Collected Poems by Anthony Burgess (best e ink reader for manga txt) 📕

‘Anger’. ‘Moneychangers preying’ was originally intended as ‘moneymen who battoned’. Transcribed from MS draft. Published in ABBA ABBA, p. 119.

57. Martha and Mary. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Compared with the ABBA ABBA version, there is a very minor variant in line eight, in the italicized phrase and the lower-case ‘w’. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 120.

58. First Communion. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Communion’. ‘To eat’ was originally intended as ‘Gobble’. At this point in the MS, Burgess clearly makes a mistake the numbering of the sequence. Hence, each sonnet from here on was originally assigned the number before it. For example, this – sonnet number 58 – is mistakenly hand-corrected to number 57. Correct numbers have been reassigned for the present edition. See ABBA ABBA, p. 120.

59. Christ’s Cross-Examination. Previously unpublished variant. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Christ & Pilate’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 121.

60. Christ at the Pillar. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘At the Pillar 1’. The first line was eventually re-written as ‘Bare as a Briton auctioned into slavery’, but this phrase does not appear (typed or hand-written) on the MS. See ABBA ABBA, p. 121.

61. Courage. Previously unpublished variant text. Same order and wording as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘At the Pillar 2’. Burgess’s numbering is once again correct from this sonnet onwards. See ABBA ABBA, p. 122.

62. Ill-Starred. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Pity’. Minor hand-corrections on MS made the following substitutions: ‘on’ for ‘in’ (line 2); ‘Forced as’ for ‘And then’ (line 3); ‘To slave’ for ‘Slaving’ (line 4); ‘old saying’ for ‘saying’ (line 13); ‘spavined’ for worn-out’ (line 14). Burgess evidently abandoned a hand-written correction which intended to substitute ‘All vermin’ for ‘flies’. See ABBA ABBA, p. 122.

63. The Two Breeds. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘The Two Kinds of Men’. Burgess later inserted the word ‘Scarred’. Croesus, king of Lydia, apparently ruled for over a decade prior to being defeated by Cyrus the Great. Burgess wrote about Cyrus in a 1976 screenplay, poems from which appear above on p. 433. See: Herodotus. Complete Works of Herodotus (Delphi Classics, 2013). See ABBA ABBA, p. 123.

64. Guilt in the Ghetto. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Guilt’. ‘When Christ left home’ was eventually changed to ‘When Christ went’ in the ABBA ABBA version. The last three lines have corrected by hand in the typescript, and were originally:

Doomed-to-die (put it another way)

Has to be matched, alas, by doomed-to-slay.

Somebody had to take this business on.

These corrections are so heavy on the MS, that Burgess retyped the stanza in the form shown in the present edition. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 123.

65. Limbo. Previously unpublished variant. Same title and order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. This, and subsequent sonnets, are not given a number by Burgess, but the sequence of the MSS follows that seen in the eventual published form in ABBA ABBA. The numbers are added by the editor from here onwards. ‘Saintly’ was eventually substituted for ‘holy’ in the ABBA ABBA version. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 124.

66. Christ in Hell. Previously unpublished variant. Same title and order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. In the MS, ‘can’ is hand-corrected to ‘could’. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 124.

67. Doubting Thomas. Previously unpublished variant text. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA, as ‘Doubt’. The first three lines (undeleted in the MS, but then reworked) were originally began as:

When Christ rose up, those somewhat timid gentry

His friends screamed just like magpies. One apostle

Though, St Thomas,

On the MS, ‘Shove’ is hand-corrected to ‘Poke’ on line nine. Published in ABBA ABBA, p. 125.

68. Whitsun. Previously unpublished variant text. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Burgess provides no title in the MS. For convenience and continuity, the title from ABBA ABBA is used here. See ABBA ABBA, p. 125.

69. Spread the Word. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Burgess provides no title in the MS. For convenience and continuity, the title from ABBA ABBA is used here. On the MS,‘Jesus’ and ‘Cassia’ typewritten corrections of illegible deleted words. ‘Took’ in line three was originally intended as ‘sought’, and then hand-corrected. Line four – again, later hand-corrected – originally read as ‘Some, tiring, went to feed the need/Of’. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 126.

70. The Last Days. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Burgess provides no title in the MS. For convenience and continuity, the title from ABBA ABBA is used here. Line nine was published in a variant form in ABBA ABBA, as: ‘The prophet Enoch will lambast the liar.’ Originally, line ten (subsequently corrected by hand) was intended as: ‘Who will arise out of a big black hatch’. In the final line on the MS, ‘The’ is hand-corrected to ‘And’. Transcribed from MS draft. See ABBA ABBA, p. 126.

71. The Last Judgement. Previously unpublished variant. Same order as the version published in ABBA ABBA. Burgess provides no title in the MS. For convenience and continuity, the title from ABBA ABBA is used here. Line nine (subsequently hand-corrected on the MS) was originally intended as: ‘And there the Lord, cool, careful, systematic’. ‘Er-phwoo’ on the last line was originally written as ‘Phwoo’, and then corrected by hand. The last three sentences in this line appear, in ABBA ABBA, on separate stepped lines of their own. The current version follows the indentations selected by Burgess in the original MS. This is the last of the sonnets in the ABBA ABBA version, but other