"Poor Poll" is a poem written by

Robert Bridges Robert Seymour Bridges (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was an English poet who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is ...

in 1921, and first collected in his book ''New Verse'' (1925). The poem is the first example of Bridges' Neo-Miltonic Syllabics. "Poor Poll" was composed at the same time as

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...

was writing ''

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...

''. Donald E. Stanford. ''In the Classic Mode: The Achievement of Robert Bridges,'' Associated University Presses, 1978. . Page 118. Both Eliot and Bridges were searching{{Citation needed, date=June 2010 for a medium which would allow the incorporation of a wide variety of material, 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" It has been suggested

William Harmon William Harmon (born 1938) is James Gordon Hanes Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, author of five books of poetry and editor of ''A Handbook to Literature''. His most recent poetry has appear ...

. "An Entertaining Coincidence At Least"
''T.S. Eliot Society Newsletter'', Fall 2005
page 3. that Bridges' poem was a conscious

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...

of Eliot's. Like ''The Waste Land'', ''Poor Poll'' includes many classical allusions and phrases in foreign languages (including

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, and

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

). 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 Scansion ( , rhymes with ''mansion''; verb: ''to scan''), or a system of scansion, is the method or practice of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse. In classical poetry, these patterns are ...

as well as explaining some of the allusions. Here are a few lines from Bridges' poem: :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! :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'', :''Tu, Polle, nescis ista nec potes scire:'' —Bridges' footnote: "A

scazon Choliambic verse ( grc, χωλίαμβος), also known as limping iambs or scazons or halting iambic,. is a form of meter in poetry. It is found in both Greek and Latin poetry in the classical period. Choliambic verse is sometimes called ''scazo ...

from

Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and ...

. The proper name is changed."

References

1921 poems British poems