Poor Poll

"Poor Poll" is a poem written by Robert Bridges in 1921, published in June 1923, and later collected in his book New Verse (1925). The poem is the first example of Bridges' neo-Miltonic syllabics.

Bridges composed "Poor Poll" at the same time that T. S. Eliot was writing The Waste Land . ^[1] Both Eliot and Bridges were searching for a new relationship with poetic rhythm ^[2] that would also allow them to incorporate the interests of modernism, including phrases in foreign languages. Bridges wrote in a later essay, "It was partly this wish for liberty to use various tongues that made me address my first experiment to a parrot, but partly also my wish to discover how a low setting of scene and diction would stand; because one of the main limitations of English verse is that its accentual (dot and go one) bumping is apt to make ordinary words ridiculous." ^[3]

Although some scholars have suggested ^[4] that in the poem (dated "June 3, 1921"), Bridges consciously parodied Eliot's Waste Land (first published in October 1922), scholars generally are now in agreement that the works were composed contemporaneously. ^[2] Nevertheless, both poems are macaronic and include classical allusions and phrases in foreign languages (including French, German, Latin, and Ancient Greek). Also like Eliot's work, Bridges' was published with a set of footnotes supplied by the poet. Bridges' footnotes are headed "Metrical Elucidations" and offer advice on the poem's scansion as well as explanation for some of the allusions.

Here are a few lines from Bridges' poem: ^{[4] [5]}

Why ask? You cannot know. 'Twas by no choice of yours

that you mischanged for monkeys' man's society,

'twas that British sailor drove you from Paradise —

Εἴθ᾿ ὤφελ᾿ Ἀργους μὴ διαπτάσθαι σκάφος! ^[6]

I'd hold embargoes on such a ghastly traffic.

I am writing verses to you & grieve that you sh^d be

absolument incapable de les comprendre, ^[7]

Tu, Polle, nescis ista nec potes scire:— ^[8]

References

1. Donald E. Stanford. In the Classic Mode: The Achievement of Robert Bridges, Associated University Presses, 1978. ISBN   0-87413-118-9. Page 118.
2. Martin, Meredith (2012). The rise and fall of meter: poetry and English national culture, 1860-1930 (1st ed.). Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. p. 189. ISBN   978-0-691-15273-8.
3. Robert Bridges, Collected Essays 1927-1936, page 90
4. William Harmon. "An Entertaining Coincidence At Least". T.S. Eliot Society Newsletter, Fall 2005, page 3. "I first encountered Robert Bridges' "Poor Poll" fifty-odd years ago in Modern Poetry: American and British (1951), edited by Friar and Brinnin. The editors note that 'Throughout his poem Bridges seems to be mocking the polylingual style of The Waste Land.'"
5. Bridges, Robert: The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Oxford Editions of Standard Authors, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 1936.
6. Bridges' footnote: "The first line of Euripides' Medea , echoed in the English verse following."
7. Bridges' footnote: "Another of Jammes' lively lines, neglecting the hemistich. To scan in this English scheme comprendre must be read as a disyllable: and that is more comfortable than giving full syllabic value to the final re."
8. Bridges' footnote: "A scazon from Martial. The proper name is changed."