Williams Little Treasury of British Poetry 1951

8/3/2019 Williams Little Treasury of British Poetry 1951

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A LITTIETREASURYOF


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The Little Treasury SeriesOSCAR WILLIAMS, Editor

A LITTLE TREASURY OF MODERN POETRY *edited by Oscar Williams

A LITTLE TREASURY OF GREAT POETRYedited by Oscar Williams

A LITTLE TREASURY OF AMERICAN POETRY **edited by Oscar Williams

A LITTLE TREASURY OF BRITISH POETRYedited by Oscar Williams

A LITTLE TREASURY OF AMERICAN PROSEedited by George Maybernj

A LITTLE TREASURY OF LOVE POEMSedited by John Holmes

A LITTLE TREASURY OF WORLD POETRYedited

by Hubert Crcekmore* Available in Itemed Editions


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e7,*w**W)*


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Coi-utunrr, 1051, BYCHARLES SCIUBXKH'S .SONSPrinted m the United States i America

Most of the poems in Fart II of this anthologyarc protected by copyright, and may wot bereproduced in any form without the consent olthe poets, their publishers, or their agents. Sincethis pugc cannot legibly accommodate all thecopyright notices, the opposite page and thetwo pages following it (pages v to vii) constitute an extension of the copyright page.

JDJLMJ.oJllIJ


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COPYRIGHT NOTICESAND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS\,\]

"' V '\ V ' ' uThanks are due the following poets, their copyright owners and theirpublishers for permission to reprint certain poems in this anthology:JONATHAN CAPE LiMiTEi>(and Mrs. W. H. Davies) for the poems byW. H. Davies from Collected Poems', for the poems from A Map ofVerona by Henry ReedCHATTO & WINDUS -for the poems by Wilfred Owen; for the poems byPeter Quennell; for "Legal Fiction" and "Letter I" by WilliamEmpson.CLARENDON PRESS for poems by Robert Bridges from the Poems inClassical Prosody of Robert Bridges, from October and Other Poems ofRobert Bridges, from New Verse of Robert Bridges, from New Poemsof Robert Bridges, all by pci mission of the Clarendon Press, Oxford.JOHN DAY COMPANY- for the poems from Selected Verse by John Mani

fold, copyright, 1946, by The John Day Company.DIAL PRESS- for the poems reprinted from Adamastor, Poems, by RoyCampbell by permission of the Dial Press, Inc., copyright, 1931, bythe Dial Press, Inc.DODD, MEAD & COMPANY for the poems from The Collected Poems ofRupert Brooke, copyright, 1915, by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc,,

copyright, 1943, by Edward Marsh, reprinted by permission of Dodd,Mead & Co,DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY for the poems from Aegean Islands and OtherPoems by Bernard Spencer, copyright, 1946, by Bernard Spencer, reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc ; for the poemsby Eudyard Kipling from Departmental Ditties and Ballads andBarrack-Room Ballads by Rudyard Kipling, from The Seven Seas byRudyard Kipling, from The Jungle, Book by Rudyard Kipling,, fromThe Five Nations by Rudyard Kipling, all repiinted by permission ofMrs. George Bambiidge and Doubleday & Company, Inc.FABBR & FADER LIMITED for the poems from Collected Poems by T. S.Eliot; for "The Dry Salvages" from Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot;for the poem from A Private Country by Lawrence Durrell; for"Agamemnon's Tomb" from Giant Art by Sacheverell Sitwell; for thepoems by George Barker from News of the World by George Barkerand Sros in Dogma by George Barker; for the poems from TheLady with the Unicorn by Vernon Watkms; for the poems fromThe Gathering jStorm by William Empson; for the poems by EdwinMuir from The "Voyage and The Labyrinth by Edwin Muir and fromA Little Book of Modern Verse edited by Anne Ridler.THE FORTUNE PRESS for four poems by Dylan Thomas from 18 Poemsby Dylan Thomas.HARCOURT, BRACE & COMPANY for the poems by T. S. Eliot from Collected Poems 1909-1935 by T. S. Eliot, copyright, 1936, by Harcourt,Brace and Company, Inc.; for "The Dry Salvages" from four Quartets, copyright, 1943, by T. S. Eliot, reprinted by permission ofHarcourt, Brace and Company, Inc. ; for the poems by William Empson from Collected Poems, copyright, 1935, 1940, 1949, by WilliamEmpson, reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Brace and Company,Inc. ; for the poems by Henry Reed from A Map of Verona, copyright, 1947, by Henry Reed, reprinted by permission of Harcourt,Brace and Company, Inc. ; for the poem from A World Within a War,and Company'

HOGARTH PRESS, LiMiMP-for ''Spring "TO8' ll"il lDra*liKI book by RoyFuller, publisl^T^ByeiMojaHt^BBMg.

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COPYRIGHT NOTICES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTSHKNIIY HOLT & COMPANY- for the poems by Walter do la Male fromCollected Poems, 1901-1918, by Waller de la Mare, copyright, 1920, byHenry Holt and

t Company, Inc., copyright, 1948, by Walter do la JMare,used by permission of the publishers; for three poems by A. K. Ilous-man from The Collected Poems of A. E. lionsman, copyright, 1922,1940, by Henry Holt and Company, Inc., copyright, 11)36, 1950, byBarclays Bank, Ltd., used by permission ol the publishers.Au'RKi) A. KNOW for three poems by I). II. Lawrence reprinted trom/Vmsfcs by I), H. Lawrence, by pcnmssion of Alfred A. Knopi, Inc.,copyright, 1929, by Alfred A. Knopt, Inc.THE MACMHJUAN COMPANY- -for the selections by Thomas Hardy tromCollected Poems by Thomas Hardy, copyright, 1925, by The Mac-millan Company, and used with their permission; for the selectionsby William Butler Yeats from Collected Porins by William ButlerYeats, copyright, 1933, by The Maemillan Company, and used withtheir permission ; lor the selections by William Butler Yeats fromLast, Poems by William Butler Yeats, copyright, 1940, by GeorgiaYeats, and used with the permission of The Maemillan Company; iw Poems, 19$t edit


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COPYRIGHT NOTICES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTSROUTLEDGE & REGAN PAUL LIMITED for the selections from Under the

Cliff by GeoUrey Gngson, Shadows of Chrysanthemums by Miss E. J.Scovdl, The Second Man by Julian Symons, Time to Mourn by D. S.Savage and The Collected Poems of Sidney Kcyes.CHARLES SCUWNEU'B SONS for the elections by A. E. Housman reprintedfrom My Brother, A. E, H. by Laurence Housman, copyright, 1938,by Laurence Housman., used by pel mission of the publishers, CharlesScribner's Sons.THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS for selections by A. E, Housman by permissionof The Society ot Authors as the Literary Representative of theTrustees of the Estate of the late A. E. Housman, and Messrs.Jonathan Cape, Ltd., publishers of A. E, Housman's Collected Poems.DYLAN THOMAS for five poems (exclusive of those poems acknowledgedto The Fortune Press, Ann Watkins, Inc. and New Directions) fiomThe Map of Love, published by J. M. Dent & Son, Ltd , from TheAtlantic Monthly, copyright, 1947, and copyright, 1951, by TheAtlantic Monthly Company, and from The Hudson Review, copyright,1950 by The Hudson Review, Inc. (The poem, In the White Oiant'sThigh, was revised in 1951 by Mr. Thomas, and appeared for the firsttime m America in The Atlantic Monthly.)MRS. HELEN THOMAS for the poems by Edward Thomas.HENRY TBEKCB for hi two poems.THE VIKING Pnsssfor the selections from Last Poems by D. H.Lawrence, copyrighted, 1933, by Frieda Lawrence ; foi the selectionsfrom Collected Poems by D. H. Lawrence, copyright, 1929, by Jonathan Cape and Harrison Hmith; for the selections from The Song ofLazarus by Alex Comfort, copyright, 1945, by Alex Comfort; for theselection from Finnvyans Wake by James Joyce, copyright, 1939, byJniucH Joyce, all reprinted by permission of The Viking Press, Inc.,New York.VEENON WATKINH for "Music of Colours: The Blossom Scattered" fromPoetry (Chicago).ANN WATKINH, INC. for four poems (by Dylan Thomas) from IBPoems by Dylan Thomas, published by The Fortune Press.A. P. WATT & SON (and Mrs. George Bambndgo and The MacmillanCompany of Canada) for the selections by Rudyard Kipling fiomttarrack-lioom Ballads, The Seven Seas, The Second Jungle Book andThe Five Nations ; for the poems by Robert Graves from Poems 1038-1946 by Robert Graves, published by Creative Age Press, copyright,1946, by Robert Graves; ior "Homage to Texas" by Robert Graves,from The New Yorker, copyright, 1950, by The Yorker Magazine, Inc.and from Poems and Satirett, 1 9fit by Robert Graves.OHCAR WILUAMH- for the poem "Klegy V" by George Barker, from NewPoems 1043 edited by Oscar Williams, copyright, 1943, by OscarWilliams.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FORPORTRAITS AND PHOTOGRAPHSJohn Donne, from Miniature by Isaac Oliver.Andrew Marvell, from portrait bij Adrian Hannemann in tlie

I?arena Art Gallery, HullEdmund Spenser, from Portrait at Pembroke College,Richard Lovelace, from portrait at Dulwick College.John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, from portrait Inj JacobHuysnwns in the National Portrait Gallery.

