The Penguin Book of Elegy

Contents Introduction A Note on the Text Anonymous Cock Robin The Corpus Christi Carol The Three Ravens Sir Patrick Spens The Wife of Usher’s Well from Pearl Dahn the Plug’ole Raymond Antrobus (1986–) Sound Machine Matthew Arnold (1822–1892) Memorial Verses W. H. Auden (1907–1973) In Memory of W. B. Yeats William Barnes (1801–1886) The Music o’ the Dead The Wife a-Lost Woak Hill Paul Batchelor (1977–) Pit Ponies Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) Matilda Gwendolyn Bennett (1902–1981) Epitaph John Berryman (1914–1972) Dream Song 155 The King James Bible (1611) 2 Samuel 1 Ecclesiastes 3 Laurence Binyon (1869–1943) For the Fallen Bion (c . 120– 57 BCE) Lament for Adonis Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) North Haven William Blake (1757–1827) Nurse’s Song (Songs of Innocence) Nurse’s Song (Songs of Experience) The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence) The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience) Ma lika Booker (1970–) Death of an Overseer Elizabeth Boyd (c . 1710–1745) On the Death of an Infant of Five Days Old Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672) In Memory of My Dear Grandchild, Elizabeth Bradstreet Ka mau Brathwaite (1930–2020) Elegy for Rosita Robert Bridges (1844–1930) On a Dead Child Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) On the Death of Emily Jane Brontë Emily Brontë (1818–1848) Remembrance Rupert Brooke (1887–1915) The Soldier Jericho Brown (1976–) The Tradition William Browne (c. 1590–1645) On the Countess Dowager of Pembroke Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) Felicia Hemans L. E. L.’s Last Question Mother and Poet Basil Bunting (1900–1985) from Briggflatts Robert Burns (1759–1796) Epitaph for James Smith Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824) Stanzas for Music ‘Remember thee! Remember thee!’ On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year Elegy on Thyrza Christian Campbell (1979–) Rudical (Derek Bennett, killed by the police) Thomas Campion (1567–1620) O Come Quickly! Thomas Carew (c . 1595–1640) An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of Paul’s, Dr John Donne Epitaph for Maria Wentworth Ciaran Carson (1948–2019) In Memory Elizabeth Carter (1717–1806) On the Death of Mrs Rowe Catullus (c . 84– 54 BCE) Elegy on the Sparrow Catullus 101 Charles Causley (1917–2003) Eden Rock C. P. Cavafy (1863–1933) For Ammonis, Who Died Aged 29 in 610 Jane Cave (1754–1812) An Elegy on a Maiden Name Paul Celan (1920–1970) Deathfugue Amy Clampitt (1920–1994) A Procession at Candlemas John Clare (1793–1864) The Lament of Swordy Well I Am Lucille Clifton (1936–2010) the lost baby poem Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) Epitaph Tony Connor (1930–) Elegy for Alfred Hubbard Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) On the Death of Mr William Hervey William Cowper (1731–1800) Epitaph on a Hare The Poplar Field Hart Crane (1899–1932) At Melville’s Tomb Richard Crashaw (1613–1649) A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint Teresa An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife Countee Cullen (1903–1946) Colored Blues Singer Threnody for a Brown Girl Walter de la Mare (1873–1956) Fare Well Toi Derricotte (1941–) Elegy for My Husband Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) ‘Because I could not stop for Death’ ‘Safe in their Alabaster Chambers’ ‘I felt a Funeral, in my Brain’ Maura Dooley (1957–) I’ve Been Thinking a Lot About Heaven John Donne (1572–1631) A Funeral Elegy Lord Alfred Douglas (1870–1945) The Dead Poet Keith Douglas (1920–1944) Simplify Me When I’m Dead Vergissmeinnicht John Dryden (1631–1700) Upon the Death of the Lord Hastings To the Memory of Mr Oldham Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) A Death Song William Dunbar (1459–1520) Lament for the Makaris Douglas Dunn (1942–) The Kaleidoscope Lady Katherine Dyer (c . 