From the Foreword: "In 1944, when I first assembled my shorter pieces, I arranged them in the alphabetical order of their first lines. This may have been a silly thing to do, but I had a reason. At the age of thirty-seven I was still too young to have any sure sense of the direction in which I was moving, and I did not wish critics to waste their time, and mislead readers, making guesses about it which would almost certainly turn out to be wrong. To-day, nearing sixty, I believe that I know myself and my poetic intentions better and, if anybody wants to look at my writings from an historical perspective, I have no objection. Consequently, though I have sometimes shuffled poems so as to bring together those related by theme or genre, in the main their order is chronological."-- W.H.A.

Includes a index of first lines.

Foreword -- Part 1: 1927-1932 -- Letter -- Taller to-day -- Missing -- Secret agent -- Watershed -- No change of place -- Let history be my judge -- Never stronger -- This loved one -- Easy knowledge -- Too dear, too vague -- Between adventure -- Free one -- Family ghosts -- Questioner who sits so sly -- Venus will now say a few words -- 1929 -- Bonfires -- On Sunday walks -- Shorts -- Happy ending -- This lunar beauty -- Question -- Five songs -- Uncle Henry -- Consider -- Wanderer -- Watchers -- Adolescence -- Exiles -- Decoys -- Have a good time -- Half way -- Ode -- Legend -- Witnesses -- Part 2: 1933-1938 -- Summer night -- Paysage moralise -- O what is that sound -- Our hunting fathers -- Through the looking-glass -- Two climbs -- Meiosis -- Misunderstanding -- Who's who -- Schoolchildren -- May -- Bride in the 30's -- On this island -- Night mail -- As I walked out one evening -- Twelve songs -- His Excellency -- Casino -- Oxford -- Dover -- Journey to Iceland -- Detective story -- Death's echo -- Price -- Danse macabre -- Lullaby -- Orpheus -- Miss Gee -- Victor -- As he is -- Voyage -- Capital -- Brussels in winter -- Musee des Beaux arts -- Gare du midi -- Novelist -- Composer -- Rimbaud -- A E Housman -- Edward Lear -- Epitaph on a tyrant -- Sonnets from China -- Part 3: 1939-1947 -- In memory of W B Yeats -- In memory of Ernst Toller -- Voltaire at Ferney -- Herman Melville -- Unknown citizen -- Prophets -- Like a vocation -- Riddle -- Heavy date -- Law like love -- Hidden law -- Twelve songs -- In memory of Sigmund Freud -- Another time -- Our bias -- Hell -- Lady, weeping at the crossroads -- Anthem for St Cecilia's Day -- Dark years -- Quest -- Shorts -- No time -- Diaspora -- Luther -- Montaigne -- Council -- Maze -- Blessed event -- At the grave of Henry James -- Alone -- Leap before you look -- If I could tell you -- Atlantis -- In sickness and in health -- Many happy returns -- Mundus et infans -- Few and simple -- Lesson -- Healthy spot -- Model -- Three dreams -- Fall of Rome -- Nursery rhyme -- In Schraffts' -- Under which lyre -- Music is international -- Duet -- Pleasure Island -- Walk after dark -- Part 4: 1948-1957 -- In transit -- In praise of limestone -- Ischia -- Under Sirius -- Cattivo tempo -- Hunting season -- Fleet visit -- Island cemetery -- Not in Baedeker -- Ode to Gaea -- Bucolics -- Shorts -- Five songs -- Three occasional poems -- Their lonely betters -- First things first -- More loving one -- Permanent way -- Nocturne -- Precious five -- Memorial for the city -- Shield of Achilles -- Secondary epic -- Makers of history -- T the great -- Managers -- Epigoni -- Bathtub thoughts -- Old man's road -- History of science -- History of truth -- Homage to Clio -- Love feast -- Chimeras -- Merax & Mullin -- Limbo culture -- There will be no peace -- Household -- Truest poetry is the most feigning -- We too had known golden hours -- Secrets -- Numbers and faces -- Objects -- Words -- Song -- One circumlocution -- Horae Canonicae -- Good-bye to the mezzogiorno -- Index of first lines.