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 275
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 207, Volume 39 Number 1, September - October 2012.

Versions of Martial Ranjit Bolt
To His Readers

So here's the book you're all so keen to read -
The pithy poems that have made my name
And won me, while alive, the kind of fame
Most poets don't get even when they're dead!
(I i)



To the Emperor

Sire, please don't be offended by my verse,
It may be wicked, but you've laughed at worse
And if my poems sometimes cross the line
My life is absolutely anodyne.
(I iv)



The Gigolo

Gemellus wants to marry Maronilla -
Why, when she so resembles a gorilla?
She's rich, and has a growth that's going to kill her.
(I x)



Curate's Egg

Some of the poems in this book are great
Some neither here nor there, and some third rate -
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image