Daily Dose

From Selected Poems, by Geoffrey Hill

ON READING CROWDS AND POWER

1 

Cloven, we are incorporate, our wounds 
simple but mysterious. We have 
some wherewithal to bide our time on earth. 
Endurance is fantastic; ambulances 
battling at intersections, the city 
intolerably en fête. My reflexes 
are words themselves rather than standard 
flexures of civil power. In all of this 
Cassiopeia’s a blessing 
as is steady Orion beloved of poets. 
Quotidian natures ours for the time being 
I do not know 
how we should be absolved or what is fate. 

2 

Fame is not fastidious about the lips 
which spread it. So long as there are mouths 
to reiterate the one name it does not 
matter whose they are. 
The fact that to the seeker after fame 
they are indistinguishable from each other 
and are all counted as equal shows that this 
passion has its origin in the experience 
of crowd manipulation. Names collect 
their own crowds. They are greedy, live their own 
separate lives, hardly at all connected 
with the real natures of the men who bear them. 

3 

But hear this: that which is difficult 
preserves democracy; you pay respect 
to the intelligence of the citizen. 
Basics are not condescension. Some 
tyrants make great patrons. Let us observe 
this and pass on. Certain directives 
parody at your own risk. Tread lightly 
with personal dignity and public image. 
Safeguard the image of the common man.