Hodgson, Ralph

Ralph Hodgson, (born Sept. 9, 1871, Yorkshire, Eng.—died Nov. 3, 1962, Minerva, Ohio, U.S.), poet noted for simple and mystical lyrics that express a love of nature and a concern for modern man’s progressive alienation from it.

While working as a journalist in London and later as the editor of Fry’s Magazine, Hodgson belonged to the loosely connected group of poets known as the Georgians. After teaching English literature at Sendai University in Japan (1924–38), he emigrated to the United States, retiring to a small farm outside Minerva, Ohio. Most of Hodgson’s works were written between 1907 and 1917, a period that ushered in the modernist revolution in poetry, in which he took little part. He achieved fame as a poet with the publication of the frequently anthologized “The Bull” in 1913. His collections include The Last Blackbird and Other Lines (1907), Eve (1913), Poems (1917), The Skylark and Other Poems (1958), and Collected Poems (1961).