I have always loved this poem. It brings back the exhilaration and unfettered joy one feels as a child. Reading it as an adult I realize that joy is still there, still to be tapped into and felt - needing no logical reason. What is it about horses - free even when contained behind a fence? Thank you
I love the structure of this poem as in the first three verses David simply observes the horses (humans do seem to have a primal connection with horses) and in verses 4 and 5 he notes how they have ignited in him an "urgency for something beyond his grasp". Then in verses 6, 7 and 8 he speaks of something "stupid and lovely" they make him want to do. But in verse 9 he joins with the horse, riding "bareback and happy" and in verse 10 becomes the horse "in the field of my own making." - ending in verse 11 "my head held high (like the swan necks of the four horses) ranging the boundaries" of that field. And happily for us, David was inspired to write about the experience. I love the verse : ".. and I spend my whole day in an idiot joy writing, gardening, and looking for it under every stone." Looking for that thing beyond his grasp, as we all do when moved by something primal, beyond the ordinary.
I grew up with horses. And then as my children grew, rodeo horses were kept in the field next door and we would feed them over the fence, oddments from our garden, and, yes, watch them run. Later, in our retirement home, my husband and I hosted the neighbor's horses in our own empty pasture and though I had to go around the house to see them, I could hear their hoofbeats from the porch as they played. Thank you for the images and memories here, for now, a widow several years, I live in town and I more circumscribed physical world. But the mind and heart are always free to run. Your poem reminds me of this!
Thank you, David~your words left me wanting to ride bareback along with you into these idyllic, last hours of summer~~powerful, evocative and so very sweet~~K
Four Horses
I have always loved this poem. It brings back the exhilaration and unfettered joy one feels as a child. Reading it as an adult I realize that joy is still there, still to be tapped into and felt - needing no logical reason. What is it about horses - free even when contained behind a fence? Thank you
I love the structure of this poem as in the first three verses David simply observes the horses (humans do seem to have a primal connection with horses) and in verses 4 and 5 he notes how they have ignited in him an "urgency for something beyond his grasp". Then in verses 6, 7 and 8 he speaks of something "stupid and lovely" they make him want to do. But in verse 9 he joins with the horse, riding "bareback and happy" and in verse 10 becomes the horse "in the field of my own making." - ending in verse 11 "my head held high (like the swan necks of the four horses) ranging the boundaries" of that field. And happily for us, David was inspired to write about the experience. I love the verse : ".. and I spend my whole day in an idiot joy writing, gardening, and looking for it under every stone." Looking for that thing beyond his grasp, as we all do when moved by something primal, beyond the ordinary.
I grew up with horses. And then as my children grew, rodeo horses were kept in the field next door and we would feed them over the fence, oddments from our garden, and, yes, watch them run. Later, in our retirement home, my husband and I hosted the neighbor's horses in our own empty pasture and though I had to go around the house to see them, I could hear their hoofbeats from the porch as they played. Thank you for the images and memories here, for now, a widow several years, I live in town and I more circumscribed physical world. But the mind and heart are always free to run. Your poem reminds me of this!
Your writing always puts me "right there". Thank you for this.
Thank you, David~your words left me wanting to ride bareback along with you into these idyllic, last hours of summer~~powerful, evocative and so very sweet~~K
New friends, calling to a former self... how wondrous!
Exhilarating!
Beautiful and joyful.