Collected Poems

by Anthony Burgess

  Christ’s Cross-Examination

  p. 84

  Christ’s Foreskin

  p. 78

  Christ in Hell

  p. 88

  Courage

  p. 85

  Cracks open the leaden corncrake sky with crass, angelic

  p. 374

  Crippled, the antarctic fire with chiselled skill

  p. 405

  Curtal Sonnet

  p. 386

  David’s Duel

  p. 71

  Dead Leaves

  p. 365

  Dear Chris, The Trouble Is, As You Must Know’ (To Mr

  Chris Mahon)

  p. 346

  Desert Song For Moses

  p. 415

  Doubting Thomas

  p. 88

  Do ye the savage old law deny p. 400

  Dragged from his doings p. 384

  Dreaming when dawn’s left hand p. 408

  Eden

  p. 395

  Eight and twenty years

  p. 432

  Epigraph On A Printer

  p. 377

  Epiphany

  p. 77

  ‘Epithalamion’

  p. 370

  Exodus

  p. 68

  Father of fire who, with bold simony

  p. 404

  First Communion

  p. 83

  Fish And Heroes

  p. 368

  Fish grey, fish brown

  p. 450

  Foreword 1974 (from Moses)

  p. 97

  Foreword 1976 (from Moses)

  p. 100

  Forgive my writing verse: I get so bored’ (To Mr S. G. Byam JR)

  p. 346

  Forgive the lateness, please, of this reply (to Mr Alan Fox)

  p. 344

  From ‘The Circular Pavane’

  p. 388

  Gasping in the dunny in the dead of dark

  p. 383

  Girl

  p. 359

  God Helps Those Who Help Themselves(1)

  p. 70

  God Helps Those Who Help Themselves(2)

  p. 71

  Golden Calf Song

  p. 419

  Guessing Game

  p. 73

  Guilt in the Ghetto

  p. 87

  Happy Birthday Tae Andrew

  p. 347

  He bought me from a Saracen

  p. 429

  Here on the final pyre

  p. 440

  Heroes are dead to us

  p. 354

  His bowels are of gold, his veins of silver

  p. 438

  His Own Image and Likeness

  p. 54

  How come that such a scholar

  p. 444

  How dare I dare to dream

  p. 437

  Holy King David

  p. 72

  Holy Starvation

  p. 58

  I am sick of a kingdom which is a jewelled prison

  p. 439

  I choose no tail or toy!

  p. 302

  I had not thought to hear

  p. 400

  I love hate p. 430

  I send these lines to you in Agincourt p. 342

  I sought scent, and found it in your hair

  p. 388

  I wouldn’t frirk Uranus

  p. 440

  I wrote on the beach, with a stick of salty wood

  p. 403

  I’m weary of working with words that you write

  p. 436

  Ich nem’ ein’ Zigarett’

  p. 444

  I’ll crash the moon

  p. 446

  Ill-Starred

  p. 85

  Imagination is your true Apollo

  p. 406

  In Memoriam Wystan Hugh Auden KMT

  p. 398

  In this spinning room, reduced to a common noun

  p. 379

  Independence Day

  p. 390

  J.B.W.

  p. 404

  Jack’s Story

  p. 367

  January 1

  p. 351

  Joseph the Jew (1)

  p. 65

  Joseph the Jew (2)