Sir Walter Ralegh, portrait in National Portrait Gallery.John Dryden, by unknown artist, Bodleian Library.Sir Philip Sidney, from the original by Sir. Ant. More.William Blake, from oil painting by Phillips.John Milton, from a print; by Faithorne.Emily Bronte, by "Branwdl Bronte.Robert Ilerrick, from a print by Marshall.Christina Georgina Rosaetti, by D. G. Rowetti.Lewis Carroll, portrait by Hcrkomer, Christ Church, OxfordThomas Moore, from painting In/ Sir T. Lawrence, P.R.A.Algernon Charles Swinburne, Elliott 6- Pry,Sir W. S. Gilbert, Elliot 6* Fry.Francis Thompson, Elliot 6- Fry.John Clare, portrait by W. Hilton, National Portrait GalleryThomas Lovell Beddoes, from portrait by N. C. Branwhite,George Meredith, photograph by J. Thomson.William Butler Yeats from a charcoal drawing by John

SSargent, H,AJames Stephens, Lafayette, Dublin,John Maaefield, Gillman and Soame.W. H. Dames, portrait by Harold Knight.Herbert Read, photograph by Charles Leirons.Vernon Watkins, portrait by Alfred /anew, photograph byTal Williams.

F. H. Iliggins, photograph by Bachrach,Wilfred Given, from frontispiece in his first book of poems,published by Chatto 6- Windus in 1920,

Rupert Brooke, from a photograph by Sherril Schett.Dylan Thomas, portrait by Gene DerwoocLRobert Bridgesf photograph by Bachrach*

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C ontentsSee ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF AUTHORS & TITLES, 859 TO 874INTRODUCTION xiPart I: The Chef Poets, 1500 to 1QOOAnonymous: Ballads ... 3 Sir John Suckling 203Anonymous: Songs 6- William Gartright 203

Lyrics 17 Richard Crashaw 205Sir Thomas More 31 Richard Lovelace 211Sir Thomas Wijatt 33 Abraham Cowlcy 213Henry Howard, Earl of Andrew Marvell 217

Surrey 35 Henry Vaughan 225Sir Philip Sidney 38 Thomas Traherne 232Fulke Grevilte, Lord John Dryden 238

Brooke 45 John Wilmot, Earl ofSir Walter Ralegh 50 Rochester 247Sir Edward Dyer 56 Matthew Prior 250Edmund Spenser 58 John Gay 251Thomas Lodge 65 Alexander Pope 253Chidiock Tichborne 66 Thomas Gray 258Robert Southwell 67 William Collins 266Samuel Daniel 69 Christopher Smart 268Michael Drat/ton 70 Oliver Goldsmith 272Christopher 'Marlowe ..71 William Cowper 274William Shakespeare ... 74 Thomas Chatterton ....276Thomas Nashe 112 William Blake 281Thomas Campion 112 Robert Burns 294Sir Henry Wotton 114 William Wordsworth . . .304Sir John Dames 115 Samuel Taylor Coleridge 328Ben Jonson 116 Walter Savage Landor. .353John Donne 124 Thomas Campbell 354John Webster 150 Thomas Moore 355Richard Corbet 151 George Gordon, LordGeorge Wither 152 Byron 357Robert Ilerrick 154 Percy Bysshe Shelley . . .368George Herbert 159 John Clare 377James Shirley 168 John Keats 380Thomas Carew 169 George Darley 395Edmund Waller 170 Thomas Hood 396John Milton 171 William Barnes 400

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CONTENTSThomas Lovcll BcddocsAOOEdward Pitzgcrald . . . .404Alfred* Lord Tennyson. .416ElizabctJi Barrett

Browning .439Robert Browning 440Edward Lear 451Emily Bronte 453Arthur Hugh Clough . . .456Matthew Arnold 457Dante Gabriel Rossetti. .459Christina GeorginaRcmctti 463

George Meredith 464Lewis Carroll 467James Thomson 473William Morris 478Sir W. S. Gilbert 480Algernon CharlesSwinburne .486Alice Mcijncll 495W. E. Henley 497Oscar Wilde 497Francis Thompson . . . , .499Lionel Johnson 504Ernest Dowson ...... .506

Part II: The Chief Poets, 1QOO to 1QSOThomas Hardy 509Gerard Manic}/ Hopkins . 529Robert Bridges 550John Davidson 561A. E. Ihmsman 564William Butler Yeats . . ,575Rudyard Kipling 611W. Jf. Dories 622Ralph Hodgson 624Walter deh Marc 631Harold Monro 634James Stephens ....... 637James Joyce . . , 639D. If. Lawrence 64John Mascfield 654Rupert Brooke 667Edwin Muir 671Edward Thomas .676T. S. Eliot 679Wilfred Owen 702Herbert Read 710Robert Grawx . . 712F. R. Biggins 720SacJwverctt Sltwctt 721Roy Campbell 728

C. Day Leivis 729Peter Quenndl , . . 733Geoffrey Grigson 736William Enwwn 737Vernon Watkins ,743W. IL Audcn 748Louis MacNcice 767Christopher Fry 775JS. /. Scovell /. 776Kathleen Raine . , 777Stephen Spender ..... .778Bernard Spencer . , . , , ,784W. H, jRw/gm- ...786Lawrence Durrcll .... .794Roy Fuller ... 796Henry Trecce 798Julian Si/mons 799F. T. Prince 800George Barker 803Dylan Thomas ....... .815Henry Reed 843John Manifold 850D. 5, Sewage 852Alex Comfort ..853Sidney Keycs 854

PORTRAITS of the POETS opposite 858INDEX of AUTHORS and TITLES 859


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Introduction

To offer another anthology of British poetry whenthere are so many good ones already available mightseem presumptuous if the new collection did not presenta new point of view or perform a new function. Thebody of English poetry is so massive and the outlines ofits brilliant past have been made so clear by the repeatedchoice and pruning of countless critics of all periods, thatnew discoveries or new judgments about it cannot wellbe made, It is my hope that this anthology will offer thereader a new perspective by showing the natural culmination of the tradition, that is, modern British poetry,in its organic relationship with its past

Anthologies have, for many people, a cachet of finality and are often read, especially by the young, in afashion that raises receptivity to a maximum, so thatthe general air of the book seems inevitably the onlyair in which poetry can breathe its life and be read. Thepower of the great poems presented carries its authorityover into the plan of the book itself. Thus, for many ofus, the first important anthology which we cherished,which made us drunk with poetry, becomes our unconscious criterion forever. In such a manner, The GoldenTreasury, The Oxford Book of English Verse and TheFaber Book of Modern Verse have determined, ratherthan influenced, the taste of whole generations. It isfortunate that only good anthologies have such force,and that, on the whole, the basis of taste so establishedis solid even if limited in area. But a certain injusticeis worked by the very authority which exists only because it is justified. This injustice has, in the main, beensuffered by contemporary poetry, for obvious reasons,


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A Little Treasury of British Poetrysuch as the difficulty of anticipating the verdicts of time,the great number of contemporary poems that wouldneed to be read by the editor and the fact that they arehard to find whether in manuscript or printed in obscureperiodicals and unrecognized books, etc.The Gold&n Treasury barred from its pages all contemporary poetry as well as the kinds of poetry thatanother taste than its editor's would certainly have included. The Oxford Book of English Verse, in its attemptto correct this error, made so half-hearted a gesture ofwelcome to 'modern' poetry that a naive reader of itspages could get only an impression of the feebleness, inquantitative productiveness at least, of his own time, incontrast to the robust fecundity of the past. The editorsof other general anthologies (including the many goodones of the last decade) also seem to have been dazzledinto a kind of paralysis by the glory of the past so that, ifthey do include modern pieces at all, they include sofew, stop at so early a date and give so little space tocontemporary work that the unalerted reader receives animpression that modern poetry is virtually non-existent,or if it exists, almost unworthy of attention, The PaherBook of Modern Ve.rse created an active audience forliving poets throughout the English-speaking world andcannot be praised too highly for this feat. But there hasbeen no previous collection of winch 1 am aware thathas attempted to show, by giving contemporary versethe emphasis it should have for a modern reader, itsrelation to the work of the past. And just how strongshould that emphasis be?

