Ralph Hodgson



Ralph Edwin Hodgson (9 September 1871 – 3 November 1962) was an English poet of the Georgian school, and an animal-rights activist.

Poems (1917)
Quotations are cited from the 1st edition (London: Macmillan, 1917).


 * Time, you old gipsy man, Will you not stay, Put up your caravan Just for one day?
 * "Time, You Old Gipsy Man", p. 4.


 * '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.
 * "The Bells of Heaven", p. 25.


 * Reason has moons, but moons not hers Lie mirror'd on her sea, Confounding her astronomers, But, O! delighting me.
 * "Reason Has Moons", p. 64.


 * I saw with open eyes, Singing birds sweet, Sold in the shops, For the people to eat, Sold in the shops of, Stupidity Street.
 * "Stupidity Street"


 * God loves an idle rainbow, Not less than labouring seas.
 * "A Wood Song"

Criticism

 * Hodgson, a man of steadfast integrity and strong personality, possessed true distinction.
 * Martin Seymour-Smith Guide to Modern World Literature (London: Hodder & Stoughton, [1973] 1975) vol. 1, p. 237.


 * '...one of those men who seem commonplace when first met but then prove to be completely original both in their work and their lives... Apparently slight and unpretentious, his work has a queer magic, which is what I want from poetry.
 * J.B. Priestley The Edwardians (London: Heinemann, 1970. SBN 434 60332 5. P.125.)