We cannot know what John of Leyden felt
Under the Bishop's tongs – we can only
Walk in temperate London, our educated city,
Wishing to cry as freely as they did who died
In the Age of Faith. We have our loneliness
And our regret with which to build an eschatology.


"The Historians Call Up Pain", first collected in Once Bitten, Twice Bitten (1961); cited from Edward Lucie-Smith and Philip Hobsbaum (eds.) A Group Anthology (London: Oxford University Press, 1963) p. 83.

Peter Porter Quotes

We cannot know what John of Leyden felt Under the Bishop's tongs – we can only Walk in temperate London, our educated city, Wishing to cry as...

We cannot know what John of Leyden felt Under the Bishop's tongs – we can only Walk in temperate London, our educated city, Wishing to cry as...

We cannot know what John of Leyden felt Under the Bishop's tongs – we can only Walk in temperate London, our educated city, Wishing to cry as...

We cannot know what John of Leyden felt Under the Bishop's tongs – we can only Walk in temperate London, our educated city, Wishing to cry as...