I have arbitrarily answered this question by devotingapproximately two-fifths of the pages herein to the versoof the past fifty years and the remaining three-fifths tothe verse of previous periods. If the sole function of ananthology were to make long-range historical comparative judgments, this ratio might well seem grotesque andXII


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INTRODUCTIONbiased, But there is no reason why an anthology shouldoffer precisely that kind of judgment, as if it were beingbrought to print two centuries in the future. The futurewill have its own criteria, and by them determine whatis important to it.

This anthology is being published for living readers.We belong to a specific period of time, our own, and thisperiod though not yet fully understood, is fully felt, sincein it we live and bear the shocks of pain or pleasurepeculiar to it, and even bear them after emotional stylesalso peculiar to ourselves and our time, and to no other.The only poets who understand us, who articulate for us,are the poets who live beside us in our own historicalsituation. To us, once the needs of education have beenfulfilled, they should be as important as, if not more important than, the poets

of thepast.

Toappreciate DylanThomas it is not necessary either to deny the pre-eminence of Shakespeare or to forgo the pleasure of readinghim. But to Shakespeare our reading is of no importance,

to the living poet and to the continuance of the greattradition it is of vital importance that there should be asensitive and aware audience* Only by appreciation ofcontemporary verse can the audience participate inmaintaining the values of poetry, especially at a periodwhen the general public has lost almost all respect forlearning and the arts.

Hence, by devoting approximately two-fifths of thisbook to modern verse I am making a judgment on function, rather than a judgment on comparative quality. Todo the latter would be as impossible as absurd, since onlysucceeding generations can decide what shall or shallnot live through and beyond their time. It may well bethat many poems here included will later be droppedfrom the record of English literature and that the greatfigures of the past will loom even larger over our chiefpoets of today than we guess. But if we do not exercise

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A Little Treasury of BritisJi Poetryour privileges as an audience for the poets of today.there will be no poets except the poets of the past inthat future*

iiI have begun the first section of this collection, de

voted to the poetry of the past, with the period at whichthe language shows itself to have definitely changed intowhat we can recognize as modern English and readwithout major translation or extensive glossaries. It wasthe time when Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, first usedthe iambic pentameter of blank verse, that fundamentalof great English poetry, in his translation of The /Eneid,the time when the spirit of the Renaissance had finallysxiparseded the attitudes of the Middle Ages. SirThomas Wyatt and those in correspondence with himbrought the influences of Italy

to English verse and it iswith their efforts that it may be said that the Englishtongue became a perfectly expressive medium for thegreatness of English poetry. One of the chief figuresof the sixteenth century was Edmund Spenser, whoutilized all of the devices and insights of Europe tocreate his yet characteristically and magically Englishverse, Then there followed closely the massive work ofShakespeare, and English became the richest of all poeticmedia,

This first section runs to SOB pages and covers theperiod from 1500 to 1900, obviously too restricted a spaceto contain the full glory of English poetry over thoseproductive four centuries. Much of that glory is made bypoets who, while not names of the greatest magnitude,yet have certainly contributed greatness to the tradition.Such poets are represented by one or two poems. But*most of the space is devoted to the chief poets; all translations, except for the above mentioned &ndd byHenry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and The Rubdtydt byEdward FiteGerald, are omitted; and a number of longXIV


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INTRODUCTIONpoems are included in full, together with poems andpassages from plays, as well as ballads and lyrics, inorder to make this selection representative.

niThe second section of the anthology is devoted tomodern poetry, beginning with 1900, and contains 350

pages. Here, too, I have placed emphasis upon the chiefpoets and included many long poems in full, such as'The Tower' and "Meditations in Time of Civil War' byW. B. Yeats, 'Fragment of an Agon' and 'The DrySalvages' by T. S. Eliot, 'Spain' and In Memory ofSigmund Freud' by W. H. Auden, In Country Sleep'and *A Winter's Tale' by Dylan Thomas, etc.A comparative examination of particular poems inboth sections of the

anthology will,I think, be useful

to the reader, and, to those readers who have taken forgranted the too-often quoted, and believed, notion thatmodern poetry is obscure, this inspection should be revealing. The most conspicuous fact about modern poetry,and therefore, perhaps, the most over-looked, is thesimilarity which it bears to the poetry of past centuries.For the poetry of the Twentieth century, and particularlyof the last twenty years, has many more resemblances tothe poetry of the past than it has differences. If modernpoetry is obscure, it is obscure only to those to whom allgood poetry of any period is obscure, A comparison ofthe following passages will show as many subtle and'difficult' depths in the poems of the Seventeenth andEighteenth centuries as in those of the Twentieth:

Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned.-W. B. Yeats

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A Little Treasury of British PoetryBatter my heart, three-petson'd (Joel; for, youAs yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek lo mend;That I may rise, and stand, overthrow me, and bondYour forces to break, blow, burn and make mo new.I, like an nsnrpt town, to another duo,Labour to admit you, but oh, to no end.John Donne

Truly, my Satan, Ihou art but a dunce,And dost not know the garment from the man;Kvory

harlot was a virgin once,Nor can'st thoti ever change Kate into Nan,Tho* thou art worshipped by the names divineOf Jesus and Jehovah, llum art stillThe son of morn in weary night's decline,The lost traveller's dream under the hill,

-William MakeSir, no man's enemy, forgiving allBut will his negative inversion, be prodigal;Send to us power and light, a sovereign touchCuring tin* intolerable neural itch,The exhaustion of weaning, the liar's (juinsy,And the distortions of ingrown virginity.-W. IL' Audcn

T. S. Eliot's work is often considered too difficult because it is loaded with classical and scholarly quotationsand references. But .surely the same accusation can bemade against Milton, for who, without a knowledge ofclassical mythology, Christian theology, and the Englishliterature that preceded him, could understand him atall? Dylan Thomas is perhaps more often consideredobscure and difficult than other contemporary poets. Butwhen we compare a passage from., for example, 'In Memory of Ann Jones':

But t, Ann's bard on a raised hearth, call allThe seas to service that her wood-tongucd virtueBabble like a bellbuoy over the hymning heads,Bow down the walls of the ferned and foxy woods,XVI


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INTRODUCTIONThat her love sing and swing through a brown chapel,Bless her bent spirit with four, crossing birds.Her flesh was meek as milk, but this skyward statueWith the wild breast and blessed and giant skullIs carved from her in a room with a wet windowIn a fiercely mourning house in a crooked year.

with a passage from 'The Phoenix and the Turtle':Let the bird of loudest layOn the sole Arabian tree,

Herald sad and trumpet be,To whose sound chaste wings obey.But thou shrieking harbinger,Foul prccurrer of the fiend,

Augur of the fever's end,To this troop come thou not near,can it be rightly said that the language is less complex orthe meaning more easily understood in Shakespeare thanin Thomas? Poems do not live because their content isconfined to easy language and one simple surface meaning; nor are contemporary critics so incompetent ornaive as to be taken in by a hocus pocus without meaning. Not only is our time richly endowed with goodpoetry, it has perhaps better critics than any precedingperiod.Some fundamental education is certainly required forthe satisfactory reading of any good poetry, and it israther evidence of its quality than of any failure thatmodem poetry requires that the reader bring someknowledge and sensibility to his reading of it. To peoplewho could neither read nor write, all poetry would reachthe ultimate of obscurity; for to them words wouldappear as no more than mysterious marks upon thepaper. I believe that it is the education of the personwho finds modern poetry obscure which is suspect, notthe poetry itself. Poetry is, after all, literature, and todemand that it be easily understood by the half-edu-

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A Little Treasury of British Poetrycated, or the uneducated, is equivalent to asking it to bean art of the illiterate. Illiterature will flourish withouthelp; the lovers of poetry will continue to want to keepit literature.

Contemporary poetry resembles the poetry thai haspreceded it not only in presenting those 'difficulties'essential to express the profound and ambiguous qualitywhich is one of the values of poetry, but in its technicalstructures as well. Modern poets make use of the wholecategory of craft devices and have extended the range ofpoetry in form, in phonetics, in rhythms, etc. They areinfluenced more consciously and knowingly than wen*their forebears, and influenced by predecessors from allperiods of the past. Largely because of extraordinary developments in criticism, they are aware of their wholetradition with a kind of immediacy; there is no telling bywhom or by what period a young poet of today may beinstructed. Formerly, period succeeded period with asort of natural and indigenous progression. It is scarcelypossible to imagine Pope spending a stimulating eveningreading Donne, Beowulf and translations from theChinese. Yet we can think of doing that ourselves withno incongruity. No poet of the past, even of the recentpast, is in total disrepute; a number of poets are back infavour. This is a development that might have boonanticipated; as the world has been narrowed by moderntransportation, interlocking interests and wars, local cultural restrictions have been loosened and all areas ofreading have been opened by travel and translation.While there may be dangers in this catholic readingthere is always the advantage that the modern poet mustset himself a high standard, since he knows just how farand high poetry has already reached.But no matter how many the resemblances of modernpoetry to the poetry of former times, its differences arenoticeable and various enough to make the literature ofxviu


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INTRODUCTIONthe Twentieth century distinctive. To make any generalization about a period of fifty years, especially the firstfifty years of this century, might, at first view, seem impossible, since these daring decades have included talents as various as Yeats, Eliot, Graves, Auden, Thomasand Barker. Perhaps never before have the 'generations'of poets arisen so close upon each other's flourishing.Group after group has appeared to change or overthrowthe standards of the preceding few years. Hardy, Yeats,Eliot and Graves, the influence of Hopkins, the popularity of Auden and his group, the rise of George Barkerand Dylan Thomas, all the 'schools' which followed eachother in rapid succession, the Georgian, the Imagist,the pinkish Marxian and the palely loitering metaphysical, etc., each creating a minor revolution, makeit seem

impossibleto find any general classification forall.

