Spectator poems
From the magazine

Du Bellay’s lament, de nos jours

Stephen Romer
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 19 April 2025
issue 19 April 2025

When you are sad, and imminently grey,

Will you take down my poems and say

‘That bastard took and took and took

From me, for the sake of his lousy book’

—And have me, who am truly old and grey

Terribly in handcuffs taken away?