Gov. Blagojevich & poetry make strange bedfellows

Even though poetry isn’t quite a dead art form, it has sure lost a lot of popularity over the years. Perhaps that is why it’s amusing…ah…sad that it has taken a corrupt politician like Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to thrust this forgotten art back into the spotlight, at least temporarily.

Today, after the Illinois House of Representatives voted to impeach the Governor, his response was in part a quote from a poem by Alfred Lloyd Tennyson, as reported here in the Chicago Tribune:

He closed his remarks by quoting from "Ulysses," a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

"We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield," said Blagojevich, prefacing his reading by acknowledging he first heard Sen. Ted Kennedy quote the poem at the 1980 Democratic National Convention.

Of course this is not the kind of attention poetry should be receiving – connected with an inept politician nearing the end of a disastrous career as governor.

But as they say (even though I have no idea who "they" are), even bad news can be good. This particularly applies to poetry. I guess if these strange quotes by Governor Blagojevich pique the interest of the public to read a little poetry, then some good will have come out this horrible time in Illinois politics.

I keep trying to think about what poem I’d quote if I were a politician about to be kicked out of office. Any suggestions?

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