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 57, Volume 14 Number 1, September - October 1987.

At Charlotte Alan Stephens

Eating alone, what shall I have along
                        For company
  At my small table, while the young
  Mostly it is who'll neighbor me
In twos, threes, fours, clear eyed and smooth of face,
                        Inside this place?

- Old Bridges, yes; the secret of a few
                        Not doctrinaire
  Who see the firm shapes, lovely, true,
  Stir in that style 'so worn and bare',
Stone carved and weathered, rose- and ivy-trace
                        Still twine in place;

This Hume, which from its unfrequented, dim
                       And cool recess,
  His minor works, I pick by whim;
  Prose at its ease in formal dress,
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image