Or where poets ever really the "unacknowledged legislators of the world"?
2007-11-18 11:32:42 · 3 answers · asked by ? 5 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
The poet who claimed that was Percy Bysshe Shelley. I read some of his poems a long time ago but I can't say any of them really stuck in my mind. I think his claim at the time was hyperbole and would be even more so now. As far as comedians go, maybe they just reflect the world we live in rather than change it?
2007-11-18 11:58:22 · update #1
Comedy depends upon the incongruous and the ridiculous. Comedians, as far back as Aristophanes, have shown us our absurdity and our foolishness, but they cannot provide positive alternatives. If anyone in modern culture can lead the way, it might be the song lyricists.
As recently as 1942 it was possible for Charles Williams to claim that, next to God, poets are our most reliable source of truth. Since then, poets have slipped a bit. Whether we are at fault–or the poets–posterity will decide.
2007-11-18 11:52:11 · answer #1 · answered by anobium625 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What do you think? Do you know who claimed that status for poets? Have you read any of that writer's poems? Are there any poets you look up to as the world's unacknowledged legislators? What about comedians? Any of them you see as the people who really make the rules for how we live and how we think?
2007-11-18 11:42:55 · answer #2 · answered by classmate 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe. The only way I can take any amount of politics without wanting to walk away, is when a comedian is talking about it.
2007-11-18 12:24:31 · answer #3 · answered by Molly T 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