Wires
The widest prairies have electric fences,
For though old cattle know they must not stray
Young steers are always scenting purer water
Not here but anywhere. Beyond the wires
Leads them to blunder up against the wires
Whose muscles-shredding violence gives no quarter.
Young steers become old cattle from that day,
Electric limits to their widest senses.
Commentary
Have we run Larkin’s Wires? It’s the antithesis of Lindsay’s poem or more precisely, perhaps, its explanation. I suppose it’s the common bovine imagery that’s making me imagine a link, but Larkin’s poem can be seen as an explanation of how the young that Lindsay sorrows for end up this way. It is, of course, characteristic that Larkin takes the pessimistic view, while Lindsay offers, if not exactly optimism, a plea to think that way.
— Vikram
Minstrels Links
The Lindsay poem Vikram is referring to is
Poem #1069, “The Leaden-Eyed” – Vachel Lindsay
For other poems by Philip Larkin, see Poet #Larkin on the Minstrels website.
Thomas adds
Do note the rhyme scheme – abcd dcba. I don’t think I’ve seen that one before…
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Harrington Anna · 2 April 2003
The rhyme scheme purposefully reinforces the idea that we are trapped within the same wires as the cattle by trapping us within the 4 layers of rhyme. Figuratively, we are trapped in the tiny space between paragraphs, not only by the 4 layers of rhyme but also by the fact that the 4th and 5th lines both end with “wires”
Anna