Enright, D. J.

England, (1920-2002)

Paradise Illustrated: A Sequence
(excerpt)

  1. XVI
  2.  
  3. ‘I should have ceased at noon
  4. On the sixth day,’
  5. He said to Himself.
  6. ‘I think my hand was shaking.
  7. I should have rested content
  8. With the ounce, the libbard, the mole,
  9. With the stag, the river-horse and the bee.
  10. Would the provident emmet
  11. Have eaten the apple?
  12. Never.
  13. Or the gluttonous pig?
  14. Not ever.
  15. The gluttonous pig
  16. Devours his rightful truffle,
  17. He waxes fat,
  18. He is swollen with innocence.
  19. But Eve—that evening’s work!—
  20. She alone would eat the apple.
  21. And has she waxèd fat?
  22. Lean and lecherous is she grown.
  23. The ribs of her mate stick out
  24. Like the ribs of a winter’s tree,
  25. Its fruits all plucked.
  26. I should have stopped at midday.’

 D. J. Enright. Collected Poems: 1948–1998. Oxford: Oxford University Press (1998).

About the Poet:

Dennis Joseph Enright, England, (1920-2002), was a poet, British academic, novelist and critic. He was educated at Leamington College and Downing College, Cambridge. After graduating he held a number of academic posts outside the United Kingdom: in Egypt, Japan, Thailand and most notably in Singapore.

As a poet Enright was identified with the Movement. His 1955 anthology, Poets of the 1950s, served to delineate the group of British poets within that literary group. Returning to London in 1970, he edited Encounter magazine, with Melvin J. Lasky, for two years and subsequently worked in publishing. [DES-09/19]