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Because of conservative power in the U.S., and the conservative misunderstanding of the benefits of labor unions. The ideological blindness of some conservatives causes them to see labor unions as threatening to freedom, and the protections of workers as somehow posing a threat to “capital” - the wealthy groups that ultimately fund corporations.It’s been at least a bit like that for a long time, in this country, sadly.Theodore Roosevelt actually broke away from the Republican party (he has served one term as president, as a Republican), and started the Progressive party - specifically because he supported protections for both workers and consumers, as well as truth in advertising laws - and most powerful Republicans did not, seeing such regulations as being “anti-business”.From the Progressive Party Platform of 1912:"Effective legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork, involuntary unemployment, and other injurous effects incident to modern industry;The fixing of minimum safety and health standards for the various occupations, and the exercise of the public authority of State and Nation, including the Federal Control over interstate commerce, and the taxing power, to maintain such standards;The prohibition of child labor;Minimum wage standards for working women, to provide a “living wage” in all industrial occupations;The general prohibition of night work for women and the establishment of an eight hour day for women and young persons;One day’s rest in seven for all wage workers;The eight hour day in continuous twenty-four hour industries;The abolition of the convict contract labor system; substituting a system of prison production for governmental consumption only; and the application of prisoners’ earnings to the support of their dependent families;Publicity as to wages, hours and conditions of labor; full reports upon industrial accidents and diseases, and the opening to public inspection of all tallies, weights, measures and check systems on labor products;Standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade disease which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the families of working people to the industry, and thus to the community;The protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use;The development of the creative labor power of America by lifting the last load of illiteracy from American youth and establishing continuation schools for industrial education under public control and encouraging agricultural education and demonstration in rural schools;The establishment of industrial research laboratories to put the methods and discoveries of science at the service of American producers;We favor the organization of the workers, men and women, as a means of protecting their interests and of promoting their progress."Source: Progressive Party Platform of 1912How dedicated was Roosevelt to the Progressive cause? Rather dedicated — including by today’s standards.“Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet - there is where the bullet went through - and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.”Source: It Takes More Than That to Kill a Bull Moose: The Leader and The CauseMakes you wonder - if microphones had been invented … he might not have mentioned it at all.Image Source: Theodore RooseveltCompare to the equivalent section of the Republican Party Platform of 1912:"The Republican party is now, as always, a party of advanced and constructive statemanship. It is prepared to go forward with the solution of those new questions, which social, economic and political development have brought into the forefront of the nation's interest.It will strive, not only in the nation but in the several States, to enact the necessary legislation to safeguard the public health; to limit effectively the labor of women and children, and to protect wage earners engaged in dangerous occupations; to enact comprehensive and generous workman's compensation laws in place of the present wasteful and unjust system of employers' liability; and in all possible ways to satisfy the just demand of the people for the study and solution of the complex and constantly changing problems of social welfare.In dealing with these questions, it is important that the rights of every individual to the freest possible development of his own powers and resources and to the control of his own justly acquired property, so far as those are compatible with the rights of others, shall not be interfered with or destroyed."Source: Republican Party Platform of 1912And, in 1912, the Republicans lost, too - and William Howard Taft, pictured below, left the White House.Image Source: President William Howard Taft was 5' 11.5" tall and weighed 340 lbs. According to chief White House usher, Ike Hoover, at t… | History-U.S. Presidents | Pinterest | Presidents, US presidents and American PresidentsConclusionAnd so, over a century later, conservatives in the U.S. miss what they have always missed:That as important as individual rights are, the way to preserve those rights optimally when considering policy and legislation for a group (i.e. a labor union) or a society (a state or nation) is to considering the collective needs of the individuals comprising the given group.Instead, Republicans are so myopically-focused on the needs of the individual (almost always actually meaning “wealthy individual”) that they completely miss they fundamental needs of people, as they actually live and work in society.To see that this is so, review the differences, and the the different language and style, of the two 1912 party platforms above - and notice that these could essentially be parts of the party platforms of Republicans (“Money first, individual a close second”) and Democrats (“People first; all people in our society”) as we move toward the presidential campaigns of 2020 — 108 years later.So Who Won?And yes, the Democrats were around in 1912, and they won, by fielding the president of Princeton as their candidate - Woodrow Wilson, who won by a landslide.Image Source: Special Projects from Archives