Elizabeth Jennings: New Collected Poems

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9781857545593
• ISBN10: 1857545591
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2002-04-02
• Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd.

Summary

With new poems from the past 25 years as well as works from the award-winning 1986 Collected Poems, this collection demonstrates Elizabeth Jennings's enduring poetic elegance and skill. It is an abidingly popular body of poetry that uses traditional forms with experimental vigor and explores the verse-essay, the extended sequence, the epistle, and the love elegy. The poet is attuned to the changes in language that is her medium in every sense.

Table of Contents

Preface	xix
from Poems (1953)
Delay	1	(1)
Winter Love	1	(1)
Reminiscence	1	(1)
Fantasy	2	(1)
Italian Light	2	(1)
Afternoon in Florence	2	(1)
Identity	3	(1)
The Idler	4	(1)
Bell-Ringer	4	(1)
The Climbers	5	(1)
Fishermen	5	(1)
The Island	6	(1)
from A Way of Looking (1955)
Poem in Winter	7	(1)
Song at the Beginning of Autumn	7	(1)
Kings	8	(1)
The Enemies	8	(1)
In This Time	9	(1)
Beyond Possession	10	(1)
Tribute	10	(1)
Mirrors	11	(1)
In the Night	11	(1)
Recapitulation	12	(1)
Answers	12	(1)
from A Sense of the World (1955)
The Child and the Shadow	13	(1)
Old Woman	14	(1)
Old Man	14	(1)
Taken by Surprise	15	(1)
The Storm	16	(1)
Her Garden	16	(1)
Summer and Time	17	(1)
At Noon	18	(1)
Ghosts	18	(1)
Absence	19	(1)
Disguises	19	(1)
The Parting	20	(1)
Resemblances	21	(1)
A Death	21	(1)
The Shot	22	(1)
Song for a Departure	23	(1)
Choices	23	(1)
Telling Stories	24	(1)
A Fear	25	(1)
In a Foreign City	25	(1)
The Roman Forum	26	(1)
A Conversation in the Gardens of the Villa Celimontana, Rome	27	(1)
A Roman Window	28	(1)
Fountain	29	(1)
San Faolo fuori le Mura, Rome	30	(1)
Letter from Assisi	30	(1)
The Annunciation	31	(1)
The Visitation	32	(1)
Teresa of Avila	33	(1)
from Song for a Birth or a Death (1961)
Song for a Birth or a Death	34	(1)
Family Affairs	35	(1)
A Game of Chess	35	(1)
My Grandmother	36	(1)
In Praise of Creation	37	(1)
World I Have Not Made	37	(1)
Harvest and Consecration	38	(1)
A World of Light	39	(1)
Notes for a Book of Hours (I-IV)	40	(2)
A Requiem	42	(1)
John of the Cross	42	(1)
The Resurrection	43	(1)
Mantegna's Agony in the Garden	44	(1)
Visit to an Artist	45	(1)
The Clown (I-VI)	45	(3)
Lazarus	48	(1)
The Diamond Cutter	49	(1)
Stargazers and Others	49	(1)
To a Friend with a Religious Vocation	50	(1)
Greek Statues	51	(1)
The Pride of Life: a Roman Setting	51	(1)
Men Fishing in the Arno	52	(1)
Two Deaths	52	(1)
About These Things	53	(1)
The Unfulfilled	54	(1)
The Instruments	55	(1)
Remembering Fireworks	55	(1)
from The Sonnets of Michelangelo (1961)
On Dante Alighieri	56	(1)
To Pope Julius II	56	(1)
