switchercat.livejournal.com ([identity profile] switchercat.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] greatpoetry 2011-10-01 07:41 pm (UTC)

I did a presentation on "The Second Coming" the other day where I talked about just that!

He was certainly more than a little woo, and sometimes it's hard (or maybe not even worthwhile) to disentangle what's metaphorical/political in his poetry from what's straight-up occult. He seems to have had a justifiable obsession with the idea that some kind of inherent bestial violence is an urge lying dormant in human blood. "Odour of blood when Christ was slain / Made all Platonic tolerance vain / And vain all Doric discipline."

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