While reading “Politics” the final poem we read by Yeats, I was reminded of something Doggett said earlier in the semester: that we read Yeats for his poetry, not his politics. The speaker wonders how he can focus on politics when so distracted by a woman, “How can I, that girl standing there, / My attention fix… / on…politics.” The speaker seems to deny the importance of politics in favor of romance: “There’s a politician / That has both read and thought / And maybe what they say is true / Of war and war’s alarms, / But O that I were young again / And held her in my arms.”
This poem can be considered problematic from a political point of view; people should not simply ignore “war and war’s alarms” for the sake of romance. Actually, much of Yeats’ politics (in regards to women, class, etc.) that we have read in his poetry prove problematic. However, I think there is a time and place to be politically conscious, and a separate time and place to indulge in romance and art and that place is poetry. Yeats may have been right in some respect that people can lose their artistic beauty to political fanaticism, like Maud. If you get too caught up in the politics of poetry, you might lose out on its aesthetic beauty. Though, that is not to say that politics in poetry should be ignored. Rather, I think political criticism and aesthetic appreciation should be held separate.