Poetry Forum

OTOH, I can't watch Mel Gibson movies.

I admit Eliot's anti-Semitism is a disturbing prejudice.

An article on Yeats' elitism:

https://jacobin.com/2023/11/w-b-yeats-p ... sm-fascism

Yup, that's Eliot. And the anti-semitism was not an anomaly in his thought. He was, I think, more of a thinker than Yeats. The Yeats article is good, though I feel Heidegger is Heidegger and tangential. I liked the putting of Yeats in Irish context, and the conclusion:

The purpose of this article has not been to censure Yeats. He will remain the most important Irish poet and one of few truly revolutionary poets of the twentieth century. It has been, rather, to foreground the importance of engaging with his work in a contextualist fashion attuned as much to the vagaries of history as Yeats himself was.

Then there's this: https://poets.org/poem/memory-w-b-yeats

Cheers,
John

Not surprisingly, his academic background was philosophy. I agree with you on the tangent.

I didn't know about the 'Blue Shirts'. The context of 1930's saw Auden lean left. Of course, older poets often lean to the right. Perhaps Shelley would have become like Wordsworth. Nah He would have worn paisley and smoked weed

Love the Auden poem.

Interesting article on RS Thomas...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/ ... ive-review

Yup, he dropped out of the Ph.D. program as i recall, after starting in on Frege or some such German.

I thought the Blue Shirts bit interesting. It seems fair to say Yeats dabbled in fascism, not like Pound or Celine but more than Eliot. It was good then to see him reject that politics. And Irish from start to finish. I think of Auden as to the left throughout his career, though one could certainly call him an elitist if one felt the necessity. Which I don't.

There's a great story of the student Auden telling his tutor his plan to be a poet, and the tutor smirking, to which Auden said: "You misunderstand me. i intend to be a great poet."

Shelley would never have followed the older Wordsworth. He was a radical through and through, as Wordsworth or Coleridge were not. Byron? I don't see it. He who died at Missolonghi.

The Auden poem is great, isn't it?

And that was an interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
John

The last line of this poem just came back to me:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/ ... -innisfree

Cheers,
John

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/ ... st-duchess

Looking as if she were alive.

Cheers,
John

Maybe post this on PP? What a lovely poem. I especially like Mid-Term Break: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/ ... term-break

Yes, I remember that poignant poem John. Heaney was a thinking man, and also a thoughtful one because he felt his experience.

Thinking and thoughtful. I like the distinction. Yup, I agree, Heaney was both.

Cheers,
John

He does make the language sing there.

Here's a parody: https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/poem-af ... e_vignette

John

She does indeed! Nice MacNeice poem - thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
John