Collected Poems

by Constantine, David

• ISBN13: 9781852246679
• ISBN10: 1852246677
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-15
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd

Table of Contents

FROM A BRIGHTNESS TO CAST SHADOWS (1980)
'As our bloods separate'	17	(1)
Birdsong	17	(1)
'Daffodils in vases'	18	(1)
'But most you are like'	18	(1)
A Brightness to Cast Shadows	18	(1)
The Fool	19	(1)
'Eyes wide with the moon'	19	(1)
'You are distant, you are already leaving'	20	(1)
'In the meantime, in the waiting time'	20	(1)
Eurydice	21	(1)
The Damned	21	(1)
'All wraiths in Hell are single'	22	(1)
Streams	23	(1)
Lamb	24	(1)
Near Zennor	25	(1)
The Lane	26	(1)
The Journey	27	(1)
'Pitiless wind'	28	(1)
'The wind has bared the stars'	28	(1)
'Trewernick'	29	(1)
'Suddenly she is radiant again'	30	(1)
'For years now'	31	(1)
Waiting	32	(1)
Hands	32	(1)
In Memoriam 8571 Private J.W. Gleave	33	(5)
Coltsfoot	38	(1)
Coltsfoot and Larches	38	(1)
Hyacinth	38	(1)
Johnny	39	(1)
Jimmy	39	(1)
Billy	40	(1)
Stuart	40	(1)
'But with a history of ECT'	41	(1)
'Dennis Jubb is dead'	41	(1)
'I suppose you know this isn't a merry-go-round'	42	(3)
FROM WATCHING FOR DOLPHINS (1983)
Mary Magdalene and the Sun	45	(1)
Lazarus to Christ	46	(1)
Christ to Lazarus	46	(1)
Minos, Daedalos and Pasiphaë	47	(1)
Priapics	48	(1)
'Misshapen women'	49	(1)
The Door	50	(1)
'Pity the drunks'	50	(1)
Boy finds tramp dead	51	(1)
Elegy	52	(1)
Swans	53	(1)
Watching for Dolphins	54	(1)
Islands	55	(5)
Journey	60	(2)
Bluebells	62	(1)
Autumn Lady's Tresses	62	(1)
Autumn Crocuses	63	(1)
Sunflowers	63	(1)
Tree in the Sun	63	(1)
Song of a Woman at the Year's Turning	64	(1)
Atlantis	65	(1)
Chronicle	66	(1)
Sunium	67	(1)
Lasithi	68	(1)
The Diktaean Cave	68	(1)
A Relief of Pan	69	(1)
Perdita	70	(1)
Talitha Cumi	71	(4)
Love of the Dark	75	(1)
Moon	76	(1)
Red Figure Vase	76	(2)
FROM MADDER (1987)
Note	78	(1)
Adam confesses an infidelity to Eve	79	(1)
Orpheus	80	(1)
Siesta	80	(1)
Yseut	81	(1)
Ignis	82	(1)
Martyr	82	(1)
Oh, Jemima	83	(1)
Don't jump off the roof, Dad	84	(1)
The Meeting of God and Michael Finnegan in South Park	85	(1)
Don Giovanni: Six Sonnets	86	(3)
Confessional	89	(4)
Thoughts of the Commandant of the Fortress of St Vaast-la-Hougue	93
Pillbox	90	(1)
Nestor encourages the troops	91	(1)
Garden with red-hot pokers and agapanthus	92	(1)
'Looking for nothing'	92	(1)
Sunset Shells	93	(1)
Oranges	94	(1)
Sols	95	(5)
Cold Night	100	(1)
'As though on a mountain'	100	(1)
At Dinas	101	(1)
Local Story	102	(1)
Mynydd Mawr	103	(1)
Swimmer	104	(1)
Butterfly	105	(1)
'Then comes this fool'	105	(1)
Mistress	106	(1)
'Wet lilac, drifts of hail'	106	(1)
Poplar	107	(1)
Apples	108	(1)
Pictures	109	(1)
Amber Seahorse	109	(1)
Eldon Hole	110	(1)
Sunken Cities	111	(1)