and Special Collections, UNL LibrariesThe labor-related portion of the Democratic party platform was very similar to that of the Progressive party. The latter just outlined specific people-benefiting legislation, whereas the Democrats kept their language more general, vis a vis the rights of workers to organize.Point Being: The platform of Roosevelt’s Progressive party in 1912 seems more in sync with the views of progressive Democrats in 2019, than did the Democratic party platform of 1912.Why does this matter?Because, ultimately, putting people first is neither a conservative nor a liberal approach - but rather, a pragmatic, balanced and effective approach - which is what the Progressive platform is always actually about, regardless of the banner it is published under.In 1912, the Progressive champion was Theodore Roosevelt; in 2019, Progressive champions include popular elected officials such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Joe Biden, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and quite a few more.For Reference:1912 Democratic Party Platform

What's your conspiracy theory?My conspiracy theory is that both WASP supremacism and fascism survived World War 2 in the West behind the “curtain” of containment of Communism (and also moderate socialism), and are 2 of the 3 cornerstones of the alleged Western “global security” policy, the third being an exacerbated capitalism that aims mainly to grant infinite Power and wealth to its Leaders, and only then to foster an overall prosperity for the society, in that order and not the opposite.During the Cold-War, the Totalitarian U.S.S.R kept its People in terror and poverty, but had a positive side-effect on Western Europe and America : it kept capitalist leaders in check, forced them to not push too much their liberal agenda in order to prevent the Western and Mediterranean People from leaning too much toward an undefeated yet socialism. Supremacism over the non WASP remained very much the norm (just look at what France did in Vietnam and Algeria, or the U.S.A in Vietnam and South America, didn’t look that good for the 2 motherlands of Western Democracy, eh ?), tribal fascism was fostered in Africa to maintain post-colonial pillage, and State fascism in south America in order to fight socialism, but liberalism was still enforced with caution where harsher policies would be counterproductive (aka. in our own houses) in order to not backfire : stability mattered beyond anything in Europe.Once the U.S.S.R collapsed, the anti-contagion went down, and a new party started : liberal intellectuals and politicians erected themselves in crusaders of humanitarianism and austerity, greedy bankers and businessmen obtained free reign, and the media groups, vastly privatized and integrating themselves into broader corporations accompanied this movement with gluttony. Beyond corporate interests, mainly 2 countries made their butter out of this :Germany, motherland of Supremacism, fascism (and… communism) was finally able to :reunify,settle some scores with the Serbs who, per butterfly effect, were seen as the source of the German collapse in the first half of the XXth century,and march in a different way than before toward a revisited lebensraum in Europe : not geographical through conquest anymore, but economical through exploitation of the whole Europe and depopulation of its south-Eastern part.it worked quite well :The Yugoslav stain is gone into History,the Balkans are again down, and the fruit of their work (Statehood, industries, and… demography) is been bled since 1991.After paying for German defense and hence founding German economical recovery, the Eurozone paid a second time, sacrificing their own trade-balance (as the U.S do with a strong dollar) for the German one, for German economy and exports were and are still the only European ones to sustain a money as strong as the Euro is.Germanic Herrenvolk, useful idiots in Western Europe, and Eastern / Mediterranean subhumans finding again their rightful place in the European order ?The U.S.A are leading a policy that favors their military industry, hawkish politicians thrilled by Supreme domination, banking and corporate interests who need a constant perfusion of freebies stolen from abroad through the Washington Consensus application and an endless warpath, in order to keep generating huge profits, and wish to keep Europe as their backyard and the Muslim World as their playground while they are struggling with China in order to retain control over the Pacific and southern-south-Eastern Asia, where most of the current Worldwide economical growth is actually happening. Can the abyssal belly of the Beast ever be fulfilled ?So, Supremacism and Fascism switched from an anti-communist narrative to an humanitarianist narrative, allowing Western countries to intervene in secular but sovereign market oriented countries adept of national ownership / State interventionism, if the targets were not submissive enough, liberal enough, nor strong enough to defend themselves. That happened to Yugoslavia, to Iraq, to Libya, to Syria, and might happen to Venezuela and Iran. Not that those countries were or are models, far from it, but who are we, Westerners, to judge and indulge into playing with them then destroying them while they didn’t aggress us nor even remotely threaten our security, this after our own “civilized countries” caused more deaths in one century in the whole World than communism itself did in the U.S.S.R and China combined in their own backyard ?Now, a majority of Western Europeans support NATO (even in my once unruly France, support for NATO now passed beyond the threshold of 50% among the population), despite this organization being mostly used and visible through its NATO wars which are well beyond the defensive scope of the NATO treaty. This, may it be “as an organization”, may it be through it’s U.S-U.K-France trident. “Humanitarian wars” are still mainstreamly glorified (through much more criticized than before), and only peripherally battled against by powerless pacifist and… sovereignist oppositions, for if one of the civilizationnal