An abandoned lover tries not to take their distress too seriously I am standing in this field Holding my glove in the air Should I whistle? I can’t whistle Will she get lost? Take shelter in a charming tree? It’s starting to rain Is that bad? This is a woolly glove Calm down Falconers are patient It’s very windy The sky is so big She could be literally anywhere Penzance India Why did I let her go? I’m not a falconer! Do I just keep standing here? I’d go home and change Into appropriate footwear But what if I missed her? I bet falcons are like Fedex The second you nip to the loo … What am I tal ..read more

An implausibly perfect list of womanly virtues is kept afloat with genial buoyancy Merry Margaret, As midsummer flower, Gentle as a falcon Or hawk of the tower ..read more

A childlike curiosity opens up questions of what we can and cannot know Only this morning you swore you saw something swift and white fly through the night and land on the gate in the dark ..read more

An allegory of Christian devotion also sounds a lot like a lyric of unrequited love Till the slow daylight pale, A willing slave, fast bound to one above, I wait; he seems to speed, and change, and fail; I know he will not move. I lift my golden orb To his, unsmitten when the roses die, And in my broad and burning disk absorb The splendours of his eye. His eye is like a clear Keen flame that searches through me; I must droop Upon my stalk, I cannot reach his sphere; To mine he cannot stoop. I win not my desire, And yet I fail not of my guerdon, lo! A thousand flickering darts and tongues of ..read more

A fin-de-siècle poet’s attempt to retain the beauty of a lost love is built around unsettlingly violent imagery I took her dainty eyes, as well As silken tendrils of her hair: And so I made a Villanelle ..read more

A spare, haunting depiction of a tricky winter walk points the way to everyone’s final destination is often icy one in four, and today it brings me to my hands and dodgy knees ..read more

A fierce defence of his battles with ‘adverse fortune’ suggests Robert Burns was invigorated by the confrontation ..read more

Written in the 1920s, this is a young man’s daring and defiant assertion of his sexuality Legend As silent as a mirror is believed Realities plunge in silence by ..read more

A lonely poet has been warned against a wandering ‘lunatic’ but feels more envy of his mental state than fear On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because it was Frequented by a Lunatic ..read more

A peaceful look back at a ‘high summer’ and its evanescence Reflection Looking at blue, looking through blue, he watched slow floaters rise and die; flowers were talkative that high summer, their fluid crimsons bedded on his retina as he twisted sunlight from his eyes ..read more