Yet, probably because the same social upheaval hasbeen going on throughout the period, there are traitsheld in common by the poets of this century, diverse astheir qualities, styles and perceptions may be.

It is safe to say that the poetry of today has an intenseverbal richness; the poets have extended their vocabularies to include whatever common speech or idiom,scholarly or technical terminology they have a use for;poetry is no longer written in the speech of 'an Englishgentleman/ pastoral language or 'poetic' lingo. A kindof telescoping of language is a frequent device whichpermits a dense texture of images, words and meaning.This splendour and freedom of vocabulary is to be foundin the work of the majority of living poets and perhapsreaches its height in that of Dylan Thomas. That areaction from this verbal loading will eventually takeplace is probable, but meantime it is a characteristic ofour period which we should enjoy here and now. And asthe poets handle words, so they also use a great variety

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A Little Treasury of BritisJi Poetryof insights gained from the extension of experience intothe many fields of adventure which are common toTwentieth-century man in the midst of his travels, wars,economic pressures, threats and social upheavals, withnew understandings of myth and depth psychology forcompass and sounding lead.But the one characteristic that can be definitely distinguished as a development common to the whole Twentieth century may be defined as a change of personal attitude. This change exhibits itself as a shift from the poet'sindividual personality as the centre of observation orfeeling to a circle that includes the observation and feelings of other human beings of his generation, or localein time. It can be observed in the work of poets whosepoint of view is classical as well as in the work of poetswho are thoroughly romantic. What is here meant is notthe 'socialistic* statement to be found in verse that hasbeen written, especially in the 'thirties, with the objectof furthering a political idea, but a genuine organicsocial feeling tluit causes the poet to bo as intimatelyinvolved in concern for others as for himself. Poets, ofcourse, have always expressed a concern for mankind,but in past centuries that concern was likely to be overthe universal fate of men, such as the inevitability ofdeath, the shortness of youth, the imminence, in otherwords, of mortality. Lyric poets sang of their own subjective feelings; the philosophy expressed in poems suchas Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' wasthe poet's own rumination centred around his own convictions. When a poet used the plural 'we* rather than The meant himself and his beloved, or his friend, or hisimmediate class-kind. His attitude was definitely hispersonal one.But now, when the poet says *wc/ and also, in spiteof himself, as it were, when he says 'I,' ho is not onlyspeaking of himself and his immediate companions inxx


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INTRODUCTIONthe situation, but of other individuals of his time, not inthe sense of 'mankind' but truly as individuals. Further,he is not expressing his own subjective feelings alone,but, by a new kind of osmosis, he actually feels, with theintimate involvement of an emotion exactly as personalas his own, to some extent as others feel, from theirsituation as well as from his own.

I think that this change of attitude can he marked asbeginning in Victorian times with Matthew Arnold's"Dover Beach.' On the surface the Ve' of the poem is'my beloved and I/ yet the feeling of the actual 'we' isthat of all people caught in the dilemma of the time.And yet it is not as 'mankind/ always something apartfrom the poet, that Arnold feels for others. The tone ofthe poem shows that others are realized as individuals.This identical concern continues in Hardy, and it is to befound in all the poets who follow, if they are noteworthyat all (Wilfred Owen's true-to-type preoccupation withthe suffering of the soldiers around him has made himthe leading war poet of a war century.) The Imagists,it may be said here, did not develop this attitude, andalthough they caused some ferment in their hour, wescarcely think of them today as important. The sociallyhuman concern of Yeats and Eliot is too well-known toneed comment. It is of especial interest to trace this attitude through the fluctuations of the various styles andinfluences of each decade of the century and to note thatthe poets who most strongly manifest it are those whoseem to us most important. Poets as different as W. H.Auden and George Barker yet have this common trait.Such poems as 'Soldiers Bathing' by F. T. Prince (page800), or 'Winter Offering' by D. S. Savage (page 852),or almost any other which affects us as both good andcontemporaneous show the poet's modern sensitivity tothe subjective world of others as certainly as to his own.When this attitude is expressed in language drawn from

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A Little Treasury of British Poetrythe immediate environment, as in such poems as 'Naming of Parts' by Henry Reed (page 846) and 'On theRefusal to Mourn the Death of a Child, by Fire, inLondon' by Thomas (page 815), we receive an immediate awareness of our own time which in itself shouldintensify our experience of reading poetry since it givesus participation in particulars as well as in the universalscommon to the poetry of all periods.

This attitude is a gain, 1 think, since it tends to mitigate the fault of romantic poetry, which is really that ofnarrowness of perception. Instead of xittering from onemouth, the modern romantic poet, while thoroughly involved with his own personality, has, whether in spiteof himself or not, a double voice that gives him some ofthe quality of the classical tone.Out of the approximately 250 poems to be found inthe modern section* of this collection, even the mostexacting reader will find, I am sure, many that will seemto him worthy to carry on the great tradition of Englishpoetry, poems that have the inevitable ring of permanence, the magic of immortality.

OSCAR WILLIAMSNcio "York City,July S, 19SL

* See Editorial Note, on page 808.xxw


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IIA

Little Treasuryof

Modern British Poetry

The Chief Poetsfrom 1QOO to ig


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Editorial Note

This collection of British poetry is intended primarily forthe American reader as a companion volume to A LittleTreasury of American Poetry. Both volumes have been arranged on a chronological plan, i.e., according to the birthdates of the poets. T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden have workincluded in each volume but the selections are different andcomplementary. For instance, any reader who notes that 'TheWaste Land' and 'Ash Wednesday* by Eliot and 'September1, 1939* and *At the Grave of Henry James' by Auden arenot included in this volume will find them in the Americancollection.

There is no separate section in the present volume entitledThe Poetry of the Forties as there is in the American LittleTreasury, but readers interested in comparing British poetryof the Forties with American

poetryof the Forties will find

poems written during this decade starred in the Index ofAuthors & Tides (pages 859 to 874). Used together A LittleTreasury of British Poetry and A Little Treasury of AmericanPoetry constitute one comprehensive anthology of poetry inthe English tongue.


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DYLAN THOMASAnd the countrymen of heaven crouch all together under the hedges, and,among themselves, in the tear-salt darkness, surmise which world, whichstar, which of their late, turning homes in the skies has gone for ever.And this time, spreads the heavenly hedgerow rumour, it is the Earth.The Earth has killed itself. It is black, petrified, wizened, poisoned,burst; insanity has blown it rotten, and no creatures at all, joyful,despairing, cruel, kind, dumb, afire, loving, dull, shortly and brutishlyhunt their days down like enemies on that corrupted face. And, one byone, these heavenly hedgerow men who once were of the Earth, tell oneanother, through the long night, Light and His tears falling, what theyremember, what they sense m the submerged wilderness and on the exposed hairs-breadth of the mind, of that self-killed place. They remember places, fears, loves, exultation, misery, animal joy, ignorance andmysteries, all you and I know and not not know. The poem-to-be ismade of these tellings.And the poem becomes, at last, an affirmation of the beautiful andterrible worth of the earth.

It grows into a praise of what is and what could be on this lump inthe skies.It is a poem about happiness.I do not, of course, know how this first part of the poem called In theWhite Giant's Thigh, will, eventually, take its place in that lofty, pre

tentious, down-to-earth-mto-the-secrets, optimistic, ludicrous, mooneyscheme. I do not yet know myself its relevance to the whole, hypotheticalstructure. But I do know it belongs to it. D.T.

Henry Reed

THE WALLTHE place where our two gardens meetIs undivided by a street,And mingled flower and weed caressAnd fill our double wilderness,Among whose riot undismayedAnd unreproached, we idly played,While, unaccompanied by fears,The months extended into years,Till we went down one day in JuneTo pass the usual afternoonAnd there discovered, shoulder-tall,Rise in the wilderness a wall:The wall which put us out of reachAnd into silence split our speech.

