The Fox's Prophecy

by D.W. Nash, R.W.F. Poole, Diana E. Brown (Illustrator)

The original of this narrative poem was thought to have been written by a D.W. Nash around 1870, the time of the Franco-Prussian War which resulted in a crushing defeat for the French; the poem was full of foreboding about the future. In the 1918 edition, a new foreword suggested that those fears were justified and that the events of 1870 gave rise to World War I. In this new edition, the "Daily Telegraph" columnist Willy Poole reveals in his commentary how much of that prophecy is worthy of thought in 1995 - from the wavering of Altar and Crown, to the derision of words such as "honour" and "truth", and to the possible lack of wisdom to "yield to foreigners", for which read the EC.

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Surreysmum · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this in a 1976 J.A. Allen reprint which was far less helpful as to attribution and context than the brief blurb in this database. For the poem itself, it expresses very conservative sentiments, harking back to the virtues of feudalism and patriotism. The ancient fox with the scary eyes (they "shone with an unearthly fire") expresses to the hunter its conviction that fox-hunting will die out, but far from being pleased with the notion, appears to think that being chased around the countryside is preferable to running the risks of being poisoned or bludgeoned. The versification is correct enough, but the author strains at the rhymes, sometimes dropping back and forth from past to present tense to enable them.

The fox is not entirely accurate with its prophecy - at least, not to date - since it predicts the invasion and conquest of Britain by foreigners, followed by a revolt and return to the old values.