And we too have our bitterness and pity that engage
Blood, spirit, in this war. But night begins,
Night of the mind: who nowadays is conscious of our sins?
Though every human deed concerns our blood,
And even we must know, what nobody has understood,
That some great love is over all we do,
And that is what has driven us to this fury...
    from ‘Soldiers Bathing’

F.T. Prince’s Collected Poems 1935-1992 incorporates all the work that he wished to preserve, from his earliest published poems to late, uncollected pieces. Prince has become best known for his wartime poem ‘Soldiers Bathing’, a meditation on violence and redemption. Collected Poems reveals the riches of a lifetime’s work. His poetry combines a deep affinity with European humanist traditions and a modernist rigour: here is one of the essential twentieth-century writers.

Prefatory Note


POEMS (1938)
An Epistle to a Patron
To a Man on his Horse
In the Wood
The Tears of a Muse in America
The Wind in the Tree
On a Cold Night
The Intention
The Token
Words from Edmund Burke
To a Friend on his Marriage
To My Sister
The Letter
Keeper’s Wood
False Bay
The Babiaantje
The Moonflower
In a Province
Chapel-at-Ease
For the Deserted
For Fugitives
For Thieves and Beggars
Cefalù
Chaka
    I    The King Watches at Night
    II     He Compares Old Customs with Those of his Kingdom
    III    How Festivals were Celebrated
    IV    He Bathes in the Morning
    V    The People Rest after Conquests


SOLDIERS BATHING (1954)
I
Soldiers Bathing
The Inn
The Dice
The Diamond
The Book
The Question

II
Apollo and the Sybil
The Old Age of Michelangelo


THE DOORS OF STONE (1963)
Watching Song
Coeur de Lion
‘Moult sont Prud’hommes les Templiers’
Les Congés du Lépreux
The Stolen Heart
Mortimer
Strambotti
Gregory Nazianzen
Campanella
Strafford
Autumn Journey
Sea View
Handfast Point
At Beaulieu


MEMOIRS IN OXFORD (1970)

DRYPOINTS OF THE HASIDIM (1975)

AFTERWORD ON RUPERT BROOKE (1976)

A LAST ATTACHMENT (1979)

LATER ON (1983)
The Yüan Chên Variations
His Dog and Pilgrim
A Byron-Shelley Conversation


NOT A PARIS REVIEW INTERVIEW (1986)

WALKS IN ROME (1987)


SENILIA
Family Mottoes
Youth and Age
To a Granddaughter on one of her Suggestions for a Christmas Present
On a Report that in Some Rest Homes Residents who are Depressed will be Charged at a Higher Rate
Ecumenical Exchange, 1989
The Two Beggars: A Reminiscence
Creation Myth
Renouncing an Epigram
Finis Coronat Opus
Vivat
Last Poem


Notes
Index of Titles and First Lines