Poetry · Chapter
Lob explained
The speaker recalls meeting an old man while traveling in Wiltshire, whose face and words linger in memory.
What happens
The speaker recalls meeting an old man while traveling in Wiltshire, whose face and words linger in memory. Years later, he returns to the villages and asks about the man, receiving conflicting identities—Bottlesford, Jack Button, Old Adam Walker—until a squire's son suggests he is Lob, a timeless, wandering figure of English folklore. The poem traces Lob's many incarnations across history and legend, from a pedlar to Herne the Hunter to Jack the Giant-Killer, asserting that he lives on, undying, as long as England endures.
Themes in this chapter
Place and Belonging
The poem is deeply rooted in the Wiltshire landscape and English countryside, with specific villages, paths, and landmarks evoking a sense of belonging and timeless connection to the land.
Memory and Time
The speaker's recollection of the old man and the search for his identity across years and conflicting accounts highlights the persistence of memory and the fluidity of time.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The speaker who encounters the old man in Wiltshire and later returns to seek him.
- Old Jack Noman
The old man met at hawthorn-time, described with a rough, brown, sea-blue-eyed face; later identified as a manifestation of Lob.
- Jack Button
One of the names villagers suggest for the old man, said to be dead three years.
- Walker
Old Adam Walker, another possible identity for the old man, associated with Walker's Hill.
- Lob
The folkloric figure embodying the old man, known by many names (Lob-lie-by-the-fire, Jack Cade, Robin Hood, etc.), who has lived through English history and will never die.
Key passages
“An old man’s face, by life and weather cut And coloured—rough, brown, sweet as any nut— A land face, sea-blue-eyed—hung in my mind When I had left him many a mile behind.”
The speaker cannot forget the weathered, earthy face of an old man he met, which stays with him long after their encounter.
Introduces the central figure and the lasting impression he makes.
“Everybody has met one such man as he. Does he keep clear old paths that no one uses But once a life-time when he loves or muses? He is English as this gate, these flowers, this mire.”
The squire's son suggests that everyone has encountered a man like Lob, who is as quintessentially English as the landscape itself.
Establishes Lob as a universal, archetypal figure rooted in English identity.
“Although he was seen dying at Waterloo, Hastings, Agincourt, and Sedgemoor too— Lives yet. He never will admit he is dead Till millers cease to grind men’s bones for bread.”
Lob has been present at many historic battles and is said to have died there, but he continues to live on, refusing to die as long as injustice persists.
Emphasizes Lob's immortality and his connection to enduring English struggles.