Ralph Hodgson, one of the early Georgians, is best remembered for two poems: "The Bull," an unsentimental yet sympathetic account of an animal's lost youth and power, and "The Song of Honour," a meditative hymn of gratitude celebrating the wonders of creation. Another poem often highly praised is "Eve," a compassionate rendering of the first temptation, in which Eve is portrayed as too innocent to see through the cobra's tale of make-believe. These early works were so well received upon first publication that many expected Hodgson to develop into one of the major poets of his age. Although such was not the case, partially because he wrote little after World War I, for a time, as T.S. Eliot's poem "Lines to Ralph Hodgson Esqre." indicates, he was a man everyone wanted to meet.

Born in Darlington, Durham, Hodgson was the sixth son in a family of seven...