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Robert Graves

Robert Graves

The Travellers' Curse after Misdirection

(from the Welsh)

May they stumble, stage by stage
On an endless Pilgrimage
Dawn and dusk, mile after mile
At each and every step a stile
At each and every step withal
May they catch their feet and fall
At each and every fall they take
May a bone within them break
And may the bone that breaks within
Not be, for variations sake
Now rib, now thigh, now arm, now shin
but always, without fail, the NECK

Other works by Robert Graves...
The Patchwork Quilt

Here is this patchwork quilt I’ve… Of patterned silks and old brocade… Small faded rags in memory rich Sewn each to each with feather sti… But if you stare aghast perhaps
Not to Sleep

Not to sleep all the night long, f… Counting no sheep and careless of… Welcoming the dawn confabulation Of birds, her children, who discus… Fanciful details of the promised c…
Full Moon

As I walked out one harvest night About the stroke of One, The Moon attained to her full hei… Stood beaming like the Sun. She exorcised the ghostly wheat
 1
Hawk and Buckle

Where is the landlord of old Hawk… And what of Master Straddler this… He’s along in the tap—room with br… And ten bold companions all drinki… Where is the daughter of old Hawk…
The Finding of Love

Pale at first and cold, Like wizard’s lily—bloom Conjured from the gloom, Like torch of glow—worm seen Through grasses shining green
To Juan at the Winter Solstice

There is one story and one story o… That will prove worth your telling… Whether are learned bard or gifted… To it all lines or lesser gauds be… That startle with their shining
Love and Black Magic

To the woods, to the woods is the… In his grotto the maiden sits alon… She gazes up with a weary smile At the rafter—hanging crocodile, The slowly swinging crocodile.
A Pinch of Salt

WHEN a dream is born in you With a sudden clamorous pain, When you know the dream is true And lovely, with no flaw nor stain… O then, be careful, or with sudden…
A Renascence

White flabbiness goes brown and le… Dumpling arms are now brass bars, They’ve learnt to suffer and live… And to think below the stars. They’ve steeled a tender, girlish…
An Old Twenty-Third Man

“Is that the Three—and—Twentieth,… Marching below, and we still gulpi… From the sad magic of his fragrant… The red—faced old centurion starte… Cursed, battered on the table. “N…
The Caterpillar

Under this loop of honeysuckle, A creeping, coloured caterpillar, I gnaw the fresh green hawthorn sp… I nibble it leaf by leaf away. Down beneath grow dandelions,
John Skelton

What could be dafter Than John Skelton’s laughter? What sound more tenderly Than his pretty poetry? So where to rank old Skelton?
Cry Faugh!

Caria and Philistia considered Only pre—marital adventures wise; The bourgeois French argue contra… Socrate and Plato burked the issu… (Namely, how man—and—woman love sh…
Neglectful Edward

‘Edward back from the Indian Sea, What have you brought for Nancy?’ ‘A rope of pearls and a gold earri… And a bird of the East that will… A carven tooth, a box with a key—’
Double Red Daisies

Double red daisies, they’re my flo… Which nobody else may grow. In a big quarrelsome house like ou… They try it sometimes—but no, I root them up because they’re my…



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