Collected Poems
Page 40
24. Abraham’s Sacrifice (2). Variant text. Titled ‘Abraham 2’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 105. Some variations in indentation. This is sonnet 26 in the published version.
25. Abraham’s Sacrifice (3). Variant text. Titled ‘Abraham 3’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 105. Some variations in indentation. This is sonnet 28 in the published version.
26. Joseph the Jew (1). Variant text. Is called ‘Joseph 1’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. This is sonnet 30 in the published version. Corrections in AB’s hand include adding ‘and’ to the end of the first line, and removing the same word from the second line. In the original MS, the phrase ‘get a wetnurse’ is hand-corrected to ‘gave him fodder’. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 106.
27. Joseph the Jew (2). Unpublished variant. Is called ‘Joseph 2’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. This is sonnet 29 in the published version. Published in ABBA ABBA, p. 106.
28. Lot at Home. Unpublished variant. Titled ‘Lot 1’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. This is sonnet 23 in the published version. The word ‘arrived’ in line three eventually became ‘came’. ‘His window lamp’ was eventually changed to ‘his lamp’. On the MS, ‘buggers’ is written in AB’s hand to replace ‘asses’. Published in ABBA ABBA, p. 103.
29. Lot’s Wife. Unpublished variant. Titled‘Lot 2’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. This appears as sonnet 24 in ABBA ABBA, p. 103.
30. Lot in Repose. Unpublished variant. Is called ‘Lot 3’ in ABBA ABBA. This is sonnet 25 in the published version. From this poem on, Burgess used the same indentation as featured in the final published version. The word ‘so’ is hand-deleted on the MS from the very start of line one, and ‘then’ is added later on the same line. ‘The daughters’ was eventually changed to ‘Lot’s daughters’ in the final published version. On the MS, Burgess has hand-corrected ‘Morality’ to ‘Propriety.’ Published in ABBA ABBA, p. 104.
31. Exodus. Previously unpublished variant. Same title as the version published in ABBA ABBA, p. 107. Burgess originally typed line three as ‘Making them toil under sadistic knaves’. On the MS, the word ‘wander’ is substituted for ‘frig’. From here, the sequence follows the same order as in ABBA ABBA.
32. Balaam’s Ass. Previously unpublished variant. Same title and order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. On the MS, Burgess substitutes the word ‘number’[?] for ‘donkeys’. The ‘Asperges me’ is a rite sung during feasts and mass in the Catholic Church. The phrase describes ritual cleansing through sprinkling. See Jon R. Stone, The Routledge Dictionary of Latin Quotations (London: Routledge, 2013). See ABBA ABBA, p. 107.
33. The Battle of Gideon. Previously unpublished variant. Same title and order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. On the MS, ‘Boos with[?]’ is re-typed as ‘Boos in’. Possibly ‘Rudely –’ has been deleted on the MS just before ‘Ta-rah’. Line 12 originally read: ‘Look at us now. We have our martial brawls.’ See ABBA ABBA, p. 108.
34. The Foxes. Unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Was published as ‘Foxes’. The MS has some substantial corrections in AB’s hand. The published lines ‘Where are the foxes now? It seems they’re shunning/Our hounds as we shun syphilitic doxies’ were originally ‘Though vermin then, where are they now? They’re shunning/Our hounds, like bishops shunning heterodoxies’. However, it seems as though Burgess was keeping his options open, as Burgess has also typed ‘Our hounds as we shun syphilitic doxies,’ suggesting this variant was adopted during typesetting. In addition to this, ‘With scores of foxes sniffing round his skirt, you’ was originally intended to be ‘Laden with fucking foxes, I assert you’. Hand-written on the typescript is an abandoned last line, ‘But back to foxes –’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 108.
35. God Helps Those Who Help Themselves(1). Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Was published as ‘Revenge 1’. Line 9 originally read: ‘God frowned and made a memo.’ Originally numbered with a Roman numeral and no brackets. See ABBA ABBA, p. 109.
36. God Helps Those Who Help Themselves(2). Unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Was published as ‘Revenge 2’. The final version uses a space in ‘agag agag’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 109.
37. David’s Duel. Unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, p. 110. Was published as ‘David 1’. ‘Powerful’ was originally intended as ‘strong’; ‘He sent’ was originally typed as ‘Once he’, and ‘tough and scary’ was a hand-correction of ‘strong and scary’; likewise, ‘very easy’ is hand-corrected on the MS to ‘rather easy’.
38. Holy King David. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Was published as ‘David 2’. ‘He spoke with God, he much preferred the bar-p-/Arlour’ was originally intended as ‘And that, off duty, he much preferred the bar-p-/(Hic) Arlour’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 110.
39. The Judgment of Solomon. Unpublished variant. Published as ‘Wisdom’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 111.
40. The Fair Judith. Unpublished variant. Same order as the version published as ‘Judith’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 111, with variant indentation.
41. Guessing Game. Unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Was published as ‘Susannah’ with slight differences in punctuation in the last six lines, and the ‘Ach’ substituted for ‘Aaaargh’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 112.
