Collected Poems

Elizabeth Jennings was born in Boston, Lincolnshire in 1926, and lived most of her life in Oxford, where she moved in 1932. She was educated at Rye St Antony and Oxford High School before reading English at St Anne’s College, Oxford, where she began a B.Litt., but left to pursue a career in copy-editing in London. Returning to Oxford to take up a full-time post as a librarian at the city library, Jennings worked briefly at Chatto and Windus before becoming a full-time poet. Her second volume of poetry, A Way of Looking (1955), won the Somerset Maugham Award, which allowed her to travel to Rome, a city which had an immense impact on her poetry and Roman Catholic faith. While she suffered from physical and mental ill health from her early thirties, Jennings was a popular and widely read poet. She received the W.H. Smith award in 1987 for Collected Poems 1953–1985, and in 1992 was awarded a CBE. She died in Rosebank Care Home, Bampton, in 2001 and is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. Emma Mason is a Reader in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick. She was previously a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Corpus Christi, Oxford and has also been a Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Huntington Library, California. She is the author of The Cambridge Introduction to Wordsworth (2010), Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century (2006) and Nineteenth-Century Religion and Literature (2006; with Mark Knight); and a co-editor of The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature (2009) and The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible (2010). With Mark Knight, she co-edits the monograph series New Directions in Religion and Literature for Continuum.

• PrefaceEARLY WORKS The ElementsEstrangementThe LuckyModern PoetTimeThe ClockDeceptionWarningJohn the BaptistTuscanyCave DwellersCOLLECTIONS 1953–2001 Poems (1953)DelayWinter LoveWoman in LoveWeathercockThe SubstituteThe MeetingThe InfatuationThe ThreeTwo VoicesThe ExchangeSequence from ChildhoodAdopted ChildThe AlterationReminiscenceFantasyJealousyItalian LightA View of PositanoA Tuscan VillageThe Place BetweenAfternoon in FlorenceDeepsea DiverThe PlannersThe HarbourThe ArrivalThe StrangerIdentityThe GeologistThe SettlersThe Seer and the BlindThe IdlerBell-RingerThe ClimbersFishermenFrom the CliffThe IslandA Way of Looking (1955)A Way of LookingReflections on Southern LightFlorence: Design for a CityFiesole: The SearchA Sense of PlaceThe Image and the ViewNot in the Guide-BooksFisherman in the ArnoChildren in the SquarePoem in WinterSong at the Beginning of AutumnMusic and WordsAstronomer: A SongDifferent VisionsKingsMap-MakersThe EnemiesNapoleonIn This TimeNew WorldsThe Lost SymbolsThe Nature of TragedyThe RescuerThe ConquerorThe HumanistsMissing the PointBeyond PossessionOn MakingTributeLooking ForwardFor a Child Born DeadCommunicationMirrorsThe RecognitionThe ReturnEscape and ReturnIn the NightThe AcknowledgementRecapitulationAnswersA Sense of the World (1958)The Child and the ShadowOld WomanOld ManThe Child and the SeashellThe DandyYoung BoyTaken by SurpriseThe StormHer GardenThe Bird CatchersFive Poems from ‘Sequence in Venice’Summer and TimeAt NoonStill LifeThe DancersGhostsDuring the Hungarian UprisingAbsenceDisguisesThe PartingResemblancesA DeathThe MisunderstandingThe ShotSong for a DepartureChoicesTelling StoriesA FearIn a Foreign CityThe Roman ForumA Conversation in the Gardens of the Villa Celimontana, RomeCompanionsA Roman WindowStrangersFountainSanta Maria Maggiore, RomeSan Paolo Fuori Le Mura, RomeLetter from AssisiThe AnnunciationThe VisitationAgony in any GardenGift of TonguesStatue and CandlelightThe Virgin at NoonAugustineTeresa of AvilaSong for a Birth or a Death (1961)Song for a Birth or a DeathFamily AffairsA Game of ChessMy GrandmotherPassage from ChildhoodIn Praise of CreationWorld I have Not MadeHarvest and ConsecrationA World of LightNotes for a Book of HoursA ConfessionA RequiemAt a MassJohn of the CrossCatherine of SienaThe ResurrectionThe CounterpartMantegna’s Agony in the GardenThe RetreatVisit to an ArtistThe ClownLazarusThe Diamond CutterStargazers and OthersTo a Friend with a Religious VocationChildren and DeathA Kind of UnderstandingVisit to a Friend in HospitalGreek StatuesThe Pride of Life: A Roman SettingMen Fishing in the ArnoAn English SummerThe RoomTwo DeathsAbout These ThingsNo ReplyThe UnfulfilledNo ChildThe InstrumentRemembering FireworksThe Sonnets of Michelangelo (1961)I On Dante AlighieriII On Dante AlighieriIII To Pope Julius IIIV On Rome in the Pontificate of Julius IIV To Giovanni da Pistoja on the Painting of the Sistine ChapelVI