Poetry and Politics Do Mix

In the ancient Platonic tradition of the philosopher-king, a would-be American ruler read his poetic works yesterday to a small crowd of Harvard students in the Leverett Junior Common Room.

Eugene McCarthy, former Senator from Minnesota and a three-time loser in bids for the presidency, reflected on the tenuous relationship between poetry and politics before his reading.

Although Americans may feel that poetry and politics "don't mix," McCarthy said, other nations, such as Ireland, have traditionally turned to poets for political leadership.

But Americans prefer to keep the two pursuits separate. "Most politicians who don't like me very much refer to me as a poet," McCarthy said. He added that his poet friends urge him to "stay in politics", but he said jokingly that they were expressing their "concern for the public good" rather than criticizing his literary talents.

A knowledge of poetry can become a useful tool in the game of practical politics, he said--Frost's poems about New Hampshire indicated to him that the state had an independent and unpredictable streak in it.

The literary Senator selected the Granite State's primary to challenge former president Lyndon B. Johnson in the winter of 1968, and he scored a startling upset that political pollsters, who generally read computer printouts more carefully than sonnets, failed to predict.

The poetry McCarthy recited was a mixed bag. The political message of many of the poems rang clear, but others dwelt on the personal torment of the individual and the yearning for religious faith.

One poem, "Are You Running With Me, Jesus?", clearly combined both themes, although McCarthy claimed the work was not meant to carry political implications.

Still, one can hardly doubt what the bard was thinking of when he penned the telling lines:

an existential runner indifferent to space, I'm running here in place

An inveterate campaigner cannot easily hide the pains of defeat.

But at least McCarthy managed to justify to some students the motives behind his perpetual pursuit of the presidency. Philip Warburg '79 said yesterday he came to the reading with a "cynical" attitude toward McCarthy. Warburg said he viewed the Senator's decision to run in 1976 as an "irresponsible gesture," because his candidacy would detract from Jimmy Carter's electoral support.

But Warburg said that hearing McCarthy's poetry gave him some insight into "the ideology behind his political strategy."

"To call him a crank doesn't do justice to his cause or convictions," Warburg said after the reading.

McCarthy also offered some observations about his Democratic opponent's literary preferences. "Carter's not much for poetry...(or) metaphor," McCarthy said, adding that the president's speeches rely heavily on adverbs and adjectives, two parts of speech which, in McCarthy's opinion, fail to convey philosophical meaning.

The most effective and dramatic of the poems he read yesterday dealt with the Vietnam war and the protest movement it spawned. In sparse, simple lines he vividly recalled the atmosphere of Chicago's Grant Park during the 1968 Democratic convention.

Another poem commented on the unpopularity of America's involvement in Southeast Asia by invoking the image of Kilroy, a fictitious mascot of American forces whose name appeared as scrawled graffitti throughout Europe and Korea but who became conspicuous by his absence from Vietnam. "Kilroy is absent without leave from Vietnam," McCarthy read, and the impact of the poem's message moved the audience to applause.

McCarthy has yet to write stirring verse, similar to that inspired by Vietnam, about the 1976 campaign, and he said he doubts that he will. Events that spur the poet occur infrequently in one's lifetime, and in the case of Vietnam, McCarthy surely must see this failing of history as a blessing.