Landscape with friends	111	(1)
At Kirtlington Quarry	112	(1)
Tea-time	113	(1)
Burning	114	(2)
'We visit the house'	116	(1)
Mother and Daughter	116	(1)
The quick and the dead at Pompeii	117	(1)
Fogou	118	(1)
Christmas	118	(1)
Hyacinths	119	(1)
Mappa Mundi	120	(4)
FROM SELECTED POEMS (1991)
Local Historian	124	(1)
A two-seater privy over a stream	124	(1)
The Pitman's Garden	125	(1)
The Vicar's Firework Show	126	(1)
A calvary on the Somme	127	(1)
'He arrived, towing a crowd'	128	(1)
The Saint observed at his Vigil	128	(1)
Man on his holidays	129	(1)
Mandeville remembered	130	(1)
Mandeville	130	(1)
The Scaffolders	131	(1)
Clare leaves High Beach	132	(1)
'Under that bag of soot'	133	(1)
'There used to be forests'	133	(1)
The Forest	134	(1)
Miranda on the Tube	135	(1)
A blind elephant man in the underground	136	(1)
Jailed for Life	137	(1)
Quay	137	(2)
The Island of Curieuse	139	(1)
Lilith	139	(1)
'I should not be dreaming of you like this'	139	(1)
'In the ocean room'	140	(1)
Swimmer and Plum Tree	141	(1)
'I am inconsolable'	142	(1)
Emblem	142	(3)
CASPAR HAUSER: A Poem in Nine Cantos (1994)
Note	145	(2)
First Canto	147	(8)
Second Canto: GEORG FRIEDRICH DAUMER, 1 January 1875	155	(18)
Third Canto: CLARA BIBERBACH, 24 May 1852	173	(9)
Fourth Canto: PHILIP HENRY STANHOPE, 1 March 1855	182	(13)
Fifth Canto: GEORG FRIEDRICH DAUMER, 1 January 1875	195	(5)
Sixth Canto: PHILIP HENRY STANHOPE, 1 March 1855	200	(3)
Seventh Canto: GEORG FRIEDRICH DAUMER, 1 January 1875	203	(3)
Eighth Canto	206	(6)
Ninth Canto	212	(5)
SLEEPER (1995)
Sleeper	217	(14)
FROM THE PELT OF WASPS (1998)
Piers	231	(1)
Returns	231	(1)
The Mirror	232	(1)
The Apple Tree	232	(1)
Peacock	233	(1)
The Wasps	233	(1)
Musicians in the Underground	234	(1)
Angels	235	(1)
Poppies	236	(1)
Mistletoe	237	(1)
On Oxford Station, 15 February 1997	237	(1)
Ground Elder	238	(1)
'We say the dead depart'	239	(1)
Quaker Memorial Meeting	240	(1)
Bonfires	241	(1)
Above West Shore, Llandudno	242	(1)
Soldiering On	243	(1)
Kaluga	244	(1)
'Stuck fast'	245	(1)
'Eyeballs of quartz'	246	(1)
Lamb	247	(1)
Endangered Species	248	(1)
Warming	249	(1)
Athens	250	(1)
Master and Man	251	(1)
'Figures on the silver'	252	(2)
Kinder	254	(1)
Bombscare	255	(1)
Don Giovanni and the Women	256	(1)
A Meeting in the Library	257	(1)
Llyn Conach	258	(1)
Comfort me with Apples	259	(1)
'You make the rules'	259	(1)
Sleep With	260	(1)
'That place again'	261	(1)
Cycladic Idols	262	(1)
'All night the rain'	263	(1)
'The lakes, their stepping down'	263	(1)
'Mid-afternoon in another narrow bed'	264	(1)
Honey from Palaiochora	265	(4)
SOMETHING FOR THE GHOSTS (2002)
Nude	269	(1)
Something for the Ghosts	270	(1)
Dear Reader	271	(1)
The House	272	(1)
Sleepwalker	273	(1)
Man and Wife	274	(1)
On the Cliffs, Boscastle	275	(1)
