"Ralph Hodgson", Order of the Rising Sun (Japanese ???),was an English poet, very popular in his lifetime on the strength of a small number of anthology pieces, such as The Bull. He was one of the more 'pastoral' of the Georgian poets. In 1954, he was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

He seems to have covered his tracks in relation to much of his life; he was averse to publicity. This has led to claims that he was reticent. Far from that being the case, his friend Walter De La Mare found him an almost exhausting talker; but he made a point of personal privacy. He kept up a copious correspondence with other poets and literary figures, including those he met in his time in Japan such as Takeshi Saito.

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Some things have to be believed to be seen.

310

I saw with open eyes/ Singing birds sweet/ Sold in the shops/ For the people to eat,/ Sold in the shops of/ Stupidity Street.// I saw in a vision/ The worm in the wheat,/ And in the shops nothing/ For people to eat;/ Nothing for sale in/ Stupidity Street.

203

See an old unhappy bull, / Sick in soul and body both.

196

Time, you old gipsy man, / Will you not stay, / Put up your caravan / Just for one day?

166

Reason has moons, but moons not hers / Lie mirror'd on her sea, / Confounding her astronomers, / But, O! delighting me.

134

I climbed a hill as light fell short, / And rooks came home in scramble sort, / And filled the trees and flapped and fought / And sang themselves to sleep.

119

When stately ships are twirled and spun / Like whipping tops and help there's none / And mighty ships ten thousand ton / Go down like lumps of lead.

118

The handwriting on the wall may be a forgery.

114

Did anyone ever have a boring dream?

85