Contents Introduction A Note on the Text Anonymous Cock Robin The Corpus Christi Carol The Three Ravens Sir Patrick Spens The Wife of Usher''s Well from Pearl Dahn the Plug''ole Raymond Antrobus (1986-) Sound Machine Matthew Arnold (1822-1892) Memorial Verses W. H. Auden (1907-1973) In Memory of W. B. Yeats William Barnes (1801-1886) The Music o'' the Dead The Wife a-Lost Woak Hill Paul Batchelor (1977-) Pit Ponies Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) Matilda Gwendolyn Bennett (1902-1981) Epitaph John Berryman (1914-1972) Dream Song 155 The King James Bible (1611) 2 Samuel 1 Ecclesiastes 3 Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) For the Fallen Bion ( c . 120- 57 BCE) Lament for Adonis Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) North Haven William Blake (1757-1827) Nurse''s Song ( Songs of Innocence ) Nurse''s Song ( Songs of Experience ) The Chimney Sweeper ( Songs of Innocence ) The Chimney Sweeper ( Songs of Experience ) Ma lika Booker (1970-) Death of an Overseer Elizabeth Boyd ( c . 1710-1745) On the Death of an Infant of Five Days Old Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) In Memory of My Dear Grandchild, Elizabeth Bradstreet Ka mau Brathwaite (1930-2020) Elegy for Rosita Robert Bridges (1844-1930) On a Dead Child Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) On the Death of Emily Jane Brontë Emily Brontë (1818-1848) Remembrance Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) The Soldier Jericho Brown (1976-) The Tradition William Browne ( c. 1590-1645) On the Countess Dowager of Pembroke Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) Felicia Hemans L.

E. L.''s Last Question Mother and Poet Basil Bunting (1900-1985) from Briggatts Robert Burns (1759-1796) Epitaph for James Smith Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) Stanzas for Music ''Remember thee! Remember thee!'' On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year Elegy on Thyrza Christian Campbell (1979-) Rudical (Derek Bennett, killed by the police) Thomas Campion (1567-1620) O Come Quickly! Thomas Carew ( c . 1595-1640) An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of Paul''s, Dr John Donne Epitaph for Maria Wentworth Ciaran Carson (1948-2019) In Memory Elizabeth Carter (1717-1806) On the Death of Mrs Rowe Catullus ( c . 84- 54 BCE) Elegy on the Sparrow Catullus 101 Charles Causley (1917-2003) Eden Rock C. P. Cavafy (1863-1933) For Ammonis, Who Died Aged 29 in 610 Jane Cave (1754-1812) An Elegy on a Maiden Name Paul Celan (1920-1970) Deathfugue Amy Clampitt (1920-1994) A Procession at Candlemas John Clare (1793-1864) The Lament of Swordy Well I Am Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) the lost baby poem Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) Epitaph Tony Connor (1930-) Elegy for Alfred Hubbard Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) On the Death of Mr William Hervey William Cowper (1731-1800) Epitaph on a Hare The Poplar Field Hart Crane (1899-1932) At Melville''s Tomb Richard Crashaw (1613-1649) A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint Teresa An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife Countee Cullen (1903-1946) Colored Blues Singer Threnody for a Brown Girl Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) Fare Well Toi Derricotte (1941-) Elegy for My Husband Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) ''Because I could not stop for Death'' ''Safe in their Alabaster Chambers'' ''I felt a Funeral, in my Brain'' Maura Dooley (1957-) I''ve Been Thinking a Lot About Heaven John Donne (1572-1631) A Funeral Elegy Lord Alfred Douglas (1870-1945) The Dead Poet Keith Douglas (1920-1944) Simplify Me When I''m Dead Vergissmeinnicht John Dryden (1631-1700) Upon the Death of the Lord Hastings To the Memory of Mr Oldham Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) A Death Song William Dunbar (1459-1520) Lament for the Makaris Douglas Dunn (1942-) The Kaleidoscope Lady Katherine Dyer ( c . 1585-1654) ''My dearest dust could not thy hasty day'' T.

S. Eliot (1888-1965) from The Waste Land (Death by Water) Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) from Threnody Vicki Feaver (1943-) Gorilla Caleb Femi (1990-) The Story of Damilola Taylor James Fenton (1949-) At the Kerb Sarah Louisa Forten (1814-1883) The Grave of the Slave Robert Frost (1874-1963) Nothing Gold Can Stay Robert Garioch (1909-1981) Elegy John Gay (1685-1732) My Own Epitaph Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) from Kaddish Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) Retaliation Lorna Goodison (1947-) For My Mother (May I Inherit Half Her Strength) Barnabe Googe (1540-1594) An Epytaphe of the Death of Nicolas Grimoald W. S. Graham (1918-1986) Lines on Roger Hilton''s Watch Robert Graves (1895-1985) The Untidy Man Thomas Gray (1716-1771) On the Death of Richard West Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes Thom Gunn (1929-2004) Lament Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) To His Love Song Cotswold Ways Strange Hells Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) Drummer Hodge Thoughts of Phena A Singer Asleep The Going The Voice At Castle Boterel After a Journey During Wind and Rain Lying Awake Tony Harrison (1937-) Book Ends Terrance Hayes (1971-) American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) The Strand at Lough Beg Felicia Hemans (1793-1835) The Grave of a Poetess Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1587-1648) Elegy Over a Tomb George Herbert (1593-1633) Virtue Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621) If Ever Hapless Woman Had a Cause Robert Herrick (1591-1674) Upon Himself Geoffrey Hill (1932-2016) September Song Michael Hofmann (1957-) For Gert Hofmann, died 1 July 1993 Thomas Hood (1799-1845) I Remember, I Remember Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) Binsey Poplars Spring and Fall Felix Randal Horace (67-8 BCE) Odes 3.30 A. E. Housman (1859-1936) To an Athlete Dying Young ''Is my team ploughing'' ''Far in a western brookland'' Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries ''Crossing alone the nighted ferry'' Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547) An Excellent Epitaph of Sir Thomas Wyatt ''Norfolk sprung thee, Lambeth holds thee dead'' Langston Hughes (1902-1967) Silhouette Ted Hughes (1930-1998) Sheep Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) On the Death of His Son Vincent Mick Imlah (1956-2008) Stephen Boyd (1957-95) Major Jackson (1968-) Ferguson LINTON Kwesi Johnson (1952-) Reggae fi Dada Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) An Epitaph on Claudy Phillips, a Musician On the Death of Dr Robert Levet Ebenezer Jones (1820-1860) The Poet''s Death Ben Jonson (1572-1637) Epitaphs To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author Mr William Shakespeare Jackie Kay (1961-) Burying My African Father John Keats (1795-1821) When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be Henry King (1592-1669) Exequy on His Wife Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) The Appeal Yusef Komunyakaa (1947-) Elegy for Thelonious Charles Lamb (1775-1834) The Old Familiar Faces Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802-1838) Stanzas on the Death of Mrs Hemans Felicia Hemans WALTER SAVAGE Landor (1775-1864) Rose Aylmer Philip Larkin (1922-1985) The Explosion Francis Ledwidge (1887-1917) Thomas MacDonagh Amy Levy (1861-1889) Epitaph Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) The Cross of Snow Michael Longley (1939-) Wounds Robert Lowell (1917-1977) Sailing Home from Rapallo Lucretius ( c . 99-55 BCE) from On the Nature of Things Louis MacNeice (1907-1963) The Suicide Derek Mahon (1941-2020) A Disused Shed in Co.

Wexford Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) from A Poem upon the Death of His Late Highness the Lord Protector Paula Meehan (1.