42. Belshazzar’s Feast. Previously unpublished variant. Same title and order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, p. 112.
43. The Eighth of December. Unpublished variant. Same title (as ‘Dec. 8’) and order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Burgess substituted the original ‘Absquatulate’ for ‘Evacuate’. The MS here has a short a sequence of 13 sonnets that were originally selected for inclusion into Playboy, which then carry on in the correct sequence from 44 onwards. Each page in the ‘Playboy’ selection is simply marked ‘Playboy’ at the bottom of each presumed photocopy MS. Burgess evidently intended the following sonnets for publication in Playboy, and presumably in this order: ‘27. Joseph the Jew (II)’; ‘7. All About Eve’; ‘8. A Reply’; ‘11. The First Clothes’; ‘12. The State of Innocence’; ‘13. The State of Innocence’, and; ‘24. Joseph the Jew (I)’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 113.
44. The Annunciation. Unpublished variant. Same title (as ‘Annunciation’) and order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. In the first line, ‘day’ was inserted by hands, the ‘even the year’ was originally written as ‘you even know the year’. Line five (deleted and corrected by hand) originally read: ‘He crashed a window like a well-aimed spear’. The last two lines were subject to substantial redrafts, and were originally written as:
‘A hen?’ she blushed, ‘for I know nothing of –’
Gabriel nodded, knowing that she meant cocks.
Line thirteen has a corresponding handwritten note, which reads ‘A hen, they say, if she knew nothing of (so leer the blasphemous facetious) cocks.’ See ABBA ABBA, p. 113.
45. The Madonna’s Marriage. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Was published as ‘Enter Joseph’. In line 12, the word ‘dribbler’ was substituted for the original ‘fellow.’ See ABBA ABBA, p. 114.
46. The Visit. Previously unpublished variant. Same title, order, and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. See ABBA ABBA, p. 115.
47. Epiphany. Previously unpublished variant. Eventually published in ABBA ABBA as ‘The Magi’. Minor handwritten corrections were added by Burgess: ‘painted’ was originally ‘rainbow’; ‘with their caravan’ was originally ‘in their caravan’, and ‘it seems’ was originally ‘alas’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 115.
48. The Circumcision. Previously unpublished variant. Same title (as ‘Circumcision’), order, and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Line six was eventually published as ‘The Jewish law, so look the Lord of Earth’, but no pen corrections were made to this effect on the original MS. See
ABBA ABBA, p. 115.
49. Christ’s Foreskin. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Eventually published as ‘The Living Prepuce’. The MS was originally typed with following order in the second stanza:
You look incredulous, my friend. But know
That faith, though buffeted, must never fail.
In eighty other Christian lands they show
This self-same prize for reverent eyes to hail.
Arrows are drawn on by Burgess that indicate the final change in order. Another heavily hand-corrected variant in included elsewhere in the MS, as follows:
The sacred relic that had long been hid,
Preserved in camphor, pickled or else iced
So previous that its worth could not be priced,
At last we saw. His Holiness undid
The holy lock, then raised the holy lid –
Behold, the foreskin of our saviour Christ,
Shimplike in shape, most elegantly sliced,
To profane eyes, exhibited.
You look incredulous. I know, I know –
But faith, though fiercely tried, should never fail.
In eighty other Christian lands they show
This self-same prize for reverent eyes to hail.
His heavenly father must have made it grow,
When was stripped out just like a fingernail.
See ABBA ABBA, p. 116.
50. The Flight of the Holy Family. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Later published as ‘The Slaughter of the Innocents 1’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 116.
51. The Slaughter of the Innocents. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Later published as ‘The Slaughter of the Inncents II’. Lines nine and ten were originally intended as: ‘Christ, as I said, was halfway to the delta / So did not smell the filthy bloody water.’ See ABBA ABBA, p. 117.
52. Original Sin. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Later published as ‘Baptism’. Line ten was originally intended as: ‘As staunch a Jew as any on the earth.’ See ABBA ABBA, p. 117.
53. The Wedding at Cana (1). Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Originally titled using Roman numerals with no brackets. Has been altered for the purposes of consistency. See ABBA ABBA, p. 118.
54. The Wedding at Cana (2). Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. ‘Teeth’ was originally intended as ‘pegs’. Originally titled using Roman numerals with no brackets. Has been altered for the purposes of consistency. See ABBA ABBA, p. 118.
55. The Wedding at Cana (3). Previously unpublished variant text. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. ‘Rhapsody’ was originally intended as ‘symphony’. Originally titled using Roman numerals with no brackets. Has been altered for the purposes of consistency. See ABBA ABBA, p. 119.
56. The House of God. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Anger’. ‘Moneychangers preying’ was originally intended as ‘moneymen who battoned’. Transcribed from MS draft. Published in ABBA ABBA, p. 119.
57. Martha and Mary. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Compared with the ABBA ABBA version, there is a very minor variant in line eight, in the italicized phrase and the lower-case ‘w’. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 120.
