© 2008 AGI-Information Management Consultants

May be used for personal purporses only or by

libraries associated to dandelon.com network.

TED H U G H E S
Collected Poems
edited by Paul Keegan

faberand faber
Contents

Preface v
Acknowledgements xii

EARLY POEMS AND JUVENILIA (1946-57)

Wild West 3
Too Bad for Hell 4
The Recluse 6
Initiation 7
Here in the Green and Glimmering Gloom 7
Pastoral Symphony No. I 8
The Little Boys and the Seasons 8
The Court-Tumbler and Satirist 9
Song of the Sorry Lovers IO
The Woman With Such High Heels She Looked Dangerous 11
Poem (‘In clear Spring’s high ice-breaking heaven’) 11
Scene Without An Act 12
Bawdry Embraced 13
The Drowned Woman 15

T H E HAWK I N T H E R A I N (1957)
The Hawk in the Rain 19
The Jaguar 19
Macaw and Little Miss 20
The Thought-Fox 21
The Horses 22
Famous Poet 2 3
Song 24
Parlour-Piece 2 5
Secretary 2 5
Soliloquy 25
The Dove-Breeder 26
Billet-Doux 26
A Modest Proposal 27
Incompatibilities 28
September 29
Fallgrief‘s Girl-Friends 29

xiii
Two Phases 30
The Decay of Vanity 3 1
Fair Choice 31
The Conversion of the Reverend Skinner 32
Complaint 3 2
Phaetons 33
Egg-Head 33
The Man Seeking Experience Enquire His Way of a
Drop of Water 34
Meeting 35
Wind 36
October Dawn 37
Roarers in a Ring 38
Vampire 39
Childbirth 39
The Hag 40
Law in the Country of the Cats 41
Invitation to the Dance 41
The Casualty 42
Bayonet Charge 43
Griefs for Dead Soldiers 44
Six Young Men 45
Two Wise Generals 46
The Ancient Heroes and the Bomber Pilot 47
The Martyrdom of Bishop Farrar 48

UNCOLLECTED (1957-59 )
Letter 53
Quest 53
Constancy 54
Shells 55
Gulls Aloft 5s
Snails 56

LUPERCAL (1960)
Things Present 59
Everyman’s Odyssey 59
Mayday on Holderness 60
February 61
Crow Hill 62
A Woman Unconscious 62

xiv CONTENTS
Strawberry Hill 63
Dick Straightup 63
Fourth of July 65
A Dream of Horses 65
Esther’s Tomcat 66
Historian 67
Pennines in April 68
Hawk Roosting 68
Nicholas Ferrer 69
To Paint a Water Lily 70
Urn Burial 71
Of Cats 71
Fire-Eater 72
Acrobats 72
The Good Life 74
The Bull Moses 74
Cat and Mouse 75
View of a Pig 75
The Retired Colonel 77
The Voyage 77
Relic 78
Wilfred Owen’s Photographs 78
An Otter 79
Witches 80
November 81
The Perfect Forms 82
Thrushes 82
Singers 83
Bullfrog 83
Crag Jack’s Apostasy 84
Pike 84
Snowdrop 86
Sunstroke 86
Cleopatra to the Asp 87
Lupercalia 87

UNCOLLECTED (1960-67)
A Fable 93
The Storm [from Homer, Odyssey, Book VI 93
Lines to a Newborn Baby 96
To F.R. at Six Months 97

xv
Dully Gumption’s College Courses 98
My Uncle’s Wound IOO
The Road to Easington IOI
Sunday Evening 102
Poem to Robert Graves Perhaps 103
On Westminster Bridge 104
After Lorca 10s
Era of Giant Lizards 106
Small Hours 106
Bad News Good! 106
Dice 107
0 White Elite Lotus 109
Carol 109
Warm Moors IIO
Folk-Lore 111
Gibraltar I 12
Birdsong 112
Plum Blossom 114
The Last Migration 11s
The Burning of the Brothel 117
To W. H.Auden 121

from RECKLINGS (1966)

