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 Hal Coase 'Ochre Pitch' Gregory Woods 'On Queerness' Kirsty Gunn 'On Risk! Carl Phillips' Galina Rymbu 'What I Haven't Written' translated by Sasha Dugdale Gabriel Josipovici 'No More Stories' Valerie Duff-Strautmann 'Anne Carson's Wrong Norma'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
PN Review 276
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 80, Volume 17 Number 6, July - August 1991.

Botanical Happy Families John Heath-Stubbs

NYMPHAEACEAE

The white lily floats on the still pool
In places where the nymphs haunt;
The lotos dreams of nirvana; the yellow nenuphar,
Beloved of Mallarmé and the symbolistes -
But English peasants call it 'brandy-bottle' -
Hints, it seems, at another oblivion;
Victoria regia, enormous and imperial,
As the queen it was named for,
Displays itself upon the tropic lakes.

Long-toed, straight-clawed, spur-winged,
The lily-trotter, the elegant jaçana,
Goes across upon the lily-pads,
And seems as if he walked upon the water.

SCROFS

I dreamed I saw a yellow toad
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image