POETRY OF WITNESS
The Tradition in English, 1^,00—2001
EDITED BY Carolyn Forche
AND Duncan Wu
W. W. NORTON & COMPANY NEW YORK • LONDON Contents
Introduction by Duncan Wu i Reading the Living Archives: The Witness of Literary Art by Carolyn Forche 17 A Note on Texts 27 Acknowledgments 29
I • THE ACE OF TYRANNY 31
St. Thomas More (1478-1535) 34 Lewis the Lost Lover 35 Davy the Dicer 35
Sir Thomas Wyatt (c. 1503-1542) 36 Sometime I fled the fire that me brent 37 Who list his wealth and ease retain 37 In court to serve, decked with fresh array 38 The pillar perished is whereto I leant 39 The flaming sighs that boil within my breast 40 Sighs are my food, drink are my tears 41
Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley (b. in or before 1509, d. 1549) 41 Forgetting God 42
John Harington (c. 1517-1582) 43 A Sonnet Written Upon My Lord Admiral Seymour 43 viii • Contents
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/1517-1547) 44 So cruel a prison how could betide, alas 45 Hi' Assyrians' King, in peace with foul desire 47 Psalm 55 48 The storms are passed, these clouds are overblown 49
Anne Askew (c. 1521-1546) 5o Ballad Written in Newgate 5i
Elizabeth I (1533-1603) 53 Writ With Charcoal on a Shutter at Woodstock 54 Written With a Diamond on a Window at Woodstock 54
Sir Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) 55 The Faerie Queene Book 5, Canto 12 (extract) 56
Sir Walter Ralegh (1554-1618) 64 My body in the walls captived 65 The End of the Books of the Ocean's Love to Cynthia, and the Beginning of the 22nd Book, Entreating of Sorrow 66 What Is Our Life? 67 Even such is time, which takes in trust 67
Chidiock Tichborne (1558-1586) 68 My prime of youth is but a frost of cares 69
Sir John Harington (bap. 1560, d. 1612) 69 Of the Wars in Ireland 70 Of Treason 71 A Groom of the Chamber's Religion in Henry VIII's Time 71
St. Robert Southwell, SJ (1561-1595) 72 The Burning Babe 72 Times Go by Turns 74 Decease Release 75 I Die Alive 76 I Die Without Desert 77
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 78 Hamlet Act I, scene v (extract) 80 Sonnet 107 83 Contents • ix
Christopher Marlowe (bap. 1564, d. 1593) 84 Edward II (extract) 85 • Hero and Leander (extract) 89
Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639) 92 To Mr. John Donne 93 Upon the Sudden Restraint of the Earl of Somerset, Then Falling From Favor 94
John Donne (1572-1631) 95 To Mr. Henry Wotton ("Here's no more news than virtue") 96 To Mr. Henry Wotton ("Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls") 97 The Anniversary 99 Batter my heart, three-personed God 101 Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward. 101
BenJonson (1572-1637) 103 Volpone Act I, scene i (extract) 104 On Sir John Roe 107 To William, Lord Monteagle 108 Inviting a Friend to Supper 108 On Something That Walks Somewhere no On Spies no
II • THE CIVILWAR m
Edward Herbert, first Baron Herbert of Cherbury and first Baron Herbert of Castle Island (i582?-i648) 114 14 October 1644 114
George Wither (1588-1667) 115 Britain's Remembrancer Canto 2 (extract) 116 Canto 4 (extract) 118 Campo-Musae (extracts) 120
Robert Herrick (bap. 1591, d. 1674) 123 Farewell the Frost, or Welcome the Spring 124 His Cavalier 124 x • Contents
To the King Upon His Coming With His Army Into the West 125 The Bad Season Makes the Poet Sad 125 To the King, Upon His Taking of Leicester 126 Upon Mr. William Lawes, the Rare Musician 126 His Loss 127 His Return to London 127
Francis Quarles (1592-1644) 128 Know then, my brethren, heaven is clear 128
Mildmay Fane, second Earl of Westmorland (1602-1666) 131 To Prince Charles 131 To the People of England 132
Edmund Waller (1606-1687) 133 To Chloris 134 Go, lovely rose! 134