On the Slope 125
Water 125
Fishing at Dawn 126
Dully Gumption’s Addendum 126
Guinness 127
Flanders 128
Keats 128
Beech Tree 128
Toll 128
Memory 129
Heatwave 129
Fallen Eve 130
The Toughest 130
Thaw 131
Plum-Blossom 132
Public Bar T.V. 133
As Woman’s Weeping 133
Trees 134

xvi CONTENTS
A Colonial 134
Don Giovanni 135
A Match 136
Small Events 136
To be a Girl’s Diary 137
Stealing Trout on a May Morning 137
Humanities 140
Tutorial 141
Poltergeist 142
Last Lines 142
The Lake 143
Unknown Soldier 143

from WODWO (1967)

Part 1
Thistles 147
Still Life 147
Her Husband 148
Cadenza 148
Ghost Crabs 149
Boom 150
Ludwig’s Death Mask 151
Second Glance at a Jaguar 151
Public Bar T.V. 152
Fern 153
A Wind Flashes the Grass 153
A Vegetarian 154
Sugar Loaf 154
Bowled Over 154
Wino 155
Logos 155
Reveille 156
The Rescue 157
Stations 158
The Green Wolf 159
The Bear 160
Part I11
Theology 161
Gog, 1-111 161
Kreutzer Sonata 164

xvii
out
The Dream Time 165
I
11 ‘The dead man in his cave beginning to sweat’ 165
111 Remembrance Day 166
New Moon in January 166
The Warriors of the North 167
Karma 167
Song of a Rat
I The Rat’s Dance 169
11 The Rat’s Vision 169
111 The Rat’s Flight 170
Heptonstall 170
Ballad from a Fairy Tale 171
Skylarks 173
Mountains 176
You Drive in a Circle 177
Wings
I M. Sartre Considers Current Affairs 177
11 Kafka 178
111 Einstein Plays Bach 178
Pibroch 179
The Howling of Wolves 180
Gnat-Psalm 181
Full Moon and Little Frieda 182
Wodwo 183

UNCOLLECTED (1967-70)
Scapegoats and Rabies
I A Haunting 187
11 The Mascot 188
111 Wit’s End 188
I V Two Minutes’ Silence 189
v The Red Carpet 190
from Three Legends, 11-111 191
TV On 192
The Brother’s Dream 194
Dog Days on the Black Sea 197
‘?’ 198
Crowquill 198
Ballad of Bauble-Head 199
Crow’s Feast 200

xviii CONTENTS
A Crow Hymn 200
Song of Woe 201
Existential Song 202
A Lucky Folly 203
Fighting for Jerusalem 204
This Game of Chess 204

[CROW]

FOUR C R O W POEMS (1970)

That Moment 209
King of Carrion 209
Crow and the Birds 210
Crow’s Last Stand 210
A FEW C R O W S (1970)
Crow’s First Lesson 211
A Kill 211
Notes for a Little Play 212
A Grin 213
The Battle of Osfrontalis 213
Crow Tyrannosaurus 214
A Childish Prank 215
Carnival 216
from CROW: F R O M THE L I F E A N D S O N G S O F THE C R O W (1970)
Two Legends 217
Lineage 218
Examination at the Womb-Door 218
Crow and Mama 219
TheDoor 220
Crow Alights 220
Crow Hears Fate Knock on the Door 221
Crow’s Account of the Battle 2.22
The Black Beast 223
Crow Communes 224
Crow’s Account of St George 225
A Disaster 226
Crow’s Theology 227
Crow’s Fall 227
Criminal Ballad 228
Crow on the Beach 229
Oedipus Crow 2 3 0

xix
Crow’s Vanity 2 3 0
A Horrible Religious Error 231
Crow Tries the Media 231
Crow’s Nerve Fails 2 3 2
In Laughter 2 3 3
Crow Frowns 234
Magical Dangers 234
Robin Song 235
Conjuring in Heaven 2 3 5
Crow Goes Hunting 236
Owl’s Song 236
Crow’s Undersong 237
Crow’s Elephant Totem Song 238
Dawn’s Rose 239
Crow’s Playmates 240
Crowego 240
The Smile 241
Crow Improvises 242
Crowcolour 243
Crow’s Battle Fury 244
Crow Blacker than Ever 244
Revenge Fable 244
A Bedtime Story 245
Crow’s Song of Himself 247
Crow Sickened 247
Song for a Phallus 248
Apple Tragedy 250
Crow Paints Himself into a Chinese Mural 251
Crow and the Sea 2 5 2
Truth Kills Everybody 252
Crow and Stone 2 5 3
Fragment of an Ancient Tablet 254
Snake Hymn 254
Lovesong 2 5 5
Glimpse 2j6
Two Eskimo Songs
I Fleeing from Eternity 256
11 How Water Began to Play 257
Littleblood 258

