Collected Poems
Page 43
248. ‘None but the coward.’ Previously unpublished.
249. ‘He bought me from a Saracen.’ Previously unpublished. MS draft.
250. ‘Sevilla, Seviya, Sevija – or Seville.’ Previously unpublished. MS draft.
251. ‘Take him, you don’t have to pay for him.’ Previously unpublished.
252. ‘I love hate.’ Previously unpublished. IABF, AB/ARCH/A/POE/3.
253. ‘What I’d like to do.’ Previously unpublished. From ‘The Doctor is Sick: Motion Picture Typescript’, p. 52. Stage direction on p. 51: ‘A teenage group [called The Kneetremblers] is at work, almost inaudible for adulation. There are TV cameras trained on them, along with a fullfledged TV team.’
254. ‘Eight and twenty years.’ Previously unpublished. From the script for Cyrus the Great. Sung by a bard with a harp. The stage directions indicate that the character Astyages ‘sits with Harpagus at supper […] There is a feast of venison’.
255. ‘To be a king, to be a king.’ Previously unpublished. From the script for Cyrus the Great. Sung by a number of boys. Verses one and two are from one draft, and three and four are from another draft.
256. ‘A drink. What is a drink?’ Previously unpublished. MS on a diary page, preprinted with date ‘Samedi 12 Novembre’. 12 November fell on a Saturday in 1966, 1977, 1983 and 1988. The correct date is probably 1977.
257. Bed. Previously unpublished. IABF, AB/ARCH/A/POE/12.
258. Bear. Previously unpublished. IABF, AB/ARCH/A/POE/12.
259. ‘I’m weary of working with words that you write.’ Previously unpublished. IABF.
260. ‘How dare I dare to dream.’ Previously unpublished. IABF.
261. ‘His bowels are of gold, his veins of silver.’ Previously unpublished. From the script for Cyrus the Great (1977). Gyzat’s song, sung by a Eunuch. Belshazzar notes that this is ‘nothing new’ and consists of the ‘same weary old images ... must get me a new court poet, must I not? There is already one ready there, smirking, young, handsome, catamitic.’ Typescript draft.
262. ‘I am sick of a kingdom which is a jewelled prison.’ Previously unpublished. From the script for Cyrus the Great (1977). Having sung this song, Gyzat asks ‘Is that enough, your majesty?’. Belshazzar replies ‘I think so, Gyzat ... will you scream in metre, groan in numbers? I am, you see, something of a poet myself…’. He then sends for whips, ‘Gyzat,’ we are told, ‘awaits the worst.’
263. ‘Lex for law and order.’ Previously unpublished. Dawn Chorus is a film script about a specialist in ornithological sounds, and a producer of avant-garde music based on birdsong and electronic music. The lead character becomes an unwitting part in a political scandal that involves hyper-conservative leader Lex Penninck. The film is set ‘in a tropical zone undefined’. Some revolutionary thugs sing this with ‘fervour’. Lex is a right-wing politician, who appears on TV earlier in the film script in front of a sign that reads ‘Lex means Law’. Typescript draft.
264. ‘I wouldn’t frirk Uranus.’ From a draft of the novel Puma, dated 31 January 1976.
265. ‘Here on the final pyre.’ Previously unpublished. From draft of Puma, dated 31 January 1976.
266. ‘A bird sat high on a banyan tree.’ Song sung by the character Kartar Singh. In Burgess’s original text, this song appears in various pages, embedded in prose text; in the novel, verse breaks are delineated by ellipses, which have here been replaced by line breaks. The final ellipsis has been retained. The Enemy in the Blanket, pp. 88–91.
267. ‘Beasts and men are made the same.’ This song is sung by Kartar Singh, who ‘raised his tuneless voice in a doubtful ballad’. The Enemy in the Blanket, p. 130.
268. ‘Oh, love, love, love.’ Sung, ‘relaxed without effort, against the pre-Raphaelitish chords of early Debussy’ in Beds in the East, pp. 146-7.
269. ‘We will build a bridge to heaven.’ This appears to be a Burgess original, although ‘Night and morning, noon and even’ is taken directly from ‘Sound Sleep’ by Christina G. Rossetti. Devil of a State (London: Heinemann, 1961), p. 43.
