Poets have grappled with the vexed question of what constitutes Englishness since time immemorial, and the poetry of the past century has seen perhaps some of the biggest evolutions in national identity.
Contraflow takes a completely new approach to the subject of Englishness, and in this stimulating and entertaining anthology two poetic currents flow against each other, so that different decades merge, well-known stanzas brushing shoulders with more neglected verse.
What emerges is an extraordinary mosaic of poetic responses to English history, culture and landscape – satirical, visionary, lyrical, comic, political, meditative – yet one which offers a recognisable picture of a land both united and divided through a hundred years.
A Guardian and Sunday Times poetry book of the year
Contents
Contraflow
Foreword by Ian McMillan
‘A Conversation about Englishness’ by John Greening and Kevin Gardner
Angles of Entry
2020s: ‘Foxglove Country’ by Zaffar Kunial
2010s: ‘England, I loved you’ by David Clarke
2000s: ‘The only thing far away’ by Kei Miller
1990s: ‘Somerset’ by Elizabeth Jennings
1980s: ‘England’ by Elaine Feinstein
1970s: ‘Earthed’ by U.A. Fanthorpe
1960s: ‘England’ by Anne Stevenson
1950s: ‘Shipton-under-Wychwood’ by Muriel Spark
1940s: ‘An Archaeological Picnic’ by John Betjeman
1930s: ‘You that love England’ by C. Day Lewis
Country
1920s: ‘Forefathers’ by Edmund Blunden
2020s: ‘Daffodils push through in the mild first days of January’ by Rebecca Watts
‘The Knowledge’ by John Challis
‘The Only English Kid’ by Hannah Lowe
‘Greensleeves’ by Grace Nichols
‘Self-Portrait as Katharine of Aragon’ by Penelope Shuttle
‘Chevening (X)’ by Robert Selby
‘The Kingdom’ by Jane Draycott
from ‘Between the Islands’ by Philip Gross
‘South and West’ by Matthew Francis
‘For Cousin John’ by Raymond Antrobus
‘United Kingdom’ by Tom Sastry
‘The Morning After’ by David Constantine
Divide
1930s: ‘Birmingham’ by Louis MacNeice
2010s: ‘Another Country’ by Sean O’Brien
‘Driving through the Pit Town’ by Rory Waterman
‘Homing’ by Liz Berry
‘Bridge’ by Stuart Henson
‘Migration’ by Mimi Khalvati
‘Cricket’ by Michael Hofmann
‘Walk with Me’ by Roger Robinson
‘Etcetera’ by Steve Ely
‘Kerrie’ by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough
‘The Walled Garden’ by Sarah Howe
‘Stamping Grounds (Earlier)’ by Zaffar Kunial
‘White Cliffs’ by Carol Ann Duffy
Keep Calm
1940s: ‘Still Falls the Rain’ by Edith Sitwell
2000s: ‘All Possibilities’ by Andrew Motion
‘The Thames Never Breathes’ by Katrina Naomi
‘A Map of Rochdale’ by John Siddique
‘Dead End’ by Glyn Hughes
‘Hung’ by Imtiaz Dharker
‘Going Places’ by Glen Cavaliero
‘The Road’ by Jane Draycott
‘English Zen’ by William Scammell
‘Bollockshire’ by Christopher Reid
‘Bam Chi Chi La La: London, 1969’ by Lorna Goodison
‘Parade’s End’ by Daljit Nagra
‘Scene at a Conference’ by George Szirtes
All Change
1950s: ‘Middlesex’ by John Betjeman
1990s: ‘A Major Road for Romney Marsh’ by U.A. Fanthorpe
‘A View from Stansted’ by Brian Jones
‘Home’ by Fred D’Aguiar
‘Satellite’ by John Greening
‘Tudor Garden, Southampton’ by Ruth Padel
‘About Benwell’ by Gillian Allnutt
‘Presents from My Aunts in Pakistan’ by Moniza Alvi
‘Video Tale of a Patriot’ by Glyn Maxwell
‘Cambridge’ by Kate Clanchy
‘English Weather’ by Wendy Cope
‘Broadmead Brook’ by C.H. Sisson
And Be Merry
1960s: ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ by Philip Larkin
1980s: ‘The 4.15’ by Fiona Pitt-Kethley
‘Lonely Hearts’ by Wendy Cope
‘England at Christmas, 1982’ by Gavin Ewart
‘Sister of the Planets’ by Edward Lowbury