58. First Communion. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Communion’. ‘To eat’ was originally intended as ‘Gobble’. At this point in the MS, Burgess clearly makes a mistake the numbering of the sequence. Hence, each sonnet from here on was originally assigned the number before it. For example, this – sonnet number 58 – is mistakenly hand-corrected to number 57. Correct numbers have been reassigned for the present edition. See ABBA ABBA, p. 120.
59. Christ’s Cross-Examination. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Christ & Pilate’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 121.
60. Christ at the Pillar. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘At the Pillar 1’. The first line was eventually re-written as ‘Bare as a Briton auctioned into slavery’, but this phrase does not appear (typed or hand-written) on the MS. See ABBA ABBA, p. 121.
61. Courage. Previously unpublished variant text. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘At the Pillar 2’. Burgess’s numbering is once again correct from this sonnet onwards. See ABBA ABBA, p. 122.
62. Ill-Starred. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Pity’. Minor hand-corrections on MS made the following substitutions: ‘on’ for ‘in’ (line 2); ‘Forced as’ for ‘And then’ (line 3); ‘To slave’ for ‘Slaving’ (line 4); ‘old saying’ for ‘saying’ (line 13); ‘spavined’ for worn-out’ (line 14). Burgess evidently abandoned a hand-written correction which intended to substitute ‘All vermin’ for ‘flies’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 122.
63. The Two Breeds. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘The Two Kinds of Men’. Burgess later inserted the word ‘Scarred’. Croesus, king of Lydia, apparently ruled for over a decade prior to being defeated by Cyrus the Great. Burgess wrote about Cyrus in a 1976 screenplay, poems from which appear above on p. 433. See: Herodotus. Complete Works of Herodotus (Delphi Classics, 2013). See ABBA ABBA, p. 123.
64. Guilt in the Ghetto. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Guilt’. ‘When Christ left home’ was eventually changed to ‘When Christ went’ in the ABBA ABBA version. The last three lines have corrected by hand in the typescript, and were originally:
Doomed-to-die (put it another way)
Has to be matched, alas, by doomed-to-slay.
Somebody had to take this business on.
These corrections are so heavy on the MS, that Burgess retyped the stanza in the form shown in the present edition. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 123.
65. Limbo. Previously unpublished variant. Same title and order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. This, and subsequent sonnets, are not given a number by Burgess, but the sequence of the MSS follows that seen in the eventual published form in ABBA ABBA. The numbers are added by the editor from here onwards. ‘Saintly’ was eventually substituted for ‘holy’ in the ABBA ABBA version. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 124.
66. Christ in Hell. Previously unpublished variant. Same title and order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. In the MS, ‘can’ is hand-corrected to ‘could’. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 124.
67. Doubting Thomas. Previously unpublished variant text. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Doubt’. The first three lines (undeleted in the MS, but then reworked) were originally began as:
When Christ rose up, those somewhat timid gentry
His friends screamed just like magpies. One apostle
Though, St Thomas,
On the MS, ‘Shove’ is hand-corrected to ‘Poke’ on line nine. Published in ABBA ABBA, p. 125.
68. Whitsun. Previously unpublished variant text. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Burgess provides no title in the MS. For convenience and continuity, the title from ABBA ABBA is used here. See ABBA ABBA, p. 125.
69. Spread the Word. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Burgess provides no title in the MS. For convenience and continuity, the title from ABBA ABBA is used here. On the MS,‘Jesus’ and ‘Cassia’ typewritten corrections of illegible deleted words. ‘Took’ in line three was originally intended as ‘sought’, and then hand-corrected. Line four – again, later hand-corre
cted – originally read as ‘Some, tiring, went to feed the need/Of’. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 126.
70. The Last Days. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Burgess provides no title in the MS. For convenience and continuity, the title from ABBA ABBA is used here. Line nine was published in a variant form in ABBA ABBA, as: ‘The prophet Enoch will lambast the liar.’ Originally, line ten (subsequently corrected by hand) was intended as: ‘Who will arise out of a big black hatch’. In the final line on the MS, ‘The’ is hand-corrected to ‘And’. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 126.
71. The Last Judgement. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Burgess provides no title in the MS. For convenience and continuity, the title from ABBA ABBA is used here. Line nine (subsequently hand-corrected on the MS) was originally intended as: ‘And there the Lord, cool, careful, systematic’. ‘Er-phwoo’ on the last line was originally written as ‘Phwoo’, and then corrected by hand. The last three sentences in this line appear, in ABBA ABBA, on separate stepped lines of their own. The current version follows the indentations selected by Burgess in the original MS. This is the last of the sonnets in the ABBA ABBA version, but other sonnets can be found either in the HRC and IABF collections. See ABBA ABBA, p. 126.
72. The Father of the Saints. Previously unpublished variant. Inserted in the sequence of sonnets in the MS in its current position. It is very different to the version that eventually appeared in the novel; it is not included in the appendix, but is embedded within the prose of the main story. In the novel, the poem is given by Belli to John Keats, who hides it amongst his papers. Two full variants of this sonnet are known to exist. The version selected for inclusion in the main body of the present edition is thought to be the first draft. What is presumed to be the second draft is much closer to the version read by Keats in the novel: