An insert from The World of Poetry, Rockowitz and Kaplan
*29 Protest*
Many people picture the poet as an "ivory tower" far removed from the everyday problems of life, with nothing more to concern him with than making words rhyme. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many poet's have been in the forefront of man's struggle for a better life. Several have given their lives for the causes in which they've believed. Percy Bysshe Shelley, who had a highly developed social conscience, wrote that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Indeed, poems such as "The Man with Hoe" have helped bring about reforms that resulted in the poems becoming dated and rarely read!
..Poets serve as the conscious of mankind, and while they may offer few solutions, they spur us to take positive action, to make ourselves worthy of our condition as men.
Food for thought.
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