[168] A Dead Mole

Strong-shouldered mole,
That so much lived below the ground,
Dug, fought and loved, hunted and fed,
For you to raise a mound
Was as for us to make a hole;
What wonder now that being dead
Your body lies here stout and square
Buried within the blue vault of the air?

    -- Andrew Young.

1939.

You know how it is when you're looking at one of those trick photos
which have two interpretations (like the silhouetted profiles / flower
vase thingy), and suddenly the image resolves itself into a whole new
picture? Well, sometimes poetry is like that. Sometimes (not often, but
sometimes) poems have a way of jolting the reader into a whole new
appreciation of reality - seeing the extraordinary in the mundane,
reversing commonly held perceptions, finding new truths in unlikely
places...

I love the inversion of perspective in the last line of today's poem.
Suddenly, what seemed to be an ordinary-enough poem about an
ordinary-enough event is given the force of a revelation. Powerful, and
thought-provoking.

thomas.

[Followup / Links]

For another take on how poets bring out the unfamiliar in the everyday,
read the Martian poetry of Craig Raine (and Vikram Doctor's excellent
commentary on it) at poem #131

All our previous poems can also be read on the Web, at
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/

[Biography]

A completely anonymous poet... several web-searches revealed no
background information about Andrew Young, apart from the fact that he
was presumably alive in 1939, when this poem was written. I'd appreciate
mail from anyone who knows who the guy is/was.

From: Sameer Bora <sbora5ul@>

- Try <http://www.northernlight.com > OR <http://www.alltheweb.com >

-- from <http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~crumey/andrew_young.html >

Andrew Young was born in Elgin on 29 April 1885 and was educated at
Edinburgh University and New College, Edinburgh. He was ordained a
minister of the United Free Church of Scotland in 1912. After war service
in France he become a Presbyterian minister at Hove in Sussex. He
converted to the Church of England and was Vicar of Stoneygate (Sussex)
from 1941 until 1959. He was awarded the Queen's Medal for poetry in 1952,
and in addition to his poetry he wrote books on botany and other subjects.
He retired to Yapton near Arundel, and died in 1971.

Songs of Night (1910) Boaz and Ruth (1920) The Death of Eli (1921)  Thirty
One Poems (1922) The Adversary (1923) The Bird Cage (1926) The Cuckoo
Clock (1929)  The New Shepherd (1931) Winter Harvest (1933) The White
Blackbird (1935)  Collected Poems (1936) Nicodemus (1937) Speak to the
Earth (1939) A Prospect of Flowers (1945) The Green Man (1947) A
Retrospect of Flowers (1950) Collected Poems (1950)  Into Hades (1952) A
Prospect of Britain (1956); Out of the World and Back (1958);  Quiet as
Moss (1959); Collected Poems (1960); The Poet and the Landscape (1962); 
Poetical Works (1985). 

From: Paul Jenkins <pauljenkins@>

Finding Andrew Young on the web quite makes me forget I'm not finding
what i'm actually looking for....Paul Jenkins, Basel Mission.

From: Liz Garman <liz@>

I just came across a website with your email address on it while I was
looking for some information on Andrew Young.  You obviously know a bit
about him - perhaps you could help me...

Years ago, when I was doing a landscape archaeology course, I came
across a book about tracks and roads.  I can't remember title or author
or publisher or anything but I do remember a poem at the beginning about
how a track developed from a small animal breaking a few twigs, then a
larger (deer?) using the trail until 'man' started to walk it and
eventually became a road.

I work in a library now and I was sorting out the reference section
today and found a book which mentioned Andrew Young's poem The Track
which was in a book/compliation of his work called 'Quiet as Moss'.

Do you know this poem?
Can you point me in the right direction?
Have I got the right link?

Thanks if you can help...
Beth.