On Reading Crowds and Power

ClovenCloven Divided. About the title. The book Crowds and Power (Masse und Macht [1960], translated from German) was written by Elias Canetti; it is a study of how crowd behavior (ranging from religious congregations to mob violence) relates to obedience to state rule. Canetti (1905-1994) was a Bulgarian born novelist, playwright, and non-fiction writer who wrote in German and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981. The second section of this poem, in italics, is a long quotation/translation from this book, we are incorporateincorporate United in one body. Compare part of one petition from the Book of Common Prayer: “and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son” (from The Order for the Administration of The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion)., our wounds

simple but mysterious. We have

some wherewithal to bide our time on earth.

Endurance is fantasticFantastic Imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality.; ambulances

battling at intersections, the city

intolerably en fêteen fête French for being festive, perhaps being dressed in festive attire. My reflexes

are words themselves rather than standard

flexuresflexures Acts of bending, such as bowing or kneeling of civil power. In all of this

Cassiopeia'sCassiopeia’s Cassiopeia is both a star constellation in the northern sky, and in Greek mythology an Ethiopian queen and the mother of Andromeda; a beautiful woman, but whose vanity and arrogance led to her downfall. John Milton refers to Cassiopeia in Il Penseroso: “Or that starr’d Ethiop queen that strove / To set her beauty’s praise above / The sea nymphs, and their powers offended” (lines 19-21). a blessing

as is steady OrionOrion Orion is both the easily recognized star constellation and in Greek mythology a hunter. beloved of poetsbeloved of poets A list of poems naming Orion includes: Milton’s Paradise Lost, Tennyson’s Locksley Hall, Teasdale’s “Winter Stars” , Pickthall’s “Stars” , Eliot’s “Sweeney among the Nightingales” , and Frost’s “The Star-splitter.” .

QuotidianQuotidian Daily, everyday natures ours for the time being

I do not know

how we should be absolvedAbsolved To declare someone free from blame, guilt, or responsibility; also, in Christian theology, to remit or forgive someone for a sin. or what is fate.

Fame is not fastidious about the lipsFame is not fastidious about the lips In A Treatise of Civil Power (2007), Geoffrey Hill notes: “section 2 is a paragraph from Elias Canetti’s chapter on ‘Fame’, transposed, with slight changes of wording, into strophic form.” For more on this book by Canetti, see the note about the title above.

which spread it. So long as there are mouths

to reiterate the one name it does not

matter whose they are.

The fact that to the seeker after fame

they are indistinguishable from each other

and are all counted as equal shows that this

passion has its origin in the experience

of crowd manipulation. Names collect

their own crowds. They are greedy, live their own

separate lives, hardly at all connected

with the real natures of the men who bear them.

But hear this: that which is difficult

preserves democracy; you pay respect

to the intelligence of the citizen.

Basics are not condescension. Some

tyrants make great patrons. Let us observe

this and pass on. Certain directives

parody at your own risk. Tread lightly

with personal dignity and public image.

Safeguard the image of the common manthe common man There is another version of this poem, printed in Geoffrey Hill’s book A Treatise of Civil Power (2007), with a fourth section added..