To Luigi del Riccio	57	(1)
To Gandolfo Porrino, on his Mistress Faustina Mancina	57	(1)
`To be more worthy of you...'	58	(1)
`Just as in pen and ink...'	58	(1)
`Lady, how can it be	59	(1)
`How much a garland pleases...'	59	(1)
To Tommaso de Cavalieri	59	(1)
`My Lord, you know that I know...'	60	(1)
To Giorgio Vasari	60	(1)
`Now that I need men's pity...'	61	(1)
`I wish, God, for some end...'	61	(1)
`Although it saddens me...'	62	(1)
`Dear to me is sleep...'	62	(1)
from Recoveries (1964)
Sequence in Hospital (I-VIII)	62	(5)
Works of Art	67	(1)
Man in a Park	68	(1)
Father to Son	68	(1)
Warning to Parents	69	(1)
Admonition	70	(1)
The Young Ones	70	(1)
A Picture	71	(1)
A Game of Cards	71	(1)
A New Pain	72	(1)
from The Mind has Mountains (1966)
A Mental Hospital Sitting-Room	72	(1)
The Interrogator	73	(1)
Night Sister	74	(1)
Words from Traherne	74	(1)
Samuel Palmer and Chagall	75	(1)
On a Friend's Relapse and Return to a Mental Clinic	76	(1)
Night Garden of the Asylum	77	(1)
A Depression	77	(1)
Grove House, Iffley	78	(1)
Caravaggio's 'Narcissus' in Rome	79	(1)
Chinese Art	79	(1)
Love Poem	80	(1)
One Flesh	81	(1)
from `New Poems' (Collected Poems 1967)
For Love	81	(1)
The Shaking World	82	(1)
The Unknown Child	82	(1)
Shock	83	(1)
Gale	83	(1)
from The Animals' Arrival (1969)
The Animals' Arrival	84	(1)
Never to See	84	(1)
Bonnard	85	(1)
A Letter to Peter Levi	86	(1)
Any Poet's Epitaph	86	(1)
from Lucidities (1970)
Considerations	87	(1)
First Evening (from the French of Rimbaud)	87	(1)
The Rooks (from the French of Rimbaud)	88	(1)
from Relationships (1972)
Friendship	89	(1)
A Sonnet	90	(1)
Let Things Alone	90	(1)
Hurt	91	(1)
from Growing Points (i975)
Beech	92	(1)
Growing	92	(1)
Transformation	93	(1)
To the Core	93	(1)
A Quartet	94	(1)
Rhetoric	94	(1)
In a Garden	95	(1)
Grapes	95	(1)
Among Strangers	96	(1)
The Quality of Goodness	96	(1)
No Rest	97	(1)
Thunder and a Boy	97	(1)
I Feel	98	(1)
Bird Study	99	(1)
Towards a Religious Poem	99	(1)
After a Time	100	(1)
The Lord's Prayer	100	(1)
Meditation on the Nativity	101	(1)
Christ on the Cross	102	(1)
Easter Duties	102	(1)
Whitsun Sacrament	103	(1)
Out of the Heights	103	(1)
The Nature of Prayer	104	(1)
Mondrian	104	(1)
Rembrandt's Late Self-Portraits	105	(1)
A Scholar Emperor of the Tang Dynasty	105	(1)
Wonder	106	(1)
A Chinese Sage	107	(1)
Elegy for W.H. Auden	108	(1)
Prospero	108	(1)
Hopkins in Wales	109	(1)
Performer	110	(1)
A Play at Avignon	110	(1)
Creators in Vienna	111	(1)
Orpheus	112	(1)
Persephone	112	(1)
Snake Charmer	113	(1)
The Minotaur	113	(1)
Spy	114	(1)
Prisoner	115	(1)
Behind All Iron Curtains	115	(1)
Not for Use	116	(1)
Ends	116	(1)
Childhood in Lincolnshire	117	(1)
Losing and Finding	117	(2)
An Abandoned Palace	119	(1)
Rather Like a Peacock	120	(1)
