'I suddenly wondered one day why there were no selections made by poets' wives or muses - and how wonderful it would be to have, say, Mrs Shakespeare's or Mrs Wordsworth's choices...'

Anthony Astbury

There are nine muses in Greek mythology: this anthology celebrates the tenth, the figure in a poet's life who inspires, criticises, interprets and supports. First published as pamphlets by Anthony Astbury's legendary Greville Press, each selection here has been made by a wife, husband, son or daughter of the poet. Each selector brings to the role a unique insight into the work of a poet whose life they have shared; each selection honours relationship in a different way. The Tenth Muse ranges in time from Myfanwy Thomas choosing poems by her father Edward, to Lady Antonia Fraser selecting those of Harold Pinter. There is coherence in the abundance this book provides, and the text is enriched with double portraits and memoirs. The Tenth Muse is an illuminating series of intimate dialogues between poets and those closest to their hearts.

The Tenth Muse includes:

George Barker selected by Elspeth Barker
Thomas Blackburn selected by Julia Blackburn
Lawrence Durrell selected by Francoise Kestman-Durrell
David Gascoyne selected by Judy Gascoyne
W.S. Graham selected by Nessie Dunsmuir
Robert Graves selected by Beryl Graves
Harold Pinter selected by Antonia Fraser
Ann Ridler selected by Vivian Ridler
C.H. Sisson selected by Nora Sisson
Elizabeth Smart selected by Sebastian Barker
Dylan Thomas selected by Aeronwy Thomas
Edward Thomas selected by Myfanwy Thomas
David Wright selected by Oonagh Swift

Table of Contents

Preface by Michael Schmidt



Poems by George Barker, selected by Elspeth Barker

Foreword

Allegory of the Adolescent and the Adult

Battersea Park

To My Mother

Summer Song I

'Turn on your side and bear the day to me'

Galway Bay

On a Friend's Escape from Drowning off the Norfolk Coast

Roman Poem III

At Thurgarton Church

Morning in Norfolk

from Villa Stellar

A Version of Animula Vagula Blandula



'For a Child': Poems by Thomas Blackburn, selected by Julia Blackburn

When

Exorcism of Ghosts

Prayer for the Unborn Children

Last Night

The Unpredictable

An Aftermath

The Drummer

A Smell of Burning

Oedipus

By the Water

In the Fire

Hospital for Defectives

For a Child

Mercy

The Sediment

Mental Ward

Kinder Scout

Trewarmett

Laudate

Morituri

An Epitaph



'Too Far to Hear the Singing': Poems by Lawrence Durrell, selected by Françoise Kestsman Durrell

Foreword

Highwayman

from Cities, Plains and People

Song for Zarathustra

Sarajevo

The Octagon Room

Eleusis

The Ikons

The Outer Limits

Feria: Nîmes

Le cercle refermé



Poems by David Gascoyne, selected by Judy Gascoyne

Foreword

September Sun: 1947

The Goose-Girl

Oxford: A Spring Day

Rex Mundi

Sentimental Colloquy

November in Devon

Half-an-Hour

from Three Venetian Nocturnes

Lines

Apologia

Odeur de Pensée

A Tough Generation

The Sacred Hearth

from Miserere

Prelude to a New Fin-de-Siècle

A Sarum Sestina



Poems by W.S. Graham, selected by Nessie Dunsmuir

To ND

O Gentle Queen of the Afternoon

Here Next the Chair I Was When Winter Went

Shian Bay

Gigha

from The Nightfishing

Letter VI

I Leave This at Your Ear

from The Dark Dialogues

O Why Am I So Bright

A Walk to the Gulvas

Loch Thom

from Implements in their Places

To My Wife at Midnight



'Yesterday Only' and other poems: Poems by Robert Graves, selected by Beryl Graves

Foreword

Two Fusiliers

I Am the Star of Morning

Full Moon

The North Window

A History

The Presence

From an Upper Window

Return Fare

Saint

The Felloe'd Year

Recalling War

A Love Story

Despite and Still

Theseus and Ariadne

To Juan at the Winter Solstice

Nuns and Fish

The Last Day of Leave (1916)

Counting the Beats

The Devil at Berry Pomeroy

Dialogue on the Headland

Ouzo Unclouded

The Hearth

The Narrow Sea

Song: Fig Tree in Leaf

What We Did Next

Song: Yesterday Only

Song: Olive Tree

A Dream of Frances Speedwell

The Moon's Last Quarter

The Green Woods of Unrest

At the Gate

The Unpenned Poem



Poems by Harold Pinter, selected by Antonia Fraser

Foreword

Paris

Later

I know the place

Message

Denmark Hill

Joseph Brearley 1909-1977

Poem (The lights glow.)

Ghost

Before They Fall

Cricket at Night

Death

Cancer Cells

It Is Here



Poems by Anne Ridler, selected by Vivian Ridler

Foreword

Cold in March

Bunhill Fields

Kirkwall 1942

At Parting

For a Child Expected

Bathing in the Windrush

Expectans Expectavi

To Mark Time

Bach's B Minor Mass

Piero della Francesca

Venetian Scene

'I who am here dissembled'

On a Picture by Michele da Verona

A Matter of Life and Death

Choosing a Name

The Surprise

A Triolet for Christmas

Diamond Wedding



Poems by C.H. Sisson, selected by Nora Sisson

In the Hills

In Kent

A Duckling

At the Airport

Cranmer

Ellick Farm

The Temple

Thomas de Quincey

On My Fifty-First Birthday

For Patrick Swift

The Garden

Drought

The Red Admiral

For the Queen's Jubilee

Blackdown

The Pleasers

from Ode for St George's Day

from On the Departure

The Question

The Best Thing to Say

Address to Whom It May Concern



Poems by Elizabeth Smart, selected by Sebastian Barker

There's Nobody Here But Us Chickens

A Warning

A Bonus

Trying to Write

The Muse: His & Hers

What is Art? Said Doubting Tim

Slightly Rhyming Verses for Jeff Bernard's Fiftieth Birthday

To David Gascoyne, On His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, Some Blue Himalayan Poppies, First Found On The Roof of the World By An Intrepid Hunter, And These Inadequate Verses From His Friend Elizabeth

Rose Died



Poems by Dylan Thomas, selected by Aeronwy Thomas

Foreword

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

The Hand That Signed the Paper

The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower

After the Funeral

A Letter to My Aunt Discussing the Correct Approach to Modern Poetry

The Hunchback in the Park

This Side of the Truth

The Conversation of Prayer

In My Craft or Sullen Art

Fern Hill

Lament

Over Sir John's Hill



Poems by Edward Thomas, selected by Myfanwy Thomas

Foreword

Words

Merfyn

Bronwen

Helen

March the 3rd

Old Man

The Brook

Swedes

Fifty Faggots

from Roads

The Owl

As the team's head brass

The Cherry Trees

A Private

In Memoriam (Easter 1915)

Lights Out

Out in the dark

The Lofty Sky



Poems by David Wright, selected by Oonagh Swift

A South African Album

Monologue of a Deaf Man

A Fish Out of Water

Making Verses

Rhapsody of a Middle-Aged Man

Juxtapositions

For George Barker at Seventy

In Memoriam David Archer

Meetings

Letter to C.H. Sisson

E.P. at Westminster

Those Walks We Took

The Tomb of Virgil

A Funeral Oration



Notes on the poets and selectors

Acknowledgements