“Apollo is here, divinely cruel, and Dionysus, who maddens by his presence”
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
Apollo and Hyancinthus
Abandoning Olympus when One God
Arose from death, the Greek gods fled
To English public schools. A football squad
In Rugby had new deities; so said
The poet Rupert Brooke. They walked across
School fields in flannels that he wanted to . . .
Take down. Much, much, much more than a coin toss
He had in mind. He wanted them to spew
A nectar much more potent than the one
That Ganymede had served to great God Jove.
The poet wanted equal sorts of fun
That Jupiter had had inside a grove
Of olives with the gorgeous boy back then.
Brooke wanted god-like joy with these young men.
~ Phillip Whidden