John Milton (1608-1674) 135 When the Assault Was Intended to the City 136 On the Detraction Which Followed Upon My Writing Certain Treatises 137 On the Lord General Fairfax at the Siege of Colchester 138 To the Lord General Cromwell 139 To Sir Henry Vane the Younger 139 On the Late Massacre in Piedmont 140
Sir John Suckling (bap. 1609, d. 1641?) 141 Against Fruition 141 'Tis now since I sat down before 143 The Invocation 144
Gerrard Winstanley (bap. 1609, d. 1676) 145 The Diggers' Song 146 The winter's past, the springtime now appears 148
Thomas Fairfax, third Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1612-1671) 148 On the Fatal Day, 30 January 1649 149 Upon the New Building at Appleton 149 Shortness of Life 150 Contents • xi
James Graham, first Marquess of Montrose (1612-1650) 150 On the Faithlessness and Venality of the Times 151 Can little beasts with lions roar 152 Upon the Death of Charles I 152 On Hearing What Was His Sentence 152
Anne Bradstreet (1612/13-1672) 153 A Dialogue Between Old England and New (extracts) 154
Sir Roger L'Estrange (1616—1704) 156 Loyalty Confined 157
Richard Lovelace (1617-1657) 160 To Althea From Prison 161 To Lucasta From Prison 162 To Lucasta, Going to the Wars 164 Sing out, pent souls, sing cheerfully! 165 Sonnet 165
Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) J66 The Civil War Book III (extracts) 167
Lucy Hutchinson (1620-1681) 169 Epitaph on Colonel John Hutchinson 170 Upon Two Pictures: One, a Gallant Man Dressed up in Armor; the Other, the Same Honorable Person Looking Through a Prison Grate and Leaning on a Bible 171
Henry Vaughan (1621-1695) 172 An Elegy on the Death of Mr. RW, Slain in the Late Unfortunate Differences at Rowton Heath, Near Chester, 1645 173 Misery 176 The Retreat 180
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) 181 The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn 182 An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return From Ireland 185 Upon Appleton House (extracts) 190 . The Garden 200 XII • Contents
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle Upon Tyne (i623?-i673) 202 A Description of Civil Wars 204
John Bunyan (bap. 1628, d. 1688) 205 The Pilgrim's Progress, Part I The Authors Apologyfor His Book (extract) 206 The Pilgrims Progress, Part II (extract) Apples were they with which we were beguiled 206 He that is down needs fear no fall 207 Who would true valour see 207
III o THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY 209
John Dryden (1631-1700) 213 Absalom andAchitophel (extracts) 214
Katherine Philips (1632-1664) 217 A Retired Friendship. To Ardelia. 218 On 3 September 1651 219 Upon the Double Murder of King Charles I, in Answer to a Libelous Copy of Rhymes by Vavasor Powell 220 On the Numerous Access of the English to Wait Upon the King in Flanders 222
Aphra Behn (?i640-i689) 223 On a Juniper Tree, Cut Down to Make Busks 224 Song to a New Scotch Tune 227
John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester (1647-1680) 228 The Disabled Debauchee 229 A Ramble in St. James's Park 231 Upon Nothing 236
Daniel Defoe (i66o?-i73i) 238 Reformation of Manners: A Satire (extract) 238 A Hymn to the Pillory (extracts) 240
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661-1720) 242 The Change 242 The Loss 244 A Song on Grief 244 A Nocturnal Reverie 245 Contents • xm
Matthew Prior (1664-1721) 247 True Statesmen 247
IV • REVOLUTIONARY UPHEAVAL 249
John Newton (1725-1807) 254 Amazing Grace! 254
Joseph Mather (1737-1804) 255 God Save Great Thomas Paine 256 The Norfolk Street Riots 258
Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825) 260 • On the Expected General Rising of the French Nation in 1792 261 The Rights of Woman 262
Hannah More (1745-1833) 264 Slavery: A Poem (extract) 265
Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745-1797) 266 Miscellaneous Verses 267
James Field Stanfield (1749-1824) 271 The Guinea Voyage, Book 3 Slaves in the Hold (extracts) 271
