Address to the Unco Guid, or the Rigidly Righteous Robert Burns
Adlestrop Edward Thomas
Aemilianus Monai, Alexandrian, AD 628–655 C. P. Cavafy
Affirmation Donald Hall
After Apple-Picking Robert Frost
Ain’t I a Woman? Sojourner Truth
Anahorish Seamus Heaney
‘And the days are not full enough’ Ezra Pound
Animals Frank O’Hara
Animals Are Passing from Our Lives Philip Levine
Apparition Ciaran Carson
The Applicant Sylvia Plath
Approximately Yannis Ritsos
The Argument of His Book Robert Herrick
Aristocrats Keith Douglas
Around the Well Yannis Ritsos
Ars Poetica: Some Recent Criticism James Wright
As Sappho
As If to Demonstrate an Eclipse Billy Collins
‘As the black storm upon the mountain top’ William Wordsworth
Association Yannis Ritsos
At North Farm John Ashbery
Aubade Philip Larkin
Autobiographia Literaria Frank O’Hara
Bad Times Song Jean Garrigue
The Badger John Clare
Badly-Chosen Lover Rosemary Tonks
The Ball Poem John Berryman
Before Bed Mary Ruefle
The Best Man That Ever Was Annie Freud
Black Stone Over a White Stone Cesar Vallejo
b o d y James Merrill
The Bonnie Broukit Bairn Hugh MacDiarmid
Book Ends Tony Harrison
Boots, Boots, Boots Leroy F. Jackson
‘The brain is wider than the sky’ Emily Dickinson
Breez Marine Tom Paulin
Brown Penny W. B. Yeats
Bus Stop Donald Justice
Butcher Shop Charles Simic
‘By night we linger’d on the lawn’ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Cabinet Table Paul Durcan
Cairo Jag Keith Douglas
The Call Charlotte Mew
‘Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren’ John Webster
Cargoes John Masefield
Charles on Fire James Merrill
Child Sylvia Plath
A Child Half-Asleep Tony Connor
Chinese Whispers David Harsent
The Circus Animals’ Desertion W. B. Yeats
The City Limits A. R. Ammons
The Clasp Sharon Olds
The Clod and the Pebble William Blake
The Colonel Carolyn Forché
‘Come, said my Soul’ Walt Whitman
Comment Dorothy Parker
The Comming of Good Luck Robert Herrick
The Conclusion Sir Walter Raleigh
A Conjuration, to Electra Robert Herrick
Continuum Allen Curnow
The Convergence of the Twain Thomas Hardy
The Corporal who Killed Archimedes Miroslav Holub
Corpus Christi Carol Anon.
Could Have Wisława Szymborska
Country Fair Charles Simic
Cradle-Song at Twilight Alice Meynell
The Crossed Apple Louise Bogan
Crossing the Bar Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Crystal Cabinet William Blake
Cuba Paul Muldoon
Cuchulain Comforted W. B. Yeats
The Curse J. M. Synge
Cut Sylvia Plath
Cycle Christopher Reid
Daddy Sylvia Plath
The Dancers Inherit the Party Ian Hamilton Finlay
‘Dark house, by which once more I stand’ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Dark Thocht William Soutar
Day Dreams Tso Ssŭ
A Dead Statesman Rudyard Kipling
Dear Bryan Wynter W. S. Graham
Dennis was Very Sick Yehuda Amichai
Design Robert Frost
Dirge John Webster
Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock Wallace Stevens
A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford Derek Mahon
A Divine Image William Blake
Doctor of Billiards Edwin Arlington Robinson
‘Doll’s boy’s asleep’ e. e. cummings
Dolor Theodore Roethke
Dream Variations Langston Hughes
The Drinkers of Coffee Rosemary Tonks
from The Dry Salvages T. S. Eliot
During Wind and Rain Thomas Hardy
‘Each flower is a little night’ Philippe Jacottet
Early Nightingale John Clare
Empty Vessel Hugh MacDiarmid
The End and the Beginning Wisława Szymborska
from Endymion John Keats
Epic Patrick Kavanagh
Epitaph on a Hare William Cowper
Epitaph on D—— C—— Robert Burns
Epitaph on Sir William Dyer Katherine, Lady Dyer
Escape Elinor Wylie
Esther’s Tomcat Ted Hughes
Everything Is Going To Be All Right Derek Mahon
The Excuse Sir Walter Raleigh
Eye and Tooth Robert Lowell
Failing and Flying Jack Gilbert
The Fall of Rome W. H. Auden
A Family Man Dennis Scott
Field Guide Tony Hoagland
Fire and Ice Robert Frost
The Fire of London John Dryden
The Fishing Party Michael Longley
A Flea and a Fly in a Flue Anon.
