Here to Eternity An Anthology of Poetry selected by ANDREW MOTION ft faber andfaber Contents Introduction xxi SELF Prayer Before Birth LOUIS MACNEICE 3 from Henry IV, Part 1 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 4 Infant Joy WILLIAM BLAKE 5 Infancy CARLOS DRUMMOND DE ANDRADE 6 North(west)ern PATIENCE AGBABI 6 Then I Saw What the Calling Was MURIEL RUKEYSER 7 Waiting To Go On HUGO WILLIAMS 8 OfPoOrB.B. BERTOLT BRECHT 8 One for the Footnotes CHRISTOPHER REID IO from The Prelude WILLIAM WORDSWORTH IO Phrase Book jo SHAPCOTT 12 Ode to Himself BEN JONSON 13 Napoleon WALTER DE LA MARE 14 historical process HANS MAGNUS ENZENSBERGER 15 The Form MERLE COLLINS 16 I am Man-made SUSAN WICKS 17 No DENISE RILEY 17 OnMyself ANNE FINCH, COUNTESS OF WINCHILSEA 18 I AmNotI JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ l8 from Song of Myself WALT WHITMAN 19 I See Boats Moving FERNANDO PESSOA 20 Bleep JACKIE KAY 21 'IAm' JOHN CLARE 21 The Ideal JAMES FENTON 22 Iandl BOB DYLAN 23 Autobiography PATRICIA BEER 24 Words for Muffin, a Guinea-Pig ROBERTLOWELL 25 Robinson WELDON KEES 25 I Lost My Identity Card YEHUDA AMICHAI 26 Vll Ariel SYLVIA PLATH 27 The Self-Unseeing THOMAS HARDY 28 HOME The New House EDWARD THOMAS 31 The House MATTHEW SWEENEY 31 A New House BERTOLT BRECHT 32 Home ROBERT CRAWFORD 33 The Candle Indoors GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS 34 Orkney Interior IAN HAMILTON FINLAY 34 from Glanmore Revisited SEAMUS HEANEY 35 from Meditations in Time of Civil War w. B.YEATS 36 Heigh-ho on a Winter Afternoon DONALDDAVIE 37 'My house, I say..." ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 38 Frost at Midnight SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 38 Hotels like Houses SOPHIEHANNAH 41 Sweat PETER REDGROVE 41 Silence MARIANNE MOORE 42 Home is so Sad PHILIP LARKIN 42 Rooms CHARLOTTE MEW 43 'Sweet—safe—Houses...' EMILY DICKINSON 43 The House ROBERT MINHINNICK 44 Interior PHILIPPE JACCOTTET 44 The Hill Wife ROBERT FROST 45 Love in a Life ROBERT BROWNING 48 from In Memoriam ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON 48 The Easiest Room in Hell PETER PORTER 49 A Refusal to Mourn DEREK MAHON 50 House on a Cliff LOUIS MACNEICE 52 Ruins of a Great House DEREK WALCOTT 53 At Home CHRISTINA ROSSETTI 54 TOWN We are Going OODGEROO OF THE TRIBE NOONUCCAL (KATH WALKER) 59 Vlll CONTENTS Late Winter Morning on the Palisades AUGUSTKLEINZAHLER 60 In a Station of the Metro EZRA POUND 60 Metropolitan JOHN FULLER 6I Story of aCity MONIZA ALVI 62 In Praise of Cities IHOMGUNN 63 On Roofs of Terry Street DOUGLASDUNN 64 Composed upon Westminster Bridge WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 65 Parliament Hill Fields JOHNBETJEMAN 65 The Park by the Railway SEAN O'BRIEN 66 RealEstate AMY CLAMPITT 67 A Northern Suburb JOHN DAVIDSON 68 from City ROY FISHER 69 from The Sydney Highrise Variations LES MURRAY 71 Brussels in Winter w. H. AUDEN 72 Preludes T. s. ELIOT 73 TheNightCity w. s. GRAHAM 75 Foreign CAROL ANN DUFFY 76 Street Song FLEUR ADCOCK 77 Di Great Insohreckshan LINTON KWESI JOHNSON 77 Leningrad OSIP MANDELSTAM 79 NakedTown ZBIGNIEW HERBERT 79 The City c. p. CAVAFY 80 Night City ELIZABETH BISHOP 81 LAND from The Prelude WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 85 Landscape FAUSTIN CHARLES 86 Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow ROBERT DUNCAN 87 Poem in October