“Apollo is here, divinely cruel, and Dionysus, who maddens by his presence”
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 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