blacksmith shaping a horseshoe

John Montague’s Forge

Introduction

The poem describes the shoeing of a Clydesdale horse. When the speaker watches the blacksmith “waking the sleeping metal” and hammering the shoe into a “curve”, he imagines the verb “to forge” echoing around the shed. In this way, the blacksmith’s craft becomes a symbol for Montague’s desire to shape words into poetry.

Forge

The whole shed smelt of dead iron:
the dented teeth of a harrow,
the feminine pathos of donkey’s shoes

A labourer backed in a Clydesdale
Hugely fretful, its nostrils dilated
while the smith viced a hoof

in his apron, wrestling it
to calmness, as he sheared the pith
like wood-chips, to a rough circle.

Then the bellows sang in the tall chimney
waking the sleeping metal, to leap
on the anvil. As I was slowly

beaten to a matching curve
the walls echoed the stress
of the verb to forge.

Summary

John Montague establishes the atmosphere of the “shed” in the opening tercet. The phrase “dead iron” conveys the pungent metallic smell, and we are told the “harrow” needs repair because its “teeth” are “dented” and will not be able to rake the soil effectively. Perhaps the “donkey’s shoes” look feminine when compared to the large shoes worn by the Clydesdale. The little shoes also evoke pity from the speaker.

Note how the poet locates the reader in a “shed” because he hasn’t learnt the word “forge” yet.

The images “hugely fretful” and “its nostrils dilated” suggest the powerful horse was feeling incredibly stressed being “backed in” and reshod. However, the blacksmith uses his skill and “viced a hoof / in his apron”. Transforming the noun “vice” into a verb emphasises the need for both the blacksmith and wordsmith to be inventive.

The blacksmith uses his strength, “wrestling” the horse “to calmness”. Montague is emphasising the physical struggle and “stress” in the forge. Since the image of forging is being connected to the creative process of writing, it suggests poetry needs this masculine force to be made. Perhaps the poet was trying to justify his own work.

The violent of hammering out of the white-hot metal is reinforced by the enjambment ‘to leap / On the anvil’. Both the blacksmith and the poet have to work hard to give their materials appropriate forms.

At the end of the poem, the speaker feels he is also being “beaten to a matching curve” because he has been inspired by the blacksmith’s craft to “forge” his own art.

Comprehension Questions

  1. What does the word ‘forge’ mean? Consider its noun and verb form.
  2. What do you think ‘dead iron’ would smell of?
  3. Is ‘dented teeth’ an appropriate metaphor to describe the top of a ‘harrow’? Does it suggest that the farming implement needed repaired?
  4. Suggest reasons why the ‘donkeys’ shoes’ have a ‘feminine pathos’.
  5. How does the speaker present the Clydesdale in the second verse?
  6. Montague transforms the noun ‘vice’ into a verb ‘viced’ in the second stanza. Does this help convey the effort needed for the blacksmith to forge the ‘hoof’?
  7. How does the poet involve other crafts when describing the actions of the blacksmith?
  8. How does the poet suggest an artistic creativity in forging metal in line ten?
  9. How is the metal personified in line eleven?
  10. How does the poet connect himself to the forge in the last four lines of the poem?
  11. How is forging linked to poetry?
  12. What is the structure of the poem? Does its shape influence your understanding of the poem?

Further Reading

Inspired by the way Montague connected the dark and fiery world of the forge to the work of the poet, Seamus Heaney wrote his own poem “The Forge”. It is definitely worth reading to compare how each writer approached the theme.

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