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 78, Volume 17 Number 4, March - April 1991.

Two Poems C.H. Sisson

ENDYMION

The world darkens, everything grows old,
Yet all is not lost, for treacherous youth
Continues at its play, blinking the truth:
Nothing is lost until the sum is told.

Youth is a victory, age a defeat,
And victory will dazzle while it can:
The game is blinding to the growing man;
It is the growth which fosters the deceit.

Hope and intention will accompany
The body which grows strong and beautiful:
It can what it could not: the moon at full
Forgets her light is borrowed. She can see

And so comes down to stroke Endymion
As if she were the queen that made the light,
And so they struggle in a double night,
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image