The Bells of Heaven -- Ralph Hodgson

Guest poem sent in by Bob Williams

(Poem #1700) The Bells of Heaven 'Twould ring the bells of heaven, The wildest peal for years, If Parson lost his senses And people came to theirs. And he and they together Knelt down with angry prayers For tamed and shabby tigers, And dancing dogs and bears, And wretched, blind pit ponies, And little hunted hares. -- Ralph Hodgson

This is a poem that lives vividly in mind, memory and heart. The skill is
great but concealed. Imagery of the opening lines carries us deep into the
poem before what we know what it is about. If the reader gets as far as
'angry prayers,' there is no way out and the reader must go on to the end.
The last four lines are carefully built with a choice of the feral and the
domestic victims of man's inhumanity. The sound is brittle and matches the
idea of these victim's vulnerability. The controlled wrath of the poet is
awesome.  His lines crackle.

Bob Williams

[Links]

Biography:
  http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/mirabile/mirabile2/hodgson.html

We've run one of Hodgson's poems before: The Gipsy Girl [Poem #517], which
displays the same finely-controlled wrath.

The Gipsy Girl -- Ralph Hodgson

(Poem #517) The Gipsy Girl "Come, try your skill, kind gentlemen, A penny for three tries!" Some threw and lost, some threw and won A ten-a-penny prize. She was a tawny gipsy girl, A girl of twenty years, I liked her for the lumps of gold That jingled from her ears; I liked the flaring yellow scarf Bound loose around her throat, I liked her showy purple gown And flashy velvet coat. A man came up, too loose of tongue, And said no good to her; She did not blush as Saxons do, Or turn upon the cur; She fawned and whined "Sweet gentleman, A penny for three tries!" - But oh, the den of wild things in The darkness of her eyes! -- Ralph Hodgson

A vivid poem, dancing with life and colour, and enhanced by a simple
narrative style - Georgian poetry may have fallen into disfavour, but at its
best it produced some very good poems indeed, and today's is a fine example.
'Gipsy Girl' is a perceptive look at the Gypsy as coloured by popular
stereotypes - all the little details that stand out and mark her as the
exotic Outsider, one who 'did not blush as Saxons do', or indeed dress or
act as they did, or pursue a respectable occupation.

The shift in tone at the end is handled beautifully too - it made me shiver,
both for the unexpectedness and for the sheer power of the image. (And note
how, on a deeper level, it merely reinforces the perception of gypsies as
wild, and not quite human.)

Biography:

Hodgson, Ralph

b. Sept. 9, 1871, Yorkshire, Eng.
d. Nov. 3, 1962, Minerva, Ohio, U.S.

  poet noted for simple and mystical lyrics that express a love of nature
  and a concern for modern man's progressive alienation from it.

  While working as a journalist in London and later as the editor of Fry's
  Magazine, Hodgson belonged to the loosely connected group of poets known
  as the Georgians. After teaching English literature at Sendai University
  in Japan (1924-38), he emigrated to the United States, retiring to a small
  farm outside Minerva, Ohio. Most of Hodgson's works were written between
  1907 and 1917, a period that ushered in the modernist revolution in
  poetry, in which he took little part. He achieved fame as a poet with the
  publication of the frequently anthologized "The Bull" in 1913. His
  collections include The Last Blackbird and Other Lines (1907), Eve (1913),
  Poems (1917), The Skylark and Other Poems (1958), and Collected Poems
  (1961).

        -- EB

Links:

Here's a collection of Georgian poetry:
http://www.geocities.com/~bblair/gp3_title.htm

and a note on the movement:
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/printable/1/0,5722,37231,00.html

For a nice commentary on the poem, see
http://www.geocities.com/~bblair/990909.htm

-martin