Politics
'In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings in political terms.'
THOMAS MANN.
How can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics,
Yet here's a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there's a politician
That has both read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war's alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms.
Copyright Credit: From THE COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS edited by Richard Finneran. Revisions and additional poems copyright © 1983, 1989 by Anne Yeats. Editorial matter and compilation copyright © 1983, 1989 by Macmillan Publishing Company. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC.
Source: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats (Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989)