Collected Poems Anthony Burgess (best pdf reader for ebooks txt) 📖

saw him a good way off

And ran to him, kissed him, laughed and wept.

Oh, the prodigal son.

‘Father, I’m but a worthless thing,

I am not fit to be your son.’

But his father gave him a costly ring

And the finest robe that was ever spun.

Oh, the prodigal son.

‘Bring out the fatted calf’, he cried.

‘Let us eat and drink and stamp the ground,

For he is alive that I deemed had died.

Rejoice, for he that was lost is found.’

Oh, the prodigal son.

The elder was an angry one,

He would have no part in feast or song.

‘All these years I have been a good son,

Asking no favour, doing no wrong,

Never a prodigal son.’

THE GOOD SAMARITAN

There was a man of Israel,

A brother of our faith and blood.

He bought and sold and his work went well.

Like us, he was neither bad nor good.

He travelled one day from Jerusalem

To do some business in Jericho.

He fell among thieves and was stripped by them

And beaten with many a savage blow.

He lay at the side of the road near dead.

A priest of the temple came riding by.

A dying man, to himself he said.

What can I do but let him die?

A man of the Levites rode on his way,

Yea, one of Moses’ and Aaron’s race.

His horse said nothing but he said nay,

And they cantered on at a merry pace.

Now who should come next but a foreign man,

A son of a race that the Jews despise,

Yes, as you guess, a Samaritan,

But he halted and pity flooded his eyes.

He cared for this wretch all blood and rage,

He washed his wounds in wine and oil,

He tore white linen from his saddlebags,

He did not scorn the surgeon’s toil.

He set him tenderly on his steed,

Rode to a nearby inn, and then

His only care was to tend and feed

And bring that wretch to life again.

‘Landlord, landlord, I must go away.

Care for this sick man, I pray.

Whatever the cost I will gladly pay.

I will be back in a week and a day.’

Now who was the kindly neighbour here

In the eyes of that robbed and wretched man –

The Levite, to the Lord most dear,

The priest he had been taught to revere,

Or the despised Samaritan?

PASSOVER HYMN

He showed the power of that mighty hand

And out of its bondage Israel came,

From bondage to the promised land.

Blessed be his holy name.

Alleluia alleluia.

Blessed be his holy name.

ENDNOTES

1. An Essay On Censorship. Previously unpublished. Poem dated 10 April 1989.

2. The Creation of the World. Previously unpublished variant text. Same title as in ABBA ABBA, Based on a second draft that does not have the title, but is otherwise the same. This draft version uses the word ‘his’ instead of ‘us’, presumably erroneously. See also ABBA ABBA (London: Faber, 1977), p. 92.

3. The Earthly Paradise of the Beasts. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘The Beastly Paradise’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 92. Some differences in line indentation. The ABBA ABBA version uses the phrase ‘roughish fun was rife’. The last three lines have no space before them in the ABBA ABBA version.

4. Back to the Roots. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Origins’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 93. Some variations in indentation.

5. Man. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Adam’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 93. Variations in indentation. The spaces between ‘om nip o tence’ are not present in the published version. ‘Say’ was originally typed, but corrected to ‘prove’ in line 4.

6. His Own Image and Likeness. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Image and Likeness’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 93. Variations in the indentation. ‘Old Nick’ appears in the published version, and ‘Satan’ is used in line 8. This is a hand correction on the typed MS, which was originally ‘The devil’. Line 14 has ‘fucking’ in the published volume, changed from ‘bloody’ in the MSS.

7. All About Eve. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘About Eve’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 95. Some variations in indentation. Word substitutions in this MS version include: ‘divil’ (which became ‘divvle’); ‘handkerchief’ (which became ‘snotrag’); ‘She’ in the last stanza (which became ‘who’). The MS shows that Burgess put ‘Mother’ in as an afterthought.

8. A Reply. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Another Point of View’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 95. Some variations in indentation. The first line in the published version was ‘But some say: Scorn her not. Remember, she’.

9. The First Mouthful. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Greed’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 96. Some variations in indentation.

10. Adam’s Sin. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Original Sin’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 96. Variations present in the indentation, and also in use of italics (for ‘why’).

11. The First Clothes. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Knowledge’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 97. Some variations in indentation.

12. The State of Innocence (1). Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘What Might Have Been’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 97. Some variations in indentation.

13. The State of Innocence (2). Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘A Problem’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 98. Some variations in indentation. A cancelled version of line three begins: ‘And spuds –’ The first line of stanza two uses commas instead of the brackets used in the final version. Likewise, collective pronouns are used in lines 13 and 14, in place of what would become the personal ‘I’ in the published version.

14. Holy Starvation. Previously unpublished variant. Has the same title as in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. ‘Yes’ and ‘O ye’ are heavily overwritten on the MS in ink (the previous words are illegible). An em dash in the penultimate line is used in the typescript, whereas a semi-colon appears in the published version. See ABBA ABBA, p. 98.

15. Cain and the Lord. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Cain 1’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. The MS version uses ‘hell’ instead of the ‘fuck’ of the published version. See ABBA ABBA, p. 99.

16. Cain’s Crime. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Cain 2’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. See ABBA ABBA, p. 99.

17. The Second Sin. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Cain 3’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. See ABBA ABBA, p. 100.

18. The Universal Deluge. Previously unpublished variant. Is called ‘The Ark