OK - I've got the book.

The Foreword explains that Heaney and Hughes decided to put the poems in Alphabetical order, because to have arranged it according to author would have robbed the order of the poems of an unexpectedness which it now possesses. To have done it Thematically would have made it feel too much like a textbook. To have done it chronologically would have left whole centuries unrepresented and made the thing look a botched historical survey.

Thanks Saffron for supplying M-Z - I'll do A-L:

1. Adieu, farewell earth's bliss - Thomas Nashe
2. After his Death - Norman MacCaig
3. After Looking into a book Belonging to My Great-Grandfather - Hyam Plutzik
4. Afterwards - Thomas Hardy
5. Ah Sunflower - William Blake
6. Alfred Corning Clark - Robert Lowell
7. The Allansford Pursuit - Robert Graves
8. 'All the World's a stage' - William Shakespeare
9. Among the Narcissi - Sylvia Plath
10. The Ancients of the world - R S Thomas
11. And death shall have no dominion - Dylan Thomas
12. And in the 51st Year of that Century - Hyam Plutzik
13. And the days are not full enough - Ezra Pound
14. Angelica the Doorkeeper - Anon
15. The Angel that presided o'er my birth - William Blake
16. Anger lay by me all night long - Elizabeth Daryush
17. An Animal Alphabet - Edward Lear
18. Another Epitaph on an army of Mercenaries - Hugh MacDiarmid
19. anyone lived in a pretty how town - e e cummings
20. Apple Blossom - Louis MacNeice
21. The Artist - William Carlos Williams
22. As I came in by Fiddich-side - Anon
23. As I walked out one evening - W H Auden
24. As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame - Gerard Manley Hopkins
25. As Much as you Can - C P Cavafy
26. As the team's head-brass flashed out - Edward Thomas
27. As you came from the Holy Land - Sir Walter Raleigh
28. At Grass - Philip Larkin
29. At the Bomb Testing Site - William Stafford
30. At the grey round of the hill - W B Yeats
31. Auguries of Innocence - William Blake
32. Aunt Julia - Norman MacCaig
33. Autobahnmotorwayautoroute - Adrian Mitchell
34. Autobiography - Louis MacNeice
35. Auto wreck - Karl Shapiro
36. Aye, but to die, and go we know not where - William Shakespeare

That's the A's - B's in next post because I am scared of losing my typing.

This is the first poem in the book, which I think we have covered in the 500. But anyway, I don't think there are very many which we have already done.....I suppose there were bound to be some.

I'll post the second one as well - because I don't recall having covered that one.

1. Adieu, Farewell, Earth’s Bliss
By Thomas Nashe 1567–1601 Thomas Nashe

Adieu, farewell, earth’s bliss;
This world uncertain is;
Fond are life’s lustful joys;
Death proves them all but toys;
None from his darts can fly;
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!

Rich men, trust not in wealth,
Gold cannot buy you health;
Physic himself must fade.
All things to end are made,
The plague full swift goes by;
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!

Beauty is but a flower
Which wrinkles will devour;
Brightness falls from the air;
Queens have died young and fair;
Dust hath closed Helen’s eye.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!

Strength stoops unto the grave,
Worms feed on Hector’s brave;
Swords may not fight with fate,
Earth still holds ope her gate.
“Come, come!” the bells do cry.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us.

Wit with his wantonness
Tasteth death’s bitterness;
Hell’s executioner
Hath no ears for to hear
What vain art can reply.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us.

Haste, therefore, each degree,
To welcome destiny;
Heaven is our heritage,
Earth but a player’s stage;
Mount we unto the sky.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us.

And Poem Number 2 - After his Death - Norman MacCaig

It turned out
that the bombs he had thrown
raised buildings:



that the acid he had sprayed
had painfully opened
the eyes of the blind.



Fishermen hauled
prizewinning fish
from the water he had polluted.



We sat with astonishment
enjoying the shade
of the vicious words he had planted.



The government decreed that
on the anniversary of his birth
the people should observe
two minutes pandemonium.

PS - I think this last verse is stunning - love it!