1585–1654) ‘My dearest dust could not thy hasty day’ T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) from The Waste Land (Death by Water) Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) from Threnody Vicki Feaver (1943–) Gorilla Caleb Femi (1990–) The Story of Damilola Taylor James Fenton (1949–) At the Kerb Sarah Louisa Forten (1814–1883) The Grave of the Slave Robert Frost (1874–1963) Nothing Gold Can Stay Robert Garioch (1909–1981) Elegy John Gay (1685–1732) My Own Epitaph Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) from Kaddish Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) Retaliation Lorna Goodison (1947–) For My Mother (May I Inherit Half Her Strength) Barnabe Googe (1540–1594) An Epytaphe of the Death of Nicolas Grimoald W. S. Graham (1918–1986) Lines on Roger Hilton’s Watch Robert Graves (1895–1985) The Untidy Man Thomas Gray (1716–1771) On the Death of Richard West Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes Thom Gunn (1929–2004) Lament Ivor Gurney (1890–1937) To His Love Song Cotswold Ways Strange Hells Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) Drummer Hodge Thoughts of Phena A Singer Asleep The Going The Voice At Castle Boterel After a Journey During Wind and Rain Lying Awake Tony Harrison (1937–) Book Ends Terrance Hayes (1971–) American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) The Strand at Lough Beg Felicia Hemans (1793–1835) The Grave of a Poetess Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1587–1648) Elegy Over a Tomb George Herbert (1593–1633) Virtue Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1561–1621) If Ever Hapless Woman Had a Cause Robert Herrick (1591–1674) Upon Himself Geoffrey Hill (1932–2016) September Song Michael Hofmann (1957–) For Gert Hofmann, died 1 July 1993 Thomas Hood (1799–1845) I Remember, I Remember Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) Binsey Poplars Spring and Fall Felix Randal Horace (67–8 BCE) Odes 3.30 A. E. Housman (1859–1936) To an Athlete Dying Young ‘Is my team ploughing’ ‘Far in a western brookland’ Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries ‘Crossing alone the nighted ferry’ Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–1547) An Excellent Epitaph of Sir Thomas Wyatt ‘Norfolk sprung thee, Lambeth holds thee dead’ Langston Hughes (1902–1967) Silhouette Ted Hughes (1930–1998) Sheep Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) On the Death of His Son Vincent Mick Imlah (1956–2008) Stephen Boyd (1957–95) Major Jackson (1968–) Ferguson LINTON Kwesi Johnson (1952–) Reggae fi Dada Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) An Epitaph on Claudy Phillips, a Musician On the Death of Dr Robert Levet Ebenezer Jones (1820–1860) The Poet’s Death Ben Jonson (1572–1637) Epitaphs To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author Mr William Shakespeare Jackie Kay (1961–) Burying My African Father John Keats (1795–1821) When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be Henry King (1592–1669) Exequy on His Wife Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) The Appeal Yusef Komunyakaa (1947–) Elegy for Thelonious Charles Lamb (1775–1834) The Old Familiar Faces Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) Stanzas on the Death of Mrs Hemans Felicia Hemans WALTER SAVAGE Landor (1775–1864) Rose Aylmer Philip Larkin (1922–1985) The Explosion Francis Ledwidge (1887–1917) Thomas MacDonagh Amy Levy (1861–1889) Epitaph Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) The Cross of Snow Michael Longley (1939–) Wounds Robert Lowell (1917–1977) Sailing Home from Rapallo Lucretius (c . 99–55 BCE) from On the Nature of Things Louis MacNeice (1907–1963) The Suicide Derek Mahon (1941–2020) A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) from A Poem upon the Death of His Late Highness the Lord Protector Paula Meehan (1955–) Child Burial Herman Melville (1819–1891) Monody Charlotte Mew (1896–1928) The Farmer’s Bride Edna St Vincent Millay (1892–1950) Burial John Milton (1608–1674) Lycidas ‘When I consider how my light is spent’ ‘Methought I saw my late espousèd saint’ Marianne Moore (1887–1972) W. S. Landor Moschus (fl. 150 BCE) Lament for Bion Andrew Motion (1952–) Serenade Paul Muldoon (1951–) Incantata Les Murray (1938–2019) Midsummer Ice Thomas Nashe (c . 1567–1601) Adieu, Farewell, Earth’s Bliss Bernard O’Donoghue (1945–) The Day I Outlived My Father Frank O’ Hara (1926–1966) The Day Lady Died Sharon Olds (1942–) The Exact Moment of His Death Alice Oswald (1966–) from Memorial Ovid (c. 43 BCE–18 CE) Tristia 3.3 Wilfred Owen (1893–1918) Anthem for Doomed Youth ‘I saw his round mouth’s crimson’ Futility Katherine Philips (1632–1664) On the Death of My First and Dearest Child, Hector Philips ’Tis True, Our Life is But a Long Disease Tom Pickard (1946–) Spring Tide Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) Electra on Azalea Path Alexander Pope (1688–1744) Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady Three Epitaphs on John Hewet and Sarah Drew Epitaph on Sir Isaac Newton, in Westminster Abbey Peter Porter (1929–2010) An Exequy Ezra Pound (1885–1972) from Hugh Selwyn Mauberley Propertius (c . 