[New-Poetry] As if poetry didn't have enough of a PR problem

[Michael Snider]

At least it's a better poem than Kipling's "If," which he quoted earlier.
Here's the Kipling I want read in the House and Senate:

Mesopotamia

1917


They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young,
The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave:
But the men who left them thriftily to die in their own dung,
Shall they come with years and honour to the grave?

They shall not return to us; the strong men coldly slain
In sight of help denied from day to day:
But the men who edged their agonies and chid them in their pain,
Are they too strong and wise to put away?

Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night divide–
Never while the bars of sunset hold.
But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died,
Shall they thrust for high employments as of old?

Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour:
When the storm is ended shall we find
How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power
By the favour and contrivance of their kind?

Even while they soothe us, while they promise large amends,
Even while they make a show of fear,
Do they call upon their debtors, and take counsel with their
friends, to conform and re-establish each career?

Their lives cannot repay us–their death could not undo–
The shame that they have laid upon our race.
But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew,
Shall we leave it unabated in its place?

On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 10:07 PM, <jforjames at aol.com> wrote:

> http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/090110-kinchen-columnspoetry.html
> COMMENTARY: Blago May be Impeached, But He Still Loves His Poetry
>
> By David M. Kinchen
> Huntingtonnews.net
>
> As is his habit, at his latest press conference -- the one on Friday, Jan.
> 9, 2009, when he responded to his impeachment by the Illinois House of
> Representatives, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich quoted snippets of poetry.
>
> His latest poetic outcry was from a poet I recognized from my days many
> decades ago as an English major at Northern Illinois University. He quoted
> the last line of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Ulysses":
>
> "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
>
> ------------------------------
> Get a *free MP3* every day with the Spinner.com toolbar. Get It Now<http://toolbar.aol.com/spinner/download.html?ncid=emlweusdown00000021>.
>
>
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