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A Little Treasury of Modern British PoetryWe knew, and we had always knownThat some dark, unseen hand of stoneHovered across our days of ease,And strummed its tunes upon the breeze.It had not tried us overmuch,But here it was, for us to touch.The wilderness is still as wild,And separately unreconciledThe tangled thickets play and sprawlBeneath the shadows of our wall,And the wall varies with the flowersAnd has its seasons and its hours.Look at its features wintrilyFrozen to transparency;Through it an icy music swellsAnd a brittle, brilliant chime of bells:Would you conjecture that, in Spring,We lean upon it, talk and sing,Or climb upon it, and play chessUpon its summer silentness?One certain thing alone we know:Silence or song, it does not go.A habit now to wake with dayAnd watch it catch the sun's first

ray,Or terrorised, to scramble throughThe depths of night to prove it true.We need not doubt, for such a wallIs based in death, and does not fall.

LIVESYou cannot cage a field.You cannot wire it, as you wire a summer's rosesTo sell in towns; you cannot cage itOr kill it utterly. All you can do is to forceYear after year from the stream to the cold woodsThe heavy glitter of wheat, till its body tires844


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HENRY REEDAnd the yield grows weaker and dies. But the field never

dies,Though you build on it, burn it black, or domicileA thousand prisoners upon its empty features.You cannot kill a field. A field will reachRight under the streams to touch the limbs of its brothers.But you can cage the woods.You can throw up fences, as round a recalcitrant heartSpring up remonstrances. You can always cage the woods,Hold them completely. Confine them to hill or valley,You can alter their face, their shape; uprooting theirouter saplingsYou can even alter their wants, and their smallest long

ingsPress to your own desires. The woods succumbTo the paths made through their life, withdraw the trees,Betake themselves where you tell them, and acquiesce.The woods retreat; their protest of leaves whirlsPitifully to the cooling heavens, like dead or dying

prayers.But what can you do with a stream?You can widen it here, or deepen it there, but evenIf you alter its course entirely it gives the impressionThat this is what it always wanted. Moorhens returnTo nest or hide in the reeds which quickly grow up there,The fishes breed in it, stone settles on to stone.The stream announces its places where the water willbubbleDaily and unconcerned, contentedly ruffling and scufflingWith the drifting sky or the leaf. Whatever you do,A stream has rights, for a stream is always water;To cross it you have to bridge it; and it will not flow

uphill.

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A Little Treasury of Modern British PoetryLESSONS OF THE WARVixi duelhs nuper idoneusEt militavi non sine gloriaI. NAMING OF PARTS

TO-DAY we have naming of parts. Yesterday,We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,To-day we have naming of parts. JaponicaGlistens like coral in all of the neighbouring gardens,And to-day we have naming of parts.This is the lower sling swivel. And thisIs the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,When you are given your slings. And this is the piling

swivel,Which inyour

case youhave not got. The branchesHold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always releasedWith an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let meSee anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easyIf you have any strength in your thumb. The blossomsAre fragile and motionless, never letting anyone seeAny of them using their finger.And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of thisIs to open the breech, as you see. We can slide itRapidly backwards and forwards: we call thisEasing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwardsThe early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:

They call it easing the Spring.They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easyIf you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of

balance,Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom846


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HENRY REEDSilent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,

For to-day we having naming of parts.H. JUDGING DISTANCES

Not only how far away, but the way that you say itIs very important. Perhaps you may never getThe knack of judging a distance, but at least you knowHow to report on a landscape: the central sector,The right of arc and that, which we had last Tuesday,And at least you knowThat maps are of time, not place, so far as the armyHappens to be concerned the reason being,Is one which need not delay us. Again, you knowThere are three kinds of tree, three only, the fir and the

poplar,And those which have bushy tops too; and lastlyThat things only seem to be things.A barn is not called a barn, to put it more plainly,Or a field in the distance, where sheep may be safely

grazing.You must never be over-sure. You must say, when reporting:At five o'clock in the central sector is a dozen

Of what appear to be animals; whatever you do,Don't call the bleeders sheep.I am sure that's quite clear; and suppose, for the sake of

example,The one at the end, asleep, endeavours to tell usWhat he sees over there to the west, and how far away,After first having come to attention. There to the west,On the fields of summer the sun and the shadows bestow

Vestments of purple and gold.The still white dwellings are like a mirage in the heat,And under the swaying elms a man and a womanLie gently together. Which is, perhaps, only to say


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A Little Treasury of Modern British PoetryThat there is a row of houses to the left of arc,And that under some poplars a pair of what appears tqbe humans

Appear to be loving.Well that, for an answer, is what we might rightly callModerately satisfactory only, the reason being,Is that two things have been omitted, and those are

important.The human beings, now: in what direction are they,And how far away, would you say? And do not forgetThere may be dead ground in between.There may be dead ground in between; and I may nothave gotThe knack of judging a distance; I will only ventureA guess that perhaps between me and the apparent

lovers,(Who, incidentally, appear by now to have finished,)At seven o'clock from the houses, is roughly a distanceOf about one year and a half.

in. UNARMED COMBATIn due course of course you will be issued withYour proper issue; but until to-morrow,You can hardly be said to need it; and until that time,We shall have unarmed combat. I shall teach you.The various holds and rolls and throws and breakfallsWhich you may sometimes meet.And the various holds and rolls and throws and breakfallsDo not depend on any sort of weapon,But only on what I might coin a phrase and callThe ever-important question of human balance,And the ever-important need to be in a strongPosition at the start.There are many kinds of weakness about the body,Where you would least expect, like the ball of the foot.But the various holds and rolls and throws and breakfalls848


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HENRY REEDWill always come in useful. And never be frightenedTo tackle from behind: it may not be clean to do so,

But this is global war.So give them all you have, and always give themAs good as you get; it will always get you somewhere.(You may not know it, but you can tie a JerryUp without rope; it is one of the things I shall teach

you.)Nothing will matter if only you are ready for

him.The readiness is all.

The readiness is all How can I help but feelI have been here before? But somehow then,I was the tied-up one. How to get outWas always then my problem. And even if I hadA piece of rope I was always the sort of personWho threw the rope aside.And in my time I have given them all I had,Which was never as good as I got, and it got me no

where.And the various holds and rolls and throws and breakfallsSomehow or other I always seemed to putIn the wrong place.

And as for war, my warsWere global from the start.Perhaps I was never in a strong position,Or the ball of my foot got hurt, or I had some weaknessWhere I had least expected. But I think I see your point.While awaiting a proper issue, we must learn the lessonOf the ever-important question of human balance.

It is courage that counts.Things may be the same again; and we must fightNot in the hope of winning but rather of keepingSomething alive: so that when we meet our end,It may be said that we tackled wherever we could,That battle-fit we lived, and though defeated,

Not without glory fought. 849


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Index of Authors and Titles

Anonymous: BalladsSir Patrick Spens 3The Falcon 5The Demon Lover 6Lord Randal 8Edward, Edward 9Helen of Kirconnell .... 10Bonny Barbara Allan ... 12The Wife of Usher's Well 13Thomas the Rhymer ... 14Anonymous: Songs & LyricsI Sing of a Maiden 17The Bailey Beareth theBell Away 17Western Wind 18Crabbed Age and Youth 181 Saw My Lady Weep. 18Fine Knacks for Ladies 19My Love in Her Attire. 19As I Sat Under a Sycamore Tree 20God Rest You Merry,Gentlemen 20The First Nowell 22Love Not Me 23Since First I Saw Your

Face 23Devotion 24There Is a Lady Sweetand Kind 24Back and Side Go Bare,Go Bare 25The Sea Hath ManyThousand Sands .... 26Tom O'Bedlam's Song. 26

Anonymous: Songs & LyricscontinuedLondon Bells 29Foggy, Foggy Dew . . , 29Broom, Green Broom . , 30

Arnold, Matthew(18S&-1888)

Dover Beach 457Requiescat 458Auden, W. H.

(b. 1907)Petition 748*Musee des Beaux Arts. 749*Paysage Moralise 750*In Memory of W. B.Yeats 751Lay Your Sleeping Head,My Love 753O What Is That Sound. 754O Where Are You Go

ing 756Doom Is Dark 756Spain 1937 757*Consider This and inOur Time 760*In Memory of SigmundFreud 762*Mundus et Infans 765

BBarker, George

(b. 1913)*Resolution of Dependence 803(More Barker, next page]* Poems preceded by an asterisk can be considered part ofThe Poetry of the Forties. See Editorial Note, page 508.