270. ‘We’ll be coming home.’ Song sung to a mouth organ tune by soldiers. The Wanting Seed (London: Heinemann, 1962), pp. 240-6.
271. ‘My adorable Fred.’ Described as ‘a song that had recently become popular’. This song is said to be ‘much burbled on the television by epicene willowy youths.’ The Wanting Seed, p. 3.
272. ‘My dead tree. Give me back my dead dead tree.’ A song recited by ‘one of the bearded homos’. ‘Bloody nonsense,’ said the man’ who was listening next to Tristram. The Wanting Seed, p. 38.
273. ‘This lovely queen, if I should win her.’ This poem is recited by ‘Melvin Johnson (illustrious surname) who, balanced on his head, feet high in the air, recited loudly a triolet of his own composition. It was strange to see the upside-down mouth, hear the right-way-up words...’ The Wanting Seed, p. 182.
274. ‘How come that such a scholar.’ Described as a song ‘from a silly college musical of the thirties’. The Clockwork Testament, p. 146. Transcribed from AB/ARCH/A/TCT (IABF).
275. ‘Ich nem’ ein’ Zigarett’. Receited by a character called Dorothy in ‘Dietrich style’. Earthly Powers, p. 473.
276. ‘You whom the fisherfolk of Myra believe.’ Song ascribed to Kenneth Toomey, and sung by Dominico Campinati. Earthly Powers, p. 508.
277. ‘Waking and sleeping.’ These are verses from a musical comedy which, according to Toomey, ’you could hardly call this sort of thing literature … A young man named Cecil loves a girl called Cecilia but cannot bring himself to utter the ultimate endearment. In August 1914 he said I love you to a girl and immediately war broke out.’ Earthly Powers, pp. 90-91.
278. ‘Money isn’t everything.’ A chorus from an opera by Domenico Campinati and Kenneth Toomey, which they sing as they reach the casino in Monaco. IABF, AB/ARCH/A/EAR.
279. ‘I’ll crash the moon.’ A popular song sung through a microphone. Toomey recalls: ‘Popular songs were, at that time, going through a brief phase of literacy.’ Earthly Powers, pp. 347-8.
280. Une P’tite Spécialité Called L’Amour. Toomey is called upon by a ship’s steward to sing this in a ship’s lounge bar. Toomey is clearly ashamed of the words: ‘I could not well deny knowing this song, since I had written the word. It came in that wartime horror Say It, Cecil.’ A version with a different line order and only very slight wording differences is held at the IABF. The Earthly Powers version used here is more complete. Earthly Powers, p. 225.
281. Cabbage Face. This, according to Burgess, ‘was for use in a mock music lesson in a pantomime. The refrain-title was a spelling out of the notes that made up the melody’. Little Wilson and Big God, p. 161.
282. Nathan’s Song. Nathan’s song. ‘The words said something to the effect that the singers were the descendants of David, a shepherd who had become kind, and that they wished the spirit of David to watch over them.’ Man of Nazareth (London: Magnum/Methuen, 1980), p. 49.
283. ‘Thy mouth, a fig, thy teeth.’ Jesus’ flattering language. Burgess notes that, in his adolescence, Jesus ‘found time in the cool of the evening to engage in… speaking flattering language to the dark-eyed girls, even singing songs to a two-string fiddle accompaniment’. Man of Nazareth, p. 93.
284. ‘My love lay across the waters.’ This song is sung by Philip while he is fishing with Jesus. James and John’s following verses (see below) are taken as a ‘more practical song.’ Man of Nazareth, p. 150.
285. ‘Fish grey, fish brown.’ James and John’s song to the fish. Man of Nazareth, pp. 150–1.
