Both editors are renowned communicators of poetry: Brendan Kennelly (1936-2021) as one of Ireland’s best-loved poets, as Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College Dublin, and as a popular cultural commentator on Irish television; Neil Astley as founder and editor of Bloodaxe Books and editor of the Staying Alive anthology series. This long awaited anthology is published in the UK and Ireland on the late Brendan Kennelly's 86th birthday, 17th April 2022.

• Neil Astley11 Preface: The Making of the Heavy BearDelmore Schwartz (1913–1966)19 Introduction: The Heavy Bear Who Goes with MeSir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)25 ‘They flee from me that sometime did me seek’Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–1547)27 'Wyatt resteth here'Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)30 ‘Thou blind man’s mark’Edmund Spenser (1552–1599)32 ‘One day I wrote her name upon the strand’Chidiock Tichborne (1558–1586)34 Elegy for HimselfChristopher Marlowe (1564–1593)36 Elegia VISir Walter Ralegh (1552–1618)40 The LieRobert Southwell (?1561–1595)44 The Burning BabeMichael Drayton (1563–1631)46 Since There’s No HelpWilliam Shakespeare (1564–1616)48 Sonnet 73: ‘That time of year…’Thomas Nashe (1567–1601)50 ‘Adieu, farewell, earth’s bliss’Thomas Campion (1567–1620)53 What if a DayJohn Donne (1572–1631)55 The FleaBen Jonson (1572–1637)58 On My First SonRobert Herrick (1591–1674)60 Gather Ye RosebudsHenry King (1592–1669)62 Exequy upon His WifeGeorge Herbert (1593–1633)67 Love IIIEdmund Waller (1606–1687)69 Go, Lovely RoseRichard Crashaw (1612/3–1649)71 The Flaming HeartRichard Lovelace (1618–1658)74 To Althea from PrisonAnne Bradstreet (1612–1672)76 A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public EmploymentHenry Vaughan (1621–1695)79 They Are All Gone into the World of Light!Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)82 To His Coy MistressJohn Milton (1608–1674)86 from Paradise LostThomas Traherne (1637–1674)89 DreamsJohn Dryden (1631–1700)93 from Absalom and AchitophelJohn Oldham (1653–1683)95 from The Third Satire of Juvenal, imitatedJonathan Swift (1667–1745)101 A Description of a City ShowerAlexander Pope (1688–1744)104 Epistle to Miss Blount, On Her Leaving the Town, After the CoronationSamuel Johnson (1709–1784)107 from London: A PoemThomas Gray (1716–1771)114 An Elegy Written in a Country Church YardChristopher Smart (1722–1771)120 from Jubilate AgnoOliver Goldsmith (c.1730–1774)125 from The Deserted VillageWilliam Cowper (1731–1800)129 The Poplar-FieldWilliam Blake (1757–1827)131 The TygerSamuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)134 Kubla KhanWilliam Wordsworth (1770–1850)138 Upon Westminster BridgeLord Byron (1788–1824)140 DarknessPercy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)146 Ode to the West WindJohn Keats (1795–1821)152 Ode to a NightingaleThomas Hood (1799–1845)158 I Remember, I RememberAlfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)160 TithonusJohn Clare (1793–1864)163 I AmRobert Browning (1812–1889)165 My Last DuchessElizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)169 How do I love thee?Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855)171 Stanzas (attr.)Emily Brontë (1818–1848)173 RemembranceMatthew Arnold (1822–1888)176 Dover BeachChristina Rossetti (1830–1894)180 RememberDante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1892)182 Sudden LightWalt Whitman (1819–1892)184 Native MomentsEmily Dickinson (1822–1888)186 Because I could not Stop for DeathAlice Meynell (1847–1922)188 RenouncementGerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1899)190 The WindhoverGeorge Meredith (1828–1909)200 Lucifer in StarlightEdwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)202 