Great, well starting at the beginning does make more sense now that someone has the book. Thanks for doing all that entering Penelope.
These two poems are really contrasting and if I had not read that they were placed next to each other only by virtue of their titles, I'd be sure it had been purposeful. The first one is so meloncholy, at least to me, as I'd like to think my time on earth mean more than just a prelude to heaven. The second one is uplifting to think of new beginnings being born out of tragedy.
I think I like the 3rd verse the best.

realiz wrote:

The second one is uplifting to think of new beginnings being born out of tragedy.
I think I like the 3rd verse the best.

I think it is quite brilliant in the way it makes one think about miracles and change.

But I love the government's decreeing two minutes pandemonium - rather than two minutes silence, and the idea of the people holding two minutes pandemonium conjures up wonderful images.

Number3 is one I can't find to copy and paste, fortunately, it is short:-

After Looking into a Book Belonging to My Great-Grandfather, Eli Eliakim Plutzik

I am troubled by the blank fields, the speechless graves.
Since the names were carved upon wood, there is no word
For the thousand years that shaped this scribbling fist
And the eyes staring at strange places and times
Beyond the veldt dragging to Poland.
Lovers of words make simple peace with death,
At last demanding to close the door to the cold,
Only Here lies someone
Here lie no one and no one, your fathers and mothers.
HYAM PLUTZIK

My son is tracing our ancestry. - My husband's family have been fairly straightforward, but my mother's family are proving very mysterious.....so this poem finds a place in my heart just now.

Penelope wrote:Number3 is one I can't find to copy and paste, fortunately, it is short:-

After Looking into a Book Belonging to My Great-Grandfather, Eli Eliakim Plutzik

My son is tracing our ancestry. - My husband's family have been fairly straightforward, but my mother's family are proving very mysterious.....so this poem finds a place in my heart just now.

Hey, I found a link that may add to our enjoyment/understanding of the poem.

http://www.hyamplutzikpoetry.com/devtest/about.php

Oh, I just looked on that link, thanks Saffron, I could have copied the poem from there. Still, it will be useful because more of his poems are to come.

Also, it is quite a good way of absorbing what is being said, to type them out, noting where the punctuation marks are placed and so forth.

It does help to have some dates. It is amazing how, when one considers when a poem was penned, it often alters the whole perceived meaning.

Thanks Penny and all for starting us out on this Hughes/Heaney anthology. I'm waiting for Amazon to send my copy. I enjoyed poem 2 - "After His Death" particularly .. I see it as political statement, although not too clear on what the statement is ... perhaps the ironies and contradictions that surround acts of violence and war. I looked up MacCaig on Wiki and here is an excerpt:

"During World War II MacCaig registered as a conscientious objector, a move that many at the time criticised. Douglas Dunn has suggested that MacCaig's career later suffered due to his outspoken pacifism, although there is no concrete evidence of this."

Given this poem which twists harm into a positive, but does so in an ironic way, its interesting that he was a conscientious objector during the war. Not an easy thing to be an objector in wartime, Britain so I'm speculating that he may have wrestled with the pressures and contradictions of pacifism in the face of the destruction of Britain by Nazi assault.

Penny, since you have the book, is there an intro or foreword that gives some clue as to the editorial direction of this Hughes and Heaney anthology?

Giselle asked:

is there an intro or foreword that gives some clue as to the editorial direction of this Hughes and Heaney anthology?

Giselle, this is at the top of this thread, I, sort of, condensed it from the foreword but if you want a fuller version I can easily type up the whole thing as it isn't very long. This seemed to be the relevant bit though.

The Foreword explains that Heaney and Hughes decided to put the poems in Alphabetical order, because to have arranged it according to author would have robbed the order of the poems of an unexpectedness which it now possesses. To have done it Thematically would have made it feel too much like a textbook. To have done it chronologically would have left whole centuries unrepresented and made the thing look a botched historical survey.

I think by 'editorial decisions,' giselle might have meant why the editors selected these poems and not others. Did they just go with a "these are our own favorites" approach, or do they have something to say about criteria for selection? The title "Rattle Bag" is evocative of something, I'm just not sure of what.