  p. 65

  Jubilee Anthem. For Malayan Boys’ Voices

  p. 420

  Land where the birds have no song, the flowers

  p. 374

  Late as I am, but blame the mails, not me (to Mr Selwyn

  C. Gamble)

  p. 343

  Lex for law and order

  p. 439

  Limbo

  p. 87

  Limerick: The Angler Of Kinsale

  p. 399

  Local Industry

  p. 92

  Lot at Home

  p. 66

  Lot in Repose

  p. 67

  Lot’s Wife

  p. 67

  Marriage Round

  p. 418

  Man

  p. 53

  Martha and Mary

  p. 83

  Miriam’s Song of Triumph

  p. 416

  Money isn’t everything

  p. 446

  Moses – A Restive People

  p. 205

  Moses – Abominations Before The Lord

  p. 279

  Moses – Balaam

  p. 258

  Moses – Death And The Law

  p. 228

  Moses – Jordan

  p. 293

  Moses – Miracles Of The Desert

  p. 185

  Moses – Return Into Egypt

  p. 137

  Moses – The Bondage

  p. 101

  Moses – The Death Of Dathan

  p. 250

  Moses – The Exodus

  p. 173

  Moses – The Golden Calf

  p. 216

  Moses – The Mountain

  p. 195

  Moses – The Passover

  p. 168

  Moses – The Plagues

  p. 150

  Moses – The Young Moses

  p. 113

  Moses – Unrest

  p. 238

  Moses – Zimri

  p. 268

  Moses – The Burning Bush

  p. 125

  Moses’s Song

  p. 418

  My adorable Fred

  p. 443

  My dead tree. Give me back my dead dead tree

  p. 443

  My father, his wife

  p. 355

  My love lay across the waters p. 450

  Nathan’s Song

  p. 449

  Noah’s Ark

  p. 61

  None but the coward

  p. 428

  Nostalgia In Head Plunging

  p. 407

  Not, of course, that either of us thought

  p. 378

  Nymphs and satyrs, come away

  p. 369

  O Lord, O Ford, God Help Us, Also You

  p. 331

  Oh, love, love, love

  p. 442

  Original Sin

  p. 80

  Orpheus And Eurydice

  p. 360

  Our Norman betters

  p. 407

  Out of the station puffs the train

  p. 405

  Passover Hymn

  p. 454

  Pastorale

  p. 414

  ‘Perhaps I am not wanted then

  p. 380

  Pigs snort from the yard

  p. 383

  Prayer

  p. 414

  Princess’s Lullaby/Queen’s Lullaby

  p. 413

  Privy Matters

  p. 95

  ‘Prudence! Prudence!’ The Pigeons Call

  p. 368

  Rice-paper land, O lotus-footed

  p. 376

  Say nothing, Priest, father, mother

  p. 302

  September, 1938

  p.
392

  Sevilla, Seviya, Sevija – or Seville

  p. 429

  Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury, rounded by river

  p. 387

  Sick of the sycophantic singing, sick

  p. 321

  Signs (Dogs Of Peace)

  p. 307

  Sixth-form Triolets

  p. 366

  Slavery slavery

  p. 427

  So the world ticks, aye, like to a ticking clock

  p. 396

  So will the flow of time and fire

  p. 348

  Soldier’s Song

  p. 413

  Some consider love is great

  p. 344

  Sonnett À L’Hôtel Le Clos Voltaire

  p. 352

  Sonnet In Alexandrines

  p. 356

  ‘Spaniards’

