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This poem is taken from PN Review 32, Volume 9 Number 6, July - August 1983.

Night Thoughts (II & III) C.H. Sisson

II

Muncaster and Morella were a pair
Come out of fable into history,
Hidden deep in the former as the latter;
I pulled them out only to point a moral.

It was a shallow grave and no mistake
That hid those two, although it seemed so deep
Because I simply woke up one morning
Remembering them, and there they were before me.

Muncaster saw Morella pass his shop
Each morning as she walked stoutly to work;
There he was always taking down the shutters
For all this was a long time ago.

A hat, I dare say, of unusual pattern
Or what seemed so, over a country face,
And what else there is inscrutable
In a young woman, to a young man

And above all to one who was robust
...


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