The stag loped through his favourite valley.
While the blue horseman down in the boggy meadow
Sodden nearly black, on sodden horses,
Spaced as at a military parade,
Moved a few paces to the right and a few to the left and felt rather foolish
Looking at the brown impassable river,
The stag came over the last hill of Exmoor.
While everybody high-kneed it to the bank top all along the road
Where steady men in oilskins were stationed with binocular,
And the horsemen by the river galloping anxiously this way and that
And the cry of hounds came tumbling invisibly with their echoes down through the draggle of trees,
Swinging across the wall of dark woodland,
The stag dropped in to strange country.
And turned at the river
Hearing the hound-pack smash the undergrowth, hearing the bell-note
Of the voice carried all others,
This is the first suggestion that the stag may be in trouble. The verb ‘dropped’ suggests insecurity, as does ‘strange country’.
The Stag