Poetry is Not the Lever and Fulcrum of Archimedes
“The full-flowering Scottish tradition of Henryson, Dunbar and Douglas was defeated when Scotland was defeated.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The Story of Poetry
War changes poetry. Old English verse
Had reached an apogee of polished shapes
When William came along. A Norman curse
Crushed English poetry with Frankish rapes
Of language. Chaucer’s day brought English back.
Then history repeated evil. Wars
And despot threats brought crushing ruin, black
Like swastikas and turned the arts to whores
From 1913/14 onwards. Gas
Attacks revived true poetry again
But briefly. After that the arts en masse
Went mad as if in concentrated pain.
The problem is that artists cannot lift
The world. They cannot cause the slightest shift.
July 22 and 23, 2018
NB This sonnet was originally entitled “Poetry and the World”