A Poem for a Lonesome Bull

latest in suite of what for lack of other description I've taken to calling "My Dead Poets"

I’ve always considered this lonesome bull 

ensconced atop the trefoiled hill 

a metaphor for his aloofness -- 

a poet’s way 

of insuring space, keeping 

some small part of himself 

clean  

from the grubbing hands  

keening urge to dig into lines 

for what, never intended, did not 

(or could not) make him 

better read. 

In truth, serendipity 

fed me his pages. The need 

to hunt the like minded, 

an ever widening circle’s

insatiable hunger 

to crack open the hoary chestnut --

the war-ached romantics 

anthems to doomed youths

a bugle call to lie among the roses 

Stearns would bury. 

Ken e Bujold

Author's Note

subject is Ralph Hodgson, early 20th century British poet, on the edges of the Georgian movement. If at all curious about him, I suggest reading The Bull

Reviews

[W. Barrett Munn]

The Bull for some reason brings to my mind Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. It makes me wonder who else this lonely bull might have influenced. You do well to paint a scene of an unknown well enough to engage my duriosity. Following slowly in your footsteps, about a million miles behind.

Also, am I correct that "Stearns would bury" is a reference to T.S. Eliot?

Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

I found Hodgson through the WWI poets. Owen and Sassoon have long been favs of mine, but there are others as well. Brooke, Thomas, de la Mare. As was my way then, I follow a source to the font, which led me to the Georgian circle of which RH was one. What intrigued about him at the time, was how reticient he was to be in the spotlight. While not anywhere near the top of my list of poets, I do have two volumes of his work on shelves, and The Bull is the one that typically comes to mind if he is ever brought up in discussion

[Ken e Bujold]

yes Stearns is in reference to TS who buried them all with the Wasteland. After its publication poetry was never the same

[emmajoygreen]

I will read The Bull because I need understand more of the thought process in writing your intriguing poem. Am I ashamed to admit - as a Brit, to have not already read it, yes! Seems there is comparison rather than compassion here.

'to crack open the hoary chestnut --
the war-ached romantics
anthems to doomed youths
a bugle call to lie among the roses
Stearns would bury. '

[Ken e Bujold]

don't fret not knowing Ralph Hogdson Em. Was a good, but minor poet of the early 20th century. Lost in the shadows of his much more famous and gifted compatriots, many of which were friends. Brooke, Lawrence, Blunden, Sassoon. I only know him because at one point as a youth i was quite smitten with the works of Wilfred Owens and Sassoon, and because of that delved into their contemporaries and influences. Hodgson was in that group. The Bull is a very good poem, his best, and reading it again lately sparked this poem, part of many I seem to be writing about my earlier influences, My Dead Poets.