Invective against the People of PistojaVII To Luigi del RiccioVIII To Liugi del Riccio After the Death of Cecchino BracciIX (‘Your gifts – the sugar, candles and the mule’)X To Gandolfo Porrino on his Mistress Faustina MancinaXI To Giorgio Vasari on The Lives of the PaintersXII To Vittoria ColonnaXIII To the SameXIV (i) To the SameXIV (ii) (‘If noble concepts have a birth divine’)XV (‘The marble not yet carved can hold the form’)XVI (‘Just as in pen and ink, the high and low’)XVII (‘Lady, how can it be that what is shown’)XVIII (‘With heart of sulphur and with flesh of tow’)XIX (‘More precious am I to myself than ever’)XX (‘How much a garland pleases when it lies’)XXI (‘To others merciful and only to’)XXII (‘If in the face, if in the gazing eyes’)XXIII (‘Both near and far my eyes can see your face’)XXIV (‘Well-born spirit, in whom we see reflected’)XXV (‘“Tell me, I beg, Love, if my eyes indeed’)XXVI (‘Grace, Lady, equally with sorrow may’)XXVII (‘I cannot shape an image or acquire’)XXVIII (‘The living portion of my love is not’)XXIX (‘The first day I beheld so much unique’)XXX To Tommaso de’ CavalieriXXXI To Tommaso de’ CavalieriXXXII (‘If love is chaste, if pity comes from heaven’)XXXIII (i) (‘So that your beauty may not lose its power’)XXXIII (ii) (‘In order that your beauties may endure’)XXXIV (‘Eternal fire is kindly to cold stone’)XXXV (‘This fire, which burns me fiercely and consumes’)XXXVI (‘If the immortal longing which inspires’)XXXVII (‘If someone has been favoured with a great’)XXXVIII (‘Give to my eyes a natural stream or spring’)XXXIX (‘Reason is sympathetic when I claim’)XL (i) (‘I know not if it is the longed-for night’)XL (ii) (‘I know not if it is imagination’)XLI (‘He who from nothing made all things ordained’)XLII (‘Each shuttered room and every covered place’)XLIII (‘Since Phoebus does not stretch his shining hands’)XLIV (‘Oh night, oh sweetest time although obscure’)XLV (‘When a lord thrusts his servant into prison’)XLVI (‘If a small, steady flame can quickly dry’)XLVII (‘If any fire could equal that great light’)XLVIII (‘Though long delay breeds greater tenderness’)XLIX (‘From gloomy laughter and delicious tears’)L (‘Too late I realised that from your soul’)LI (i) (‘Now give me back that time when love was held’)LI (ii) (‘Now give me back that time which held my passion’)LII (‘I do not need to look on outward forms’)LIII (‘An ardent love of a great beauty is’)LIV (‘I see in your fair face, my dearest Lord’)LV (‘My Lord, you know that I know that you know’)LVI (i) (‘When you came back into this earthly prison’)LVI (ii) (‘I know not whence it came and yet it surely’)LVII (i) (‘It passes from the eyes into the heart’)LVII (ii) (‘It passes from the eyes into the heart’)LVIII (‘When to my inward eyes, both weak and strong’)LIX (‘Only through fire can the smith pull and stretch’)LX (i) (‘Sometimes hope rises strongly with desire’)LX (ii) (‘At times, pure love may justly be equated’)LXI On the Death of Vittoria ColonnaLXII On the Death of the SameLXIII On the Death of the SameLXIV On the Death of the SameLXV To Giorgio VasariLXVI (‘By the world’s vanities I’ve been distracted’)LXVII(‘There is no lower thing on earth than I’)LXVIII To Monsignor Lodovico BeccadelliLXIX (‘My death is certain but the hour unsure’)LXX (‘Loaded with years and full of all my sins’)LXXI (‘Now that I need men’s pity and compassion’)LXXII (‘Then let me see you everywhere I go’)LXXIII (‘Unburdened by the body’s fierce demands’)LXXIV (i) (‘Simply the longing for more years to live’)LXXIV (ii) (‘Often, I think, a great desire may’)LXXV (‘I wish, God, for some end I do not will’)LXXVI (‘Those souls for whom you died were sad as well’)LXXVII (‘Although it saddens me and causes pain’)LXXVIII (‘Dear to me is sleep: still more, being made of stone’)Recoveries (1964)Sequence in HospitalNervesOld Man AsleepWorks of ArtMan in a ParkStill Life and ObserverFather to SonFor a Visionary PoetDomestic DramasExodusRetort to the Anti-AbstractionistsThe ConfidenceWarning to ParentsHappy FamiliesDarknessMah JongNot at HomeThe Storm HouseProblems of ViewingAdmonitionThe NightmareParts of a ZodiacThe Young OnesBewildermentPlanck’s Theory of ChanceThe Sumach Tree‘Wedding Rites at Tipasa’For Albert CamusA PictureThe ShellsEighty-one Years OldA Thought from AquinasThe DestroyersPigeonsA Game of CardsA New PainThe Mind Has Mountains (1966)In a Mental Hospital Sitting-roomDiagnosis and ProtestMadnessReflections on a Mental HospitalThe InterrogatorVan GoghThe JumpAttempted SuicidesLisaQuestionsNight SisterThe IllusionHysteriaWords From TraherneA Nurse Gone SickFinal ConsiderationsSamuel Palmer and ChagallOn a Friend’s Relapse and Return to a Mental ClinicOld AgeNight Garden of