XX CONTENTS
from C R O W W A K E S (1971)
Crow Wakes 258
Bones 259
Amulet 260
In the Land of the Lion 260
I See a Bear 261
Bedtime Anecdote 262
Song against the White Owl 263
The Ship 264
Lullaby 265
Snow Song 266
The Contender 267
from P O E M S . RUTH F A I N L I G H T , TED H U G H E S ,
ALAN SILLITOE (1971)
Genesis of Evil 268
Crow’s Song about England 269
Crow’s Courtship 270
Crow’s Song about God 270
Crow the Just 272

UNCOLLECTED (1971-73)
The Space-Egg was Sailing 275
‘In the little girl’s angel gaze’ 276
The New World 276
An Alchemy 279

P R O M E T H E U S O N HIS C R A G (1973)
I ‘His voice felt out the way. “I am” he said’ 285
2 ‘Prometheus . .. Relaxes’ 285
3 ‘Prometheus ... Pestered by birds roosting and defecating’ 286
4 ‘Prometheus ... Spotted the vulture coming out of the sun’ 286
5 ‘Prometheus ... Dreamed he had burst the sun’s mass’ 287
6 ‘Prometheus . . . Has bitten his prophetic tongue off‘ 287
7 ‘Prometheus . .. Arrested half-way from heaven’ 288
8 ‘Prometheus . .. Lay astonished all his preparations’ 288
9 ‘Now I know I never shall’ 289
IO ‘Prometheus . .. Began to admire the vulture’ 290
11 ‘Prometheus . . . Tried to recall his night’s dream’ 290
12 .
‘Prometheus .. Had begun to sing’ 291
13 ‘Prometheus . . . Heard the cry of the wombs’ 291

xxi
14 ‘Prometheus . . . Sees the wind’ 292
15 ‘Prometheus . . . Had such an advantageous prospect’ 292
16 ‘Prometheus . . . Too far from his people to tell them’ 293
17 ‘No God - only wind on the flower’ 293
18 ‘The character neglected in this icon’ 294
19 ‘Prometheus . . . Shouts and his words’ 294
20 ‘Prometheus . . . Pondered the vulture. Was this bird’ 295
21 ‘His mother covers her eyes’ 296

UNCOLLECTED (1974-75)
Welcombe 299
Exits 299
The Lamentable History of the Human Calf 299
from S P R I N G S U M M E R AUTUMN WINTER
Hunting the Summer 301
The Defenders 302

SEASON SONGS (1976)

Spring
A March Calf 307
The River in March 308
March Morning Unlike Others 309
Spring Nature Notes, I-VI 310
April Birthday 312
Icecrust and Snowflake 313
Deceptions 314
Summer
Swifts 31s
Mackerel Song 316
Hay 317
Sheep, 1-111 318
Apple Dumps 321
Work and Play 322
The Harvest Moon 323
The Golden Boy 324
Autumn
Leaves 325
Autumn Nature Notes, I-VIII 326
The Seven Sorrows 3 3 0

xxii CONTENTS
A Cranefly in September 332
There Came a Day 333
The Stag 333
Two Horses, I-v 335
Winter
The Warrior of Winter 337
Christmas Card 338
December River 339
New Year Song 341
Snow and Snow 342
The Warm and the Cold 343

