Poor Poll

Poor Poll is a poem written by Robert Bridges 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 was writing The Waste Land.Donald E. Stanford. In the Classic Mode: The Achievement of Robert Bridges, Associated University Presses, 1978. ISBN 0-87413-118-9. Page 118. Both Eliot and Bridges were searching for a medium which would allow the incorporation of a wide variety of material, including phrases in foreign languages.

It has been suggestedWilliam Harmon. "An Entertaining Coincidence At Least". , page 3. that Bridges' poem was a conscious parody of Eliot's. Like The Waste Land, Poor Poll includes many classical allusions and phrases in foreign languages (including French, German, Latin, and polytonic Greek). 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 as well as explaining some of the allusions.

Here are a few lines from Bridges' poem:Bridges, Robert: The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Oxford Editions of Standard Authors, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 1936.

Why ask? You cannot know. 'Twas by no choice of......

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