Luke HavergalOscar Wilde (1854–1900)205 from The Ballad of Reading GaolA.E. Housman (1859–1936)215 Good creatures do you love your livesThomas Hardy (1840–1928)217 The VoiceCharlotte Mew (1869–1928)219 Madeleine in ChurchWalter de la Mare (1873–1956)227 The ListenersRobert Frost (1874–1963)229 The Road Not TakenEdward Thomas (1878–1918)232 AdlestropIsaac Rosenberg (1890–1918)234 Break of Day in the TrenchesSiegfried Sassoon (1886–1967)236 Base DetailsWilfred Owen (1893–1918)238 Strange MeetingW.B. Yeats (1865–1939)241 The Second Coming]242 Leda and the SwanHart Crane (1899–1932)247 My Grandmother’s Love LettersD.H. Lawrence (1885–1930)249 SnakeEdna St Vincent Millay (1892–1950)253 Sonnet: What my lips have kissedLangston Hughes (1902–1967)255 The Negro Speaks of RiversMarianne Moore (1887–1972)257 A GraveWallace Stevens (1879–1955)259 The SnowmanElinor Wylie (1885–1928)261 Full MoonE.E. Cummings (1894–1962)262 ‘next to of course god america i’Archibald Macleish (1892–1982)264 Ars PoeticaT.S. Eliot (1888–1965)267 The Journey of the MagiPatrick Kavanagh (1905–1967)270 Shancoduff270 Epic276 Brendan Kennelly: ‘A Man I Knew’Ruth Pitter (1897–1992)277 The Coffin WormElizabeth Daryush (1887–1977)279 ‘Anger lay by me all night long’Sheila Wingfield (1906–1992)281 from Beat Drum, Beat HeartW.H. Auden (1907–1973)286 In Memory of W.B. YeatsKeith Douglas (1920–1944)289 How to KillLouis MacNeice (1907–1963)291 Prayer Before BirthDylan Thomas (1914–1953)295 Do Not Go Gentle into That GoodnightStevie Smith (1902–1971)297 The River GodTed Hughes (1930–1998)299 The Thought-Fox300 from The Burnt FoxSylvia Plath (1932–1963)302 Morning SongDenise Levertov (1923–1997)304 LivingGeoffrey Hill (1932–2016)305 September SongAustin Clarke (1894–1974)307 The RedemptoristW.S. Graham (1918–1986)310 The Beast in the SpaceAdrienne Rich (1929–2012)312 Diving into the WreckMichael Longley (born 1939)316 WoundsDerek Mahon (1941–2020)319 A Disused Shed in Co. WexfordElizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)324 One ArtDerek Walcott (1930–2017)326 Love after LovePhilip Larkin (1922–1985)327 AubadeAnne Stevenson (1933–2020)330 Poem for a DaughterKen Smith (1938–2003)332 Being the third song of UriasSeamus Heaney (1939–2013)334 from Sweeney AstrayEavan Boland (1944–2020)340 The Journey348 References352 Acknowledgements

We have chosen the title of Delmore Schwartz's poem as the anthology’s title, The Heavy Bear Who Goes with Me, for several reasons. Poems are written because of various kinds of "withness"; the sense of mortality, failure in love, the challenge of history, the nature of consciousness, dreams, loneliness, prejudice, inexplicable hatreds, the urge to make sense of confusion, the seething need to protest against forms of injustice, to talk to somebody about things only partly grasped or understood, or not grasped or understood at all but hurtful and pressing, violating sleep, miscolouring daylight’s encounters and images, the sense of suffering an appetite that can never really be fed… Every poem is an act of faith in that imaginative momentum; every poem longs to connect with that energy whether it be pressingly immediate or blatently ignored. This is the connecting power that enables Schwartz, for example, to bring the heavy bear lumbering into our lives. Our dialogue with the gross, barging presence follows that moment of admission. Our hope, as editors, is that we have provided an anthology of poems marked by dialogue and connection, although these poems may be, usually are, born of the awareness of mortality, failure, inadequacy, loss, absurd or gross caricatures or perversions of what we take to be reality. Why not have it out, once and for all, with the heavy bear who goes with us?

