This poem is taken from PN Review 36, Volume 10 Number 4, March - April 1984.
National Trust
Bottomless pits. There's one in Castleton,
and stout upholders of our law and order
one day thought its depth worth wagering on
and borrowed a convict hush-hush from his warder
and winched him down; and back, flayed, grey, mad, dumb.
Not even a good flogging made him holler.
O gentlemen, a better way to plumb
the depths of Britain's dangling a scholar,
...
and stout upholders of our law and order
one day thought its depth worth wagering on
and borrowed a convict hush-hush from his warder
and winched him down; and back, flayed, grey, mad, dumb.
Not even a good flogging made him holler.
O gentlemen, a better way to plumb
the depths of Britain's dangling a scholar,
...
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