Charlotte Smith (1749-1806) 273 The Emigrants, Book 2 (extracts) 274
John Philpot Curran (1750-1817) 277 The Deserter's Meditation 278 Cushla-Ma-Chree 279
Philip Freneau (1752-1832) 279 The British Prison-Ship Canto III (extract) 280 To Sir Toby 282
Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) 284 On Being Brought From Africa to America 284 To the Rt. Hon. William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for North America 285 xiv • Contents
William Drennan (1754-1820) 286 Erin 287 The Wake of William Orr 289
Ann Yearsley (1756-1806) 291 A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade (extract) 292
William Blake (1757-1827) 294 The Little Black Boy 295 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (extract) A Song of Liberty 296 London 298
John Marjoribanks (1758/1759-1796) 298 Slavery: An Essay in Verse (extract) 299
Helen Maria Williams (1759-1827) 300 Lines by Roucher 301 Lines by a Young Man to His Mistress 302
John Thelwall (1764-1834) 304 The Source of Slavery 305 Stanzas on Hearing for Certainty That We Were to Be Tried for High Treason 305 The Cell 306
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) 307 Descriptive Sketches (extract) , 308 September 1st, 1802 311 The Prelude Book 6 (extract) 311 Book 9 (extracts) 314 Book 10 (extracts) 315
James Orr (1770-1816) 323 Donegore Hill 324
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) 329 Kubla Khan 330 Fire, Famine, and Slaughter: A War Eclogue 332 The Devil's Thoughts (co-authored with Robert Southey) 336 Contents • xv
Robert Emmet (1778-1803) 339 'Arbour Hill 340 • Hie Exile 341
Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) 342 The Star-Spangled Banner 342
Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) 344 To Hampstead ("Sweet upland, to whose walks with fond repair") 345 • To Hampstead ("The baffled spell that bound me is undone") 345 To Hampstead ("As one who after long and far-spent years") 346
Eliza Lee Follen (1787-1860) 346 For the Fourth of July 347 Children in Slavery 348 The Slave Boy's Wish 349
Samuel Bamford (1788-1872) 350 The Lancashire Hymn 352 The Song of the Slaughter 354
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) 356 The Mask of Anarchy 357 Ode to the West Wind 370 England in 1819 373 Song to the Men of England 373
John Clare (1793-1864) 375 The Village Minstrel (extract) 376 The Moors 377 I dreaded walking where there was no path 379
John Keats (1795-1821) 380 Written on 29 May, the Anniversary of Charles's Restoration, on Hearing the Bells Ringing 381 Written on the Day That Mr. Leigh Hunt Left Prison 382 Lines on the Mermaid Tavern 382 Robin Hood 383
V • CIVIL WAR AND CIVIL LIBERTIES 387
Eliza Hamilton Dunlop (1796-1880) 390 The Aboriginal Mother (from Myall's Creek) 391 xvi • Contents
Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) 394 The World That I Am Passing Through 395 The Hero's Heart 396
Thomas Cooper (1805-1892) 397 The Purgatory of Suicides Book 1 (extract) 398 Book 10 (extract) 402
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) 405 The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point 407 A Curse for a Nation 414 Italy and the World 418
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) 423 A Parody 424
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861) 427 Amours de Voyage, Canto 2 (extracts) V. Claude to Eustace 428 VI. Claude to Eustace 430 VII. Claude to Eustace 430 IX. Claude to Eustace 432
Ernest Jones (1819-1869) 433 Our Destiny 433 Prison Fancies 434 The Silent Cell 435
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) 437 Drum-Taps (extracts) Come up from the fields, father 438 Vigil strange I kept on the field one night 439 As toilsome I wandered Virginia's woods 441 The Wound-Dresser 441
Herman Melville (1819-1891) 444 The Scout TowardAldie 445
