A Poet's Guide to Britain Selected with an Introduction by OWEN SHEERS

PENGUIN CLASSICS an imprint of PENGUIN BOOKS Contents

Acknowledgements xv Introduction xvii

London and Cities William Wordsworth: Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1802 3 Alice Oswald: Another Westminster Bridge 4 T. S. Eliot: from The Wasteland, I. The Burial of the Dead 5 Anonymous (c. 1726): London Bridge 6 Mary Robinson: London's Summer Morning 8 William Dunbar: To the City of London 10 Walter Scott: 'Edinburgh', from Marmion 12 Alexander Smith: Glasgow 13 Edwin Morgan: from Glasgow Sonnets, I, IV and VI 18 Sean O'Brien: Autumn Begins at St James's Park, Newcastle (Homage to James Wright) 20 Anne Stevenson: 17.14 Out of Newcastle 21 Douglas Dunn: A Removal From Terry Street 23 Douglas Dunn: On Roofs of Terry Street 24 Simon Armitage: A Vision 25 Tony Harrison: from v. 26 Paul Farley: Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second 31 Carol Ann Duffy: North-West 32 Adam O'Riordan: Manchester 33 Philip Larkin: I Remember, I Remember 34 Louis MacNeice: Birmingham 36 Dannie Abse: Return to Cardiff 3 8 Idris Davies: Queen Street, Cardiff 39 W. H. Auden: Oxford 40 George Gordon, Lord Byron: from Don Juan, Cantos 10, 11 and 13 41 William Blake: London 44 Samuel Johnson: from London: A Poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal 45 Thomas Hardy: A Wife in London 47 Louis MacNeice: London Rain 48 Fleur Adcock: Miss Hamilton in London 51 W. S. Graham: The Night City 52 John Dryden: from Annus Mirabilis 1667 54 Seamus Heaney: District and Circle 5 6 Seamus Heaney: The Underground 5 8 Joanna Baillie: London 59 William Wordsworth: St Paul's 61 D. H. Lawrence: Piccadilly Circus at Night: Street-Walkers 62 Laurence Binyon: As I Walked Through London 63

Villages and Towns Lynette Roberts: Poem from Llanybri 67 T. S. Eliot: from Little Gidding 69 Kathryn Gray: Joyrider 70

VI William Barnes: Evenen in the Village 71 Anthony Dunn: Bournemouth 72 Don Paterson: The Sea at Brighton 73 Sean O'Brien: Amours de Grimsby 74 Simon Armitage: True North 76 Tony Harrison: Illuminations 78 Edwin Muir: The Wayside Station 80 Robert Louis Stevenson: Duddingston 81 John Burnside: The Men's Harbour 83 U. A. Fanthorpe: At Swarkestone 85 Daljit Nagra: Parade's End 86 George Crabbe: from The Village: Book 1 88 Carol Ann Duffy: Stafford Afternoons 91 John Clare: The Village Boy 92 Thomas Gray: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 93 John Betjeman: Slough 98 Stephen Spender: The Landscape Near an Aerodrome 100 Joseph Brodsky: from In England: Stone Villages 102 Edward Thomas: Adlestrop 103 Ivor Gurney: Tewkesbury 104 Paul Henry: The Village, a State of Untruth .. . 106 Idris Davies: from Gwalia Deserta (XXVI) 107 Henry Vaughan: from To His Retired Friend, an Invitation to Brecknock 108 Dylan Thomas: Poem in October in R. S. Thomas: The Village 113 Philip Larkin: The Explosion 114 Gillian Clarke: Blaen Cwrt 115 Alan Brownjohn: For a Journey 116

vn Mountains and Moorland Sylvia Plath: Wuthering Heights 119 Emily Bronte: 'Loud without the wind was roaring' 121 Ted Hughes: Wuthering Heights 124 Clare Pollard: The Caravan 127 Robert Graves: Rocky Acres 128 William Wordsworth: from The Prelude, Book XIII (Conclusion) 129 Thomas Gray: The Bard - Pindaric Ode 132 Waldo Williams: On Weun Cas' Mael 137 Ted Hughes: Warm Moors 139 R. S. Thomas: The Moor 140 John Clare: from The Moors 141 Robert Burns: Farewell to the Highlands 143 John Keats: Lines Written in the Highlands after a Visit to Burns's Country 144 George Gordon, Lord Byron: Lachin y Gair 146 Gerard Manley Hopkins: Inversnaid 148 Edwin Muir: The Mountains 149 Kathleen Raine: The Wilderness 151 Sir Thomas Wyatt: Sonnet XXIV 152 Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Stranger Minstrel 153 Norman Nicholson: Scafell Pike 156 R. S. Thomas: A Peasant 157 Edward Thomas: The Mountain Chapel 158 Alun Lewis: The Mountain over Aberdare 160 Robert Minhinnick: Rhigos 162 Edward Thomas: The Lofty Sky 164 Jo Shapcott: Glascwm 165 Jo Shapcott: Cefn Hir 165

vm Jo Shapcott: Hanter Hill 166 Ted Hughes: The Horses 16j William Wordsworth: from The Prelude, Book I 169 Samuel Taylor Coleridge: from Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement 171 Emily Bronte or Charlotte Bronte: 'Often rebuked, yet always back returning' 173

