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 187, Volume 35 Number 5, May - June 2009.

Prayer to Saint Agatha Evan Jones
We can affirm nothing with confidence concerning her history…
As an attribute in art her breasts, which were cut off, are often
shown on a dish… she was credited with the power of arresting the
eruptions of Mount Etna, so she is invoked against any outbreak of
fire.
                                                                   Butler’s Lives of the Saints

Martyr and holy virgin of the third
century, refuter of married life,
pure thinker and resister of lechers,
I wish to write sooner, while you were young
and living among the countries of our
civilisation’s birth. I have every
country in mind now and every childhood,
and you are a thousand women whose breasts
have been severed because of their beliefs.
I will say here something of life without you.

The kind of men you knew are gone. Women
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image