Monologue, OR The Five Lost Géricaults	276	(4)
Dramatis Personae	280	(2)
Mosaics in the Imperial Palace	282	(1)
Dominion	283	(1)
The Llandudno Town Band	284	(1)
Encouragements	285	(1)
Drunk Locked in Music Room Wrecks Grand	286	(1)
Catacombs, Paris	287	(1)
Town Centre	287	(1)
Mel	288	(1)
J	289	(1)
Legger	290	(1)
The Immortals of Landevennec	291	(2)
The Senator	293	(1)
The Grief Coming Out	294	(1)
The Porthleven Man	295	(1)
Room Facing Cythera	296	(1)
Shabbesgoy	297	(1)
The Hoist	298	(1)
Aphasia	298	(1)
Common and Particular	299	(1)
The Anemones	300	(1)
The Crem	300	(1)
House Clearance	301	(1)
Shoes in the Charity Shop	302	(1)
New Year Behind the Asylum	303	(1)
Ashes and Roses	304	(1)
Visiting	305	(1)
Fine Soil	306	(1)
Riddling the Strata	306	(1)
Shed	307	(1)
The Dark Room	307	(1)
Streets	308	(2)
Fields	310	(2)
Girls in the East	312	(1)
School Parties in the Museum	313	(1)
Jazz on the Charles Bridge	314	(1)
'Hölderlin'	315	(1)
Hallowe'en	316	(2)
Skylight over the Bed	318	(1)
Skylight over the Bath	319	(1)
Gorse	320	(1)
Fulmars	321	(2)
Orangery	323	(3)
A POETRY PRIMER (2004)
Pleasure	326	(1)
Simile	326	(1)
Metaphor	327	(1)
Metre and Rhythm	327	(1)
Form and Content	328	(1)
Res/Verba	329	(1)
Inventio (I)	330	(1)
Inventio (II & III)	330	(1)
Periphrasis	331	(1)
Poetry and Rhetoric (I)	332	(1)
Poetry and Rhetoric (II)	332	(1)
Personae (I)	333	(1)
Personae (II)	333	(1)
Orphic	334	(1)
Mnemosyne	334	(3)
NEW & UNCOLLECTED POEMS (2004)
Chapel of Rest	337	(1)
Before the Lidding	338	(1)
The One Left	339	(1)
Water	340	(1)
At the Time	340	(1)
Absence	341	(1)
'Go visiting, Memory...'	342	(1)
Teacher	343	(1)
Photo	343	(1)
Legend	344	(2)
Simile ('Like when a peppercorn...')	346	(1)
'More like today...'	347	(1)
Foxgloves	348	(1)
Asphodels, White Foxgloves, Red Foxgloves	349	(1)
Submerged Site	350	(1)
Wrecking	351	(1)
Northwesterly	351	(1)
Pisces Moon	352	(1)
Not Only But Also	353	(1)
'There is nothing I can tell you...'	354	(1)
Love Feast	355	(1)
Rowing	355	(1)
Phenomena	356	(1)
'So slim you are...'	357	(1)
Earrings in the Forest	357	(1)
Dreamer	358	(1)
Crossing	358	(1)
How It Is	359	(1)
Inquisitor and Sinner	359	(1)
At the Frost Fair	360	(1)
Lover	360	(1)
Epstein's Lazarus	361	(1)
Porlock	361	(1)
The Second Mrs Hardy	362	(1)
Off Lerici	363	(1)
Keats at Lulworth	363	(1)
Under the Gunnery	364	(1)
Enclave	364	(1)
Treptow. Deserted Funfair	365	(1)
Corpse	366	(1)
Body Parts and the Rapture	367	(1)
Deer on the Street	367	(1)
Outlook	368	(1)
Remembrance Sunday	368	(1)
Stroke	369	(1)
On Conwy Mountain	370	(1)
Visiting	371	(1)
Estuarine	371	(1)
Cave Dale	372	(1)
Head of a Kore in a Marble Mine on Paros	373	(1)
Mother and Child	373	(1)
Trilobite in the Wenlock Shales	374	(1)
Obolus	374	(1)
Index of titles and first lines	375