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 36, Volume 10 Number 4, March - April 1984.

Early Views of Manchester and Paris: First View John Ash

It makes us uncomfortable: the pillars
and shadowed arches of these monuments
to commerce are a furniture we can't
or daren't throw out. Hard not to admire
such a total dedication to redundancy, -

as if the whole city were a railway
station and the line diverted. In the photographs
of that age the only people to be visible
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image