accomplishment of the Western countries is that they benefit of a broadly enforced right of “free speech”, only the mainstream will be financially backed and hence rich the widest audience.Liberalism, on its side, is an excuse in its political utterance, a motive in its economical utterance, and a predator in both. For what ? Waging war to teach peace, enslaving to teach freedom, destroying and stealing to teach economical progress… Those policies have been the way for our liberal societies to expand their reach… and all along, is a blatant demonstration of their hypocrisy.Hell, even our own Western countries didn’t escape to this phenomenon, and both in France, the U.K, Germany and America, one can observe the degradation of both out democratic practices (we votes for candidates who’ll lead similar liberal politics whoever they are, rather than for projects, People acknowledge that and hence vote less and less, meanwhile our public assets and services are stolen, sold, or disbanded, because “competition is always better”). Better for who exactly ? For the most capable and the less ethic of us ? That’s a socio-economic iteration of Darwinism, another iteration of both the food chain and the Law of the Jungle, more than anything else.Globalism, on its side, has always been the deed of Empires, from the Roman one and its Pax Romana & Mare Nostrum, to the American one and its global network of interest (Transnational, companies, American “culture”, NATO, Pacific alliances, Dollar as main reserve currency). Looting the whole World to feed the core of the Empire, and looting its base to feed its top is an inescapable reality of any Imperial Rule, with always its nest of Patricians and crowds of Plebeians. Bread for most and Circus for all are thrown to the populace now as it was then. And nowadays, our Leaders, as proponent and co-beneficiaries of this, has been able to equate globalization with freedom, competition as progress, tax evasion with prosperity, while these only affect positively the most capable and less ethic of us.Take my case : I’m coming from a modest family, but as an only-son, benefited of all the help my family could provide in order for me to get a proper care and instruction, and then start my business, which I run efficiently enough to earn a very decent income. I’m a IT guy, I fix computers, assemble some and sell them, etc. I’m think myself as an capable worker and self-administrator, and yet, I’m not building pyramids nor have an hard job. My life is peaceful, I eat and sleep well, no sickness, no stress. And yet, most of People who really work hard, may it be in agriculture, industry, construction, maintenance, logistics, transport, distribution, in-shop services, education, health, security are worker much harder than I do, but earn less than I do. A lot earn more because they work is highly qualified, and/or valorized as an intermediate strate of the “System”, and, at the top, a few earn delirious amounts just because “they do the right job for it” and the whole rest is working for them.So basically, I’m a slalomer, and found myself a sweet spot. But how is it fair to steal so much from the taxes of those who work the most and earn the less in order to over satisfy the comfort of those who work less and earn more, and the greed of those “who have the right job” to the point of seeing some individuals and families going beyond 1 billion euros of yearly income, for example 50,000 times the median wage of their country-mates in France ? Is one of them’s prosperity is worth 50,000 of others’ promiscuity ? There or in the lower upper-strates, politicians who play with others’ money and are deemed irresponsible for their actions, bankers who basically “take a cut” of everything coming through their hands and yet take huge fees on those who have nothing, because they have nothing, big companies and smart fucks who know how to slalom in tax-Law to evade corporate and shareholding profits from Taxation are leeches living on hard working People’s back, and yet, they are the one presented as “successful”, as “worthy”, in other words, as “models”, when the hard working People, those who paid with their blood and money the erection, prosperity and security of our modern States, are told that their Public Services cost too much, as does their Healthcare and even education, that all of this must go… and be put “in competition”, so it can become “profitable”. Profitable for who, exactly ? Ain’t hard to guess, of course.Greed… Greed… Greed… Greed for Power, greed for money, greed for more… more… more…. On the back of the huge majority, to serve a small minority.Theft, excuses, lies, military industry, puppet-dictators, nation building, sanction, starvation, moralization, multilateral humiliations, humanitarian strikes, shock therapy and mass privatizations, bombing countries, destroyed cities and infrastructures, polluted rivers and fields, traumatized People, crippled soldiers, sick children, hopeless youngsters who chose expatriation, broken parents and bitter elders, economical predation, resources captation, subhumans to educate, nationicides. That’s the liberalism we bestow on others ?Dirty pigs in 10,000 dollars suits or starred uniforms full of undeserved medals paid with your taxes, or the taxes that were never paid in the first instances, political rallies, patriotic exaltation, ideological fanatization or… asseptisation, disrespect of democracy, non consultation of People for important decisions such as wars of aggression, despise from the ruling elites toward the “ignorant populace”, patronizing of the wealthy toward the poors, traffic of influence, corruption, public property abuse and dismantling, privatization of profits and collectivization of losses, “public debt” owed to who, exactly, considering that the prosperity of a minority is mainly the fruit of the work of a majority ? That’s the democracy, the liberalism we chose for ourselves ?Consumerism, imposed multiculturalism, dismeaning of our respective philosophy, faith, and traditions, relativization or even revision of our History, of who were our allies, our enemies, what