Both editors are renowned communicators of poetry: Brendan Kennelly (1936-2021) as one of Ireland’s best-loved poets, as Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College Dublin, and as a popular cultural commentator on Irish television; Neil Astley as founder and editor of Bloodaxe Books and editor of the Staying Alive anthology series. This long awaited anthology is published in the UK and Ireland on the late Brendan Kennelly's 86th birthday, 17th April 2022.

• Neil Astley11 Preface: The Making of the Heavy BearDelmore Schwartz (1913–1966)19 Introduction: The Heavy Bear Who Goes with MeSir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)25 ‘They flee from me that sometime did me seek’Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–1547)27 'Wyatt resteth here'Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)30 ‘Thou blind man’s mark’Edmund Spenser (1552–1599)32 ‘One day I wrote her name upon the strand’Chidiock Tichborne (1558–1586)34 Elegy for HimselfChristopher Marlowe (1564–1593)36 Elegia VISir Walter Ralegh (1552–1618)40 The LieRobert Southwell (?1561–1595)44 The Burning BabeMichael Drayton (1563–1631)46 Since There’s No HelpWilliam Shakespeare (1564–1616)48 Sonnet 73: ‘That time of year…’Thomas Nashe (1567–1601)50 ‘Adieu, farewell, earth’s bliss’Thomas Campion (1567–1620)53 What if a DayJohn Donne (1572–1631)55 The FleaBen Jonson (1572–1637)58 On My First SonRobert Herrick (1591–1674)60 Gather Ye RosebudsHenry King (1592–1669)62 Exequy upon His WifeGeorge Herbert (1593–1633)67 Love IIIEdmund Waller (1606–1687)69 Go, Lovely RoseRichard Crashaw (1612/3–1649)71 The Flaming HeartRichard Lovelace (1618–1658)74 To Althea from PrisonAnne Bradstreet (1612–1672)76 A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public EmploymentHenry Vaughan (1621–1695)79 They Are All Gone into the World of Light!Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)82 To His Coy MistressJohn Milton (1608–1674)86 from Paradise LostThomas Traherne (1637–1674)89 DreamsJohn Dryden (1631–1700)93 from Absalom and AchitophelJohn Oldham (1653–1683)95 from The Third Satire of Juvenal, imitatedJonathan Swift (1667–1745)101 A Description of a City ShowerAlexander Pope (1688–1744)104 Epistle to Miss Blount, On Her Leaving the Town, After the CoronationSamuel Johnson (1709–1784)107 from London: A PoemThomas Gray (1716–1771)114 An Elegy Written in a Country Church YardChristopher Smart (1722–1771)120 from Jubilate AgnoOliver Goldsmith (c.1730–1774)125 from The Deserted VillageWilliam Cowper (1731–1800)129 The Poplar-FieldWilliam Blake (1757–1827)131 The TygerSamuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)134 Kubla KhanWilliam Wordsworth (1770–1850)138 Upon Westminster BridgeLord Byron (1788–1824)140 DarknessPercy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)146 Ode to the West WindJohn Keats (1795–1821)152 Ode to a NightingaleThomas Hood (1799–1845)158 I Remember, I RememberAlfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)160 TithonusJohn Clare (1793–1864)163 I AmRobert Browning (1812–1889)165 My Last DuchessElizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)169 How do I love thee?Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855)171 Stanzas (attr.)Emily Brontë (1818–1848)173 RemembranceMatthew Arnold (1822–1888)176 Dover BeachChristina Rossetti (1830–1894)180 RememberDante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1892)182 Sudden LightWalt Whitman (1819–1892)184 Native MomentsEmily Dickinson (1822–1888)186 Because I could not Stop for DeathAlice Meynell (1847–1922)188 RenouncementGerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1899)190 The WindhoverGeorge Meredith (1828–1909)200 Lucifer in StarlightEdwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)202 