"The Lordly Hudson" [by Paul Goodman]

"The Lordly Hudson"

"Driver, what stream is it?" I asked, well knowing
it was our lordly Hudson hardly flowing.
"It is our lordly Hudson hardly flowing,"
he said, under the green-grown cliffs."

Be still, heart! No one needs
your passionate suffrage to select this glory,
this is our lordly Hudson hardly flowing
under the green-grown cliffs.

"Driver, has this a peer in Europe or the East?"
"No, no!" he said. Home! Home!
Be quiet, heart! This is our lordly Hudson
and has no peer in Europe or the east.

This is our lordly Hudson hardly flowing
under the green-grown cliffs
and has no peer in Europe or the East.
Be quiet, heart! Home! Home!

– Paul Goodman

Comments

[Hannah Gardzalla]

Why is the Hudson lordly? I understand he doesn't want to bring up these memories of his suffrage, but I can't grasp why he is considering the Hudson to be lordly if he has such bad memories of this place?

[David Lehman]

Thank you, Hannah, for raising this point. If you have ever looked at the Hudson from Manhattan -- from the base of the GW Bridge, say, or from downtown -- it looks "lordly", and all the more majestic because of the ships you would be seeing if you were Paul writing this poem. Perhaps the poem's crux rests in the contrast between "lordly" and "hardly flowing."

[David Parsley]

I think you need to look up the definition of the word suffrage. It doesn’t mean suffering.