On Being Asked For A War Poem - Poem Text

Poem Text

I THINK it better that in times like these
A poet keep his mouth shut, for in truth
We have no gift to set a statesman right;
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth,
Or an old man upon a winter’s night.

Read more about this topic:  On Being Asked For A War Poem

Famous quotes containing the words poem and/or text:

    And no matter how all this disappeared,
    Or got where it was going, it is no longer
    Material for a poem. Its subject
    Matters too much, and not enough, standing there helplessly
    While the poem streaked by, its tail afire, a bad
    Comet screaming hate and disaster....
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    The power of a text is different when it is read from when it is copied out.... Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind in the free flight of day-dreaming, whereas the copier submits it to command.
    Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)