the AsylumA Baby Born in HospitalPersonal EasterA DepressionGrove House, IffleySuicidesCaravaggio’s Narcissus in RomeChinese ArtLate ChildLove PoemOne FleshThinking of LoveVan Gogh AgainA Birthday in HospitalNew Poem SimplyBlue CandlesMy RoomTreesJust Another PoemUnkind Poem about People who are Mildly DerangedA Limerick and So OnPoem about the Breakdown of a BreakdownSeaThe Secret Brother and Other Poems for Children (1966)The Secret BrotherThomas the Ginger CatHolidays at HomeKitesA Sort of Chinese PoemThe Ginger CatThe HamsterMy AnimalsThe Ugly ChildChop-SueyThe Radio MenThe ArkTiffany: a Burmese KittenLondonFriendsAt NightRhyme for ChildrenMirrorsOld PeopleChocolate Adam and EveLove PoemClothesMaryThe Dead BirdChristmasLullabyNew Poems from Collected Poems (1967)For LoveThe CircleThe Shaking WorldA Dream of BirthThe BoyThe OperationThe NoviceShockThe BonfireVolcano and IcebergGaleThe Animals’ Arrival (1969)The Animals’ ArrivalThe DaySculptorA PatternFirst ManA Simple SicknessThe PloughFireOf LanguagesThe SoldiersThe Unknown ChildNever to SeeResolveBirthHospital GardenInterviewsThe SourceThe Broken MindsCold WinterLovingHuntingAgoWakingBonnardMatadorSandThis SummerThe SeaDemandsLodgingsThe NightmaresOutsideSilence of WinterTransfigurationsA Letter to Peter LeviThese SilencesCongo Nun RapedMotor-RacerMediterraneanAny Poet’s EpitaphLucidities (1970)LightFor My Dead FatherConsiderationsLiterary FashionsPort Meadow, OxfordFor George Seferis, Greek PoetMoving InRevivalForebodingsWeepingHarsh WordsIn Retrospect and HopeA DecisionRevelationAn ExperienceEvening Prayer, by RimbaudThe Sly One, by RimbaudSensation, from RimbaudFirst Evening, by RimbaudMy Bohemian Life, after RimbaudThe Rooks, by RimbaudBedsittersMrs PorterTo One Who Read My Rejected AutobiographyVocationsAnalysis of a SituationThis WorldRouaultThe FutureThis DarknessDoubtsRainStillnessPassionsI Am MyselfLongingsThe ChildrenMisfitsJourney through Warwickshire to OxfordRelationships (1972)RelationshipsFriendshipUpon a ThreadA SonnetLet Things AloneNarcissusFor Emily DickinsonThe SeaA WonderIn Memory of Anyone Unknown to MeWaterAll QuarrelsMaking a SilenceSympathyA Very Young MotherHurtRembrandtThe Seven Deadly SinsA Dream UndreamtSea LoveFearOf LoveSkiesFrom the HeightsMissing a MirageItalian MemoriesHappiness in RomeQuiet WarsKinds of TearsBlame YourselfTearsNot Counting TimeThe DrunkCraftsmanship with FishAlmost Falling AsleepThe ClimbThe WoodThe CavesSheer RageThe RosesA ParadoxGrowing Points (1975)BeechGrowingTransformationTo the CoreA QuartetRhetoricTranceIn a GardenGrapesAmong StrangersThe Quality of GoodnessNo RestFor the Mind ExplorersThunder and a BoyFreshnessA Quiet EnemyI FeelBird StudyTowards a Religious PoemAfter a TimeThe Lord’s PrayerMeditation on the NativityChrist on the CrossLent Beginning 1974Easter DutiesWhitsun SacramentOut of the HeightsThe Nature of PrayerThomas AquinasOpen to the PublicIn a Picture GalleryMondrianRembrandt’s Late Self-PortraitsMozart’s Horn ConcertosA Scholar Emperor of the Tang DynastyWonderA Chinese SageElegy for W.H. AudenProsperoHopkins in WalesPerformerA Play at AvignonOperaAfter a PlayCreators in ViennaOrpheusPersephoneSnake CharmerThe MinotaurNot AbstractLittle PeaceSpyPrisonerBehind All Iron CurtainsHappeningsNot for UseWishesEndsParticularChildhood in LincolnshireLosing and FindingAn EventUsageA ThirdNeedAcceptedAn Abandoned PalaceRather like a PeacockGiven NoticeLeaving a RoomDeafNight Worker by NatureAn Attempt to Charm SleepThe Poem at TimesBox-RoomCancerObservingCelebration of WinterTo Go with a PresentA Little MoreComfortThis isNever GoingA Gentle CommandIn ItselfGainedConsequently I Rejoice (1977)Lighting a CandleRestlessnessAlmost DrowningInvocation and IncantationInevitableFragment for the DarkTemperedMorning DecisionBetter than a ProtestDramaMy SeasonsWinter Night WishMeditation in WinterBird Sunrise in WinterLet There BeSong for the SwiftsSongFor Their Own SakeHatchingMuch to be SaidInstinct for SeasonsThe Sleep of BirdsStar MidnightDecision on a July NightJuly IslandSonnet for Late SummerTowards MigrationTo the GroundNovember SunWays of DyingWinter TestimonyAssociationsOld People’s Nursing HomeTo My Mother At 73Elegy for My FatherDeath of an Old LadyHer HandsFor an Old Lady of 96A Disabled CountrymanMilitary ServiceThe HoarderBalladWarChildbirthA Child in the NightCradle CatholicA Reflection from PascalMeditation on the FallA MagnificatMary the HuntressMary SpeaksMary’s MagnificatChristmas RequestWords for the MagiOur Lady’s LullabyChrist Recalls ‘The Massacre of the Innocents’Christ on His LonelinessThe Holy FoolOne Who Was HealedChrist’s Final TemptationChrist’s Agony in the GardenIn Christ’s PlacePrayer to Christ SufferingChrist