94. Romanticism

Fire.

Fire all around.
Burning out of control.
Riots and revolutions began in Europe once again.
Some feared the French Revolution,
Beheadings,
Napoleon.
The poets and artists wanted people to strive for the best.
To be the best.
Mill wanted freedom and liberty.
They needed equality.
The passionate, romantic, fiery wish to bring back the old ways.
The days of the noble savage.
The days of dreaming with the Greeks in groves of olive trees.
The puffy shirts of Shakespeare.
Selling souls with Faust in goblin markets.
No more of this revolution.
No more of this industry.
We should look back and push forward
Like Janus on the Roman coin.
Always looking to the future.
Always looking to the past.
Never in the present.
The present is too terrible.
What good can come of it?
So two forces push and pull
Like that steam train trying to get started.