Poems 1960-2000

by Adcock, Fleur

• ISBN13: 9781852245306
• ISBN10: 1852245301
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-01
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

Summary

Fleur Adcock is one of Britain's most accomplished poets. Her poised, ironic poems are tense and tightly controlled, shrewdly laconic, and often chilling as she unmasks the deceptions of love or unravels family lives. Disarmingly conversational in style, they are remarkable for their psychological insight and their unsentimental, mischievously casual view of personal relationships.

Author Biography

Fleur Adcock has published ten previous books of poetry, and has edited several anthologies, She has translated collections by two Romanian poets as well as a book of medieval Latin poems, Fleur Adcock has received several awards, including a Cholmondeley Award in 1976 and a New Zealand National Book Award in 1984, and she was given an OBE in 1996. She lives in London

Table of Contents

Early Poems From
Eye of the Hurricane (1964) and Tigers (1967)
Note on Propertius	14	(1)
Flight, with Mountains	15	(2)
Beauty Abroad	17	(1)
Knife-play	18	(1)
Instructions to Vampires	19	(1)
Incident	19	(1)
Unexpected Visit	20	(1)
For Andrew	21	(1)
For a Five-Year-Old	21	(1)
Comment	22	(1)
Miss Hamilton in London	22	(1)
The Man Who X-Rayed an Orange	23	(1)
Composition for Words and Paint	24	(1)
Regression	25	(1)
I Ride on My High Bicycle	26	(1)
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow	27	(1)
Hauntings	28	(1)
Advice to a Discarded Lover	29	(1)
The Water Below	30	(1)
Think Before You Shoot	31	(1)
The Pangolin	32	(2)
High Tide in the Garden (1971)
A Game	34	(1)
Bogyman	35	(1)
Clarendon Whatmough	36	(2)
A Surprise in the Peninsula	38	(1)
Purple Shining Lilies	39	(1)
Afterwards	40	(1)
Happy Ending	40	(1)
Being Blind	41	(1)
Grandma	42	(1)
Ngauranga Gorge Hill	43	(1)
Stewart Island	44	(1)
On a Son Returned to New Zealand	44	(1)
Saturday	45	(2)
Trees	47	(1)
Country Station	48	(1)
The Three-toed Sloth	49	(1)
Against Coupling	49	(1)
Mornings After	50	(2)
Gas	52	(8)
The Scenic Route (1974)
The Bullaun	60	(1)
Please Identify Yourself	61	(1)
Richey	62	(1)
The Voyage Out	62	(1)
Train from the Hook of Holland	63	(1)
Nelia	64	(1)
Moa Point	64	(1)
Briddes	65	(1)
The Famous Traitor	65	(1)
Script	66	(2)
In Memoriam: James K. Baxter	68	(1)
St John's School	69	(1)
Pupation	70	(1)
The Drought Breaks	70	(1)
Kilpeck	71	(1)
Feverish	72	(1)
Folie a Deux	73	(1)
Acris Hiems	74	(1)
December Morning	75	(1)
Showcase	76	(1)
Over the Edge	76	(1)
The Net	77	(1)
An Illustration to Dante	77	(1)
Tokens	77	(1)
Naxal	78	(1)
Bodnath	79	(1)
External Service	80	(1)
Flying Back	80	(1)
Near Creeslough	81	(1)
Kilmacrenan	82	(1)
Glenshane	82	(2)
The Inner Harbour (1979)
Beginnings
Future Work	84	(1)
Our Trip to the Federation	85	(1)
Mr Morrison	86	(1)
Things	87	(1)
A Way Out	87	(1)
Prelude	88	(1)
Accidental	89	(1)
A Message	89	(1)
Proposal for a Survey	90	(2)
Fairy-tale	92	(1)
At the Creative Writing Course	92	(1)
Endings
The Ex-Queen Among the Astronomers	93	(1)
Off the Track	94	(1)
Beaux Yeux	94	(1)
Send-off	95	(1)
In Focus	95	(1)
Letter from Highgate Wood	96	(1)
Poem Ended by a Death	97	(1)
Having No Mind for the Same Poem	98	(1)
Syringa	99	(1)
Thing Itself
Dry Spell	100	(1)
Visited	100	(1)
The Soho Hospital for Women	101	(2)
Variations on a Theme of Horace	103	(2)
A Walk in the Snow	105	(1)
A Day in October	105	(2)
House-talk	107	(1)
Foreigner	107	(1)
In the Dingle Peninsula	108	(1)
In the Terai	108	(1)
River	109	(1)
To and Fro
The Inner Harbour	110	(1)
Immigrant	111	(1)
Settlers	112	(1)
Going Back	113	(2)
Instead of an Interview	115	(1)
Londoner	116	(1)
To Marilyn from London	116	(2)
Below Loughrigg (1979)
Below Loughrigg	118	(1)
Three Rainbows in One Morning	119	(1)
