Ralph Hodgson was an English poet, very popular in his lifetime on the strength of a small number of anthology pieces, such as The Bull. He was one of the more 'pastoral' of the Georgian poets. In 1954, he was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. The British poet Ralph Hodgson was born September 9, 1871 in Darlington, England. He was the sixth son in a family of seven boys and three girls; his father was a coal merchant.

His first published poem, The Storm Thrush, appeared in the Saturday Review in 1904, and in 1907 he published his first collection of poems, The Last Blackbird and Other Lines. His second volume, Poems, appeared in 1917 and it is upon this work that his reputation was based. Included there were such poems as Time, You Old Gypsy Man, The Bull, The Song of Honour, and Eve. He died on 3 November 1962.