last Line: Rise up and swarm PENNINE First Line: Hills? Or a high plateau scissored by rivers Last Line: Stonefalls crossing in their long decline PEOPLE AROUND First Line: Well, they're gone, long gone Last Line: Bedrooms they'll lie in PHOENICURUS PHOENICURUS First Line: Phu-eet! Phu-eet! Mr unresting redstart has something to be Last Line: Why did we ever say birds should sound sweet, sweet? PIGEONS IN GEORGE SQUARE Poem Text First Line: Pigeons, pee-gulls Subject(s): Glasgow, Scotland; Pigeons PIGEONS IN GEORGE SQUARE First Line: Pigeons, pee-gulls Last Line: Citizens of glasgow Subject(s): Glasgow, Scotland; Pigeons PITY THE BIRDS First Line: Pity %the persistent clamour of a song thrush Last Line: Not one of them gened to protest %against the world POEM FOR A DAUGHTER Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I think I'm going to have it Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Birth; Women; Child Birth; Midwifery POEM FOR A DAUGHTER First Line: I think I'm going to have it Last Line: We become what we are POEM FOR HARRY FAINLIGHT First Line: Tree, a silence %voiced by wind Last Line: They were always %transforming your wrong life %into her live silence POEMS; REJECTION SLIP FRM NOTEBOOKS OF RUTH B. ARBEITER 1936 First Line: We have come to the end of a summer in this gold season Last Line: Impossible for him to write a personal letter POLITESSE First Line: A memory kissed my mind Last Line: And then, cat-like, kissed me PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST IN AN ORTHOPAEDIC HALO CROWNED WITH FLOWERS First Line: She lives next door to dying Last Line: But he will pass POST THALAMIUM First Line: Ye learned teachers, parents, sons and friends Last Line: As love to bacchus answers, and the echoes ring POSTED First Line: Instead of your letter Last Line: Tear open, study, scarcely believe %I see POSTSCRIPTUM First Line: Now I am dead, %no words, %just a wine %of my choosing Last Line: Remorseless, %forgiving ascent PRAYER TO LIVE WITH REAL PEOPLE First Line: Let me not live, ever, without fat people Last Line: Save me from habitat, and snobbery and too damn much %litera PRESENT First Line: A grey undecided morning. %no wind. %it's cold, so get dressed quickly Last Line: The story in the marsh was a long memory %retelling itself in a shower of gold PRICE First Line: The fear of loneliness, the wish Last Line: Words, their furtive kiss %illicit gold PRODIGAL SON: REUBEN CHANDLER STRICKEN WITH GUILT, 1832 First Line: My dear father %that I write, sick Last Line: I remain your undeserving and most unhappy son PROFESSOR ARBEITER TO HIS DEAD WIFE, 1968 First Line: The worst time is waking Last Line: As if the night could never be over PROFESSOR'S TALE First Line: It's best, if you can, to love your children Last Line: Smiling from the grand piano, at appealing ages PROPHYLACTIC SONNETS First Line: Eyes fall in love before their users dare Last Line: Verse conquers love, ten syllables a line QUEST First Line: Precocious, in the news at nine or ten Last Line: Is recommended reading for gay men QUESTIONABLE First Line: When she laid a light hand on his elbow saying Last Line: Maybe it was not. She never knew RAGWORT First Line: They won't let railways alone, these ragged flowers Last Line: Taking what's left and making a song of it RE-READING JANE First Line: To women in contemporary voice and dislocation Last Line: Enjoy it completely, she spoke for you RED HOT SEX First Line: Miranda hoists her lips in a grimace Last Line: Choosing to paint, I'm chosen. That's my game REPORT FROM THE BORDER First Line: Wars in peacetime don't behave like wars Last Line: Drowned crops, charred hopes, fear, stupor, prayer %and literature RESPECTABLE HOUSE First Line: Worth keeping your foot in the door Last Line: You see what the gun on the table has to be used for RESURRECTION First Line: Surprised by spring Last Line: And you have to start living again when it wakes you RETURN First Line: I have been long Last Line: You could pluck with your thumb REVERSALS First Line: Clouds -- plainmen's mountains Last Line: Full furrows harvested, a completed sky RIVER First Line: The line between land and water Last Line: Ceaselessly, without thought