Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

It was prescient when it was written: "All words like Peace and Love/Have been soiled, profaned, debased". Was WH Auden responding to the excesses of flower power, sit ins, free love, LSD and Woodstock? Far from it. "We, too, had known golden hours" appeared in his great 1955 volume, The Shield of Achilles.

We, too, had known golden hours

We, too, had known golden hours
When body and soul were in tune,
Had danced with our true loves
By the light of a full moon,
And sat with the wise and good
As tongues grew witty and gay
Over some noble dish
Out of Escoffier;
Had felt the intrusive glory
Which tears reserve apart,
And would in the old grand manner
Have sung from a resonant heart.
But, pawed-at and gossiped-over
By the promiscuous crowd,
Concocted by editors
Into spells to befuddle the crowd,
All words like Peace and Love,
All sane affirmative speech,
Had been soiled, profaned, debased
To a horrid mechanical screech.
No civil style survived
That pandaemonioum
But the wry, the sotto-voce,
Ironic and monochrome:
And where should we find shelter
For joy or mere content
When little was left standing
But the suburb of dissent?

WH Auden (1907-1972)

Although Auden's poem is filled with energy, lightness and life, his reflection on the debasement of language is deadly serious. Fifty years ago, he could not have imagined the "horrid, mechanical screech" we are now subjected to by those who are paid to "befuddle the crowd", but his words continue to reverberate. And, there was then and there is now "the suburb of dissent". It's where the bloggers hang out now.