The poems in this volume were selected by Glyn Maxwell from TALE OF THE MAYOR'S SON (published in 1990, when he was twenty-eight), OUT OF THE RAIN (shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize), and REST FOR THE WICKED. Maxwell “is a formalist,” wrote Robert McIlwaine about his first book, “but . . . he is an outspoken anti-elitist social poet. His strenuous well-wrought poems . . . come from an English tradition of technical virtuosity with plain speech.” The Boys at Twilight shows, sometimes comically, men at war, boys at play, boys grown up, men overreaching and reverting. Other concerns are the dangers of authority and mob psychology, the absurdities of stardom and consumerism, the heroism of the decent, and the wisdom of doubt. His subjects range from biblical stories to the “Tale of the Chocolate Egg,” which is a long, “pitch-perfect description of a bored young man’s growing obsession with a new kind of candy” (Adam Kirsch, New Republic). Always in his work, “Maxwell knows that to see into is not necessarily to see through . . . His virtuosity has a ballast of sobriety” (Poetry Book Society).

'"Some of the brightest poetic goods seen for many years."'

Glyn Maxwell is the author of nine books of poetry, including, most recently, The Sugar Mile. He is also a dramatist whose plays have been staged in New York, Edinburgh, and London. His latest play, Liberty, had its world premiere in the summer of 2008 at Shakespeare's Globe. Among other honors, he has won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the E. M. Forster Prize. He was the poetry editor of the New Republic from 2001 to 2007. He lives in London.

Contents Tale of the Mayor’s Son (1990)

11 My Turn 12 Tale of the Mayor’s Son 17 Drive to the Seashore 18 Flood Before and After 20 The Albatross Revolution 22 Mandate on an Eighth of May 25 The Pursuit 26 Mild Citizen 27 The High Achievers 28 Wasp 29 The End of the Weekend 32 A Whitsun 34 Just Like Us 36 Tale of a Chocolate Egg 52 Farm Close

Out of the Rain (1992)

55 Errand Boy 56 The Fires by the River 57 EC3 58 The Eater 59 The Uninvited 60 Recollection of a Meal 63 Helene and Heloise 66 We Billion Cheered 67 The Hang of It 68 Sport Story of a Winner 70 Dream but a Door 71 Desire of the Blossom 72 Rare Chat with the Red Squirrel 74 Plaint of the Elder Princes 76 Rumpelstiltskin 77 One and Another Go Home 78 La Brea 79 Nativity 80 War Hero 81 And Leaves Astonishing 82 Didymus the Seated 84 Springs of Simon Peter 85 Thief on the Cross 86 Out of the Rain

Rest for the Wicked (1995)

109 Peter Brook 110 The Ginger-Haired in Heaven 111 Birth Day 112 The Wish 113 Garden City Quatrains 116 As You Walk Out One Morning 118 Love Made Yeah 119 Either 120 The Boys and Girls of There 122 The Boys at Twilight 124 Song of Our Man 125 Growing Men 126 Younger Than That Now 128 The Stakes 129 The Furthest West 130 Watching Over 131 Lust 131 Conquest 132 The Sentence 133 The Night Is Young 134 If You Haven’t Got a Shilling 135 Curse on a Child 136 Don’t Waste Your Breath 138 Museum 139 Sulk 140 The Margit-Isle 142 The Great Detectives 144 The Devil at War 146 The Altered Slightly 147 Yellow Plates 148 The Sarajevo Zoo 150 A Force That Ate Itself 152 The People’s Cinema 154 The Allies 155 The Horses’ Mouths 160 Stargazing