were the legitimate outcomes of History. Antagonization of minorities against the majority, cognitive processing and legitimate interrogations depicted by the mainstream doxa and its private-held mediatic relays as conspiracy theories. Soap operas, endless entertaining, individualism in real life and social networks online to “connect People”, fashion and exacerbated competition, no collective objectives nor positive prospects, taking more of the pie instead of making it bigger and sharing with everyone. Global village beyond the global market, without solidarity, no more countries but supranational entities, no more nations, just a big market. That’s the “positive globalization” culture we should all abide to ?As for myself :Fuck ultra-liberalism.Fuck fascism.Fuck supremacism.Fuck imposed multiculturalism.Fuck the globalization coming from up-top.All these phenomenons are beyond their shiny appearances not a demonstration of the maturity of a Mankind aimed to progress, but simply a modern form of what always existed : the endless struggle of the strongest and smartest to retain their Power and sickly expand their wealth to the infinite in a finite World, and contemporary globalization oblige, those have now the means to erase a great part of what we, the Western civilization, achieved in the modern times out of the Greek philosophy & political theory, the Roman Statehood, the Christian Humanism and then the Enlightenment era all-together, throwing us back in Feodalism, with all its slaves, its poors, its wars and overall misery.We should stop the pendulum of History, and that starts by :acknowledging that something is going very wrong in our Western Ways, that both criticism and propositions must be heard, that representative democracy must be a matter of ideas and collective projects and not People and individual profits, that People need to be consulted directly for the most important decisions, like starting a war, that taxes need to be collected and public property need to be respected.protecting what is ours but allowing others to enjoy what is theirs and looking in our own backyards how to make flourish our countries and societies by ourselves, instead of constantly leeching on others to the point of destroying them if they do not bow down enough in order for us to steal what they have, or if we can’t do that, destroy everything so at least, they might learn the lesson.We should have learned ours instead, after centuries of Colonialism and 2 World Wars started in Europe, and not go, once again, for neo-imperialism, dividing to conquer, destroying if we can’t, stigmatizing if we can’t destroy.Then, back to the core question : with our level of societal development, and the ease that we communicate with each other, such a global trend cannot simply be the result of an endless cascade of unfortunate accidents and misunderstanding. The global predation is the fruit of millennia of accumulated knowledge minus the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria, an inhumane Rule of the few over the whole of Mankind, scientifically developed, trial-error tested, carefully revamped after each failure, and methodologically enforced policy, into which many ruling elites, transnational leeches, privileged collateral or useful idiots find a common sense of interest which makes them objectives allies in that global endeavor.In other words, a systemic, hence loose, but nevertheless real conspiration among people who are powerful enough to put their greed and its necessary tenants at the first place in the priority list of our collective decisions and individual behaviors.Usually, conspirations are seen as the deed of a designated group. Here, we have a class conspiration, which makes it very sketchy to define and delimit, but nevertheless does not invalidates its existence, its effects, and… its endeavor's ongoing overall success.Many of us on Quora have enough education, comfort and free time to debate here, and so many of us are not in an insufferable position, so that might indeed add to the “sketchy” and hence improbable dimension. Something might not exist for someone, if that person is not really affected by it or bathes in the mainstream doxa. Nevertheless, let’s be honest : are many if not most of us, already very privileged compared to the majority of the human Earthlings ?Thanks for reading my rants. :)

10. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost (1874-1963)Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.Meaning of the PoemThis poem deals with that big noble question of “How to make a difference in the world?” On first reading, it tells us that the choice one makes really does matter, ending: “I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.”A closer reading reveals that the lonely choice that was made earlier by our traveling narrator maybe wasn’t all that significant since both roads were pretty much the same anyway (“Had warn them really about the same”) and it is only in the remembering and retelling that it made a difference. We are left to ponder if the narrator had instead traveled down “The Road Not Taken” might it have also made a difference as well. In a sense, “The Road Not Taken” tears apart the traditional view of individualism, which hinges on the importance of choice, as in the case of democracy in general (choosing a candidate), as well as various constitutional freedoms: choice of religion, choice of words (freedom of speech), choice of group (freedom of assembly), and choice of source of information (freedom of press). For example, we might imagine a young man choosing between being a carpenter or a banker later seeing great significance in his choice to be a banker, but in fact there was not much in his original decision at all other than a passing fancy. In this, we see the universality of human beings: the roads leading to carpenter and banker being basically the same and the carpenter and bankers at the end of them—seeming like individuals who made significant choices—really being just part of the collective of the human race.Then is this poem not about the question “How to make