Description
Book SynopsisThe Honey Gatherers takes its title from a phrase in Michael Ondaatje’s The Cinnamon Peeler, a poem which describes the need to be marked, and marked out, by love. The search, the sweetness, the sting and the death of love, are all to be found in this anthology. Wide-ranging in its inclusiveness, The Honey Gatherers celebrates the great passions of John Donne, Christina Rossetti, Shakespeare, Keats, Sir Thomas Wyatt and the beloved Anon, whilst con?rming the extraordinary gift to this headlong debate of 20th century poets. Pablo Neruda, Lorna Goodison, Brian Patten, Adrienne Rich, Tess Gallagher, W.H. Auden, Stevie Smith, Dorothy Parker, John Montague, Thom Gunn, Carol Ann Duffy and Sharon Olds are just some of those who meet in these pages. Here are poems about romantic love, the ideal of love, the hurt of love, lost or unrequited love and parting – all you might expect to ?nd in such a gathering – but here too are poems of friendship, surprise, celebration and consolation. This is a book which explores Raymond Carver’s big question ‘And what did you want?’ and offers some answers: ‘To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.’ – Raymond Carver: ‘Late Fragment’ Most love poetry anthologies only cover the classics. This one includes modern poets and erotic poetry as well.
Table of ContentsMaura Dooley 15 Preface 1 ‘What the heart is like’ Thomas Middleton 18 Love Miroslav Holub 18 What the heart is like Robert Bridges 20 ‘So sweet love seemed that April morn’ Linda France 20 If Love Was Jazz Penelope Shuttle 21 Looking for Love Anne Sexton 23 Just Once Wendy Cope 23 Flowers Wislawa Szymborska 24 Family Album 2 ‘What is to be given’ James Fenton 26 In Paris with You W.B. Yeats 27 A Drinking Song William Wordsworth 27 ‘She was a Phantom of delight’ Hilaire Belloc 28 Juliet Anonymous 28 When Molly Smiles James S. Martinez 29 My Little Lize Louis MacNeice 30 Meeting Point Sir John Suckling 31 Song Sappho 33 ‘It seems to me that man is equal to the gods’ Thomas Hardy 34 Faintheart in a Railway Train Edwin Denby 34 The Subway Victor Tapner 35 Coffee Shop Delmore Schwartz 36 What is to be Given Fernando Pessoa 36 The Leaves’ Audible Smile William Blake 37 Song Adrienne Rich 37 The Loser Austin Clarke 39 The Planter’s Daughter Patrick Kavanagh 39 On Raglan Road Hugo Williams 40 The Water Bearer Oodgeroo 41 Gifts Brian Patten 41 A Blade of Grass Liz Lochhead 42 I Wouldn’t Thank You for a Valentine Emily Dickinson 43 ‘The Way I read a Letter’ Federico García Lorca 44 The Poet speaks to the loved one Robert Frost 44 The Telephone Jackie Kay 45 Lovesick C.K. Williams 46 Love: Beginnings Selima Hill 47 Dewpond and Black Drain-pipes Ted Hughes 48 Snow and Snow 3 ‘What are all these kissings worth’ Stevie Smith 50 Conviction IV Coventry Patmore 50 The Kiss Sara Teasdale 50 The Look Percy Bysshe Shelley 51 Love’s Philosophy Anne Haverty 52 In the Country Anonymous 52 A Love-Song Ruth Padel 52 Being Late to Meet You at the Station Leigh Hunt 53 Jenny Kissed Me Catullus 53 ‘Time to live and let love, Lesbia’ Naomi Mitchison 54 Old Love and New Tracy Ryan 54 Bite Stevie Smith 55 The Frog Prince Judith Wright 57 ‘Dove-Love’ Chris Wallace-Crabbe 57 The Amorous Cannibal Jo Shapcott 58 Muse 4 ‘Let lovers go fresh and sweet to be undone’ Simon Armitage 60 Night Shift Christopher Reid 60 At the Wrong Door Carol Ann Duffy 61 Steam D.H. Lawrence 62 Gloire de Dijon Sujata Bhatt 62 Love in a Bathtub Edward Thomas 63 Like the Touch of Rain John Montague 63 All Legendary Obstacles Richard Wilbur 64 Love