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 Poetry Nation 2 Number 2, 1974.

From Under The Moon's Reign Charles Tomlinson

Under the Moon's Reign

Twilight was a going of the gods: the air
Hung weightlessly now - its own
Inviolable sign. From habit, we
Were looking still for what we could not see -
The inside of the outside, for some spirit flung
From the burning of that Götterdämmerung
And suffused in the obscurity. Scraps
Of the bare-twigged scene were floating
Scattered across scraps of water - mirrors
Shivered and stuck into a landscape
That drifted visibly to darkness. The pools
Restrained the disappearing shapes, as all around
The dusk was gaining: too many images
Beckoned from that thronging shade
None of which belonged there. And then the moon
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image