Poems in a Pandemic

Day Dream

by ASJ Simmonds

(1902-62)

b. England

Starlings in Winter

by Mary Oliver

(1935-2019)

b. Ohio, USA

Any Morning

by William Stafford

(1914-93)

b. Kansas, USA

Gitanjali 35

by Rabindranath Tagore

(1861-1941)

b. India

The Mower

by Philip Larkin

(1922-85)

b. England

Everyone Sang

by Siegfried Sassoon

(1886-1967)

b. England

Arrival

by RS Thomas

(1913-2000)

b. Wales

From The Cure at Troy

by Seamus Heaney

(1939-2013)

b. N. Ireland

From 'An African Elegy'

by Ben Okri

(1959-)

b. Nigeria

'The Darkling Thrush'

by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

b. England

'Snow'

by Louis MacNeice (1907-63)

b. N. Ireland

'We grow accustomed to the dark'

by Emily Dickinson

(1830-86)

b. Massachusetts, USA

'Everything is Going to be All Right'

by Derek Mahon

(1941-2020)

b. N. Ireland

'Sometimes'

by Sheenagh Pugh

(1950-)

b. England

'February - Not Everywhere'

by Norman MacCaig (1910-96)

b. Scotland

From 'Frost at Midnight'

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

(1772-1834)

b. England

'The Peace of Wild Things'

by Wendell Berry

(1934-)

b. Kentucky, USA

'Storm Warnings'

by Adrienne Rich

(1929-2012)

b. Maryland, USA

'Happiness'

by Raymond Carver

(1938-88)

b. Oregon, USA

'Optimistic Little Poem'

by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

(1929-)

b. Germany

'The Call'

by Charlotte Mew

(1869-1928)

b. England

'Snow-flakes'

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(1807-82)

b. Maine, USA

'The Comming of Good Luck'

by Robert Herrick

(1591-1674)

b. England

'Begin'

by Brendan Kennelly (1936-)

b. Ireland

From 'Endymion'

by John Keats

(1795-1821)

b. England

'Dream Variations'

by Langston Hughes (1902-67)

b. Missouri, USA

'Keeping Quiet'

by Pablo Neruda

(1904-73)

b. Chile

'The Fountain'

by Denise Levertov

(1923-97)

b. England

'Miracle on St David's Day'

by Gillian Clarke

(1937-)

b. Wales

'Field Guide'

by Tony Hoagland

(1953-2018)

b. North Carolina, USA

From 'September 1, 1939'

by WH Auden

(1907-73)

b. England

'Encounter'

by Czeslaw Milosz

(1911-2004)

b. Lithuania

From 'Prometheus Unbound'

by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

b. England

'Wonder'

by Tuvia Ruebner

(1924-2019)

b. Czechoslovakia

'Putting in the Seed'

by Robert Frost

(1874-1963)

b. California, USA

'New Gravity'

by Robin Robertson (1955-)

b. Scotland

'Swineherd'

by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (1942-)

b. Ireland

'Love after Love'

by Derek Walcott

(1930-2017)

b. St Lucia

'Night Letter to the Reader'

by Billy Collins

(1941-)

b. New York, USA

'The View from the Window'

by RS Thomas

(1913-2000)

b. Wales

‘Poem written in a copy of Beowulf'

by Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

b. Argentina

'Any Common Desolation'

by Ellen Bass

(1947-)

b. Pennsylvania, USA

'Invitation'

by Mary Oliver

(1935-2019)

b. Ohio, USA

'Travelling in a Comfortable Car'

by Bertolt Brecht

(1898-1956)

b. Germany

'The Voiceless Birds'

by Endre Ady

(1877-1919)

b. Romania

'Spring'

by Kim Ki-rim

(1908-?)

b. North Korea

'Rima IV'

by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

(1836-1870)

b. Spain

'First Sight of Spring'

by John Clare

(1793-1864)

b. England

'Today'

by Billy Collins

(1941-)

b. New York, USA

From 'Spring'

by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89)

b. England

'In the Fields'

by Charlotte Mew

(1869-1928)

b. England

'Home-Thoughts from Abroad'

by Robert Browning

(1812-89)

b. England

'To be of use'

by Marge Piercy

(1936-)

b. Michigan, USA

'Those Who Make Paths'

by Catherine Fisher (1957-)

b. Wales

'Proud Songsters'

by Thomas Hardy

(1840-1928)

b. England

'An Ordinary Day'

by Norman MacCaig (1910-96)

b. Scotland

'Wolves'

by Louis MacNeice

(1907-63)

b. Northern Ireland

'Meditation XVII'

by John Donne

(1572-1631)

b. England

'Screened Porch'

by Louise Glück

(1943-)

b. New York, USA

'The Round'

by Stanley Kunitz

( 1905-2006)

b. Massachusetts, USA

'"Hope" is the thing with feathers'

by Emily Dickinson

(1830-86)

b. Massachusetts, USA

'Praise Song for the Day'

by Elizabeth Alexander (1962-)

b. New York, USA

'The Poems of our Climate'

by Wallace Stevens

(1879-1955)

b. Pennsylvania, USA

'Canticle'

by John F Deane

(1943-)

b. Ireland

'Night'

by Louise Bogan

(1897-1970)

b. Maine, USA

From 'Auguries of Innocence'

by William Blake

(1757-1827)

b. England

'Reading Pascal in the Lowlands'

by Douglas Dunn (1942-)

b. Scotland

'May'

by Kerry Hardie

(1951-)

b. Singapore

'Wild Geese'

by Mary Oliver

(1935-2019)

b. Ohio. USA

'The Way It Is'

by William Stafford

(1914-93)

b. Kansas, USA

'Return'

by TH Parry-Williams (1887-1975)

b. Wales

'O Me, O Life'

by Walt Whitman (1819-92)

b. New York, USA

'Try to Praise the Mutilated World'

by Adam Zagajewski (1945-2021)

b. Ukraine

'Entirely'

by Louis MacNeice (1907-63)

b. Northern Ireland

b.

'Good'

by RS Thomas

(1913-2000)

b. Wales

'The Wasp Trap'

by Edward Thomas (1878-1917)

b. England

From 'Little Gidding' (Four Quartets)

by TS Eliot

(1888-1965)

b. Missouri, USA

'The Trees'

by Philip Larkin

(1922-85)

b. England

'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'

by WB Yeats

(1865-1939)

b. Ireland

'Postscript'

by Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

b. Northern Ireland