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Poor Poll

"Poor Poll" is a poem written by Robert Bridges in 1921, published in June 1923, and later collected in his book New Verse (1925). The poem is the first example of Bridges' neo-Miltonic syllabics. Bridges composed "Poor Poll" at the same time that T. S. Eliot was writing The Waste Land. Both Eliot and Bridges were searching for a new relationship with poetic rhythm that would also allow them to incorporate the interests of modernism, 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 ( ) bumping is apt to make ordinary words ridiculous." Although some scholars have suggested that in the poem (dated "June 3, 1921"), Bridges consciously parodied Eliot's Waste Land (first published in October 1922), scholars generally are now in agreement that the works were composed contemporaneously. Nevertheless, both poems are macaronic and include classical allusions and phrases in foreign languages (including French, German, Latin, and Ancient Greek). Also like Eliot's work, Bridges' was published with a set of footnotes supplied by the poet.…

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Article summary

"Poor Poll" is a poem written by Robert Bridges in 1921, published in June 1923, and later collected in his book New Verse (1925). The poem is the first example of Bridges' neo-Miltonic syllabics. Bridges composed "Poor Poll" at the same time that T. S. Eliot was writing The Waste Land. Both Eliot and Bridges were searching for a new relationship with poetic rhythm that would also allow them to incorporate the interests of modernism, 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 ( ) bumping is apt to make ordinary words ridiculous." Although some scholars have suggested that in the poem (dated "June 3, 1921"), Bridges consciously parodied Eliot's Waste Land (first published in October 1922), scholars generally are now in agreement that the works were composed contemporaneously. Nevertheless, both poems are macaronic and include classical allusions and phrases in foreign languages (including French, German, Latin, and Ancient Greek). Also like Eliot's work, Bridges' was published with a set of footnotes supplied by the poet.…

Key claims

  1. publication date: 1923 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
  2. publication date: 1922 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the publication date is "1923". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. The record states that the publication date is "1922". What evidence would count against this claim?
  4. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  5. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1299521155

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.