This poem is taken from PN Review 179, Volume 34 Number 3, January - February 2008.

Three Poems

Daryl Hine

Palinode

Orient yourself in time
Toward the prepossessing dawn.
Disenchanted by the past,
Turn your back forever on
The decadent and splendid West
And all your yesterdays in flame.

Tomorrow is a promised land
Inevitable as success
Following the era you
Wasted in the wilderness.
All the prophecies are true
And their fulfilment is at hand.

Tomorrow seemed a sinecure
Available by force or guile.
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