POETIC PORTENT:Former Comedian Performative Ukraine President Now a Famous Poet?

How low can we go when a line like this "The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride." got so much attention? . .The second sentence repeats the urgency in the same meters, its colloquial turn capturing his gift for performative comedy (I need ammunition, not a ride). “Not a ride” is breezy talk—yet also darkly sardonic.

The wording was practically made for Twitter, and the first indication that a special kind of eloquence would become a weapon in this conflict.

The next morning, a Saturday, Zelensky posted a video that stated the case more fully, with no loss of poetic flair or portent:

Catch the succinct, staccato sentences that build with clausal and verbal repetitions, all ready for export. “I am here” is not only a report, but speech activism: This is a president who is present, inspired, determined.

Byron, Shelley, and Now Zelensky

To appreciate the special power of the Ukrainian president, we need to listen closely to his words, and remember the inspiring poets who came before him.

(NOTE: Ukrainian Presidency / Handout / Anadolu Agency. Adam Maida / The Atlantic)

 

By Susan J. Wolfson

The Atlantic |

In the early 19th century, the European world had just defeated an imperialist tyrant, Napoleon Bonaparte, only to find the continent’s recently conquered monarchs quickly back in force. Intent on preventing another Napoleon from emerging on their own turf, the monarchies promptly cracked down on dissidents, on peaceful demonstrations, on the forming of unions, on the oppositional press. Standing up to this suppression and sharing a commitment to liberty were two famous poets, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, celebrated in some circles, a cause for scandal in others. More than anything else, in that moment, they wanted to show how words can change minds. “It is a grand object—the very poetry of politics,” Byron cheered himself on in a journal entry, early in 1821. With Byronic moxie, he also understood the politics of poetry.

We live in different times, but as Russia’s war in Ukraine has shown us, this struggle for self-determination is still present, and the force of words, in a world where we are surrounded by their onrush, has become yet more important. We only have to turn to Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, to see how the poetry of politics lives on.

“The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.” This bit of extemporaneous poetry was reported to have been spoken on February 25, 2022, by Zelensky in response to a supposed offer from the American ambassador to shuttle him and his family to safety out of Kyiv. The English translation rocketed around the world, was even printed on Zelensky-syle olive-green T-shirts. . .

[.  ] Zelensky brings it all together as the genuine Byronic hero of our times. Here is a celebrity entertainer who played a fictional president on television, then was himself elected president. . .about how words, pulsed with poetry, can draw thousands, perhaps millions to think about his cause. This is a battle in which Volodymyr Zelensky is willing to take his rest, and for which he has already secured his glory."