Luke HavergalOscar Wilde (1854–1900)205 from The Ballad of Reading GaolA.E. Housman (1859–1936)215 Good creatures do you love your livesThomas Hardy (1840–1928)217 The VoiceCharlotte Mew (1869–1928)219 Madeleine in ChurchWalter de la Mare (1873–1956)227 The ListenersRobert Frost (1874–1963)229 The Road Not TakenEdward Thomas (1878–1918)232 AdlestropIsaac Rosenberg (1890–1918)234 Break of Day in the TrenchesSiegfried Sassoon (1886–1967)236 Base DetailsWilfred Owen (1893–1918)238 Strange MeetingW.B. Yeats (1865–1939)241 The Second Coming]242 Leda and the SwanHart Crane (1899–1932)247 My Grandmother’s Love LettersD.H. Lawrence (1885–1930)249 SnakeEdna St Vincent Millay (1892–1950)253 Sonnet: What my lips have kissedLangston Hughes (1902–1967)255 The Negro Speaks of RiversMarianne Moore (1887–1972)257 A GraveWallace Stevens (1879–1955)259 The SnowmanElinor Wylie (1885–1928)261 Full MoonE.E. Cummings (1894–1962)262 ‘next to of course god america i’Archibald Macleish (1892–1982)264 Ars PoeticaT.S. Eliot (1888–1965)267 The Journey of the MagiPatrick Kavanagh (1905–1967)270 Shancoduff270 Epic276 Brendan Kennelly: ‘A Man I Knew’Ruth Pitter (1897–1992)277 The Coffin WormElizabeth Daryush (1887–1977)279 ‘Anger lay by me all night long’Sheila Wingfield (1906–1992)281 from Beat Drum, Beat HeartW.H. Auden (1907–1973)286 In Memory of W.B. YeatsKeith Douglas (1920–1944)289 How to KillLouis MacNeice (1907–1963)291 Prayer Before BirthDylan Thomas (1914–1953)295 Do Not Go Gentle into That GoodnightStevie Smith (1902–1971)297 The River GodTed Hughes (1930–1998)299 The Thought-Fox300 from The Burnt FoxSylvia Plath (1932–1963)302 Morning SongDenise Levertov (1923–1997)304 LivingGeoffrey Hill (1932–2016)305 September SongAustin Clarke (1894–1974)307 The RedemptoristW.S. Graham (1918–1986)310 The Beast in the SpaceAdrienne Rich (1929–2012)312 Diving into the WreckMichael Longley (born 1939)316 WoundsDerek Mahon (1941–2020)319 A Disused Shed in Co. WexfordElizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)324 One ArtDerek Walcott (1930–2017)326 Love after LovePhilip Larkin (1922–1985)327 AubadeAnne Stevenson (1933–2020)330 Poem for a DaughterKen Smith (1938–2003)332 Being the third song of UriasSeamus Heaney (1939–2013)334 from Sweeney AstrayEavan Boland (1944–2020)340 The Journey348 References352 Acknowledgements

We have chosen the title of Delmore Schwartz's poem as the anthology’s title, The Heavy Bear Who Goes with Me, for several reasons. Poems are written because of various kinds of "withness"; the sense of mortality, failure in love, the challenge of history, the nature of consciousness, dreams, loneliness, prejudice, inexplicable hatreds, the urge to make sense of confusion, the seething need to protest against forms of injustice, to talk to somebody about things only partly grasped or understood, or not grasped or understood at all but hurtful and pressing, violating sleep, miscolouring daylight’s encounters and images, the sense of suffering an appetite that can never really be fed… Every poem is an act of faith in that imaginative momentum; every poem longs to connect with that energy whether it be pressingly immediate or blatently ignored. This is the connecting power that enables Schwartz, for example, to bring the heavy bear lumbering into our lives. Our dialogue with the gross, barging presence follows that moment of admission. Our hope, as editors, is that we have provided an anthology of poems marked by dialogue and connection, although these poems may be, usually are, born of the awareness of mortality, failure, inadequacy, loss, absurd or gross caricatures or perversions of what we take to be reality. Why not have it out, once and for all, with the heavy bear who goes with us?

