Collected Poems

Fleur Adcock was born in New Zealand in 1934, and spent the war years in England, returning with her family to New Zealand in 1947. She emigrated to Britain in 1963. She received an OBE in 1996, and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2006 for Poems 1960-2000 (2000). Her Collected Poems (2024) supersedes that retrospective with the addition of five later collections, including Glass Wings (2013), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and Hoard (2017), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation, along with new, previously uncollected poems. In 2019 Fleur Adcock was presented with the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry by the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern. She has lived in East Finchley, north London, since 1963.

• Early poems from THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE (1964) and TIGERS (1967)Note on Propertius 25Flight, with Mountains 25Beauty Abroad 28Knife-play 29Instructions to Vampires 30Incident 31Unexpected Visit 31For Andrew 32For a Five-Year-Old 33Comment 34Miss Hamilton in London 34The Man Who X-Rayed an Orange 35Composition for Words and Paint 36Regression 37I Ride on My High Bicycle 38Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow 39Hauntings 40Advice to a Discarded Lover 41The Water Below 42Think Before You Shoot 43The Pangolin 44 HIGH TIDE IN THE GARDEN (1971)A Game 47Bogyman 48Clarendon Whatmough 50A Surprise in the Peninsula 52Purple Shining Lilies 53Afterwards 54Happy Ending 54Being Blind 55Grandma 56Ngauranga Gorge Hill 57Stewart Island 58On a Son Returned to New Zealand 58Saturday 59Trees 61Country Station 62The Three-toed Sloth 63Against Coupling 64Mornings After 65Gas 67 THE SCENIC ROUTE (1974)The Bullaun 77Please Identify Yourself 78Richey 79The Voyage Out 80Train from the Hook of Holland 81Nelia 81Moa Point 82Briddes 82The Famous Traitor 83Script 84In Memoriam: James K. Baxter 86St John’s School 88Pupation 89The Drought Breaks 89Kilpeck 89Feverish 91Folie . Deux 92Acris Hiems 94December Morning 95Showcase 95Over the Edge 96The Net 96An Illustration to Dante 97Tokens 97Naxal 98Bodnath 99External Service 100Flying Back 100Near Creeslough 102Kilmacrenan 102Glenshane 102 THE INNER HARBOUR (1979)Beginnings:Future Work 105Our Trip to the Federation 106Mr Morrison 106Things 108A Way Out 108Prelude 109Accidental 110A Message 110Proposal for a Survey 113Fairy-tale 113At the Creative Writing Course 113Endings:The Ex-Queen Among the Astronomers 114Off the Track 115Beaux Yeux 115Send-off 116In Focus 116Letter from Highgate Wood 118Poem Ended by a Death 118Having No Mind for the Same Poem 119Syringa 120The Thing Itself:Dry Spell 121Visited 121The Soho Hospital for Women 121Variations on a Theme of Horace 125A Walk in the Snow 126A Day in October 127House-talk 129Foreigner 129In the Dingle Peninsula 130In the Terai 130River 131To and Fro:The Inner Harbour 132Immigrant 134Settlers 134Going Back 136Instead of an Interview 138Londoner 139To Marilyn from London 139 BELOW LOUGHRIGG (1979)Below Loughrigg 143Three Rainbows in One Morning 144Binoculars 144Paths 145Mid-point 145The Spirit of the Place 146The Vale of Grasmere 146Letter to Alistair Campbell 147Declensions 148Weathering 149Going Out from Ambleside 150 SELECTED POEMS (1983)In the Unicorn, Ambleside 155Downstream 155The Hillside 156This Ungentle Music 156The Ring 157Corrosion 1574 May 1979 158Madmen 158Shakespeare’s Hotspur 159Nature Table 159Revision 161Influenza 161Crab 162Eclipse 163On the Border 163The Prize-winning Poem 164An Emblem 165Piano Concerto in E Flat Major 166Villa Isola Bella 167Lantern Slides 168Dreaming 169Street Song 169Across the Moor 170Bethan and Bethany 172Blue Glass 172Mary Magdalene and the Birds 173 HOTSPUR (1986)Hotspur 177Notes 182 THE INCIDENT BOOK (1986)Uniunea Scriitorilor 