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 12, Volume 6 Number 4, March - April 1980.

Six Poems Elizabeth Jennings
WATCHER

     He is the watcher underneath the stars.
He dresses the dome of night with strings of long
     Meditations. He seldom moves. If he does,
It is to become acquainted with nightly creatures
     And now with hibernators who are creeping
Out of their snowy sleep, their habitations
     Which, perilously, just kept them warm enough.
The watcher is hardy and burly but even he

     Rejoices in his own silence at the change
Apparent everywhere as the glacier winter
     Slides away, as the woken grass speaks
And a chorus of thrushes and blackbirds sings the hours.
     This watcher joins them in his meditations:
But he thinks of a shadow only just beginning
     To creep over grass dressed by the sun.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image