In Praise Of Philistines Poem by Alexander Shaumyan

'Russians have, or had, a special name for smug philistinism - poshlust. Poshlism is not only the obviously trashy but mainly the falsely important, the falsely beautiful, the falsely clever, the falsely attractive. To apply the deadly label of poshlism to something is not only an esthetic judgment but also a moral indictment. The genuine, the guileless, the good is never poshlust. It is possible to maintain that a simple, uncivilized man is seldom if ever a poshlust since poshlism presupposes the veneer of civilization. A peasant has to become a townsman in order to become vulgar. A painted necktie has to hide the honest Adam's apple in order to produce poshlism.'
-Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)



They breed like rabbits everywhere-
The ever happy philistines-
Those trashy Poets of the Year,
Who smash great verse to smithereens.

They try to sound like Keats or Cummings,
While praising everything that's trite,
Bypassing their innate shortcomings
And spreading their cherubic blight.

Behold the rising coffee drinkers,
Whose genius bites them in the ass,
And self-important muddled thinkers,
Who walk around like big brass.

Behold them showering each other
With hollow praise and flattery-
The ones who never even bothered
To read a book of poetry.

I've learned just to ignore these clowns
And their yap with their kind,
Where there is nothing to be found
To stimulate and stir the mind.

So let them write their solemn verses
To their loony next of kin,
For ignorance is universal
As much as are the philistines.


February 13,2006