UNCOLLECTED (1976-77)
He Called 347
Eclipse 347
Pets 351
Green Mother 351
[Caprichos]
‘Who lives in my skin with me?’ 352
‘If the mouth could properly open’ 353
‘When dawn lifts the eyelid behind the eyelid’ 353
‘Nevertheless rejoice’ 354

from G A U D E T E (1977)
[The Epilogue Poems]
‘What will you make of half a man’ 357
‘I hear your congregations at their rapture’ 357
‘Who are you?’ 358
‘At the top of my soul’ 358
‘The lark sizzles in my ear’ 359
‘I watched a wise beetle’ 359
‘In a world where all is temporary’ 359
‘Collision with the earth has finally come -’ 360
‘Trying to be a leaf 360
‘I heard the screech, sudden -’ 360
‘Once I said lightly’ 361
‘Music, that eats people’ 361
‘The rain comes again’ 362
‘This is the maneater’s skull’ 362
‘I see the oak’s bride in the oak’s grasp’ 363

xxiii
 ‘She rides the earth’ 363
‘The huntsmen, on top of their swaying horse-towers’ 363
‘A primrose petal’s edge’ 364
‘Waving goodbye, from your banked hospital bed’ 364
‘I said goodbye to earth’ 365
‘The swallow - rebuilding -’ 365
‘The night wind, muscled with rain’ 365
‘The viper fell from the sun’ 366
‘A doctor extracted’ 366
‘The coffin, spurred by its screws’ 367
‘The grass blade is not without’ 367
‘Churches topple’ 368
‘I know well’ 368
‘The sun, like a cold kiss in the street -’ 369
‘Sometimes it comes, a gloomy flap of lightning’ 369
‘Having first given away pleasure -’ 369
‘Looking for her form’ 369
‘A man hangs on’ 370
‘When the still-soft eyelid sank again’ 370
‘The sea grieves all night long’ 370
‘Hearing your moan echo, I chill. I shiver’ 371
‘Faces lift out of the earth’ 371
‘I skin the skin’ 372
‘What steel was it the river poured’ 372
‘Calves harshly parted from their mamas’ 373
‘A bang - A burning -’ 373
‘The dead man lies, marching here and there’ 373
‘Every day the world gets simply’ 374
‘Your tree - your oak’ 374
‘Glare out of just crumpled grass -’ 374

UNCOLLECTED (1977-78)
He Gets Up in Dark Dawn 379
Unknown Warrior 380
After the Grim Diagnosis 380
[19p-1977] ‘A Nation’s a s o d ’ 381
A Solstice 381
New Foal 386
Wycoller Hall 388

xxiv CONTENTS
 from ORTS (1978)
I ‘The fallen oak sleeps under the bog’ 393
2 ‘Let that one shrink into place’ 393
3 ‘The Queen of Egypt’ 394
4 ‘You have come down from the clouds’ 394
5 ‘Skin’ 394
6 ‘Air’ 395
7 ‘At some juncture the adult dies’ 395
8 ‘So much going on’ 396
9 ‘Huge global trouble all to earn’ 396
I4 ‘Sunday bells’ 397
I 5 ‘The volcano’ 398
I7 ‘The white shark’ 398
18 ‘Eye went out to hunt you’ 398
I9 ‘He sickened‘ 399
21 ‘Searching, I am confronted again’ 399

24 ‘The buzzard mews -’ 400

26 ‘Where shall I put my hand?’ 400
27 ‘Words bring wet lumps of earth’ 401
28 ‘Sitting under the downpour’ 401
29 ‘They brought you a lit-up flying city’ 402
30 ‘The mother of the tree’ 402
31 ‘If searching can’t find you’ 402
32 ‘Before I was born, you were a spirit’ 403
33 ‘Where you wait’ 403
34 ‘Stilled at his drink’ 403
37 ‘Your eyes are poor’ 404
38 ‘Better, happier, to stay clear of the pure’ 405
40 ‘After years of methodical, daily’ 405
41 ‘Like the future oak invisible’ 406
42 ‘The bulging oak is not as old’ 406
43 ‘A cry is coming closer’ 406
44 ‘He did all that he thought he wanted to do’ 407
45 ‘Why do you take such nervy shape to become’ 408
46 ‘You have made me careless’ 408
48 ‘Does it matter how long’ 409
49 ‘The salmon’s egg winters the gouging floods’ 409
50 ‘Your touch jerks me -’ 410
5 1 ‘Churches darken like scabs’ 410
52 ‘As often as I affirm’ 411
53 ‘In the zoo’ 411

xxv
54 ‘The engine under the car-bonnet’ 412
55 ‘By the splitting, spilling, fly-crazing’ 412
56 ‘The cat, craning over the long grass’ 413
57 ‘The cut stone’ 413
60 ‘Twisted mouths’ 414
61 ‘A wild drop flies in space -’ 414
62 ‘He sits grinning, he blurts laughter’ 415