Islands George Mackay Brown: Hamnavoe 177 William Fowler: Sonet. In Orknay 179 Anonymous: The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry 180 Edwin Muir: The Northern Islands 181 John Betjeman: Shetland 1973 182 Jen Hadfield: Blashey-wadder 183 Louis MacNeice: The Hebrides 185 Hugh MacDiarmid: from Island Funeral 189 Anonymous: St Columba's Island Hermitage 193 Don Paterson: Luing 195 Kathleen Raine: Nameless Islets, from Eireian Chanaiah 196 Alastair Reid: Isle of Arran 197 John Keats: To Ailsa Rock 198 Norman Nicholson: From Walney Island 199 John Betjeman: A Bay in Anglesey 201 Roland Mathias: Porth Cwyfan 202 Christine Evans: Enlli 204 R. S. Thomas: Islandmen 205 Gwyneth Lewis: The Voledom of Skomer 206 John Davidson: In the Isle of Dogs 208 Polly Clark: Fishing Boat 211

IX Anonymous: Wulf and Eadwacer 212 Anonymous: from The Battle of Maldon 213 T. S. Eliot: Defence of the Islands 216 William Shakespeare: from Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1 217 W. H. Auden: On This Island 218 Ruaraidh MacThomais/Derick Thomson: The Second Island 219

Woods and Forests Louis MacNeice: Woods 223 William Shakespeare: from As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1 225 Christina Rossetti: The Trees' Counselling. 226 Brian Patten: A Talk with a Wood 227 Andrew Marvell: The Garden 228 Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury: Sonnet: On the Groves Near Merlou Castle 230 Siegfried Sassoon: Wind in the Beechwood 231 Edward Thomas: Aspens 232 Robert Frost: The Sound of the Trees 233 Llywelyn ap y Moel: To the Greyrock Woods 234 Anonymous: from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 236 Edmund Spenser: from The Faerie Queene, Book 6 239 Sir Thomas Wyatt: Song CCLXI 240 Lady Mary Wroth: from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus 242 Thomas Hardy: In a Wood 243 Gwyneth Lewis: Woods 245 Anne Bronte: The Arbour 246

x Craig Raine: In the Woods 248 Ted Hughes: Hawk Roosting 249 Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush 250 Gerard Manley Hopkins: Spring and Fall 251 William Wordsworth: Lines Written in Early Spring 252 Paul Farley: Whitebeam 253 Gerard Manley Hopkins: Binsey Poplars 254 Waldo Williams: The Ancient Wood 255 Philip Larkin: The Trees 256 A. E. Housman: 'Loveliest of Trees' 257 John Clare: First Sight of Spring 258 John Clare: Wood Rides 259 Rudyard Kipling: The Way Through the Woods 260 Douglas Dunn: Woodnotes 261 Alexander Pope: from Windsor Forest 264 Jackie Kay: The World of Trees 267 John Clare: In Hilly Wood 269 Alice Oswald: Wood Not Yet Out 270 Eliza Keary: Through the Wood 271

Coast and Sea Matthew Arnold: Dover Beach 275 Robert Browning: Meeting at Night 276 Thomas Hardy: Beeny Cliff 277 Thomas Hardy: To a Sea-Cliff 278 Charlotte Smith: from Beachy Head 279 William Shakespeare: from King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6 280 Anne Ridler: Bempton Cliffs 281

XI David Harsent: Finisterre 282 Alfred, Lord Tennyson: 'Break, break, break' 283 Edward Thomas: The Child on the Cliff 284 Peter Porter: Seahorses 285 Philip Larkin: To the Sea 286 Carol Rumens: Seascape and Single Figure 288 Anne Stevenson: Trinity at Low Tide 289 Dannie Abse: At Ogmore-by-Sea This August Evening 290 Kathleen Jamie: At Point of Ness 291 Robert Louis Stevenson: The Light-Keeper 293 Matthew Hollis: The Wash 296 Jean Ingelow: The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire 299 Anne Ridler: Zennor 304 Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Sea and the Skylark 305 Ted Hughes: Crow on the Beach 306 Norman Nicholson: Sea to the West 307 John Betjeman: Winter Seascape 309 Frances Cornford: The Coast: Norfolk 310 Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle: Similizing the Sea to Meadowes, and Pastures, the Marriners to Shepheards, the Mast to a May-pole, Fishes to Beasts • 311 Daljit Nagra: Look We Have Coming to Dover! 312 U. A. Fanthorpe: Sunderland Point and Ribchester 313 Sheenagh Pugh: Fixed 3I5 Menna Elfyn: Seeing the Sea 317

xn Samuel Taylor Coleridge: On Revisiting the Sea-Shore, After Long Absence, Under Strong Medical Recommendation Not to Bathe 318 John Keats: On the Sea 319 Robert Graves: Welsh Incident 3 20 Robert Minhinnick: Surfers , 322 Alice Oswald: from Dart 323 R. S. Thomas: The Moon in Lleyn 324

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