ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Ford Madox Ford's contribution In the Little Old Market-Place, which begins: It rains from gutters and drains. And gargoyles and gables: It drips from the tables. That tell us the tolls upon grains, Oxen, asses, sheep, turkeys and fowls Set into the rain-soaked wall of the old Town Hall. Ford Madox Ford, In the Little Old Market-Place, Selected Poems, ed. Max Saunders. Unless indicated otherwise, all poems by Ford quoted in the chapter are from Selected Poems. Ford's childhood had been dominated by his Pre-Raphaelite family connections and the frequent presence, in conversation and in person, of many great Victorian figures, and Ford certainly reacted against that. Ford's reputation over the last half-century has altered radically. Ford's High Germany includes Sssmund's Address to an Unknown God, a translation from a fictional poet, showing a vigorous humour and satirical force with which Ford is not often credited.
