[basil ransome-davies]

JUDE THE OBSCURE

Folk loved to hear Jude perorate;
He dearly loved to speak;
But what he said was nubilate,
Caliginous, oblique.

Some took him for an orphic sage,
While others thought he dealt
In witty, learned persiflage –
Too deep for them, they felt.

His abstruse, gnomic, zen-like style
Held audiences pent
In awed, suspenseful silence while
They pondered what he meant.

Yet those who knew him best agreed
That – not to be unkind –
Old Jude, apostle of the weed,
Was stoned out of his mind.