Calls Us to the Things of This World Anne Haverty 66 Do Anonymous 67 Scarborough Fair Anonymous 68 The Shirt of a Lad Rita Dove 68 His Shirt Nigel Jenkins 70 Shirts Pete Morgan 71 The Shirt of a Lad Henry Nutter 72 The Girl in the Calico Dress Michael Longley 73 The Linen Industry Yehuda Amichai 74 It was Summer, or the End of Summer 5 ‘And our mouths run over with luscious smiles’ Rita Ann Higgins 76 It’s Platonic Ben Jonson 76 Song: to Celia John Agard 77 Get Down Ye Angels Omar Khayyam 77 from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Thomas Moore 78 The Young May Moon Edmund Waller 78 Song Andrew Marvell 79 To His Coy Mistress Christopher Marlowe 80 The Passionate Shepherd to His Love Sir Walter Ralegh 81 The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd Langston Hughes 82 When Sue Wears Red King James Bible 83 from The Song of Solomon Michael Ondaatje 84 Women Like You Helen Dunmore 86 Wild strawberries Thomas Lynch 87 A Note on the Rapture to His true Love Grace Nichols 88 The Way Your Sleeping Hand Edith Södergran 88 Revelation David Constantine 89 Mistress Dave Smith 90 Walking Under a Spruce with My Love Frank O’Hara 92 Having a Coke with You James Fenton 92 I’ll Explain Robert Herrick 92 Her Bed 6 ‘Wild Nights – Wild Nights!’ Petronius 94 ‘Good God, what a night that was’ Emily Dickinson 94 ‘Wild Nights’ Billy Collins 95 Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes Sonia Sanchez 96 Blues Selima Hill 97 The Ram Fleur Adcock 98 Coupling Cole Porter 98 Night and Day James McAuley 99 Aubade Kenneth Rexroth 100 Marichiko: ‘Making love with you’ Grace Nichols 100 Configurations Judith Wright 101 Woman to Man Michael Donaghy 102 Pentecost Penelope Shuttle 103 Act of Love John Donne 105 The Good Morrow Anonymous 106 Plucking the Rushes King James Bible 106 from The Song of Solomon André Breton 107 Freedom of Love Elizabeth Smart 109 from By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept Ted Hughes 109 Lovesong John Donne 111 The Ecstasy Michael Ondaatje 113 The Cinnamon Peeler Deborah Randall 115 Ballygrand Widow Francis Stuart 116 Homecoming Sarah Maguire 116 Spilt Milk A.D. Hope 117 The Wandering Islands John Berryman 118 Dream Songs, 142 C.K. Williams 119 The Lover William Shakespeare 119 ‘Th’expense of spirit in a waste of shame’ Jo Shapcott 120 Vegetable Love Anonymous 121 John Anderson, My Jo James Berry 123 Flame and Water James Berry 124 Earth and Air Alan Brownjohn 125 At the Time Yehuda Amichai 125 A Pity. We Were Such a Good Invention Michael Longley 126 Swans Mating 7 ‘How do I love thee?’ Omar Khayyam 128 from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Adrian Mitchell 128 Celia Celia Anonymous 129 Alisoun Anonymous 130 The Lovely Étan Ian Duhig 130 From the Irish John Wain 130 Apology for Understatement Elizabeth Barrett Browning 131 ‘How do I love thee?’ John Dowland 132 ‘Fine knacks for ladies’ William Shakespeare 133 ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ W.B. Yeats 133 He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven Paul Durcan 134 Cleaning Ashtrays Deryn Rees-Jones 135 Calcium Primo Levi 136 11 February 1946 Nessie Dunsmuir 137 The White Word W.S. Graham 137 I Leave This at Your Ear Elizabeth Bishop 138 Late Air Anonymous 138 I Will Give My Love an Apple Robin Robertson 139 Static Padraic Colum 140 She Moved Through the Fair ‘Ephelia’ 141 To one that asked me why I lov’d J.G. Shane Leslie 141 Bog Love William Shakespeare 142 ‘My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun’ Edmund Blunden 142 Lonely Love Samuel