" The Huntsman" by Edward Lawbury (Reference to the Context)

Reference: These lines have been taken from the poem The Huntsman written by
Edward Lawbury.
Context: This poem tells a Kenyan folk-lore. It tells that some-times a hunter
becomes hunted himself. Kagwa went hunting and found a talking skull. He came to
the king and informed him to the fact. The king ordered to know the reality. When it
was found not so, Kagwa was killed. Strange enough it was that after his murder the
skull spoke. The story tells us that irresponsible talking can bring destruction. The
elements of suspense and irony create a shocking impact.
Stanza 1 Explanation: In these lines the poet says that Kagwa, a famous hunter, hunted lions and tigers
through forests and bushes. He used his spear for hunting. One day, while hunting, he found the skull of a man
in the forest. The skull was talking. Kagwa asked the talking skull, how it had come there. The skull opened its
mouth and replied that talking had brought it there.
Stanza 2 In this stanza the poet says that after getting the skull, Kagwa went home hurriedly. He appeared
before the court of the king and talked about the skull Kagwa told the king that he had found a skull which was
talking. On hearing these words the king was surprised so much. He thought that no dead skull ever talked.
After that the king said slowly to himself that he had never heard of or seen a skull that talked. He said, since
his birth from his mother he had never heard of such a thing.
Stanza 3 In these lines the poet says, when Kagwa told about the talking skull, the king called out his guards.
The king ordered two of the guards to go with Kagwa and find the talking skull. He also told the guards if Kagwa
proved a liar, and there was no such thing as the talking skull, Kagwa msut be killed himself.
Stanza 4 In the given lines the poet says that Kagwa and two guards of the king rode their horses to the forest.
For some days they looked for it but found nothing like a talking skull. But after some more struggle they found
a skull. Kagwa asked the skull how he had come there. The skull remained silent. Kagwa again earnestly
requested the skull but it did not talk. And they all were surprised.
Stanza 5 In the concluding stanza the guards ordered Kagwa to kneel down. The guards killed him with sword
and lance. When Kagwa was put to death, the already dead skull opened its mouth and asked the hunter, how
he had come there. The dead body of Kagwa replied, talking had brought him there. This simple story has a
meaningful moral. It teaches us that irresponsible and worthless talking can bring destruction or death to the
talker.

Edward Joseph Lister Lowbury (December 12, 1913 - July 10, 2007) was a pioneering and
innovative English medical bacteriologist and pathologist, and also a published poet.
Edward Lowbury was born in Hampstead to the recently naturalised Benjamin William Loewenberg
(of Latvian-Jewish background) and the Brazilian-born Alice Sarah Hall (of German-Jewish origin)
in 1913. The family name was anglicised to Lowbury at the start of World War 1. His father was a
medical doctor and Edwards middle names were chosen in honour of the surgeon Joseph
Lister who had done so much to reduce post-operative infection. His son was to follow closely in
Listers footsteps in the medical career that he eventually chose.
Lowburys secondary education was as a foundation scholar at St Pauls School (London), where he
began to specialise in science. He was also twice winner of the schools Milton Prize the first time
for a sequence of 40 sonnets. Having won a science scholarship to University College, Oxford, he
continued to take an interest in writing, gaining the 1934 Newdigate Prize and the 1937 Matthew
Arnold Memorial essay prize.
His initial medical training was at the Royal London Hospital. He was called up to the Royal Army
Medical Corps in 1943, where he specialised in pathology and was posted to Kenya. There he was
one of the editors of the wartime literary magazine Equator. While still in service, his
collection Crossing the Line was given first prize in a competition judged by Louis MacNeice and
accepted for publication. On leaving the army, he took employment with the Common Cold Research
Unit with James Lovelock as one of his colleagues. Those days are remembered in the last of
Lowburys Apocryphal Letters: Gaia a letter to James Lovelock.[1]
In 1949 Lowbury was appointed head of the microbiology department at the Medical Research
Council burns unit of Birmingham Accident Hospital and also taught pathology as a Research Fellow
at the University of Birmingham Medical School. As founder of the Hospital Infection Research
Laboratory at what is now known as City Hospital, Birmingham in 1964, he emerged as one of the
foremost researchers in hospital infection, particularly in the prevention of burns infection, the
problems of antibiotic resistance and skin disinfection [2]and lectured on his specialities throughout the
world before retiring in 1979 and being awarded an OBE.
Through clinical trials Lowbury confirmed previous work showing that specialist positively
pressurised dressing rooms reduced infections. [3] With John Babb he proved that a specialised filter
system could remove bacteria from an airstream and retain them, either reducing infection risk or
allowing an already infected patient to be treated in an open ward. [4] He documented treatment of
infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, noting that the development of carbenicillin resistance
used a single mechanism which conferred protection against a range of antibiotics. He further
showed that overuse of a new antibiotic led to increasedstaphylococcus resistance, and that a
subsequent reduction in use reversed the effect. His work with Rod Jones contributed to the
development of a pseudomonas vaccine. With Harold Lilly he developed tests for effectiveness of

hand washes before alcohol became the norm in 1974. These tests were still the basis for European
standards when he died. He worked on topical antibacterial compounds with surgeons Douglas
Jackson and Jack Cason, eventually leading to topical silver, which continues in use.
His findings were usefully summed up in the Everett Evans Lecture [5] and the Wallace Memorial
Lecture [6] that he gave in the years immediately before his retirement in 1979. He then became a
founder member of the Hospital Infection Society, of which he served as its first president and where
an annual Lowbury Lecture was sponsored in his honour. Other honours included a D.Sc. at Aston
University, where he was made Visiting Professor in Medical Microbiology; an LL.D at Birmingham
University; Fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons, of Physicians and of Pathologists and
membership of the New York Academy of Sciences.
In 1954 Lowbury had married Alison Young, daughter of the poet Andrew Young, by whom he had
three daughters Ruth (1955), Pauline (1956) and Miriam (1959). He also published regular
collections of poetry: Time for Sale (1961), Daylight Astronomy (1968), Green Magic (for children,
1972), The Night Watchman (1974). His poetry was widely anthologised and in 1974 he was made a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Following his retirement he continued to live (and write) in
Birmingham until the death of his wife in 2001 and his deteriorating eyesight made it necessary to
move to a nursing home in London.