SurprisedChrist Seen by Flemish PaintersChristmas Poem 1974One Creed and ManyMichelangelo’s First PietàSufismA Meditation on D.H. LawrenceTolstoyElegy for Aldous HuxleyChange of PlanIn a Violent TimeFor Edward ThomasQuestions to Other ArtistsReflections on a Still LifeKlee’s Last YearsPortrait PaintingCézanneFor Virginia WoolfA Painter’s WifeSpringChinese PoemNight Concert at TaorminaAriel’s SongThe AegeanPoems for a New Greek AnthologyAfter the Ark (1978)The Animals’ ChorusThe Fish’s WarningThe Ladybird’s StoryThe Cabbage White ButterflyThe Moth’s PleaThe Spider’s ConfessionWasp in a RoomThe Snake’s WarningThe Earthworm’s MonologueThe Frogs’ HistoryThe Bats’ PleaThe Swallows’ SpeechGull ThoughtThe Rooks’ ChorusThe Robin’s SongThe Sparrows’ ChorusThe Thrush ConfidesThe Owl’s RequestThe Cuckoo’s SpeechThe Cockerel ProclaimsThe Fieldmouse’s MonologueThe Hedgehog’s ExplanationThe Rabbit’s AdviceThe Sheep’s ConfessionThe Deers’ RequestThe Riding SchoolThe Black Cat’s ConversationThe Lion CubFinale for the AnimalsMoments of Grace (1979)Into the HourAn Answer to Odd AdviceA Meditation in March 1979The Sermon of AppearancesAmong Farm WorkersTo be a SunflowerCypressesOutside GreeceThe Whole BestiaryFliesGoldfinchFriesian CowsRookCat in WinterThe ShootA BeseechingWatcherA Christmas Carol for 1978ForgivenessNever Such PeaceThe Way of itChannel Port NightA Weather SpellThought and FeelingI Count the MomentsLove Needs an ElegyOn its OwnDeathAn Elusive OneHaunted HouseSpiritsThe Dangerous OnesSpell of the ElementsA Chorus of CreationA ChorusAn EducationA New PatienceEuthanasiaThe Wrong SubjectSome Never Forgotten Words of My Mother’sThe Gardens StretchSummer SceneSea SongSea-DrunkSpring TwilightNight MomentNight PowerThe Apt PhraseA Proustian MomentA Chinese PoemBraque’s DreamChristmas Suite in Five MovementsWinter Wind (1979)Near the EndA Happy EndThe Deepest LoveWinter WindA WidowVan GoghThe Only ChildThe RakeEurydiceA Dream of Spring (1980)Winter ArgumentThe SnowA Dream of SpringInstead of an ElegyMore Than SpringA Moment of ChildhoodFrom Light to DarkLent and SpringA DifficultyTurnHorseSpring’s AnnunciationInto SpringSermon of the CloudsOne Man, One VoiceEnglish Wild FlowersA Way to a CreedCelebrations and Elegies (1982)GoingsAutumnSermon of the HillsThe Heart of NightArrival in Bibbiena, TuscanyRemembering Bibbiena in TuscanyA Kind of CatalogueSparrowField-MouseBlackbird SingingNot MineOver and OverRescuedAn Elegy before DeathChildren at PlayLandscapes and FiguresHeydayLeaves in the WindAfterwardsImages of LoveFirst AdmirersThe Near PerfectionGiven an AppleA Place to Walk InSong of Love and PeaceLand of PlentyWhat we RememberPeaceAn Unnerving LessonImperfectionA Dark PassionRecovering from a DeathWords about GriefFor a Gentle FriendA Hand LiftingIs it Dual-Natured?Painter from LifeWords for MusicA Kind of MagicThe One DrawbackI Came OnceAs the Rooks AreSources of LightExtending the Territory (1985)The Child’s StoryThe Features of a HouseA Bird in the HouseGreen WorldAn AbsoluteFamily HistoryFor My SisterThe CircusesA Serious GameA Sky in ChildhoodLove-StoryThe LastOver and Over AgainA Class-RoomA Time AgoPassedPartly TamedThe InheritorsElegy in SpringFridayThe Advance of SpringIn AprilSpell for SpringA SuppositionWorthA ForgettingLet Summer ThriveA Kind of MagnetFallingSundowningInto the CloudsEndingsBetrayalBallad of WarClarifyA ConditionSeasonal ReverieNothingConfessionArielCaughtAs We WishThe Great MoverMissed ChancesTwo by the SeaRememberingYears AgoTell MeLove in Three MovementsWaysCertain LessonsAngerA Death AliveEye to EyeBitter FruitPainThe AlterationLovesickGrowing AheadShall All the LovesI Climbed a LadderOur NeighbourMother and DaughterAgesAwake in the SiestaRome – A Quarter of a Century AgoParticular MusicMemories of RomeThe Way of Words and LanguageA Performance of Henry V at Stratford-upon-AvonSong of TimeDawn Not YetFrail BoneDustEnoughBy the SeaSongWater MusicImaginationFrom the CoastPrecursorsTributes (1989)A Letter of ThanksTributesFor George HerbertNotes to The Winter’s TaleFor Charles CausleyFor Philip LarkinTribute to TurnerCaravaggioGoyaChardinAfter a Painting is FinishedTate GalleryThe ArtsA Roman TrioSpainOnce in GreeceAnzioThe Gulf of SalernoSome Words of My Mother’s in ChildhoodFairgroundPsalm of ChildhoodPsalm of DiscrepanciesBy ThemselvesSpring and a BlackbirdTrue SpringDuskCloudscapeMoon in DecemberNewcomerAubadeA Music SoughtArrival and PreparationEnoughTwo TogetherAt the SourceAlwaysPresencesFriendshipTotalLandscape and Wild GardensWinter PieceIn Such Slow SweetnessFor MelodyTwo MusicsAll that DepartingA Living DeathTime for the ElegyGoneThe Spirit LiftsOne MinuteYoung LoveThe Feel of ThingsSome SolitudeFifteen