Daniel 143 ‘When men shall find thy flower’ William Shakespeare 144 ‘When forty winters shall besiege thy brow’ Pierre de Ronsard 144 ‘Since she’s all winter’ Sir John Betjeman 145 In a Bath Teashop Adrian Mitchell 145 Giving Potatoes E.E. Cummings 146 ‘somewhere i have never travelled’ Li Po 147 The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter W.H. Auden 148 Lullaby Christopher Logue 150 Air for the Witness of a Departure Dorothy Parker 151 Love Song Rainer Maria Rilke 152 ‘You who never arrived’ 8 ‘I will love thee until my death’ Delmore Schwartz 154 The Beautiful American Word, Sure John Keats 154 ‘Bright star, would I were as stedfast as thou art’ Alice Oswald 155 Ballad of a Shadow John Donne 156 A Valediction: forbidding Mourning Edna St Vincent Millay 157 Modern Declaration William Shakespeare 158 ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds’ Leo Marks 158 Code Poem Samuel Taylor Coleridge 159 Answer to a Child’s Question Sir John Suckling 159 Song Christopher Brennan 160 It is so long ago! Sir Thomas Wyatt 160 ‘Forget not yet the tried intent’ Gwen Harwood 161 Meditation on Wyatt II James McAuley 162 One Thing at Least John Gower 162 ‘O thou my sorwe and my gladnesse’ Richard Lovelace 163 To Althea, From Prison Elizabeth Barrett Browning 164 ‘If thou must love me’ 9 ‘If ever two were one, then surely we’ Philip Larkin 166 Wedding-Wind Alice Oswald 166 Wedding George Meredith 167 ‘By this he knew she wept with waking eyes’ Richard Crashaw 168 An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife who died and were buried together Stevie Smith 168 Marriage I Think Una Marson 169 To Wed or Not to Wed Katherine Philips 170 An Answer to another perswading a Lady to Marriage Edna St Vincent Millay 171 Sonnet Kate Clanchy 172 For a Wedding Anne Bradstreet 172 To My Dear and Loving Husband Sir Philip Sidney 173 A Ditty Rainer Maria Rilke 173 Love Song Conrad Aiken 174 The Quarrel Robert Creeley 175 Love Comes Quietly Sharon Olds 175 True Love David Campbell 176 We Took the Storms to Bed Jonathan Davidson 177 Happy Together E.B. White 177 Natural History Kit Wright 178 From Cheshire Henry Treece 178 The Heart’s Wild Geese Carol Ann Duffy 179 Anne Hathaway Robert Crawford 180 Home William Stafford 181 Passing Remark Seamus Heaney 181 The Underground Lavinia Greenlaw 182 Underworld Edward Lear 182 The Owl and the Pussy-Cat Gillian Allnutt 182 Ode Michael Laskey 185 Bike Paul Muldoon 186 Long Finish W.S. Graham 189 To My Wife at Midnight Thom Gunn 191 The Hug Fleur Adcock 192 Kissing Robert Lowell 193 Elizabeth Jackie Kay 193 Snap Judith Herzberg 194 Old Age Philip Larkin 194 Talking in Bed Solveig von Schoultz 195 Conversation Pierre de Ronsard 195 ‘When you are old’ W.B. Yeats 196 When You Are Old Jonathan Swift 196 Stella’s Birthday Esther Johnson 197 To Dr Swift on his Birthday Theodore Roethke 198 I Knew a Woman Maurice Riordan 199 The Table Andrew Motion 200 On the Table Michael Laskey 200 The Knife Christina Rossetti 201 Autumn Violets Tess Gallagher 202 Black Violets Charlotte Mew 203 Rooms Edward Thomas 203 And You, Helen U.A. Fanthorpe 204 Atlas 10 ‘I am no good at love’ Dorothy Parker 206 Comment Isobel Campbell 206 A Learned Mistress Marina Tsvetaeva 207 I’ve dissolved for you Eleanor Brown 208 Bitcherel Geoffrey Chaucer 209 from The Wife of Bath’s Tale Lesbia Harford 209 The Folk I Love Alicia Stubbersfield 210 Unsuitable Shoes William Shakespeare 211 ‘Sigh no more, Ladies’ A.E. Housman 211 from A Shropshire Lad W.B. Yeats 212 The Pity of Love Marvin Bell 212 Being in Love