The Folly of Being Comforted W. B. Yeats
Fragment Gerard Manley Hopkins
Frederick Douglass Robert Hayden
The Friend Robert Creeley
Games Jack Gilbert
The Garden of Earthly Delights Charles Simic
The Garden Seat Thomas Hardy
The Gate Marie Howe
Get Up and Bar the Door Anon.
A Glass of Beer James Stephens
Goose to Donkey Les Murray
Graduation Dorothea Tanning
Grasshoppers John Clare
A Green Crab’s Shell Mark Doty
Grief Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The Gypsy Countess Anon.
Hallaig Sorley MacLean
The Halted Moment William Soutar
Harold’s Leap Stevie Smith
The Harvest Bow Seamus Heaney
Having a Coke with You Frank O’Hara
Hay for the Horses Gary Snyder
Hell Is Graduated Max Jacob
The Herd-Boy Lu Yu
‘Here dead lie we because we did not choose’ A. E. Housman
from Hero and Leander Christopher Marlowe
A Hill Anthony Hecht
The Hill Edgar Lee Masters
Hope Langston Hughes
Horoscope Lajos Walder
The Hour-glass Ben Jonson
‘How heavy do I journey on the way’ William Shakespeare
The Hunter’s Purse Michael Donaghy
Hymn Gottfried Benn
‘I am a little world made cunningly’ John Donne
‘I am – yet what I am, none cares or knows’ John Clare
‘I believe a leaf of grass is no less’ Walt Whitman
‘I died for beauty, but was scarce’ Emily Dickinson
‘I found the phrase to every thought’ Emily Dickinson
‘I hear, the axe has flowered’ Paul Celan
‘I hear a river thro’ the valley wander’ Trumbull Stickney
I Know a Man Robert Creeley
‘I read my sentence steadily’ Emily Dickinson
I Remember Stevie Smith
‘I saw a peacock with a fiery tail’ Anon.
‘I shall forget you presently, my dear’ Edna St. Vincent Millay
‘I think I could turn and live with animals’ Walt Whitman
I Used to Be but Now I Am Ted Berrigan
‘I walked in a desert’ Stephen Crane
‘I would to heaven that I were so much clay’ George Gordon, Lord Byron
Ikey on the People of Hellya George Mackay Brown
‘I’ll tell you how the sun rose’ Emily Dickinson
An Immorality Ezra Pound
In a Parlor Containing a Table Galway Kinnell
In Praise of Limestone W. H. Auden
In the Middle of the Road Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Index Paul Violi
Innocence Patrick Kavanagh
Innocent’s Song Charles Causley
Insensibility Wilfred Owen
Interview Jared Carter
Introduction William Blake
Ironing Vicki Feaver
‘It is no gift I tender’ A. E. Housman
‘It’s no use’ Sappho
Jasmine’s Beautiful Thoughts Underneath the Willow Wallace Stevens
A Jelly-Fish Marianne Moore
John Anderson My Jo Robert Burns
John Clare One Springtime M. R. Peacocke
Keaton Elizabeth Bishop
The Kelp Eaters John Glenday
Lady ‘Rogue’ Singleton Stevie Smith
Laertes Michael Longley
Lament of the Frontier Guard Ezra Pound
Lamkin Anon.
Large Bad Picture Elizabeth Bishop
Last Haiku Connie Bensley
Last Poem Ted Berrigan
‘The laws of God, the laws of man’ A. E. Housman
Leaves Derek Mahon
Let It Go William Empson
‘Let the world’s sharpness, like a clasping knife’ Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The Lie Sir Walter Raleigh
Lights Out Edward Thomas
‘Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore’ William Shakespeare
‘A limerick fan from Australia’ Anon.
Lineage Ted Hughes
The List of Famous Hats James Tate
A Lobster Quadrille Lewis Carroll
A Long Dress Gertrude Stein
Love Epigram Anon.
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T. S. Eliot
‘Loveliest of trees, the cherry now’ A. E. Housman
Lucifer in Starlight George Meredith
Lychees Medbh McGuckian
A Lyke-Wake Dirge Anon.
