Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(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 Sinead Morrissey 'The Lightbox' Philip Terry 'What is Poetry' Ned Denny 'Nine Poems after Verlaine' Sasha Dugdale 'On learning that Russian mothers buy their soldier sons lucky belts inscribed with Psalm 90 to wear into battle' Rod Mengham 'Cold War Hot Air'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 24, Volume 8 Number 4, March - April 1982.

Section from 'Fragment of Anno Domini' George Barker

In a time of fashionable evangelists
              to retire to small vegetable allotments;
in a time of doctors and aristocratic actresses
              to eavesdrop on the dialogues of worms;
in a time of national anthems and brass bands
              to conduct rigorous callisthenics for corpses;
in a time of bald-headed administrators
              to erect beribboned maypoles and
encourage cardsharpers; in a time of Scandinavian
              architecture and pornography to wrestle
with incubi and succubi; in a time of magicians and waterdiviners
              to remember, nevertheless, that we can fly.
From moralistic and political trials
              allow us 0 lord chief justice to draw
our own biased conclusions without
              fear of the bell, the book or the final
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image