Tony Harrison: The Ode not Taken

Poem Title

Original Publication

CP Page no

The Ode not Taken

From ‘The School of Eloquence’ and Other Poems, London: Rex Collings, 1978

132

Length / Form Sixteen line sonnet.

Allusion to Classical figure Virgil

Relationship to Classical text The subtitle ‘C.T. Thackrah (1799-1833)’ denotes Charles Turner Thackrah, a contemporary of Keats at Guy’s Hospital, who became Leeds Town Surgeon in 1817. Despite a classical education (‘[he] Could write hexameters by Virgil’s rules’) Thackrah’s medical treatise presents ‘the shit of Yorkshire operatives, in prose.’ Harrison nevertheless finds a poetry in his writing.

Classical/post-Classical intertexts Classical allusions in the poetry of John Keats.