Category: history
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Judgement from Paradise
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I don’t think there was any immediate catalyst for this stanza, as far as date or event were concerned. In the UK, as elsewhere, there just seemed to be so few redeeming features, no 5th cavalry rescue , no clearing of the mist, no light of sanity breaking through. The thought that we make a…
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Speaking of the Worst
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The stanza above makes extensive reference to that extraordinary and justifiably famous poem by W.B. Yeats called “The Second Coming”. Yeats’ poem applies so closely to our own present time, of course. But might that be true of every present time ? Shakespeare too was gripped by the fear of breakdown in the order of…
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The Parrot Meets the Grotesque
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This stanza was written just after Theresa May had accused the Commons of merely obstructing her and the “will of the people” and just before she headed back to the EU to beg for an extension. The thought occurred that it is possible to have no pride and no humility, both at once.… continue reading
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The Parrot Takes New Bearings
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I’m thinking here of our sleek new Foreign Secretary’s recent comment, saying – as reported in the Guardian – that “relations with the EU will be ‘poisoned for many years to come’ if Brussels fails to budge in the Brexit talks.” In other words, says Mr Hunt, he of the bell which keeps breaking in…
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The Parrot Wails
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The parrot thought he was studying the tea leaves. Instead he found himself watching in horror as the tea cup crumbled in his hand… continue reading
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A Brexiter Takes Stock of the Dark Star
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I know that, in writing this, I was remembering a scene from an early “Star Wars” film. An ominous planet approaches. And I remember that image occurring to me, when I came across a book by Iain McGilchrist called “The Master and His Emissary – The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.”…