Poems of London

Foreword   THE THAMES AND OTHER WATERWAYS RUDYARD KIPLING The River’s Tale MICHAEL DRAYTON From PolyOlbion OSCAR WILDE Impression du Matin JOYCE CARY From The Horse’s Mouth WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 DENISE RILEY Composed underneath Westminster Bridge D. H. LAWRENCE Town in 1917 ANONYMOUS Frost Fair 1684 JOHN TAYLOR From An Arrant Thief LOUIS MACNEICE Charon JAMES ELROY FLECKER Ballad of the Londoner JO SHAPCOTT ‘Delectable Creatures’ CICELY FOX SMITH London Seagulls WILFRED OWEN Shadwell Stair JOHN DAVIDSON In the Isle of Dogs U. A. FANTHORPE Rising Damp BEN JONSON From On the Famous Voyage KIT WRIGHT Wailing in Wandsworth EDMUND SPENSER From Prothalamion T. S. ELIOT From The Waste Land   THE CITY AND WESTMINSTER WILLIAM DUNBAR London TRADITIONAL Oranges and Lemons T. S. ELIOT From The Waste Land SIR JOHN BETJEMAN From Summoned by Bells TOM CHIVERS The Bells DAVID JONES From The Anathemata: ‘The Lady of the Pool’ ANONYMOUS City Street Cries FRANCIS BEAUMONT From Master Francis Beaumont’s Letter to Ben Jonson JOHN KEATS Lines on the Mermaid Tavern SIR JOHN DAVIES Plague THOMAS NASHE A Litany in Time of Plague JOHN DRYDEN The Fire of London IAN NAIRN St. Stephen Walbrook WILLIAM BLAKE Holy Thursday PETER BOSTOCK A Few Words from Rev. Sydney Smith THOMAS HARDY In St. Paul’s a While Ago LOUIS MACNEICE Homage to Wren ARTHUR HENRY ADAMS Fleet Street WILLIAM BLAKE London PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Hell WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE The Princes in the Tower OLIVER REYNOLDS Little Ease SIR THOMAS WYATT ‘Who list his wealth and ease retain’ GEOFFREY HILL From Holbein U. A. FANTHORPE Portraits of Tudor Statesmen DAVID HARSENT From Fire: A Song for Mistress Askew ANDREW MARVELL From An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland LIONEL JOHNSON By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross JONATHAN SWIFT Clever Tom Clinch, Going to Be Hanged LAWRENCE DURRELL A Ballad of the Good Lord Nelson ARTHUR RIMBAUD Villes VIRGINIA WOOLF Big Ben FRANCIS BEAUMONT Westminster Abbey IMOGEN ROBERTSON The Statues of Buckingham Palace   DIVERSIONS EDMUND WALLER From On St. James’s Park, As Lately Improved by His Majesty JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER from A Ramble in St. James’s Park EZRA POUND The Garden SYLVIA PLATH Queen Mary’s Rose Garden TED HUGHES Jaguar SAMUEL BECKETT Serena I WILLIAM EMPSON Homage to the British Museum RÓISÍN TIERNEY Song of the Temple Maiden FERGUS ALLEN Imperial War Museum, November ALEXANDER POPE Hampton Court THOMAS HARDY A Spellbound Palace JOHN DONNE Twickenham Garden WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Prologue to Henry V ANONYMOUS From On the Death of the Famous Actor, Richard Burbage BEN JONSON On Salathiel Pavy: A Child of Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel BEN JONSON From To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare   DAY AND NIGHT MARY ROBINSON London’s Summer Morning IVOR GURNEY London Dawn GEOFFREY MATTHEWS Aubade 1940 SIR JOHN BETJEMAN Business Girls WILLIAM WORDSWORTH The Real Scene WILLIAM WORDSWORTH The Blind Beggar JONATHAN SWIFT A Description of a City Shower JOHN DAVIDSON Fog JOHN GAY Pickpockets ROSEMARY TONKS An Oldfashioned Traveller on the Trade Routes R. P. LISTER Buses on the Strand LUKE HEELEY To a Disused Phone Box IAN NAIRN Red Lion, Duke of York Street JOHN HEATHSTUBBS Lament for ‘The Old Swan’, Notting Hill Gate GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON Don Juan in London THOMAS HOOD A Nocturnal Sketch RICHARD LE GALLIENNE A Ballad of London T. E. HULME The Embankment SIR JOHN BETJEMAN On Seeing an Old Poet in the Café Royal ERIC MASCHWITZ A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square ARTHUR SYMONS Behind the Scenes: Empire ROSEMARY TONKS Orpheus in Soho RICHARD SCOTT From Soho JOHN OLDHAM From A Satire, in Imitation of the Third of Juvenal CHARLES CHURCHILL The Haunted City AMY LOWELL A London Thoroughfare, 2 a.m. D. H. LAWRENCE Parliament Hill in the Evening HUBERT WITHEFORD The World in the Evening SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER Quiet Neighbours BERNARD SPENCER Regent’s Park Terrace ROBERT BRIDGES London Snow DEREK MAHON One of These Nights SIDNEY KEYES Greenwich Observatory   NATURE AND PLACE JOHN KEATS Ode to a Nightingale THOM GUNN Keats at Highgate AMY LEVY A London Plane Tree D. H. LAWRENCE Letter from Town: The Almond Tree ROBERT LOWELL Closed Sky RUTH FAINLIGHT Solstices CHARLOTTE MEW The Trees Are Down CHARLES DICKENS Earthquake in Camden Town EMILE VERHAEREN London WILLIAM BLAKE From Milton HILARY DAVIES In the Fire Frost Morning MARTINA EVANS On Living in an Area of Manifest Greyness and Misery EDGAR BATEMAN If It Wasn’t for the ’Ouses in Between KEN SMITH From Fox Running WILLIAM BLAKE From Jerusalem WILLIAM WORDSWORTH The Reverie of Poor Susan BERNARDINE EVARISTO Seven Dials, London, 1880 PATRICK KAVANAGH Kerr’s Ass   SOME LONDONERS WILLIAM WORDSWORTH All Specimens of Man ABRAHAM NAHUM STENZEL Whitechapel in Britain EMANUEL LITVINOFF A Long Look Back PERCY FRENCH The Mountains o’ Mourne IAN DUHIG Grand Union Bridge ALDWYN ROBERTS London Is the Place for Me LINTON KWESI JOHNSON Inglan Is a Bitch FLEUR ADCOCK Immigrant JOHN AGARD What Ails the King? PATIENCE AGBABI Sir Topaz & Da Elephant JOHN SHIRLEY The Maunder’s Praise of His Strowling Mort FAWZI KARIM Night’s Scavengers WILLIAM BLAKE ‘Why should I care for the men of Thames’ INUA ELLAMS Directions