To the Public – Louis Macneice
IEB 2025
Why hold that poets are so sensitive?
A thickskinned grasping lot who filch and eavesdrop,
Who enjoy ourselves at other men's expense,
Who, legislators or not, ourselves are lawless,
Who do not need indulgence, much less your pity;
With fewer qualms, we have rather more common sense
Than your Common Many also of course more freedom,
So, crude though we are, we get to times and places
And, saving your presence or absence, will continue
Throwing our dreams and guts in people's faces
IEB 2025
Why hold that poets are so sensitive?
A thickskinned grasping lot who filch and eavesdrop,
Who enjoy ourselves at other men's expense,
Who, legislators or not, ourselves are lawless,
Who do not need indulgence, much less your pity;
With fewer qualms, we have rather more common sense
Than your Common Many also of course more freedom,
So, crude though we are, we get to times and places
And, saving your presence or absence, will continue
Throwing our dreams and guts in people's faces