  p. 92

  Spread the Word

  p. 89

  Spring In Camp, 1941

  p. 393

  Summer, 1940

  p. 393

  Talk is easy. Easiest for one who

  p. 301

  Thank you. Enough, brother Teryth

  p. 301

  That The Earth Rose Out Of A Vast Basin Of Electric Sea

  p. 355

  The Age of Man

  p. 62

  The afternoon hour has struck for you to

  p. 375

  The Annunciation

  p. 75

  The Battle of Gideon

  p. 69

  The Bet

  p. 94

  The Circumcision

  p. 77

  The Creation of the World

  p. 51

  The Dragon’s mouth will consummate our search

  p. 372

  The Earthly Paradise of the Beasts

  p. 51

  The Eighth of December

  p. 75

  The Fair Judith

  p. 73

  The Father of the Saints

  p. 91

  The First Clothes

  p. 56

  The First Mouthful

  p. 55

  The Flight of the Holy Family

  p. 79

  The Foxes

  p. 69

  The Good Samaritan

  p. 452

  The House of God

  p. 82

  The Judgment of Solomon

  p. 72

  The Last Day (To The Editors, Yale News) p. 343

  The kind of laugh that Wodehouse imparts is

  p. 401

  The Last Days

  p. 90

  The Last Judgment

  p. 91

  The Lowdown On Art Or Æsthetics For The Science Student

  p. 362

  The Madonna’s Marriage

  p. 76

  The moon awaits your sleeping: fear to be kissed

  p. 382

  The Music Of The Spheres

  p. 377

  Then as the moon engilds the Thalian fields

  p. 396

  The New Wine

  p. 61

  The orchidaceous catalogue begins

  p. 95

  The Pet Beast

  p. 303

  The Princely Progress

  p. 317

  The Prodigal Son

  p. 450

  The sea, green and deep

  p. 404

  The Second Sin

  p. 60

  The Slaughter of the Innocents

  p. 79

  The State of Innocence (1)

  p. 57

  The State of Innocence (2)

  p. 58

  The stoat’s cry tears long slivers of the night

  p. 382

  The Sword

  p. 327

  The Tower

  p. 63

  The Three Dimensions

  p. 423

  The Two Breeds

  p. 86

  The urgent temper of the laws

  p. 388

  The Universal Deluge

  p. 60

  The verses of E. Lucie-Smith

  p. 353

  The Visit

  p. 76

  The Wedding at Cana (1)

  p. 80

  The Wedding at Cana (2)

  p. 81

  The Wedding at Cana (3)

  p. 81

  The Wiggle Poof

  p. 402

  The work ends when the work ends

  p. 397

  The young things who frequent movie palaces

  p. 401

  They fear and hate

  p. 391

  They lit the sun, and then their day began

  p. 322

  This lovely queen, if I should win her

  p. 444

  Thus kneeling at the altar rail

  p. 400

  Thy mouth, a fig, thy teeth

  p. 449

  To Amaryllis After The Dance

  p. 359

  To be a king, to be a king

  p. 433

  To Chas

  p. 345

  To Tirzah

  p. 371

  To Vladimir Nabokov On His 70th Birthday

  p. 325

  Tomorrow will be love for the loveless, and for the lover love

  p. 380

  Travel Song

  p. 418

  Travelling Song

  p. 416

  Two Uses for Ashes

  p. 94

  Une P’tite Spécialité Called L’Amour

  p. 447

  Useless to hope to hold off

  p. 385

  Waking and sleeping

  p. 445

  Water Song

  p. 415

  We will build a bridge to heaven

  p. 442

  We’ll be coming home

  p. 442

  ‘What can I say? I’d better try a sonnet’ (to Mr Peter Brule)

  p. 345

  What I’d like to do

  p. 431

  When It Is All Over

  p. 357

  Where sweat starts, nothing starts. True, life runs

  p. 373

  Whisky

  p. 349

  Whitsun

  p. 89

  Winter wins

  p. 405

  Wir Danken Unsrem Führer

  p. 358

  Words Getting In The Way

  p. 424

  ‘Work’

  p. 93

  You take my heart with such unformed grace

  p. 376

  You went that way as you always said you would

  p. 397

  You were there, and nothing said

  p. 353

  You whom the fisherfolk of Myra believe

  p. 445

  Your presence shines about the fumes of fat

  p. 372

  Every effort has been made by the publisher to reproduce the formatting of the original print edition in electronic format. However, poem formatting may change according to reading device and font size.

  First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Carcanet Press Ltd, Alliance House, 30 Cross Street, Manchester M2 7AQ.

  This new eBook edition first published in 2020.

  On the cover: Anthony Burgess (© INTERFOTO/Alamy)

  All rights reserved. Text copyright © The Estate of Anthony Burgess, 2020. Introduction and editorial matter © Jonathan Mann. The right of Author Name to be identified as the translator of this work has been asserted in accordance with theCopyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

  This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publisher, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.


  Epub: 978 1 80017 013 1

  Mobi: 978 1 80017 014 8