[Newspoetry] Lines Stolen from M and Y

[James Stewart]

                Lines stolen from M... and Y...

The bourgeois epoch. 
In the widening gyre,
Turning and turning  
Constant revolution, 
Uninterrupted disturbance, 
Everlasting uncertainty and agitation 
Distinguish 
The bourgeois epoch. 
The falcon 
Cannot hear the falconer; 
All fixed, 
Fast-frozen relations, 
With their train of ancient and venerable 
Prejudices and opinions, 
Are swept away, 
Things fall apart; 
The center cannot hold; 
The bourgeois epoch. 
All new-formed 
Relations become
Antiquated 
Before 
They can ossify. 
The blood-dimmed tide 
Is loosed, 
And everywhere 
All that is solid melts into air, 
All that is holy is profaned, 
The ceremony of innocence 
Is drowned; and man 
Is at last compelled 
To face, with sober senses, 
His real conditions of life.
The best lack all convictions, 
While the worst 
Are full 
Of passionate intensity 
In their relations with their kind. 
Surely some revelation,
Some rough beast, 
Nothing to lose, 
Is at hand. 

James N. Stewart
jnstewar at prairienet.org