Collected Poems - GBV

AUSTIN CLARKE

Collected Poems

Edited by R. Dardis Clarke
with an introduction by
Christopher Ricks

with

The Bridge Press

Contents xiii
xxv
Introduction by Christopher Ricks
Editor's Foreword and Notes on the Text by R. Dardis Clarke 3
38
THE VENGEANCE OF FIONN (1917)
The Vengeance of Fionn 41
A Cliff Song
57
THE FIRES OF BAAL (1921) 80
The Fires of Baal 107

THE SWORD OF THE WEST (1921) 111
Concobar
The Music-Healers 111
O Love, There Is No Beauty 111
112
THE CATTLEDRIVE IN CONNAUGHT AND OTHER POEMS (1925) 112
Induction 112
Three Sentences 113
113
I Ceildhe 113
II Scandal 114
III Blessing 116
A Curse 117
Praise 119
If There Was Nothing Noble 120
Secrecy 120
Silver and Gold
The Itinerary of Ua Clerigh
The Pedlar
The Fair at Windgap
The Lad Made King
The Lost Heifer
The Son of Lir

lhe House in the West 122
The Musician's Wife 123
The Frenzy of Suibhne 124
The Circuit of Cuchullin 128
The Cattledrive in Connaught 131

PILGRIMAGE AND OTHER POEMS (1929) 151
Pilgrimage (When the far south glittered) 153
Celibacy 154
The Confession of Queen Gormlai 159
The Scholar 160
The Cardplayer 161
The Young Woman of Beare 167
South-Westerly Gale 168
The Marriage Night 169
The Planter's Daughter 170
Aisling (At morning from the coldness of Mount Brandon)
175
COLLECTED POEMS (1936)
Wandering Men 176
Six Sentences 176
177
Black and Tans 177
Civil War I, II 177
To James Stephens
No Recompense 181
The Tales of Ireland 182
183
NIGHT AND MORNING: POEMS (1938) 184
Night and Morning 186
Mortal Pride 187
Tenebrae 188
Martha Blake 189
Repentance 190
The Lucky Coin 190
The Straying Student 192
Penal Law
Her Voice Could Not Be Softer
Summer Lightning
The Jewels

VI

ANCIENT LIGHTS. POEMS AND SATIRES: FIRST SERIES (1955) 195
Celebrations 195
Fashion 196
Marriage 196
Three Poems about Children 198
Offerings 198
Bequests 199
Ancient Lights 201
Respectable People 202
Mother and Child 202
Inscription for a Headstone 203
Emancipation 203
An Early Start 203
The Blackbird of Derrycairn 204
Vanishing Irish 205
The Envy of Poor Lovers 205
Return from England
209
Too GREAT A VINE. POEMS AND SATIRES: SECOND SERIES (1957) 209
Usufruct 210
Abbey Theatre Fire 210
Wolfe Tone 211
The Trial of Robert Emmet 211
Past and Present 212
Nelson's Pillar, Dublin 213
Miss Marnell 214
Local Complainer 219
The Loss of Strength 220
Irish Mother 220
The Choice 220
War Propaganda 221
Pilgrimage (No bed that walks is worth such pain) 221
Marian Chimes
St Christopher 225
225
THE HORSE-EATERS. POEMS AND SATIRES: THIRD SERIES (1960) 226
Intercessors 227
Irish-American Dignitary
Knacker Rhymes VI1
Fable

Menai Strait 227
Christmas Eve 228
The Flock at Dawn 229
In the New; Statesman Office
The Dead Sea Scrolls 231
The Lower Criticism 232
Early Unfinished Sketch 232
The Hippophagi 232
233
FORGET ME N O T (1962)
Forget Me Not 243

