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READ THIS
The poet takes a sarcastic look at the men who play rugby league, overgrown males who are attempting
to make heroes of themselves by behaving like little boys once again.
A NOTE ON THE POET
James Falconer Kirkup was born in April 1918 in South Shields, County Durham, the only son of a
carpenter. He was educated at South Shields Secondary School before attending Durham University
where he graduated with a BA (Hons) in Modern Languages in 1941.
He lived his entire life as a flamboyant and provocative figure but nevertheless remained a lonely person
-- which was understandable because he was a self-professed gay at a time when homosexuality was
severely frowned upon.
During World War II he declared himself to be a conscientious objector. Instead of fighting, he worked
on the land as an agricultural labourer in the Yorkshire Dales.
He later taught at The Downs School in Colwall, Malvern, where he wrote his first book of poetry, The
Drowned Sailor at the Downs which was published in 1947.
Kirkup was a prolific English poet and writer, producing over 30 books which included autobiographies,
novels and plays. He was the first resident university poet in the United Kingdom and would become a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.
He nevertheless left England in 1956 to live and work in Europe, the Americas and the Far East, before
finally settling in Japan where he found both acceptance and appreciation for his work. He lived there for
more than 30 years, lecturing in English Literature at several universities.
Kirkup leapt to public attention in 1977, when a gay newspaper -- Gay News -- published his
poem "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name".
The poem described the homosexual fantasies of a Roman centurion as he contemplated the body of
Jesus Christ which was in his care after it had been removed from the cross.
Not only does the poem describe in lurid detail the actions of the centurion but it also attributes
homosexual acts to Jesus himself with a host of New Testament characters, including Pontius Pilate, John
the Baptist, Paul of Tarsus and Judas.
The newspaper was prosecuted in a private case by Mary Whitehouse -- a "decency defender"
-- for what she called "blasphemous libel".
Whitehouse won her case in a trial which appears to have been severely biassed against the newspaper
-- several key witnesses were refused permission to testify. The poem is still banned in the United
Kingdom.
Kirkup died in May 2009. He was then 91 years of age.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"Like great boys they roll each other,
In the mud of public Saturdays,
Groping their blind way back
To noble youth."
- In these lines, the poet sums up his version of the purpose of rugby. What is it? (2)
[Need help?]
Most people would claim that rugby is a game which aims at using one's skill and speed or strength to
overcome the opponents and score a try.
The poet, however, claims that its primary purpose is for grown men to roll around in the mud while
groping each other.
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- What does the poet mean when he says that they "Grope their blind way back to noble
youth"? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet believes that men play rugby as a means of being children all over again. It is a blind path,
however, because they never will succeed in returning to youth.
Notice too the sarcasm in his words, "noble youth". Youth is only noble when one is young. Old
men pretending to be boys is not exactly noble.
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- Comment on the poet's use of the word "groping". (4)
[Need help?]
The word "groping" usually has distinctly sexual overtones. Young people who are infatuated with
each other like to grope each other.
Is the poet then hinting that men play rugby as a release for their pent-up homosexual passions? They
play the game so that they may grope each other in a way that society accepts and admires?
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"Groping their blind way back
To noble youth, away from the bank,
The wife, the pram, the spin drier,
Back to the Spartan freedom of the field."
- What is BATHOS? Can you find an example of bathos in these lines? (4)
[Need help?]
BATHOS is an anti-climax, the placing of words in descending order, from the most important down to the
least important. It usually has a humourous effect.
"Away from the bank, the wife, the pram, the spin drier."
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- Why would the poet specify "the bank" as the ultimate place of employment? (2)
[Need help?]
Banks in the poet's day represented respectability, honour and trust. A banker was therefore a person
of honour, an important person in society whom one could trust.
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- What is the "Spartan freedom" of the field? (4)
[Need help?]
Sparta was an ancient Greek city-state known for its immense military prowess, its bravery and its very
basic way of life.
A Spartan was free from the trappings of wealth so that he could devote his entire energy to the military
way of life.
A banker who plays rugby would have had to give up his pin-striped suit and bowler hat -- bankers always
wore pin-striped suits and bowler hats -- to don the very simple garb of a rugby player. He would
therefore be "free" -- or would he?
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"Back, back to the days when boys
Were men, still hopeful, and untamed.
That was then: a gay
And golden age ago."
- The poet appears to be applying a deliberate contraction when he says, "Back to the days when
boys were men". What is this contradiction? (4)
[Need help?]
Boys were simply playing the game for the fun of it, whereas the poet implies that the men were playing
the game so as to become boys once again. The boys never believed they were men. It is the men who
believed that they were boys.
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- Comment on the term "gay" in the line "a gay and golden age ago". (2)
[Need help?]
Back in the days when this poem was penned, the term "gay" meant "being happy". Today,
of course, it has come to mean "homosexual".
It is, of course, ironic because the poet, in penning these words, was himself "gay" in the modern
sense of the word.
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"Now in vain, domesticated,
Men try to be boys again."
- Comment on these lines as a fitting conclusion to this poem. (4)
[Need help?]
The point that the poet is making is that men play rugby to be boys once again. That, however does not
happen: it is futile and "in vain".
The men are now domesticated: working men with wives and all the mod-cons of home life. They no
longer fit into the hurly-burly of children's games.
In other words, the poet has summed up the entire message of this poem in these two lines.
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