Subject(s): Rivers SALTER'S GATE Poem Text First Line: There, in that lost Subject(s): Nature SALTER'S GATE First Line: There, in that lost Last Line: A reservoir, ruins of the lead mines, new %forestry pushing from the right, the curlew Subject(s): Nature SARAJEVO, JUNE 28, 1914 First Line: Cramped under plumes of slaughtered cock Last Line: To luncheon they will never reach SEPIA GARDEN First Line: Though you won't look at it Last Line: When they throw us away with our clothes SHALE First Line: That comes to pieces in your hand Last Line: Low flying phantoms - this flowing anemone SIERRA NEVADA First Line: Landscape without regrets whose weakest junipers Last Line: The thousand colours of water, brilliances, blues SIGNS First Line: A green cross on the trumpet lip of the snowdrop Last Line: Sharp, clean, chill to the astonished nostril SIRENS ARE VIRTUOUS First Line: They are not what you think Last Line: Whey-faced fellows of feverish concern SISKIN First Line: Small bird with green plumage Last Line: To the next second when he was gone SKILLS First Line: Like threading a needle by computer, to align Last Line: A crawling speck on the unfolding map SKIN DEEP First Line: What a strange animal that has to get dressed Last Line: Skin wearing skin has been allowed %outside of art SMALL PHILOSOPHICAL POEM Poem Text First Line: Dr animus, whose philosophy is a table Last Line: She fills the room with love. And fear. And fear Subject(s): Tables; Family Life SMALL PHILOSOPHICAL POEM First Line: Dr animus, whose philosophy is a table Last Line: She fills the room with love. And fear. And fear SONNETS FOR FIVE SEASONS: BETWEEN Poem Text First Line: The wet and weight of this half-born english winter Subject(s): Winter SONNETS FOR FIVE SEASONS: BETWEEN First Line: The wet and weight of this half-born english winger Last Line: Real' is what water is imagining SONNETS FOR FIVE SEASONS: COMPLAINT Poem Text First Line: Dear god,' they write, 'that was a selfish winter Subject(s): Seasons; Weather; God SONNETS FOR FIVE SEASONS: COMPLAINT First Line: Dear god, they write, that was a selfish winter Last Line: Thunder. Lightning. He can do anything SONNETS FOR FIVE SEASONS: STASIS Poem Text First Line: Before the leaves change, light transforms these lucid Subject(s): August; September; Weather SONNETS FOR FIVE SEASONS: STASIS First Line: Before the leaves change, light transforms these lucid Last Line: Whatever these voices are that hate the dust SONNETS FOR FIVE SEASONS: THE CIRCLE Poem Text First Line: It is imagination's white face remembers Subject(s): March (month); Death; Dead, The SONNETS FOR FIVE SEASONS: THE CIRCLE First Line: It is imagination's white face remembers Last Line: Granite and ice are colours of the heart SONNETS FOR FIVE SEASONS: THIS HOUSE Poem Text First Line: Which represents you, as my bones do, waits, Subject(s): Home; Absence; Separation; Isolation SONNETS FOR FIVE SEASONS: THIS HOUSE First Line: Which represents you, as my bones do, waits Last Line: Returning to last year's nest in the crook of the porchlight SOUS-ENTENDU First Line: Don't think %that I don't know Last Line: Everything I say %is a garment SPIRIT IS TOO BLUNT AN INSTRUMENT Last Line: Love and despair and anxiety %and their pain SPRING POEM First Line: Language raked tribute from her screen all winter Last Line: Give up newfangledness for nourishment SPRING SONG First Line: The sun is warm Last Line: Of these filthy things STABILITIES First Line: Gull, ballast of its wings Last Line: Child, love's flesh and bone STILL LIFE IN UTAH First Line: Somewhere nowhere in utah, a boy by the roadside Last Line: Mountains are clouds, lightning, but no rain STONE FIG First Line: The young fig tree feels with its hands Last Line: And sleep and sleep. And then %to sleep again STONE MILK Poem Text First Line: A backward may, with all the local finches of the fex tal piping in dialect Subject(s): Graubunder, Switzerland; Resorts; Landscape; Aging SUBURB First Line: No time, no time Last Line: And they absolve me from waking. Who can accuse me? %I am beyond blame Subject(s): Suburbs SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN REUBEN ADVISES HIS SONS IN GENEVA, 1859 First Line: My