187Leaving the Tate 187The Bedroom Window 189The Chiffonier 189Tadpoles 191For Heidi with Blue Hair 192The Keepsake 193England’s Glory 195The Genius of Surrey 196Loving Hitler 197Schools:Halfway Street, Sidcup 198St Gertrude’s, Sidcup 198Scalford School 198Salfords, Surrey 199Outwood 200On the School Bus 201Earlswood 202Scalford Again 203Neston 203Chippenham 204Tunbridge Wells 205The High Tree 206Telling Tales:Drowning 207‘Personal Poem’ 208An Epitaph 209Being Taken from the Place 210Accidents 210On the Land 211Icon 212Drawings 213The Telephone Call 214Incidentals:Excavations 216Pastoral 217Kissing 217Double-take 218Choices 219Thatcherland:Street Scene, London N2 220Gentlemen’s Hairdressers 221Post Office 222Demonstration 223Witnesses 224Last Song 225 TIME-ZONES (1991)Counting 229Libya 230What May Happen 230My Father 231Cattle in Mist 232Toads 234Under the Lawn 235Wren Song 236Next Door 237Helianthus Scaberrimus 238House-martins 238Wildlife 239Turnip-heads 240The Batterer 241Roles 241Happiness 242Coupling 242The Greenhouse Effect 242The Last Moa 243Creosote 244Central Time 245The Breakfast Program 247From the Demolition Zone 248On the Way to the Castle 248Romania 250Causes:The Farm 251Aluminium 252A Hymn to Friendship 253Smokers for Celibacy 255Mrs Fraser’s Frenzy 257Meeting the Comet 263 LOOKING BACK (1997)IWhere They Lived 273Framed 273The Russian War 275227 Peel Green Road 275Nellie 276Mary Derry 278Moses Lambert: The Facts 280Samuel Joynson 280Amelia 281Barber 282Flames 282Water 283A Haunting 283The Wars 285Sub Sepibus 286Anne Welby 286Beanfield 288Ancestor to Devotee 288Frances 289At Great Hampden 291At Baddesley Clinton 292Traitors 294Swings and Roundabouts 295Peter Wentworth in Heaven 296Notes 298IITongue Sandwiches 299The Pilgrim Fathers 301Paremata 302Camping 302Bed and Breakfast 303Rats 303Stockings 304A Political Kiss 305An Apology 305Festschrift 306Offerings 306Danger: Swimming and Boating Prohibited 307Risks 308Blue Footprints in the Snow 309Summer in Bucharest 310Moneymore 311The Voices 311Willow Creek 312Giggling 313Trio 314The Video 314 NEW POEMS (2000) from POEMS 1960-2000Easter 317High Society 317For Meg 318A Visiting Angel 319It’s Done This! 320Kensington Gardens 321 DRAGON TALK (2010)Dragon Talk 327My First Twenty Years:Kuaotunu 331Linseed 331Illiterate 332Food 333Lollies 333Rangiwahia 334Drury Goodbyes 3353 September 1939 335Sidcup, 1940 336My First Letter 337Ambulance Attendant 337Off Duty at the Depot 338Just in Case 338Fake Fur 339A Rose Tree 339Glass 340Casein 340Glitterwax 341Bananas 341Clay 342The Mill Stream 342Morrison Shelter 343Direct Hit 343Mr Dolman 344Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar 345Frant 345Biro 346Woodside Way 347Sidcup Again 347August 1945 348Signature 348On the SS Arawa 350Unrationed 351The Table 351Back from the War 352Temporary 353Strangers on a Tram 353Her First Ball 354Precautions 355Next:Miramar 356Summer Pudding 356Lost 357That Butterfly 358An Observation 358Outside the Crematorium 359A Petition 359To the Robins 360A Garland for Rosa 361Fast Forward 363 GLASS WINGS (2013)At the Crossing 367For Michael at 70 367An 80th Birthday Card for Roy 369Finding Elizabeth Rainbow 369Spuggies 370Fox 371The Saucer 371The Belly Dancer 372Ingeburg 373Alfred 374Match Girl 375Alumnae Notes 376Nominal Aphasia 376Walking Stick 377Macular Degeneration 377Mrs Baldwin 378Charon 378Having Sex with the Dead 379Testators:Robert Harington, 1558 380Anthony Cave, 1558 380Alice Adcock, 1673 381Luke Sharpe, 1704 382William Clayton, 1725 383James Heyes, 1726 383Henry Eggington, 1912 384William Dick Mackley 387The Translator 388Intestate 391Campbells:Elegy for Alistair 392Port Charles 392What the 1950s Were Like 393The Royal Visit 394The Professor of Music 395Coconut Matting 396Epithalamium 396A Novelty 397My Life With Arthropods:Wet feet 398Dung Beetle 399Caterpillars 399Stag Beetle 400Praying Mantis 400Flea 401Hoppy 402Stick Insects 402To the Mosquitoes of Auckland 403Crayfish 403Slaters 404Ella’s Crane-Flies 405Orb Web 405My Grubby Little Secret 407In Provence 408Unmentionable 408Phobia 409Blow Flies 410Bat Soup 411Lepidoptera 411Bees’ Nest 413Dragonfly 414 THE LAND BALLOT (2014)Where the Farm Was 417The Sower 418The Pioneer 419Sam’s Diary 420District News, I 422Bedtime Story 423The Fencer 423This Lovely Glen 424Migrants 426A Manchester Child 427Baggage 429Celebrations 430The School 431Mr Honor. 