Clive Wilmer: Selected Poems 1965–1993

'If there were no affliction in the world, we might think we were in paradise,' wrote Simone Weil. This suggests the themes of Clive Wilmer's third collection of poems, Of Earthly Paradise. Christian ideas of paradise refer to the things of this world, to nature and the human body, with art empowered to construct visions of that paradise. A related theme is work-Adam's curse when he fell, but a blessing when work becomes synonymous with art. Wilmer, an outstanding formal poet, uses rhymed and metrical forms and also makes inventive use of free verse. Martin Dodsworth, reviewing an earlier collection Devotions in the Guardian, said: ' It is the work of an original and still developing mind, capable of the radical re-interpretations of tradition that poetry is about.'

Prefatory Note	p. 11
The Dedication	p. 15
The Exile	p. 16
The Invalid Storyteller	p. 17
The Sparking of the Forge	p. 18
East Anglian Churchyard	p. 19
The Portrait	p. 20
Victorian Gothic	p. 20
The Ruined Abbey	p. 21
The Long Climb	p. 23
The Well	p. 24
The Rector	p. 25
Arthur Dead	p. 26
In Malignant Times	p. 27
Of Epitaphs	p. 28
Likeness	p. 29
To the Undeceived	p. 30
Two Inscriptions	p. 30
Sanctuary	p. 31
The Disenchanted	p. 32
Bird-Watcher	p. 33
Saxon Buckle	p. 34
The Advent Carols	p. 37
Narcissus, Echo	p. 37
My Great-Aunt, Nearing Death	p. 38
On the Demolition of the 'Kite' District	p. 38
Il Palazzo della Ragione	p. 39
Pony and Boy	p. 39
Two Cambridge Images	p. 40
Beyond Recall	p. 41
from Air and Earth: Migrant	p. 42
from Air and Earth: Beside the Autobahn	p. 42
from Air and Earth: Aerial Songs	p. 43
from Air and Earth: Natural Selection	p. 44
from Air and Earth: On the Devil's Dyke	p. 46
The Natural History of the Rook	p. 49
Near Walsingham	p. 50
Home	p. 51
Homecoming	p. 52
For the Fly-Leaf of a King James Bible	p. 53
Antiphonal Sonnets	p. 54
Gothic Polyphony	p. 55
To Nicholas Hawksmoor	p. 56
Venice	p. 56
A Woodland Scene	p. 57
The Parable of the Sower	p. 58
The Peaceable Kingdom	p. 60
Chinoiserie: The Porcelain Garden	p. 61
Prayer for my Children	p. 62
Invocation	p. 65
Two Versions of Caedmon	p. 66
Three Brueghel Paintings	p. 67
St Francis Preaching to the Birds	p. 68
The San Damiano Crucifix	p. 69
The Coat of Many Colours	p. 70
Cattle Market	p. 71
Birdsong and Polyphony	p. 72
The Infinite Variety	p. 73
The Thirst	p. 75
To Robert Wells	p. 75
A Catalogue of Flowers: Wild Flowers	p. 76
A Catalogue of Flowers: Bindweed Song	p. 76
A Catalogue of Flowers: An Autumn Vision	p. 77
A Catalogue of Flowers: Post-War Childhoods	p. 77
A Catalogue of Flowers: Conservancy	p. 79
A Catalogue of Flowers: Alkanet	p. 80
A Catalogue of Flowers: To Paint a Salt Marsh	p. 81
Work	p. 82
The Law of the House	p. 84
At the Grave of Ezra Pound	p. 85
At the Grave of William Morris	p. 86
Fonte Branda in Siena	p. 87
A Plaque	p. 88
To a Poet from Eastern Europe, 1988	p. 88
To Haydn and Mozart	p. 89
The Kitchen Table	p. 90
Charon's Bark	p. 91
Two Journals	p. 92
The Temple of Aphrodite	p. 92
Amores	p. 95
Re-reading my Poem 'Saxon Buckle'	p. 97
Transference	p. 97
The Dream	p. 98
In the Greenwood	p. 98
The Garden	p. 99
Oasis	p. 100
The Earth Rising	p. 100
To Thom Gunn, on his 60th Birthday	p. 103
Letter to J. A. Cuddon	p. 105
Anthem	p. 108
Psalm	p. 109
The Manor House	p. 110
Grace	p. 111
King Alfred's Book	p. 111
Lindisfarne Sacked	p. 112
House-Martin	p. 112
The Pig Man	p. 113
Kaspar Hauser	p. 114
Translations
'I hate and love'	p. 117
Canticle of the Sun	p. 117
Sestina	p. 118
Dante to Love's Faithful	p. 120
Cavalcanti's Reply	p. 120
'I leave to the blind and deaf'	p. 121
'There was a rhythm in my sleep'	p. 122
from The Keeper of Flocks	p. 123
'You who, believing in your Christs and Marys'	p. 124
A Mountain Garden	p. 125
Forced March	p. 126
Postcard	p. 127
From a Notebook: Bon on Lake Geneva	p. 127
To Be Said Over and Over Again	p. 128
To Imre Nagy	p. 129
Daydreams	p. 129
Scaling Carp	p. 130
Archaic Torso of Apollo	p. 131
'Say, poet, what it is you do'	p. 132
Notes	p. 133
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Clive Wilmer: Selected Poems 1965–1993

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