a difference in the world?” after all? No. It is still about this question. The ending is the most clear and striking part. If nothing else, readers are left with the impression that our narrator, who commands beautiful verse, profound imagery, and time itself (“ages and ages hence”) puts value on striving to make a difference. The striving is reconstituted and complicated here in reflection, but our hero wants to make a difference and so should we. That is why this is a great poem, from a basic or close reading perspective.9. “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries sheWith silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”Meaning of the PoemInscribed on the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, this sonnet may have the greatest placement of any English poem. It also has one of the greatest placements in history. Lazarus compares the Statue of Liberty to the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Like the Statue of Liberty, the Colossus of Rhodes was an enormous god-like statue positioned in a harbor. Although the Colossus of Rhodes no longer stands, it symbolizes the ancient Greek world and the greatness of the ancient Greek and Roman civilization, which was lost for a thousand years to the West, and only fully recovered again during the Renaissance. “The New Colossus” succinctly crystallizes the connection between the ancient world and America, a modern nation. It’s a connection that can be seen in the White House and other state and judicial buildings across America that architecturally mirror ancient Greek and Roman buildings; and in the American political system that mirrors Athenian Democracy and Roman Republicanism.In the midst of this vast comparison of the ancient and the American, Lazarus still manages to clearly render America’s distinct character. It is the can-do spirit of taking those persecuted and poor from around the world and giving them a new opportunity and hope for the future, what she calls “the golden door.” It is a uniquely scrappy and compassionate quality that sets Americans apart from the ancients. The relevance of this poem stretches all the way back to the pilgrims fleeing religious persecution in Europe to the controversies surrounding modern immigrants from Mexico and the Middle East. While circumstances today have changed drastically, there is no denying that this open door was part of what made America great once upon a time. It’s the perfect depiction of this quintessential Americanness that makes “The New Colossus” also outstanding.8. “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822)I met a traveler from an antique landWho said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:And on the pedestal these words appear:‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.”Meaning of the PoemIn this winding story within a story within a poem, Shelley paints for us the image of the ruins of a statue of ancient Egyptian king Ozymandias, who is today commonly known as Ramesses II. This king is still regarded as the greatest and most powerful Egyptian pharaoh. Yet, all that’s left of the statue are his legs, which tell us it was huge and impressive; the shattered head and snarling face, which tell us how tyrannical he was; and his inscribed quote hailing the magnificent structures that he built and that have been reduced to dust, which tells us they might not have been quite as magnificent as Ozymandias imagined. The image of a dictator-like king whose kingdom is no more creates a palpable irony. But, beyond that there is a perennial lesson about the inescapable and destructive forces of time, history, and nature. Success, fame, power, money, health, and prosperity can only last so long before fading into “lone and level sands.”There are yet more layers of meaning here that elevate this into one of the greatest poems. In terms of lost civilizations that show the ephemeralness of human pursuits, there is no better example than the Egyptians—who we associate with such dazzling monuments as the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid at Giza (that stands far taller than the Statue of Liberty)—yet who completely lost their spectacular language, culture, and civilization. If the forces of time, history, and nature can take down the Egyptian civilization, it begs the question, “Who’s next?” Additionally, Ozymandias is believed to have been the villainous pharaoh who enslaved the ancient Hebrews and who Moses led the exodus from. If all ordinary pursuits, such as power and fame, are but dust, what remains, the poem suggests, are spirituality and morality—embodied by the ancient Hebrew faith. If you don’t have those then in the long run you are a “colossal wreck.” Thus, the perfectly composed scene itself, the Egyptian imagery, and the Biblical backstory convey a perennial message and make this a great poem.7. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (1795-1821)Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,Sylvan historian, who canst thus expressA flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:What leaf-fring’d legend haunts about thy shapeOf deities or mortals, or of both,In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheardAre sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leaveThy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!Keats’s own drawing of the Grecian Urn.Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shedYour leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;And, happy melodist, unwearied,For ever piping songs for ever new;More happy love! more happy, happy love!For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d,For ever panting, and for ever young;All breathing human passion far above,That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy’d,A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.Who are these coming to the sacrifice?To what green altar, O mysterious priest,Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?What little town by river or sea shore,Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?And, little town, thy streets for evermoreWill silent be; and not a soul to tellWhy thou art desolate, can e’er return.O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with bredeOf marble men and maidens overwrought,With forest branches and the trodden weed;Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thoughtAs doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!When old age shall this generation waste,Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woeThan ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is allYe know on earth, and all ye need to know.”Meaning of the PoemAs if in response to Shelley’s “Ozymandias,” Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” offers a sort of antidote to the inescapable and destructive force of time. Indeed, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” was published in 1819 just a year or so after “Ozymandias.” The antidote is simple: art. The art on the Grecian urn—which is basically a decorative pot from ancient Greece—has survived for thousands of years. While empires rose and fell, the Grecian urn survived. Musicians, trees, lovers, heifers, and priests all continue dying decade after decade and century after century, but their artistic depictions on the Grecian urn live on for what seems eternity.This realization about the timeless nature of art is not new now nor was it in the 1800s, but Keats has chosen a perfect example since ancient Greek civilization so famously disappeared into the ages, being subsumed by the Romans, and mostly lost until the Renaissance a thousand years later. Now, the ancient Greeks are all certainly dead (like the king Ozymandias in Shelley’s poem) but the Greek art and culture live on through Renaissance painters, the Olympic Games, endemic Neoclassical architecture, and, of course, the Grecian urn.Further, what is depicted on the Grecian urn is a variety of life that makes the otherwise cold urn feel alive and vibrant. This aliveness is accentuated by Keats’s barrage of questions and blaring exclamations: “More happy love! more happy, happy love!” Art, he seems to suggest, is more alive and real than we might imagine. Indeed, the last two lines can be read as the urn itself talking: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” In these profound lines, Keats places us within ignorance, suggesting that what we know on earth is limited, but that artistic beauty, which he has now established is alive, is connected with truth. Thus, we can escape ignorance, humanness, and certain death and approach another form of life and truth through the beauty of art. This effectively completes the thought that began in Ozymandias and makes this a great poem one notch up from its predecessor.6. “The Tiger” by William Blake (1757-1827)Tiger Tiger, burning bright,In the forests of the night;What immortal hand or eye,Could frame thy fearful symmetry?In what distant deeps or skies.Burnt the fire of thine eyes?On what wings dare he aspire?What the hand, dare seize the fire?And what shoulder, and what art,Could twist the sinews of thy heart?And when thy heart began to beat,What dread hand? and what dread feet?What the hammer? what the chain,In what furnace was thy brain?What the anvil? what dread grasp,Dare its deadly terrors clasp!When the stars threw down their spearsAnd water’d heaven with their tears:Did he smile his work to see?Did he who made the Lamb make thee?Tiger Tiger burning bright,In the forests of the night:What immortal hand or eye,Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?Meaning of the PoemThis poem contemplates a question arising from the idea of creation by an intelligent creator. The question is this: If there is a loving, compassionate God or gods who created human beings and whose great powers exceed the comprehension of human beings, as many major religions hold, then why would such a powerful being allow evil into the world. Evil here is represented by a tiger that might, should you be strolling in the Indian or African wild in the 1700s, have leapt out and killed you. What would have created such a dangerous and evil creature? How could it possibly be the same divine blacksmith who created a cute harmless fluffy lamb or who created Jesus, also known as the “Lamb of God” (which the devoutly Christian Blake was probably also referring to here). To put it another way, why would such a divine blacksmith create beautiful innocent children and then also allow such children to be slaughtered. The battery of questions brings this mystery to life with lavish intensity.Does Blake offer an answer to this question of evil from a good God? It would seem not on the surface. But, this wouldn’t be a great poem if it were really that open ended. The answer comes in the way that Blake explains the question. Blake’s language peels away the mundane world and offers a look at the super-reality to which poets are privy. We fly about in “forests of the night” through “distant deeps or skies” looking for where the fire in the tiger’s eye was taken from by the Creator. This is the reality of expanded time, space, and perception that Blake so clearly elucidates elsewhere with the lines “To see a world in a grain of sand / And a heaven in a wild flower, / Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, / And eternity in an hour” (“Auguries of Innocence”). This indirectly tells us that the reality that we ordinarily know and perceive is really insufficient, shallow, and deceptive. Where we perceive the injustice of the wild tiger something else entirely may be transpiring. What we ordinarily take for truth may really be far from it: a thought that is scary, yet also sublime or beautiful—like the beautiful and fearsome tiger. Thus, this poem is great because it concisely and compellingly presents a question that still plagues humanity today, as well as a key clue to the answer.5. “On His Blindness” by John Milton (1608-1674)When I consider how my light is spentEre half my days in this dark world and wide,And that one talent which is death to hideLodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bentTo serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, lest he returning