Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Tim Parksin conversation with Natalia Ginzburg
(PN Review 49)
Next Issue James K. Baxter, Uncollected Poems Rod Mengham, Last Exit for the Revolution Stav Poleg, The Citadel of the Mind Jena Schmitt, Resting Places: The Writing-Life F Friederike Mayrocker Wayne Hill, Poems
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
PN Review 275
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 176, Volume 33 Number 6, July - August 2007.

Two Poems Alfred Corn

Hadrian

Ambition even vast finds its limit.
But love goes undefined, a threshold crossed
As often as the passage serves to deepen
Hushed petitioners who falter toward
A torch-lit audience with the oracle.

The wall that dammed back Caledonia
And its warriors also bridled the Empire,
Rome in its silver age a hub less driven
To centrifugal expansion via paved
Routes designed to spin out cohorts of shields
By the bronze, obedient ten thousand.
Standardised blocks constructed Caesar's rough-cut
Nec plus ultra , his full stop in stone.

A calculated number of leagues south,
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image