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 167, Volume 32 Number 3, January - February 2006.

Big Bumperton on the Sabbath Ian Pindar


'We are not concerned,' he said, 'with long-winded creations, with long-term beings. Our creatures will not be heroes of romances in many volumes.'
Bruno Schulz, The Street of Crocodiles (1934)


I

In a Christian house
In a Christian town
Lived a Christian man
With a little dog
That greeted him every day after work.

If Big Bumperton
(For that was his name)
Seemed a happy man
Then it only seemed
For he was alone since his mother died.

& in love, it's true,
He had little luck
For the girls he loved
Never did love him
& saw him as an object of pity.

Still he carried on
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image