[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

Here's a very positive review of Douglas Dunn's latest poetry collection, The Noise of a Fly.

I wonder what you say to the reviewer's exhortation: "in years to come ‘Senex in Market Street’ should be printed in new editions as Sonnet 155."

Here's the sonnet in question:


XXSenex on Market Street

X‘Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament’


Posh totty totter past on serious heels.
In handsomeness, with confidence, they walk
Towards exams, and don’t know how it feels
To hear the fateful tick-tock of the clock.
Young women, and young men, I, too, was young –
Believe that if you can! – but years go by
Until, one day, you find your songs are sung;
Ambitionless, your sap and tears run dry.
There’s something I must tell – need you know this? –
I loved a woman who dressed as well as you;
But I can’t give the past false emphasis,
For even old love is for ever new.
X When she walked out she dulcified the air;
X And so do you. To say so’s only fair.