859


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESBarker, George

continuedThe Three Dead andthe Three Living . . .805*The Death of Yeats ...806^Triumphal OdeMCMXXXIX 807*Allegory of the Adolescent and the Adult. .809*Sonnet to My Mother. .810Elegy V: Separation ofMan from God 811*News of the World I.. 812*News of the World II . . 813*News of the World 111,814

Barnes, William(1801-1886)The May Tree 400

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell(1808-1849)

Dirge 400Song: Old Adam, theCarrion Crow 401Song: How Many TimesDo I Love Thee, Dear 402Dream-Pedlary 402

Blake, William(1757-1827)

Reeds of Innocence . . . .281The Lamb 281Auguries of Innocence. .282I Saw a Chapel All ofGold 285The Angel 286London 286The Scoffers 287The Garden of Love . . .287Song 288A Poison Tree 288The New Jerusalem 289860

Blake, Williamcontinued

To the Muses 289The Tiger 90The Immortal 291For the Sexes: The Gatesof Paradise 292

Bridges, Robert(1844-1930)

I Heard a Linnet Courting 550On a Dead Child 551London Snow 552A Passer-by 552

Nightingales 554Eros 554Johannes Milton, Senex.555Noel: Christmas Eve,1913 556Low Barometer 557The Storm Is Over 558The Psalm 559Bronte, Emily

(1818-184S)No Coward Soul Is Mine 453Stanzas: Oft Rebuked . .454The Visionary 454Remembrance 455Brooke, Rupert

(1887-1915)The Soldier 667The Dead 668The Great Lover 668Heaven 670Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

(1SOG-1861)How Do I Love Thee. . .439If Thou Must Love Me. 439


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESBrowning, Robert

(181&-1889)Home-Thoughts fromAbroad 440Pippa's Song 440Soliloquy of the SpanishCloister 441My Last Duchess 443Prospice 444A Toccata of Galuppfs. .445The Last Ride Together, 447

Bums, Robert(1769-1796)My Love Is Like a RedRed Rose 294Auld Lang Synge 295Comin' Thro* The Rye. .295Green Grow the Rashes,O 296

John Anderson 297Sweet Afton 298For A' That and A That. 298A Poet's Welcome to HisLove-Begotten Daughter 300

The Rigs o? Barley 301To a Louse 302

Byron, Lord, George Gordon(1788-1824)She Walks in Beauty. . .357There Be None of

Beauty's Daughters . .357So, We 11 Go No More aRoving 358Sonnet on Chillon 358The Sea 359

It Is the Hush of Night. 361Darkness 363The Isles of Greece 365

Campbell, Roy(b. 1902)The Serf 728The Zebras 729Campbell, Thomas

(1774-1844)The River of Life 354Campion, Thomas

(1667-1880)Follow Thy Fair Sun, Unhappy Shadow 112

Cherry-Ripe 113Carew, Thomas

(1595P-1639?)Song: Ask Me No MoreWhere Jove Bestows .169He That Loves a RosyCheek 170Carroll, Lewis(Charles L. Dodgson)

(1832-1898)Jabberwocky 467The Walrus and the Car

penter 468Father William 472Cartright, William

(1611-1643)No Platonic Love 203To Chloe 204Chatterton, Thomas

(1752-1770)An Excellente Balade ofCharity 276Sing Unto My Roundelay 279

fifil


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESClare, John

(1739-1864)Badger 377I Am 378Mouse's Nest 378Clock-a-Clay 379

Clough, Arthur Hugh(1819-1861)

Say Not the Struggle. . .456Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

(1772-1834)Kubla Khan 328The Rime of the Ancient

Mariner 329Dejection: An Ode 348Epigram 352Collins, William

(1721-1759)Ode to Evening 266Comfort, Alex

(b. 1920)*Hoc Est Corpus 853*The Atoll in the Mind . 853Corbet, Richard

(1582-1635)The Fairies* Farewell .151Cowley, Abraham

(1018-1667)Beauty 213Against Hope 214The Wish 215

i

Cowper, William(17S1-1SOQ)The Solitude of Alexan

der Selkirk 274862

Cowper, Williamcontinued

Light Shining Out ofDarkness 275Crashaw, Richard

(161B-1649)The Tear 205For Hope 206The Flaming Heart 208D

Daniel, Samuel(1562-1619)

Fair Is My LoveCare-Charmer SleepDavidson, John(1857-1909)Thirty Bob a WeekDarley, George

(1795-1S46)The Solitary Lyre .

...561

,.395Davies, Sir John

(1569-1629)In What Manner the Soul

Is United to the Body. 115Davies, W. H.

(1810-1940)A Great Time 622Leisure 622The White Monster 623De la Mare, Walter

(b. 1873)An Epitaph 631The Linnet 631The Listeners 632The Miracle 633


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INDEX or AUTHOKS AND TITLESDonne, John

(1678-1681)Go and Catch a FallingStar 124The Good-Morrow 125The Flea 125The Ecstasy 126The Canonization 128Love's Deity 129The Anniversary 130The Dream 131The Sun Rising 132Lovers' Infmiteness 133On His Mistress 134Love's Progress 135Going to Bed 138The Blossom 139Break of Day 140The Will 141A Nocturnal Upon Saint

Lucy's Day 143If Poisonous Minerals . .144A Valediction Forbid

ding Mourning 144The Relic 145Death, Be Not Proud. . .146What If This Present ... 147At the Round Earth'sImagined Corners . . . 147Batter My Heart 148A Hymn to God, theFather 148A Hymn to Christ 149Dowson, Ernest

(1867-1900)Cynarae 506

Drayton, Michael(1563-1631)

Night and Day 70The Parting 70

Dryden, John(1681-1700)

A Song for St. Cecilia'sDay, 1687 238Farewell, UngratefulTraitor 240No, No, Poor SufferingHeart 241Alexander's Feast 246

Durrell, Lawrence(b. 1912)*At Epidaurus 794Dyer, Sir Edward

(1545P-1607)My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is 56

Eliot, T. S.(b. 1888)The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock 679The Hippopotamus . . .683A Song for Simeon . . .684Animula 685

Fragment of an Agon .686The Wind Sprang Up atFour O'clock 692Chorus from 'The Rock'III 692*The Dry Salvages 694

Empson, William(b. 1906)

Letter I 737^Letter IV 738*Aubade 739*Courage Means Run

ning 740(More Empson, next page)863


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESEmpson, William

continuedLegal Fiction 741Missing Dates 742

FitzGerald, Edward(1809-1883)The Rubaiyat of Omar

Khayyam 404Fry, Christopher

(b. 1907)From 'The Boy with aCart' 775

.796Fuller, Roy

(b. 1912)* Spring 1943 ....

GGay, John

(1685-17S&)To a Lady on Her Passion for Old China ...251

Gilbert, Sir W. S.(1863-1911)

Sir Joseph's Song 480Bunthorne's Song 481Ko-~Ko's Song 482The Mikado's Song .... 484Ko Ko's Winning Song. 485Goldsmith, Oliver

(1788-1774)Woman 272Sweet Auburn 272Graves, Robert

(b. 1895)Interruption 712864

Graves, Robertcontinued

Ogres and Pygmies . . .713The Legs ...........714Rocky Acres ........ 714The Eremites ........ 715^Homage to Texas ..... 716A Love Story ........ 717The Door ...........718*To Juan at the Winter

Solstice ........... 718*The Persian Version . .719Gray, Thomas

(1716-1771)Elegy Written in a Coun

try Churchyard ..... 258Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College. .262On a Favourite CatDrowned in a Tub ofGold Fishes ........ 265

Greville, Fulke, Lord Brooke(1554-1628)O Wearisome Condition

of Humanity ........ 45Epitaph on Sir Philip

Sidney ............. 46Three Things There Be. 48When as Man's Life ... 49To Myra ............. 49Grigson, Geoffrey

(b. 1905)*The Landscape of theHeart ............ 736

HHardy, ThomasThe Darkling Thrush . .509(More Hardy, next page]


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IISBEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESHardy, Thomas

continuedThe Souls of the Slain . .510To an Unborn PauperChild 513The Ruined Maid 514The Last Chrysanthemum 515In Tenebris I 515In Tenebris II 516In Tenebris III 517The Man He Killed ....518Channel Firing 519The Convergence of theTwain 520The Statue of Liberty. . .521Under the Waterfall . . .523The Going 525Afterwards 526A Refusal 527No Buyers 528In Time of 'The Break

ing of Nations' 528

Henley, W. E.(1849-190S)

Invictus 497

Herbert, GeorgeEaster-Wings 159Redemption 159The Collar 160The Quip 161Love 162The Pulley 162Discipline 163Life 164Jordan 164The Rose , . 165Avarice 166Affliction 166

Herrick, Robert(1691-1674)

To the Virgins, to MakeMuch of Time 154The Night-Piece, toJulia 154Upon Julia's Clothes . . . 155

Delight in Disorder 155A Child's Grace 156The Bad Season Makesthe Poet Sad 156Tis Hard to Find God . .156

Mirth 156Prayers Must HavePoise 157The Rod 157Temptation 157Thanksgiving 157Neutrality