William Shakespeare 213 ‘When my love swears that she is made of truth’ Francis Ledwidge 214 The Sorrow of Love Hugo Williams 214 The Ribbon Sir Philip Sidney 215 ‘With how sad steps, O Moon’ Vicki Feaver 216 The Crack Kamau Brathwaite 217 Schooner Thomas Hardy 218 At Castle Boterel Dermot Healy 219 O Woman H.D. 220 ‘Never more will the wind’ Catullus 221 Odi et amo Adrienne Rich 221 The Parting: II Walter de la Mare 222 When Love Flies Sir Philip Sidney 222 from Astrophil and Stella Thomas Campion 223 ‘Thrice toss these oaken ashes in the air’ Amy Levy 223 To Lallie (Outside the British Museum) Kamau Brathwaite 225 Blues W.B. Yeats 226 Down by the Salley Gardens James Fenton 227 I Know What I’m Missing Anne Sexton 228 That Day Thomas Hardy 229 The Voice Bhartrhari 230 ‘She who is always in my thoughts’ Robert Herrick 230 Impossibilities to his Friend A.E. Housman 231 ‘He would not stay for me’ Wendy Cope 231 Another Unfortunate Choice Noel Coward 231 I Am No Good at Love Robert Graves 232 Love without Hope Carol Ann Duffy 232 Warming Her Pearls Charlotte Mew 233 The Farmer’s Bride Freda Downie 235 A Plain Girl Roger McGough 236 Vinegar Sir Thomas Wyatt 236 ‘Whoso list to hunt’ Elizabeth Jennings 237 Delay Gjertrud Schnackenberg 237 Snow Melting Vikram Seth 238 Across Lorna Goodison 238 Lepidopterist Paul Muldoon 239 The Train Peter Sansom 240 K563 Bob Dylan 241 Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right W.B. Yeats 242 No Second Troy 11 ‘The end of love ’ Lord Byron 244 ‘So we’ll go no more a-roving’ Bob Dylan 244 I Threw It All Away Matthew Arnold 245 Separation Sir Thomas Wyatt 246 Farewell John Keats 247 La Belle Dame sans Merci Nina Cassian 248 Of No Use Samuel Beckett 249 ‘I would like my love to die’ Sir Thomas Wyatt 249 ‘They flee from me that sometime did me seek’ Geoffrey Chaucer (?) 250 Merciles Beaute Sophie Hannah 251 The End of Love Michael Drayton 252 ‘Since there’s no help’ James K. Baxter 252 I have cut from my heart C.K. Williams 253 Love: The Dance Elizabeth Smart 253 from By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept Xu Zhi Mo 254 Don’t Pinch Me, Hurts Federico García Lorca 255 Sonnet of the Sweet Complaint Sheila Wingfield 255 Winter Peter Dale 256 Retrospect James Fenton 257 Out of Danger James Wright 258 A Breath of Air 12 ‘What will survive of us is love’ Traditional 260 She’s Like the Swallow Anonymous 260 Frankie and Johnny Anonymous 263 Donal Og W.H. Auden 264 Funeral Blues Mark Doty 265 Where you are Peter Jolliffe 266 Lacuna Vikram Seth 267 All You Who Sleep Tonight Frances Cornford 267 She Warns Him Frances Cornford 268 All Soul’s Night Percy Bysshe Shelley 268 Music, When Soft Voices Die Edmund Spenser 269 One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand John Clare 269 Love lives beyond the Tomb J.M. Synge 270 A Question R.S. Thomas 271 Madrigal Charles Baudelaire 271 I Dreamt that you were not Dead Eibhlín Dhubh Ní Chonaill 272 The Lament for Arthur O’Leary Christina Rossetti 283 Remember Pablo Neruda 284 Dead Woman Langston Hughes 285 Song for a Dark Girl Robert Graves 286 Lost Love Oscar Wilde 286 Requiescat Dora Sigerson 287 I want to talk to thee Theodore Roethke 288 The Apparition John Dowland 289 Me, Me, and None But Me Louis MacNeice 289 The Sunlight on the Garden Robert Penn Warren 290 In Moonlight, Somewhere, They Are Singing Elizabeth Barrett Browning 291 ‘Belovèd, my Belovèd’ Raymond Carver 292 Late Fragment Philip Larkin 292 An Arundel Tomb 296 Acknowledgements 301 Index of poets and translators 304 Index of titles and first lines
