Hello Philip,
This poem reads very nicely, it´s fluent and there´s an interesting use of language. All of which is to say that I enjoyed it, of course. Enjoyed it, in fact, despite not fully understanding what I was reading. Poems are sometimes ambiguous or deliberately obscure and that can be half the fun, but I rather fancy that in this case the poem is straight-forward and it´s just me that doesn´t understand. Or is there some Scottish dialect usage here that I´m not familiar with? For instance, the word `dig´ at the end of line 6 suggests an archaeological dig to me whereas I had thought that our hero was in a ditch. Is this a local term? Or am I up the wrong tree as well as down the ditch? Apart from that I had understood I was reading about a labourer working for the electricity board, digging ditches for new power lines, and apart from the word `dig´ I feel fairly confident until line 10. But then, what are `jointers´? Should they be `joiners´ and what are they doing in the ditch? I want the end of the poem to be describing the way that the workman´s pride in his digging is in conflict with the time and motion, targets and timetables of the overseers and how they try to wheedle and handle him, like a bull with a ring through its nose, but I have some difficulty making the text fit that interpretation.
So, am I barking where I shouldn´t be (up that wrong tree again). Help me out here.
Best wishes, Mike
--- Alkuperäinen viesti ---
The Bull
South of Scotland Electricity Board, 1964
Hands that inhabit no pocket, wrists
bare as cow-hide flecked with Scottish ale,
deft on the polished pick or spade. Blisters
long healed and calloused, archetypal male,
he sings little, speaks less, and satisfies
his own eye in that section of the dig.
He winkles out the proud stones, mortified
till sides are plaster-smooth, gives no fig
for the ragged requirements of overseers,
the vowels of time, dry studies of work.
And jointers, who praise him over the years
as they solder blind and stagger the dark,
know about targets and rings around
and the bull that strays, and won’t give ground.
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