FLIGHT TO AFRICA AND OTHER POEMS (1963) 251
Mount Parnassus 251
Over Wales 252
The Stadium 252
Ecumenical Council 253
The Common Market, 1962 253
The Abbey Theatre Fire 255
Burial of an Irish President 256
The Wounds of Fodhla 257
Flight to Africa 259
Precautions 260
The Last Republicans 261
Street Game 261
Four Letter Words 262
A Simple Tale 262
Medical Missionary of Mary 263
From a Diary of Dreams 269
Martha Blake at Fifty-One 275
Corporal Punishment 275
Living on Sin 276
Unmarried Mothers 276
The Knock 278
Richmond Hill 279
Looking Back 280
Our Dumb Friends 281
Guinness Was Bad for Me 284
Midnight in Templeogue 285
Japanese Print

vm

Right of Way 286
A Strong Wind 286
A Mile from Tallaght 287
Cypress Grove 287
On the Mountain Tops 289
I Saw from Cashel 290
The Eighth Wonder of Ireland 290
Beyond the Pale 291
Eighteenth Century Harp Songs
295
T Mabel Kelly 296
II Gracey Nugent 297
III Peggy Browne 298
IV The Tantalus 298
V Breedeen 299
A Vision of Mars 299
Aisling (One day before Titan had lighted the way...) 300
O'Rourke's Feast 301
Cock and Hen 302
Rustic Match-Making 303
The Adventures of the Great Fool 306
How Covetousness Came into the Church 309
Song of the Books 317
The Thorn 317
The Jest 317
Every Fine Day 318
The Phoenix Park 319
Fragaria 319
Jeanne d'Arc 320
Following Darkness
Rightful Rhymes 321
I Irish-American Visitor 321
II Tale of a Tub 321
III The Plot
325
MNEMOSYNE LAY IN DUST (1966)
Mnemosyne Lay in Dust 351
358
OLD-FASHIONED PILGRIMAGE AND OTHER POEMS (1967)
Old-Fashioned Pilgrimage IX
Napalm

Robert Frost 358
Ezra Pound 359
Fiesta in Spain 360
Garcia Lorca 363
Pablo Neruda 364
The Paper Curtain 364
Letter to a Friend 368
The Penitent 370
A Young Member of the Party 371
At Middle Abbey Street Corner 371
At the Opposite Corner 372
Nova et Vetera 372
The Pill 373
Our Love Was Incorruptible 373
The Redemptorist 374
Catechism Lesson 375
Pigeon Pie 376
Custom House Official 377
A Student in Paris 378
More Extracts from a Diary of Dreams 381

THE ECHO AT COOLE AND OTHER POEMS (1968) 393
The Labours of Idleness 395
A Centenary Tribute 396
In the Savile Club 398
The Echo at Coole 399
A'.E. 400
James Stephens 403
E.R. Higgins 408
Paupers 411
The House-Breakers 413
The Uncommissioned 414
Gerard Manley Hopkins 414
Song for Cecilia 415
Afterthought 415
Nunc Dimittis 416
The Knot 416
At the Dail 417
Above Party 418
Black, White and Yellow

The Council of Churches 419
Love, Joy, Peace 420
Rousseau 421
In the Rocky Glen 422
The Bolshoi Ballet 424
New Liberty Hall 426
In O'Connell Street 427
The New Tolerance 428
A Statue for Dublin Bay 430
The Subjection of Women 431
Miss Rosanna Ford 433
The New Cathedral in Galway 434
A Reply 434
In Kildare Street 434
At the House of Commons 435
The Vocation 436
No Keepsake 437
On a Bright Morning 437
The Last Ditch 438
The Knuckleduster 439
Lactuca Prodigiosa 440
Aisling (Morning had gone into the wood before me) 441
Eire 443
A Jingling Trifle 444
The Happy Saint 446
The House of Mercy 447
The Last Irish Snake 448
Phallomeda 450
Impotence 452

A SERMON ON SWIFT AND OTHER POEMS (1968) 457
A Sermon on Swift 460
The Disestablished Church 465
Rose MacDowell 467
Another Protestant Insult 469
Ex Trivio 472
Dirge 473
A Jocular Retort 473
Moral Tales 474
The New World
XI

Galway 475
Drumcondra 476
The Stump 476
Neptune 478
Anacreontic 479
Talaria 480
Amor Angustus Domi 481
Stopples 481

ORPHIDE AND OTHER POEMS (1970) 485
Orphide 495
The Quarry 499
The Dilemma of Iphis 504
The Trees of the Forest 506
The Healing of Mis
515
TIRESIAS: A POEM (1971)
Tiresias 537

COLLECTED POEMS (1974) 541
The Wooing of Becfola 555
559
Austin Clarke's Notes on the Poems 567
Bibliography
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines

xn