{"id":367,"date":"2010-04-30T14:50:45","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T13:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/?p=367"},"modified":"2010-05-02T17:45:08","modified_gmt":"2010-05-02T16:45:08","slug":"rhyme-and-reason-during-an-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/?p=367","title":{"rendered":"Rhyme and reason – during an election?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nGordon Brown called on ‘the great poet William Blake’ to support his campaign, as noted in an earlier post<\/a>. Not to be outdone, the other contenders have brandished their poetic sensitivities on the National Poetry Day site<\/a>. It looks as if this could be a coalition squabble, since Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg also wants to lay claim to Blake, citing ‘Eternity’: ‘it\u2019s a fantastic way of saying “seize the day” and the perfect poem to read in times of trouble, really uplifting.’ It’s time to ‘seize the day’ yourself, Nick! <\/p>\n

David Cameron chose Wilfred Owen: ‘I still remember the first time I read his poems and the incredible power and anger about the First World War. For me, they were literally an eye-opener.’ Literally<\/em>, David? Were you normally asleep during poetry lessons at Eton? I can feel a Lear<\/em> moment coming on: <\/p>\n

Get thee glass eyes;
\nAnd, like a scurvy politician, seem
\nTo see the things thou dost not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This politician can hear Owen’s anger about about the First World War but is still happy to press ahead with buying Trident nuclear submarines, I recall. Alexander Pope in Rape of the Lock<\/em> actually preferred a good drink, his politicians only pretend<\/em> to be blind:<\/p>\n

Coffee, which makes the politician wise
\nAnd see through all things with his half-shut eyes <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can we have both rhyme and reason at election time? See and hear Danny Chivers’ lively ‘Election Day’ poem here (and on YouTube<\/a>) and decide where you’ll cast your vote!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More votes for poets? Not if they’re dead….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[41,67,30],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-blake","tag-election","tag-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.literaryconnections.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}