Quoting Yeats, Flattering Ourselves
The Paris Review calls it "our most thoroughly pillaged poem"; it being Yeats' "Second Coming." You know it for lines like "things fall apart," which Chinua Achebe nicked for the title of his acclaimed novel of 1958, and "slouching toward Bethlehem," which Joan Didion pilfered for the title of her celebrated late-60s essay collection. One can't help but think that the success of these works owes in part to the use of these indelible phrases. Other catch phrases from the poem include "the centre cannot hold" and "mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."
The other most-invoked passage is this one: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." Here's the thing: When people quote this they do so in order to flatter themselves. Who are the best? Why, the best are always us! And who are the worst? Well, for a liberal, the worst could be those rabidly enthusiastic but misguided Trump supporters. And for a conservative? It could be those #NeverAgain teenagers, so ignorant, yet so convinced they are on the right side of the guns issue.
For someone like me, with my bias toward words, there's another seduction. If the worst are full of intensity, then I can paint my habitual political inaction as wisdom rather than passivity. Self flattery doesn't get any more efficient than that.
The lesson of all this? If you want your poem to have legs, make it vague enough so everyone can read into what they want.
The other most-invoked passage is this one: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." Here's the thing: When people quote this they do so in order to flatter themselves. Who are the best? Why, the best are always us! And who are the worst? Well, for a liberal, the worst could be those rabidly enthusiastic but misguided Trump supporters. And for a conservative? It could be those #NeverAgain teenagers, so ignorant, yet so convinced they are on the right side of the guns issue.
For someone like me, with my bias toward words, there's another seduction. If the worst are full of intensity, then I can paint my habitual political inaction as wisdom rather than passivity. Self flattery doesn't get any more efficient than that.
The lesson of all this? If you want your poem to have legs, make it vague enough so everyone can read into what they want.
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