Making Love to Concrete Audre Lorde
Making the Move Paul Muldoon
The Maldive Shark Herman Melville
Man and Wife Robert Lowell
The Man with Night Sweats Thom Gunn
Maundy Thursday Wilfred Owen
Meditation at Lagunitas Robert Hass
Meeting Point Louis MacNeice
Michiko Dead Jack Gilbert
Migratory Les Murray
The Mind-Reader Richard Wilbur
Mirage Christina Rossetti
The Mitchells Les Murray
The Moose Elizabeth Bishop
A Modest Love Sir Edward Dyer
Morning Song Sylvia Plath
from Mossbawn Seamus Heaney
The Mower to the Glowworms Andrew Marvell
Mr Bleaney Philip Larkin
Mules Paul Muldoon
A Musical Instrument Elizabeth Barrett Browning
my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell Gwendolyn Brooks
‘My galley charged with forgetfulness’ Sir Thomas Wyatt
‘My lute, be as thou wast when thou didst grow’ William Drummond
My Mother’s Lips C. K. Williams
My Sad Captains Thom Gunn
‘My true love hath my hart, and I have his’ Sir Philip Sidney
‘Nature that washt her hands in milke’ Sir Walter Raleigh
Nearing Forty Derek Walcott
The Niagara River Kay Ryan
The Night Before Larry Was Stretched Anon.
‘Nights like these, all the cities are the same’ Rainer Maria Rilke
The Noble Nature Ben Jonson
Nostos Louise Glück
‘Now I will do nothing but listen’ Walt Whitman
‘Not the round natural world, not the deep mind’ Frederick Goddard Tuckerman
‘O Western Wind, when wilt thou blow’ Anon.
Ode on Melancholy John Keats
Ode to the Maggot Yusef Komunyakaa
from Ode to the West Wind Percy Bysshe Shelley
‘Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one’ John Donne
Old Man Edward Thomas
An Old Man’s Winter Night Robert Frost
On a Drop of Dew Andrew Marvell
On a Girdle Edmund Waller
On His Heid-Ake William Dunbar
On My First Sonne Ben Jonson
On Spies Ben Jonson
On the Death of Friends in Childhood Donald Justice
On the Elevator Going Down Richard Brautigan
On the Grasshopper and Cricket John Keats
On the Pier at Kinlochbervie Norman MacCaig
One Train May Hide Another Kenneth Koch
The Orange Wendy Cope
Out of Danger James Fenton
‘Out upon it, I have lov’d’ Sir John Suckling
Pad, Pad Stevie Smith
The Paperweight Gjertrud Schnackenberg
from A Part Song Denise Riley
The Pearl George Herbert
Phrase-Book Veronica Forrest-Thomson
Phrase Book Jo Shapcott
The Planter’s Daughter Austin Clarke
Please Can I Have a Man Selima Hill
The Plot Against the Giant Wallace Stevens
Pluperfect R. S. Thomas
Poem Written in a Copy of Beowulf Jorge Luis Borges
The Poems of Our Climate Wallace Stevens
‘Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth’ William Shakespeare
Poppies in October Sylvia Plath
A Portrait Robert Louis Stevenson
Psyche Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A Question J. M. Synge
Questions About Angels Billy Collins
Rain Edward Thomas
Reading Pascal in the Lowlands Douglas Dunn
Reading Plato Jorie Graham
Reason Josephine Miles
Reconciliation Walt Whitman
The Relic John Donne
Report from Paradise Zbigniew Herbert
Résumé Dorothy Parker
from Retaliation Oliver Goldsmith
Reunion Charles Wright
Reverie in Open Air Rita Dove
Richard Cory Edwin Arlington Robinson
The Riddling Knight Anon.
Roads George Mackay Brown
Roman Poem III George Barker
Rondeau Leigh Hunt
Rooms Charlotte Mew
Rush Hour C. K. Williams
‘Say over again, and yet once over again’ Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Scorpion Stevie Smith
The Sea Anemones Gwen Harwood
The Secret Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
The Self Adam Zagajewski
Self-heal Michael Longley
Self-Pity D. H. Lawrence
Serious Sean O’Brien
Shame Richard Wilbur
She, to Him (II) Thomas Hardy
The Sheep Child James Dickey
Shut Up I Am Going to Sing You a Love Song Ellen Gilchrist
Sick Love Robert Graves
The Sick Rose William Blake
Silence Marianne Moore
Slim in Hell Sterling Brown
The Sloth Theodore Roethke
A Small Hotel Selima Hill
The Snail William Cowper
Snow Louis MacNeice
Snow-Flakes H. W. Longfellow
‘So, we’ll go no more a roving’ George Gordon, Lord Byron
‘Soldiers who wish to be a hero’ Anon.