286. The Prodigal Son. Sung by Philip in Man of Nazareth, pp. 158-9.
287. The Good Samaritan. Sung by Philip in Man of Nazareth, pp. 196-7.
288. Passover Hymn. This is the song that the disciplines sing on their way to their lodgings, following the Last Supper with Jesus. Judas, we are told, ‘did not join in’. Man of Nazareth, p. 284.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Books
and Articles about Burgess
Aggeler, Geoffrey, Anthony Burgess: The Artist as Novelist (University of Alabama Press, 1979)
Biswell, Andrew, ‘Introduction’ in Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange. The Restored Edition, ed. by Andrew Biswell (London: Heinemann, 2012), pp.xv–xxxi
Biswell, Andrew, The Real Life of Anthony Burgess (London: Picador, 2005)
Bloom, Harold, ed., Anthony Burgess Modern Critical (New York and Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987), pp. 13–28
Boyntinck, Paul, Anthony Burgess: An Annotated Bibliography and Reference Guide (New York: Garland, 1985)
Bradbury, Malcolm, ‘Anthony Burgess: A Passion for Words’, Independent on Sunday, 28 November 1993, p. 3
Brewer, Jeutonne, Anthony Burgess A Bibliography, Scarecrow Bibliographies, no. 47 (Metuchen NJ, and London: Scarecrow Press, 1980)
Cabau, Jacques, ‘Anthony Burgess par lui-même, un entretien inédit avec l’auteur’ in TREMA, no. 5 (1980), 93–110
Clarke, Jim, The Aesthetics of Anthony Burgess: Fire of Words. (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
Coale, Samuel, Anthony Burgess (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1981)
Daiches, David, ‘Ambulant Prophet’, Times Literary Supplement, 21 January 1977, p. 50
Dix, Carol M, Anthony Burgess, Writers and Their Work, no. 222 (Harlow: Longman for the British Council, 1971)
Farkas, A.Í, Will’s Son and Jake’s Peer (Budapest: Akadêmiai Kiadó, 2002)
Jeannin, Marc, ed., Anthony Burgess: Music in Literature, Literature in Music (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2009)
Monod, Sylvère, ‘Enderby le minable magnifique’ in TREMA, no. 5 (1980), 19-29
Monod, Sylvère, ‘Poets and Poetry in the Enderby Cycle’, Anthony Burgess Newsletter, no. 6 (December 2003)
Morrison, Blake, ‘Introduction’ in Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (London: Penguin, 1996)
Phillips, Paul, A Clockwork Counterpoint: The Music and Literature of Anthony Burgess (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010)
Roughley, Alan, ed., Anthony Burgess and Modernity (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008)
Sophocles, Oedipus the King, trans. by Anthony Burgess (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1972)
Vêza, Laurette, ‘Anthony Burgess: de la poésie à la parodie’ in TREMA, no.5 (1980), 31–8
Woodroffe, Graham, ed., Marlowe, Shakespeare, Burgess: Anthony Burgess and his Elizabethan Affiliations (Presses l’Université d’Angers, 2012)
Works Containing Poetry by Burgess, or Burgess’s Commentaries on Poetry
‘A Babble of Voices’ in Index on Censorship, 9.2 (1980), 38-41
‘A mingled chime’, Times Literary Supplement, 16 January 1975, p. 50
‘Authors on Translators’ in Translation, 11.74 (Winter 1974), 5–8
‘Bless Thee Burgess, Thou Art Translated’, Independent, 27 November 1993, p. 2
‘Burgess… on Film, Television and Radio’, http://www.anthonyburgess.org/about-anthony-burgess/burgess-on-filmtelevision-and-radio
‘Chatsky, or The Importance of Being Stupid’ in Chatsky, Almeida Theatre programme (London: Almeida Theatre, 1993), pp. 6–7
‘European Lecture’, Guardian, 27 November 1993, G2 section, p. 2. Originally given at Cheltenham Festival of Literature, 9 October 1992
‘Five Revolutionary Sonnets’, Transatlantic Review, 21 (1966), 30-32
‘Five sonnets by G.G. Belli translated by Anthony Burgess’, Times Literary Supplement, 23 January 1976, p. 76
‘Introduction’ in Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, trans. by Anthony Burgess (London: Nick Hern Books, 1985: 1991), pp. i-xii
‘Is Translation Possible?’ in Translation: The Journal of Literary Translation, 12 (1974), 3–7
‘Making Them Sing’ (review of W.H. Auden and Chester Kallmann, Libretti and other Dramatic Writings) in Observer, 29 October 1993, p. 18
