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Michael Hamburger Four Poems Dark Solstice, 2006 Day after day no glint of the sun, Morning hoarfrost even leaden, No visible moon, not one star, The winter viburnum’s flushed white Unfragrant in dankness by day, by night. Against absence, against nature Put out food as ever, provide For the larger, the flimsiest, Pheasant, magpie, dove, Chaffinch to wren and goldcrest, The grey heron raptor too Should one fish survive in the pond. Believe still, while you can, In swallowtail, damselfly, bee, Night-moth, day-moth, ladybird, Green hairstreak revealed only once, A long dormant bat’s resurgence.
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Hamburger Names too human, enumerated? Shame forbids them in prayer Lest we assert once more What we pretend we know, What we pretend we need, What we pretend we are Who with wastage, with glut Oil the springs of rejoicing. If into namelessness All ever named must pass, May there be winged kinds to link Earth with water with air. Winter Sun, East Suffolk Rarer, briefer the rays More preciously shine, More widely through the stripped Bulk of deciduous trees. And the conifers, black, Come into their own As memorials of night Outlasting glints on leaves, Whether, cypress, straight up they’re urged Or sideways, yew, must amass. 115

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Michael Hamburger Four Poems

Dark Solstice, 2006

Day after day no glint of the sun, Morning hoarfrost even leaden, No visible moon, not one star, The winter viburnum’s flushed white Unfragrant in dankness by day, by night.

Against absence, against nature Put out food as ever, provide For the larger, the flimsiest, Pheasant, magpie, dove, Chaffinch to wren and goldcrest, The grey heron raptor too Should one fish survive in the pond.

Believe still, while you can, In swallowtail, damselfly, bee, Night-moth, day-moth, ladybird, Green hairstreak revealed only once, A long dormant bat’s resurgence.

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