How can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here’s a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there’s a politician
That has read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war’s alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!
– W. B. Yeats
Postscript:
This is a poem I was introduced to by the Favorite Poem Project, a site well worth visiting. You can see a video of it being read out here. I find it deepens my appreciation of a poem when I hear from someone else why they love a poem, or what it is about it that moves them. I might not always agree, but it makes me pause, reconsider something I’ve already read, perhaps savor something new to me.
We’ve run several poems by Yeats. You can read a bit more about him here and here.
Tagged: love poetry, politics, W.B. Yeats, war