Alf’s 10. Bit
Wind
Alf’s 10. Bit - meaning Summary
Political Anger and Inertia
The poem attacks political stagnation and social complacency. Pound mocks a government that offers empty excuses while the nation drifts, blaming incompetence and class privilege for inaction. The repeated commands to fester and rot
convey disgust with leaders and a populace that fails to think or push change. The speaker anticipates delayed reform and continued advantage for the well-born until public consciousness awakens.
Scarce and thin, scarce and thin The government's excuse, Never at all will they do Aught of the slightest use. Over the dying half-wits blow, Over the empty-headed, and the slow Marchers, not getting forwarder, While Ramsay MacDonald sleeps, sleeps. Fester and rot, fester and rot, And angle and tergiversate One thing among all things you will not Do, that is: think, before it's too late. Election will not come very soon, And those born with a silver spoon, Will keep it a little longer, Until the mind of the old nation gets a little stronger.
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