And revolutions poetical

The Elizabethan age was the age of poetry. The Enlightenment was much less poetic but it brought new ideas about the world, and the 'third estate' gained more political prominence. It brought about the period of continuous political revolutions. The two of them, one in America, the other in France, changed the course of world history.

True, the days of revolutionary tumult are not fit for poetic diction. On the other hand, it is the glorious passion of the revolutionary spirit that always seeks its utmost expression in poetry. One curious example explains all that graphically.

In 1770s, the Fathers of the nation were rather pragmatic than poetically-minded. For instance, the Enlightenment in America at its best is shown in the writings of the Benjamin Franklin. His works are a joy to read even today, but there is something "anti-literary" about Franklin. He dismissed poetry altogether. It was his Autobiography that is largely responsible for vast progeny of how-to-do-it and how-to-live-it books, very American in style and spirit but not in the least poetic.

Yet the leaders of the American Revolution did exercise their interest in expressive language. That's why great care was paid to the elaboration of the draft of the Declaration of Independence. This document stands as perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature. Consider the opening sentence:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the options of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

In a single sentence, in clear, simple language that anyone can understand, Thomas Jefferson has not only encapsulated the philosophy of what is to follow, but set in motion a cadence that gradually becomes almost hypnotic. The preamble to the Declaration of Independence is nothing but poetry – it can be read for its rhythms alone. Abraham Lincoln, when preparing his Gettysberg Address 60 years later, must have profited from the earlier experience (Text 61).