Mike,
I haven't seen this configuration before but then maybe I haven't read my
Philip Larkin enough. It's a thorny question isn't it, whether poetry should
be overtly political? My guess is that if it is going to be political then
it has to be something else as well. Otherwise it isn't likely to be an
effective piece of propaganda, using the word in the communist sense (as
disseminating truth) rather than in the democratic sense (disseminating
lies). There is irony in the poem but it comes across as a bit wooden. Maybe
that's intentional. The form you have chosen with its repetitive mirror
rhymes discharges any sense of being able to take the protagonist seriously,
but then the protagonist isn't the poet and that slightly brain washed tone
is in the end quite appropriate...or is it.....? As for the lines one
quibble would be "that our worst fears could possible happen". Do fears
happen? I suppose they do but this isn't the same as fears being realised or
justified. I like the witty switch hear to here in S3.
Colin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Horwood" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 10:45 AM
Subject: New sub: Homage...
Homage to a Government
after Philip Larkin
This year we´re sending our troops abroad
to preserve world peace, and this is all right.
They will bring order and prevent killing,
although to achieve this goal some killing
will be necessary, but this is all right
if it is for world peace and happens abroad.
Of course no one wanted this to happen.
Tyrants must be stopped before they threaten
world peace and the evidence was convincing,
although the public took some convincing
that this enemy posed a real threat and
that our worst fears could possibly happen.
So now we are living in a country
that sends soldiers abroad to preserve peace
in a country that is far from here.
In theory that would be all right, but we hear
that fighting goes on with no sign of peace
and we´re just thankful it´s not in our country.
Mike
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