Country music star Oliver AnthonyCritiquing Woke Language in Rolling Stone: A Poem by Maura H. Harrison The Society August 25, 2023 Culture, Music, Poetry 5 Comments . A Deeper Scaly Screed “‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ is a passionate screed against the state of the country sung by Oliver Anthony, who identifies as a farmer living off the grid with his three dogs in Farmville, Virginia.” —Joseph Hudak, “Right-Wing Influencers Just Found Their Favorite New Country Song,” Rolling Stone, August 11, 2023 And with his mighty pen, Joseph reveals A deeper scaly screed—the dragon Woke— That tampers with the truth and blithely steals Clear thoughts away, replacing sense with smoke. The headline—biting tooth and biased claw— Makes many monsters of most brothers’ brothers And mocks with words that bloat and choke the craw. Right-wing Influencers? Try “many”—not others. And proof that Joseph writes the dragon’s dreck? The lowly “is” (as in “Anthony is A farmer”) fades from fact to folderol— Subjective shiny slag that makes a wreck Of rational thought. For Joseph, nothing “is.” All is nebulous, Woke’s free-for-all. . . Maura H. Harrison is a poet and photographer from Virginia, USA. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Trending now: 5 Responses Joseph S. Salemi August 25, 2023 Maura, you’re quite correct about leftist and liberals and woke types not wanting to use the verb of being (“am,” “is,” “be,” “are,” and related forms) whenever they can avoid it. There even was an organization several years back that encouraged speech and writing that completely abstained from any use of such verbs, in any tense. Of course the whole project was run by left-liberals. What lies behind it all is a sheer hatred of simple existence, and the fact that existence is an inescapable reality. For them, the idea that anyone would assert that “this thing is” or “this thing is not” is an unbearable set of shackles on free thought and creativity and dreaming. It explains a great deal of the cultural insanity that engulfs us today. Reply Joshua C. Frank August 25, 2023 In other words, sanity itself, even existence itself, is “an unbearable set of shackles” to leftists. That sure explains a lot about them. Of course they’re perfectly willing to say all non-leftists “are” all kinds of evil. Apparently “identifying” as none of those things isn’t enough to satisfy them… not that it matters. Since leftists love evil and hate good, to be hated by them is a badge of honor. Reply Margaret Coats August 26, 2023 Shades of the Loch Ness monster, Maura! And found lurking in Rolling Stone, of all places. Your sonnet represents some complex thought, but it is most informative and the thought is worth the thinking. Thanks for scraping off some of the scales. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant August 26, 2023 Maura, from the enticing title to the astute observation in the closing line, this poem says much about lies in today’s society. They’re everywhere, especially in a skewed opinion piece that “mocks with words that bloat and choke the craw” – a perfect metaphor! I have come to believe that we’ve moved a long way from the Left versus Right issue. We are now treading the realms of horror… a place where we must look into our very souls for the answer… not to paid-for puppets on political platforms. Apparently, this phenomenal song was played at the Republican presidential debates this week… but aren’t these greedy, globalist buffoons the very people he’s singing about? Oh, the irony. 🙂 Maura, thank you! Reply Joshua C. Frank August 27, 2023 I agree, we’ve moved far beyond left vs. right, we’ll into “the realms of horror”… most of what identifies as the right (here I’m using “identifies” correctly) is the left’s puppet, whose main purpose is to make people like us think we have a voice. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Joseph S. Salemi August 25, 2023 Maura, you’re quite correct about leftist and liberals and woke types not wanting to use the verb of being (“am,” “is,” “be,” “are,” and related forms) whenever they can avoid it. There even was an organization several years back that encouraged speech and writing that completely abstained from any use of such verbs, in any tense. Of course the whole project was run by left-liberals. What lies behind it all is a sheer hatred of simple existence, and the fact that existence is an inescapable reality. For them, the idea that anyone would assert that “this thing is” or “this thing is not” is an unbearable set of shackles on free thought and creativity and dreaming. It explains a great deal of the cultural insanity that engulfs us today. Reply
Joshua C. Frank August 25, 2023 In other words, sanity itself, even existence itself, is “an unbearable set of shackles” to leftists. That sure explains a lot about them. Of course they’re perfectly willing to say all non-leftists “are” all kinds of evil. Apparently “identifying” as none of those things isn’t enough to satisfy them… not that it matters. Since leftists love evil and hate good, to be hated by them is a badge of honor. Reply
Margaret Coats August 26, 2023 Shades of the Loch Ness monster, Maura! And found lurking in Rolling Stone, of all places. Your sonnet represents some complex thought, but it is most informative and the thought is worth the thinking. Thanks for scraping off some of the scales. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant August 26, 2023 Maura, from the enticing title to the astute observation in the closing line, this poem says much about lies in today’s society. They’re everywhere, especially in a skewed opinion piece that “mocks with words that bloat and choke the craw” – a perfect metaphor! I have come to believe that we’ve moved a long way from the Left versus Right issue. We are now treading the realms of horror… a place where we must look into our very souls for the answer… not to paid-for puppets on political platforms. Apparently, this phenomenal song was played at the Republican presidential debates this week… but aren’t these greedy, globalist buffoons the very people he’s singing about? Oh, the irony. 🙂 Maura, thank you! Reply
Joshua C. Frank August 27, 2023 I agree, we’ve moved far beyond left vs. right, we’ll into “the realms of horror”… most of what identifies as the right (here I’m using “identifies” correctly) is the left’s puppet, whose main purpose is to make people like us think we have a voice. Reply