dear sons %I have just received monsieur r's term report Last Line: And to work honorably, I remain your affectionate father SUICIDE First Line: There was no hole in the universe to fit him Last Line: Returning from an evening out with friends SUMMER PLACE First Line: You know that house she called home Last Line: They did, and took her with them, and withdrew SUN APPEARS IN NOVEMBER First Line: When trees are bare Last Line: Transparent in brown spinneys, beeches SURPRISE ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL First Line: They give you a desk with a lid, mother Last Line: You don't ever read the pictures. %you read the words! SWIFTS Poem Text First Line: Spring comes little, a little. All april it rains Subject(s): Spring; Legends SWIFTS First Line: Spring comes little, a little. All april it rains Last Line: A way to say the miracle will not occur, %and watch the miracle TAKEOVER First Line: What am I to do? Where am I to go Last Line: If they should leave TALKING SENSE TO MY SENSES First Line: Old ears and eyes, so long my patient friends Last Line: To ears, eyes, teeth, knees, hands -- or any thing TEMPORARILY IN OXFORD Poem Text First Line: Where they will bury me Subject(s): Funerals; Burials TEMPORARILY IN OXFORD First Line: Where they will bury me Last Line: Lift up the turf and slip in beside you Subject(s): Funerals TERRORIST First Line: One morning I despaired of writing more Last Line: Fight and fight and fight. No compromise THALES AND LI PO First Line: Thales, out scanning the stars for truth Last Line: Embrace a lie THE BALLAD OF THE MADE MAID Poem Text First Line: My love is rich and talented Subject(s): Women's Rights; Marriage; Feminism; Weddings; Husbands; Wives THE ENIGMA Poem Text First Line: Falling to sleep last night in a deep crevasse Subject(s): Dreams; Lambs; Nightmares THE FISH ARE ALL SICK Poem Text First Line: The fish are all sick, the great whales dead Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation THE MIRACLE OF THE BEES AND FOXGLOVES Poem Text First Line: Because hairs on their speckled daybeds baffle the little bees Subject(s): Foxgloves; Bees; Beekeeping THE PRICE Poem Text First Line: The fear of loneliness, the wish Subject(s): Loneliness; Love THE SPIRIT IS TOO BLUNT AN INSTRUMENT Poem Text Subject(s): Body, Human; Nature; Birth; Child Birth; Midwifery THE SUBURB Poem Text First Line: No time, no time Subject(s): Suburbs THE VICTORY Poem Text First Line: I thought you were my victory Subject(s): Birth; Children; Child Birth; Midwifery; Childhood THEME WITH VARIATIONS First Line: Distractions, considerations Last Line: Which is never art THEOLOGIAN'S CONFESSION First Line: Turning his last days page by page Last Line: And truth so plain it won't be seen THIS First Line: Isn't making love Last Line: Is home. And this is I and you THREE First Line: In this picture I preside. I usher in Last Line: For the igneous reaches, the granite tide TINY TUNES RULE ALL' First Line: Wild rubbish, fine rubble and black broken windows TINY TUNES RULE ALL' First Line: Wild rubbish, fine rubble and black broken windows Last Line: You're put out to pasture in ash. And you're broken glass Subject(s): Glasgow, Scotland TO MY DAUGHTER IN A RED COAT Poem Text First Line: Late october. It is afternoon. Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Autumn; Fall TO MY DAUGHTER IN A RED COAT First Line: Late october. It is afternoon Last Line: My daughter, as your coat dances TO PHOEBE First Line: How in this mindless whirl of time and space Last Line: Was ever free to be what you shall be TO WITNESS PAIN IS A DIFFERENT FORM OF PAIN First Line: The worm in the spine. %the word on the tongue. %not the same Last Line: And not to relax her speechless %grip on power TO WRITE IT First Line: You must always be alone Last Line: And the presence, the privilege TRANSPARENCIES First Line: Your time with me ends with august, and now Last Line: Mouthing at me from its thin windows TRAVELLER First Line: You'd think that in this foreign place Last Line: My ghosts were standing there in rows TRAVELLING BEHIND GLASS First Line: Then I spent a long time Last Line: Scattered, flashing like kingfishers %into the emptiness TRICKSY JUNE