CAVE BIRDS (1978)

The Scream 419
The Summoner 420
After the First Fright 420
The Interrogator 421
She Seemed So Considerate 421
The Judge 422
The Plaintiff 423
In These Fading Moments I Wanted to Say 423
The Executioner 424
The Accused 425
First, the Doubtful Charts of Skin 425
The Knight 426
Something was Happening 427
The Gatekeeper 428
A Flayed Crow in the Hall of Judgement 429
The Baptist 430
Only a Little Sleep, a Little Slumber 430
A Green Mother 431
As I Came, I Saw a Wood 432
A Riddle 432
The Scapegoat 433
After There was Nothing Came a Woman 434
The Guide 435
His Legs Ran About 436
Walking Bare 436
Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days 437
The Owl Flower 438
The Risen 439
Finale 440

xxvi CONTENTS
 A D A M AND T H E S A C R E D N I N E (1979)
The Song 443
Adam 443
Awake! 444
All this time his cry 444
He had retreated 444
And the Falcon came 445
The Skylark came 445
The Wild Duck 446
The Swift comes the swift 447
The Unknown Wren 447
And Owl 448
The Dove Came 449
The Crow came T o Adam 449
And the Phoenix has come 450
Light 450
Bud-tipped twig 451
The sole of a foot 451

R E M A I N S OF ELMET (1979)
The Dark River 455
Abel Cross, Crimsworth Dene 455
Hardcastle Crags 456
Lumb Chimneys 456
Two Trees at Top Withens 457
Stanbury Moor 458
Moors 458
The Trance of Light 459
West Laithe Cobbles 459
Long Screams 460
Curlews 460
Walls at Alcomden 461
Walls 462
First, Mills 462
Hill-Stone was Content 463
Mill Ruins 464
Wild Rock 464
The Sheep Went on Being Dead 465
The Big Animal of Rock 466
Tree 466
Heather 467

xxvii
Alcomden 468
Remains of Elmet 468
There Come Days to the Hills 469
Shackleton Hill 469
When Men Got to the Summit 470
Churn-Milk Joan 470
Grouse-Butts 471
The Weasels We Smoked out of The Bank 472
High Sea-Light 472
Bridestones 473
Wadsworth Moor 474
Spring-Dusk 474
Football at Slack 474
Sunstruck 475
Willow-Herb 476
The Canal's Drowning Black 477
The Long Tunnel Ceiling 478
Under the World's Wide Rims 479
Two 480
Mount Zion 480
The Ancient Briton Lay under His Rock 481
Rhododendrons 482
Crown Point Pensioners 483
For Billy Holt 483
Heptonstall 484
The Beacon 485
Emily Bronte 485
Haworth Parsonage 486
Top Withens 486
The Sluttiest Sheep in England 487
Auction at Stanbury 487
Widdop 488
Light Falls through Itself 488
In April 489
The Word that Space Breathes 489
Heptonstall Old Church 490
Tick Tock Tick Tock 490
Cock-Crows 491
Heptonstall Cemetery 492
The Angel 492

xxviii CONTENTS
 UNCOLLECTED (1979)
Irish Elk 497
Barley 497
A Lamb in the Storm 499
The Rose 499
In the Black Chapel 500

MOORTOWN DIARY (1979)

