People are loyal only to themselves
They have no sense of nation today
And put their own self-interest first
“What’s in it for me” is what they say
People have many heartfelt opinions
But hardly a one true conviction
When England is once more in peril
This is my sad and sorry prediction
There will be no mass rush to volunteer
Conscription will be met with legal scheming
The only way to get them to join up
Will be to drag them kicking and screaming
Comments
Nolan | May 18, 2010 - 14:45
Yeats,
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
Tom Brown | May 18, 2010 - 19:33
Yeats’ “The Second Coming” was published in the aftermath of the Great War, before WW2 in the time of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Fascism. In the West leadership was weak. The poem to me is a sort of “anti-vision” of Blake’s “Jerusalem”.
There will be leaders, men and women of courage and insight.
Biggus | May 18, 2010 - 21:06
"There will be leaders, men and women of courage and insight"
But alas no one prepared to follow them.
Thanks
Tom Brown | May 18, 2010 - 22:12
Cheer up!