The UK is an island, in name, and attitude - at least according to one man, David Cameron, who returns, raising his empty hand like a salute. While the Eurozone struggles with an epoch-defining crisis that could yet plunge the world (including the UK) into deep recession, or worse, our PM fiddles with party politics. As one French wag put it today, the Tories are acting like a man going to a wife-swapping party, without his wife. Indeed. It is time for the voters of Britain to decide, whether they see a future inside Europe. Eyewear does, but also thinks a referendum makes sense - it will force the hand of all sides, and get the best arguments out there.
When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?
Comments
I'm no Tory as you know but I don't think that 'Call me Dave' had much choice. Sarko was out to neuter the City of London and Cameron headed him off at the pass. The real problem is that decades of Euro-hostility from right-wing Tories has left us friendless in Europe which could prove extremely expensive in the future. Having spent a lot of time in France recently, I can personally confirm that it is a far more prosperous and civilized country than Britain these days.
Best wishes from Simon