Rain 503
Dehorning 504
Poor birds 505
Feeding out-wintering cattle at twilight 506
Foxhunt 507
New Year exhilaration 508
Struggle 508
Bringing in new couples 510
Snow smoking as the fields boil 511
Tractor 511
Roe-deer 513
Couples under cover 513
Surprise 514
Last night 51s
Ravens 517
February 17th 518
March morning unlike others 519
Turning out 520
She has come to pass 521
Birth of Rainbow 521
Orf 522
Happy calf 523
Coming down through Somerset 524
Little red twin 525
Teaching a dumb calf 527
Last load 528
While she chews sideways 530
Sheep, 1-11 531
The day he died 5 3 3
A monument 534
The formal auctioneer 534
A memory 535

xxix
Now you have to push 536
Hands 537

from E A R T H - N U M B (1979)
Earth-numb 541
That girl 542
Here is the Cathedral 542
Postcard from Torquay 544
Old age gets up 545
Nefertiti 546
A Motorbike 547
Deaf School 548
Photostomias, 1-111 549
The Lovepet 550
Second Birth 552
Song of Longsight 5 5 2
Life is trying to be life 553
A Citrine Glimpse, 1-11 554
Four Tales Told by an Idiot
I I woke in the bed of the rains 556
2 I was tied to a stake, in a tectite desert 556
3 Night-wind, a freedom 557
4 That star 557
Actaeon 558
Seven Dungeon Songs
I The Wolf 559
Dead, she became space-earth 559
3 Face was necessary - I found face 560
4 The earth locked out the light 560
5 I walk 561
6 The oracle 562
7 I f mouth could open its cliff 562
A knock at the door 563
Orts
I Each new moment my eyes 565
2 Are they children 565
3 For weights of blood 566
5 In the MJ restaurant 566
6 Poets 567
7 Grosse Fuge 567
8 Lucretia 568

xxx CONTENTS
 9 The Cathedral 568
IO Pan 569
11 Speech out of shadow 570
12 Everything is waiting 570
14 Flight from Egypt 571
15 Beeches, leafless 571
16 Look back 572
17 Buzz in the window 572
18 Lumb 573
19 Theexpress 573
20 T.V. off 574
21 Ophiuchos 574
22 Funeral 575
23 Children 576
24 Prospero and Sycorax 576
25 Before-dawn twilight, a sky dry as talc 577
Tiger-psalm 577
The stone 579
Stained Glass
I The Virgin 579
2 The Womb 580
3 The Virgin Knight 581
A G o d 581

UNCOLLECTED (1980-81)
Unfinished Mystery 585
Do not Pick up the Telephone 585
Lily 587
Sky Furnace 587
Fort 588
Fishing the Estuary 589
[Publications of the Morrigu Press, 1979-801
Wolf 590
Puma 591
Brooktrout 591
Eagle 592
Mosquito 593
Three River Poems
Catadrome 593
Caddis 594
Visitation 594

xxxi
 from A PRIMER OF BIRDS (1981)
For Leonard and Lisa 599
Cuckoo 599
Swans 600
Buzzard 601
Black-back Gull 602
Snipe 603
A Swallow 604
Sparrow 605
T h eH e n 605
Mallard 606
Evening Thrush 607
Magpie 608
Shrike 609
Starlings Have Come 609
Bullfinch 610
Wren 611
Treecreeper 612
Nightingale 612
The Moorhen 613
Pheasant 614
Phoenix 614

UNCOLLECTED (1981-83)
Cows 619
‘Drove six or so high miles’ 619
River of Dialectics 620
Sing the Rat 620
Giant Dream of Elephants 622
Remembering Teheran 624
The Great Irish Pike 627
Thomas the Rhymer’s Song 628
Madly Singing in the Mountains 629
T o Be Harry 629
Mice Are Funny Little Creatures 630
Weasels at Work 631
Fly Inspects 632
Swallows 634

xxxii CONTENTS
 from RIVER (1983)
The Morning before Christmas 639
Japanese River Tales, 1-11 641
Flesh of Light 642
New Year 643
Whiteness 643
Four March Watercolours 644
Dee 647
The Merry Mink 648
Salmon-taking Times 648
Under the Hill of Centurions 649
A Cormorant 650
Stump Pool in April 651
Go Fishing 652
Milesian Encounter on the Sligachan 653
Ophelia 655
Creation of Fishes 655
River Barrow 656
The West Dart 658
Strangers 658
After Moonless Midnight 659
An August Salmon 660
The Vintage of River Is Unending 661
Night Arrival of Sea-Trout 662
The Kingfisher 662
That Morning 663
The River 664
Last Night 665
The Gulkana 665
In the Dark Violin of the Valley 669
Low Water 670
A Rival 670
August Evening 671
Performance 672
September Salmon 673
Eighty, and Still Fishing for Salmon 674
September 674
An Eel 675
Fairy Flood 676
Riverwatcher 677
October Salmon 677