Binoculars	119	(1)
Paths	120	(1)
Mid-point	120	(1)
The Spirit of the Place	121	(1)
The Vale of Grasmere	121	(1)
Letter to Alistair Campbell	122	(1)
Declensions	123	(1)
Weathering	124	(1)
Going Out from Ambleside	124	(4)
Selected Poems (1983)
In the Unicorn, Ambleside	128	(1)
Downstream	128	(1)
The Hillside	129	(1)
This Ungentle Music	129	(1)
The Ring	130	(1)
Corrosion	130	(1)
4 May 1979	131	(1)
Madmen	131	(1)
Shakespeare's Hotspur	132	(1)
Nature Table	132	(1)
Revision	133	(1)
Influenza	134	(1)
Crab	135	(1)
Eclipse	135	(1)
On the Border	136	(1)
The Prize-winning Poem	136	(1)
An Emblem	137	(1)
Piano Concerto in E Flat Major	138	(1)
Villa Isola Bella	139	(1)
Lantern Slides	140	(1)
Dreaming	141	(1)
Street Song	142	(1)
Across the Moor	142	(1)
Bethan and Bethany	143	(1)
Blue Glass	143	(2)
Mary Magdalene and the Birds	145	(3)
Hotspur (1986)
Hotspur	148	(5)
Notes	153	(3)
Incident Book (1986)
Uniunea Scriitorilor	156	(1)
Leaving the Tate	156	(1)
The Bedroom Window	157	(1)
The Chiffonier	158	(1)
Tadpoles	159	(2)
For Heidi with Blue Hair	161	(1)
The Keepsake	162	(1)
England's Glory	163	(1)
The Genius of Surrey	164	(1)
Loving Hitler	165	(1)
Schools
Halfway Street, Sidcup	166	(1)
St Gertrude's, Sidcup	166	(1)
Scalford School	166	(1)
Salfords, Surrey	167	(1)
Outwood	168	(1)
On the School Bus	169	(1)
Earlswood	169	(1)
Scalford Again	170	(1)
Neston	170	(1)
Chippenham	171	(1)
Tunbridge Wells	172	(1)
The High Tree	173	(1)
Telling Tales
Drowning	174	(1)
`Personal Poem'	175	(1)
An Epitaph	176	(1)
Being Taken from the Place	176	(1)
Accidents	177	(1)
On the Land	177	(1)
Icon	178	(1)
Drawings	179	(1)
The Telephone Call	179	(2)
Incidentals
Excavations	181	(1)
Pastoral	182	(1)
Kissing	182	(1)
Double-take	183	(1)
Choices	184	(1)
Thatcherland
Street Scene, London N2	185	(1)
Gentlemen's Hairdressers	186	(1)
Post Office	187	(1)
Demonstration	188	(1)
Witnesses	189	(1)
Last Song	190	(2)
Time-Zones (1991)
Counting	192	(1)
Libya	193	(1)
What May Happen	193	(1)
My Father	194	(1)
Cattle in Mist	195	(1)
Toads	196	(1)
Under the Lawn	197	(1)
Wren Song	198	(1)
Next Door	199	(1)
Heliopsis Scabra	200	(1)
House-martins	200	(1)
Wildlife	201	(1)
Turnip-heads	202	(1)
The Batterer	203	(1)
Roles	203	(1)
Happiness	204	(1)
Coupling	204	(1)
The Greenhouse Effect	204	(1)
The Last Moa	205	(1)
Creosote	206	(1)
Central Time	206	(2)
The Breakfast Program	208	(1)
From the Demolition Zone	209	(1)
On the Way to the Castle	210	(1)
Romania	211	(1)
Causes
The Farm	212	(1)
Aluminium	213	(1)
A Hymn to Friendship	214	(1)
Smokers for Celibacy	215	(2)
Mrs Fraser's Frenzy	217	(5)
Meeting the Comet	222	(12)
Looking Back (1997)
I
Where They Lived	234	(1)
Framed	234	(1)
The Russian War	235	(1)
227 Peel Green Road	236	(1)
Nellie	237	(1)
Mary Derry	238	(2)
Moses Lambert: the Facts	240	(1)
Samuel Joynson	240	(1)
Amelia	241	(1)
Barber	242	(1)
Flames	242	(1)
Water	243	(1)
A Haunting	243	(1)
The Wars	244	(1)
Sub Sepibus	245	(1)
Anne Welby	246	(1)
Beanfield	247	(1)
Ancestor to Devotee	247	(1)
Frances	248	(2)
At Great Hampden	250	(1)
At Baddesley Clinton	251	(1)
Traitors	252	(2)
Swings and Roundabouts	254	(1)
Peter Wentworth in Heaven	255	(1)
Notes	256	(1)
II
Tongue Sandwiches	257	(1)
The Pilgrim Fathers	258	(1)
Paremata	259	(1)
Camping	259	(1)
Bed and Breakfast	260	(1)
Rats	261	(1)
Stockings	261	(1)
A Political Kiss	262	(1)
An Apology	262	(1)
Festschrift	263	(1)
Offerings	263	(1)
Danger: Swimming and Boating Prohibited	264	(1)
Risks	265	(1)
Blue Footprints in the Snow	265	(1)
Summer in Bucharest	266	(1)
Moneymore	267	(1)
The Voices	267	(1)
Willow Creek	268	(1)
Giggling	269	(1)
Trio	269	(1)
The Video	270	(2)
New Poems (200)
Easter	272	(1)
High Society	272	(1)
For Meg	273	(1)
A Visiting Angel	274	(1)
It's Done This	275	(1)
Kensington Gardens	276	(5)
Index Of Titles and First Lines	281