Alec Ramsdell wrote:
>
> Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> > Yeats and Arnold were in many ways not so far apart;
> > . . .they each had this contradictory desire to
> > be both part of and yet somehow "above" and
> > independent of the cultural and/or political
> > forces with which they (sort of) identified.
>
> Carrol, if they're both part of and above the cultural
> and political forces with which they identified,
> are'nt they aesthetes?
>
>
That is a fascinating observation -- and gives some real content to a usually rather vague term (aesthete). The people working on the OED ought to pick up your post. One could even apply it (say) to the Shelley of "Men of England." Would it be stretching it too far to apply it to Millet? Or Van Gogh (who was intensely interested in Millet's peasants). One of my favorite lines from Guthrie is "I was right there in Boston the night that they died" -- Guthrie does _not_ dissociate himself from those to whom he offers to give voice. (Guthrie was a 15-year old in smalltown Oklahoma when they died.)
Carrol