Given Notice	120	(1)
Leaving a Room	121	(2)
Deaf	123	(1)
Box-Room	123	(1)
Cancer	124	(1)
Celebration of Winter	124	(1)
A Little More	125	(1)
Comfort	126	(1)
Never Going	126	(1)
In Itself	127	(1)
Gained	128	(1)
from Consequently I Rejoice (1977)
Fragment for the Dark	128	(1)
My Seasons	128	(1)
Song for the Swifts	129	(1)
The Sleep of Birds	130	(1)
Death of an Old Lady	131	(1)
Cradle Catholic	131	(1)
Michelangelo's First Pieta	132	(1)
Sufism	132	(1)
For Edward Thomas	133	(1)
Cezanne	134	(1)
Night Concert at Taormina	134	(1)
from Moments of Grace (1980)
Into the Hour	135	(1)
Goldfinch	136	(1)
Forgiveness	136	(1)
Never Such Peace	137	(1)
A Weather Spell	138	(1)
I Count the Moments	138	(1)
Love Needs an Elegy	139	(1)
On Its Own	140	(1)
Death	140	(1)
Euthanasia	141	(1)
Spring Twilight	142	(1)
Christmas Suite in Five Movements	143	(2)
from Celebrations and Elegies (1982)
Sermon of the Hills	145	(1)
A Kind of Catalogue	146	(1)
Over and Over	147	(1)
Heyday	147	(1)
As the Rooks Are	148	(1)
from Extending the Territory (1985)
The Child's Story	149	(1)
A Bird in the House	149	(1)
The Circuses	150	(1)
A Serious Game	151	(1)
A Sky in Childhood	151	(1)
Love-Story	152	(1)
The Last	153	(1)
A Class-Room	154	(1)
A Time Ago	154	(1)
The Inheritors	155	(1)
Elegy in Spring	156	(1)
Friday	157	(1)
In April	157	(1)
A Kind of Magnet	158	(1)
Falling	158	(1)
Sundowning	159	(1)
Into the Clouds	159	(1)
Endings	160	(1)
Ballad of War	160	(1)
Clarify	161	(1)
Seasonal Reverie	161	(1)
Nothing	162	(1)
Missed Chances	162	(1)
Years Ago	163	(1)
Tell Me	163	(1)
A Death Alive	164	(1)
Bitter Fruit	165	(1)
Growing Ahead	166	(1)
Shall All the Loves	166	(1)
Rome - A Quarter of a Century Ago	167	(1)
Memories of Rome	168	(1)
A Performance of Henry V at Stratford-upon-Avon	169	(1)
Dawn Not Yet	170	(1)
Frail Bone	171	(1)
Dust	171	(1)
Water Music	172	(1)
Precursors	173	(1)
from Tributes (1989)
For George Herbert	173	(1)
Notes to The Winter's Tale	174	(1)
Tribute to Turner	175	(1)
Caravaggio	175	(1)
Goya	176	(1)
Chardin	176	(1)
After a Painting is Finished	177	(2)
A Roman Trio
Sant' Anselmo on the Aventine Hill, Rome	179	(1)
Ostia Antica	180	(1)
Lake Albano Outside Rome	180	(1)
Once in Greece	181	(2)
Anzio	183	(1)
The Gulf of Salerno	184	(1)
Fairground	184	(1)
Psalm of Childhood	185	(1)
Spring and a Blackbird	186	(1)
Moon in December	187	(1)
Newcomer	187	(1)
Aubade	188	(1)
Enough	188	(1)
At the Source	188	(1)
Always	189	(1)
Presences	190	(1)
Total	191	(1)
Landscape and Wild Gardens	191	(1)
Winter Piece	192	(1)
In Such Slow Sweetness	193	(1)
All that Departing	193	(1)
A Living Death	194	(2)
Time for the Elegy	196	(1)
Gone	196	(1)
One Minute	197	(1)
Young Love	198	(1)
The Feel of Things	198	(1)
Some Solitude	198	(1)
Fifteen Years After a Death	199	(1)
Legacies and Language	200	(1)