432District News, II 433The School Journal 434Fruit 436Mount Pirongia Surveyed 437The Obvious Solution 437Milk 438The Bush Fire 439Beryl 440Cousins 440Telegraphese 441The Family Bible 442Bush Fairies 443Settlers’ Museum 445Evenings with Mother 446The Buggy 446Eight Things Eva Will Never Do Again 448Eva Remembers Her Two Brothers Called James 449Eva Remembers Her Little Sisters 450The Germans 451Brown Sugar 452Supporting Our Boys 453Armistice Day 454The Way Forward 455The Hopeful Author 457A Friend of the New 458Shorthand 459The Bible Student 459A Profile 461District News, III 461Mr S. Adcock 462The Probationer 462Te Awamutu Road Rant 464The Sensational 466The Kea Gun 467Sole Charge 469The Plain and Fancy Dress Ball 470The Swimmer 472Visiting the Ridgeways 473Reconstituting Eva 473Ragwort 474Walking Off 476The Roads Again 476The Hall: A Requiem 478Barton Cottage, 1928 479Cyril’s Bride 480Nostalgia Trip, 1976 481Jubilee Booklet, 1989 483The Archive 483State Highway 31 484Notes 485 HOARD (2017)ILoot 489Mnemonic 491Her Usual Hand 492Six Typewriters 493Flat-Warming Party, 1958 494The Anaesthetist 494The Second Wedding 495The Sleeping Bag 496A Game of 500 497La Contessa Scalza 497North London Polytechnic 498Election, 1964 498Kidnapped 499IIAnn Jane’s Husband 500Mother’s Knee 500Camisoles 502The March 502You, Ellen 504IIIHortus 509A Spinney 509Fox-Light 511Albatross 511Cheveux de Lin 513My Erstwhile Fans 514The Bookshop 514Maulden Church Meadow 514Oscar and Henry 515Real Estate 516The Lipstick 516Hair 517Pacifiers 517Bender 518Hot Baths 518Standedge 519Hic Iacet 519IVPakiri 520Helensville 521Ruakaka 521Blue Stars 522Fowlds Park 524Mercer 525Alfriston 526Thames 527Raglan 528Miramar Revisited 529Carterton 530Tinakori Road 531High Rise 532The Old Government Buildings 533Lotus Land 535 THE MERMAID’S PURSE (2021)The Mermaid’s Purse 539Island Bay 539The Teacher’s Wife 540The Islands 544A Bunch of Names 544The Fur Line 546A Feline Forage in Auckland 546House 547Peter’s Hat 548A Small Correction 549In the Cupboard 549Giza 550Siena 551Realms 551In the Cloud 552Hollyhocks 552Berries 553Amazing Grace 554Käthi Bowden in Bavaria 555Divining 556Welsh 557This Fountain 558Magnolia Seed Pods 558Bats 559Novice Flyer 562Wood Mice 562Sparrowhawk 563Election 1945 564The Little Theatre Club 564The Other Christmas Poem 565Anadyomene 566Victoria Road 566To Stephenie at 11pm 567Lightning Conductor 567The Annual Party 568Letting Them Know 570Blackberries 570Tatters 571The Old Road 572Poems for Roy: i.m. Roy Fisher, 1930-2017Dead Poets’ Society 575Jade Plant 576Double Haiku 576Elm 577Four Poems and a Funeral 577Maundy Thursday 2017 578An April Bat 579Porridge 579Annual Tribute 580Winter Solstice 581Snowman 582Mayonnaise 582Notes 584 NEW POEMS (2024) from COLLECTED POEMSStint 587Sorry! 587Priam 588Thaw 588Optimistic Poem 589Notice to Foxes 589Goliath 590A Woodlouse for Kevin 591Conditional 592The Lift Shaft 592Between the Toes 593O Westport in the Light of Paul Durcan 593Monica 594Saint Brigid 595Saint Christopher 595Mildred’s House 596Poor Jenny is a-weeping 596In the Desert 598Jacky 598Being Ninety 600Notes 602 Index of titles 605Index of first lines 612Acknowledgements 623

Adcock has a deceptively laid-back tone, through which the sharper edge of her talent is encountered like a razor blade in a peach.