Years After a DeathLegacies and LanguageThe House of WordsThe Early WorkThink OfArt and TimePigeons SuddenlyThe Luck of ItThe Start of a StoryAgainst the DarkThe Sea as MetaphorI Heard a VoicePartsLet It BeWaitingThe Prodigal SonThe HoursSaint AugustineFor Easter 1986Easter Vigil and MassGloriaIn Good TimeA ReproachMoving TogetherOnlySnookerGroup LifeFirst Six YearsA Childhood ReligionThe EssentialTalking of HumeThinking of DescartesThe Force of TimeOf TimeDistractionsThere is TimePassionMasteryEnergyTurning InlandResolveOn the Edge of My MindJusticeQuestionNocturneA Happy DeathBeginningTimes and Seasons (1992)GrammarParts of SpeechFor My MotherThe Smell of ChrysanthemumsOn the TongueProtest after a Written InterviewA Christmas SequenceIn Green TimesA Child DestroyedShapes and SurfacesA Litany for ContritionMy ShipsSpringtime and EasterAn Easter SequenceFor RestraintA Childhood HorrorBeyond the HoroscopeFor Louise and TimothyRomantic LoveThe WordMeditationAn Age of DoubtFirst LoveFor the YoungThe Start of the Universe: April 1992Inner and OuterCurtains UndrawnTime in SummerFirst ConfessionGreenThink OfSpell for a Dead BabyCold WordsOrdinationStar-GazingLight Between LeavesA Question of FormSongDeathIn the BeginningIn Praise of GiottoFor the TimesThe Way They Live NowThe Poem in ItselfParentsInnocenceTwo Sonnets of Art and AgeTwo Sonnets for a Czech FriendPoetry Sometimes …November SonnetWater and AirBeyondIn the NurseryOut of Time and SeasonTime and LoveSubject and ObjectLeft in ChargeTreesAugust HeatLiving by LoveAn Old StoryWhen I Was YoungMovement and MeaningLeavingsWitcheryA Father after his Daughter’s WeddingThe Happy RegretsFamiliar Spirits (1994)The World We MadeThe First MusicAn Uncle and GodfatherOur MaidsSlow Movement: AutumnA Cliff Walk in North Devon when I was TwelveSky in ChildhoodCampFirst LoveA Way to ImagineMy Father’s FatherBlood Bonds, Family FeelingsCousins, Aunts, UnclesOld FriendsA RealisationA Coffee HouseBicycles in SummerSea MusicAmong the StarsIt is not True?Cities: Their BeginningUnto the HillsLove WhisperedAlmostSquares and CirclesGenes, LikenessesAfter a Film called The BridgeSeptemberStill LifeThe RootsOverture to SpringSteps Towards PoemsPassed DownUnsaidKatie: A PortraitIn Praise of Anonymity‘Music of the Spheres’Two Sonnets on Love and LustFor Louise Aged 12, My Great-NieceMy SisterDeath of a Father who was a PoetA Very Great Friend and InfluenceFables, LessonsThe Modes of LoveIn the Meantime (1996)The Right GiversPrawningWisdom of the FieldsSpring LoveThe LiberationDreamTheir First SnowA House in NottinghamFor CharlotteChildren in SummerChild of Seven QuestionsThe Need to PraiseOxford, Heatwave, TouristsSomersetAmong Late-TeenagersWelcoming SpringThe Great SpiritsStory TellersSeers and MakersHermits and PoetsThe SitterAct of the ImaginationFor Paul KleeOrderSonnets to NarcissusHaving it Both WaysTouchTelling the TimeTwo SonnetsA World of LoveLoss of LossAt Mass (I)Which is Which?After DarkAt Mass (II)BreadConsecration (I)Consecration (II)Ash Wednesday 1995A Touch of ExistentialismHoly CommunionThe Spirit’s PowerRomeTime’s ElementCalvaryThe Assumption of Our Lady 15th AugustFlesh and SpiritSpirit and FleshLazarusGood FridayAge of DoubtWith the MigrantsIn the MeantimePraises (1998)For my Sister, now a WidowA View of LazarusWalking in the DarkIn and Out of TimeThe Words are PouringRapture of SpringA Unique GiftAn Apple TreeA Full MoonSong Just Before AutumnHarvest HomeAlone Over ChristmasNo Visions or PrayersApology to a FriendRound and RoundFamous ParentsChildhood Christmas PartiesBallad of a ThinkerTeenagersBostonTheatrePraisesReasons for Not ReturningCarol for 1997MakingsTwo Sonnets on Words and MusicMid-May MeditationSmall HoursMyths Within UsSong of WelcomeA Metaphysical Point About PoetryPainPrayer for Holy WeekLove’s Struggle‘Hours’ and WordsSongCraftsmenFor Seamus HeaneyThe Book of LoveIn a BarThe First TimeThe Limits of LoveAfter an ElegyA Gift of GratitudeAt Our BestThe Largest QuestionConcerning HistoryTimely Issues (2001)Regions of MemoryA Company of FriendsDanceMozart in the Middle of the NightDream: A BalladThe StoryCountry SoundsOut in the Country in 2000CaringWell-BeingVigourLullaby for the OldRage of the MoonOctober 2000The ThinkerFor Any Newish PoetPrayer: Homage to George HerbertHomage to Thomas TraherneHomage to Gerard Manley Hopkins: After Receiving Communion in HospitalHomage to Robert GravesReflectionLooking at PicturesConcerning Imagination (I)Concerning Imagination (II)Concerning Imagination (III)DiagnosisAn AwarenessSome Months After AnaestheticsTendernessLost TimeAfter Four Months of IllnessOne More Place of MemoryAssuranceAdviceThe HoursProphetsGirl at PrayerAdventAt MassAll Saints 