Introduction
s xiii
Ordinary mortality
Fern Hill Dylan thomas 3
'Time held me green and dying' in the Fields Charlotte Mew 7
'Can I believe there is a heavenlier world than this?' Plums gillian Clarke 9
'When their time comes they fall'
the Burning of Laurence Binyon 12
the Leaves 'Nothing is certain, only the
certain spring'
Fidele's Dirge william Shakespeare 15
'Fear no more'
Ah, god, i may Kathleen raine 18
not hate 'Life after life'
A Hindu to His A. K. ramanujan 21
Body 'Dear pursuing presence,
dear body'
the Flower george Herbert 24
'And now in age I bud again'
Fears and fantasies
the Hill rupert Brook 31
'Rose-crowned into the darkness'
I am not Sleeping roger Mcgough 34
'I want women flinging
themselves on the coffin'
the Fly emily Dickinson 36
'I heard a Fly buzz - when
I died - '
the Art of Drowning Billy Collins 39
'Nothing like the three large
volumes you envisioned'
Aubade Philip Larkin 42
'Being brave/ Lets no one off
the grave'
Lines: 'i Am' John Clare 46
'Untroubling and untroubled
where I lie'
Smile, Death Charlotte Mew 49
'We will not speak of life or
believe in it'
Sonnet 73 william Shakespeare 52
'Bare ruined choirs where
late the sweet birds sang'
when You are Old w. B. Yeats 55
'One man loved the pilgrim
soul in you'
Actual crisis
what the Doctor Said raymond Carver 61
'I may even have thanked
him habit being so strong'
She replies to Kerry Hardie 64
Carmel's Letter 'Sometimes even sickness
is generous'
Hymn to god, my John Donne 67
god, in my Sickness 'By these his thorns give me his
other crown'
A hymn Jim Cotter 71
'Ourselves slimmed down for
needle's eye'
Lights Out edward thomas 74
'To go into the unknown'
Do not go gentle into Dylan thomas 78
that good night 'Curse, bless, me now with your
fierce tears'
reading Aloud Jane Kenyon 81
to My Father 'They'll pull the hand free'
Immediate grief
Sad Music roger Mcgough 87
'My life is as thin as the wind'
Dirge without Music edna St Vincent Millay 90
'But I do not approve.
And I am not resigned'
Death of a Poet Charles Causley 93
'There was the thud of
hymn-books'
wish Carol Ann Duffy 97
'Wondering why do I shout,
why do I run'
A Dirge Christina rossetti 101
'For sweet things dying'
the unprofessionals u. A. Fanthorpe 104
'When the worst happens'
Common and David Constantine 107
Particular 'I like these men and women
who have to do with death'
the Minister Anne Stevenson 110
'So the words will know where
to go'
winter Camping Ann Drysdale 113
'Now on my left there is
a precipice'
(Vii) Familiar r. V. Bailey 116
'Love is a damaged thing,
trailing absurd'
Remembering and celebrating
Parted Alice Meynell 121
'And yet my feet are on the flowers'
Clearances iii Seamus Heaney 124
'I was all hers as we peeled
potatoes'
Jewels in my Hand Sasha Moorsom 127
'I hold dead friends like jewels'
into the Hour elizabeth Jennings 130
'The time when grief begins
to flower'
the Change Denise Levertov 133
'And then they begin to return,
the dead'
the Plumber gillian Clarke 136
'Outrage of war/ transformed'
An Arundel tomb Philip Larkin 139
'Time has transfigured them
into/ Untruth'
Hope
Death, be not Proud John Donne 145
'One short sleep past, we wake
eternally'
Death george Herbert 148
'Making our pillows either down,
or dust'
there is a Place John Bell and graham Maule 151
'God will ensure that all are
reunited'
there Mary Coleridge 154
'What shall I find after that
other birth?'
Hymn for the Ann griffiths, 157
Mercy Seat tr. rowan williams
'Into the land/ Of infinite
astonishment'
that nature is a gerard Manley Hopkins 162
Heraclitean Fire and 'I am all at once what Christ is'
of the comfort of
the resurrection
being to timelessness e. e. Cummings 166
'Whatever sages say and fools,
all's well'
the Covenant and richard Baxter 169
Confidence of Faith 'It's enough that Christ
knows all'
Let evening Come Jane Kenyon 173
'Let it come, as it will, and
don't / be afraid'
Acknowledgements 176