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National Poetry Day: Part 1 of ‘The Phoenix’

William Golding’s first published work was a book of Poems, published by Macmillan in 1934. Poems is now out of print, but to celebrate National Poetry Day (UK), here is an exclusive look at the first part of Golding’s poem ‘The Phoenix’.

The Phoenix

The phoenix rose again and flew

With crest and plume and pinion

In splendour from grey ashes flashing

Like a jewel turned beneath the sun

 

In cities and in palaces,

Or toiling through the hot dumb sand

Bare-footed in the barren hills,

Men saw – and would not understand.

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