Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
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)
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 98, Volume 20 Number 6, July - August 1994.

Casper Hauser: the last six cantos David Constantine

Fourth Canto

Philip Henry Stanhope
1 March 1855



I
Stanhope, Philip Henry, the Fourth Earl,
Dying abroad nowhere particular
I wish to be shipped home like an admiral

In brandy, I have a longing
To enter the mouth of the Thames on a flood tide
And settle alongside

Eleanor Mary, my poor wife, the children
Lawfully issued between her narrow hips,
Henry Philip, Mary Eleanor Ann,

There being no bastards, I can swear to it,
And Caspar dead without issue,
Dead and beyond amends, if they will pay my transit
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image