Re: My Favorite Poem

[Nimnommonster]

Great poem. Time to buy a new Mic :P

[cujoenyo]

thanks for the share

[hejira33312]

do you know Joni Mitchells song she adapted from this poem, take a look at my videos

[yeagerbomb11]

your readings are very peaceful and calming :)

[Panini6Pedant]

One of Yeats' best poems, I think. Read with great feeling here. The reader's face, too, was eloquent. Yeats himself doesn't appear to have recorded this poem. The American accent didn't seem to matter. Thank you.

[caveatexecutor]

Excellent choice.  One of Yeats' best.

[belkincp]

Hey freinds check my version out..im more of a shakespearean type poetry reader..

[DClaudeKatz]

Yes, I've often thought that. Apparently, Yeats attributed some kind of mystical significance to the year 2000, and it's kind of spooky how important the Middle East (including Bethlehem) has become in the new millennium.

[phaedress]

Yeah, that oft-quoted line about the Beast slouching toward Bethlehem gave me chills when you read it. On the other hand, the 'middle east' has always been at the centre of things. Alexander, Napoleon and many others saw that it was a vilat spot. I love historical maps; you'll find that Jerusalem has been part of a great many Empires, including Roman and Ottoman... and now "the West".

[DClaudeKatz]

True about the perennial importance of that region. But it strikes me because when Yeats wrote the poem, and in the subsequent decades, most of the action was in Europe. The Russian revolution was certainly in his mind, and later readers might have seen the poem as foreshadowing WWII.

[phaedress]

Yes, not only the Russian revolution, but the encroaching proletariat and undoing of the aristocratic class. One man's beast is another man's saviour.

[phaedress]

Great choice of poem! Amazing how timely this seems, isn't it?

[DClaudeKatz]

(oops, the comment below was supposed to be a reply)