2000All SoulsSong in November 2000Carol for 2000New Year SongEpiphany 2001Night SongWhitsunHopeEdenPerfectionAssurance Beyond MidnightUNPUBLISHED POETRY JuveniliaWings of the War (BL, MS Add 52598 A, pp. 3–4)The Friend (BL, MS Add 52598 C, p. 1)A Snail Universe (BL, MS Add 52598 C, p. 3)The Cuckoo (BL, MS Add 52598 C, p. 14)To Our Lady (BL, MS Add 52598 C, back of p. 20)A Thought (BL, MS Add 52598 C, p. 21)The Call of the Sea, c.1940 (UDEL, 186/7/87)Moonlight on the Oxus, c.1940 (UDEL, 186/7/87)1957–1966Roman Noon, 15 June 1957 (UD, 284/1)The Adversaries, 1957–58 (WUL, 8)Elegy, January 1958 (WUL, 9)Towards Contemplation, 1 April 1958 (WUL, 9)Adolescence, July 1958 (WUL, 1)‘No Worse, There is None’ 3 October 1962 (UD, 186/1/36)Acceptance (Perversity), c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/17)As I See It, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/18)Before the Interview (Surprise), c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/18)Breakfast in a Mental Hospital, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/19)The Dead Selves, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/22)Discharge from Hospital, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/22)Divers Gifts, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/23)Duty Doctor, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/23)A Father, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/24)Hospital, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/27)Heat Wave: Melons, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/29)Imagined Honeymoon, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/28)Incompatibilities, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/28)A Lesson, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/30)A Memory, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/32)The Mind Has Wounds, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/33)Miro, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/33)The Mountain, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/34)Naming the Stars, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/1/43)On the Telephone, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/2/37)Order, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/2/37)Philosophy in Springtime, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/2/39)Revaluation, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/2/42)Spaceman, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/2/45)Suicide, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/2/46)The Treatment, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/2/47)Two Ways, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/2/48)A Year Later, c.1963–66 (UD, 186/2/50)A Recollection, June 1964 (UD, 186/2/41)Homage to Jung and Freud, 10 October 1964 (UD, 186/1/27)Making in a Mental Clinic, 13 October 1964 (UD, 186/1/31)After a Catastrophe, 17 October 1964 (UD, 186/1/17)For Jung, 25 October 1964 (UD, 186/1/25)Despair in a State of Nerves, 8 November 1964 (UD, 186/1/22)Nativity, 4 December 1964 (WUL, 4)The Question, 4 December 1964 (WUL, 5)Security, 1964 (UD, 186/2/51)The Builders, 1964 (UD, 186/2/51)Prayer, 7 June 1965 (WUL, 8)A Surprise in a Mental Hospital, 11 June 1965 (WUL, 8)A Haunting, 18 June 1965 (UD, 284/1)A Mood of Near-Despair, 22 June 1965 (WUL, 8)Dependence, 23 June 1965 (WUL, 8)Words, 28 June 1965 (WUL, 8)A Kind of Villanelle, 1 July 1965 (WUL, 8)I am afraid …, 3 July 1965 (WUL, 3)Rilke, 12 July 1965 (WUL, 8)Old Inhabitant, 14 August 1965 (WUL, 5)Bon Voyage, 19 August 1965 (WUL,1 )Thinking of My Father’s Future Death, 27 August 1965 (WUL, 6)Anomalies in Love, 5 September 1965 (WUL, 1)Adumbrations, 12 September 1965 (WUL, 1)Admissions, 2 October 1965 (WUL, 1)To My Father, 10 December 1965 (WUL, 6)Love and the Looking-Glass World, 13 February 1966 (WUL, 4)Tapestry, 27 March 1966 (WUL, 6)An Evening in the South, 19 June 1966 (WUL, 3)Ambiguities, 11 July 1966 (WUL, 1)Episode, 13 August 1966 (WUL, 3)A Briefness, 23 August 1966 (WUL, 1)September, 8 September 1966 (WUL, 5)The Aquarium, 17 September 1966 (WUL, 1)The Wedding Cake, 18 September 1966 (WUL, 6)October, 1 October 1966 (WUL, 5)Words, 30 October 1966 (UD, 186/2/49)Waking in Tears, 18 December 1966 (UD, 186/2/49)1972–1987Suddenly, 1972 (GU, 2/1/1)Fever, 1972 (GU, 2/1/4)Rubinstein Playing Brahms’s Intermezzo, 1976 (GU, 2/2/12)Christ Speaks to the Other Persons of the Trinity, 1976 (GU, 2/2/12)Thinking of Ireland in January, 1976, 1976 (GU, 2/2/12)Artur Rubinstein Playing in Old Age, 1976 (GU, 2/2/12)Skier, 1976 (GU, 2/2/12)Bach, 1976 (GU, 2/2/12)Francis Bacon’s Paintings, 1976 (GU, 2/2/13)Christ Speaks to his Father of Homesickness, 1976 (GU, 2/3/2)End