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) 469 Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple 470 It dont sound so terrible—quite—as it did— 470 Contents • xvn
. The name—of it—is "Autumn" 471 It feels a shame to be Alive— 472 They dropped like Flakes— 473 When I was small, a Woman died— 473
Ambrose Bierce (i842-?i9i4) 474 At a National Encampment 475 The Hesitating Veteran 476 A Year's Casualties 478 The Passing Show 479
John Boyle O'Reilly (1844-1890) 481 There is blood on the earth 482 The Cry of the Dreamer 484
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) 485 , . • The Ballad of Reading Gaol 486
VI 0 THE ACE OF WORLD WAR 509
W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) 513 Easter 1916 514 The Rose Tree 517 On a Political Prisoner 517
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) 519 My Boy Jack 519 The Children 520
Stephen Crane (1871-1900) 521 Unwind my riddle 522 There exists the eternal fact of conflict 522 A gray and boiling street 523
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) 524 We Wear the Mask 524 Sympathy 525 The Haunted Oak 526
John McCrae (1872-1918) 528 In Flanders Fields 529 The Anxious Dead 529 xviii • Contents
Patrick Pearse (1879-1916) 530 Renunciation 531 The Wayfarer 532
D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) 533 Rondeau of a Conscientious Objector 534 Bombardment 535 Ruination 535
Edith Sitwell (1887-1964) 536 The Dancers 536 Still Falls the Rain 537
Claude McKay (1889-1948) 539 To the White Fiends 540 If We Must Die 540 The Tropics in New York 541 Subway Wind 541
Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) 542 To His Love 543 The Silent One 544 First Time In 544 On Somme 545
Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) 546 Break of Day in the Trenches 546 Returning, We Hear the Larks 547 Dead Man's Dump 548
Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982) 551 Memorial Rain 552 The Silent Slain 553
Hugh MacDiarmid (C. M. Grieve) (1892-1978) 554 A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (extract) 555
May Wedderburn Cannan (1893-1973) 559 Rouen 559 When the Vision Dies 561 Contents • xix
Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) 562 Road, 1940 563 Recognition 564
David Jones (1895-1974) 565 In Parenthesis Part 3: Starlight Order (extract) 566
Edmund Blunden (1896-1974) 569 Preparations for Victory 570 Festubert, 1916 571 Premature Rejoicing 572
Basil Bunting (1900-1985) 573 Briggjlatts (extract) 574
Karl Shapiro (1913-2000) 578 Troop Train 579 Sunday: New Guinea 581 On Reading Keats in Wartime 581 The Conscientious Objector 582
John Cornford (1913-1936) 583 A Letter From Aragon 584 Full Moon at Tierz: Before the Storming of Huesca 585 To Margot Heinemann 588
William Stafford (1914-1993) 589 At the Bomb Testing Site 590 Traveling Through the Dark 590 At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border 591 1940 591
William Meredith (1919-2007) 592 Airman's Virtue 593 Navy Field 593 For Air Heroes 594 Notes for an Elegy 595
Keith Douglas (1920-1944) 597 Vergissmeinnicht 598 How to Kill 599 xx • Contents
Hayden Carruth (1921-2008) 600 Three Sonnets on the Necessity of Narrowly Escaping Death Defense 601 Restriction 601 Escape 601 Emergency Haying 602
Samuel Menashe (1925-2011) 604 Warrior Wisdom 605 Winter 606 Cargo 606 All my friends are homeless 607 At a Standstill 607 Beachhead 608
W. D. Snodgrass (1926-2009) 608 The Fiihrer Bunker (extract) Magda Goebbels—30 April 1945 609
Robert Creeley (1926-2005) 612 Return 612 Men 613
Thom Gunn (1929-2004) 615 The Man With Night Sweats 616
Henry Dumas (1934-1968) 617 Son of Msippi 617
Agha Shahid Ali (1949-2001) 619 At the Museum 620 I See Chile in My Rearview Mirror 621 The Floating Post Office 623 Land 625
Permissions Acknowledgments 627 Index 631