A Dead Mole -- Andrew Young

(Poem #168) A Dead Mole Strong-shouldered mole, That so much lived below the ground, Dug, fought and loved, hunted and fed, For you to raise a mound Was as for us to make a hole; What wonder now that being dead Your body lies here stout and square Buried within the blue vault of the air? -- Andrew Young

1939.

You know how it is when you're looking at one of those trick photos
which have two interpretations (like the silhouetted profiles / flower
vase thingy), and suddenly the image resolves itself into a whole new
picture? Well, sometimes poetry is like that. Sometimes (not often, but
sometimes) poems have a way of jolting the reader into a whole new
appreciation of reality - seeing the extraordinary in the mundane,
reversing commonly held perceptions, finding new truths in unlikely
places...

I love the inversion of perspective in the last line of today's poem.
Suddenly, what seemed to be an ordinary-enough poem about an
ordinary-enough event is given the force of a revelation. Powerful, and
thought-provoking.

thomas.

[Followup / Links]

For another take on how poets bring out the unfamiliar in the everyday,
read the Martian poetry of Craig Raine (and Vikram Doctor's excellent
commentary on it) at poem #131

All our previous poems can also be read on the Web, at
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/

[Biography]

A completely anonymous poet... several web-searches revealed no
background information about Andrew Young, apart from the fact that he
was presumably alive in 1939, when this poem was written. I'd appreciate
mail from anyone who knows who the guy is/was.