Geoffrey Hill

Here you will find the Poem Requiem for the Plantagenet Kings of poet Geoffrey Hill

Requiem for the Plantagenet Kings

For whom the possessed sea littered, on both shores, 
Ruinous arms; being fired, and for good, 
To sound the constitution of just wards, 
Men, in their eloquent fashion, understood.

Relieved of soul, the dropping-back of dust, 
Their usage, pride, admitted within doors; 
At home, under caved chantries, set in trust, 
With well-dressed alabaster and proved spurs
They lie; they lie; secure in the decay
Of blood, blood-marks, crowns hacked and coveted, 
Before the scouring fires of trial-day
Alight on men; before sleeked groin, gored head, 
Budge through the clay and gravel, and the sea
Across daubed rock evacuates its dead.