First Line: I'm an old woman who wants to die Last Line: And disintegrate, petal by lazy petal %without complaint TRINITY AT LOW TIDE First Line: Sole to sole with your reflection Last Line: Third trick of light that copies you %and cancels you TRIUMVIRS First Line: Whenever I toil in my study Last Line: To twelve legs, six eyes and three tails TWO LOVE POEMS First Line: You I embrace Last Line: Bound to the shape of this world TWO POEMS FOR FRANCES HOROVITZ (1938-83) First Line: This is the south-west wind Last Line: The first one was the rose bay willow TWO POEMS FOR JOHN COLE (1910-91) AND ONE FOR ANNABEL COLE First Line: Dinghy %though you won't feel again Last Line: That's a piece of luck TWO QUATRAINS First Line: The girls and boys in winter know Last Line: I do not like my face UNACCOMMODATED First Line: Like winter in the hills Last Line: Flick off the mains and you'll be them UNDER MOELFRE First Line: Whatever it is we share with folds of rock Last Line: And blesses when it doesn't know it's blessing UTAH Poem Text First Line: Somewhere nowhere in utah, a boy by the roadside Subject(s): Utah; Guns VERTIGO First Line: Mind led body %to the edge of the precipice Last Line: If you love me, said body, %turn and exist VICTORY First Line: I thought you were my victory Last Line: How have you won WALKING EARLY BY THE WYE First Line: Through dawn in february's wincing radiance Last Line: How the sheep became stones where they built %their pearled WARD'S ISLAND First Line: On the last day of the poetry festival Last Line: The city advanced to admit us, cruel and dear WASHING MY HAIR First Line: Contending against a restless shower head, %I lather my own Last Line: My soul, how will I recognize you %if we meet? WASHING THE CLOCKS First Line: Time to go to school, cried Last Line: Rinsing the mesh of their wheels in mysterious oil WATCHERS First Line: How wise of our enemy to rely upon the watchers Last Line: Are we worthy, we wonder, of the marvel of such attention WAVING TO ELIZABETH First Line: For mapmakers' reasons, the transcontinental air routes Last Line: Though the map, relieved of mapmakers, looks imprisoned and WHEN THE CAMEL IS DUST IT GOES THROUGH THE NEEDLE'S EYE First Line: This hot summer wind Last Line: Level, eventually, and simple WHERE THE ANIMALS GO Poem Text First Line: The beasts in eden Subject(s): Animals WHERE THE ANIMALS GO First Line: The beasts in eden Last Line: Their pricked ears, pinnacles. Their gold eyes, windows Subject(s): Animals WHISTLER'S GENTLEMAN BY THE SEA First Line: He knew himself as sunday in a hat Last Line: Linseed-on-canvas, frame-begetting tone WHO'S JOKING WITH THE PHOTOGRAPHER? Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Not my final face, a map of how to get there Subject(s): Aging WHO'S JOKING WITH THE PHOTOGRAPHER? First Line: Not my final face, a map of how to get there Last Line: Finding a whole woman there, in her one face WHOSE GOAT? First Line: Broken bleats Last Line: Slowly around their own goat Subject(s): Goats WHY TAKE AGAINST MYTHOLOGY? First Line: That twilight skyline, for example, %the more I look at it Last Line: False spirit-shadows of his own mind WILLOW SONG; FOR FRANCES HOROWITZ Poem Text First Line: I went down to the railway Subject(s): Horowitz, Frances (1938-1983); Willow Trees WILLOW SONG; FOR FRANCES HOROWITZ First Line: I went down to the railway Last Line: The first one was the rose bay willow Subject(s): Horowitz, Frances (1938-1983); Willow Trees WIND, THE SUN AND THE MOON First Line: For weeks the wind has been talking to us Last Line: The visible cold, the therapy of moonlight WITH MY SONS AT BOARHILLS First Line: Gulls think it is for them Last Line: As the sea is, in its frame, its myth WITHOUT ME First Line: A north wind light this morning Last Line: On your white bones soon? WOMEN First Line: Women, waiting for their husbands Last Line: The tritons return and the women whirl in their sea WREKIN First Line: Overnight it climbs like a snail %to a corner of the window Last Line: See, I'm almost naked now WRITER IN THE CORNER First Line: After long dying, short death Last Line: What we write has to be the truth' |
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