The Secret Life of Poems [1 ed.] 057127871X, 9780571278718

Citation preview

a

. 19 APR 2008

15 JAN 2009

"4 MAY ann 30

4 " any ENS

14 JUN 2008 ~~ T AUG 20081 24 OCT 2008 IApIoY ©

:

AUG 2011

96 OCT 201i

’

_ h JAN 2012 18 aR 201243 Nov 2012 ~2 JUN 2N12 21 AUG 2012 Rees

Renewals | PR 2013

THE LONDON 6:

saith

j

eae

JUN 2

Please return/renew tnis item

_

by the last date shown.

Books may also be renewed by phone and Internet

BROMLEY LIBRARIES

UNA30128 AA6001A 63987 A

A183

THE

SECRET

LIFE OF POEMS

by the same author poetry A STATE OF JUSTICE THE STRANGE MUSEUM LIBERTY TREE FIVEMILETOWN SELECTED POEMS 1972-1990 WALKING A LINE THE WIND DOG THE INVASION HANDBOOK THE ROAD TO INVER

adaptations THE RIOT ACT: a version of Sophocles’ Antigone SEIZE THE FIRE: a version of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound

play THE HILLSBOROUGH SCRIPT: A Dramatic Satire

anthologies THE FABER BOOK OF POLITICAL VERSE THE FABER BOOK OF VERNACULAR VERSE WILLIAM HAZLITT: The Fight and Other Writings (with David Chandler) THOMAS HARDY (Poet-to-Poet series) D. H. LAWRENCE (Poet-to-Poet series)

criticism

THOMAS HARDY: The Poetry of Perception IRELAND AND THE ENGLISH CRISIS MINOTAUR: Poetry and Nation State

’

WRITING TO THE MOMENT: Selected Critical Essays 1980-1996“

THE DAY-STAR OF LIBERTY: Williams Hazlitt’s Radical Style CRUSOE’S SECRET: The Aesthetics of Dissent

TOM

PAULIN

The Secret Life of Poems A Poetry Primer

fi faber and faber

First published in 2008 by Faber and Faber Limited 3, Queen Square London wcin 3AU

Typeset by Faber and Faber Ltd Printed in England by Mackays of Chatham plc, Chatham, Kent All rights reserved © Tom Paulin, 2008 The right of Tom Paulin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77

of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978—0—571—22634—4

BROMLEY PUBLIC LIBRARIES

60016398

821.009

10°1987' 65 43-21

£17.99

for Paul Muldoon

‘,

-

i os

. :

:

*

y

+

©

yy

7

+

»

‘

wk *. e;

' re

i

2

»

=

re

we

a

.

¥

. ts

¢ art

-

‘

9

>

at

é

ween

‘

Zz

‘

zghs

*

’

‘.

=

beet

=

'

7

‘

4

:

:

-

4

ai nite

- ee °

q r rn

c

cy

Ce

a ;

ei

3

oe ee tt ai ;

f

>

Fe ;

ap aie

i

|

‘

bir

rc

5 Re

anes

LF

v.} Z a

:

'

f “< 7

oa

‘

a

Pa Ti:roa

4

t

q ,

An te i5

=

7

ae

Arr!

thy

7 =

’ :

a 2

.

.

k

idapectale ain

ap!

HE wah,

y,.

aE. oie

ee oa o

ee

Contents

Metrical Feet & Consonants

ix

Anonymous ~ “The Unquiet Grave’ 3 Sir Thomas Wyatt ~ “They Fle from Me that Sometyme Did Me Seke’ 8 George Herbert ~ ‘The Flower’ 12 John Donne ~ ‘A Nocturnall upon St Lucies Day’ 17 William Shakespeare ~ “Sonnet 73’ 21 ~ from Macbeth 25

John Bunyan ~ “Who Would True Valour See’ 31 John Milton ~ from Paradise Lost 36 John Dryden ~ “To the Memory of Mr Oldham’ 43

Alexander Pope ~ ‘An Epistle to Miss Blount, on her leaving the Town’ 49

Jonathan Swift ~ ‘A Description of a City Shower’ 54 Samuel Taylor Coleridge ~ ‘Frost at Midnight’ 59 ~ ‘Kubla Khan’ 65 William Wordsworth ~ from The Prelude 72 John Keats ~ ‘To Autumn’ 78

John Clare ~ “To the Snipe’ 87 Lord Byron ~ from Don Juan 94

Robert Browning ~ “Meeting at Night’ 99 Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~ from In Memoriam

102

Emily Dickinson ~ “He fumbles at your Soul’ 107 Christina Rossetti ~ ‘Margaret has a milking-pail’ and from Goblin Market 111 G. M. Hopkins ~ “That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection’ 118 Thomas Given ~ ‘A Song for February’ 124

[vii]

Robert Frost ~ “The Investment’ 130 ~ from ‘A Servant to Servants’ 134

~ Isaac Rosenberg ~ ‘Break of Day in the Trenches’ 139 Edward Thomas ~ “The Owl’ 146

Thomas Hardy ~ ‘In Time of “The Breaking of Nations” and “The Self-Unseeing’ 150 ~ ‘Proud Songsters’ 155

W. B. Yeats ~ ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ 159 ~ ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz’ 167 W. H. Auden ~ “Musée des Beaux Arts’ 171 Louis MacNeice ~ “Order to View’ 175 Keith Douglas ~ “Canoe’ 179

«

Robert Lowell ~ ‘Sailing Home from Rapallo’ 183 Zbigniew Herbert ~ ‘Elegy of Fortinbras’ 191 Patrick Kavanagh ~ ‘Kerr’s Ass’ 196 Ted Hughes ~ ‘Thistles’ 200 Philip Larkin ~ ‘Cut Grass’ 204 John Montague ~ ‘All Legendary Obstacles’ 207 Derek Mahon ~ ‘A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford’ 213

Seamus Heaney ~ ‘Broagh’ 218 Paul Muldoon ~ ‘Quoof’ 222

Craig Raine ~ ‘Flying to Belfast’ 225 Jamie McKendrick ~ ‘Apotheosis’ 233 Acknowledgements 237

[viii]

x

Metrical Feet

iamb the day pytrhic spondee

trochee

anapaest

and a blank street

tiger

on the fold

dactyl

just for a

amphibrach

the forest

|

cretic molossus

bang about crust coarse-grained

Consonants

Aspirant: h Fricative: f, th, ph Dental (tongue and teeth): d, n, s, t

Guttural (throat and tongue): g, k Labial (complete/partial lip closure): p, b, f, v, w Liquid: J, r Nasal (humming): m, n Plosive: (strong) p, t, k; (weak) b, d, g Sibilant (hissing): s, sh

[ix]

Pe

Pe

by

ve

e

¥

:

=

i

P