chide,“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”I fondly ask. But Patience, to preventThat murmur, soon replies: “God doth not needEither man’s work or his own gifts: who bestBear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His stateIs kingly; thousands at his bidding speedAnd post o’er land and ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and wait.”Meaning of the PoemThis poem deals with one’s limitations and shortcomings in life. Everyone has them and Milton’s blindness is a perfect example of this. His eyesight gradually worsened and he became totally blind at the age of 42. This happened after he served in an eminent position under Oliver Cromwell’s revolutionary Puritan government in England. To put it simply, Milton rose to the highest position an English writer might at the time and then sank all the way down to a state of being unable read or write on his own. How pathetic!The genius of this poem comes in the way that Milton transcends the misery he feels. First, he frames himself, not as an individual suffering or lonely, but as a failed servant to the Creator: God. While Milton is disabled, God here is enabled through imagery of a king commanding thousands. This celestial monarch, his ministers and troops, and his kingdom itself are invisible to human eyes anyway, so already Milton has subtly undone much of his failing by subverting the necessity for human vision. More straightforwardly, through the voice of Patience, Milton explains that serving the celestial monarch only requires bearing those hardships, which really aren’t that bad (he calls them “mild”) that life has burdened you with (like a “yoke” put on an ox). This grand mission from heaven may be as simple as standing and waiting, having patience, and understanding the order of the universe. Thus, this is a great poem because Milton has not only dispelled sadness over a major shortcoming in life but also shown how the shortcoming is itself imbued with an extraordinary and uplifting purpose.4. “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)What the heart of the young man said to the PsalmistTell me not, in mournful numbers,Life is but an empty dream!For the soul is dead that slumbers,And things are not what they seem.Life is real! Life is earnest!And the grave is not its goal;Dust thou art, to dust returnest,Was not spoken of the soul.Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,Is our destined end or way;But to act, that each tomorrowFind us farther than today.Art is long, and Time is fleeting,And our hearts, though stout and brave,Still, like muffled drums, are beatingFuneral marches to the grave.In the world’s broad field of battle,In the bivouac of Life,Be not like dumb, driven cattle!Be a hero in the strife!Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!Let the dead Past bury its dead!Act,—act in the living Present!Heart within, and God o’erhead!Lives of great men all remind usWe can make our lives sublime,And, departing, leave behind usFootprints on the sands of time;—Footprints, that perhaps another,Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,Seeing, shall take heart again.Let us, then, be up and doing,With a heart for any fate;Still achieving, still pursuing,Learn to labor and to wait.Meaning of the PoemIn this nine-stanza poem, the first six stanzas are rather vague since each stanza seems to begin a new thought. Instead, the emphasis here is on a feeling rather than a rational train of thought. What feeling? It seems to be a reaction against science, which is focused on calculations (“mournful numbers”) and empirical evidence, of which there is no, or very little, to prove the existence of the soul. Longfellow lived when the Industrial Revolution was in high gear and the ideals of science, rationality, and reason flourished. From this perspective, the fact that the first six stanzas do not follow a rational train of thought makes perfect sense.According to the poem, the force of science seems to restrain one’s spirit or soul (“for the soul is dead that slumbers”), lead to inaction and complacency from which we must break free (“Act,—act in the living Present! / Heart within, and God o’erhead!”) for lofty purposes such as Art, Heart, and God before time runs out (“Art is long, and Time is fleeting”). The last three stanzas—which, having broken free from science by this point in the poem, read more smoothly—suggest that this acting for lofty purposes can lead to greatness and can help our fellow man.We might think of the entire poem as a clarion call to do great things, however insignificant they may seem in the present and on the empirically observable surface. That may mean writing a poem and entering it into a poetry contest, when you know the chances of your poem winning are very small; risking your life for something you believe in when you know it is not popular or it is misunderstood; or volunteering for a cause that, although it may seem hopeless, you feel is truly important. Thus, the greatness of this poem lies in its ability to so clearly prescribe a method for greatness in our modern world.3. “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company:I gazed—and gazed—but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.Meaning of the PoemThrough the narrator’s chance encounter with a field of daffodils by the water, we are presented with the power and beauty of the natural world. It sounds simple enough, but there are several factors that contribute to this poem’s greatness. First, the poem comes at a time when the Western world is industrializing and man feels spiritually lonely in the face of an increasingly godless worldview. This feeling is perfectly harnessed by the depiction of wandering through the wilderness “lonely as a cloud” and by the ending scene of the narrator sadly lying on his couch “in vacant or in pensive mood” and finding happiness in solitude. The daffodils then become more than nature; they become a companion and a source of personal joy. Second, the very simplicity itself of enjoying nature—flowers, trees, the sea, the sky, the mountains etc.