Both editors are renowned communicators of poetry: Brendan Kennelly (1936-2021) as one of Ireland’s best-loved poets, as Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College Dublin, and as a popular cultural commentator on Irish television; Neil Astley as founder and editor of Bloodaxe Books and editor of the Staying Alive anthology series. This long awaited anthology is published in the UK and Ireland on the late Brendan Kennelly's 86th birthday, 17th April 2022.

• Neil Astley11 Preface: The Making of the Heavy BearDelmore Schwartz (1913–1966)19 Introduction: The Heavy Bear Who Goes with MeSir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)25 ‘They flee from me that sometime did me seek’Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–1547)27 'Wyatt resteth here'Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)30 ‘Thou blind man’s mark’Edmund Spenser (1552–1599)32 ‘One day I wrote her name upon the strand’Chidiock Tichborne (1558–1586)34 Elegy for HimselfChristopher Marlowe (1564–1593)36 Elegia VISir Walter Ralegh (1552–1618)40 The LieRobert Southwell (?1561–1595)44 The Burning BabeMichael Drayton (1563–1631)46 Since There’s No HelpWilliam Shakespeare (1564–1616)48 Sonnet 73: ‘That time of year…’Thomas Nashe (1567–1601)50 ‘Adieu, farewell, earth’s bliss’Thomas Campion (1567–1620)53 What if a DayJohn Donne (1572–1631)55 The FleaBen Jonson (1572–1637)58 On My First SonRobert Herrick (1591–1674)60 Gather Ye RosebudsHenry King (1592–1669)62 Exequy upon His WifeGeorge Herbert (1593–1633)67 Love IIIEdmund Waller (1606–1687)69 Go, Lovely RoseRichard Crashaw (1612/3–1649)71 The Flaming HeartRichard Lovelace (1618–1658)74 To Althea from PrisonAnne Bradstreet (1612–1672)76 A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public EmploymentHenry Vaughan (1621–1695)79 They Are All Gone into the World of Light!Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)82 To His Coy MistressJohn Milton (1608–1674)86 from Paradise LostThomas Traherne (1637–1674)89 DreamsJohn Dryden (1631–1700)93 from Absalom and AchitophelJohn Oldham (1653–1683)95 from The Third Satire of Juvenal, imitatedJonathan Swift (1667–1745)101 A Description of a City ShowerAlexander Pope (1688–1744)104 Epistle to Miss Blount, On Her Leaving the Town, After the CoronationSamuel Johnson (1709–1784)107 from London: A PoemThomas Gray (1716–1771)114 An Elegy Written in a Country Church YardChristopher Smart (1722–1771)120 from Jubilate AgnoOliver Goldsmith (c.1730–1774)125 from The Deserted VillageWilliam Cowper (1731–1800)129 The Poplar-FieldWilliam Blake (1757–1827)131 The TygerSamuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)134 Kubla KhanWilliam Wordsworth (1770–1850)138 Upon Westminster BridgeLord Byron (1788–1824)140 DarknessPercy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)146 Ode to the West WindJohn Keats (1795–1821)152 Ode to a NightingaleThomas Hood (1799–1845)158 I Remember, I RememberAlfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)160 TithonusJohn Clare (1793–1864)163 I AmRobert Browning (1812–1889)165 My Last DuchessElizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)169 How do I love thee?Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855)171 Stanzas (attr.)Emily Brontë (1818–1848)173 RemembranceMatthew Arnold (1822–1888)176 Dover BeachChristina Rossetti (1830–1894)180 RememberDante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1892)182 Sudden LightWalt Whitman (1819–1892)184 Native MomentsEmily Dickinson (1822–1888)186 Because I could not Stop for DeathAlice Meynell (1847–1922)188 RenouncementGerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1899)190 The WindhoverGeorge Meredith (1828–1909)200 Lucifer in StarlightEdwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)202 