Politics Lyrics

"In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings in
political terms" - Thomas Mann

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!

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About

Genius Annotation

The last poem Yeats wrote. At the ripe old age of 73, he shows little optimism or even care for the future, and seems more concerned with nostalgia for his younger days, when he wrote somewhat Pastoral poems like The Lake Isle of Innisfree or Who goes with Fergus. Though, Yeats' focus on his own interior life or beauty as opposed to politics is nothing recent; throughout his life his long time admired, Maud Gonne was perpetually irked by his “lukewarm” attitudes towards Irish independence.

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Credits
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Release Date
January 1, 1939
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