50– 15 BCE) from The Elegies (2.28) Sir Walter Raleigh (c . 1554–1618) ‘Even such is time’ Henrietta Cordelia Ray (1852–1916) Toussaint L’Ouverture Gareth Reeves (1947–) The Great Fire Christopher Reid (1949–) A Scattering Denise Riley (1948–) A Part Song Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) The Ninth Elegy Edward Arlington Robinson (1869–1935) Reuben Bright Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) Song Remember Rest Elizabeth Rowe (1674–1737) Upon the Death of Her Husband Tadeusz Ró Żewicz (1921–2014) The Survivor Sonia Sanchez (1934–) for our lady Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967) Suicide in the Trenches Anna Seward (1742–1809) An Old Cat’s Dying Soliloquy Anne Sexton (1928–1974) The Truth the Dead Know William Shakespeare (1564–1616) Sonnet 71 Sonnet 73 ‘When that I was’ ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’ ‘Full fathom five’ Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) To Wordsworth from Adonais James Shirley (1596–1666) Epitaph on the Duke of Buckingham John Skelton (1463–1529) from Phillip Sparrow Stevie Smith (1902–1971) Scorpion Tracy K. Smith (1972–) Wade in the Water Layli Long Soldier (1976–) 38 Charles Hamilton Sorley (1895–1915) ‘When you see millions of the mouthless dead’ Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) Astrophel Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) The Emperor of Ice-Cream Anne Stevenson (1933–2020) Orcop Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) A Martial Elegy for Some Lead Soldiers Requiem Hannah Sullivan (1979–) from The Sandpit After Rain Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General from Verses on the Death of Dr Swift Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) from Ave atque Vale A Forsaken Garden Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) from In Memoriam 5: I sometimes hold it half a sin . . . 7: Dark house by which once more I stand . . . 11: Calm is the morn without a sound . . . 19: The Danube to the Severn gave . . . 50: Be near me when my light is low . . . 70: I cannot see the features right . . . 91: When rosy plumelets tuft the larch . . . 100: I climb the hill: from end to end . . . 115: Now fades the last long streak of snow . . . Crossing the Bar William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) The Sorrows of Werther Theocritus (c . 310– 250 BCE) Idyll 1 (Lament for Daphnis) Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ Edward Thomas (1878–1917) Tears In Memoriam (Easter, 1915) Rain As the Team’s Head-Brass Chidiock Tichborne (1562–1586) Elegy for Himself Tomas Tranströmer (1931–2015) After Someone’s Death Frederick Goddard Tuckerman (1821–1873) ‘An upper chamber in a darkened house’ Henry Vaughan (1621–1695) They Are all Gone into the World of Light! Virgil (70–19 BCE) from Eclogue 5 (The Death of Daphnis) from Georgics Book 4 (Orpheus and Eurydice) from The Aeneid, Book 2 (The Death of Priam) Derek Walcott (1930–2017) Sea Canes Margaret Walker (1915–1998) For Malcolm X Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784) On the Death of the Rev. Mr George Whitefield James Monroe Whitfield (1822–1871) Lines on the Death of John Quincy Adams Walt Whitman (1819–1892) O Captain! My Captain! Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Requiescat Helen Maria Williams (1761–1827) Elegy on a Young Thrush William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) The Last Words of My English Grandmother Charles Wolfe (1791–1823) The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna William Wordsworth (1770–1850) Remembrance of Collins Old Man Travelling We Are Seven There was a Boy The Two April Mornings ‘A slumber did my spirit seal’ ‘She dwelt among the untrodden ways’ ‘I travelled among unknown men’ Elegiac Stanzas Elegiac Verses in Memory of My Brother, John Wordsworth Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639) Upon the Death of Sir Albert Morton’s Wife Kit Wright (1944–) The Boys Bump-starting the Hearse W. B. Yeats (1865–1939) September 1913 To a Shade The Wild Swans at Coole In Memory of Major Robert Gregory Easter 1916 In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz Beautiful Lofty Things Andrew Young (1885–1971) A Dead Mole Notes Acknowledgements Index of First Lines Index of Titles