Lothsome . . . 157Sins Loathed, and YetLoved 157Good Christians 157To Daffodils 158Good Men AfflictedMost 158

Higgins, F. R.(1896-1941)*Song for the Clatter-Bones 720

Hodgson, Ralph(b. 187%)The Song of Honour . . . 624

Eve 630Hood, Thomas

(1198-1845)I Remember, I Remem

ber 396Autumn 397The Sea of Death 398865


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESHopkins, Gerard Mauley

' (1844-1S89)God's Grandeur 529Pied Beauty 530The Wreck of the

Deutschland 530The Leaden Echo andthe Golden Echo 540

Felix Randal 542The Windhover 543The Candle Indoors . . . .543Spring and Fall: To aYoung Child 544Inversnaid 544No Worst, There IsNone 545The Habit o Perfection . 545

Carrion Comfort 546That Nature Is a Hera-

1 clitean Fire 547The Sea and the Sky

lark 548Andromeda 548I Wake and Feel the Fell

of Dark 549The Lantern Out o

Doors 549

Housraan, A. E.continued

Into My Heart 568With Rue My Heart IsLaden 559Terence, This Is StupidStuff 569Soldier from the Wars

Returning 571The Chestnut Casts HisFlambeaux 572When Israel Out ofEgypt Came 573The Jar of Nations 574Infant Innocence 574

Howard, Henry, Earl ofSurrey(1616-1547)How No Age Is Content 35

Description of Spring . . 36Translation from TheAeneid 36

Housman, A. E.(1869-1986)

Loveliest of Trees 564Reveille 564On Wenlock Edge 565Others, I Am Not the

First 566When I Was One-and-Twenty 566Oh, When I Was in Lovewith You 567To an Athlete DyingYoung 567White in the Moon theLong Road Lies 568

866

Johnson, Lionel(1SG7-190&JThe Dark Angel 504

Jonson, Ben(1673-1637)To Celia 116

On My First Son 116It Is Not Growing Like aTree 117The Hour Glass 117Inviting a Friend to Sup

per 117The Triumph of Charis.118(More Jonson, next page)


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESJonson, Ben

continuedTo the Memory of MyBeloved, Master Wil

liam Shakespeare 119An Ode to Himself ....122To Heaven 123Joyce, James

(1888-1941)The Ballad of PersseO'Reilly 639

Keyes, Sidney(1988-1948)

*The Wilderness 854Kipling, Rudyard

(1865-1936)Recessional 611Danny Deever 612Gunga Din 613Mandalay 615Sestina of the Tramp-Royal 617The Law of the Jungle. .619When Earth's Last Pic

ture Is Painted 621

Keats, John(1796-1881)On First Looking intoChapman's Homer . . . 380On Seeing the ElginMarbles 380

To One Who Has BeenLong in City Pent . ..381On the Grasshopper andthe Cricket 381When I Have Fears ThatI May Cease to Be. ..382

Bright Star! Would IWere Steadfast asThou Art 382On The Sea 383

La Belle Dame SansMerci 383

Ode to a Nightingale. . .385Ode on a Grecian Urn. .387Ode to Psyche 388Ode on Indolence 390Ode on Melancholy 392To Autumn 393A Thing of Beauty 394There Was a NaughtyBoy 395

Landor, Walter Savage(1775-1864)Rose Aylmer 353Dirce 353On His Seventy-fifth

Birthday 353Death Stands Above Me. 353lanthe 354Lately Our Poets 354Lawrence, D. H.

(188S-19SO)Bavarian Gentians ..... 642Piano 643When I Went to the Cir

cusDon'ts 645Humming Bird 647The Elephant Is Slow toMate 647Snake 648The Ship of Death 651Lear, Edward

(1818r-1888)The Jumblies 451867


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESLewis, C. Day (b. 1904)Consider These, for WeHave CondemnedThem 729Do Not Expect Again aPhoenix Hour 730

Nearing Again theLegendary Isle 731The Conflict 731

Lodge, Thomas(1556?-1625)Rosaline 65

Lovelace, Richard(1618-1668)To Lucasta, On Going tothe Wars 211

To Lucasta, on GoingBeyond the Seas ... .211To Althea from Prison. .212M

MacNeice, Louis(b. 1907)

Sunday Morning 767Among These Turf-Stacks 767The Sunlight on theGarden 768

*Prayer Before Birth . . .769^Bagpipe Music 770"Entirely 771^Refugees 772^Entered in the Minutes. 774

Manifold, John (b. 1016)*Fife Tune 850*The Sirens 850*The Bunyip and the

Whistling Kettle 851868

Marlowe, Christopher(1664r-169S)

Who Ever Loved thatLoved Not at FirstSight 71Fair Is Too Foul an Epithet 71Helen 73The Passionate Shepherdto His Love 73

Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678)To His Coy Mistress . . .217The Garden 218The Picture of LittleT. C. in a Prospect ofFlowers 220The Definition of Love .221The Mower Against Gardens 222On a Drop of Dew . . . .223

Masefield, John (b. 1878)On Growing Old 654The West Wind 655There on the DarkenedDeathbed 656How Many Ways 657An Old Song Re-Sung. .657Lollingdon Downs 658The Passing Strange . . . 665Meredith, Georgef/828-1909)Lucifer in Starlight . . . .464Love in the Valley 465Meynell, Alice(1847-1988)A Letter from a Girl toHer Own Old Age ...495

Milton, John (1608-1674)On His Blindness 171On His Deceased Wife.. 171(More Milton, next


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESMilton. John

continuedHow Soon Hath Time . . 172On the Late Massacre inPiedmont 172

Lycidas 173L/Allegro 178111 Penseroso 182On Time 186Blindness of Samson . . . 187Ode on the Morning ofChrist's Nativity 188Satan and the Fallen

Angels 195Light 196Satan's Soliloquy 197Satan's Guile 199True & False Glory 201Monro, Harold (1879-1982)Living 634Bitter Sanctuary 635Moore, Thomas (1779-1852)Believe Me 355Oft in the Stilly Night. .356

More, Sir Thomasfj?478-158S)A Rueful Lamentation . . 31Morris, William (1834-1896)The Earthly Paradise . .478Muir, Edwin (b. 1887)*The Road 671*Too Much 672*The Combat 673*The Interrogation 674*The Castle 675

NNashe, Thomas (1567-1602)Spring, the Sweet Spring 112

OOwen, Wilfred (1893-1918)Greater Love 702The Send-Off 703Dulce et Decorum Est. .703Arms and the Boy 704Spring Offensive 705Insensibility 706The Show 708Strange Meeting 709

Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)Know Theu Thyself 253Vital Spark of HeavenlyFLime 256A Little Learning 256Engraved on the Collar

of a Dog 258The Coxcomb Bird 258Prince, F. T. (b. 1912)* Soldiers Bathing 800Prior, Matthew (1664-1721)To a Child of Quality. . .250

Quennell, Peter (b. 1905)Hero Entombed I 733The Flight Into Egypt. .734Procne 735

Raine, Kathleen (b. 1908)*Easter Poem 777*Love Poem 777Ralegh, Sir Walter

(1668-1618)The Nymph's Reply tothe Shepherd 50(More Ralegh, next page)869


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESRalegh, Sir Walter

continuedEven Such Is Time 51The Passionate Man's Pil

grimage 51The Silent Lover ...... 53The Merit of True Passion ............... 53

Walsinghame ......... 53The Lie .............. 55Read, Herbert (b. 1898)*To a Conscript of 1940.710Reed, Henry (b. 1914)*The Wall ........... 843*Lives ............... 844*Lessons of the War:

Naming of Parts ---- 846Judging Distances . . 847Unarmed Combat . . 848

Rodgers, W. R. (b. 1911)*Apollo and Daphne . . .786*Stormy Day ......... 787^Neither Here Nor There 788^Summer Holidays ... .789Rossetti, Christina Georgina

(1890-1894)A Birthday ........... 463When I Am Dead, MyDearest ............ 463Rossetti, Dante Gabriel

(1888-1888)The Blessed Damozel . .459

Savage, D. S. (b. 1917)*Winter Offering ...... 852Scovell, E. J. (b. 1907)*Love's Immaturity .... 776870

Shakespeare, William(1564-1616)

Tell Me Where Is FancyBred 74Under the GreenwoodTree 75Blow, Blow, Thou Win

ter Wind 75Fear No More 76Full Fathom Five ThyFather Lies 77Hark Hark! the Lark ... 77How Should I Your TrueLove Know 77It Was a Lover and His

Lass 78Now the Hungry LionRoars 78O Mistress Mine 79Sigh No More, Ladies . . 79When That I Was and aTiny Little Boy 80Saint Valentine's Day . . 81Take O Take Those Lips 81Who Is Silvia? 81When Icicles Hang bythe Wall 82

