Poets' Corner

Number Twenty Four : 19^th August 2014

Tread Softly

The W.B. Yeats poem "He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven " was published in his 1899 collection , The Wind Among The Reeds :

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths ,
Enwrought with golden and silver light ,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light ,
I would spread the cloths under your feet :
But I , being poor , have only my dreams ;
I have spread my dreams under your feet ,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Borrowing the last line , Malcolm Muggeridge used it for his 1966 collection of essays , Tread Softly For You Tread On My Jokes. He opens it with some ruminations on his time (in the 1950s) as the editor of Punch magazine. “ I learned that the English , particularly , take their humour very seriously , and grow exceedingly angry at attempts to amuse them which they consider to have failed. I decided that the business of a satirical magazine must be to ridicule the age in which we live , and particularly those set in authority over us. Here a difficulty at once arose. Our age (as I dare say every age has seemed at the time) is so overflowing with absurdity that it defies mockery. Who will be bold enough to produce absurdities outdoing those which television screens and government press releases constantly purvey ? ” .

Yeats was one of those men who are attracted to ‘the wisdom of old’ in all its bogus varieties. Theosophy to start with , thence to The Order Of The Golden Dawn , a hodge-podge of the Jewish Kabbalistic tradition with material from medieval Grimoires. Muggeridge became a serious God-botherer in his old age , like so many ex-agnostics before him. We may well imagine the jokes his older self would have afforded to the younger Malcolm’s pen. In much the same way , we can easily conjure up the younger John Lennon's response to the “iconic” Marxist millionaire in New York that he became. Imagine no possessions … apart from his temperature-controlled room full of fur coats , his extensive property portfolio , etcetera , etcetera. For an unrivalled example of spouting fatuous nonsense , we can turn to Mrs. Thatcher , who described Jimmy Savile as “a dynamic example of enterprise Britain and an inspiring example of responsible Britain.”

There is a pompous air of solemnity and decorum in the Concert Hall , as in museums of Art. These were never places in which laughter was deemed appropriate. To us , their aspiration to “higher things” provokes a chortle more successfully than many a professional comedian. Writers of self-improvement manuals prescribe a smile when misfortune descends upon us but we suggest a better tonic for a flagging spirit. Study the mannerisms of those who aspire to bear the torch of high culture aloft on television screens. What a motley procession ! Lisping Lucy Worsley , the well-tailored Graham-Dixon , earnest Mr. Montefiori , Janina Ramirez with her heavy mascara , the something-of-a-toff Alastair Sooke , Uncle Dave Starkey and all. Exposition after exposition , extending from the Ancient Empires or Great Masters of yore to the brash (and wealthy) iconoclasts of today. They convey a sense of easy contact with their audience , of shared interests and mutual trust. Hands moving horizontally in emphasis , as if playing an invisible squeeze box. Clarifications delivered over the shoulder to the following cameraman as they proceed across plazas or mince up and down palace steps. The credits roll as they and their production team disappear , moving off-camera to their next extravaganza : The Art of Making Arty Documentaries for BBC 4.

Wig

Archive

Poets' Corner #1 – Poetic Pessimism, 13^th September 2012
Poets' Corner #2 – The Workman's Friend, 10^th October 2012
Poets' Corner #3 – On The Trail of Two Dylans, 12^th November 2012
Poets' Corner #4 – Omar Khayyam, 14^th December 2012
Poets' Corner #5 – William Blake, 25^th January 2013
Poets' Corner #6 – A Minor Poet, 19^th February 2013
Poets' Corner #7 – Thomas Hardy, 20^th March 2013
Poets' Corner #8 – Shakespeare's Sonnets, 21^st April 2013
Poets' Corner #9 – Edward Thomas, 20^th May 2013
Poets' Corner #10 – Harry Smith's Anthology, 19^th June 2013
Poets' Corner #11 – William Plomer, 21^st July 2013
Poets' Corner #12 – Ghosts , 20^th August 2013
Poets' Corner #13 – William Dunbar, 20^th September 2013
Poets' Corner #14 – Bathtub Thoughts, 20^th October 2013
Poets' Corner #15 – Bagpipe Music, 20^th November 2013
Poets' Corner #16 – Sylvia & Emily, 20^th December 2013
Poets' Corner #17 – The Fall Of Icarus, 16^th January 2014
Poets' Corner #18 – Those Gone Before, 20^th February 2014
Poets' Corner #19 – Rudyard Kipling, 20^th March 2014
Poets' Corner #20 – Martin Bell, 20^th April 2014
Poets' Corner #21 – Another Modest Proposal, 20^th May 2014
Poets' Corner #22 – Thomas Gray and The Eighteenth Century, 20^th June 2014
Poets' Corner #23 – Edgar Allan Poe, 18^th July 2014
Poets' Corner #24 – Tread Softly, 19^th August 2014
Poets' Corner #25 – Mad To Be Saved, 24^th December 2015
Poets' Corner #26 – Wants, 20^th January 2016
Poets' Corner #27 – Samuel Johnson, 15^th February 2016
Poets' Corner #28 – T.S.Eliot, 10^th March 2016
Poets' Corner #29 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, 18^th April 2016
Poets' Corner #30 – Leonard Cohen, 12^th November 2016