Monday, May 18, 2009

Letter to W.H. Auden



Letter to W.H. Auden

“It is also an act of identification with Byron—another homage to a queer uncle—and the meanings of this gesture involve Auden’s reception as a leftist and homosexual writer of the 1930s.”—Richard Bozorth, “Politics and Authority in the 1930s,” Auden’s Games of Knowledge: Poetry and the Meanings of Homosexuality

Lord Byron—wish you were here, my dear
What would you do—I wonder today
If you were me—and I were you?
Conceivably you—might set me free
Without all this bondage—so cartoonish
Britannia’s lost empire—gone cash & power
How you liked to be—the center of attention
The gay Prince Charming—of the Nation
Taming the Dragon—down in Greece
But those days are over—a fairy story
Today Princes—are anonymous hacks
Modern politics today—more gory than glory
TPTB want their heroes—to be easy-going slackers
Newt, Boner, Mitch the Bitch—Tom DeLay
Dick Armey, Pelosa—what can I say?
Rome as usual—Snakepit of incestuous creeps
The Warren Commission—the 9-11 Commission
The Silberman-Robb Commission—all of them
The usual gangbang—of hacks and fixers
Darth Cheney—down in his Berlin bunker
Each dying force of history—a scaly story
Pax Romana—aristocrats v. plebeians
Two right wings—of the same crummy Party
All of it just window-dressing—then the Boot




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