This day's entry is a poem by Robinson Jeffers entitled "Be Angry at the Sun." It comes from his collection of poems of the same name Be Angry with the Sun published by Random House in 1941. Though Robinson Jeffers is not by any means a Christian poet, and his notion of "inhumanism" subject to serious reservations, Robinson evinces a deep natural religiosity. His poem expresses, I think, the stoic resignation required by the Christian as he sees the current state of the American Republic and the distasteful and unholy trinity at its head, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi. After achieving calm, the Christian should turn to the Cross and pray.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 (1887-1962)
It is distasteful and intellectually dishonest to use this poem that castigates any and all public figures for their self righteousness against one in particular {Barack Obama} whom you disagree with.
ReplyDeleteJeffers' original intent was to call out all citizens of all countries to replace the rumblings of widespread despair in those that govern us with the audacity of hope--otherwise we will fall prey to {as Jeffers writes in the fourth paragraph} POLITICAL HATRED.
I did not use the poem against only one, I used it against three. More, Jeffers appears to recommend a stoic resignation instead of hatred. I did not call for hatred, but to be "calm" and to foster a spirit of "prayer." And as to any "audacity of hope," I pretty much see more of the same thing: bigger Godless government.
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