five poems

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Five Poems by John Holloway Little Hawk Little hawk on the pass, Working the rock Down the rainy grain of the wind: Never despairing for valleys Where the rivers run dormice: When you quarter the ruined fortress I think, the hands of its sentinels, That darkens the spur, Numb with the wind, Were as mine now, rhyming the glasses And writing your lesson Down the grain of my body. To your curl and halting, (Lesson also of the fortress) Land Bird Land bird, land bird, Drop from the soft wind That blows from the cliff-edge And rest in the rigging. Land bird, land bird, The wind rises; Feed from my fingers, And tell me, singing, What my girl is doing. Why do you sooner, When I ask you so little. Rise swiftly and wing For the open ocean? 24 2

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Page 1: Five Poems

Five Poems by John Holloway

Little Hawk Little hawk on the pass,

Working the rock Down the rainy grain of the wind:

Never despairing for valleys Where the rivers run dormice:

When you quarter the ruined fortress

I think, the hands of its sentinels, That darkens the spur,

Numb with the wind,

Were as mine now, rhyming the glasses

And writing your lesson

Down the grain of my body.

To your curl and halting,

(Lesson also of the fortress)

Land Bird Land bird, land bird, Drop from the soft wind That blows from the cliff-edge And rest in the rigging.

Land bird, land bird, The wind rises; Feed from my fingers, And tell me, singing, What my girl is doing.

Why do you sooner, When I ask you so little. Rise swiftly and wing For the open ocean?

24 2

Page 2: Five Poems

Riding Song Rest, man-child.

Yonder the sheep are folding, Low on the mountain’s breast.

Gather, shadows.

Let the ass plod us home. Already dusk has come, And broad valleys are long.

Gather, shadows.

Myself I gave. Another man loved me, A third it was wed me:.

I do not say too much.

But which I loved, Truly I shall not tell, Because I shall not know, Until this road gets up and sings

And dances as well. I do not say too mulch.

Gather, shadows.

Attic, Nortliern Liglit South wind, manoeuvre the windflowers,

To show you, nodding, the:ir black hearts.

And with a touch of your lhand

That, wrenching, breaks it also.

I know where, a day’s wind away, With your last finger of wa.rmth, Unsnowing the granite, you make The geese, the grey geese, restless To arrowhead northward to

That have broken the soil,

Refresh the plough-ass

Still icier waters.

A restlessness this flower, This colourful flower at my feet,

Ventures on also. As it nods,

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Page 3: Five Poems

Rain

The Active Universe Pantheism and the Concept of Imagination in the English Romantic Poets

New contemporary sources for Coleridge’s early thought and fundamental imagery and for Wordsworth’s pantheism are here revealed, and the development of the Romantic concept of Imagi- nation shown in a new perspective. September 20; 35s net

H. W. P I P E R

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Call as you go, rag-man. And among these wet hills, River, run your hand.

Little enough will you get. This is a limestone land.

I THE. ATHLONE P R E S S OF THE U N I V E R S I T Y OF L O N D O N

Tall rock in stony field Stands like a man. Thornscab, windgap,

And a sharp air; and rain

That drowns at once in the rock. All day the hills frown : The rain makes them dark:

Little rain runs down.

And call as you go, rag-man: Your sack is empty.

Mirror of Minds Changing Psychological Beliefs in English Poetry

G E O F F R E Y BULLOUGH Professor Bullough considers the ways in which many English poets have sought to understand and interpret the inner and outer worlds of experience in the light of prevailing views about the nature of the human mind, its relation to the body, its powers and limitations. ‘. . . learned and full of insight.’ The Spectator 35s net