Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter
There was such speed in her little body,
And such lightness in her footfall,
It is no wonder her brown study
Astonishes us all.
Her wars were bruited in our high window.
We looked among orchard trees and beyond
Where she took arms against her shadow,
Or harried unto the pond.
The lazy geese, like a snow cloud
Dripping their snow on the green grass,
Tricking and stopping, sleepy and proud,
Who cried in goose, Alas,
For the tireless heart within the little
Lady with rod that made them rise
From their noon apple-dreams and scuttle
Goose-fashion under the skies!
But now go the bells, and we are ready,
In one house we are sternly stopped
To say we are vexed at her brown study,
Lying so primly propped.
--John Crowe Ransom
John Crowe Ransom does not enjoy the popularity of Robert Frost or the notoriety of Ezra Pound. An English professor at Vanderbilt and Kenyon in an era spanning the twenties and the seventies, Ransom lacks the romantic trappings of the New England bard and the political eccentricities of the Pennsylvanian turned fascist. Yet Ransom's accomplishments are impressive. He stands as one of the foremost craftsmen of twentieth-century American poetry, as well as one of its most notable critics. He was the guiding force behind Vanderbilt's Fugitives, a group of poets in the twenties, which included Allen Tate, Donald Davidson, and a youthful Robert Penn Warren, and which laid the groundwork for the Southern Renaissance. During his long academic career, he founded the Kenyon Review and helped develop the New Criticism, perhaps the most influential school of American literary criticism in this century. In addition, he played an important part in the rise of southern Agrarianism, calling for a return to traditional ways of life and morality in the South. Yet Ransom's most lasting achievement is his poetry. Consistently, he produced work of intelligence, restraint, wit, and beauty.
One example of Ransom's intricate and highly intellectual style is his elegy "Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter." In the form of a funeral speech, the poem provides a difficult challenge to the reader; but the effort it takes to interpret it proves worthwhile, once the meaning is clear.
The poem begins with what is apparently a description of a very active little girl ("her little body"). Yet the
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