Friday, May 15, 2009

Be Angry At The Sun



Be Angry At The Sun


That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics
corruption and empire
Has been known for years.

Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you.
Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel,
these people, those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.

Observe them gesticulating,
Observe them going down.
The gang serves lies, the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.

You are not Catullus, you know,
To lampoon these crude sketches of Caesar.
You are far
From Dante's feet, but even farther
from his dirty
Political hatreds.

Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power,
and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader
and the dupes to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.


Robinson Jeffers

Posted over on Poem Hunters

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