Luke HavergalOscar Wilde (1854–1900)205 from The Ballad of Reading GaolA.E. Housman (1859–1936)215 Good creatures do you love your livesThomas Hardy (1840–1928)217 The VoiceCharlotte Mew (1869–1928)219 Madeleine in ChurchWalter de la Mare (1873–1956)227 The ListenersRobert Frost (1874–1963)229 The Road Not TakenEdward Thomas (1878–1918)232 AdlestropIsaac Rosenberg (1890–1918)234 Break of Day in the TrenchesSiegfried Sassoon (1886–1967)236 Base DetailsWilfred Owen (1893–1918)238 Strange MeetingW.B. Yeats (1865–1939)241 The Second Coming]242 Leda and the SwanHart Crane (1899–1932)247 My Grandmother’s Love LettersD.H. Lawrence (1885–1930)249 SnakeEdna St Vincent Millay (1892–1950)253 Sonnet: What my lips have kissedLangston Hughes (1902–1967)255 The Negro Speaks of RiversMarianne Moore (1887–1972)257 A GraveWallace Stevens (1879–1955)259 The SnowmanElinor Wylie (1885–1928)261 Full MoonE.E. Cummings (1894–1962)262 ‘next to of course god america i’Archibald Macleish (1892–1982)264 Ars PoeticaT.S. Eliot (1888–1965)267 The Journey of the MagiPatrick Kavanagh (1905–1967)270 Shancoduff270 Epic276 Brendan Kennelly: ‘A Man I Knew’Ruth Pitter (1897–1992)277 The Coffin WormElizabeth Daryush (1887–1977)279 ‘Anger lay by me all night long’Sheila Wingfield (1906–1992)281 from Beat Drum, Beat HeartW.H. Auden (1907–1973)286 In Memory of W.B. YeatsKeith Douglas (1920–1944)289 How to KillLouis MacNeice (1907–1963)291 Prayer Before BirthDylan Thomas (1914–1953)295 Do Not Go Gentle into That GoodnightStevie Smith (1902–1971)297 The River GodTed Hughes (1930–1998)299 The Thought-Fox300 from The Burnt FoxSylvia Plath (1932–1963)302 Morning SongDenise Levertov (1923–1997)304 LivingGeoffrey Hill (1932–2016)305 September SongAustin Clarke (1894–1974)307 The RedemptoristW.S. Graham (1918–1986)310 The Beast in the SpaceAdrienne Rich (1929–2012)312 Diving into the WreckMichael Longley (born 1939)316 WoundsDerek Mahon (1941–2020)319 A Disused Shed in Co. WexfordElizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)324 One ArtDerek Walcott (1930–2017)326 Love after LovePhilip Larkin (1922–1985)327 AubadeAnne Stevenson (1933–2020)330 Poem for a DaughterKen Smith (1938–2003)332 Being the third song of UriasSeamus Heaney (1939–2013)334 from Sweeney AstrayEavan Boland (1944–2020)340 The Journey348 References352 Acknowledgements

We have chosen the title of Delmore Schwartz's poem as the anthology’s title, The Heavy Bear Who Goes with Me, for several reasons. Poems are written because of various kinds of "withness"; the sense of mortality, failure in love, the challenge of history, the nature of consciousness, dreams, loneliness, prejudice, inexplicable hatreds, the urge to make sense of confusion, the seething need to protest against forms of injustice, to talk to somebody about things only partly grasped or understood, or not grasped or understood at all but hurtful and pressing, violating sleep, miscolouring daylight’s encounters and images, the sense of suffering an appetite that can never really be fed… Every poem is an act of faith in that imaginative momentum; every poem longs to connect with that energy whether it be pressingly immediate or blatently ignored. This is the connecting power that enables Schwartz, for example, to bring the heavy bear lumbering into our lives. Our dialogue with the gross, barging presence follows that moment of admission. Our hope, as editors, is that we have provided an anthology of poems marked by dialogue and connection, although these poems may be, usually are, born of the awareness of mortality, failure, inadequacy, loss, absurd or gross caricatures or perversions of what we take to be reality. Why not have it out, once and for all, with the heavy bear who goes with us?