You Spotted Snakes 82Did Not the HeavenlyRhetoric of Thine Eye 83Sonnets:From Fairest CreaturesWe Desire Increase . . 83When Forty Winters Shall

Besiege Thy Brow ... 84Look in Thy Glass 84Shall I Compare Thee to

a Summer s Day .... 85When in Disgrace withFortune & Men's Eyes 85When to the Sessions ofSweet Silent Thought. 85(More Shakespeare, nextpage)


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESShakespeare, William

continuedFull Many a GloriousMorning Have I Seen. 86What Is Your Substance. 86Not Marble, nor the

Gilded Monuments ... 87Like as the Waves 87When I Have Seen byTime's Fell Hand 87Since Brass, nor Stone,nor Earth, nor Bound

less Sea 88Tired with AIL These, for

Restful Death I Cry. . 88No Longer Mourn for MeWhen I Am Dead ... 89That Time of Year Thou

Mayest in Me Behold. 89Farewell! Thou Art TooDear for My Possessing 89

They that Have Power toHurt 90From You Have I BeenAbsent in the Spring . . 90When in the Chronicle ofWasted Time 91

Not Mine Own Fears, northe Prophetic Soul ... 91Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds . . 91Th' Expense of Spirit ina Waste of Shame ... 92

My Mistress' Eyes AreNothing Like the Sun. 92

Poor Soul, the Center ofMy Sinful Earth 93Opportunity 93Passages from Plays:All the World's a Stage. 95The Uses of Adversity. . 96Cleopatra 97

Shakespeare, Williamcontinued

The Cares of Majesty . . 98Wolsey's Farewell 99He Jests at Scars 99Mercutio's Queen MabSpeech 100

Imagination 101Ulysses Advises Achilles. 102Our Revels Are Ended. .103The Quality of Mercy. . .103To Thine Own Self BeTrue 104To Be or Not to Be 104Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow . . . 105To Gild Refined Gold . . 106

Antony's Oration OverCaesar's Body 106

The Phoenix & the Turtle . 109Shelley, Percy Bysshe

(1798-1828)One Word Is Too OftenProfaned 368

Music 368Ode to the West Wind. .369The Cloud 371The Indian Serenade . . .373To a Skylark 374Shirley, James (1596-1666)Death the Leveller 168Sidney, Sir VhStttf1664-1686)Desire 38Loving in Truth 39The Highway 39Leave Me, O Love 40Delight of Solitariness... 40The Nightingale 41Heart Exchange 42Double Sestine 43

871


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESSitwell, Sacheverell (b. 1897)Agamemnon's Tomb . . .721Smart, Christopher

(1788-1770)My Cat Jeoffry 268The Man of Prayer 271Southwell, Hoben(ieei-lS9S)Times Go by Turns 67The Burning Babe 68Spencer, Bernard (b. 1909)^Behaviour of Money. . .784*Part of Plenty 785Spender, Stephen (b. 1909)Ultima Ratio Regurn . .778Not Palaces, An Era'sCrown 779An Elementary School

Classroom in a Slum. 780*From All These Events. 781I Think Continually ofThose 782*The Double Shame . . .783Spenser, Edmund (1552-1599)Most Glorious Lord .... 58Fresh Spring, the Herald 58My Love Is Like to Ice. 59One Day I Wrote HerName 59Ye Tradeful Merchants . 59Prothalamion 60Stephens, James (1882-1950)The Goat Paths 637Suckling, Sir John(1609-1642)The Constant Lover . . .203Swinburne, Algernon Charles

(1837-1909)Before the Beginning . . . 486When the Hounds of

Spring 488872

Swinburne, Algernon CharlescontinuedA Forsaken Garden .... 489The Garden of Pros

erpine 492Symons, Julian (b. 1912)*Pub 799

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord(1809-1898)Tears, Idle Tears 416Ask Me No More 416Blow, Bugle, Blow 417Flower, in the CranniedWall 417St. Agnes' Eve 418As Through the Land atEve We WTent 419Break, Break, Break 419All in All 420Ulysses 420The Lotos-Eaters 422Tithonus 427Proem to "In Memoriam' . 429I Held It Truth 430Oh Yet We Trust 431Of One Dead 432Dark House 432Calm Is the Morn 433To-night the Winds Be

gin 433Be Near Me 434I Cannot See the Fea

tures Right 435I Wage Not Any Feudwith Death 435I Envy Not 436As Sometimes in a Dead

Man's Face 436Ring Out, Wild Bells . . .437Crossing the Bar 438


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INDEX OF AUTHOKS AND TITLESThomas, Dylan (b. 1914)*A Refusal To Mourn the

Death by Fire of aChild in London . . .815Light Breaks Where NoSun Shines 816The Force that Throughthe Green Fuse 817I See the Boys of Summer 818On No Work of Words. 820Not from This Anger. .820I, in My Intricate Image 821*Poem in October 824*Fern Hill 826*Over Sir John's Hill . . .828*In Country Sleep 830*In Memory of Ann

Jones 834^Especially When theOctober Wind 835*A Winters Tale 836*In the White Giant's

Thigh 840Thomas, Etow&(1878-1917)The Gallows 676Tears 677The Owl 677Adlestrop 678Thompson, Francis

(1S59-1907)The Hound of Heaven. .499In No Strange Land 503Thomson, James (1834-1882)The City Is of Night . . .473As I Came Through theDesert 475Tichborne, Chidiock

(1668-1586)Written on the Eve of

Execution 66

Traherne, Thomas(1637P-1674)

On Leaping Over theMoon 232Wonder 234Shadows in the Water. ,236Treece, Henry (b. 1912)*In the Beginning 798*The Dyke-Builder 798

Vaughan, Henry (1621-1695)The Shower 225The Morning-Watch . . .225The Retreat 226The World 227They Are All Gone 229The Night 230WWaller, Edmund (1606-1687)On A Girdle 170WatMns, Veraon (b. 1906)*Music of Colours: The

Blossom Scattered . .743*The Cave-Drawing . . .745*The Yew-Tree 746*The Lady with the Unicorn 746Webster, John (1680P-1830?)All the Flowers of the

Spring 150A Dirge 150Wilde, Oscar (1856-1900)In Reading Gaol 497Wilmot, John, Earl of

Rochester (1647-1680)A Satire Against Mankind 247873


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INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLESWither, George (1588-1667)Shall I Wasting in

Despair 152Wordsworth, William

(1770-1860)Daffodils 304Resolution and Independence 304Character of the HappyWarrior 308

Strange Fits of Passion. .311A Slumber Did My SpiritSeal 312

She Dwelt Among theUntrodden Ways 312The Rainbow 312The Solitary Reaper ...313She Was a Phantom of

Delight 314Ode: Intimations o Immortality 315Tintern Abbey 321The World Is Too MuchWith Us 325

Upon WestminsterBridge 325

London, 1802 326Mutability 326It Is a Beauteous Eve

ning 327Surprised by Joy 327Wotton, Sir Henry

(1668-1639)The Character of aHappy Life 114

Wyatt, Sir Thomas(1503-15WThey Flee from Me 33Farewell, Love 33I Find No Peace ...... 34My Galley 34874

Yeats, William Butler(1865-1939)The Second Coming . . .575To a Shade 575A Prayer for My Daughter 576

Among School Children. 579A Dialogue of Self andSoul 580Upon a Dying Lady:Her Courtesy 583Certain Artists 583She Turns the Dolls

Faces to the Wall. .583The End of Day 584Her Race 584Her Courage 584Her Friends Bring Hera Christmas Tree. .585

Sailing to Byzantium . . .585The Tower 586Meditations in Time of

Civil War:Ancestral Houses .... 592My House 593My Table 594My Descendants . . . .595The Road at My Door. 595The Stare's Nest 596I See Phantoms ofHatred 597

1919 597Two Songs from a Play. . 6021 Am of Ireland' 603News for the DelphicOracle 604Lapiz Lazuli 605The Municipal GalleryRevisited 607A Bronze Head 608The Circus Animals' De

sertion 609


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CONTINUED FROM FRONT FLAPverse the emphasis it should have for amodern reader, its relation to the work ofthe past.This present volume is an ideal com

panion for A Little Treasury of AmericanPoetry, and the two, together totaling almost 1,800 pages, comprise the most representative and comprehensive two-volumeanthology available in the English language at the present time.

OSCAR WILLIAMSEDITOR

Oscar Williams, editor of A LITTLETREASURY OF BRITISH POETRY, andthe originator of The Little Treasury Seriesof books, is himself a well-known poetwhose poems have appeared in The Southern Review, The Sewanee Review, PartisanReview, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic,New Republic, The Nation, Horizon, NewVerse and many other of the importantperiodicals of both England and America.He is also the author of four publishedbooks of poetry.

Documents

Williams Little Treasury of British Poetry 1951