of Winter, 1976 (GU, 2/3/2)Ten Years After My Father’s Death, 1979 (GU, 2/8/10)A Hidden King, 1979 (GU, 2/8/10)Give Me Colours, 1979 (GU, 2/8/10)Losing, 1979 (GU, 2/8/11)The Drift, 1979 (GU, 2/8/11)For My Father Again, 1979 (GU, 2/8/11)Ashore, 1979 (GU, 2/8/11)Music for Italy, 1979 (GU, 2/8/11)A Prepared Elegy, 1980 (GU, 2/14/2)A Special Sound, May, 1981 (WUL, 11)Changings, May 1981 (WUL, 11)A Song and a Question, May 1981 (WUL, 11)The Mother of a Hunger-Striker who Died in Ireland onMay 4th, 1981, May 1981 (WUL, 11)Words in the Small Hours, May 1981 (WUL, 11)Wordsmiths, August 1981 (WUL, 11)A Smile and a Country, August 1981 (WUL, 11)Unity, August 1981 (WUL, 11)Night Song, August 1981 (WUL, 11)On My Sixtieth Birthday, c.1986 (GU, 2/31/15)Patience, 1987 (GU, 2/27/1)Near Despair, 1987 (GU, 2/27/1)An Elegy After Twenty Years, 1987 (GU, 2/27/1)Elegy for Myself, 1987 (GU, 2/27/2)C.S. Lewis Lecturing in Magdalen Hall in 1946, 1987 (GU, 2/27/3)Sleep Shanty, 1987 (GU, 2/27/5)1992–2000In a Taxi, 24 February 1992 (GU, uncatalogued)A Fleck, A Breath, 9 July 1992 (GU, uncatalogued)Reading Poetry at a School, 9 July 1992 (GU, uncatalogued)Two Griefs, 9 July 1992 (GU, uncatalogued)[Untitled], 9 July 1992 (GU, uncatalogued)Romanticism, July 1992 (GU, uncatalogued)Skyscrapers, July 1992 (GU, uncatalogued)A Realisation, August 1992 (GU, uncatalogued)Two Sonnets on Death, August 1992 (GU, uncatalogued)Love and Friendship, 1996 (UD, uncatalogued)Boston, Lincolnshire Childhood, 1996 (UD, uncatalogued)Last Night, 1996 (UD, uncatalogued)A Litany, 1996 (UD, uncatalogued)A Trance of Spring, 1996 (UD, uncatalogued)Banish, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)Blaming, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)Being, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)The Sea, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)Inheritance, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)Dawn, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)Abuse of a Sacrament, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)English Lesson, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)The Vocation, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)After the Fall, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)An Impertinent Interviewer, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)Child in a Café, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)Clocks Back, 1998 (UD, uncatalogued)Afterword, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)Assisi after the Earthquake, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)The Farmer’s Lot, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)Three Attempts at an Aesthetic, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)A Mood for Painting, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)The Perky Flowers, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)Betrayer, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)The Receivers, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)Early Rituals, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)Pietà, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)Rilke’s Angels, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)Friendship, 1999 (UD, uncatalogued)Prose, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)Picture Galleries, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)Homage to Wallace Stevens, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)Homage to W.B. Yeats, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)Hope, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)Homage to Chaucer, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)Homage to Henry Vaughan, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)Homage to Robert Browning, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)Homage to W.H. Auden, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)Homage to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)With My Hands, 2000 (UD, uncatalogued)Undated PoemsActors (UD, 282/2)The City (UD, 282/2)Contemplation (UD, 282/2)Meaning (UD, 282/2)Thoughts on Dying (UD, 282/2)A Vision (UD, 282/2)The Wood (UD, 282/2)For a Painter (UD, 282/2)‘Easter in us’ (GU, 2/31/7)For Russian Poets in Prison (GU, 2/31/8)For Seamus Heaney (GU, 2/31/8)Going Back (GU, 2/31/8)Only in Fragments (GU, 2/31/15)Psalm on Contemporary Philosophers (GU, 2/31/17)Remembering Plato’s Symposium (GU, 2/31/17)Where Words Fail (GU, 2/31/22)It’s Magic (GU, uncatalogued)After Thirty Years (GU, 2/25/5)Schizophrenia (GU, 2/26/1)On the Edge of Sleep (GU, 3/7/93)Waking to the Sea (GU, 3/7/93)Abstraction (WUL, 1)Act of Unreason (WUL, 1)Apology to a Psychotherapist (WUL, 1)Approaches to Fear (WUL, 1)Bells (WUL, 1)The Big City After a Year (WUL, 1)A Bowl of Stocks (WUL, 1)A Boy Dying (WUL, 1)By the Fire (WUL, 1)Case-books (WUL, 2)Crucifixions (WUL, 2)A Cure (WUL, 2)Day Patient (WUL, 2)For Sylvia Plath (WUL, 3)For Van Gogh (WUL, 3)Haiku (WUL, 3)In the South (WUL, 4)Jargon (WUL, 4)Love Song (WUL, 4)My Friend (WUL, 4)On a Text by Sartre (WUL, 5)Roman Wine (WUL, 5)The Silenced (WUL, 5)Sonnet at Nightfall (WUL, 5)Thoughts from Abroad (WUL, 6)Transitional Poem (WUL, 6)The Weapons (WUL, 6)The Tormentors (WUL, 10)AfterwordSourcesIndex of TitlesIndex of First Lines Illustrations Elizabeth Jennings, c. 1950Elizabeth Jennings as a young girl‘Poem Like a Picture’

