Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
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 Sinead Morrissey 'The Lightbox' Philip Terry 'What is Poetry' Ned Denny 'Nine Poems after Verlaine' Sasha Dugdale 'On learning that Russian mothers buy their soldier sons lucky belts inscribed with Psalm 90 to wear into battle' Rod Mengham 'Cold War Hot Air'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 57, Volume 14 Number 1, September - October 1987.

Poems Molly Holden

Molly Holden's last collection of poems was The Country Over (1975). She died in 1981. In July, Carcanet will publish New and Selected Poems, edited by Simon Curtis and with a memoir by Alan Holden.


Dead Fledgling

Honoured and exasperated by
the deft mud cones beneath the eaves,
we watched all early summer
the house-proud martins, thieves
of our early morning rest, sweep
the surrounding air the clock round
to feed the insistent mouths, the
darkening feathers, the incessant round.

Today the eldest fell. We'd watched
him lean far out, his head down-cocked,
a week or more, almost replying
to the children's quips, who mocked
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image