—is perfectly manifested by the simplicity of the poem: the four stanzas simply begin with daffodils, describe daffodils, compare daffodils to something else, and end on daffodils, respectively. Any common reader can easily get this poem, as easily as her or she might enjoy a walk around a lake.Third, Wordsworth has subtly put forward more than just an ode to nature here. Every stanza mentions dancing and the third stanza even calls the daffodils “a show.” At this time in England, one might have paid money to see an opera or other performance of high artistic quality. Here, Wordsworth is putting forward the idea that nature can offer similar joys and even give you “wealth” instead of taking it from you, undoing the idea that beauty is attached to earthly money and social status. This, coupled with the language and topic of the poem, which are both relatively accessible to the common man, make for a great poem that demonstrates the all-encompassing and accessible nature of beauty and its associates, truth and bliss.2. “Holy Sonnet 10: Death, Be Not Proud” by John Donne (1572-1631)Death, be not proud, though some have called theeMighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrowDie not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,And soonest our best men with thee do go,Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,And poppy or charms can make us sleep as wellAnd better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?One short sleep past, we wake eternallyAnd death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.Meaning of the PoemDeath is a perennial subject of fear and despair. But, this sonnet seems to say that it need not be this way. The highly focused attack on Death’s sense of pride uses a grocery list of rhetorical attacks: First, sleep, which is the closest human experience to death, is actually quite nice. Second, all great people die sooner or later and the process of death could be viewed as joining them. Third, Death is under the command of higher authorities such as fate, which controls accidents, and kings, who wage wars; from this perspective, Death seems no more than a pawn in a larger chess game within the universe. Fourth, Death must associate with some unsavory characters: “poison, wars, and sickness.” Yikes! They must make unpleasant coworkers! (You can almost see Donne laughing as he wrote this.) Fifth, “poppy and charms” (drugs) can do the sleep job as well as Death or better. Death, you’re fired!The sixth, most compelling, and most serious reason is that if one truly believes in a soul then Death is really nothing to worry about. The soul lives eternally and this explains line 4, when Donne says that Death can’t kill him. If you recognize the subordinate position of the body in the universe and identify more fully with your soul, then you can’t be killed in an ordinary sense. Further, this poem is so great because of its universal application. Fear of death is so natural an instinct and Death itself so all-encompassing and inescapable for people, that the spirit of this poem and applicability of it extends to almost any fear or weakness of character that one might have. Confronting, head on, such a fear or weakness, as Donne has done here, allows human beings to transcend their condition and their perception of Death, more fully perhaps than one might through art by itself—as many poets from this top ten list seem to say—since the art may or may not survive may or may not be any good, but the intrinsic quality of one’s soul lives eternally. Thus, Donne leaves a powerful lesson to learn from: confront what you fear head on and remember that there is nothing to fear on earth if you believe in a soul.1. “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.Meaning of the PoemBasically, the narrator tells someone he esteems highly that this person is better than a summer’s day because a summer’s day is often too hot and too windy, and especially because a summer’s day doesn’t last; it must fade away just as people, plants, and animals die. But, this esteemed person does not lose beauty or fade away like a summer’s day because he or she is eternally preserved in the narrator’s own poetry. “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” means “This poetry lives long, and this poetry gives life to you.”From a modern perspective this poem might come off as pompous (assuming the greatness of one’s own poetry), arbitrary (criticizing a summer’s day upon what seems a whim), and sycophantic (praising someone without substantial evidence). How then could this possibly be number one? After the bad taste of an old flavor to a modern tongue wears off, we realize that this is the very best of poetry. This is not pompous because Shakespeare actually achieves greatness and creates an eternal poem. It is okay to recognize poetry as great if it is great and it is okay to recognize an artistic hierarchy. In fact, it is absolutely necessary in educating, guiding, and leading others. The attack on a summer’s day is not arbitrary. Woven throughout the language is an implicit connection between human beings, the natural world (“a summer’s day”), and heaven (the sun is “the eye of heaven”). A comparison of a human being to a summer’s day immediately opens the mind to unconventional possibilities; to spiritual perspectives; to the ethereal realm of poetry and beauty. The unabashed praise for someone without a hint as to even the gender or accomplishments of the person is not irrational or sycophantic. It is a pure and simple way of approaching our relationships with other people, assuming the best. It is a happier way to live—immediately free from the depression, stress, and cynicism that creeps into our hearts. Thus, this poem is strikingly and refreshingly bold, profound, and uplifting.Finally, as to the question of overcoming death, fear, and the decay of time, an overarching question in these great poems, Shakespeare adroitly answers them all by skipping the question, suggesting it is of no consequence. He wields such sublime power that he is unmoved and can instead offer remedy, his verse, at will to those he sees befitting. How marvelous