- William Butler Yeats, "Politics"HOW can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here's a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there's a politician
That has read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war's alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!
Saturday, March 8, 2014
The Politician
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7 comments:
keep the good fight FJ:-)
You too, Angel! Nice post on CPAC, btw!
"I could not love thee quite so well,
Loved I not Honor more."
Who said that? It's the ending of a well-onown poem, but I'm damned if I can remember which one.
Yeats is doubtless the better poet, but the other expresses a profound moral truth -- a kind of "fine point" we have long ago lost sight of as a people.
All right, those lines were by Richard Lovelace (1618 – 1657 or 1658) fron "To Lucasta Going to
the Wars.
He was an excellent poet, even if his verse sounds a little too high falutin' for the times we live in today.
He also wrote
Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars ...
Another truthful observation worth noting -- especially in today's hyper-materialistic, sense-obsessed world, where mind and spirit have been tragically benumbed by morbid preoccupation with sensuality and too much distraction from meretricious sources of artificial stimulation.
I think Yeats is making the case for innocence, as opposed to cynicism, in this verse.
No doubt, morality is the loftier subject.
,,,but then "politics" (Yeats subject) is precisely the subject of "immorality"... and here "innocence" would be much preferred to "cynicism", IMO.
Morality -- either the presence or the absence thereof -- is inextricably intertwined in the political process. Morality born of conscience and sincere concern for the well being of others may not be expedient in winning whatever political game is currently in play, but over the long haul maintaining one's integrity while curbing the tendency towards rapacity produces far superior, longer lasting achievements for which it is faintly possible one might be fondly remembered.
To live wisely and well, one must cultivate great patience, while ceaslessly practicing self-denial.
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