[1070] Wires

Guest poem submitted by Vikram Doctor, <vikdoc@>:

The widest prairies have electric fences,
For though old cattle know they must not stray
Young steers are always scenting purer water
Not here but anywhere. Beyond the wires

Leads them to blunder up against the wires
Whose muscles-shredding violence gives no quarter.
Young steers become old cattle from that day,
Electric limits to their widest senses.

	-- Philip Larkin

Have we run Larkin's Wires? It's the antithesis of Lindsay's poem or more
precisely, perhaps, its explanation. I suppose it's the common bovine
imagery that's making me imagine a link, but Larkin's poem can be seen as an
explanation of how the young that Lindsay sorrows for end up this way. It
is, of course, characteristic that Larkin takes the pessimistic view, while
Lindsay offers, if not exactly optimism, a plea to think that way.

Vikram.

[Minstrels Links]

The Lindsay poem Vikram is referring to is
Poem #1069, "The Leaden-Eyed" -- Vachel Lindsay

For other poems by Philip Larkin, see Poet #Larkin on the Minstrels website.


[thomas adds]

Do note the rhyme scheme -- abcd dcba. I don't think I've seen that one
before...

[this poem is archived, accessible and awaiting your comments at]
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1070.html

From: Anna.Harrington@  Wed Apr  2 12:22:12 2003

The rhyme scheme purposefully reinforces the idea that we are trapped
within the same wires as the cattle by trapping us within the 4 layers
of rhyme.  Figuratively, we are trapped in the tiny space between
paragraphs, not only by the 4 layers of rhyme but also by the fact that
the 4th and 5th lines both end with "wires"

Anna