‘Costa Brava’ by John Gohorry
‘Apple Gatherers’ by Philip Gross
‘Midsummer (XXXVI)’ by Derek Walcott
‘Summer in the Country’ by Alison Brackenbury
‘Summer Pudding’ by Grevel Lindop
‘As the West End Allegro Subsides Today’ by Jack Mapanje
‘Wailing in Wandsworth’ by Kit Wright
‘A Prayer to Live with Real People’ by Anne Stevenson
Recessional
1970s: ‘Three Knights’ by Joseph Brodsky
‘The Vanished Places’ by Neil Powell
‘Mercian Hymns (I)’ by Geoffrey Hill
‘Time Removed’ by James Berry
‘Ploughland’ by Peter Scupham
‘The Branch Line’ by Patricia Beer
‘Strike’ by Jon Silkin
‘Gladstone Street’ by Charles Tomlinson
‘Reformation’ by Anthony Thwaite
‘Returning from Church’ by Kathleen Raine
‘At the Castle Hotel, Taunton’ by Peter Porter
‘By Rail through the Earthly Paradise, Perhaps Bedfordshire’ by Denise Levertov
‘Leavings’ by Seamus Heaney
‘Sad Grave of an Imperial Mongoose’ by Geoffrey Grigson
‘The Shoot’ by Elizabeth Jennings
‘Last Load’ by Ted Hughes
Rebellion
1980s: ‘Rules for Beginners’ by Carol Rumens
1960s: ‘Diary of a Rebel’ by Rosemary Tonks
‘Adolescence’ by Thom Gunn
‘Mrs Albion You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter’ by Adrian Henri
‘Telephone Conversation’ by Wole Soyinka
‘A Poem about Poems about Vietnam’ by Jon Stallworthy
‘Demo Against the Vietnam War, 1968’ by Dannie Abse
‘Nadir’ by Molly Holden
‘Elm’ by Sylvia Plath
‘What the Chairman Told Tom’ by Basil Bunting
‘Homage to a Government’ by Philip Larkin
Securities
1990s: ‘Phrase Book’ by Jo Shapcott
1950s: ‘Afternoon Tea’ by Dom Moraes
‘Eunice’ by John Betjeman
‘Wind’ by Ted Hughes
‘Watercolour of Grantchester Meadows’ by Sylvia Plath
‘The Pot Geranium’ by Norman Nicholson
‘The Balloon at Selborne’ by Margaret Stanley-Wrench
‘Patriotic Poem’ by John Wain
‘A Ballad for Katharine of Aragon’ by Charles Causley
‘I Remember’ by Stevie Smith
‘Leaving England’ by Ingeborg Bachmann
Visionary
2000s: ‘A Vision’ by Simon Armitage
1940s: from ‘Little Gidding’ by T.S. Eliot
‘A Room at Nightfall’ by E.J. Scovell
‘Daybreak’ by Lilian Bowes Lyon
‘Son of Mist’ by James Reeves
‘Wensleydale’ by Patric Dickinson
‘The Island City’ by Sidney Keyes
‘In the Backs’ by Frances Cornford
‘Voices’ by Frances Bellerby
‘The Country House’ by Frederic Prokosch
‘Journey to London’ by J.C. Hall
‘The Burning of the Leaves’ by Laurence Binyon
Power
2010s: ‘Diagnosis: ‘Londonism’’ by Rishi Dastidar
1930s: ‘The Pylons’ by Stephen Spender
‘A Summer Night’ by W.H. Auden
‘After the Jubilee, 1935’ by John Squire
‘Children of wealth’ by Elizabeth Daryush
from ‘Autumn Journal’ by Louis MacNeice
‘Searchlights and Bombers’ by Geoffrey Grigson
‘Instructions from England, 1936’ by Valentine Ackland
‘Now as Then’ by Anne Ridler
‘The Silent Sunday’ by William Plomer
‘The Eight Men’ by Richard Church
Endgame
2020s: ‘Lord of Misrule’ by Gregory Leadbetter
1920s: from ‘The Waste Land’ by T.S. Eliot
‘Innocent England’ by D.H. Lawrence
‘In the National Gallery’ by Siegfried Sassoon
‘The Trees are Down’ by Charlotte Mew
from ‘The Land (Winter)’ by Vita Sackville-West
‘A Wish’ by Ivor Gurney
‘Tell me not here…’ by A.E. Housman
‘Voices from Things Growing in a Churchyard’ by Thomas Hardy
‘The Sad Shepherd’ by Sylvia Townsend Warner
‘As the team’s head brass’ by Edward Thomas
Exit Here
‘England, Where Did You Go?’ by Holly Hopkins
‘England’ by Dennis O’Driscoll
‘Being English’ by Peter Daniels
Indexes and Notes
A Note on the Text
Notes on the Poets and Poems
Index of Titles
Index of Poets
Index of First Lines
Acknowledgements
Credits and Permissions