The House of Words	201	(1)
The Early Work	202	(1)
Pigeons Suddenly	203	(1)
Let It Be	204	(1)
The Prodigal Son	204	(1)
Saint Augustine	205	(1)
For Easter 1986	206	(1)
Easter Vigil and Mass	207	(1)
Gloria	208	(1)
Snooker	209	(1)
Group Life	209	(1)
First Six Years	210	(2)
A Childhood Religion	212	(1)
Distractions	213	(1)
There is Time	214	(1)
Passion	214	(1)
Energy	215	(1)
Turning Inland	215	(1)
Resolve	216	(1)
A Happy Earth
`Death again but death in so friendly a fashion'	217	(1)
A Letter from the Dead	218	(2)
A Song for Death	220	(1)
Death of a Dominican Priest at Easter	221	(1)
Beginning	222	(1)
from Times & Seasons (1992)
Grammar	223	(1)
Parts of Speech
Verb	223	(1)
Adjective	224	(1)
Noun	224	(1)
Adverb	225	(1)
For My Mother
My Mother Dying Aged 87	225	(1)
A Memory	226	(1)
Sudden Remembrance	227	(1)
Her Wisdom	228	(1)
Let Me Learn	229	(1)
The Smell of Chrysanthemums	230	(1)
Protest after a Written Interview	231	(1)
Hymn at the Crib	231	(1)
Shapes and Surfaces	232	(2)
A Litany for Contrition	234	(1)
My Ships	234	(2)
Springtime and Easter	236	(2)
An Easter Sequence
The Start of Holy Week	238	(1)
Holy Week	239	(1)
The Eternal Cross	239	(1)
Holy Saturday	240	(1)
Crucifixion	240	(1)
Easter	241	(1)
Easter Morning	242	(1)
The Ascension	243	(1)
A Childhood Horror	243	(1)
Beyond the Horoscope	244	(1)
For Louise and Timothy	245	(1)
Romantic Love	245	(1)
The Word	246	(1)
An Age of Doubt	246	(2)
The Start of the Universe: April 1992	248	(1)
Inner and Outer	248	(1)
Curtains Undrawn	249	(1)
First Confession	250	(1)
Green	250	(2)
Spell for a Dead Baby	252	(1)
Cold Words	252	(1)
Star-Gazing	253	(1)
Light Between Leaves	254	(1)
Death	254	(1)
In the Beginning	255	(1)
In Praise of Giotto	256	(1)
For the Times	257	(1)
The Way They Live Now	257	(1)
The Poem in Itself	258	(1)
November Sonnet	258	(1)
Water and Air	259	(1)
Beyond	259	(1)
In the Nursery	260	(1)
Out of Time and Season	260	(1)
Left in Charge	261	(1)
Trees	261	(1)
August Heat	262	(1)
Living by Love	263	(1)
An Old Story	264	(1)
When I Was Young	265	(1)
Leavings	265	(1)
The Happy Regrets	266	(1)
from Familiar Spirits (1994)
The World We Made	267	(1)
Slow Movement: Autumn	268	(1)
A Cliff Walk in North Devon when I was Twelve	269	(1)
Camp	270	(1)
First Love	270	(1)
A Way to Imagine	271	(1)
Cousins, Aunts, Uncles	271	(1)
Bicycles in Summer	272	(1)
Sea Music	273	(1)
Among the Stars	274	(1)
It is not True?	274	(1)
Cities: Their Beginning	275	(1)
Unto the Hills	276	(1)
Genes, Likenesses	277	(1)
After a Film called The Bridge	277	(2)
Still Life	279	(1)
Unsaid	280	(1)
Katie: A Portrait	280	(1)
Two Sonnets on Love and Lust	281	(1)
My Sister	282	(1)
Fables, Lessons	283	(1)
The Modes of Love
Contradictions	284	(1)
The Test	284	(1)
Obsessive Love	285	(1)
Over	286	(1)
Lust	286	(1)