DYLAN THOMAS 88 Epic PATRICK KAVANAGH 90 Discoverers of Chile PABLONERUDA 91 FieldDay w. R. RODGERS 91 IX Popular Geography MIRIAM WADDINGTON 92 Summer Farm NORMAN MACCAIG 93 Anecdote of the Jar WALLACE STEVENS 93 from Landscapes T. S. ELIOT 94 Home-thoughts, from Abroad ROBERTBROWNING 95 from Aurora Leigh ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING 95 Cotswold Ways IVOR GURNEY 97 from In England JOSEPH BRODSKY 97 Landscape MICHAEL LONGLEY 98 from On a Raised Beach HUGH MACDIARMID 99 This Compost WALT WHITMAN 100 Digging EDWARD THOMAS IO2 /romTheMoors JOHN CLARE 103 Men against Trees CHRISTOPHER REID 105 The War against the Trees STANLEY KUNITZ 105 Overlooking the River Stour THOMAS HARDY 106 'Tell me not here...' A. E. HOUSMAN 107 Raleigh Was Right WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS 108 Welsh Landscape R. s. THOMAS 109 from An Apology for the Revival of Church Architecture in England GEOFFREY HILL no Draft of a Landscape PAULCELAN no SheepinFog SYLVIA PLATH HI Swineheard EILEAN NI CHUILLEANAIN 112 The Stepping Stones w. s. GRAHAM 112 Late Fragment RAYMOND CARVER 113 WORK You will be hearing from us shortly U. A. FANTHORPE 117 Tools GEOFFREY LEHMANN Il8 Father ELAINE FEINSTEIN 119 A Suffolk Dairy Song ANONYMOUS 120 The Healer PATRICIA BEER 120 X CONTENTS Thoughts After Ruskin ELMA MITCHELL 121 Printing Jenny MATTHEW MITCHELL 122 The Great Palaces of Versailles RITA DOVE 123 The Solitary Reaper WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 124 Photograph of Haymaker, 1890 MOLLY HOLDEN 125 Hay-making GILLIAN CLARKE 126 Sampler Poem HANNAH HOCKEY 126 Waterpot GRACE NICHOLS 127 Muliebrity SUJATA BHATT 128 Men Working EDNA ST VINCENT MILLAY 128 Shearing at Castlereagh A. B. ('BANJO') PATERSON 130 The Bricklayer's Lunch Hour ALLENGINSBERG 131 Builders RUTH PADEL 132 Public-House Confidence NORMANCAMERON 132 On the Outskirts of Work TOMAS TRANSTROMER 133 Alloy MURIEL RUKEYSER I34 Dehorning TED HUGHES 135 'Mother wept...' JOSEPH SKIPSEY 137 Demolisher ALAN GOULD 137 The Chimney Sweeper WILLIAM BLAKE 138 Working TONY HARRISON 139 Felix Randal GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS 140 Work Without Hope SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 140 'I call upon the Creator...' ANONYMOUS 141 'I've worked here all my life ...' CHRISTOPHER LOGUE I4I On Chev'rill the Lawyer BEN JONSON 142 Wages D. H. LAWRENCE I42 Money c. H. SISSON 143 The Great American Bum ANONYMOUS 143 Toads PHILIP LARKIN 145 Jarrow CAROL RUMENS 147 Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea STEPHEN KNIGHT 147 Charlie Douglas KATRINA PORTEOUS 147 CV SIMON ARMITAGE I49 xi 'Moving through the silent crowd ...' STEPHEN SPENDER 150 IagoPrytherch R. s. THOMAS 151 The Peasant's Concern is with His Field BERTOLTBRECHT 152 What the Chairman told Tom BASIL BUNTING 152 It's Work BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH 154 'My hand is weary with writing SAINT COLUMCILLE 154 Busy with Many Jobs TADEUSZ ROZEWICZ .155 LOVE Still-life ELIZABETH DARYUSH 159 'May with its light behaving ...' w. H. AUDEN 159 Piazza Piece JOHN CROWE RANSOM 160 To Mistress Margaret Hussey JOHNSKELTON 161 Passing By ANONYMOUS 162 The Uncertainty of the Poet WENDY COPE 162 To His Coy Mistress ANDREW MARVELL 163 Friendship's Mystery: To My Dearest Lucasia KATHERINE PHILIPS 164 Corona PAUL CELAN 165 '0 little one, this longing is the pits ...' MARILYN HACKER l66 fromTroilus and Criseyde GEOFFREY CHAUCER 167 from The Dream Songs JOHN BERRYMAN 169 The Foggy Dew ANONYMOUS 169 MakingLove SHARON OLDS 171 /rom The Eve of St Agnes JOHN KEATS 171 Intimacy EDGELL RICKWORD 174 Muse jo SHAPCOTT 174 from Hero and Leander CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE 175 The Fired Pot ANNA WICKHAM 176 Meeting Point LOUIS MACNEICE 177 Upon Julia's Clothes ROBERT HERRICK 178 Xll CONTENTS Meeting at Night ROBERT BROWNING 178 A Birthday CHRISTINA ROSSETTI 179 IRemember STEVIE SMITH 179 Aubade WILLIAM EMPSON 180 The Love of the Quartz Pebble VASKOPOPA 181 The Farmer's Bride CHARLOTTE MEW 182 'Proud Maisie ..." SIR WALTER SCOTT 183 Face to Face NINA CASSIAN 184 To My Dear and Loving Husband ANNE BRADSTREET 185 A Lyric Afterwards TOM PAULIN 185 The Shampoo ELIZABETH BISHOP 186 The Skunk SEAMUS HEANEY 186 The Confirmation EDWIN MUIR 187 Song EDWARD DORN l88 'Like as the waves ..." WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 189 Song JOHN DONNE 189 Counting the Beats ROBERT GRAVES 191 from Modern Love GEORGE MEREDITH 191 MOZ DOM MORAES I92 Over! ANNE EVANS 193 Lily Pond VICKI FEAVER 193 NoSecondTroy w. B. YEATS 194 'To Speak of the Woe That is In Marriage' ROBERT LOWELL I95 Adultery CAROL ANN DUFFY 195 The Letter PATRICIA BEER 197 Badly-Chosen Lover ROSEMARYTONKS 197 Clio's MICK IMLAH I98 Against Coupling FLEUR ADCOCK 198 '0 waly, waly...' ANONYMOUS 199 'My life closed twice ...' EMILY DICKINSON 201 The River-Merchant's Wife EZRAPOUND 201 DonalOg ANONYMOUS 202 'They flee from me ...' SIR THOMAS WYATT 203 John Anderson ROBERT BURNS 204 xiii The Fisher Lad of Whitby ANONYMOUS 205 A Song of a Young Lady to Her Ancient Lover JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER 206 Naive Song about the Wife MIKLOSRADNOTI 206 OneFlesh ELIZABETH JENNINGS 207 Getting Matches MARIN SORESCU 208 The Greatest Love ANNA SWIRSZCZYNSKA 208 'Methought I saw...' JOHN MILTON 209 The Wife a-Lost WILLIAM BARNES 209 The Kaleidoscope DOUGLASDUNN 210 Exequy upon His Wife HENRY KING 211 Two Epitaphs ANONYMOUS 214 The Unquiet Grave ANONYMOUS 215 Epitaph on the Monument of Sir William Dyer LADY CATHERINE DYER 2l6 TRAVEL The Road not Taken ROBERT FROST 219 The Legs ROBERT GRAVES 219 Questions of Travel ELIZABETH BISHOP 221 Wakeful in the Township ELIZABETH RIDDELL 223 A Passion for Travel ALLEN CURNOW 224 Stepping Westward WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 225 On the Move THOM GUNN 226 AtNorthFarm JOHN ASHBERY 227 Boat Poem BERNARD SPENCER 228 'My grief on the sea ..." BIDDY CUSSROOEE 230 The Last of England PETER PORTER 231 Pioneers KATHLEEN JAMIE 231 Settlers TOM PAULIN 232 Journey of the Magi T. S. ELIOT 232 Father in America GEORGE SZIRTES 234 The marshalling yard HELEN DUNMORE 235 Tom O'Bedlam's Song ANONYMOUS 236 The Pilgrimage GEORGE HERBERT 236 XiV CONTENTS Why Brownlee Left PAUL MULDOON 238 Emigrant's Lament BERTOLT BRECHT 238 Old Man in New Country JAMES BERRY 239 Day of Reckoning MICHAEL HOFMANN 240 Travelers c. K. WILLIAMS 240 Witness AMYCLAMPITT 241 Utah ANNE STEVENSON 24I Midnight on the Great Western THOMASHARDY 242 Limited CARL SANDBURG 243 14:50: Rosekinghall DON PATERSON 243 Adlestrop EDWARD THOMAS 244 Encounter CZESLAW MILOSZ 244 Orient Express GRETE TARTLER 245 Out Of Exile JOHN BURNSIDE 246 CreaganBeaga SOMHAIRLE MACGILL-EAIN (SORLEY MACLEAN) 246 from Childe Harold's