Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(PN Review 259)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Kirsty Gunn re-arranges the world John McAuliffe reads Seamus Heaney's letters and translations Chris Price's 'Songs of Allegiance' David Herman on Aharon Appelfeld Victoria Moul on Christopher Childers compendious Greek and Latin Lyric Book Philip Terry again answers the question, 'What is Poetry'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 162, Volume 31 Number 4, March - April 2005.

Marienbad 1814 Christopher Middleton

A lion, aha, has to have broken loose;
    A boy, he puffs his cheeks; he fingers
Now a flute; picks out a tune,
    With singular glides, while at the fair
(Lodged overnight, for Sunday show)
    An image, advertising fright,
A lion loose, everyone aghast -
    Is not the same as those hussars
Of 1806; we still pick out the marks
    Of gun-butts grooving our front door.

What a porridge! Speak of it
    To nobody. A complex gestates,
Makings of a star, in secret snowballing
    Spacious dusts. Meanwhile Faustus ;
Done with, sundry loving metamorphoses;
    To Hafiz now the steeps, a distinct
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image