xxxiii
Torridge 679
Salmon Eggs 680

UNCOLLECTED (1983-1986)
The Mayfly 685
The Pigeon’s Wings 685
The Live-Bait 686
Waste 687
The Hare 687
Waterlicked 690
Familiar 691
Disarmament 692
Mokomaki
Aspiring Head 694
Halfway Head 694
Landmark Head 695
What’s the First Thing You Think Of? 695
Conscripts 696
The Best Worker in Europe 697
Grouse Butts 699
Edith 700
Rights 700
The Pike 701
Mayday 702
Sketching a Thatcher 703
Lamenting Head 704
Reckless Head 704
Sacrificed Head 705

from FLOWERS AND INSECTS (1986)

Narcissi 709
A Violet at Lough Aughresberg 709
Brambles 710
Daffodils 711
Two Tortoiseshell Butterflies 713
Cyclamens in a Bowl 714
Saint’s Island 716
Where I Sit Writing My Letter 720
Tern 720
Sketch of a Goddess 721
The Honey Bee 722

xxxiv CONTENTS
In the Likeness of a Grasshopper 723
Sunstruck Foxglove 723
Big POPPY 724
Nightjar 725

UNCOLLECTED (1987-89)
Devon Riviera 729
First Things First 730
A Full House 731
Birthday Greetings 737
Chinese History of Colden Water 738
Kore 739
Glimpse 740
If 740
Mayday 741
Lines about Elias 742

from W O L F W A T C H I N G (1989)
A Sparrow Hawk 747
Astrological Conundrums
I The Fool’s Evil Dream 747
11 Nearly Awake 749
111 Tell 749
Slump Sundays 749
Climbing into Heptonstall 750
Macaw 752
Dust As We Are 753
Wolfwatching 754
Telegraph Wires 757
Source 757
Sacrifice 758
For the Duration 760
Anthem for Doomed Youth 761
The Black Rhino 763
Leaf Mould 768
Manchester Skytrain 769
Walt
I Under High Wood 770
11 The Atlantic 771
Take What You Want But Pay For It 773
Us He Devours 774

xxxv
Little Whale Song 775
On the Reservations
I Sitting Bull on Christmas Morning 776
I I Nightvoice 778
111 The Ghost Dancer 779

CAPRICCIO (1990)
Capriccios 783
The Locket 783
The Mythographers 784
Systole Diastole 786
Descent 787
Folktale 788
Fanaticism 788
Snow 789
The Other 790
Possession 791
The Coat 792
Smell of Burning 792
The Pit and the Stones 793
Shibboleth 794
The Roof 795
The Error 795
Opus 1 3 1 796
Familiar 797
Flame 798
Chlorophyl 799

R A I N - C H A R M FOR THE DUCHY (1992)

Rain-Charm for the Duchy 803
Two Poems for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
The Dream of the Lion 806
Little Salmon Hymn 807
A Birthday Masque
I The First Gift 807
2 An Almost Thornless Crown 808
3 The Second Gift 811
4 The Ring 811
5 The Third Gift 813
6 Candles for the Cake 814
The Song of the Honey Bee 818

xxxvi CONTENTS
Two Songs
I For Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of York 819
2 For the Christening of Her Royal Highness Princess
Beatrice of York 820
A Masque for Three Voices 821
The Unicorn
I X-Ray 831
2 Falstaff 832
3 The Unicorn 832
4 A Unicorn called Ariel 833
5 Envoi 834