‘Poèmes Inédits’, ed. by Sylvère Monod, in TREMA, no. 5 (1980), pp. 5-17
‘The Bond of Words’, Times Literary Supplement, 5 April 1984, p. 487
‘The Ecstasy of Gerard Manley Hopkins’, New York Times, 27 August 1989, p. 15
‘The Magus of Mallorca’, Times Literary Supplement, 21 May 1982, p. 547
‘The Princely Progress’, Times Literary Supplement, 12 June 1981, p. 656
‘Viewpoint’, Times Literary Supplement, 11 March 1973, p. 2
ABBA ABBA (London, Faber, 1977)
Beds in the East (London: Heinemann, 1959)
Blooms of Dublin: A Musical Play Based on James Joyce’s Ulysses (London: Hutchinson, 1986)
Carmen: An Opera in Four Acts. By H. Meilhac and L. Halevy, trans. by Anthony Burgess (London: Hutchinson, 1986)
A Christmas Recipe (Verona: Plain Wrapper Press, 1977)
A Clockwork Orange: A Play With Music (London: Hutchinson, 1987)
The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby’s End (London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon,1974)
Cyrano de Bergerac. By Edmond Rostand, trans. by Anthony Burgess (London: Nick Hern Books, 1991)
Earthy Powers (London: Hutchinson, 1980)
End of the World News: An Entertainment (London: Hutchinson, 1982)
Enderby Outside (London: Heinemann, 1968)
The Enemy in the Blanket (London: Heinemann, 1958)
The Eve of Saint Venus (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1964)
Inside Mr Enderby (as Joseph Kell) (London: Heinemann, 1963)
Little Wilson and Big God: Being the First Part of the Confessions of Anthony Burgess (London: Heinemann, 1987)
A Long Trip to Teatime (London: Dempsey & Squires, 1976)
Man of Nazareth (London: Magnum/Methuen, 1980)
MF (London: Cape, 1971)
A Mouthful of Air (London: Hutchinson, 1992)
Napoleon Symphony (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974)
Oberon Old and New (London: Hutchinson, 1985)
One Hand Clapping (as Joseph Kell) (London: Peter Davies, 1961)
One Man’s Chorus, ed. by Ben Forkner (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1998)
Revolutionary Sonnets, ed. by Kevin Jackson (Manchester: Carcanet, 2002)
The Right to an Answer (London, Heinemann, 1960)
They Wrote in English: A Survey of British and American Literature, 2 vols (Milan: Tramontana, 1979)
Time for a Tiger (London: Heinemann, 1956)
A Vision of Battlements (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1965)
The Wanting Seed (London: Heinemann, 1962)
The Worm and the Ring (London: Heinemann, 1961)
You’ve Had Your Time (London: Heinemann, 1990)
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF TITLES OR FIRST LINES
Poems with titles are given in italics. Those not given titles by Burgess appear without italics.
A Ballade for Christmas
p. 350
A Ballade for the Birthday Of My Dearest Wife
p. 348
A bird sat high on a banyan tree
p. 441
Abraham’s Sacrifice (1)
p. 63
Abraham’s Sacrifice (2)
p. 64
Abraham’s Sacrifice (3)
p. 64
A Christmas Recipe
p. 398
Adam’s Sin
p. 56
A drink. What is a drink?
p. 433
A glance or gander of this gandy dancer
p. 400
A History
p. 361
All About Eve
p. 54
A prism is a useful thing
p. 402
A Reply
p. 55
A Rondel For Spring
p. 357
A Sonnet for the Emery Collegiate Institute
p. 341
A Time for Music
p. 431
Advice to would-be writers? Simple. Don’t
p. 341
All the ore
p. 361
An Elegy For X
p. 408
An Essay On Censorship
p. 29
And as the Manhattan dawn came up
p. 395
And his hooves hammer me back into the ground
p. 383
And if there be no beauty, if god has passed some by
p. 301
And in that last delirium of lust
p. 370
Archangels blasting from inner space
p. 384
At the end of the dark hall he found his love
p. 389
‘Augustine and Pelagius’
p. 311
Augustus on a guinea sat up straight
p. 323
Back to the Roots
p. 52
Bard’s Song
p. 419
Balaam’s Ass
p. 68
Bear
p. 435
Beasts and men are made the same
p. 441
Bed
p. 435
Bells broke in the long Sunday, a dressing-gown day
p. 385
Beryl is the daughterly daughter
p. 376
Belshazzar’s Feast
p. 74
Bull Song
p. 419
Cabbage Face
p. 449
Cain’s Crime
p. 59
Cain And The Lord
p. 59
Calm lies our harbour, while the maiden day
p. 403
Catullus 1
p. 353
Catullus 2
p. 354
Chant
p. 413
Christ at the Pillar
p. 84