Solitary Observation Brought Back from a Sojourn in Hell Louise Bogan
‘somewhere i have never travelled’ e. e. cummings
Sonet Mark Alexander Boyd
Song Sir John Suckling
from A Song About Myself John Keats
The Song of a Man who has Come Through D. H. Lawrence
The Song of Wandering Aengus W. B. Yeats
A Song on the End of the World Czesław Miłosz
The Songbook of Sebastian Arrurruz Geoffrey Hill
Sonnet on a Monkey Marjory Fleming
Sonnet to Vauxhall Thomas Hood
‘The soul selects her own society’ Emily Dickinson
Special Orders Edward Hirsch
The Spoonbait Seamus Heaney
‘The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me’ Walt Whitman
Spring Edna St. Vincent Millay
The Spring Thomas Carew
The Stare’s Nest by My Window W. B. Yeats
from Station Island Seamus Heaney
The Steeple-Jack Marianne Moore
The Story of the White Cup Roger Mitchell
A Strange Wild Song Lewis Carroll
The Stranger Charles Baudelaire
Sudden Shower John Clare
The Sun Underfoot Among the Sundews Amy Clampitt
The Sweetness of Nature Anon.
That Old-Time Religion Peter Didsbury
Theme for English B Langston Hughes
‘There is another loneliness’ Emily Dickinson
‘There sat down, once, a thing on Henry’s heart’ John Berryman
‘There was a young lady of Niger’ Anon
‘There was a young man from Dundee’ Anon
‘There was an old man of Nantucket’ Anon
‘There was an old person of Putney’ Edward Lear
‘They flee from me that sometime did me seek’ Sir Thomas Wyatt
Things Change Robert Hass
‘This living hand, now warm and capable’ John Keats
Those Winter Sundays Robert Hayden
Thule, the Period of Cosmography Thomas Weelkes
Thursday Edna St. Vincent Millay
Timer Tony Harrison
To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing W. B. Yeats
To a Locomotive in Winter Walt Whitman
To a Mouse On turning her up in her Nest with the Plough, November 1785 Robert Burns
To Autumn John Keats
To Earthward Robert Frost
To Fool, or Knave Ben Jonson
To His Coy Mistress Andrew Marvell
To His Son Sir Walter Ralegh
To John Clare John Clare
Toad Norman MacCaig
Today Frank O’Hara
‘Tonight I’ve watched’ Sappho
Travelling in a Comfortable Car Bertolt Brecht
The Trees Are Down Charlotte Mew
The Truth the Dead Know Anne Sexton
Turn Again Anon.
Turtle Soup Lewis Carroll
Two Rivers Anon.
Two Tales of Clumsy Gjertrud Schnackenberg
Ulysses Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Underground Seamus Heaney
The Undertaking John Donne
The Undertaking Louise Glück
Upon her Play being returned to her, stained with Claret Mary Leapor
Upon the Infant Martyrs Richard Crashaw
from Vacillation W. B. Yeats
‘Vauxhall and Ranelagh!’ William Wordsworth
from The Video Box Edwin Morgan
Viola’s Song Sir William Davenant
from Voyages Hart Crane
A Walk in Kensington Gardens Dorothy Porter
Wanting to Die Anne Sexton
Wanting to Live in Harlem Frederick Seidel
‘Was it the proud full sail of his great verse’ William Shakespeare
The Wasp Trap Edward Thomas
The Wasps David Constantine
The Weakness Bernard O’Donoghue
Weathers Thomas Hardy
The Weepies Paul Muldoon
The West A. E. Housman
What He Thought Heather McHugh
What Is Our Life Sir Walter Raleigh
from What Is the Language Using Us For? W. S. Graham
‘What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why’ Edna St. Vincent Millay
‘When I consider how my light is spent’ John Milton
When I Grow Up Hugo Williams
‘When I have fears that I may cease to be’ John Keats
‘When Lazarus left his charnel-cave’ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
‘When the eye of day is shut’ A. E. Housman
‘When thou must home to shades of under ground’ Thomas Campion
‘When to my deadlie pleasure’ Sir Philip Sidney
The Whitsun Weddings Philip Larkin
‘Who goes there?’ Walt Whitman
Who Has Seen the Wind? Christina Rossetti
‘Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind’ Sir Thomas Wyatt
‘Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day’ William Shakespeare
The Wife of Llew Francis Ledwidge
‘Wild nights! Wild nights!’ Emily Dickinson
The Windhover Gerard Manley Hopkins
Wishes of an Elderly Man, Wished at a Garden Party, June 1914 Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh
Wolves Louis MacNeice
The Word R. S. Thomas
Work Without Hope Samuel Taylor Coleridge
‘The world’s a minefield when I think of you’ Iain Crichton Smith
Worried Man Blues Kit Wright
from The Wreck of the Deutschland Gerard Manley Hopkins
‘You sea!’ Walt Whitman
Žito the Magician Miroslav Holub