Poetry, Humanism, and “Political Man”

American Samizdat

An Indian poet seated in a cherry blossom garden. Painted during the reign of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, 1628-1658 (Public domain)

“This summer, you've struck me as being a bit like a 17th-century English poet, retired to his garden to write and reflect, who one day hears outside the walls the clamour of civil strife and so re-enters the public fray.”

The…