The Seer's Love	287	(1)
from In the Meantime (1996)
Right Givers	287	(1)
Prawning	288	(1)
Wisdom of the Fields	289	(1)
Dream	290	(1)
Their First Snow	290	(1)
A House in Nottingham	291	(1)
Children in Summer	292	(1)
Child of Seven Questions	293	(1)
The Need to Praise	293	(1)
Somerset	294	(1)
Among Late-Teenagers	294	(1)
The Great Spirits	295	(1)
Story Tellers	296	(1)
Seers and Makers	296	(1)
Act of the Imagination	297	(1)
For Paul Klee	297	(1)
Order	298	(1)
Sonnets to Narcissus
`Homage is due to you because you show`	299	(1)
`Imagine worlds without some form of mirror'	299	(1)
`Holy ones have always sought to find'	300	(1)
Having it Both Ways	300	(1)
Touch	301	(1)
At Mass (I)	301	(2)
Which is Which?	303	(1)
After Dark	303	(1)
At Mass (II)	304	(1)
Bread	305	(1)
Consecration (I)	306	(1)
Consecration (II)	307	(1)
The Spirit's Power	307	(1)
Time's Element	308	(1)
Spirit and Flesh	308	(1)
Lazarus Again	309	(1)
With the Migrants	310	(1)
In the Meantime	310	(1)
from Praises (1998)
A View of Lazarus	311	(1)
Walking in the Dark	312	(1)
In and Out of Time	313	(1)
A Unique Gift	313	(1)
A Full Moon	314	(1)
Song Just Before Autumn	315	(1)
Harvest Home	315	(1)
Alone Over Christmas	316	(1)
Famous Parents	317	(1)
Boston	317	(1)
Theatre	318	(1)
Praises	319	(1)
Reasons for Not Returning	320	(1)
Carol for 1997	321	(1)
Mid-May Meditation	321	(1)
A Metaphysical Point About Poetry	322	(1)
Pain	323	(1)
Prayer for Holy Week	323	(1)
Love's Struggle	324	(1)
`Hours' and Words	324	(1)
Song	325	(1)
Craftsmen	325	(1)
The Book of Love	326	(1)
First Time	327	(1)
After an Elegy	327	(1)
A Gift of Gratitude	328	(1)
The Largest Question	329	(2)
Concerning History
`Does history guess itself into our minds'	331	(3)
`From legends and myths'	334	(1)
`Theories of history'	335	(2)
from Timely Issues (2001)
Regions of Memory	337	(1)
A Company of Friends	337	(1)
Mozart in the Middle of the Night	338	(1)
Dream: A Ballad	338	(1)
The Story	339	(1)
Country Sounds	339	(1)
Out in the Country in 2000	340	(1)
Caring	341	(1)
Well-Being	342	(1)
Vigour	342	(1)
Rage of the Moon	343	(1)
October 2000	343	(1)
For Any Newish Poet	344	(1)
Prayer: Homage to George Herbert	345	(1)
Homage to Thomas Traherne	345	(1)
Homage to Gerard Manley Hopkins: After Receiving Communion in Hospital	346	(1)
Looking at Pictures	346	(1)
Diagnosis	347	(1)
An Awareness	348	(1)
Some Months After Anaesthetics	348	(1)
Tenderness	349	(1)
Lost Time	350	(1)
One More Place of Memory	351	(1)
Assurance	351	(1)
Advice	352	(1)
The Hours	353	(1)
Prophets	354	(1)
Girl at Prayer	354	(1)
All Saints 2000	355	(1)
All Souls	355	(1)
Carol for 2000	356	(1)
New Year Song	357	(1)
Epiphany 2001	357	(1)
Eden	358	(1)
Perfection	359	(1)
Assurance Beyond Midnight	360	(1)
Index of first lines	361	(14)
Index of titles	375