Impertinence

I just ran across this poem and it caught me up short. I had to really think about the author's argument.

Not to be presumptuous, but I feel I must disagree with Mr. William Butler Yeats.

It is true, Mr. Yeats, that few statesmen are swayed by the sentiments of poetry, no matter the passion of the issue.

Ah, but their constituents are another matter.

This is why poets around the world are imprisoned and murdered; it is precisely because those self same statesmen fear their influence.


On Being Asked for a War Poem
- William Butler Yeats

I think it better that in times like these
A poet’s mouth be silent, 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.