Poetry in Spooks: An extensive list

You might remember a few months ago that I asked for your assistance in helping a fellow fan find all the poetry references in Spooks for a school project. Thanks to your responses and the contributors from the Spooks nerds over at the wonderful Spooks Forum, Nixie managed to compile a pretty exhaustive list. Here ’tis! Thanks for sharing it with us Nixie!

Poems
S3.3 “Who Guards the Guards?” Shakespeare ‘Sonnet #138’ by Will to Zoe (first and last couplets of sonnet)

When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her though I know she lies.
…
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be. (56.37)

S3.4 “A Prayer for My Daughter” Yeats ‘A prayer for my daughter’ by Harry and Catherine. Harry looks at a handwritten versions of the poem at 23.46.

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. (Catherine 48.12)

Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence (Harry 58.10)

S3.7 “Outsiders” Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet, Chapter 1 ‘The Coming of the Ship’ quoted by Ruth and Andrew and incorrectly attributed to Abu Nuwas.

Andrew: Ready am I to go, the sails of my eagerness await the wind.
…
Ruth: And then I will come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean. (43.18)

S5.2 “Gas and Oil (Part 2)” Rupert Brooke from ‘The Old Vicarage, Grantchester’ by Harry.

‘And stands the clock at ten to three?’ (24.00), a variation on Brooke’s line ‘Yet stands the Church clock at ten to three?’ (l.140)

S5.2 “Gas and Oil (Part 2)” Walt Whitman ‘When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed’ by Harry to be read at Colin’s funeral.

Comrades mine, and I in the midst, and their memory ever I keep — for the dead I loved so well (l. 205) (57.35)

S7.1 “New Allegiances” John McCrae ‘In Flanders Fields’, read by young boy at Remembrance Day Service.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
…

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; … (50.00)

S7.? Spike Milligan ‘On the Ning Nang Nong’ discussed by Harry & Qualtrough

S8.8 Schiller ‘Ode to Joy’ Harry & Ruth

Ruth: Sounds as if Nightingale has bought into the concept of controlled holocaust. (pause) We must save the talks.
Harry: Do you still sing? In your choir?
Ruth: Ah, yes, we’re doing Beethoven’s Ninth ‘Ode to Joy’.
Harry: ‘Alle Menschen werden Brüdern’ – ‘all men will be brothers …
Ruth: … under gentle wings.’ Harry …[Harry cries] Harry, all men are brothers. That’s why we shed tears for people we don’t know.
Harry: It’s just the wind, Ruth. (39.20-40.04)

S9.1 Alexander Pope ‘Ode on Solitude’ read by Ruth at Ros’ memorial service.

Blest! who can unconcern’dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix’d; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lye (at very beginning 1.00)

Homer
S2.3 Ruth references Homer’s Iliad with the line “The son of Kronos spoke and nodded with his darkish brow.” Book One, verse 28.

S4.1 or 2 Ruth quoted the Iliad to the Professor in Oxford?

Shakespeare – plays
S1.4 Shakespeare (Coriolanus) ‘There is a world elsewhere’
S2.5 Shakespeare (Henry IV) by Ruth
S3.4 Shakespeare (King Lear) ‘My poor fool is hanged’ quoted by Adam (23.16)
S5.4 Shakespeare (Measure for Measure) by Malcolm
S5.5 Shakespeare (Macbeth) by Ruth – Lady MacBeth?
S7.8 Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice ) “Mercy falls like gentle rain from heaven”
S8.? Shakespeare (King Lear) by Sarah Caulfield
S8.6 Shakespeare (Macbeth) “He was a man on whom I built. An absolute trust” Act IV

Miscellaneous
S7 Blake’s depiction of Urizen in watercolour etching ‘The Ancient of Days’ – poem ‘Earth’s answer’ indirect ref to Urizen & applicable to LN
S8.1 Sylvia Plath ‘Lady Lazarus’ – Ruth’s code-word on her return