'A poet's fat vol is supremely dippable-into.'Collections of poetry, when people wish gently to disparage them, are called 'slim vols'. This is not a slim vol. It is a fat vol. More than 1,000 pages, and well over 1,000 poems. Or, to put it another way: there are 40 pages of contents alone.So: Elizabeth Jennings wrote a lot; and here what she has written is supplemented by 130 pages of previously unpublished poetry: undated, or juvenilia, or whatnot. Well, in for a penny, eh?The point, though, is not to mistake being prolific with being prolix. It's fairly safe to say that what was hitherto unpublished neither represents the dregs of her work, nor sticks out as something unrepresentative altogether. 'A Briefness', itself a briefness of a poem, ends with the lines: 'I remember reflecting / "Women who don't believe in God / Don't bother to look elegant"', which is of course a highly debatable proposition on the face of it, but rather funny, and we should remember the quote from TS Eliot she makes use of a few pages before: 'if we learn to read poetry properly, the poet never persuades us to believe anything ... What we learn from Dante, and the Bhagavad Gita, or any other religious poetry is what it feels like to believe that religion.'Jennings was, famously, Catholic; despite a bruising encounter with a horrible priest at confession which 'festered' within her for years, and did very little to help, and probably much to make worse, her problems with sex (Emma Mason contributes a long and very illuminating afterword to this edition, which examines this question without going into prurient detail). Later on she got luckier with a much more sympathetic priest; but anyway her religion never got in the way of her affection and respect for atheist Larkin. (From 'For Philip Larkin': 'The last thing you would have wanted – / A poem in praise of you.')Jennings was also famously batty-looking, with a personal style that, as she got older, got closer to that of the bag lady; she wore plimsolls when collecting her CBE. (Good for her, you might say.) She was also modest and slightly out of the loop (although she was an undergraduate at Oxford and lived there all her life, she was not an academic), and was always tacked on towards the end of the factitious list of 'Movement' poets of the 1950s – Larkin, Donald Davie and so on.She was popular, too, her Selected and Collected poems of 1979 and 1986 selling between them 86,000 copies; and you can see why. The work is accessible without being shallow. Here's the second half of 'London', describing her disappointment when taken to the capital as a child: 'Oh, Piccadilly Circus / Was just a roundabout, / No monkeys there, no horses, / No tigers leaping out. / You see, I thought a circus / Was always just the same. / I never guessed that it could be / A lying, cheating NAME.' You might think that there is something too rumpty-tumpty about this, but the savage snap of the final line suggests far better the painful puncturing of illusions than if it had been preceded by something more complex – while also suggesting that there is something childish about the observation itself.This is the kind of verse that makes us think of Wendy Cope (of whom, by the way, I think very highly), but Jennings had many registers, as well as modes: yet she most often returns to rhymed form, whether abab quatrains or sonnets, of which there are legion. Musing on what JMW Turner's 'bonds and limits' were, she says there must have been some 'since art can only flourish locked and barred / By form'. (I'd like to have quoted the whole sonnet, because it is imperishably useful not just about art in general, but about Turner in particular, and should be displayed at the beginning, or the end, of every proper exhibition of his work.) But there is no sterility here: I defy you to read 'A Living Death' and not be on the verge of tears by the end of it ('I am caught up / Within a death that does not die …') This is a supremely dippable-into book. Its bulk is liberating, not intimidating.