UNCOLLECTED (1992-97)
Lobby from Under the Carpet 837
Three Poems for J.R.
I Waif 837
11 Lovesick 839
111 Atavist 840
Two Photographs of Top Withens 840
1984 on ‘The Tarka Trail’ 841
Be a Dry-Fly Purist 845
The Bear 847
The Mayfly is Frail 847
High Water 848
Everything is on its Way to the River 849
Why the ‘zIst Child’ Could Not Be Lifted 849
The Last of the Ist/5th Lancashire Fusiliers 850
Snapshot 851
Playing with an Archetype 851
Epigraph 852
Old Oats 852
Anniversary 854
The Oak Tree 855
A Trout? 857
Black Hair 858
Platform One 858
Comics 859
Mother-Tongue 960
6 September 1997 861

xxxvii
 TALES F R O M O V I D (1997)
Creation; Four Ages; Flood; Lycaon 865
Phaethon 880
Callisto and Arcas 896
The Rape of Proserpina 901
Arethusa 911
Tiresias 914
Echo and Narcissus 915
Erisychthon 923
Semele 930
Peleus and Thetis 934
Actaeon 937
Myrrha 942
Venus and Adonis (and Atalanta) 953
Pygmalion 964
Hercules and Dejanira 969
The Birth of Hercules 978
The Death of Cygnus 980
Arachne 984
Bacchus and Pentheus 991
Midas 1004
Niobe 1012
Salmacis and Hermaphroditus 1021
Tereus 1024
Pyramus and Thisbe 1036

BIRTHDAY LETTERS (1998)

Fulbright Scholars 1045
Caryatids (I) 1045
Caryatids ( 2 ) 1046
Visit 1047
Sam 1049
The Tender Place 1050
St Botolph’s 1051
The Shot 1052
Trophies 1054
18 Rugby Street 1055
The Machine 1058
God Help the Wolf after Whom the Dogs Do Not Bark 1059
Fidelity 1060
Fate Playing 1062

xxxviii CONTENTS
The Owl 1063
A Pink Wool Knitted Dress 1064
Your Paris 1065
You Hated Spain 1068
Moonwalk 1069
Drawing 1071
Fever 1072
5 5 Eltisley 1073
Chaucer 107s
Ouija 1076
The Earthenware Head 1079
Wuthering Heights 1080
The Chipmunk 1082
Horoscope 1083
Flounders 1084
The Blue Flannel Suit 1085
Child's Park 1086
9 Willow Street 1087
The Literary Life 1090
The Bird 1092
Astringency 1093
The Badlands 1095
Fishing Bridge 1098
The 59th Bear 1100
Grand Canyon 1104
Karlsbad Caverns 1106
Black Coat 1108
Portraits 1109
Stubbing Wharfe 1111
Remission III3
Isis 1114
Epiphany 111s
The Gypsy 1117
A Dream 1119
The Minotaur 1120
The Pan 1120
Error IIZI
The Lodger 1123
Daffodils 112s
The Afterbirth 1127
Setebos 1128
A Short Film 1129

xxxix
The Rag Rug 1130
The Table 1132
Apprehensions 1134
Dream Life 1135
Perfect Light 1136
The Rabbit Catcher 1136
Suttee 1138
The Bee God 1140
Being Christlike 1142
The Beach 1143
Dreamers 1145
Fairy Tale 1146
The Blackbird 1148
Totem 1148
Robbing Myself 1150
Blood and Innocence 1151
Costly Speech 1153
The Inscription 1154
Night-Ride on Ariel 1155
Telos 1157
Brasilia 1157
The Cast 1158
The Ventriloquist 1159
Life after Death 1160
The Hands 1161
The Prism 1162
The God 1163
Freedom of Speech 1166
A Picture of Otto 1167
Fingers 1167
The Dogs Are Eating Your Mother 1168
Red 1169

HOWLS & WHISPERS (1998)

Paris 195a 1173
Religion I174
The Hidden Orestes 1175
The Laburnum 1176
The Difference 1177
The Minotaur 2 1178
Howls & Whispers 1178

xl CONTENTS
The City 1179
Moon-Dust 1180
The Offers 1180
Superstitions 1183

UNCOLLECTED (1997-98)
from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 1187
Some Pike for Nicholas 1191
Brother Peartree 1192
Shakespeare, drafting his will.. . I193
The Prophet [after Pushkin] 1194
A Dove 119s

Appendix One: Notes and Prefaces by Ted Hughes 1199

Appendix Two: Variant Titles 1226
Appendix Three: Variant Lists of Contents 1229
Notes 1238
Index of Titles 1305
Index of First Lines 1315

xli